Debating the historicity of Bhagwan Ram is a fashionable pastime amongst the leftists-liberals and woke people of this country. However, besides them, there is a huge section of literate but actually illiterate Hindus who, out of sheer ignorance of historical facts and religious literature, their intrinsic gullibility, and the subconscious influence of an education system devised and controlled by the leftists-liberals, think that the legend of Bhagwan Ram is a relatively recent phenomenon. These pathetically ignorant duffers (also known as HINOs—Hindus in Name Only) believe that the worship of Bhagwan Ram is merely a social tradition they feel obliged to follow out of societal pressure in which the hero of a popular folklore or epic had been deified or elevated to divinity.
Since the liberals, given their closed and vicious minds, are incorrigible anyway, this article is intended to open the eyes of those ignoramuses who are Hindus in name only. The question of historicity is too great a topic for an article. However, I must remind them that, even in respect of relatively very recent religions, there is no tenable historical evidence in respect of any of the personages revered there. I do not wish to name them and stoke an avoidable controversy. However, they can do an Internet search themselves and find that scientists unanimously agree that while the so-called ‘holy relics’ of these religions do have cultural, historical, and spiritual value, their connections to the personages concerned is essentially speculative and lacks concrete scientific proof.
The Age of Valmiki Ramayan
While the legend of Bhagwan Ram has existed in the Hindu consciousness since times immemorial, the first ‘detailed and complete’ narration of the legend is found in the Valmiki Ramayan. A veritable battery of scholars has given different opinions on the antiquity of Ramayan. However, most of them agree that it was written sometime during the 4th century BC to 10th century BC.
Robert P. Goldman (The Ramayaṇa of Valmiki: An Epic of Ancient India, vol. I) places the oldest parts in early 7th century BC. Basing on the language, style and content, Oxford scholar John Brockington places it in the 5th century BC. Prof. M. A. Mehendale (‘The Age of Imperial Unity’, vol.2 of The History and Culture of the Indian People Series), notes that the Brihad-devata and Rigvidhan of 4th century BC have a form of metre similar to that used in Ramayan and places its period in 4th century BC. The Encyclopaedia Britannica also places it in the 4th century BC.
The legend of Bhagwan Ram is mentioned in the Mahabharat at several places (Aranyak Parva, Drona Parva and the Raamopakhyan) including the Gita therein, but not vice versa, thereby demonstrating that the legend of Bhagwan Ram is older than that of Bhagwan Krishna.
Reference in Religious Literature of Other Religions
The legend of Bhagwan Ram is mentioned in the Buddhist texts Dasarath Jatak, Dasrath Kathanak and Anamak Jatak. Dasarath Jatak was composed around 2nd century BC. The Jnanaprasthana of Katyayaniputra is the fundamental and the most important work of the Sarvastivada school of Buddhism established around the time of Ashok. A great commentary on it called Maha-Vibhas has been written by Parshva about 400 years after the Nirvana of Buddha. It makes a clear reference to the legend of Bhagwan Ram. In the 2nd century, the Buddhacharita (1.56-57), a Sanskrit poem written by the Buddhist philosopher Ashvaghosha, contains references to the legend of Ram and the Ramayan. This provides valuable insights into the cultural and literary landscape of ancient India, including the influence of Hindu epics like the Ramayan on Buddhist literature.
K’ang-seng-hui, a Buddhist monk and translator, rendered a Jatak version of the Ramayan into Chinese in the 3rd century (AD 251). This translation is extremely significant, representing one of the earliest known adaptations of the Ramayan narrative outside of India.
Amongst the Jain texts that mention the legend, we have Padam Charitra by Vimal Suri; Padam Puran by Ravisen Acharya; Padam Charitra and Charitra Puran by Swambhu; and Uttar Puran by Gunbhadra.
The point to be noted is that these texts were not related to each other and second, given the way their religions guarded their textual purity, there is no possibility of any ‘insertion’ at a later date. They mentioned it because they were aware of the prevalence of the legend of Bhagwan Ram amidst the people and the importance it held.
Why are Ashok’s inscriptions silent about Bhagwan Ram
The famous Arthashastra of Kautilya, the Mahamatya (prime minister) of Chandragupta Maurya (b.350 BC-d.297 BC), though it does not explicitly mention the Ramayana; however, it does contain references to Ravan at two places (1.6.13 and 8.2.16-17), as a cautionary tale about the dangers of unrighteous behaviour. You cannot think of Ravan without Ram. It should be obvious that the legend of Bhagwan Ram was so famous, so well-known to the people in his times (and, logically, it must have been so in the preceding era also) that while speaking of Ravan for making a moral point, he did not consider it necessary to narrate the entire legend.
Ashok was there in the 3rd century BC and as we saw above, the legend of Bhagwan Ram had been crystalized by Valmiki before him. If he decided to or failed to mention it in his inscriptions, that can only be attributed to the narrow-mindedness of the neophyte, that is, a recent convert.
Otherwise, for other Hindu kings of this country, as B. C. Shukla (Proceedings of the Indian History Congress 1990) has shown, a stone inscription in Prakrit found in Kosam village, Manjhanapur, Allahabad was dated to as early as AD 2nd century and it is found making a reference to the worship of Ram Narayan.
Ancient Temples Dedicated to Bhagwan Ram
Modern ignorant Hindus often raise a doubt as to why temples dedicated to Bhagwan Ram or incarnation of Vishnu are not found from ancient era. The answer is two-fold. First, if they care to go through the judgment of the Supreme Court in the Ram Janmbhoomi case to read the ASI report on the excavations there, they would find that the excavations brought out cultural periods deposits of 9 periods in various levels starting from, hold your breath, 6th to 3rd century BC—followed by the Shunga; Kushan; Gupta; post-Gupta Rajput; medieval Sultanate; medieval; Mughal; and late and post-Mughal eras.
Leave aside the large number of terracotta figurines of obvious religious significance, the pillars in particular could be placed in a time bracket of AD 10th-12th century. Excavations also yielded a large stone slab, 115×55 cm containing a 20 line inscription, describing construction of Vishnu-Hari Temple by Anay Chand a governor of King Govind Chand (AD 1110-1156) of Gahadval dynasty. This dovetails well with the proliferation of Ram temples in the wake of Bhakti Movement discussed below.
Second, the inherently open-minded Hindus have been worshipping Bhagwan or the Ultimate Reality in any form that suited an individual’s innate nature, understanding, intellect, interest, education, environment temperament, inclinations, devotional level, personal needs, and proclivities. For example, businessmen preferred worshipping Lakshmi and wrestlers or warriors worshipped Hanuman ji. Adi Shankaracharya started the Panchayatan Pooja in which Shiv, Vishnu, Shakti (Devi), Surya and Ganesh; all five could be worshipped together. Depending on one’s individual preference, a devotee could place any of the five in centre and the rest four at the corners of a square.
Hindu dharma, in its profound philosophical foundations, swears by Bhagwan, the Ultimate Reality and not by the name of Bhagwan Ram alone. Even today, temples of myriad forms of Bhagwan abound.
The worship of Bhagwan Ram took off in a big way in the wake of the Bhakti Movement that originated in the 8th century. Incidentally, Bhagwan Ram too came to occupy a prominent place in the Hindu iconography from about the same time.
Hence, there is nothing abnormal if the Gupta kings (3rd to 6th century) did not mention the name of Ram prominently in their inscriptions even as they identified themselves with Vishnu.
The Bhakti movement rendered yeoman’s service for Hindu society. As the famous historian Dr. R. C. Majumdar also agrees (‘The Classical Age’, vol.3 of The History and Culture of the Indian People Series), the boat of the Hindu society, which was being tossed around in the stormy waters by relentless waves of frenzied attacks of Muslim invaders driven by religious bigotry, was kept afloat by Bhakti alone for hundreds of years. It does not mean that the legend of Bhagwan Ram did not exist before that or was not permeating Hindu thoughts, morality and the collective Hindu consciousness since times immemorial.
Astrological Calculations with Puranic Timelines
According to the Puranas without any contradiction, there are four Yugas: Satyug (17.28 lakh years), Treta (12.96 lakh years), Dwapar (8.64 lakh years) and Kaliyug (4.32 lakh years), which keep on repeating. One cycle is called Maha-Yuga or Chatur-Yugi of 43.2 lakh years. Seventy-one such Maha-Yugas constitute a Manvantar and 14 Manvantars make one Kalpa. One Kalpa is equal to one day of Brahma and Pralay (cataclysmic destruction) takes place after the Kalpa. This Pralay called Naimittik Pralay therefore happens roughly after 8.6 billion years, which is not far from the modern estimate of the age of the universe.
Presently, the Kaliyug of the 28th Maha-Yuga is running and 5125 years have passed. The classical Puranic tradition (Vayu Puraan 70.88; Harivansh Puran 22.104; and Brahmand Puraan 2.2.36.30) places Bhagwan Ram in the 24th Treta Yuga. The Mahabharata (348.19) places him during the transition phase between Treta and Dwapar Yugas but does not mention the order of the Treta. Even if we take Bhagwan Ram to have been there in the Treta Yuga of the 28th Maha-Yuga, it would be approximately 8.69 lakh years ago. It should be obvious that for this sort of antiquity, one who demands any archaeological evidence can only be a fool.
Some people have done a back calculation using a software called Planetarium Gold starting from the birth-chart of Bhagwan Ram (the planetary positions vis-à-vis zodiac constellations) mentioned in the Bal-Kand of Valmiki Ramayan. They arrive at the figures of 7323 BC or 5114 BC. How do we reconcile the Puranic tradition with such astrological calculations? The solution is given by the phenomenon of precession of equinoxes.
The Earth’s rotation axis is not fixed in space. Like a rotating toy top, the direction of the rotation axis executes a slow precession with a period of 26,000 years. Since the rotation axis is precessing in space, the orientation of the Celestial Equator also precesses with the same period. This means that the position of the equinoxes is changing slowly with respect to the background stars. The precession of the equinoxes results in our observing a slow rotation of the whole pattern of stars around the ecliptic axis, one revolution taking 26000 years. Thus, you add multiples of 26000 years to your calculated date and you would arrive at the same planetary configuration time and again.
Deeper Significance of Bhagwan Ram for Dummies
Mythology is found in every civilization of the world. Epics are also found in every civilization. Do those mythologies or characters from the epics permeate all aspects of life in the manner in which the legend of Ram permeates Hindu life? There is no aspect of a Hindu’s life, from greeting someone (Jai Ram ji ki/Jai Siya Ram etc.) to bid farewell to a dead body (Ram Naam Satya hai), where Ram’s name is not invoked. Why? There must be something special to it.
Then, to answer the doubt that Ram was a human hero elevated to divinity, it must be kept in mind that there have been many great historical heroes in other civilizations too. Is anyone of them remembered in this fashion? No! Ponder over it and if they have even a modicum of intelligence, they would understand the difference.
