We
Indians are the products of one of the oldest civilisations. We need
to be really proud of our ancient history and cultural heritage.
However, during the British Rule, we developed an inferiority complex,
which adversely affected our quest to unearth facts relating to our
glorious past. But our young and educated men and women, born and
brought up in independent India, are
capable of unearthing the true facts and are confident enough to
evaluate these objectively.
Shri Ram
being most basic to Indian "ethos", it is necessary to know who is
Shri Ram? Was he really born? If yes, when and where? As is believed
by crores of people did he really put his feet on the Indian territory
from North to South, reducing the sufferings of mankind and ensuring
victory of good over evil? Let us take a look at historical facts:
The story
of Shri Ram's life was first narrated by Maharishi Valmiki in the
Ramayana, which was written after Shri Ram was crowned as the king of
Ayodhya. Maharishi Valmiki was a great astronomer as he has made
sequential astronomical references on important dates related to the
life of Shri Ram indicating the location of planets vis-a-vis zodiac
constellations and the other stars (nakshatras). Needless to add
that similar position of planets and nakshatras is not repeated in
thousands of years. By entering the precise details of the planetary
configuration of the important events in the life of Shri Ram as given
in the Valmiki Ramayan in the software named "Planetarium"
corresponding exact dates of these events according to the English
calendar can be known.
Mr Pushkar Bhatnagar
of the Indian Revenue Service had acquired this software from the US.
It is used to predict the solar/lunar eclipses and distance and
location of other planets from earth. He entered the relevant details
about the planetary positions narrated by Maharishi Valmiki and
obtained very interesting and convincing results, which almost
determine the important dates starting from the birth of Shri Ram to
the date of his coming back to Ayodhya after 14 years of exile.
Maharishi
Valmiki has recorded in Bal Kaand sarga 19 and shloka eight and nine
(1/18/8,9) that Shri Ram was born on ninth tithi of Chaitra month when
the position of different planets vis-a-vis zodiac constellations and
nakshatras (visible stars) were: i) Sun in Aries; ii) Saturn in Libra;
iii) Jupiter in Cancer; iv) Venus in Pisces; v) Mars in Capricorn; vi)
Lunar month of Chaitra; vii) Ninth day after no moon; viii) Lagna as
Cancer (cancer was rising in the east); ix) Moon on the Punarvasu
(Gemini constellation & Pllux star); x) Day time (around noon).
This
data, was fed into the software. The results indicated that this was
exactly the location of planets/stars in the noon of January 10,
5114 BC. Thus Shri Ram was born on January 10, 5114 BC (7121 years back). As
per the Indian calendar it was the ninth day of
Shukla Paksha in Chaitra month and the time was around 12 to 1 noontime. This is exactly the time and date when Ram Navmi
is celebrated all over India.
Shri Ram
was born in Ayodhya. This
fact can be ascertained from several books written by Indian and
foreign authors before and after the birth of Christ - Valmiki
Ramayan, Tulsi Ramayan, Kalidasa's Raghuvansam, Baudh and Jain
literature, etc. These books have narrated in great detail the
location, rich architecture and beauty of Ayodhya which had many
palaces and temples built all over the kingdom. Ayodhya was located on
the banks of the Saryu river with Ganga and Panchal Pradesh on one
side and Mithila on the other side. Normally 7,000 years is a very
long period during which earthquakes, storms, floods and foreign
invasions change the course of rivers, destroy the towns/buildings and
alter the territories. Therefore, the task of unearthing the facts is
monumental. The present Ayodhya has shrunk in size and the rivers have
changed their course about 40 km north/south.
Shri Ram
went out of Ayodhya in his childhood (13th year as per Valmiki
Ramayan) with Rishi Vishwamitra who lived in Tapovan
(Sidhhashram). From there he went to Mithila, King Janaka's
kingdom. Here he married Sita after breaking Shiv Dhanusha.
Researchers have gone along the route adopted by Shri Ram as narrated
in the Valmiki Ramayan and found 23 places which have memorials that
commemorate the events related to the life of Shri Ram. These include
Shringi Ashram, Ramghat, Tadka Van, Sidhhashram, Gautamashram,
Janakpur (now in Nepal), Sita
Kund, etc. Memorials are built for great men and not for fictitious
characters.
Date of exile of Shri Ram: It is mentioned in
Valmiki Ramayan's Ayodhya Kand (2/4/18) that Dashratha wanted to make
Shri Ram the king because Sun, Mars and Rahu had surrounded his
nakshatra, and normally under such planetary configuration the king
dies or becomes a victim of conspiracies. Dashratha's zodiac sign was
Pisces and his nakshatra was Rewati. This planetary configuration was prevailing on the January 5,
5089 BC, and it was on this day that Shri Ram left
Ayodhya for 14 years of exile. Thus, he was 25 years old at that time
(5114-5089). There are several shlokas in Valmiki
Ramayan which indicate that Shri Ram was 25-years-old when he left
Ayodhya
for exile.
Valmiki
Ramayan refers to the solar eclipse at the time of war with Khardushan
in later half of 13th year of Shri Ram's exile. It is also mentioned
it was amavasya day and Mars was in the middle. When this data was entered, the software indicated that
there was a solar eclipse on October 7, 5077 BC, (amavasya day) which
could be seen from Panchvati. The planetary configuration
was also the same - Mars was in the middle, on one side were Venus and
Mercury and on the other side were Sun and Saturn. On the basis of planetary configurations described in
various other chapters, the date on which Ravana was killed works out
to be December 4, 5076 BC, and Shri Ram completed 14 years of exile on
January 2, 5075 BC, and that day was also Navami of Shukla Paksha in
Chaitra month. Thus Shri Ram had come back to Ayodhya at the
age of 39 (5114-5075).
A
colleague, Dr Ram Avtar ,
researched on places visited by Shri Ram during his exile, and
sequentially moved to the places stated as visited by Shri Ram in the
Valmiki Ramayan, starting from Ayodhya he
went right upto Rameshwaram. He found 195 places which still have the
memorials connected to the events narrated in the Ramayana relating to
the life of Shri Ram and Sita. These include Tamsa Tal (Mandah),
Shringverpur (Singraur), Bhardwaj Ashram (situated near Allahabad),
Atri Ashram, Markandaya Ashram (Markundi), Chitrakoot, Pamakuti (on
banks of Godavari), Panchvati, Sita Sarovar, Ram Kund in
Triambakeshwar near Nasik, Shabari
Ashram, Kishkindha (village Annagorai), Dhanushkoti and Rameshwar
temple.
(The writer is a Commissioner of Income Tax posted at
Delhi.
The article will conclude on the Oped page on Monday)
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In Valmiki Ramayan it
is mentioned that Shri Ram's army constructed a bridge over the sea
between Rameshwaram and Lanka. After crossing this bridge, Shri Ram's
army had defeated Ravana. Recently, NASA put
pictures (reproduced here) on the Internet of a man-made bridge, the
ruins of which are lying submerged in Palk Strait between Rameshwaram
and Sri
Lanka. Recently the Sri Lankan Government had expressed the
desire to develop Sita Vatika as a tourist spot. Sri Lankans believe
this was Ashok Vatika where Ravana had kept Sita as a prisoner (in
5076 BC).
Indian
history has recorded that Shri Ram belonged to the Suryavansh and he
was the 64th ruler of this dynasty. The names and other relevant
particulars of previous 63 kings are listed in Ayodhya Ka
Itihas written about 80 years ago by Rai Bahadur Sita Ram.
Professor Subhash Kak of Lousiana University,
in his book, The Astronomical Code of
the Rig Veda, has also listed 63 ancestors of Shri Ram who
ruled over Ayodhya. Sri Ram's ancestors have been traced out as: Shri
Ram, King Dashratha, King Aja, King Raghu, King Dilip and so on. From
Kashmir
to Kanyakumari and from Bengal to Gujarat,
everywhere people believe in the reality of Shri Ram's existence,
particularly in the tribal areas of Himachal, Rajasthan, Madhya
Pradesh and the North-East. Most of the festivals celebrated in these
areas revolve around the events in the life of Shri Ram and Shri
Krishna.
The
events and places related to the life of Shri Ram and Sita are true
cultural and social heritage of every Indian irrespective of caste and
creed. Therefore, it is common heritage. After all, Shri Ram belonged
to the period when Prophet Mohammed or Jesus Christ were not born and
Muslim or Christian faiths were unknown to the world. The words Hindu
(resident of Hindustan) and Indian (resident of India) were
synonymous. India was also
known as Bharat (land of knowledge) and Aryavarta (where Aryans live)
and Hindustan (land of "Hindus" - derived from word Indus).
During Ram Rajya, the
evils of caste system based on birth were non-existent. In fact,
Maharishi Valmiki is stated to be of shudra class (scheduled caste),
still Sita lived with him as his adopted daughter after she was
banished from Ayodhya. Luv
and Kush grew in his ashram as his disciples. We need to be proud of
the fact that Valmiki was perhaps the first great astronomer and that
his study of planetary configurations has stood the test of times.
Even the latest computer softwares have corroborated his astronomical
calculations, which proves that he did not commit any error.
Shabari
is stated to be belonging to the Bheel tribe. Shri Ram's army, which
succeeded in defeating Ravana, was formed by various tribals from
Central and South India. The
facts, events and all other details relating to the life of Shri Ram
are the common heritage of all the Indians including scheduled castes,
scheduled tribes, Muslims, Christians, etc.
Prophet Mohammad was born 1,400 years ago. Jesus Christ
was born 2,000 years back. Gautam Buddha was born 2,600 years back,
whereas Ram was born 7,000 years back. Hence, discovering the
details relating to Shri Ram's life would be lot more difficult as
destruction caused by floods, earthquakes and invasions etc., would be
far greater. But, should that stop our quest for learning more about
our cultural heritage?
As
Indians, let us all take pride in the fact that the Indian
civilisation is the most ancient civilisation today. It is certainly
more than 10,000 years old. Therefore, let us reject the story of
Aryan invasion in India in 1,500
BC as motivated implantation. In fact Max Mueller, who was the creator
of this theory had himself rejected it. Let us admit that during the
British Rule, we were educated in the schools based on Macaulay school
of thinking which believed that everything Indian was inferior and
that entire "Indian literature was not worth even one book rack in
England". If there were similarities in certain features of Indian
people and people from Central Europe, then
automatic inference drawn was that the Aryans coming from Europe invaded
India
and settled here. No one dared of thinking in any other way. Therefore, there is urgency for the historians and all
other intellectuals to stop reducing Indian history to myth. There is
need to gather, dig out, search, unearth and analyse all the
evidences, which would throw more light on ancient Indian civilisation
and culture.
There is
need for the print and the electronic media to take note of these
facts and create atmosphere which would motivate our young and
educated youth to carry out research and unearth true facts about the
ancient Indian civilisation and wisdom and would also encourage them
to put across the results of their research before the people
fearlessly and with a sense of pride!