SRIMATHE RAMANUJAYA NAMAHA. Respected Sri Vasudevan swami, I don't have the mail ID of Prof Varthak. I just happened to chance upon his article in the Net and was drawn in to wonder about the dates and yuga calculations. But of the different research articles that I have come across on the date of Raama, his seemed to me more acceptable. This also tallied with a reserach book on the date of Raama and Krishna published many years ago by Shakthi Foundation of Pollachi N.Mahalingam. The seminar which I attended in my college years on "Astronomy as the basis of History" in which scholars like Prof Srinivasa Raghavan (sanskrit pandit) and Prof Iravadham, a forerunner in deciphering Indus seals presented their papers, also concluded on a note that Raama's period must have occured some 9000 to 10,000 years ago. This was based on the astro-data found in the Valmiki Ramayana. This is where I stand as I don't posses any scholarly prowess to substantiate or challenge these versions. But our curiosity does take us to places and I intend write another mail also as a continuation of the previous 6 mails on Raama's date! Coming to the points raised in your mail, Prof Varthak has been right in having taken the age of 17 as the time when the coronation was fixed. The sloka he has quoted in support of this runs like this. "dasha sapta ca varSaaNi tava jaatasya raaghava | 45. raaghava =Oh, Rama! aasitaani =sat down mayaa =by me dasha saptacha =for seventeen varshhaa Ni =years tava jaatasya =after your second birth of your thread ceremony praakaaNkshhantyaa =with hope of duHkha parikshhantyaam =disappearance of troubles ?Oh,Rama! I have been waiting for seventeen years after your second birth of thread ceremony, with the hope that my troubles will disappear at one time or the other.? (unquote) Please note the word used by Kausalya. "tava jaatasya" has been translated
as the thread ceremony here. I request scholars to explain the
usage of this term to mean the thread ceremony. If it is taken as jaata
karma-naama karma done soon after birth, Raama's age can be literally taken as
17 as per this sloka.
Again if we look into the Valmiki Ramayana for the time of
thread ceremony for Raama, we come across this verse. "braahmaNaan bhojayaamaasa pauraan jaanapadaan api | 23, 24a. brahmaNaan pauraan jaanapadaan api= Brahmans, urbanites, villagers, also; bhojayaamaasa= are fed well by king; brahaahmaNaanaam bahu ratna ogham udadat= to Brahmans, many, valuable gems, he gave - gifted; a + mitam= un, limited; teSaam janma kriya aadiini= them - the princes, birth, rites, ceremonies sequel to it; sarva karmaaNi akaarayat= all, rituals, performed. The king feasted Brahmans, urbanites and villagers and he gifted many valuable gems to Brahmans in an unlimited way, and all the rituals of birth and ceremonies sequel to it like naming ceremony, first-food-feeding ceremony, first-hair-removal ceremony, and sacred thread ceremony are performed in respect of the princes. [1-18-23, 24a] (unquote) The years in which these have been done is not mentioned, but sounds that the thread ceremony was pretty early considering the sequence of ceremonies mentioned in this verse. Regarding the years that Sita mentions in Sundhara khandam, I somehow picturised as though she was 18 and Raama was 25 at the time of exile. I am unable to bring back to memory how I arrived at this. But I have read somewhere or calculated on the basis of some inputs. I hope to get them soon and share with others. But regarding the astro-data, it is really a tricky issue. Valmiki laeves some scope for reserach even about the palnetary positions at the time of Raama's birth. He merely says "panchasu graheSu swa uccha samstheshu= of five, planets, in their own, highest, positing; ". The only direct clue he gives is about Jupiter's position in "karkaTe lagne". It has been a matter of debate by many schoalrs as to what these five planets are. Kalidasa also has taken up the same description in Raghu vamsa but with some extrapolations. But this issue has been a settled one today with everyone agreeing with what those 5 planets are. Thus we find that we have to proceed with insufficient data at crucial places and manage to arrive at an acceptable version. In my opinion, irrespective of whether Rama was exiled in his 17th year or 25th year, it would not make much difference to the era he belonged, which is about 9000 years ago, according to Prof Varthak. But planetary positions do lend a clue about the probable time of events. One event that seemed to have escaped Prof Varthak's attention
is the date of Raama's marriage. There also Valmiki gives a clue that is a
little perplexing.
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