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----- Original Message -----
From: <purohit@xxxx>
To: <ramanuja@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, April 13, 2003 3:23 AM
Subject: [ramanuja] Is the Ramayana History?


> My quandry is whether we should treat the Ramayna as a factual historical
> document, relating incidents which occured in earthly time, space and
> causation or as a literary device for expounding Vedantic Truths.
>

Dear Devotee,

According to the tenets of Ramanuja sampradAyam, while both the two different 
types of scriptural texts, itihAsa and purAna, are used to expound upon the 
Veda, how we weigh these two in terms of being historically accurate and 
factual is different. The meaning the very names of these two texts is 
indication of this.

The Sanskrit word 'purAnam' means "ever new", implying that while it may ormay 
not be based on historic evidence, the purAnam is intended to convey acertain 
message or emotional response to the reader that has relevance irrespective of 
his/her time or location. Consequently, a certain "poetic license" is allowed 
the writer for using hyperbole, simile, and a certain "stretching of the truth" 
in order to convey the moral, philosophical, or devotional message that the 
he/she wished to convey. It is on this basis that the purAnas have been 
classified by guna, with sAttva purAnas falling in the same category as srImad 
bhAgavatham (which some consider to be almost at the level of an itihAsa) or 
srI VishNu purAnam, rajO guna purAnams being along the lines of Devi mahAtmyam 
or skAnda purAnam, and linga purAnam, Siva purAnam, and others being tamasic in 
nature. The purAnas can be likened tothe great epics of yore, such as the 
Illiad, the Odyssey, the Tales of Gilgamish, the Legend of Arthur, and the Song 
of Roland, all of which are saidto have some basis in historical occurences or 
ancient ideals, but which now stand merely as little more than glorified folk 
tales intended to conveythe magic, mythology, ideals, and of course, courage 
and valor of days gone past.

Contrast this with the term 'itihAsa', which means "it happened like 
this",implying that the work is intended to be a historical record, an archive 
of an author who had either witnessed the events, or heard about them and 
transcribed them such that they could be recorded for posterity. There are only 
two that are officially recognized among our Vedic texts (traditionally, we do 
not count srImad bhAgavatham), srI rAmAyanam and srI mahabhAratham.  

Indeed, in the case of the rAmAyanam, we actually have validation of the text 
by the lead character Himself, Sri Rama, who confirms that this is actually 
what happened to his sons, Lava and Kusha, after they narrate the incidents 
that they had learned from Adikavi Vakmiki. It is to be noted that although 
there are occassional references to the Divine character of Sri Rama, His 
brothers, and His Consort, there is virtually nothing to indicate that the 
story was the creation of Valmiki's fertile imagination or mystical experience; 
nor for that matter is there anything to indicate that it perhaps took place on 
some ethereal plane. Suffice it to say, srI rAmAyanam is ahuman story; a story, 
as my Teacher puts it so aptly, of God becoming Man so that He could teach 
humanity how to be human.

I hope this helps.

adiyEn Ramanuja dAsan
Mohan 

  




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