The story of RAM can be compared to the umbilical cord from which life emanates and evolves into a living being.
RAM is the common biological thread that binds people of India from varied backgrounds.
The story of Ram or Ramayana existed in the oral traditions perhaps as far back as 15,00 BCE. Between the 7th century BCE and 4th century BCE, Ramayana was written. Ramayana exists in almost all vernacular languages in Bharat. Ramayana of Kamban in Tamil prevails in South India. In North Indi, Ramcharitmanas by Tulsidas is legendary. In Fiji and Trinidad too, Ramcharitamanas is the popular devotional text amongst Indian diasporas. There is a Bengali version of Ram’s tale called Sriram Pacali or Krttivasi Ramayana, where Ravan is not an evil character.
Regional versions have kept the legacy of RAM alive. There is no single Ramayana, just as there is not one kind of people. Ramayana is not just a single book. It is rather a story and a tradition of storytelling. This tale of Shriram has been recreated orally with all fluidity by a whole spectrum of tellers, ranging from traditional bards to countless grandmothers in our homes. In most modern Indian homes, Ramayana is as likely to be the favorite bedtime story of kids and parents alike.
The vast geographical stretch from Lahore to Nepal, from Ayodhya to Sri Lanka are testimony to being a part of Ram’s story. Ram van Gaman Marg is an ambitious project undertaken by the government to retrace the path believed to have been taken from Ayodhya to Sri Lanka by Lord Ram on his way to exile with Ma Sita and brother Lakshman.
The presence of RAM on land and on the hearts and minds of the people extending throughout this vast stretch of land is exemplary!
Over 300 Ramayana (story of Ram) are known to exist, especially in Southeast Asia and India. Maharshi Valmiki’s Ramayana, the Sanskrit treatise that chronicles the victory of Lord Rama against the 10 headed Lanka king Ravan is recognized as the original one.
The Ramayana adaptations have inserted their own folklore and cultural beliefs, changed plots, character traits, attire, choices of weaponry, and locations.
When Thailand was erstwhile SIAM, the last line of monarchs claimed to be Ram’s descendants. Their names had RAM either as a prefix or suffix. The capital city was Ayutthaya. From 18th century, the king started being called RAM 1. He wrote the Thai version of Ramayana called Ramakien which today is the national epic.
Murals of episodes from Ramayana ornament the walls of Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Ramayana murals also grace the walls of Phnom Penh’s royal palace complex. Cambodia’s Ramayana version is called Reamker ( Ramakerti -Ram+Kirti /Glory).
Myanmar has an unofficial national epic called Yamayana , where Ram is Yama, Sita is Thida, and Ravan is Yavana. In Laos, the national epic is Phra Lok Phra Ram. Laos is believed to have got its name from Luv, Ram’s son. In Malay literature, the Hikayat Seri Ram is similar to Ramayana.
Indonesia has a varying version of Ramayana for every island. In Bali it is Ramakawara, in Java it is Kakawin or Yogeswara Ramayan and in Sumatra it is Ramayana SwarnaDwipa.
In Philippines, it is called Maharadia Lavana.
Jataka tales of Ram are quite popular with the Chinese people. Japan too has two versions of Ramayana, namely, HobutSushu and Sambo Ekotoba . Close to home Sri Lanka and Nepal are an intricate part of Ram’s story. Ma Sita is supposed to hail from Nepal, whereas she was abducted by Ravana and taken to Sri Lanka.
RAM is as much a part of these countries as HE is in Bharat. For the Pran Pratishtha of Ram Lala in Ayodhya on 22nd January 2024. elaborate gifts have been sent by these two nations. Countries from all parts of the world rejoiced this historic moment along with the Indian Diaspora there.
According to Geological Survey of India, the Ram Setu Bridge is between 7000 and 18,000 years old. Researchers from Anna University and Madras University claim the Ram Setu to be formed about 18,400 years ago.
If Ram walked the surface of Earth 18,000 years ago, then what has kept RAM contemporary to people of all times?
During the thousand year time period of foreign invasions from West, the whole of North India was struggling to protect its religious, cultural and social identity. In 1528 when Mir Baki on the orders of Babur demolished Ram Mandir at Ayodhya and built the Babri mosque, devotees never gave up on worshipping. They gathered whatever remains of the temple they could get and established small structures for their RAM as near to the mosque as they can get and kept worshipping their Aradhya there.
Various travelers like William Finch and a Jesuit Joseph Tiffin Theller in 1608 have given us detailed elaborate sketches and account of Ayodhya of those times. They mention that the devotees kept flocking to the Janmasthan area in huge numbers during Ram Navami. In 1880, when British government set up Ameen Commission which reported that there is a Khayee parikrama (trench of circumnavigation) around the Janmasthan compound. This meant that devotees kept on circumnavigating the Janmasthan in such huge numbers for centuries, that a trench was created. This was the love and devotion of a common, powerless, resourceless man of Indian villages towards their Aradhya Ram.
Such exemplary devotion even after numerous attempts were made to erase their RAM, RAM was and is still intact in their memory. This is a civilizational memory.
“सर्वेषु रमन्ते इति रामः”
That which revels in each one of us, the pure light of consciousness, the Atman… is RAMA.
Ram is ingrained in the fabric of Bhartiya DNA. He is a part of our civilizational memory,from north to South and even beyond Oceans to Thailand, Bali, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and even Persian countries. Ram is beyond the debate of being an illusion or being veritable. Ram is preserved in the heart of all Bhartiyas and is passed on to generations in the form of a promise to fulfill. This promise changed the DNA. Ram became a part of DNA of all of us. Today, there is euphoria amongst people of all faiths. It is not about any government or party. It is about the people and their RAM.
RAM who belongs to all and
all have their own versions of RAM.
This can happen only in Bharat
as many people as many RAM.
‘Jan Jan mein Ram, Kan Kan mein Ram…’