All posts in category Ramayana & Mahabajarata

A RIG VEDIC HYMN WITH NUMBER SYMBOLISM (Post No.7566)

RESEARCH ARTICLE WRITTEN BY London Swaminathan

Post No.7566

Date uploaded in London – 12 February 2020

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 A RIG VEDIC HYMN WITH NUMBER SYMBOLISM

Rig Veda, the oldest religious book in the world, the oldest anthology in the world and the oldest document of Hinduism, throws many challenges to Hindu and western scholars. The eighth Mandala of the book is very interesting. We see a lot of foreign stuff here extending up to Iran including Dhana/gifts of camels to Brahmins. Number symbolism seen here is one of the challenges which allows commentators to interpret a verse differently. Tamil Siddhas ad Saivite poet Tirumular followed this style with great enthusiasm.

In all ancient religions, mythology came first and then the religious hymns. But in Hinduism the hymn book Rig Veda is placed at least two thousand years before the 18 Hindu Puranas (Hindu Mythology). Though linguistically speaking the prose Puranas can be placed after the Vedas, the stories in them go back several thousand years. For instance, if a Saivite Purana talks about the Blue throated Shiva and the story behind the blue throat (Neela kanda), the words (Neela Kanda) are already in the Veda.  If a Vaishnavite Purana talks about Vishnu’s Three Steps, the reference can be found in the Rig Veda. So it is clear that Puranaic episodes came first and written later.

The story of Maruts (Rig Veda 8-28) is in the Bala Kanda of Valmiki Ramayana.

xxx

7X7 gods, 7X9 gods in Rig Veda 8-28

Here is a reference about the origin of Maruts. Briefly described as sons of Rudra and attendants of Indra. The storm god is found even in Sumerian (Babylonian) worship as God Martu.

In later days we have

Maruti –  son of wind god is worshipped in nook and corner of India as Hanuman, Anjaneya

Maruti car is running in India everywhere.

Sanda maarutam (gale fore wind) and Mantha maarutham (breeze) are used in Tamil novels etc.

These Maruts are found in Rig Veda with interesting and puzzling Numbers!

Here is the hymn 8-28 from Rig Veda

1.The Thirty Gods and the Three besides, whose seat hath been the sacred grass,

From time of old have found and gained

2.Varuna, Mitra , Aryaman, Agni, with the

Consorts sending boons,

To whom our Vasat! is addressed

3.These are our guardians in the west and

 northward here, and in the south

And on the east , with all the tribe.

4.Even as the gods desire so verily shall it

 be. None minisheth this power of theirs,

No demon and no mortal man.

5.The Seven carry Seven spears; Seven are

the splendours they possess

And Seven glories they assume.

For our number symbolism and the origin of Maruts, let us take stanza/mantra 5 only. Griffith whose translation is given above, comments —

The seven

The Maruts, seven  or seven times nine, or seven times seven  in number. Saayana mentions the legend of their birth, which will be found in Ramayana book 1, cantos 46,47. The meaning is merely that the Maruts carry lances , that is their, lightnings, and are splendidly adorned.

We get 33 gods and then 49 and then 63.

Thirty three is expanded as thirty three crores of gods (330 million) in Puranas , just an exaggeration to boost  their importance. Hindus always add a big decimal number for exaggeration.

They used to say

King Dasaratha has 60,000 wives (meaning is ‘several wives’, unusually high)

In Weddings priests announce ‘Uncle of the bride gifts ‘laksham katti varahan’ (one hundred thousands of gold bars consisting of Varahan gold coins) – meaning is his ‘Rs100 is worth billions’.

Hindus have 33 crore (330 million) gods (meaning is Hindus can worship God in every form, every object)

But later Puranas explained 33 gods as 8 Vasus+12 Adityas+ 11 Rudras + Indra+ Prajapaati (or Two Asvins).

xxx

Story of Maruts from Ramayana

When Diti’s sons were killed in the Churning of the Milky ocean incident, she requested her husband that she should have one son who will be the slayer of Indra ; her husband Kashyapa asked her to do a penance for 1000 years. She did so, but when ten years were remaining, Indra came and entered her when she was lying in the wrong posture. Indra cut the foetus into seven parts and she cried  Indra said ‘Ma Ruda= Cry Not = Marut’.

She requested Indra to allow them to live and Indra told her they will be the guardians of seven winds. They were divided into three parts (7+7+7)

Xxx

The Puranic dictionary by John Dowson summarises it in the following passage: –

“The storm gods who hold a very prominent place in the Vedas and are represented as friends and allies of Indra. Various origins are assigned to them. They are the sons of Rudra, sons and brothers of Indra, sons of the oceans, heaven and earth (7+7+7). They are armed with lightning and thunderbolts, and ride on the whirlwind and direct the storm.

The number of them is said in one place to be thrice sixty ( 3+60) and in another only twenty seven.

In the Ramayana they are represented to have their origin in an unborn son of Diti whom Indra dashed into 49 pieces with his thunderbolt (7X7), and in compassion converted into Maruts.

Another commentator on Vedas say , that after their  Siva and Parvati beheld them in great affliction, and the latter asked Siva to transform the lumps on flesh into boys of like form, like age and similarly accounted, and gave them to Parvati as her sons and hence they are called the sons of Rudra.

The legend is invented to explain those passages of the Vedas which make Maruts the sons of Rudra.

MY COMMENTS

It is very simple. If you collect all the English poems on rain or thunder, you will see different interpretations, imageries, similes etc from different poets.

Vedic poets described thunder and rain of Indra assisted by storm and lightning of Marut.

What is the purpose?

The dialogue poems of Rig Veda show that after every sacrifice, there was an Entertainment Show in which two groups acted sitting opposite. Dialogue Hymn between Indra and Marut is the proof for it (RV 1-165).

Probably the Diti – Indra chapters in Ramayana (1-46, 47) are also acted on stages and Viswamitra recited this story to Rama and Lakshmana.

But on another plane, these poems have hidden meaning. In all Tamil Sangam Akam verses (Family/ sex verses) all the natural phenomena have hidden meanings as explained by the later commentators. Sangam Tamil Poems are from first few centuries of Common Era and the commentaries are from 13th century or later. We find the names of the poets and words in the verses are explained as fancifully as Ma Ruda- Don’t Cry- Maruta!

Since Rudra is also a storm god in the Vedas, Maruts/lightnings are described as sons of Rudra.

 In short, a poem on lightning is explained/interpreted in different ways.

Why different numbers (21, 27, 49 and 63) are given?

You can count the lightning streaks in any number depending based on your imagination. But Hindus has a fascination for Number Seven. Anything holy or everything holy is divided into Seven. We see this Number Seven in Indus- Sarasvati Civilization seals more than other numbers. Another holy number 3 is also seen in it.

—subham–

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by Tamil and Vedas on February 12, 2020  •  Permalink
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51 INTERESTING HINDU COUPLES; FOUR TYPES OF WOMEN IN NATYA SHASTRA (Post No.7077)

Written by London swaminathan

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Date: 9 OCTOBER 2019
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Post No. 7077

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CLASH BETWEEN THE FAMOUS TAMIL POET AND CHOZA KING (Post No.6155)

Written by London swaminathan

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Date: 5 March 2019


GMT Time uploaded in London – 15-58


Post No. 6155

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by Tamil and Vedas on March 5, 2019  •  Permalink
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Homer and Vyasa- Iliad, Odyssey and the Mahabharata (Post No.5357)

Blind Poet Homer of Greece

COMPILED BY LONDON SWAMINATHAN

Date: 24 August 2018

 

Time uploaded in London – 9-03 AM (British Summer Time)

 

Post No. 5357

 

Pictures shown here are taken from various sources including google, Wikipedia, Facebook friends and newspapers. This is a non- commercial blog.

 

 

WHO IS HOMER?

 

 

HOMER PROFILE

Greek poet
Lived 8 th century BCE

Of all the ancient poets of Greece Homer is the most mysterious and most extraordinary. He is known as the author of the two earliest works of European literature, the Iliad and the odyssey. Nothing at all is known for certain about his life, and many scholars have argued that he never even existed.

The Iliad and odyssey describe events during and soon after the Trojan war, a conflict between Ancient Greek s and citizens of a city called Troy around 1250 BCE. The works were probably composed several hundred years after this time. If Homer was a real person , he may have lived during the 8th century BCE. Those who argue that Homer is a myth say that the poems are the work of several generations of poets combined into one long text at a much later date.

Whatever the truth, the name of Homer was revered in Ancient Rome and Greece. The Iliad and the odyssey were regarded in much the same way as Christian Bible was later regarded in medieval Europe. They were the basic education al texts of the time q, and quotations from them were used to settle disputes and resolve moral problems.

Both the Iliad and the Odyssey are epic poems. They tell the stories of heroes and their incredible deeds in a mythical past when gods and goddesses interfere d directly in the lives of mortals. Characters and events from the Iliad and the odyssey were often used by the later Greek writers and are still referred to in the European literature today. James Joyce’s novel Ulysses, written around 3000 years later, is based on the adventures of Odysseus, hero of the odyssey.

 

Comparison of Homer and Vyasa

Vyasa wrote the longest epic in the world. His master piece Mahabharata has over 200,000 lines. If you compare it with Homer, the first poet of Greek literature, who wrote the Iliad and the odyssey, you will enormous know the size of the Hindu epic. Both of Homer’s epics have only 30 000 lines.

Dr F A Hassler of America says about the Mahabharata ,
“I have studied it more than any other work for a long time past, and I have made at least 1000 notes which I have arranged in alphabetical order for the purpose of study. The Mahabharata has opened to me, as it were, a new world, and I have been surprised beyond measure at the wisdom, truth, knowledge , wisdom and love of the right which I have found displayed in its pages. Not only so, but I have found many of the truths which may own heart has taught me in regard to the Supreme being and His creations set forth in beautiful, clear language”.

Professor Sylvan Levi says
“The Mahabharata  is not only the largest, but also the grandest of all the epics, as it contains throughout a lively teaching of morals under a glorious garment of poetry”

Mahabharata is an inexhaustible mine of proverbial philosophy— Macdonell’s Sanskrit literature.

American ethnologist Jeremiah Curtin says,
“I have never obtained more pleasure from reading any book in my life. The  Mahabharata will open the eyes of the world to the true character and intellectual rank of the people of India. The Mahabharata is a real mine of wealth not entirely known, I suppose, to anyone outside your country, but which will be known in time and valued in all civilized lands for the reason it contains information of the highest import to all men who seek to know in singleness of heart, the history of our race on earth, and the relations of man with the Infinite Power above us, around us and in us.”

 


Saint Hilarie Batholemy thus speaks of the Mahabharata in the Journal Des Savantes of September 1886 ,
“When a century ago Mr Wilkins published in Calcutta an extract from the grand poem Mahabharata, and made it known through the episode of the Bhagavad Gita, the world was dazzled with its magnificence. Vyasa the reputed author of the Mahabharata, appeared greater than even Homer, and it required a very little indeed to induce people to place India above Greece….. It has not the less been admitted that this prodigious Hindu epic is one of the grandest monuments of its kind of human intelligence and genius”.

Titus Munson Coan says,
“The Hindu epics have a nearer significance for us than anything in the Norse mythology. The Mahabharata, one of the longest of these poems, has wider romantic element in it than King Frithiop’s Saga; its action is cast upon a grander scale, and its heroes belittle all others in mythology. The Hindu poems, early though are, contain ethical and human elements that are unknown to the Norseman. It is in this that their enduring, their growing interest remains for the mind of Europe and America”.

Mon A Barth says ,
“Some portions of the Mahabharata may well compare with the purest and most beautiful productions of human genius. The Ramayana is three times as large as Homer’s Iliad and the Mahabharata four times as large as the Ramayana. Homers Iliad and odyssey have thirty thousand lines, the Mahabharata has two hundred twenty thousand lines, and in addition a supplement of sixteen thousand three hundred seventy four couplets. But it is not in size alone that the sacred epics of Valmiki and Vyasa excel They enchant by the wondrous story they tell us of an ancient people’s life, faith and valour. There is also a lively teaching of morals under a glorious garment of poetry. Matchless vivacity, unsurpassably tender and touching episodes, and a perfect store house of national antiquities, literature and ethics”.

 

Source book
Is Hindu a Superior Reality, Krishan Lal Jain, 1989

–subham–

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by Tamil and Vedas on August 24, 2018  •  Permalink
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Homer 15,693 lines and Valmiki 48,000 lines! (Post No.5347)

 

 

Homer 15,693 lines and Valmiki 48,000 lines! (Post No.5347)

 

Compiled by London swaminathan

Date: 21 August 2018

 

Time uploaded in London – 8-26 AM (British Summer Time)

 

Post No. 5347

 

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Hindus have two great epics Ramayana and Mahabharata; of these two Ramayana is older and Mahabharata is larger. There is nothing in the world that is not touched by Veda Vyasa, author of Mahabharata. Ramayana is famous for its simplicity and superb story.

A comparison with other great epics of the old world will give an idea of their enormous size.
Mahabharata has 2,20,000 lines
Ramayana has. 48,000 lines
Homer’s Iliad has 15,693 lines
Virgil’s Aeneid has 9868 lines
Iliad + odyssey together contain 30,000 lines

Professor Monier Williams says, “ Ramayana is undoubtedly one of the greatest treasure in Sanskrit literature. The classical purity, clearness and simplicity of  its style, the exquisite touches of true poetic feeing with which it abounds, its graphic descriptions of heroic incidents, nature’s grandest scenes, the deep acquaintance it displays with the conflicting workings and most refined emotions of the human heart, all entitle it to rank among the most beautiful compositions that appeared at any period or any country”.
“There are many graphical passages in the Ramayana and Mahabharata, which for beauty of description cannot be surpassed by anything in Homer,… that the the diction f Indian epics is more polished, regular and cultivated, and the language altogether in a more advanced stage of development than that of Homer”.

 

“The battle fields of the Ramayana and Mahabharata are not made barbarous by wanton cruelties, and the description of Ayodhya and Lanka imply far greater luxury refinement than those of Sparta and Troy. Ramayana and Mahabharata rise above the Homeric poems also in the fact that a deep religious meaning appears to underlie all the narrative, and that the wildest allegory may be intended to conceal a sublime moral, symbolizing conflict between good and evil, teaching hopelessness of victory in so terrible a contest with purity of souls, self-abnegation and the subjugation of passions.

Did Homer copy Ramayana?

Some critics hold that the Ramayana is the original of Iliad that the latter is only an adaptation of the former to the local circumstances of Greece; that Homer’s description of the Trojan war is merely a mythological account of the invasion of Lanka by Ram Chandra. The main plot, of course, is the same. Troy stands for Lanka (Tabropane), Sparta for Ayodhya, Menelaus for Rama, Paris for Ravana, Hector for Indrajit and Vibhishan; Helen for Sita, Agamemnon for Sugriva, Patroclus for Lakshmana, Nestor for Jambavan. Achilles is a mixture of Arjuna, Bhima and Lakshmana.

 

Anterior to Homer, Greek literature has no existence, even no name, and it is difficult to believe that, without any previous cultivation whatever, some of the highest and the noblest work in the whole range of literature should come into existence. The English literature did not begin with Milton, nor the Roman with Virgil; nor does the Sanskrit with Valmiki or Vyasa, as the Greek does with Homer.

 

M.Hippolyte Fauch, in the French translation of the Ramayana, says that, “Ramayana was composed before the Homeric poems’ and that Homer took his ideas from it.”

 

Schlegel calls ‘Ramayana the noblest of epics’.

Sir William Jones says,
“The Ramayana is an epic poem on the story of Rama, which, in unity of action, magnificence of imagery and elegance of style far surpasses the learned and elaborate work of Nonnus” .

 

(Nonnus was an Egyptian poet of Hellenized Egypt of fifth century CE. His epic on Dionysus contain 20,426 lines in Greek language)
After giving the argument of the Ramayana, with his usual moderation, Professor Heeren says, “Such in few words, is the chief subject of Ramayana, while the development and method of handling this simple argument is so remarkably rich and copious as to suffer little from a comparison in this respect with the most admired productions of the epic muse.”

 

Professor Dowden says, “Juliet is but a passionate girl before this perfect woman meaning Brutus’ Portia, but what becomes of Portia herself before this heavenly woman, this ethereal being, this celestial Sita?”

        

Stamps on Homer and Virgil

Source Book:- Is Hindu A Superior Reality, Krishan Lal Jain, Akshat Publications, 1989

–subham–

 

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by Tamil and Vedas on August 21, 2018  •  Permalink
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TAMIL POET EXPLODES DRAVIDIAN MYTH! (Post No.5275)

Written by LONDON SWAMINATHAN

Date: 31 JULY 2018

 

Time uploaded in London – 13-46   (British Summer Time)

 

Post No. 5275

 

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Famous Tamil poet Kamban in his epic work Kamba Ramayana explodes several Dravidian myths; Dravidian politicians and half- baked Dravidian ‘scholars’ are fooling the Tamil community for long by projecting the womaniser Ravana as a Dravidian. They say Aryan Rama killed Dravidian Ravana; They even celebrate Ravana Jayanti on Rama Navami day or Desersa Festival. But according to the famous poet Kamban, who wrote Ramayana in Tamil, Ravana was a Brahmin!

My mum wants Rama’s Skull for Tarpana!

Here is the proof from Tamil verses of Kamban:-

When Ravana lost his important commanders in the battle against Rama, Karan’s son came forward and said to Ravana:

“How is it my father (Ravana), you didn’t send me

Against who killed my father (Karan)?

Did you not know I am available

Alas, that you should have that sorrow!”

 

“My tearful mother, plunged in sorrow

Will not part with her wedding-string

Before offering obsequies to her husband

In the skull of the one who killed him!

You whom the vultures love as their feeder

Be pleased, said he, to send me to the fight.”

 

Wedding string= Mangala sutra, Thaali in Tamil.

The message is clear: Demons also do Tarpana and Tithi to the departed soul. So Karan’s wife was waiting to do using Rama’s skull as a vessel!

 

In another place, when Vibhishana asked his brother Kumbakarna to come to Rama’s side, he refused to join Rama’s army because he did eat Ravana’s food all through his life and he did not want to see Ravana dying before his eyes.  He added, “My dear brother Vibhishana! You continue to be in Rama’s side, so that you can do Tarpana (water offering to departed soul) to all your brothers including me”.

So they all believed in the funeral tites like other Hindus.

Rama encourages Karan’s son to fight him saying,

 

“The hero (rama) heard what the sinner (karan’s son) said

Are you Khara’s son come here

To avenge your long-standing grievance?

That indeed is a son’s duty

You spoke well, Sir”, he said,

His shoulders well fitted for fame”

–Yuddha Kanda, Kamba Ramayana

Here also Rama  appreciates son’s duty to demon Khara.

Here is another proof:

“Such is the strength of these men.

I will tell you now what I know of Ravana

He is the son of the son of Brahma

And raised himself through penance

By the boons he obtained from Brahma and Siva”

 

-Yuddha Kanda

 

Kamban repeats three facts in hundreds of places:

  1. Ravana is Brahma’s grandson, thus emphasizing that he is a Brahmana.

This is confirmed in several Tamil sthala puranas, where Rama was said to have got rid of his sins of killing Brahmins (Ravana and his son’s).

 

  1. Ravana and his son Indrajit got all the powers from Hindu gods through penance!

 

  1. They all did water obsequies to the departed souls like any other Hindu.

All these explode the Dravidian propaganda about Ravana.

 

Kamban lived 1000 years before our time. What Kamban said was  already said by Valmiki and others.

One more verse from the chapter of ‘Vibhishana takes refuge’ in Yuddha Kanda:

“The son of Brahma’s grandson

A good soul, truthful and virtuous,

has come here to take refuge

With the scion of solar race

The Lord of the world, and so live:

 

This is about Ravana’s brother Vibhishana.

 

Any one reading Kamba Ramayana or other scriptures will find umpteen references to Ravana and his brothers as Brahmins.

Then how come they are called demons?

They did not follow a disciplined life and more over violated all the rules laid for Brahmins. They got all the benefits and powers of penance, but abused them!

Even today we see people who abuse religious powers even when they are at the top posts.

 

–Subham–

 

 

 

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WORLD’S FIRST EXILE GOVERNMENT FROM RAMAYANA (Post No.5272)

 

A FEW SCENES FROM RAMAYANA DRAMA

Written by London swaminathan

Date: 30 JULY 2018

 

Time uploaded in London – 14-58   (British Summer Time)

 

Post No. 5272

 

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Though there are thousands of Ramayanas in South East Asia South Asia, some in full and some are in parts, some are in poetry and some are skits, dreams or prose, Kamaba Ramayana in Tamil stands next to Valmiki Ramayana in Sanskrit.

Kamban himself said that he followed Valmiki. But yet we see some new episodes or new interpretations in Kamaban. We might have missed the originals in Valmiki or Kamaban might have used them from the other two Ramayanas he mentioned in the very beginning. But he named only one author Valmiki.

 

In the Yuddha Kanada of Kamba Ramayana we see some important verses which reflect the Indian thinking.

When Rama met Guha, a forest chieftain, the head of the hunters. he declared him as his fifth among the Ayodhya brothers, and he mentioned Sugreeva as the sixth and Vibhishana as the seventh. This is the spirit of Universal Brotherhood. Others only spoke about in all other literatures and scriptures of the world But Rama was the only one who took concrete steps in this direction.

 

The Yuddha kanda highlights another point; Rama is the oldest king we know of who formed an exile government in India. After Vibhisana’s surrender, he declared him the King of Sri Lanka and asked Sugreeva and Lakshmana to crown him on the spot.

 

Following verses are from the mouth of great Tamil poet Kamban (translated by P S Sundaram, published by Government of Tamil Nadu):

SIX BROTHERS OF RAMA!!!

We are Seven Now!

“we became” said, Rama “five with Guha;

Then with Sun’s son bcame six;

Now with you who have joined us

With your heartfelt love, we are seven!

Your father sending me to the forest

Has multiplied his progeny!

–Yuddha Kanada, Chapter- Vibhishana Takes Refuge.

 

In one breath Rama made Vibhishana as his own brother and reconfirmed it by saying Dasaratha  – aslo Vibhishana’s father?

Sun’s son= Sugreeva

 

xxx

In the earlier verses, Kamban described the Exile Government:

Grace flowing from him, he looked

At Vibhishana and said to his joy,

“so long as the fourteen worlds

And my name shall endure

This Lanka in the sea with all

Its Rakshasas is yours—“

 

SHOE CROWN

What is there to say my Lord?

You have taken me, a cur, as a brother

Myservitude has made me great”.

And all his doubts and fears removed

He crowned himself with Rama’s shoes.

 

Rama’s Command

 

“The Rama told Lakshmana

Prince, that all may realise

That the wealth of Lanka’s King

Is now Vibhishana’s

You and Sugreeva shoud take out

A procession round the army camp”

 

Then they mounted on a sandal wood chariot

The one with his infinite virtues

Crowned with Rama’s sandals

Sugreeva carrying him, and lauding,

“He has attained Indra’s wealth”

And going round that army camp.”

 

 

These verses clearly show that Rama made a quick decision to form an exile Government of Sri Lanka on Indian soil and Vibhishana only took Rama’s shows as crown.

XXX

TAMIL KING WITH SIVA’S SANDALS ON HEAD!

This is also nothing new. Seran Senguttuva, the mighty Tamil King of Kerala took, Siva’s sandals on his head according to the Tamil epic Silappadikaram!

 

First Seran Senguttuvan went to Agnihotra Sala for prayers. Then he went to Siva’s temple before his expedition to the Himalayas. He bore the feet of the Lord on his head as a mark of respect to Him. At this time the priests of the temple of Atakamatam, the local Vishnu temple, gave him the prasadam (garland of flowers) which he wore on his shoulders.

(Aataka maatama= Anatha Padmanabha Swami Temple of Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala)

 

–SUBHAM–

 

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RAMAYANA IN ARTS OF ASIA BY GARRETT KAM (Post No.5166)

 

RAMAYANA IN ARTS OF ASIA BY GARRETT KAM (Post No.5166)


Written by LONDON SWAMINATHAN

 

Date: 30 JUNE 2018

 

Time uploaded in London –  13-56 (British Summer Time)

 

Post No. 5166

 

Pictures shown here are taken from various sources such as Facebook friends, Wikipedia, Books, Google and newspapers; thanks. Pictures may be subject to copyright laws.

 

 

Ramayana in the Arts of Asia is a wonderful book with lot of information with particular reference to South East Asia. Author Garrett Kam is a scholar in the art history. I have found some useful information and pictures which I have never seen in any other book on Ramayana.

 

Ramayana character names change in all languages This is very useful for researchers. With is as a guide we can figure out the names of Hindu Gods in different countries. The pictures from private collections and museums are not available in other books. The display of important points in boxes is very attractive. I am just reproducing some pages which shows the Ramayana names in different cultures. Please enlarge the pages and read.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nagapasa binds Rama and Lakshmana.

 

Everyone must buy this Encyclopaedia on Ramayana.

 

–subham–

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by Tamil and Vedas on June 30, 2018  •  Permalink
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RAMAYANA SCULPTURES IN THAILAND (Post No.5158)

 

compiled by LONDON SWAMINATHAN

 

Date: 28 JUNE 2018

 

Time uploaded in London –  14-20 (British Summer Time)

 

Post No. 5158

 

Pictures shown here are taken from various sources such as Facebook friends, Wikipedia, Books, Google and newspapers; thanks. Pictures may be subject to copyright laws.\

 

 

RAMAYANA sculptures in Cambodia are well known; but sculptures describing the scenes of Ramayana in Thailand are not known to many. Some of the sculptures were even interpreted earlier as scenes from Buddha Jataka stories. Now we know they are from Ramayana.

Mostly sculptures of Hindu gods are found in the temples of Prasat Phnom Rung and Prasat Phimai. Other sculptures of Hindu Gods are kept in Bangkok Museum.

Following book (Palace of the Gods by Smithi Siribhadra and Elizabeth Moore)  give some pictures with explanation:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

— SUBHAM —

 

 

 

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by Tamil and Vedas on June 28, 2018  •  Permalink
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Posted by Tamil and Vedas on June 28, 2018

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DATE OF RAMAYANA 5100 BCE (Post No.5100)

Written by London swaminathan

Date: 11 JUNE 2018

Time uploaded in London –  18-16 (British Summer Time)

Post No. 5100

Pictures shown here are taken from various sources such as Facebook friends, Books, Google and newspapers; thanks. Pictures may be subject to copyright laws.

I was reading the book ‘Dating the Era of Lord Ram’ by Pushkar Bhatnagar, 2004, Rs.395

He has concluded that Rama lived around 5100 BCE on the astronomical evidence in the Valmiki Ramayana. First let me give his conclusions and then his introduction. It is a book with sixty colour star maps.  His conclusions are

 

The archaeological evidence suggesting the date of Saraswati Sindhu region sites up to 8000 BCE,

astronomical dating of some of the verses of the Rig Veda to 6500 BCE,

the Astronomical dating of Ramayana at around  5100 BCE,

date of composition of the last Mandala of the Rig Veda around 5000 BCE,

strong evidences suggesting the traditional date of 3137 BCE as the date of Mahabharata,

probable date of Puranas well after the beginning of the Kaliyuga and the drying up of the Saraswati River around 1900 BCE

makes highly agreeable and logically acceptable timeline of our civilization.

 

His introduction in the book gives the following interesting details:

“The Ramayana clearly mentions that a lunar eclipse had occurred on the day Hanuman visited Lanka in search of Sita. On examination of the sequence of events narrated in the book

(Ramayana) I had concluded that it was the full moon day of either the month of Margasirsh (Maarkazi in Tamil) or Paush (Thai in Tamil)of the last year of exile (5076 BCE). However, I had no means to verify whether a lunar eclipse had actually occurred about 7000 years or not.

 

My belief and understanding was that the software I was using  did not have the capability of  showing the occurrence of lunar eclipse. I browsed the web for any other software. These efforts bore no fruit. For almost five years I had desperately wished and prayed that somehow I could verify and demonstrate the occurrence of Lunar eclipse so that my findings become complete in all respects.

 

Since no solution could be found to this puzzle and being completely helpless in this regard, I submitted my manuscript to the publishers for publication in the month of October 2003. (He just mentioned that he could not verify the lunar eclipse in the manuscript).

After a few days, I read in the newspapers that a lunar eclipse was to occur on the morning of 9 November 2003 and it would be visible from India. Late in the evening of 8th, without any specific hope of finding a solution, intuitively I felt like examining the position of the sun and the moon during the eclipse due to occur the next day, though the software. My intention was to compare the positions of the sun and the moon during the eclipse of 9 th. However as soon as I entered the time of the occurrence of the eclipse in the software I was surprised to find that the software was displaying the occurrence of the eclipse very precisely. Without wasting a moment, I entered the date 12 September 5076 BCE. (full moon day of lunar month Margasirsh, which according to me the day Hanuman visited Lanka.

 

With a pounding heart, I started examining the position of the moon. And then came the stamp of Divine confirmation! The software demonstrated that a lunar eclipse had indeed occurred that evening – exactly at the time when it had been described in the Ramayana. I could not believe five year long hopelessness was transformed into triumph in just a matter of five minutes! “

-Pushkar Bhatnagar10 May 2004

pushkarbhatnagar@hotmail.com

This shows the author’s long and sincere research into the date of Ramayana.

–Subham–

 

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by Tamil and Vedas on June 11, 2018  •  Permalink
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