Azeez Tharuvana
Nepal Prime Minister, Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli has initiated a debate that what is known as Ayodhya in India is not original and the original Ayodhya of Sri Ram is on the west of Birganj in Nepal. According to him, it is a misunderstanding that Sita married an Indian Sri Ram. But Sri Ram is not Indian and he was a Nepali, says Oli. He made this statement during the Bhanu Jayanti celebration in the Prime Minister’s residence in Nepal.
The Hindutva forces in India have already expressed their dissent to the claim of Oli. But Oli adds on that by appropriating Nepal’s Ayodhya, India is conducting a cultural invasion on Nepal.
In reality, as far as Ramayana researchers are concerned, there is nothing controversial in KP Sharma Oli’s statement. Not only that, the statement in fact is only a reminder to the diversity in the descriptive forms of describing Ramayana.
First of all, Ramayana is not history, but it is a mythology. Therefore, like any other historical research, Ramayana can not be subjected to a research on factual history. `If you convert a myth into history, it is a departure from history’, says well known historian Dr. K.N. Panicker.
What we are having is numerous Ramayana lessons. The title of the essay of well known scholar A.K. Ramanujam itself is: ‘Three Hundred Ramayanas: Five Examples and Three Thoughts on Translation’. Three Hundred Ramayanas were mentioned in the research work of Fr. Dr. Camille Bulcke known as Ramakatha and other Essays. It is from here that A.K. Ramanujam got his inspiration for the title of his own work. Many Ramayanas have been documented not just from oral storytelling traditions in diverse cultures, but also in their pictorial communications. A.K. Ramanujan has stated in his `Three Hundred Ramayanas’ that a Telugu scholar had found over 1000 stories of Ramayana in the lands of Telugu speaking regions alone. Different Ramayanas are also found in Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Dalit, Adivasi and Muslim traditions. The main characteristic of all Ramayanas is that whatever is said in Ramayana was not a monolith.
For example, many Asian countries where diverse Ramayana stories have been popular, also have place names like Ayodhya. Thailand also has an Ayodhya. The Thai people pronounce it as `Ayudhya’. As per their beliefs, the real Ayodhya is in Thailand. The Thai people more or less adopt Buddhist Ramayana. In certain traditions, the capital of King Dasaratha was Varanasi and not Ayodhya.
Ayodhya is a part of folklore even among Indonesian traditions. Outside India, Ramayanas are also there in Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan, Malasia, Bhutan Sri Lanka, China, Pakistan, Vietnam, Japan, Bangladesh, Afganistan and Philippines. People in these countries relate to Ramayanas of their own landscapes and traditions and they do not see Ramayana as a story that happened in India.
There are many places related to Ramayana even in India. For example in Ashramamkolli village near Pulpally in Wayanad in Kerala, there is a Valmiki Ashram. As per the belief of people around Jadhayatta Kavu temple in Pulpalli, Sita went inside the earth in that region when the earth split. While she was going inside the earth, they believe that Sri Ram caught hold of Sita’s hair and that hair was also broken when she went inside. `Jada’ means hair and `atta’ means broken. It is said that the name Jadayatta Kavu emerged from that incident of mythological belief.
Like Ayodhya, the name Lanka is also controversial. As per the opinion of Indian scholar Hasmukh Dhirajlal Sankalia, Lanka is situated in Madhya Pradesh. The name of today’s Sri Lanka in ancient times was Thamraparni. As per the book `Ramayana Studies’ by Sankalia, Valmiki did not know any place beyond Vindhya range of mountains. Hasmukh Dhirajlal Sankalia was an Indian Sanskrit scholar and archaeologist. He is recognised for pioneering archaeological excavation techniques in India.
The relation of Sita and Ram also varies according to folklore from region to region, culture to culture. In the Buddhist Ramayana, Sita is not the wife of Ram, but she is his sister. In many Ramayanas outside India, Sita is Ravan’s daughter. Malayalam poet Vayalar Ramavarma’s poem Ravanaputri (Ravan’s daughter) is famous.
As per the Ramayana version of Kothan in ancient Turkistan, Sita was the wife of both Ram and Lakshman. In that region, there has been such a tradition multiple husbands for a woman. They justify such a tradition by quoting Sita’s marriage.
In the Hiqayat Sriram stories of Indonesian Ramayana, it is to Allah that Ram and Laxman would pray. Adam Nabi, Mohammad Nabi, Ali, Jibril and many others are characters in Hiqayat Ramayana of Indonesia.
As per the Paumachaira scripted in ancient Jain language, Ravana was killed by Laxman and not Ram. Paumacharia also mentions that due to crime of Himsa committed by Laxman, he went to hell.
As per Adivasi Ramayanas, Ram was not somebody above their Adivasi Gods. According to Adiyaramayana in Wayanad, the Adivasi Gods Mallappan, Siddhappan and Nenjappan question Ram in the Gothra Court, for abandoning his children. The Adivasi Gods question Ram for abandoning his wife Sita also. `Isn’t it the duty of the parents to look after their children’, ask the Adivasi Gods to Ram.
In a nutshell, it is not one Ramayana that we have, but several Ramayanas, several Rams, several Sitas and several Laxmans. It is a big danger to reduce this diversity of belief systems to one monolithic Ramayana story. It is an attempt to annihilate the multiple and diverse creative craft of various cultural traditions.
Therefore, the Nepali Hindus can believe that Ayodhya is in Nepal. The Hindus in India can believe that it is in India. And the Thais can believe that it is in Thailand. To argue that only one is right is an aggression over other people’s belief systems.
[Dr Azeez Tharuvana is an author of many significant articles and books. His research is specialised on diverse Ramayanas. His books `Wayanadan Ramayana’ and `How Many Ramayanas (in Malayalam) have been famous.]
