this article is downloaded from proving

PROVING THE HISTORICITY OF RAM by Dr Satyapal Singh Since thousands of years, not just in India [ Images ] but also all over the world, one ofthe greatest men who influenced and touched the hearts of millions both common menand elite alike - with his strength of character is Ram. His time was that of great kingsand world empires. This was the era when the whole world understood one languageand speech, as mentioned in the holy book, the Bible (Genesis 11.1). Then neitherwas the world divided into Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Jews etc., nor broken up onthe basis of modern day caste barriers. Then there were only two divisions in humansociety Arya and Un-Arya (asurs, rakshas). Those who were not strong of character andmen of words were un-arya. All mankind had only one culture. Literary work The most authentic and original source of knowledge about Ram is the ValmikiRamayana .This noble work of literature credits Valmiki as the earliest poet of the world.The story of Ram did not remain confined to the pages of Valmiki Ramayana, but it alsofinds a mention in various other scriptures of history and ancient literature. It is talkedabout in Muni Vyas’s Mahabharata [ Images ] at four places - Ramopakhayan, AaranyakParva, Drona [ Images ] Parva and Dashrath Kathanak; in Buddhist literature it findsmention in three Jatak parables, viz, Dashrath Jatak, Anamak Jatak and DashrathKathanak; in Jain literature many manuscripts were written on Ram, like PadamCharitra (Prakrit) by Vimal Suri; Padam Puran (Sanskrit) by Ravisen Acharya; PadamCharitra (Apbhransh) and Charitra Puran (Sanskrit) by Swambhu; and Uttar Puran(Sanskrit) by Gunbhadra. As per Jain tradition the original name of Ram was ‘Padam’. The story of Ram was also written in various other Indian regional languages. There are at least 11 versions of Ramayana in Hindi, eight in Marathi, 25 in Bangla, 12in Tamil, five in Telugu and six in Oriya. Apart from these, more versions of theRamayana have been written in Sanskrit, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Assamese, Urdu,Arabic, Persian, etc. The Hindi Ramcharitmanas authored by Tulsidas has achieved a veryprominent place in northern India. More than 400 great poets and saints like Kalidas,Bhas, Bhatti, Praversen, Bhavbhuti, Kshemendra, Rajshekhar, Kumardas, Vishwanath,Somdev, Gunadutt, Narad, Lomesh, Guru Govind Singh, the Samarth Guru Ramdas,Maithili Sharan Gupt, Keshavdas and Saint Tukdoji etc, have written poems, prose andliterature on Ram and other characters of the Ramayana. Even in other countries we can find versions of Ramayana, like the Tibetan Ramayana,Turkistan’s Khotani Ramayana, Indonesia’s Kakbin Ramayana, Java’s Seratram, Sairiram,

This artic le is downloaded from www.malls tuffs .com

Ramkeling, Patani Ramkatha; Indo-China’s Ramkerti (Ramkirti), Khamer Ramayana;Burma’s Ramyagan of Yuto; Thailand’s Ramkiyen etc all narrate the story of Ram in apicturesque way. Scholars also believe that Homer’s Illiad and the Dionysia of poetNonus of Rome have surprising similarities with our Ramayana. In world literature, no other historical person has been narrated with so muchdevotion on such a grand, magnified and detailed scale by so many poets and authorsof varied countries.

Temples and terracotta All over the world, not just hundreds but thousands of temples of Ram, Lakshman, Sita,Hanuman [ Images ], etc are being constructed since time immemorial. The walls of the9th century Shiv temple Parambanan (Parambhram) of Java and the 11th centuryAngkorwat Temple of Cambodia are pictorially engraved with the scenes of Ramayanaand Mahabharata. Hundreds of terracotta based on the Ramayana have been found from Sirma, Haat,Nacharkheda of Hisar; Jind, and Santhai (Yamuna Nagar) of Haryana; Koshanbhi(Allahabad), Aahichatra (Bareilly), and Katinghar (Etah) of Uttar Pradesh [ Images ] andBhadra (Shriganganagar) of Rajasthan [ Images ]. They depict the major events of Ram’sexile, mainly Ram, Sita and Lakshman’s Panchvati gaman; Maareech Mrugh (goldendeer); the dialogue of Tirshira with Khar-Dushan; the execution of 14 demons by Ram;Sita-haran by Ravan; Sughreev sighting Sita throwing down her ornaments from Pushpak(Ravan’s plane); Sughreev welcoming Ram to his abode; Sughreev-Bali combat; Ram’sassassination of Bali; Hanuman burning Ashok Vatika; Trishira Rakshas’s killing;Indrajeet, the son of Ravan, going to war, etc. Some of the terracotta have the verses ofValmiki Ramayana written in the script of pre-Gupta age. They can be seen in thearchaeological museum of Gurukul Jhajjar (Haryana). Apart from these, hundreds ofterracotta can be seen in different museums of India as well as in the British Museumof London


Ramayana stories from the walls of Angkor wat Kushan emperor Kanishka had an engraving of the wind-god Hanuman on his regime’sseal. Emperor Akbar had also similarly depicted Ram-Sita on one of his golden guineas.Scenes from Ramayana have been sketched in the Safdarjang Madarsa of Delhi . CentralIndia’s Dhar and Ratlam principalities had engraved Hanuman on their seals. Brassguineas introduced by the Sant regime also had the etchings of Ram and his threebrothers, as well as Sita and Hanuman. The biggest travesty of facts is that even after so many literary and archaeologicalevidence; Lord Ram is not universally accepted as a historical personality.

The time of Ram


According to ancient Indian chronology and Puranic tradition Ram was born in the 24thTreta Yuga (Great Age). Apart from the Valmiki Ramayana and other versions of Ram’sbiography, there are four important references to Ram, Ravan, etc in ancientscriptures. 1. Treta yuge chaturvinshe ravane tapseh shakshyat |Ram dashrtathi prapiye saganeshakyamiyeewan || (Vayu Puran 70.88) 2. Sandho tu samanupraptre tretayaam dwaparisya cha |Ramo daasrathirbhutvabhavishami jagatpati || (Mahabharata 348.19) 3. Chaturvinshe yuge chapi vishwamitra pure sare |Loke ram iti khyate tejsahbhaskaropam || (Harivansh 22.104) 4. Chaturvinshe yuge vats tretayaam raghuvanshaje |Ramo naam bhavishyamichaturvhayu sanatane || (Bhramand Puran 2.2.36.30) On the basis of the given literary references and evidences it can be inferred thatRam, Ravan, Vishwamitra etc lived in the 24th Treta Yuga. According to theMahabharata, Ram lived in the transition phase between Treta and Dwapar ages. Ithowever does not mention the order of the Treta. It will help to know that Satyug, Treta, Dwapar and Kalyug have a continuous cycle, likethe cycle of the months in a year or the days in a week. As Monday is followed byTuesday and January is followed by February, Satyug is followed by Treta and this cyclecontinues endlessly. Or these, Kalyug has the shortest span of 4,32,000 years, Dwaparis double the years of Kalyug at 8,64,000 years, Treta is triple the years of Kalyug at12,96,000 years and Satyug is four-times the years of Kalyug at 17,28,000 years. Thusone unit of four yugas is called Chaturyugi, having a total of 43,20,000 years. We are presently in the Kalyug of the 28th Chaturyugi and so far 5,108 years of Kalyughave lapsed. If we accept that Ram indeed lived during the last phase of the 24th TretaYuga then it can be calculated that he lived 1, 81,49,108 years ago. But if we acceptthat he lived in the Treta of the present 28th cycle of Chaturyugi then he lived8,69,108 years ago. After so many years it’s impossible for any buildings, dwellings, statues, seals, coins,cloths, bones or weapons to exist. There also cannot be physical records or evidencesof every person who walked this earth so long ago. Even if someone has passed awayfive generations ago without leaving his progeny behind, we have no natural orphysical evidence to prove his life. Even if he had a house, without documentaryevidence or word-of-mouth we cannot prove that it belonged to him. Even in modern


times, the existence of the ruling presidents and prime ministers of today cannot beproved 1,000 years hence without any literary proof. Their story can be passedverbally from one generation to the next but no physical evidence of their existence willbe available.In the last few years, some highly motivated computer-literate group ofpeople have designed a software called ‘Planetarium Gold Software’ which isgenerally used by scientists to measure the distance and locations of planets fromearth and to predict lunar and solar eclipses. The Valmiki Ramayana (Bal Kanda 18.8.9)mentions (the planetary positions vis-à-vis zodiac constellations) at the time of LordRam’s birth as ‘the ninth lunar day of the bright fortnight of Chaitra, asterism Punarvasuwas in the ascendant and (as many as) five planets (viz, the Sun, Mars [ Images ], Saturn,Jupiter and Venus) happened to be exalted (appeared in the zodiacal signs of Mesa orAries, Makara or Capricorn, Tula or Libra, Karka or Cancer, and Mina or Piscesrespectively) and Jupiter in conjunction with the Moon [ Images ] appeared in thezodiacal sign of Karka’. ‘Ram was 39 years old when he killed Ravana’The same details were entered in the Planetarium Gold software to determine theimportant dates in the life of Lord Ram vis-à-vis the present planetary positions andzodiac constellations and calculated that Ram was born on January 10, 5114 BC, whichmeans to say 7,122 years ago. While they deserved all appreciation and thanks forthis new approach, their ignorance of astronomical calculations and in the absence ofany literary proof, their result cannot be relied upon. According to astronomy, thepositions of zodiac constellations come back to their original place after a cycle ofapproximately 26,000 years. For this reason, the exact same planetary position repeats itself every 26,000 years. So,Ram could have been born in any of the repetitive cycles in planetary positions. Even ifwe believe Ram to be born in the Treta of the present 28th Chaturyugi, as mentionedearlier, the position of constellations have completed 33 cycles and if, according toliterary evidence, we believe Ram to be born in the Treta of 24th Chaturyugi, then theposition of the constellations have completed 698 cycles. The scientific interpretation of the photographs of the remains of Adam’s Bridge (RamSetu) taken by NASA’s [ Images ] Gemini-11 spacecraft in 2002, reveals that thisancient bridge linking India to Sri Lanka [ Images ] was manmade, and it was dated tobe at least 1.75 million years old. According to Valmiki Ramayana, it is true that Ramand his engineers constructed this bridge for transporting his army into Lanka. If we


accept that it was indeed Ram who got this bridge constructed then he lived in themiddle years of the 28th Treta, and not in the 24th, and neither in the transitionbetween Treta and Dwapar of the 28th era (Chaturyugi). Even if we accept this, it doesn’talter the calculations based on planetary positions of the constellations. Then theconstellations would have completed 66 cycles before coming back to its originalposition.


Ram setu also known as adam bridge It is also not wrong to state that an email message was sent by NASA officials in July2007 to N K Raghupati, chairman of the Setu Samudram Ship Canal Project, statingtherein that the remains of the bridge do not appear to be connected to any humanactivity. Why NASA differed from its original stand is unknown. Even if Adam’s Bridge isa natural geological formation, it could have been beautifully used by Ram to constructa temporary bridge for his army to cross over to Sri Lanka. No scientific test has yetbeen carried out to measure the ascending or descending contours of Adam’s Bridge.Moreover, after millions of years since its construction, no human activity can be linkedto this or any other structure.


False propagation by foreign scholars

Most foreign scholars and Indologists believe that Indians taught and learnt theirlessons verbally, without the aid of any written material. Indians did not even know howto write. They were not inclined towards maintaining any historical records, nor did theyhave any notion of placement of events in its proper sequence in time. They believedthat the Aryans came from abroad, defeated the original inhabitants of India, theDravidians, and settled here. The Harappan civilisation was destroyed by invadingAryans. The human history they know is only 5,000 years old. The ancestor of manwas an ape or a chimpanzee.

In brief it can be stated that all the above assertions of foreign scholars areunscientific, illogical, untrue and pure false propaganda. It has been revealed acrossthe world today that scholars like Max Muller, H H Wilson, A A MacDonell, RudolphRoth, Albrecht Weber, Ralph T H Griffith, M Winternitz, Monier-Williams, all had thesame basic objective which is expressed in Max Muller’s words which he wrote in aletter to his wife: ‘This edition of mine and the translation of the Veda will, hereafter,tell to a great extent on the fate of India. It is the root of their religion and to showthem what the root is, I feel sure is the only way of uprooting all that has sprung fromit during the last three thousand years.’ (Life and Letters of F Max Muller, Vol I, ChapterXV, Page 34). Similarly, Monier-Williams wrote in the preface of his Sanskrit-English dictionary: ‘I mustdraw attention to the fact that I am only the second occupant of the Boden Chair andthat its founder Colonel Boden stated most explicitly in his will (dated August 15, 1811AD) that the special object of his munificent bequest was to promote the translation ofscriptures into English so as to enable his countrymen to proceed in the conversion ofthe natives of India to the Christian religion’. Prof Goltuster had revealed that Roy,Weber, Whitling, Fuhan, and other scholars were determined because of somemysterious reason to ruin the prime glory of India in any way possible. More recently, in July 2007, a book titled Invading the Sacred: An analysis of Hinduismstudies in America edited by Krishna Ramaswamy, Antonio de Nicolas and Aditi Banerjeewas released in Mumbai [ Images ]. The book states, ‘Unlike in India, the academic studyof religion is an important undertaking for intellectuals in America and a few hundred


scholars study Hinduism and other Indian religions. Many of them have continued toperpetuate myths and biases about Indian culture and religion throughmisinterpretation and mistranslations. These are in line with the colonial and missionarycaricature of India.’ The book is the product of a multi-year research project thatuncovered shoddy and biased scholarship driven by certain power cartels, its authorssaid. Let us also know the fact that McCaulay did not know even one Indian language buthe commented on all Eastern wisdom, James Mill never visited India but he wrote onIndian history. None of the foreign Indologists like Max Muller, Winternitz and Griffithhad any knowledge of Vedic grammar, astronomy, metre (chhand) etc but they alltranslated Vedas and assumed the status of authorities.

As per Vedic time computation and tradition, the age of creation is 4.32 billion years,and the sankalp mantra ‘Om tatsat adhay bharamano dutya parardhey swetvarahakalpesaptmein vaivasvat manvantare astahvinsatitame kaliyuge kaliprathme charne _____gatabde’. They have kept intact the history of the time of creation and the advent of manon earth till today. Man arrived on earth exactly 1,97,29,49,108 years ago(approximately two billion years ago). Some Vedic scholars also believe that man wascreated on earth only in the seventh manmantar of Vaivasvat Manu. The sun, planets,stars, earth, sea, vegetation, flora and fauna were created in the earlier six manmantars ina very scientific manner. If we accept this theory, then man was born about 12,05,33,108 years ago. At least this much is certain, that the history of mankind is indeedvery long. Indians always knew the art of writing. The Rig Veda (10.71.4) says speech has twoforms - one which can be heard (shravya) and one which can be seen (drishya). Scriptwas in vogue since ancient times in India. Bhojpatra and tadpatra (papyrus) wereabundantly available in nature before man walked the earth. Like paper, even theseforms of recording scripts were not permanent. Manuscripts were copied onto newpapyrus if they got damaged due to climatic conditions. How else would we findthousands of ancient manuscripts in India? How else would we remember the Vedas,epics, scriptures, and other astronomical subjects?


Rigveda, oldest human writing on earth proven scientifically Yes, there were definitely a few people who felt pride in memorising one or more ofthe Vedas. If we believe that at that point in time the intellect and memory of thepeople were very sharp and elephantine compared to the modern man, then thislogic also goes against the evolutionary principles of Darwin. The truth is that Indiansknew how to write - and wrote a lot! No other country in the world has such a richand vast literary treasure. What other proof can be asked for to say that the Indianscould write?

Darwin’s unnatural and unscientific theory is now also being rejected by many scientistsand scholars world-wide. Because of their religious faith some Western scholars who


earlier believed that the age of the earth was approximately 6,000 years, now agreethat the earth is aged between 3.96 and 4.3 billion years. If earth is so old then howcan man inhabited it after such a gigantic time gap? American scholar Michael Cremo’s recent books Forbidden Archaeology and Devolutionof Man based on scientific discoveries prove that the Darwin theory has hardly anytruth and that man came on earth at least two billion years ago. Cremo and his co-author Richard Thompson have quoted a lot of archeological evidences whichundoubtedly prove that scientists in the last 150 years have collected so many factswhich disprove many fundamental theories in history, linguistics and science. Manyscientific journals had also published these discoveries but the mental block createdby the evolution theory of Darwin and the limit of 5,000 years of human history didnot pay due attention to the new discoveries. These scientific discoveries and factsprove that the history of mankind is billions of years old. Ignorance in faith The foreign scholars and their Indian followers who have spread the mythologicalcanard that Ram and Ramayana are historically untrue, figments of imagination and onlya fable are no more responsible than some of our Indian poets and writers. Thepreachers and exponents of Ram Katha and the directors and actors of Ramlila haveinadvertently and ignorantly further contributed to the doubts about the genuinenessof Ram. Devoid of true faith and unaware of the true glory of God, we have turned Raminto God and God-incarnate. Like the fables of Panchtantra we have metamorphosed the erudite scholar of Vedasand a guru of grammar, Hanuman, into an ape; the architect of Ram Setu, Jambavan, intoa bear; the famous doctor-surgeon Sushen and his colleagues Angad, Bali, etc intomonkeys; the brave Jatayu who was the former king of Gridhkoot who fought Ravan inthe sky after the abduction of Sita, into a vulture. The most shocking belief is that themost beautiful scholar lady Tara was married to the monkey Bali. Sita was believed to beborn of the earth and ultimately returned to Mother Earth. Our imagination knew nobounds. Valmiki knew Ram to be a human, a noble man, the best of his era and in his timewrote Ramayana as both were contemporary. He has also shown Ram to possesshuman traits and emotions, just like any ordinary person. We, in our blind faith, have


accentuated the question marks on the historicity of Ram and Ramayana by treatingRamayana like a fable and depicting its noble characters as birds and animals. Our foolish beliefs did not end here. We spin strange new stories which ultimatelymaligned the noble character of Ram. Ram never disowned Sita or exiled her to theforest in a pregnant state. Valmiki never wrote this. We got the Seer Shambookexecuted by Ram, calling him a shudra. Valmiki never mentioned this. No intellectualscholar or tapasvi could be a shudra, at least in Vedic times. But throughinterpolations and additions in the modern day Ramayana we have made MaryadaPurshottam Ram into a person inflicting injuries and harassment on women and low-borns. Valmiki’s Ram was the bravest among the brave, the noblest among the noble,but not God.


Sita serving Ram

Analysis and conclusions 1. Can our saints and seers, who have from birth till death spoke the truth, acted withtruth and preached only the truth, become the liars today and their writingsunbelievable and false, whereas the foreign scholars and their native modern


followers are truthful? Were our ancient visionaries and authors like Rishi Valmiki,Muni Vyas, Kalidas, Bhas, Bhavbhooti, Ashvaghosh, Samarth Guru Ramdas, GuruGovind Singh, Swami Dayanand, Swami Vivekanand, the leading lights of Buddhist andJain traditions, etc were liars, selfish and believed in the imaginary, whereas today’sprofessors and scholars of our colleges and universities, writing about history andculture are more learned, committed to truth and missionaries of humanism? 2. Man first wrote true stories and history, and later learnt how to write fiction. Indianever had a tradition of writing about imaginary characters, as our country was nevershort of real-life heroes. 3. Are our history, puranas, smritis and Upanishadic parables fables and fairy tales, andWestern legends and mythologies all true? 4. Has any community in the world ever celebrated the birth or death anniversaries ofany fictitious person? If this is true, then how can the birth anniversary of Ram, RamNavmi, be celebrated since thousands of years, year after year, in many countries ofthe world? 5. Has any fictitious character been written about repeatedly even by 10 to 20writers? The story of Ram has been told and retold since time immemorial bythousands of seers, poets, writers and authors in different languages and in differentcountries of the world. 6. Even if by default we accept that Ram and Ramayana are the imagination of a poet,then at least we accept that the poet was real and lived on this earth, and was notimaginary. No one has ever doubted that Valmiki lived. His life has been chronicled indetail in Skand Puran, Bhavishya Puran and Adhyatma Ramayana. When Valmiki meetsRam for the first time, he says, as given in Valmiki Ramayana (7.96.19): Prachetsoahem dasmey putroh raghavnandany |Ne ismarahmeanritam vakyamimo tutav putroko || Valmiki proudly says to Ram, ‘I am the 10th son of Pracheta, and I never rememberspeaking even one untrue sentence’. How can such a missionary and follower of


truth could have written an imaginary story of Ram? 7. Has anyone given a detailed description of generation after generation of afictitious, imaginary person? Kalidas has described 19 generations of Raghuvansh,Ram’s ancestors and descendants, in his book Raghuvansh. Shabdakalpdrum hasmentioned the 11 names of Ram’s lineage as Bahuk, Sarg, Anshuman, Asamjas, Dilip,Bhagirath, Aja, Dashratha, Ramchandra, Kush and Luv and has mentioned these kingswere the world rulers in that era. Even after all this if we don’t accept Ram as ahistorical figure it is beyond the realm of wisdom.


Rishi valmiki writing ramayana 8. Has anyone ever questioned the character of any writer when the hero and writerwere contemporary? Rishi Valmiki was a contemporary of Ram and has used thepresent tense in the Ramayana, not the past and future tense. Then how can wequestion the historicity of Ram and other characters of the Ramayana? 9. Even in modern times if we want to know the age of any person, we first look forhis/her school or college certificates or his horoscope. If someone has no papers ordocuments to know his age then he is subjected to an ossification medical test. Butwhen the question is of any ancient historical person, why do we ignore the writingsand literary evidences and instead search for archeological evidences in buildings,


statues, seals and bones found buried in earth?

10. When the foreign Indologists and historians and their blind Indian followers want tosearch for history in the divine revelation the Vedas, they quote the Rig Veda (10.60.4.4)where there is a mention of Iksvaku, the ancestor of Ram and the founder of Ayodhya.The Atharva Veda mentions Ayodhya as having nine gates. The Atharva Veda (18.3.16)mentions the name of Vishwamitra, Vashista the preceptor of Ram, and Bhardwaj. Butwhen it comes to Ram and Ramayana, they claim it is all mythological and fictitious. Is itnot hypocritical? 11. Even today, some of the Asian countries believe in Ram, Ravan, Lakshman, Sita andHanuman. Sri Lanka believes in the Ramayana and therefore till date has proudlyshown the coronation of Vibhishan in its parliament; Ashok Vatika has been convertedinto a famous tourist attraction and not only that, the Sri Lankan government is stillpaying pension to the descendents of Ravan. Thailand has a place Ayodhya, and theking there is still called Ram, even though a Buddhist. The most important event tookplace in the history of Indonesia. In November 1949, the Dutch government agreed togive independence and sovereignty to the Indonesian Islands, except Erian (NewGuinea).


Indonesian version of ramayana

The Indonesian public launched an agitation, asking also for the inclusion of NewGuinea, but the Dutch government asked for any irrefutable proof to prove that NewGuinea was an integral part of Indonesia. Then the people of Indonesia, who have a tradition of reciting the Valmiki Ramayanaquoted the following verse ‘Yatanvanto yavdweepam ______ shishiro naam parvat’(Kiskindha Khand, Sarg 40, Verse 30-31), which meant that ‘Sughreev had advised theleaders in his army to visit the eastern frontiers, in search of Sita, to go to Yavadwipa(Java) - the conglomeration of seven kingdoms, and from there to visit Swarnadeep(Sumatra) and after Sumatra to visit Shishir mountain (New Guinea) inhabited by godsand demons, which kisses the sky with its summit’. After reading this ancient


irrefutable evidence, the Dutch handed over New Guinea also to Indonesia. New historywas created in Indonesia just because of the Ramayana. In conclusion, it would not be wrong to say that not believing in the historicity of Ramand Ramayana would be obstinacy and an act of scholastic arrogance. Whethersomeone has faith or not, history is history. We might not have faith in Ayodhya, Saryu,Ganga, Sri Lanka, Ram, Sita, Hanuman, but how can we doubt their historical existence? Iwould like to recall the words of Swami Vivekanand to Indian writers of history and everyscholar of our soil: ‘When a man has begun to be ashamed of his ancestors and hispast, the end has come’. The birth anniversary of Ram, Ram Navmi, may awaken in us atrue faith, which is devoid of ignorance and myopia. And let us inculcate the richnessof character and righteousness of Ram in our midst. Dr Satya Pal Singh is the commissioner of police, Nagpur Dr Satya Pal Singh


this article is downloaded from proving

Documents