I had once written a series of articles to bring into notice, how diversified the epic tale of Ramayana is. On my teacher’s recommendation, I had done an exhaustive research on the several ways the story of Ramayana has been told. My research also included reading one of A K Ramanujan’s popular essay “Three Hundred Ramayanas”. I concluded my research by claiming that a different telling of Ramayana exists in every village of India, which even extends to Persia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Maldives, into the west. Different people over the span of time have drawn different inferences out of the legend. And hard coding it into a singular version is not the right thing to do.
Recently, on the same essay by A K Ramanujan, a controversy erupted in the capital of India. This essay was a part of the undergraduate course in history of Delhi University. The university authority suddenly decided to drop it. The decision was immediately challenged and was soon followed by huge halla among students. As expected, it was eventually blown by the media. While some people described the move as unfortunate, other said the removal of the essay was a victory of the right wing. The leftists fought hard to bring it back into the curriculum.
The popular essay had not gone down well with sections of the right wing, some of whom called it blasphemous. In fact, in 2008, a group of ABVP (Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad) activists had gone on rampage, attacking the Department of History of the Delhi University, in protest against the essay being included in the syllabus.
Soon, a prominent Indian newspaper, The Hindu, published an interview by Romila Thapar where she threw some light on the whole issue. She supported Ramanujan’s essay, and from a historian’s perspective, she advocated the essay to be brought back into the Delhi University syllabus. The leftists strongly supported her point of view.
Today the issue hangs in suspended state as a standoff between the leftists and the rightists of India. However, my opinion differs from both the fronts. There is a critical point both of these fronts are missing.
Let me explain. When there is an interesting cricket match, hundreds of newspapers and media houses cover it. Next day each has a different style of reporting the match. This is what makes the discussion beautiful. We all will agree that reading only the real picture the next day will be extremely boring. How many of us will read the newspaper report that has only the scorecard to offer?
Well, the point is this- Ramayana actually happened. In Valmiki’s Ramayana, both Kishkindha and Lanka are shown to have Sal trees, which grow in Jharkhand, Odisa, MP, and Chhattisgarh region. The story of Ramayana might be bloated, but the story is true. Every language and dialect of India has a version of it. Every village has a folklore based on it. We even have similar stories in the west in the Iliad and the Odyssey, proving that these stories are always true. This is one point the leftists are missing. Well, it is a known fact that many prominent leftists are atheists. It is high time we acknowledge that religion is an important binding force. This is one thing civilization has taught us. Religion is important- at least from a cultural perspective. And it takes collective enlightenment, via education and questioning to move beyond religion, and not intellectual jargon.
The right winger traditionalists too need to acknowledge the fact that knowledge has to be questioned. You must not claim that an event occurred in a specific way. You cannot enforce your reporting of the cricket match to be the ultimate one. A legend grows- so they say. And a legend cannot grow when bound in shackles. You must understand that the multiple interpretations of the Ramayana shows the inherent strength of our religion and our all encompassing world view. How can the study of a text by Ramanujan hurt your religious sensibilities? Are our belief systems so fragile?
सौरभ राय | Sourav Roy 
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