This Book On Ramayana Comprehensively Answers Questions A Modern Reader Would Ask

Ramayana Insights-I. Dr R Rangan. Webolim, Valmiki Ashram, Bengaluru. Pages 189. Rs 200.

For at least three thousand years, if not more, Shri Rama has served as the model ruler whom every Dharmic king tried to model himself on.

Often, the kings of India would claim lineage from Shri Rama or His Ikshvaku clan.

They built temples for Him. They commissioned translation of the Ramayana into the languages of the people.

In fact, every region had its own version of the Shri Ramayana.

Then there are folk traditions. Each tradition and each region has added its own components.

When Western Indology and social sciences entered India, they wanted to make sense of this fascination that the rulers had for Shri Ramayana and Rama. The fundamental basis of Western world-view with respect to non-monotheistic religion and culture is that it cannot have anything spiritual or deeply ethical.

Hence, the Ramayana was deconstructed in a racial manner. In fact, many Indians from the south, particularly many Tamils, have been deluded into thinking that Ravana was their illustrious forefather. Paradoxically, the Singhalese racists also think that they are descendants of Ravana.

Rama was made into an Aryan aggressor and Ravana was made into a native hero.

What is tragic is that once this inversion of characters happened, the associated politics only led to war and misery and human tragedy.

This is because the the inversion of characters came from racial vested interests of colonial powers. Unfortunately, many educated Indians and Indian academia accepted it too. Even in post-independent India, the same discourse carried on.

A look into Shri Ramayana literature and also the sculptures of Shri Ramayana depicted in the temples actually show a civilisational aspect, deeper, innately valuable and even more relevant today.

What is alarming for the Indian civilisation, particularly in southern India, is the diminishing number of saintly scholars who could take the message of Ramayana to the present generation.

Dr R Rangan is one such saintly scholar who takes the Sri Ramayana to the people and is true to the magnificent darshana of the Kavi Valmiki.

Coming from an illustrious family of proponents of Bhakti, Dr Rangan, who lives in Bengaluru (at Valmiki Ashrama) has taken upon himself the Bhagirathic task of taking Ramayana to all the people without in anyway diminishing or diluting its values.

Usually scholarship brings an arrogance.

Also, if an Indian with a knowledge of Indian texts has been trained in Western methods of enquiry, then there is also tendency to invent meanings in the text that don't exist in the first place.

But with Dr Rangan, the deep scholarship of traditional texts along with a vast knowledge of modern narratives, becomes an instrument of Bhakti that in now way compromises the academic rigour.

In 2023, he has brought out the first volume of his insights into Sri Ramayana titled Ramayana Insights-I.

This book brings out the Dharma-core of Shri Ramayana while also answering questions that may plague a modern mind. Here is one illustration.

Colonial perversion has for the last two centuries told a section of influential polity that the Vanaras of Shri Ramayana refer to the natives of southern India.

Dr Rangan takes up the question of who are the Vanaras, the Ramayana talks about and if Ramayana considers humans (that too so-called Aryans) as superior to these Vanaras:

Then he provides a possible explanation that does not deviate from the heart rhythm of Valmiki’s Ramayana:

Then Dr Rangan brings in the self-introduction of Jatayu to Shri Rama. He points out that here the Adi Kavi brings in a description of the origin of species which ‘may peripherally appear funny’ as it is ‘not in scientific language’ and in a story form.

It is important to point out here that the Western collective psyche either rejected Darwin or perverted Darwinian science into social Darwinism justifying racial superiority, colonial cruelty and economic exploitation. It is only a very small fraction of academia that has talked about this unifying vision at the core of Darwinian vision of all life as related phylogenetic family.

Dr Rangan lucidly and yet authoritatively brings this vision of benediction of all life to the public. For this his guiding light is Shri Rama of Valmiki.

Darwin is freed of social Darwinist slur and made into a visionary for embracing all life as one family through Valmiki.

These 189 pages of the first volume of Ramayana Insights are a must-read for every devotee of Shri Rama and also for every student of Indian culture.

Scholar-saints soaked in Bhakti and traditional wisdom while being well aware of modern narratives are rare. Dr Rangan is one such precious scholar of wisdom.

Today with Indian renaissance happening in many fields, the importance of such persons cannot be overstated.

After the building of Shri Rama Janmabhoomi temple at Ayodhya, let us get into building a bigger temple for Sri Rama – a vision of all existence with its infinite diversity as one sacred family under one temple that is the universe.

Dr Rangan has also written another book Uttara Ramayana? which is a very detailed analysis of whether Uttara Ramayana was indeed written by Valmiki.

Bringing his in-depth knowledge of Valmiki Ramayana to meet with sharp insightful arguments, he establishes that Valmiki could not have written Uttara Ramayana. That review shall be on a day other than Shri Rama Navami.

But this book is an invaluable companion for all Ramayana scholars and defenders of Indian civilisation.