Below is only one of several in a series of YouTube videos that has been posted online by Sri Rangarajan of SriRangam who is vociferous in his condemnation of a book on the Ramayana recently authored by Sri Dushyanth Sridhar, the young , TV channel celebrity Vedic Scholar who is also a professional “upannyasakar”.
I have not read the book myself … not yet … but Sri Rangarajan has taken umbrage to what he alleges is Sri Dushyanth’s near blasphemous “ research finding” along with his co-researcher Smt. Jayashree Saranathan. The finding in the book is that based on Sri Dushyant’s own methodology of calculating chronology of the “itihaasa, the dating of Sri Rama avatar is only around 7000-odd years ago. This according to Sri Rangarajan goes against the chronology as recorded by Valmiki himself in the Ramayana which dates the Rama avatara to some 11 million years ago in the Vedic calendar which posits Time as measured in cyclical aeons — Krita, Treta, Dwapara and Kali Yuga.
Sri Rangarajan principal objection to Sri Dushyant Sridhar is that being a professional “upannyaasaka” he ought not to peddle theories on Rama avatara dating which are antithetical to the traditional Ramayana “ pramaana”. Hence his great sense of outrage that is spilling over into social media YouTube videos where he is interviewing other “sampradaayam scholars” like Sri Karunakaracharya, Sri Velukkudi Krishnan, Sri M A Venkatakrishnan , and here below Sri Chilkur Temple Sri Rangaraja swami.
I am not qualified to speak on the subject with the same authority with which Sri Rangarajan’s correspondents have spoken in the interviews . But I am ardent lover and student of Srimad Valmiki Ramayana . I have read commentaries on the itihaasa , both traditional and contemporary, and enjoyed myself thoroughly contemplating on the lofty themes and moral lessons that abound in it . In my own unusual ways and methods , I too have savoured the Ramayana in the form of essays I authored in my 2016 published book “ Unusual Essays of an Unknown Sri Vaishnava”. So, while I have no intention to wade into this Rangarajan-Dushyanth public controversy , I would nonetheless like to simply state my own take on the matter merely as a layman .
Sri Rangarajan of Sri Rangam raises the Dushyant Sridhar Ramayana controversy with Chilkur Temple Sri Rangarajan Swamy . Chilkur Swamy categorically says he cannot accept any other “pramaanam” for the dating of Rama avatara other than as given in the Valmiki Ramayana itself .
Dushyant Sridhar in his book has based his dating theory of Rama avatar on his own or Smt. Saranathan’s methodology which differs from Valmiki’s pramaanam.
If Ramayana is “itihaasa” … it is bound to be defined as History. And if it is History it is bound to be studied by scholars as pre-ancient history only… especially by young contemporary scholars like Dushyanth or Saranathan. So , to the study of history or itihaasa , the modern historian mind is quite likely to want to apply modern methodologies other than traditional pramaanam. It is quite understandable.
The problem with Ramayana is that it is many things to many people . It is religion to millions . It is history to many . It is literature, poetry , drama … It is also political ideology . It is sacred theology or “Siddhaantham” to millions of people who are adherents of Sanatana Dharma. It is even children’s’ bed time story … “Amar Chithra Katha”….
This issue arising in Dushyanth’s new book is clearly to me at least not just about History… but also so much about Religion and religious belief . Mixing the two always creates lots of problems.
However, my own view is that so long as there is nothing in Dushyanth’s book which can be shown by SriRangam Sri Rangarajan swami to be outrightly refuting Valmiki “pramaanam” as utterly false or untenable , why should it raise such a big furore as it is now sought to be in social media ?
I find this storm being whipped up to be worthless as any kind of serious scholarly debate. It’s in fact a storm in a tea cup . And unless I myself get to read the book , I won’t make any judgments .
To my mind, the dating of Rama avatara as per the Vedic calendar of yugas is quite acceptable. Personally speaking , I feel very comfortable with the Valmiki pramaanam. It is based on reasons and logic which are of course my own . I share them below not to engage in any scholarly dispute with anyone nor am I offering any fanciful theory of my own. My perspective however should be of some interest to lateral thinkers.
The Ramayana is an itihaasa that is more than History in the strict sense in which the modern young mind understands it. The study of the Ramayana cannot be one-dimensional. To approach it as though it is History, and as only an epic chronicle of the past would be to impose limits to one’s own imaginative powers. That would be like strait-jacketing one’s own consciousness… imprisoning oneself into the narrow cell of spiritual idée fixe.
The Ramayana must be studied with no preconceptions. One must let one’s mind soar into the skies while turning its pages and engrossing oneself in its thrilling narratives. As a poet said, to read works like the Ramayana, it is imperative for the human mind to allow for the “willing suspension of disbelief”. It does not mean suspension of critical thinking. Rather it must mean approaching the itihaasa with an open mind that is not afraid to delve into the dark, deep and uncharted territories within one’s sub-consciousness lurking below … unknown to us … thousands of leagues beneath the sea of unknowing …
One must hence make up one’s mind about what attitude to adopt towards the myriad Vedic/Vedantic leitmotifs to be discovered and marvelled at in the epic … One therefore has to ask oneself then what attitude is to be adopted for processing whatever one is able to discover along the path of the journey that leads us into both the real and surreal world of the Ramayana. Should the attitude be one of faith or an attitude of rationality? The choice has to be made … There’s no ducking it. One cannot ride two horses at the same time .
Let me further clarify what I mean by the above by drawing a modern parallel.
If one is to really understand the concepts of Quantum Theory in Physics, one will need to first of all shed a few fixed notions of Time and Space.
We are told by astronomers that the reality of Black Holes cannot be understood if one continues to cling to spatial-temporal concepts of Matter, Gravity , Mass and Velocity. And yet astrophysicists posit the theoretical reality of both Quantum and Anti-Matter as being more than mere concepts or propositions.
To make the argument that just because Quantum, Black Holes and Anti-Matter cannot be comprehended using traditional concepts of Time , Matter or Space,… the three therefore do not or cannot really exist as realities cannot be a tenable one.
Similarly, in my view, to understand the “Itihaasa” one needs to shed one’s many fixations with rationality-bound notions of Time in terms of linearity. We have to step out of our comfort zones or modes of thinking and be willing to accept the notion of Time in terms of Cyclicality. That means we must open our mind and be willing to internalise into our consciousness the Vedic paradigm of Time . That cycle of Time is made up of 4 aeons viz. “Krita, Treta , Dwapara and Kali”.
Now, the statement of ancient Vedic seers like Valmiki, that the Ramayana accounts for actual events which happened during the Treta Yuga … is not all that dissimilar really to what we hear the astrophysicists telling us that inside the Black Hole in dark, deep and expanding space there are events happening in real time that suggest an entirely different order and magnitude of reality in which matter is to be conceived as anti-matter and gravity as anti-gravity too…
Without the ability to grasp how the paradigms have got to be shifted as existent inside our own conceptual thinking … i.e. our “imprisoned consciousness”… the two realities just cannot be comprehended by us.
The Ramayana to my mind is “itihaasaa” because it is not mere pre-ancient History. It is an eternal mystery within an inscrutable conundrum… much like the mystery of deep ever-expanding Universe.
We are all bound to be confused by it if we go about regarding as though it were Amar Chithra Katha for adults.
Daasoham
M K Sudarshan