What is the cat?! Where is it?! And who let it out?!
The cat is a just a book on Ramayana! And the man who let the feline out is the dashing, young Vedic scholar and “upannyaasakar“, Sri.Dushyant Sridhar! By all appearances (both sartorial and media-wise) he is a man who holds “rock-star” status amongst his vast flock of (“religious-minded”) fans in America, India, Australasia and Middle-East. When a man of his popularity sets the cat amongst pigeons, it causes flutterings and big frenzy all round amongst the Sri Vaishnava community and diaspora.
The cat more accurately is the chronological Dating of Rama as Avatara in the Valmiki Ramayana to which Dushyant Sridhar alludes in his recently book published which he, without the least trace of self-consciousness, describes as “my own anubhavam“… whatever that may mean.
Dushyant has a chapter in the book that virtually endorses an earlier research-finding of another Sri Vaishnava researcher well-known to social and TV media. She is Dr. Jayashree Saranathan. Her finding — claimed by her to be based on incontrovertible facts of astrology, computer-simulated astronomy-software, a rich variety of sources (that some scholars however characterise as a hodge-podge) drawn from epigraphy, archaelogy, geology, history, purana narratives etc. — determines the date of Rama’s lifetime at around only 7000 years ago. This dating which Dushyant accepts as very credible without demur — both in his book as well as in later public pronouncements of his on social media — happens however to be counter-intuitive to the centuries-old traditional, ‘sampradaaya‘ dating by Sri Vaishnava orthodoxy which places the chronology of Rama and events in the Ramayana to be clearly in the “Treta yuga” … or roughly 1.3 million years ago.
Alright, next question, Who are the pigeons?
The metaphorical pigeons are the scores of orthodox Sri Vaishnava pundits and several well-known contemporary scholars of Srimad Valmiki Ramayana who have come out in some numbers, sounding terribly upset and stoutly disputing Dushyant’s new-fangled dating theory on Sri Rama. These vidwans aired views of utter consternation on social media when another feisty, well-known Sri Vaishnava social-activist from the holy temple-town of Sri Rangam, Sri. Narasimhan Rangarajan (some within the community regard him, in fact, as a stormy petrel if not enfant terrible!) interviewed them all over the last couple of weeks in longish video-uploads, now available for public view on Youtube.
Rangarajan himself takes severe, choleric umbrage to Dushyant’s book and especially the dating theory of Rama. He has condemned it outright as near-blasphemy committed by an avowedly Sri Vaishnava adherent like Dushyant who, he says, should not stoop to peddling specious theory amounting to decrying, devaluing and desecrating “sampradaaya” or age-old traditional “vyaakhyaanams” of Ramayana.
The scholarly pigeons themselves — all of whom in fact are renowned and venerable scholars, “upannyaasakas“, vidwans and pundits steeped in the traditional “vyaakhyaanams” (prodigious body of exetegical and scriptural literature on the Ramayana, in Sanskrit and vernacular, handed down over thousands of centuries) — have all gone on record in Rangarajan’s interviews to categorically debunk if not denounce Dushyant’s incorporation of Jayashree Saranathan’s dating theory into his book. Metaphorically speaking, their collective protestations aired on Youtube — egged on, unmistakably, by the urging of Rangarajan’s righteous indignation — seem, at least to me, so much like the reactions of panicked pigeons. They seem so startled by a cat suddenly pouncing upon them, making them run helter-skelter, squawking and flapping their wings in great agitation.
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In the face of the furore over the book whipped up against him by the indignant Rangarajan who succeeded in arousing the annoyance or ire of many Sri Vaishnava scholars of the community and speak out against the dating of Rama avatara, how did Dushyant react?
It was on Youtube again aired a few days ago that I followed Dushyant’s reactions which he gave in long interviews on a few video-channels to popular anchors like Srivatsan Keeran and Rangaraj Pandey, broadcasted on Youtube Tamil channels . If you have the time to watch them fully, check the two links below:
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Dushyant deftly handles tough questions in the interviews about the dating theory of Rama avatar through slick, clever-by-half but self-contradictory explanations. For those who do not have the patience to watch the hour-long video-interview links given above, let me just very briefly recapitulate through paraphrasing how Dushyant goes about defending himself against the grave charges brought against him by the Sri Vaishnava pundits instigated by Rangarajan Narasimhan.
- “Yes, in my book I do incorporate Jayashree Saranathan’s research on dating Rama avatara. I have no qualms about it. At the same time, my acceptance of her theory does not necessarily mean that I reject the traditional dating theory of “sampradaaya” scholars, past and present.
- The sampradaya dating is for those who are firm believers in Sanatana Dharma. The Saranathan theory that I have borrowed for my book is not for true adherents of our faith — bhaktas, vaideekas and aasthikas. But it nevertheless has its utility since it appeals to the modern rationally orientated mind. In other words, the dating theory of Saranathan is able to bring the Ramayana closer to the realm of plausibility and separate it from the misrepresentation that it is all Myth.
- My book adopted Saranathan theory also for different specific purposes. Let me explain them.
- Ramayana is an “itihaasa” which means that it is History. However, many non-Hindus find many reasons to dismiss the Ramayana as mere Myth. My purpose was to show to them that the Ramayana is actually an account of true events of a distant past that can be corroborated with scientific historical evidence.
- The question then before me as a writer of a book was “what kind of scientific evidence” should I be relying upon to make my argument?
- One such scientific evidence that I found credible was that which related to “dating of Rama avatara” found in the reserach findings of Dr Jayashree Saranathan. In her treatises, using a number of rationalised arguments drawn from a variety of inter-disciplinary sources (archaeology, epigraphy, astronomy, geology etc.), she has been able to come up with quite a convincing theory on the date of Rama avatara being around 5200 years BCE. I decided to use her theory in my book which was being written by me mainly for my youthful audience uneducated in Sanskrit or Tamil traditional scriptures.
- The other reason for writing my book on Ramayana is that it is for the benefit of thousands of my fans and followers who attend my public discourses (Upannyaasam). They ask me so many different tough questions on the Ramayana because they are baffled by many of its internal inconsistencies and apparent exaggerations found in many a narrative therein in the 24000 shlokas. My audience both in India and America are all mostly of the youthful generation educated in modern ways. They do not have any inclination or ability to read the tradtional exegeses on Ramayana authored in Sanskrit, Tamil, Bhojpuri or Marathi. What they read about Ramayana is through the many contemporary English translations which has many inaccuracies and seeming errors that challenge credulity and sensibilities. So, in my book I wanted to make many of the apparent inconsistencies and oddities of narratives in the Ramayana a bit more plausible. This I did by taking the interpretations of traditional commentaries on the Ramayana and by carefully reading them between lines, I aimed to provide proper rationalisations for what seemed to them otherwise as irrational and unconvincing. The young, modern mind today demands of me “rational explanations”. (For e.g. how can Rama have lived and ruled in Ayodhya for 11, 000 years as the Ramayana says he did? Or, how is one to believe that King Dasaratha lived for 60,000 years? How could Rama have relied upon an army of simians in Kishkinda to ally with him in the war against Ravana?)
If I were to describe all the above paraphrasing, I would say it is a kind of “purvapaksha” of Dushyant’s position and on the reasonableness of his defence of himself.
Now, after stating all the above pious justifications for his book, Dushyant Sridhar when asked in the interview by Rangaraj Pandey how after receiving such vociferous criticism and unfriendly blowback from so many stalwart Ramayana scholars in Tamil Nadu, he was expecting the book to be received by Indian communities at large both within the country and abroad, the young “upannyaasakar” gave this rather sanguine reply which, to me at least, seemed like a dead giveaway about the writer’s real, inner motivations.
I paraphrase what Dushyant said in the interview:
“I do not want my book to be regarded by anyone at any time as if it were History or even as historical evidence of Rama’s date of birth or lifetime. My book must be regarded simply as my “anubhavam”, my own celebration of this glorious “itihaasa”. So, many illustrious scholars in the past, distant and near, who have gone before me have written their very own retellings and re-interpretations of the Ramayana, haven’t they all? I have in fact acknowledged in my book the inspiration I have taken from them. Out of such inspiration, I have written my book, that’s all.
Rangaraj Pandey, then asks Dushyant what plans he has to further promote his book and the author replies that he would very much want his book to be translated into many languages including Arabic for the sake of his fans and followers in the Middle East! Furthermore, he wishes his book soon get catalogued as “HISTORY” in the libraries of universities even in Western countries such as USA or UK and become a reference book of first choice for anyone anywhere in the world who wishes to study the history of Ramayana…
Finally, in the interview, Dushyant is asked what impact his book has had in the immediate moment and is also likely to have in the future. That is the moment in the video-interview when one can see the author’s face blush and bloom with glowing self-satisfaction and eyes beginning to sparkle in pleasure. He says, “I don’t know for sure…. but so far from what my book agents tell me, it has sold close to 20,000 copies… Hopefully, more will get sold in future… “
Was the cat being set amongst the pigeon then a marketing strategy for the book?
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So, there we are…. Dushyant Sridhar sets the cat amongst the pigeons and inadvertantly also lets the cat out of the bag!
First, his book stirs up a very old controversy about the dating of Rama avatara. It stokes enough indignation amongst orthodox Sri Vaishnava scholars and riles up activists like Rangarajan Narasimhan of Sri Rangam. The ordinary Sri Vaishnava laity… the millions of faithful ordinary adherents of “sampradaaya” are aroused to follow the controversy as awestruck bystanders and social-media onlookers.
Listening on the one hand to Dushyanth Sridhar suave explanations and then also listening to the dozens of Sri Vaishnava pundits roundly and publicly denouncing, one after the other, such dubious explanations only leaves the ordinary Sri Vaishnava more confused and confounded than ever before about the Ramayana! Did it all happen 7000 years ago? Or, did it all happen 1. 3 million years ago?! No one in the larger community of the faithful believers now knows what the truth is! None is any wiser!
So, what then is the drama all about?
Dushyant defends himself with his elegant, clever-by-half explanations. The irate and indignant Rangarajan Narasimhan foams at the mouth in fury over Dushyant’s scholarly circus-performance. The Sri Vaishnava pundits of Ramayana have all had their solemn say about the controvesy and have retired now quietly into their cloisetered world. But where does it leave the poor Sri Vaishnava who silently practices his faith at home? His mind is now in a daze. The next time he picks up the Valmiki Ramayanan to reverentially read a few sargas or cantos from it… surely, there is going to start lurking inside his mind a dark, disturbing thought: “Is what I am now about to read a Ramayana of “Treta yuga” or a Ramayana published 5000 odd years before the advent of Jesus Christ?”
Meanwhile, of course, Sri.Dushyant Sridhar of course has already sold 20,000 copies of his new book… and still counting! … And, oh yes, of course, he’s probably laughing his way to the bank too.
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The more serious questions to ask about Dushyant Sridhar’s book to my mind are rather entirely different from what Sri Rangarajan Narasimhan is going around on social media asking the Sri Vaishnava punditry. The question I ask myself is this:
Dushyant Sridhar (and by implication, his research collaborator or accomplice, Dr Jayashree Saranathan also) in his public interviews above opens his defence argument with the firm and clear assertion that the “Ramayana is itihaasa and the term ‘itihaasa‘ means History”. Hence, there’s nothing very wrong in the approaching the study of Ramayana as History per se. He goes on to base all his explanations thereafter on such an assertion or declared assumption.
My question is : Is that really true?
The answer will be explored in the next posting.
Sudarshan Madabushi