Ramayana--an epic

Is Ramayana a mere epic or part of India's ancient history?


By Arabinda Ghose


Most of the Hindus of India and Nepal as also of countries where
emigrant Hindus live in sizeable numbers celebrate Ram Navami, which
falls on the ninth day of the bright half of the lunar month of
Chaitra, corresponding to March-April of the Georgian calendar.
Countries of South-East Asia such as Thailand too revere Lord Rama and
the predominantly Muslim nation of Indonesia celebrates Ramayana as a
ballet.


The Valmiki Ramayana in Sanskrit as also the Tulsi Ramayana by Saint
Tulsidas in Hindi are extremely popular volumes throughout India and
abroad. But is Ramayana a description of the lives and times of Lord
Rama and the Raghukul (the descendants of King Raghu) and the times
during an unknown period of India's ancient "history" or is it nothing
but an epic which, Hindus believe to be a true account of the events
in ancient India?


Shri Pushkar Bhatnagar, who is a computer expert, claims that he has
not only calculated the exact date and time of Lord Rama's birth, but
all happenings in his life till his age of 39 years, when he had
returned to Ayodhya after slaying Ravana. According to him Lord Rama
was born at 12.30 p.m. on January 10, 5114 b.c. Shri Bhatnagar has
relied entirely on the positions of the sun, the moon and the planets,
visible to the naked eye those days, described by Sage Valmiki in his
Ramayana for calculating the day and even time of many of the events
in the life of Lord Rama.


This article is merely a rewriting of the letter of Shri Bhatnagar
published by Asian Agri History, dated October-December, 2004, a
magazine which is devoted to discovering and writing about the ancient
systems of agriculture that was in vogue in the Asian region in
ancient times.


A computer specialist claims firm dates of Ramayana, says Lord Rama
was born in 5114 b.c.


The following is the extract of the letter:


"Moving forward, it has been stated that on the Amavasya (new moon
day) of the 10th month of the 13th year of his exile he (had) fought
Khar and Dushan and on that day, a solar eclipse was seen from
Panchawati. Not only had a solar eclipse occurred that day, but the
planets too were arranged in the sky in a particular manner (that
day). Six months later, when Rama (had) killed Bali on the Amavasya of
Ashadh (June-July) of the 14th year of (his) exile, another solar
eclipse was visible in the morning sky and after five months, when
Hanuman went to meet Sita in Lanka, a lunar eclipse was witnessed in
the evening. Besides these, several other planetary positions have
been mentioned at different other places.


"It is important to know that planetary positions keep (on) changing
every day in the sky and they do not repeat (the same positions) for
lakhs of years. Moreover, if we know the position of all the planets
in the sky, they refer to one and only one date in history.


"The effort to provide dates to the planetary positions mentioned in
(the) Ramayana and other Vedic literature began with (the) legendary
Bal Gangadhar Tilak in his well-known book The Orion. However, the
efforts made so far were based on manual computations. Since one
revolution of these planets is completed in a highly complex
fractional number (apparently the author refers to the period of the
revolution of these planets around the sun and of the rotations on
their axes), it is difficult to arrive at the accurate day and time in
history (when these events had taken place). But in the late 1990s,
many (computer) software were developed (in order) to track the
positions of the planets in the sky and with these software, (the)
planets' position at any given point of time in the sky can be known.


"By using a powerful planetarium software, I found that the planetary
positions mentioned in the Ramayana for the date of the birth of Lord
Rama had occurred in the sky at 12.30 p.m. on January 10, 5114 b.c. It
was the ninth day of the Shukla Paksha of Chaitra (March-April) month
too. Moving forward, after 25 years of the birth of Lord Rama, the
position of (the) planets in the sky tallies with their description in
the Ramayana. Again, on the Amavasya of the 10th month of the 13th
year of exile, the solar eclipse had indeed occurred and the
particular arrangement of (the) planets in the sky was visible. (Date
comes to October 7, 5077 b.c.). Even the occurrence of the subsequent
two eclipses also tally with the respective descriptions in (the)
Valmiki Ramayana. Date of Hanuman's meeting (with) Sita in Lanka was
September 12, 5076, b.c. In this manner, the entire sequence of the
planetary positions gets verified and all the dates can be precisely
determined."


Is Ramayana a description of the lives and times of Lord Rama and the
Raghukul (the descendants of King Raghu) and the times during an
unknown period of India's ancient "history" or is it nothing but an
epic which, Hindus believe to be a true account of the events in
ancient India?


Shri Bhatnagar adds that the entire dating had been conducted
objectively because the software does not permit any manipulation and
the verses of the Ramayana were also free of any doubts. Leading
scientists and those in the field have appreciated this work. Since
the entire sequence tallies, it proves that all the observations in
the Ramayana were actual recordings and not conjectures.


Indologists suggest, Shri Bhatnagar says, that he should produce some
archaeological evidences in support of these dates because for western
historians, these dates are too old to be accepted. "By God's grace"
he says, "I came across an interesting archaeological evidence also".
He describes that evidence in the following paragraphs.


"About a few months ago, NASA (National Aeronautical and Space
Administration of the United States) had photographed an ancient
bridge like structure between India and Sri Lanka and stated that it
appeared to be man-made. Most of our historians and theologists jumped
at the story and said that it was related to Lord Rama. NASA denied
having made any statement regarding how the bridge got built, etc. The
enthusiasm died soon and nothing could be concluded since we were
trying to prove that it was built millions of years ago.


"Just analyse the situation", said Shri Bhatnagar, "Suppose you build
your house with stones which are millions of years old. Does your
house also become millions of years old? The answer is a clear No".


"This was the mistake we were making while trying to claim the ancient
bridge and the antiquity of Lord Rama to millions of years ago.
Actually, the remains of the bridge, which Lord Rama had built, are
still available at a place called "Chedu Karai"in Tamil Nadu. Chedu
means setu (bridge) and karai means corner. Interestingly, the remains
of the bridge are available at the depth of ten feet below the water
and these are about 1.5 kilometres inside the sea.


Valmiki mentions that six months later, when Rama (had) killed Bali on
the Amavasya of Ashadh (June-July) of the 14th year of (his) exile,
another solar eclipse was visible in the morning sky and after five
months, when Hanuman went to meet Sita in Lanka, a lunar eclipse was
witnessed in the evening. Besides these, several other planetary
positions have been mentioned at different other places.


"We are all aware that the rise of sea level, ever since the end of
the last ice age (about 16,000 b.c.) is a continuous phenomenon.
Countries like the USA and Australia which are having large coast
lines and large cities on the coasts are making emergency plans to
deal with the constant and accelerated rise in sea level which
threatens the cities like New York.


"So, with the intention of studying the subject I went through a
number of research papers and tried to find the scientific data
available on the rise of sea-level over a period of time. I,
accordingly, sent a mail to one of the research scholars for data on
the rise of sea level over the last 7,000 years. And the rate of rise
of sea suggests that about 7,000 years ago, the sea level was exactly
about 10 feet below the present level.


Hence one can prove that the 'remains of the bridge' which are about
ten feet below the present sea level, are part of the bridge which was
built around 7,000 years ago. This is what works out to be the date of
era of Lord Rama astronomically."


"One can imagine that at the time when Hanuman crossed the sea and
again the army crossed it, the sea level was about ten feet below what
we see today and at that time the sea was behind by about 1.5 to 2 km.
In about 7,000 years, it has encroached the land by about two km. All
these findings, in a comprehensive manner have been published in a
book called Dating the Era of Lord Rama."