(By Yogesh K. Upadhyaya)
Recently there is intense debate going in our country based or DMK party President and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi’s remark about whether Ram did really exist.
Sethusamudram project is basically an economic one. It is meant for cutting short the distance between India’s eastern coast and the western cost by several hundred nautical miles and avoiding for ships’ navigation through the circuitous route around Sri Lanka. It involves destroying the stone-bridge built by Ram and his army.
We shall not discuss about the environment impact or the need for the project, but examine the history of Hindu religion.
| It is difficult to know precisely what happened in the distance past several thousand years ago. This is because there was in no recorded or written proof available, as the art of writing history started only about 5,000 years ago. Moreover, there are no ruins of any civilization as the old houses made from dried-mud were hardly expected to last even a century. Nonetheless, I have tried to collect and analyze some details from published sources, discussion with religious gurus and discussion with learned people from different faiths.
All the period mentioned below are approximate. All discussions are from historic points of view and apologize if it has hurt feeling of any person of a faith. |
Mythological Gods Vs. real Gods
Confusion arises from the fact that there are many god-goddesses in the Hindu religion and some are real and others are imaginary.
Shiva and Ganesh, for example, are mythological Gods. They were worshipped as a form of energy by ancient Dravidians. Aryans liked the concept and adopted them as their own Gods. Other mythological Gods are various avatars of Gods, such as Magar, Kalki, etc.
On the other hand, Shri Ram, Shri Krishna, etc. existed in flesh and blood. Only uncertain thing is their actual timing in the history.
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Important milestones of Hindu religion, migration and literature
- 10,000 to 12,000 years ago -The great Aryan migration
This is one of the greatest mass migrations over several millenniums. At the end of last ice-age, the earth became warmer and ice started melting, opening up vast land for nomadic tribes of Aryans. Aryans who hailed from the grassy land of central Russia, migrated south to Iran and from there to India and to Germany in Europe. They entered India about 8,000 to 10,000 years ago. The Aryans spoke a simplified version of Sanskrit (called Indo-European language by western scholars). The art of writing was not developed and all the history was passed on by recital from generation to generation.
- 8,000 to 10,000 years ago-Yam Raja
He was one of most wise, talented king ever existed on the earth. He was a combination of king, philosopher, scientist and saint, who always thought of well being of mankind. He was the first demi-God (i.e. human being worshipped as God due to his virtue and service to mankind) in the recorded history. Yam Raja, the God of death for Hindus, is also known as Jamshed, the God of life for Zoroastrians (Parsi community) from Iran. He was born in Khost town of modern day northern Iran. He is credited with many scientific discoveries and inventions which still benefit us. Among his scientific discoveries were: cultivating agriculture, domestication of dog for protection against wild animals, starting the spring-festival of Navroz, etc. The use of agriculture as food source freed the mankind from hunting of animals; resulting in settling of communities and ultimately the dawn of civilization.
Several centuries later, a group of Aryans left Iran for India due to religious dispute (about idol worshipping) and started hating everything of Iranians. They also called the great Yam Raja as the God of death, while in fact; he was the God of life.
- 5,000 to 7,000 years ago- Shri Ram
Shri Ram was one of the most illustrated Aryan king ever existed. He is well known for looking well after his people and for bringing back his wife Sita from the hands of Dravidian king Ravana. He was also the first Aryan ever to cross the sea. His story would have been forgotten easily, but was kept alive by writing by Valmiki several centuries later. The story was also spread to Indonesia/ Malaysia and other far countries by Agatsya Muni (time unknown) who crossed the sea to tell the story of Aryans. Sant Tulsidas also re-told the story in the native language about four centuries ago.
- 3,500 to 5,000 years ago- Shri Krishna
His story is also as fascinating as that of Shri Ram. Fortunately for us, the use of writing was widespread during that time. Also Ved Vyas has written the eyewitness account of that time in the classic epic of Mahabharata. Shri Krishna is well-known as the politician and warrior, who also tried to stop the war between the two families at that time. It may be surprised to know that the official school text books in Greece mentions Shri Krishna as a Greek hero.
- 2,500 years ago-Gautam Buddha
Gautam Buddha and Bhagvan Mahavir occurred at nearly the same time in the history. While Buddha established Buddha religion, Mahavir was the founder of Jain religion. Both religions taught people to love each other, practice non-violence and treat all human beings and animals with respect.
This simple message attracted many followers and kings and common men alike started converting to these religions. The Hindu (Brahmanism) religion was feared to be eliminated due to onslaught of Buddha religion. Sensing trouble, the Hindu priests declared Buddha and Mahavir as 23rd and 24th avatars of the Hindu series of avatars. Thus the religion could not spread much in India but made huge success in China, Japan and other far-east countries. - Indian language and literature (500 AD -1000 AD)
The year 500 to 1,000 AD was the golden age of Indian literature. This was the period of peace and prosperity in the country, during which Kalidas wrote ‘Shakuntalam’ and Panini gave the grammatical structure to Sanskrit language. But this was also the time when the Sanskrit language was made complex thus denying the common man the access to literature, religious texts and alike. This resulted in mass revolt among general population and used of simple languages derived from Sanskrit (such as Prakrit, Prachi, Magadhi, Ardhamagadhi and Pali) became very common. Finally around 400 years ago, regional languages such as Gujarati, Marathi, Brij Bhasha (precursor to modern Hindi), Bengali, etc. developed from the Pali language.
