Monday, March 14, 2011

A write-up on the difference in between Ramayana authored by Maharshi Valmiki and Ram Charit Manas written by Swami Tulsi das as flashed on the f.b. on March 15,2011.

Bishwa Nath Singh

This morning, a symposium was organized in a local degree college where I had a chance to chair and present a key note address on the great qualities of Lord Ram. After the function was over, a young college student approached me and asked about the difference in between Ramayana authored by Maharshi Valmiki and Ram Charit Manas written by Swami Tulsi Das. It was a very pertinent question that haunted my mind and that prompted me to describe as detailed below..

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Photo of Lord Ram Darbar) .



Like: 18,· ShareYou, Manjula Rishi, DrRanju Singh, Poonam Matia and 8 others like this.

Bishwa Nath Singh :
Ramcharitra Manas is written in Awadhi ( a local & popular Hindi dialect usually spoken in northern part of India ) by Swami Tulsi Das while Valmiki Rmayan is in Sanskrit wriien by Maharshi Valmiki..Both of them were great saga of olden... era. almiki Ramayan was written in sanskrit .Mahrashi Valmiki had included a chapter on Lord Ram’s sons born from Sita Lav & Kush. As SwamiTulsi Das had written Ram Charit Manas it in Avadhi who had a great admiration for Lord Ram whom he loved and adored too much and projected him as an incarnation of Lord Vishnu. He did not wish to write that could be controversial and embarrassing which can bring bad name to Lord Ram. So, he did not touch Lav Kush Kand in his epic.and concluded the story leaving Sita being pregnant in the forest and thus concluded the Ramcharitra Manas after Ram returned to Ayodhya after killing Ravan Tulsidas . The difference between Ramayana and Ram Chari Manas is that of perception. Lord Ram has been very rightly projected as a "Maryada Purush" in Tulsidas's rendering. The Ramayana is the oldest epic written by Maharshi Valmiki the robber-turned-sage. The story of Lord Ram was narrated to him by Maharshi Narada. Once he witnessed a bird being killed by a hunter and heard the heart-rending cry of the bird’s mate. He felt the pain and out of this pain he was inspired to write the Ramayana. The date of Valmiki’s Ramayana has been stated by various sources as in between from 1500 BC to 500 BC.Since then the Ramayana has been written in practically each Indian language and several foreign languages. Then there are numerous stage, film and television productions of the Ramayana. Tulsidas writes, “God is endless and there is no end and limitation to his stories.” In this context, let us ponder over Kamba Ramayana written in Tamil in the eleventh century by a great Poet Kamban. The prescribed text is based on this Valmiki Ramayana. Whereas Rama Charita Manas was written by Tulsidas in the Sixteenth Century. This has been written in an early form of Hindi. Let us consider two episodes from the Ramayana, Ahilalya and Bali, which have moral and social repercussions and try to draw conclusions about the changing values in Society.! One versions of the Ramayana differ with the incident about Bali. This incident is one of the most controversial in the Ramayana. Lord Ram is portrayed as the epitome of virtue and moral uprightness. The question then arises why he did not challenge Bali to a face-to-face contest, but chose to kill him from hiding while Bali and Sugreeva were engaged in a duel. Had anyone else performed such an act he would surely have been branded a coward. Bali puts this question to Lord Ram in Valmiki and Kamban Ramayana. Again Tulsidas does not deal with the issue.Also there are numerous differences between Tulsidas Rāmcarit Manas and Valmiki Ramayana. One example is the scene in which Kaikayi forces her husband to exile Rama. In Swami Tulsi Das it becomes considerably longer and more psychological, with intense characterisation and brilliant similes. There are some contradictions between Swami Tulsi Rāmacarit Manas and Maharshi Valmiki Ramayana. For example, in Valmiki Ramayana in 36th Sarga of Bala Kanda, there is the story of Parvati. In Rāmacaritamānasa, there is the story of Sati testing Rama when he is searching for Sita after she was abducted. Since Parvati is the reincarnation of Sati, Sati should have come first in these stories and Goddess Parvati later. However, in these stories Goddess Parvati comes first and Sati later. Ramayana was originally written by a sage Valmiki in the Sanskrit language and later on it was translated into other languages in different versions. The main story of the Ramayana is about Lord Ram. In short the Ram Charit Manas is based on the true life story of Lord Ram the writer of Ramayan in Hindi is Sant Tulsidas. The Ramacharita Manas is composed by Tulsidas as Shiva appeared in dream and told him.Sant Tulsidas wrote this on Rama Bhakti alone.The original life story of Ram is the Valmiki Ramayana which is in Sanskrit. Like many other poets Tulsidas also wrote his book called Ramacharimanas in avdhi language.. The most important point is that valmiki describes ram to be a Nara - humanbeing whereas Tulsidas writes that Rama is God. The concept of incarnation as believed by the Hindus is irrational. This is later developed in Hindu society and Saint Tulsi Das followed it and described Lord Ram to be an incarnation of God in human form. Ram was a human being as said by Maharshi Valmiki and he died drowned in Saryu River just like Krishna who died of an injury as he was shot an arrow by a hunter.Let us join to pay our humble obeisance to the lotus feet of those two great saga of ancient age Maharshi Valmiki and Swami Tulsidas for their great contribution to enlighten our heart by their great epics and also to the lotus feet of Lord Ram, His spouse Sita and brothers Lord Bharat, Lord Lakshman and Lord Shatrughan and His great desciple Lord Hanuman!

                                       ---------------------

Like · 4 people

Sanjay Jain :
very very informative

Anirudha Mohanta :
Ramayan and mahabharat r in every indian's blood ,there is not a single soul in india who have not heard them but irony is that we keep it in story book and never tried to get to know and follow them in our life

Poonam Matia :
sir .......realy .......very informative ......never got a chance to delibrate on this issue

.DrRanju Singh :
Nice to increase my knowledge by reading all this...thanx.

Manjula Rishi :
Thank you very much for the artical realy good.

================================================================
 
f.b.
March 15,2011

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.