A 6th-century manuscript of Ramayana, which focuses on the
separation of Rama and Sita and portrays them more as humans, has been
found tucked inside a Purana at a Sanskrit library here. It is markedly
different from the more accepted 4 BC Valmiki Ramayana. The 12th-century
rendition by Tamil poet Kamba is generally considered the second oldest
among the more popular versions. However, now that may change.
The 6th-century manuscript was discovered purely by chance. Scholars
working on the 6th-century Vanhi (fire) Purana at the Asiatic Society
library were puzzled to find that the manuscript seemed incomplete. They
began looking through the Catalogus Catalogorum - a global repository
of Sanskrit manuscripts compiled by German scholar Aufrecht - and
realized two more identical manuscripts existed. One was preserved at
the India Office Library, London; the second at the Kolkata-based
Samskrita Sahitya Parishad, a 100-year-old research institution.
The scholars scoured the archives and found the complete version of
the Vanhi Purana manuscript. When they were analyzing it, they stumbled
upon the Dasa Griba Rakshash Charitram Vadha, which did not have any
bearing with the Vanhi Purana. For some time they could not understand
why the slokas of the Purana suddenly started telling another story -
albeit a familiar one, as the main characters were Rama, Sita and
Ravana. Before long, they realized it was a 6th-century version with
many interpolations.
"Interestingly in this version, there are just five kandas (sections)
instead of the accepted seven. There is no Balakanda - the part that
deals with Rama's childhood - or Uttarkanda. This Ramayana ends with the
return of Rama and Sita from exile and his ascension to the Ayodhya
throne," said Anasuya Bhowmick, lead scholar of the Asiatic Society, who
is working with the manuscript. This Ramayana does not begin with the
curse that drove Dasarath to send his son to exile.
Instead, it begins with a curse that befell goddess Lakshmi when
Shukracharya got angry with Narayan for killing Shukracharya's wife.
The other curse falls on both Lakshmi and Narayan when Dharitri
cannot bear the pain of the constant battle between gods and demons. In
both cases, Laxmi and Narayan are told they will have to bear the pain
of separation.
"Ram here is more human than God, with follies like anger and
failure. Some interesting details - like the ages of Sita and Rama at
the time of marriage and the date when Sita was abducted by Ravana -are
in this version," said scholar Manabendu Bandyopadhyay.
(This article was originally published in The Times Of India.)
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