Many years ago, when I was ADM Darjeeling, I had gone on tracking of Sandakphu and Phalut. It was an interesting episode of my life. On the way, while resting in one lodge in Tonglu for lunch, I happened to meet one American couple. Both of them seemed to me unimpressive, and it is my habit not to converse with any stranger during any journey. The woman did not talk with me, but the husband picked up the conversation. If I had not responded, then it would have been discourteous. At first he asked me a few questions from the Ramayana, due to lack of clear conception, I failed to answer several of his several questions not all, and I felt ashamed. Instead he cleared my doubts on the characters of the Ramayana. It made me too curious to know where they read the Ramayana. He told me that for several years, both of them were in Nepal. They came to Nepal with a single intention to learn Sanskrit and read the Indian mythological literature. I felt very small in front of those American guys. Their knowledge of Sanskrit literature mesmerised me.
Until then, I had
spent my time reading the western writers and never eyed my own. Iliad and
Odyssey had interested me and Shakespeare was a part of my everyday reading.
This American couple became my inspiration, and out of utter shame, I began to
collect our ancient literature and simultaneously started learning Sanskrit. I
first read the Valmiki Ramayana, which impressed me so much with its
description of Nature as well as the depiction of the beauty of Ram and Sita,
left an imprint on my mind, and then I felt no poet for ages would ever be able
to come at par with Valmiki, the portrayal of feelings of a man in different
situations are so stirring and touching, they will carry you away by its puff
of gale within a moment into eternity. I can't describe my ecstasy in words,
you read yourself and feel, but try to read in the original. Then I started
reading systematically our Sanskrit literature, the more I read, the more it
impressed me. I felt, what I read so far in English literature was simply a
waste of my precious time of life. Shakespeare stands nowhere in front of
Valmiki. I am grateful to these American couples, who inspired me to learn my
own literature, which I had neglected so far. Since then I earmark some of my
time everyday to read Sanskrit literature. This couple was in touch with me for
some time, then both of us lost track of each other.
I shall advise you
also to learn what a legacy our forefathers have left behind for us! Unless you
read yourself, you will never imbibe their greatness, beauty and charm. Leave
aside Rishi Valmiki, even Kalidasa easily outsmarts Shakespeare. Even if you
read Bhabavuti, or Jayadeva, you will be bound to conclude, Shakespeare or
Milton or Wordsworth is simply a nonentity.
These days, a trend has
developed to give his comment by anybody on the Valmiki Ramayana, though I
doubt whether they have actually read the Ramayana personally. At first, to
these people, I shall ask them, Valmiki had followed which grammarians while
composing the Ramayana, among them are: besides Panini, there were Bhartihari,
Patanjali or Katyayana? If they cannot correctly identify the grammarian, they
will miserably fail to understand the Valmiki Ramayana. Its compound words are
highly complicated; therefore, to decipher the exact meanings of the Ramayana
will be very difficult. Sanskrit is not that easy like that in the Mahabharata.
The Mahabharata is comparatively easy to understand. My understanding about the
Rig Veda is that, though the Mohenjodaro's scripts are different, in terms of
language it is Rig Vedic language, but the problem lies in understanding it's
scripts, it is phonetic, which makes it difficult.
Coming back to
the Ramayana, as I said, it's Sanskrit is a little less complicated than the
Vedic Sanskrit. Whereas during the days of the Puranas, you will find, their
language can be understood easily with slight knowledge in Sanskrit, and all
the vernacular languages, if my calculation is correct, then have been inspired
by this Sanskrit, though with difference in places, they had picked up and
influenced by the local dialects.
I feel for the
people, who pass comments on the Ramayana, without understanding personally and
by simply depending on other secondary writings, in this way they make
themselves a laughing stock. They can influence a common man, but not the
selected few, who have actually read the Ramayana. It is like criticising Marx,
without reading Marx in the original. En passant, I shall ask, what was the
formula devised by Marx to calculate the poverty index?
Well that said, I shall
ask, can anybody say, Kalidasa had not visited Kashmir, because it's flora and
fauna, he describes vividly in his Kumarasambhava, similarly he describes in
detail the itinerary of Lord Ram in his Raghuvamsam. Just think how it is
possible to describe a place without having seen it personally!
Similarly, to sceptics, I
shall ask them to read only the Balakanda in original not the whole Ramayana,
but not translation by any Englishman, you will get vivid details of Ajodhya,
which match with the then geography, or if you read subsequent literature, you
will be astonished that they match the descriptions of Ajodhya given in the
Valmiki Ramayana, on the whole, you will be taken aback. For those people, I
would like to say, Valmiki Ramayan was composed after the entourage had
returned to Ayodhya. It is in the Ramayana itself. Moreover, the poets of early
years never spoke in plain language, but tried to hide the truths behind the
figures of speech, and that is the beauty.
Unless one sits
tightly and tries to decipher the meaning of each couplet, it is difficult by
simply reading the story cursorily.
Now I am quoting the
first ever poem composed and observe its beauty:
"Ma Nishada Pratistham twagamah Sharaswatih
Samah; Yat Krownchamithunadekamwadhih Kammohitam." (Seized with compassion
to behold the shrieking female bird and considering the fowler’s act to be
sinful, the sage addressed the following words:
“May you not have peace
of mind for endless years, O fowler, since you have killed one of the pair of
cranes, infatuated with passion.”)
This is the simplest and the first
composition by Valmiki. Can anybody dispute the beauty and the feelings of the
poet incorporated in these two lines? There is deep philosophy ingrained into
it, though they look simple, they are not!
If you ever read Valmiki in the
original, you will be fascinated by each line, it is not an exaggeration. The
descriptions of places made are highly meticulous, and vivid, unless you see
the places personally, you will not be able to describe with such vivid details
any place of your visit.
A note on Goddess Saraswati and Her
place in the Veda!
Goddess Saraswati was never
earlier associated with Bharati, it was a later creation, in Rig Veda, only
name Saraswati appears as demi goddess, not of learning, as far as I know,
though her name appears in several places in different names, which put me in
doubt, whether the goddess is to be linked up with Goddess Saraswati, but she
is a part of "Apas" or water, and she is called a goddess of healing,
please remove your misconception, that she was earlier a goddess of learning,
if you have any details when she came to be known only as Goddess of Learning,
please share, so that I shall also feel enlightened. As far as I know, she was
addressed as Goddess of Healing, as water is the greatest healer itself.
Since some people
asked for details about Bharati, at first you may like to know, nobody has so
far done any research on Bharati, except I read about her in Kalyan Kalpataru
and long back in Kalyan, both publications are of the Gita Press, Gorakhpur.
It is said,
Sankaracharya's Brahmasutrabhasya was inspired by this 'Bharati', though it is
not directly a work on the Veda.
What is the legend then?
Bharati was the name of a
woman, a housewife, but she came to become famous by virtue of the name of the
same work, which goes by her name. It is the composition of her husband. Being
solely devoted to her husband, in her honour, his work on commentary on the
Vedas; he named it after her name. Nobody knows, I tried to find out for
myself, I did not find the name of her husband anywhere.
Many things of our past are still
lying in the cave of darkness, and therefore yet to be explored.
This work is lost in
oblivion, but I have heard, a part of this work "Bharati" still
exists in the libraries of the Gita Press as well as in the library of BHU, but
I have not yet found the opportunity to see it myself.
Now coming back to the
legend, this Bharati name came to be attached later with the Goddess Saraswati
as deity of learning, after this work, may be. As I have read, Bharati is a
legendary work composed prior to Patanjali's Yogasutra.
The Rishi who wrote this,
it is said, never knew that he had a wife being solely devoted to his
work whole life, only accidentally, he came to know about the woman, this kind
of thing, only could happen in India, at the far end of his life. Therefore, as
a dedication to her, he named his work as 'Bharati'.
Yes, there is no mention of
Saraswati possibly also in the Valmiki Ramayana. There is no mention of
Saraswati as a Goddess of Learning in the "Ramacharitamanasa" of
Tulsidas also, he called it by different name "Vani" (means Goddess
of Speech), but translators concluded this as Saraswati.
(Email: drpkchhetri7@gmail.com)