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Vishnu in the Epics Rama  

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Rama is an avatar of the great protector and sustained god Vishnu Whenever dharma is threatened, lord Vishnu incarnates by taking form. He descends to battle ‘a-dharma’. This is the basic premise of the Ramayana Rama is the 7th avatar of Vishnu including Buddha, Krishna, and an avatar still to come named kalki. Rama comes first and then comes Krishna.

Hanuman  The monkey God devotee of Rama and Sita 

He will do anything for Rama and Sita; if you were to open up his heart you would see Rama and Sita

Valmiki  Author of the Ramayana 

The story begins with the brahman sage Valmiki composing the Ramayana

Ramayana  Is one of the two great epics. The other is the Mahabharata (includes the Bhagavad-Gita). Ramayana shaped between 400 BCE400CE, but the events it is concerned with took place between  

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1000-700 BCE. The Ramayana is a memorable story (meaning, it is part of remembered or smriti literature) Both R and Mhb are about ‘dharma’ (specifically the duty of sons, brothers, husbands, wives, mothers, mother-in-laws, daughters and kings (raja-dharma) Both epics are foundational texts for hindus- past and present

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Both provide information on social formation and the construction of Hindu identity based on the Dharma-shastras, purusha-arthas, and varna-ashrama-dharma

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The Ram and Mhb are critical to the construction of cultural identity and group belonging. In narratives, such as the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, the local is made to appear universal’ as Russell

Mccutcheon says. Values such as social hierarchy, gender roles, behavioural norms, etc. Appear as if they are self-evident and natural i.e. as if they are givens. 

Provides blue print as to one’s dharma; prescribed ideals for society in regards to one’s contact.

Ramayana and Mahabharata  However, ‘myth-making’ is an active and dynamic human process, as Mccutcheon argues, whereby morals, beliefs, values, hierarchy, roles, and identities are fashioned. Myths, he says, provide a “vehicle whereby characteristics are rendered exemplary”. Thus, the stories in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata mold public life in ideological ways. 

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Myths like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata also tells us what a community finds most sacred. They are narratives about royal heroes, chronicles of dynastic rule. They also encode and reinforce strategies for maintaining human values, meaning, and exemplary social behaviour. They are told and retold, performed and remembered (smiriti).

Ramayana  The story begins: Dasarath, the king of the beautiful city of *Ayodhya (important in the modern area; Hindu nationalism etc. in order to try to reclaim a temple) is unable to have children. Thus there is no heir to the throne. 

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He performs a yagna in which Agni offers him ‘prasad’ (blessed food)- a bowl of sweet rice. He gives the potion to his 3 wives who beget 4 sons. Sumitra is the mother of Rama; kailkeyi is the mother of Bharat The brothers live with their teacher, a Brahmin sage, during the student stage of life (called brahmacarya). When Rama is only 16 years old, his father is asked by the sage Vishvamitra if he can help rid the land of demons (rakshasas). Vishvamitra knows Rama is an avatar.

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The svayamvara: the marriage of Rama and Sita (groom has to win the hand of the bride through some type of test)

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The sage Vishvamitra receives an invitation from king Janaka of Mithila to attend his (adopted) daughter Sita’s svayamvara. He invites Rama and Lakshman to go. To win Sitas hand, the suitors have to string Shiva’s golden bow. All of the warriors fail, but for rama its easy. Rama and Sita are married, along with Rama’s

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brothers and Sita’s sisters as was the social custom. In the Mahabarata, Arjuna (the warrior par excellent) wins draupadi’s hand in marriage. When he returns home, his mother tells him to share his winnings with his 4 brothers. When she learns that he won a wife she says she cant go back on her words.

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Draupadi becomes the wife of the 5 pandava brothers. When Rama and Sita, now married return to their kingdom, his father decides to give Rama the kingdom. However, a servant tells Kaikeyi that if Rama becomes king, she and her son Bharat (Rama’s brother) will be loose control over the kingdom

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So Kaikeyi (Rama’s stepmother) goes to the king and asks for 2 boons (wishes) that he owed her. As an honourable husband he agrees. She asks that Rama be exiled to the forest for 14 years and that her son, Bharat, become king

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Rama hears the news and since he too is bound by honour (dharma) he obeys his father and agrees to exile.

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The entire kingdom is saddened by this. Sita and Rama’s brother Lakshman ask to accompany Rama to the forest. Rama agrees and

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three of them set out from Ayodhya. They settle as hermits in the forest; after Rama’s father dies, Bharat finds Rama in the forest and tries to persuade him to return,

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but he is successful Bharat worships Rama and asks him for his sandals. He keeps them

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on the throne until he returns and takes up his rightful place as the future king of Ayodhya. While in the forest, a so-called ‘she-demon’ (named surpanakha) falls in love with Rama. When Rama rejects her advances, she retaliates by jumping Sita. Laksman cuts off her ears and nose

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To retaliate, Surpunakha tells her brother, Ravana, that Rama and Lakshman killed his ‘demon’ army.

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She also tells Ravana about Sita- that she is most beautiful woman

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she has ever seen and she would make a lovely queen Rama disguises himself as a golden deer and goes to their house in the forest and lours her out of the forest. He comes back later as a

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ascetic and he then kidnaps her Hanuman goes to Lanka to rescue her but she will not leave with him because she wont leave with anyone other than Rama. What becomes clear is that the only way to rescue Sita is for Rama to go

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and get her himself. Rama recovers from his illness and he defeats Ravana. Rama rescues Sita and subjects her to trial by fire to prove to him

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that she had been chaste (Faithful) while in Lanka. When Rama and Sita return home, they are coronated. However the people of Ayodhya begin to question Sita’s purity. In response, Rama banishes Sita to the forest, where she lives in Valmiki’s hermitage (ashram) and bears Rama’s twin sons (Lava and Kush-

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she is pregnant). Valmiki teaches lava and kush the Ramayana. They recite it at a celebration at court. Rama hears it and recognizes Lava and kusa as his sons

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Sita is made to go through another ritual by Rama; being swallowed by mother earth.

The Marriage  Sita’s behaviour as a woman and wife is considered exemplary.  

She is the idea bhakti (a devotee who worships her husband as a god). She is submissive and obedient and chaste. Marriage is not a personal or an individual affair as such, it is a social sacrament that joins families (communities) in an alliance. There is also an acknowledged inequalities between the family who gives the bride and the family who takes the bride (and thus dowry).

Rama Iconographic Feature  

Blueish skin *Bow and arrow (kills demons); great warrior

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Sword

Vishnu’s 8th Avatar: Krishna 

Krishna is is the 8th avatar of Lord Vishnu (the preserver of the universe). Thus, like Rama, Krishna descends to earth to sustain

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and preserve ‘dharma’ (the moral order). Krishna is a multi-faceted god. His early life, told in various narratives written after the Mahabharata, begins in the pastoral area of Vrindavan (located just outside of Delhi). Here, we see

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several phases in Krishna’s life early from infant to adolescent to amours lover. Each one of these stages of Krishna’s life captures the enduring theme in the Hindu religion called bhakti or loving devotion to a personal god.

Mahabharata  One of the most important works in the history of Hindu thought, 

past and present One of the enteral questions in the mhb is the dharma of war: is the Mahabharata war a just war? Is war ever just? Do the ends justify the means?

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Two families (pandavas and the kauravas) go to war over who is the rightful heir to the throne and to the land. Much more complex than the Ramayana

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Why was the mhb compsped and then told and retold (remembered, smirit)?

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To preserve the dynastic record of the Bharata clan for future generations

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It is composed by vyasa and scribed by Ganesha the lord of beginnings, who overcomes all obstacles

Draupadi  Is the victim of sexual abuse after the dice game and like Sita she is also abducted. She argues and challenges male authority

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She is well educated: she contributes much to our understanding of

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dharma (shows us that dharma is situational and contextual; whereas Yuldisthira seeks universals) She provides an example of alternative gender roles for women in ancient India (symbol of women’s vulnerability and dependence even though she is outspoken, responsible, informed, educated and intelligent. However she is a symbol of sacrifice.

The Bhagavad-Gita (Song of the Lord)  Is set in the form of a dialogue between the god Krishna and the warrior Arjuna. It was created and inserted into the context of the 

Mahabharata. It is also an important text on yoga. It is a teaching on yoga

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primarily for householders, rather than renunciant. Krishna identifies a 3 fold path (vs. the 8 fold path in Patanjali) But the 3 paths are not sequential stages as we see in Patanjali.

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Rather, they are discrete. They are 1) karma yoga – path of selfless action (Ghandi) 2) jnana yoga – path of knowledge (Upanishads) 3) bhakti yoga- path of devotion (Hanuman); perhaps most important

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One should renounce the fruit of one’s actions and perform action without desire, reward or self interest (this will cut the bond of karma-samsara. This is the goal) why? Because fruit of karma is bondage Krishna is a karma-yogin: he acts but without attachment to the fruits of action or self interest. The soul/self (Atman) survives the body at death. It is never born nor dies. The atman is indestructible. This is the same ancient yoga. It is the ultimate mystery. The message is about sacrifice (yajna)

Jnana Yoga or the Yoga of Knowledge  

Arjuna asks Krishna “why act at all?” This is the path of the Upanisads. Primarily open to renunciant, not householders. It is the path of meditation leading to knowledge (jnana).

The Supreme Path of Devotion-Yoga (Bhakti yoga)  First time we get the idea of Bhakti  If you practice meditation on the divine, you can reach the highest  

goal. The royal wisdom; the ultimate purification. This is true for all castes The gita teaches that bhakti is the spirit with which one should practice yoga.

Chapter 8 The Epics 216-227

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The Epics 

A highly influential genre of Hindu literature emerged at the end of the Vedic period, which was marked by the composition of the principal Upanisads. The epics are long narratives, which probably grew out of tales of heroic exploits of warriors, knitted together for courtly recitations to particularly receptive Ksatriya audiences. The epics were likely given a written textual form by Brahmin sages, whose embellishments to the tales augmented their hegemony over the social order. Thus dharma is a central feature of the Epics and Ksatriya dharma in particular, is articulated in the form of explicit teachings on the topic, and is also illustrated through the lives and

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adventures of the characters. Tensions between Brahmins and Ksatriyas are evident, although rarely explicitly and the nature of true dharma is explored in a wide variety of situational contexts. The epics also contain useful geographical references to places both fictive and actual which fuel sectarian imaginations and scholarly research. They are also of limited usefulness in extracting much beyond mythic genealogies. Vedic gods such as indra and Agni are prominent, but other deities who are marginal in the Vedas, such as Vishnu and Brahma, as well as Siva, are also significant in the Epics. Notably, the notion of deities manifesting on the earth in human form is commonplace. Both Rama and krsna are incarnate forms of the god Vishnu.

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The epics introduce and develop the mythologies of an array of deities that were insignificant or absent in Vedic sruti literature

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The teachings of both epics oblige hindus to explore the nature of dharma further Episodes and characters in the epics are well known to most hindus

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and these narratives are frequently used to illustrate religious teachings and values The Ramayana 

The oldest authoritative version is attributed to the sage Valmiki, who plays a role in the story itself, a common motif in Hindu literature while it is speculated that Ramayana was mostly composed by one person, although there were certainly additions to

it over the centuries, through the insertion or deletion of words,  

verses or episodes in the body of the text. The story begins in the North Indian Kingdom of Ayodhya ruled by king Dasaratha. Renowned as a tale whose main characters, Rama, Sita, and Hanuman serve as models of virtue for others to emulate

The Mahabharata 

Like the Ramayana, centers on a forest exile by princes, followed by war.

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Claims to be a fifth Veda and its composition is attributed to the sage Vyasa. Inserted with the Mahabharata is the Bhagavad-Gita, a text that is

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sruti in all but name Both are influential in transmitting Hindu religious values

Reading Notes

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Article about Sita 

To try and understand Ram without Krishna is like trying to solve a jigsaw puzzle without all the critical pieces. In fact, to understand any god or goddess in Hinduism, we need the rest of the pantheon. The idea of God, for example, cannot be explained without the Goddess. They embody not masculinity and femininity as is popularly imagined, but rather the mind and the world outside the mind – in other words, humanity and nature. Each complements the other. Every character and plot is a metaphor, and this web of metaphors creates a narrative fabric that reveals what we call today

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Vedic or Hindu or Indic thought. Ram is called maryada purushottam, which means ‘he who follows the rules perfectly’. He is not merely purushottam, or ideal man. That qualification of maryada is important to distinguish him from another purushottam, leela purushottam – Krishna, he who ideally plays games, referring to Krishna’s ability to bend and even break rules with a smile.

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Prefer the rakish and charming Krishna to the stoic and distant Ram. But to me, as a mythologist, this seems odd because they are not two different people. They are both avatars of Vishnu, two forms in two different contexts behaving differently in response to two different situations.

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Ram belongs to the Treta Yuga and is the eldest son of a royal clan, obliged to uphold the rules of the kingdom. Krishna, however, belongs to Dvapara Yuga, a later, more corrupt era, and is a younger son of a clan that is cursed never to wear the crown. So we find Krishna defending kingdoms and serving as kingmaker, but in temples we rarely see him as a warrior: he is worshipped as cowherd and charioteer, lowly servant roles that, considering the

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caste hierarchy in India, are neither accidental nor insignificant. If Ram stands as champion of the varna-ashrama-dharma (code of civilized conduct determined by social station and stage of life) that defines Vedic social engineering, Krishna challenges it from within, subversively, without openly confronting it (open confrontation is left to another avatar). Thus Vishnu is prescribing a system and at the same time warning one against it. This escapes the eye of those

who are too busy worshipping Ram and Krishna, but it does not

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escape the eye of those who seek patterns in the many plots of the epics and the chronicles. Vishnu is described as preserver of social order – the order that Brahma creates and Shiva destroys. All orders are based on human rules and values, and Shiva as hermit mocks human rules as unnatural, since he prefers nature’s way. But in nature’s way, only the fit survive, and the unfit have no hope. Social order is about the

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human attempt to create resources, to help the helpless and to create a world that does not favour only the strong. Hence, rules. But rules have a dark side. And the Ramayana reveals it. Rules force Ram to go into exile so that his father, the king, can keep his word to his junior queen. This is best brought out in the line from Tulsidas’ Ram-charitra-manas where the father says, “Do not forget the great tradition of the Raghu clan, son: better to lose your life than go back on your word.”

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Hindu philosophy is all about outgrowing the animal within us. We can civilize the world around, but dharma is about civilizing the beast within, that predatory instinct that makes humans territorial and dominating. Ravana displays this animal nature when he breaks rules and claims rights over another man’s wife, despite her protests. Duryodhana displays it when he upholds rules to gain access to the body of Draupadi. Ravana is a rule-breaker like Krishna, yet he is not worshipped as God, for he submits to the animal within him and is unable to show compassion for the weak and helpless Sita. Duryodhana is no Ram even though he upholds rules, because he is a pretender who upholds the law that benefits him and enables him to exploit and abuse Draupadi. These complex narrative structures tend to be ignored, or even denied, in the pursuit of simplistic explanations about God and religion that were

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popular in the 19th and 20th centuries. We valorise Draupadi as she screams for blood and demands vengeance, and not the quiet Sita who bears the brunt of Ram’s rule-following and decision-making. Draupadi makes sense to us, not Sita, for we live in a society where we want to be heard but forget that we also have to hear. So we scream our point of view

and refuse to listen to anyone else, like the wounded Draupadi. (In the end she gets her justice but loses all her children.)  

Sita does not do that. We forget that she is the daughter of the sage-king Janaka, patron of the Upanishads. This relationship is not accidental: Valmiki is telling us something important. Sita is no ordinary woman. She is not just daughter, wife and mother. She is also a sage. She quietly watches the toll that cultural rules and values take on her husband. She watches how Lakshman expects his elder brother to follow what he considers to be ideal conduct. She watches how Surpanakha cannot handle rejection and crosses the line of propriety, and ends up play...