Historical Perspective of Compositions: Ramayan & Mahabharata

      The period of 300 BC to 300 CE has been very defining period for Hinduism. The period saw a complete circle of rise and fall of great empire followed by a period of chaos where a lot of disintegration and consolidations emerged and vanished with little stability. But the good thing is that actual happenings of this period are well documented, well recorded and can be corroborated even with independent sources from within and outside Indian subcontinent. Besides literature, also available are inscriptions, coins, monuments, etc. to support the reliability of the historical facts. There are also reports from Greek and Chinese visitors along with their impressions to carve out a rather independent analysis. I say so because when you read about a single incident in Buddhist, Jain or Hindu books, many times you sense conflicting views because, after all, these were competing faiths eyeing a common audience and partisan views can't be ruled out especially when you have been holding one of the three local faiths dearer to you for most part of your life. But comments from out of the country visitors can easily be taken as non-partition and from a different impartial angle. This certainly helps in having better informed understanding about the subject matter.

Ramayana and Mahabharata

      Mahapadma Nanda, a barber by birth, founded first non-Kshatriya dynasty and waged war with many Kshatriya kingdoms. Chandragupta Maurya, himself a Vaishya, took over from him with the help of Kautilya, a Brahmin by birth. A potter, Shudra by class, based in Varanasi, has become one of the richest businessmen of his time. Later Pushyamitra, a Brahmin commander of army took control of Gupta Dynasty and formed his own Shunga Dynasty. The scene is just to highlight that traditional views of clear segregation of class provided by Vedas have lost boundaries by this time and social structures were in shambles, traditional rituals and sacrifices had lost major attraction with the populace, Buddhism and Jainism were spreading through the length and width of the country; a lot of churning was taking place in entire social spectrum of the country.

      Brahmins had accumulated a lot of land holdings out of regular donations received for their work as priests conducting royal rituals or as members of the courts or as teachers and philosophers or gifts by kings. Most of these lands required manual hands for cultivating or mending, which could be secured only from lower class which has been, until so far, kept out from social structures. Brahmins were desperate to lure working class people to work at their lands. Buddhism was on the rise in acceptance as Dalits and woman had, for the first time, some mainstream religion, which was ready to take them in its strides. Since no one was promoting Hinduism, many landowners, merchants, high officials, common artisans had started joining either Jainism or Buddhism. The decline in popularity of Vedic culture was slow to begin with but, by now, it had reached the do or die situation.

      Hinduism also saw some dilution in its strict past practices and again started allowing woman to participate in rituals. Some Shastras of the time actually recommended conducting many rituals only with spouse—some relaxation but still a far cry. Artha Shastra may not have been composed as yet but one of its principles that every kingdom on your border is your enemy was already in practice. For peace to exist, presence of a major force is must. If there is no central powerful authority smaller forces feel threatened all the time and remain active in consolidating their position leading to a general psychic causing the smaller kingdoms remaining engaged in wars with their neighbouring states almost regularly. This doctrine has remained relevant in all cultures and at all times.

      Just to recapitulate the scenario, economy and trade were flourishing, professions were competing, widened economic divide was bigger than ever, urban rural divide was also on the rise, all three home grown faiths were competing for political patronage and donations, Vishnu and Shiva had emerged as bigger Gods pushing animal sacrifice and rituals to background, society was churning with political configurations, Patliputra had emerged a critical centre for controlling trade, minerals, forest products, agriculture products as well as largest education centre in the world, Greek forces had retracted but had left behind many traders at Gandhar who were expanding trade with India and China.

      It was under this background that the long poems of Mahabharata and Ramayana got composed. Both these epics of Hindus, all the way from that time onwards, contain enormous number of morality based stories serving as perfect example to let people learn how to live and conduct themselves under various testing situations of real life. These were aimed for laymen who were always sensitive about their religious duties, householder's duty as well as wish to achieve salvation without taking the route of renunciation. Unlike other Shastras composed around that period (and addressed needs of elite groups engaged in higher level learning), these epics were in narrative form and their messages, morals and lessons are simpler enough to be comprehended by a common man. As many people were still not so well educated, such people understood these poems simply by listening from others. Further, these were in form of small sub-stories helping people to better connect with these as against abstract way of older religious literature.

      Both these long poems mark major transition from Shruti literature to Smriti literature. Both these got initiated for the benefit of warriors on the battleground. During war days, the warriors retired in the evenings and had a lot of time for nursing their wounds, taking massaging for relaxation and drinking dining to get rejuvenated for next battle. Warriors also had a lot of time during the peace days when they were simply travelling or camping or practising their martial arts. The people reported to popularize these stories among warriors as well as others, initially, were charioteers who use to play double roles as confidante, friend, motivator, and critique for their masters. Like caddies role at Golf courses where many of them tend to pick up finer points of the trade and become proficient for applying all ground rules and extending expert's advise to the players, many charioteers found the stories and sub stories of these epics as best media for conveying the points to the warriors they served.

      Post wars, these people would do the same in peace time and entertain villagers or at festival celebrations. Later still, the Brahmins took over the reciting and improvising of these poems. Brahmins, who were also officiating at sacrifices, pilgrimage routes and at shrines, contributed towards the spreading popularity of these poems to far off places. These routes and shrines were the points attracting sufficiently large audience having a good mix from different parts of the subcontinent. As the medium was very catchy, language simple and incidences reflecting real life incidents, the plots were gaining popularity like forest fire. The main plots were completely fictional but these were so well packaged with names of the cities, geographical details, gods, Vedic stories all woven to make look as absolute real stories. The broader themes were 'good winning over evil', "pleasant over unpleasant' and 'dharma winning over adharma'.

      All said and done, no one can take away the fact that these epics have served Hindus very well by inculcating deep sense of reverence, devotion and commitment to the path of righteousness and belief and interest in life beyond. By personifying many characters and personalities, the events highlighted helped the reader or listeners for easier comprehension and prompted them to develop sense of differentiating between right and wrong, between good and evil and between appropriate and inappropriate.

      Broadly speaking the basic teachings advocated in these poems are similar to those mentioned by Dharma Shastras of Hindus but the packaging and presentation is entirely different. In addition, the poetic medium necessitated and facilitated use of many idioms and arguments which, already familiar to the masses, appealed them instantly and gained acceptance of public at large. Now let us dwell upon these poems one by one.