The views expressed in this article are personal, by this article, mean no offence to any community or person
After I saw Mani Ratnam’s movie Ravan, I came out with a big question in my mind. What is the reality ? Ravan, the movie at its core questions our knowledge about Ramayana – the pillar stone epic on which most of the hindu society in this country stands. In the movie, the director shows us the story of Rama, as described by Valmiki, but making realistic changes to the script. Rama in the movie is not the purushotthama (the ideal man) he has his vanities, his own methods of attaining his aim of liberating Sita. The ideal Rama of Valmiki is replaced by a planned, organized man who is on a hunt to get back his lady love. Ravana here is again the bad guy, the ugly villain, but the humane side of Ravana is for us to see, why he became a ‘Rakshasa’ and what gives him the motive for abduction is shown. At the end of the movie, the director has asked the audience to choose, who is god, who is demon, and frankly I had no idea.
But, the deeper question that lies beneath all this is what if the story of Ramayana as we know is not what really happened. All that we know is that the locations in the story exist, they are real, but we have no proof as to who was the right guy. Rama is worshipped all over India, but in some specific places in the country Ravana is also treated as a deity. Ravana, a Brahmin of the highest order, a descendant of Brahma himself, a scholar, the most ardent devotee of lord Shiva, the composer of Rudra Stotra, the maker of Rudra Veena, such a wise person had to have solid reasons for abducting Sita, don’t you think? This person who is reputed to have ten heads, thus twenty eyes is implied to know more and see more respectively, would not this person have enough foresight to see complications on his road ahead. Valmiki himself says it was because Ravana’s sister was mistreated by Lakshmana, that Ravana decided to take revenge.
Dramatization is a quality inherent with all writers, say, if you were Valmiki, and you were asked to write a story about one Mr. Ram and one Mr. Ravan, wouldn’t you try and make your protagonist look like the alpha male, Valmiki in his heart , like all other great writers wanted to create a character that could withstand the corrosion of time. His, audience being the extremely religious society, he made his protagonist an avatar of Vishnu, the common deity, this avatar of Vishnu , Ram was bestowed with all ideal qualities a man should have, initial drama to show that the protagonist was suffering came in form of the exile, separation from parents, family, and then from his own beloved wife, now that the character gains sympathy from audience/readers, the author shifts to action, where the protagonist, still very much the ideal man, with the help of an army fight the villain, supernatural powers, a extra powerful army of evil villains, what else do you need to make an epic story ?
I am not saying that the whole story is a fiction, no, that’s not my point at all, but I feel, and strongly believe that facts might not be what we know. We, tend to believe that whats written ages ago has to be true, we forget that ages ago, people existed just like us who understood very well human psychology, and how a book or a work of art can influence generations ahead. But, Ramayan has achieved a very well aimed purpose of giving the people, the aam janta, a god whom they could relate to, one who had suffered all sufferings, thus giving modern age Hinduism a strong foundation. Children hear stories about Ram and Hanuman and Ravan when they are barely two years old, thus inculcating in them an awe and respect for these characters.
At the end of the day, we just know two characters of Rama and Ravana, characters sculptured by Valmiki himself to perfection. It is very interesting to note that slight changes in the character sketches of both Rama and Ravana can change our opinion about them. Because both were men of high standards, very high quality, each a stalwart, I am pretty sure, if we have an intelligent script writer, we can one day produce a story with all incidents in Ramayana as it is , showing Ravana in a favourable light, maybe even as the protagonist. What do you think ?
