Why Asia needs the Ramayana

Yesterday was Rama Navami. I recently read an article on the building of the Ram temple, and a couple of thoughts struck me. Rama is not a religious figure; his story is a story of virtue, honesty and integrity. India's history, growth and debasement till the last century closely parallels how it has treated this extraordinary cultural legacy. The story of Rama is the story of Asia.

The time India became impoverished as a country also happens to be when Asia went through a deep existential crisis. Waves of colonialism, wars and plunder destroyed the Asian countries from within. From India alone, the colonial plunder was extraordinary. Western researchers state that around 45 trillion dollars was stolen and at least 100 million people killed in just 40 years. It is a great problem that most Indians can barely understand. A strange amnesia about the lingering effects of colonialism accompanies Indian polity. Two decades back, the leader of India was in Cambridge, thanking England for its occupation of India in a note brimming with pleasantries and encomiums.

Until about 1700 CE, India and China contributed about 65% of the world's GDP. The current talk about a growing India and China is not new. They are only reclaiming a pole position they have occupied for thousands of years. Europe, unlike its recent pretensions of superiority, had been a non-entity for a long time. Colonialism and terrible governance take the blame for why India and China fell so steeply from the global ranks. This trend is reversing slowly but dramatically.

India has always been the spiritual capital of the world. Indian thought has been the spiritual guide to all of Asia. Almost all of China, India and South Asia worship Hanuman and Rama. Fa Hien and Xuanzang are other great Chinese scholars who made legendary journeys to India seeking knowledge. The arguably most popular and greatest novel in Chinese history is "Journey to the West", which details an ancient Chinese quest to come to India and learn the Buddhist sacred texts. Movies made about this book are an ode to the monkey king, Hanuman and rank among the greatest hits at the Chinese box office. This is an indicator of the lingering popularity of the Ramayana and Hanuman to this day. Close to four billion people follow Indian tradition, far more than any of the major religions in the world.

It is difficult to find another book like Ramayana, which has been popular for over 5000 years and still resonates with billions of people today. Even Gautama Buddha in his day would have been well-versed in the Ramayana and profoundly influenced by it. To this day, every Indian is named, compared and benchmarked in local dialect and manner to the characters of the Ramayana and Mahabharata. It happens subconsciously without people even realizing it. The reason is difficult to understand. These great poems are not just epics like the Illiad and Odyssey. They are doctrines of Philosophy and a supplement to the Vedas. They are a living constitution and an eternal testament to the culture of India.

Hindu traditions transcend faith. In Indonesia, which has the largest Muslim population in the world, the citizens deeply respect their Indian heritage. The national emblem and the airlines of Indonesia are named after Garuda, the vehicle of Lord Vishnu. Similarly, all the kings of Thailand are called King Rama. The names of many ordinary people in these countries, irrespective of religion, also reflect their Indian heritage. Names like Megawati, Putri and Yogyakarta allude to their Vedic Sanskrit lineage.

Ramayana has many local versions. The Japanese version is Rama-ten, the Chinese is Luo Ma Jing, the Thai is Ramakien, the Korean is Samguk Yusa, the Vietnamese is Truyen Kieu, the Mongolian is Dari Rama and so on. Even Russia has a version. Through the characters of Rama, Arjuna, Vishnu and Krishna, the culture and history of all of Asia have been heavily moulded by Indian thought. Up to six million Koreans from the clans of Gimhae Kim, Gimhae Heo and Incheon Yi claim descent from a legendary queen, Heo Hwang-ok, who hailed from Ayodhya. All these clans trace their ancestry to Ayodhya, the land of Lord Rama.

There is no need to discuss the influence on Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka as they are completely Indian in culture and thought. Many recent dramatizations of these great poems have received incredible viewership numbers in India and globally. The Indian diaspora is inseparable from its historical roots. Other countries are no less fanatic. When the Indian actors of the TV serial Mahabharata were in Indonesia, they received a rapturous and emotional welcome. There is a deep and extraordinary resonance of Indian thought across faiths and geographies. Reclaiming the legacy of the Ramayana is a test not only for India but also for Asia.

They will learn not to look down on their past but instead celebrate the universality and moral exhortations of the past. Mischievous elements of post-modern thought portray tradition as primitive ideas which must be discarded under the onslaught of modernity and science. The truth is that science does not weaken Indian thought but only strengthens it. The Vedanta comprise the poetry behind Science. Science answers the how question but not the why question. This influx of Eastern thought is badly needed to combat the nihilism and decadence of current societies, which are fraying apart in infinite ways.

Only the resurgence of Indian thoughts, such as Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, and Buddhism, can restore the backbone of Asian culture. Reading any Taoist book is the same as reading an advanced book on Advaita. The resurgence of interest in Rama is not just an attempt at restoring India's civilizational values. It is about reclaiming the pride, ethos and cultural legacy that Asia richly deserves.