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Ravana

I have often wondered about the story of Ramayana. What was the need for Ram to traverse the entire subcontinent to kill Ravana. Unlike Mahabarata which has everything grey between the black and white spectrum, I have always seen Ramayana as a black and white story which life never is, very unlike the other Hindu mythological stories and fables.

The recent Mani Ratnam movie Ravana led to a very interesting discussion with a dear friend and I got to hear a very interesting version of Ramayana.

According to this version, Ravana was told by an astrologer a daughter will be born to him and Mandodari and that daughter, if she stays in the royal palace, will bring about the downfall of Ravana. As a result of this, when a daughter was born to Mandodari, his favorite queen, she was declared still born and sent away where she was buried under ground.

This girl was found by the king Janak and adopted as his own child and she grew up to become Janaki or more popularly ‘Sita’. Through out life Ravan kept close tabs on Sita out of concern for her. Finally the girl married Ram and as luck would have it was exiled and was destined to spend strenuous life in the forest. Ravana could not bear the thought of his daughter living such a life and ignoring the prediction had her brought to the palace. Nobody including Mandodari and Sita knew the truth.

Ultimately Ram had to attack Lanka to get back Sita and as predicted the daughter led to the father’s downfall.

This version instantly resonated with me more then the version of Ramayan I have grown up hearing. No one is wrong yet no one is right. Ravana in his shame and fear of disappointing the wife he loved so much did not tell her the truth, yet he tried to do what was best for his offspring. Ram unaware of the relationship between Ravana and Sita had to get back his wife from clutches of the king. Sita who had no idea of her birth prayed for the downfall of the man who abducted her.

So is life. Everyone is right from where they stand and more often then not the root cause of all conflicts is half baked information and our egos that stop us from acknowledging the truth.