Ramayana Is Not a Fight Between Aryans and Dravidians

Why are we talking so much about the nature of the Rakshasas, their characteristics, in a series which is about the greatness of Hanumanji?

There is a reason.
We should know who they were, how they were.

Because there is a lot of misinformation being spread, both knowingly and unknowingly, about Ravana and Rakshasas. Some books and some movies are responsible for this. Some have even portrayed Ramayana as the story of the fight between North Indian Aryans and South Indian Dravidians. Someone brought my attention to a couple of movies, where the heroes are being compared to Ravana.

Not the villains. The heroes.
In one of them, the villain is a North Indian Rama bhakta, and the hero is the protector of South Indians and compared to Ravana. Whenever the hero walks in slow motion, the background score is about Ravana. Whenever the hero suffers a setback, temporarily, it is said, one of the ten heads of Ravana has fallen but it will come back.

First of all, this portrayal of division on the lines of North–South, East–West, Aryan–Dravidian itself is too dangerous for our nation. This divide-and-rule policy is a creation of the British and is still being followed by some politicians with ulterior motives. The media — some media — is playing to their tunes either knowingly or out of ignorance. We don’t know.

This is politics. We have nothing to do with politics.
What we should be concerned about is the damage it is causing to the young Indian mind.

For many, for a lot of people, these are the only source of information and we are living in a country where media still has a lot of credibility. People go blindly by what the media says. They presume that proper research and proper fact-check have gone behind whatever the media says — be it the entertainment industry or news channel, newspapers or books.

People use the word mythology while referring to the incidents of India’s glorious past.
If there is any myth — the only myth — about our past, it is that we were a divided nation, kingdoms perpetually fighting each other. This is another creation of the colonial British — this whole idea of calling India a divided nation and they — the peacekeepers.

This we are disproving through our series on the unity of India. India had always been a single undivided nation with a common heart and soul. This is the fact.

Please do not compare Ravana and Rakshasas with South Indians.
Please do not align South Indians with Ravana and Rakshasas.

South Indians have been the victims — the biggest victims — of Ravana’s atrocities, being geographically close to Ravana’s Lanka.

Another point to be noted — Ravana’s Lanka is different. The present-day Sri Lanka is different.
This is a proven fact as per astronomy. Ravana’s Lanka is gone, submerged under the sea.

Who was Ravana?

There were two guards at the door of Vaikuntha — Jaya and Vijaya.
Very ardent devotees of Sri Hari.

They once tried to stop the great yogis, the Kumaras, from entering Vaikuntha and got cursed.
They had to take birth on earth three times:

• The first was – Hiranyakashipu – Hiranyaksha
• The second – Ravana – Kumbhakarna
• The third – Shishupala – Dantavakra

All these have taken place and Jaya-Vijaya are back in Vaikuntha and doing their duty as usual.

In the birth as Ravana, he was born as the son of a great rishi — Vishrava.
His grandfather was the great sage Pulastya — one of the manasa putras of Brahmadeva.

No problem until here.
Great lineage.
Ravana was a great scholar.
Great Shiva bhakta.
There is no problem until here.

What he developed into after this is the problem.
Ravana developed into — turned into — pure evil, hundred percent evil.

He turned the prosperous Lanka into a country of robbers, murderers and rapists.
They did nothing productive. They didn’t cultivate.
They went to neighbouring countries, looted them.
Ravana’s people turned into cannibals. They captured men of neighbouring countries, brought them to Lanka and ate them raw.

The entire subcontinent became victim of the atrocities of Ravana and his people called the Rakshasas.

We get so much emotionally affected when we hear incidents like the Nirbhaya or the Hyderabad gang rape and murder.
Ravana and his people abducted women in thousands and thousands, brought them to Lanka and kept them in captivity as their sex slaves.
They ate them raw at times.

Is this what you are trying to align South Indians with?

Ravana’s Lanka was a country of robbers, murderers and rapists.
Please don’t align South India with them.
You are corrupting the young Indian mind.
Please don’t glorify robbery, murder, rape.

I am wondering where these people are getting these ideas from.
You can’t do anything in the name of creative freedom.

Create fiction — no problem, as much as you want.
But if you are trying to make it look bonafide by connecting it to revered scripture, as if you have discovered a hidden secret, then be sure of what you are doing.

Kamba Ramayana written centuries ago does not glorify Ravana.
Adhyatma Ramayana written in Malayalam does not glorify Ravana.
Kumudendu Ramayana written in Kannada does not glorify Ravana.
Ranganatha Ramayana written in Telugu centuries ago does not glorify Ravana.

They all call him a robber, murderer and rapist.
What is your source?

There are three hundred regional versions of Ramayana going as far as Indonesia, Bali.
For all of them, Ravana is evil — pure evil.

Why are you trying to show Ravana as the pride of South India or Dravidian pride?

Many Brahmins in the North consider themselves as descendants of Ravana, build temples for him and offer shraddha for him.
No harm in that also — the soul of Ravana is back in Vaikuntha.

But don’t call what Ravana did — what his people, Rakshasas, did — as the valour and pride of South India.

People trust when you say something, show something.
Ravana was a scholar — so what?

A scholar can murder, abduct, rape.
Ravana was a Shiva bhakta — so what?
A bhakta can abduct, rape, rob, murder.

Lord Shiva himself took avatara as Hanumanji and became instrumental in his elimination.
Don’t glorify him. Facts are facts.

It is from these legends that our children learn morality, how to live as good human beings, what is right and what is wrong.
Don’t undermine all these — whatever it is for — for box office gains, or TRP ratings or bestseller status.

You are playing a dangerous game.
Don’t bring divisive ideas into the society.
We are a nation which has always stood together — which has to stand together.

Don’t do this.
Don’t do this kind of irresponsible thing.

Ramaswamy Sastry and Vighnesh Ghanapaathi