December  2003 
Year 10    No.94

Readers Forum


Where Lord Rama was born

According to the accounts of the great Ram Bhakts of the 16th and 17th centuries there was no unanimity about the real birthplace of Lord Rama in Ayodhya then and no reference whatsoever to the Babri Masjid that was ostensibly built in its stead.

BY RANJANA BOBDE

Samarth Ramdas, a well-known Maharashtrian saint of the 17th century, was a devotee of Lord Rama who travelled extensively all over India and wrote poems and songs called ovi, abhang, manache shlok, bhupali, arti etc. in Marathi. His writings and compositions were not only spiritual and devotional, his major work called Das Bodh also contains chapters on sociology and political science wherein he describes and advises on eternal values.

Pioneer of the cult of Ram Bhakti in Maharashtra, Samarth Ramdas’ devotion to Lord Rama was so intense that when he went to Pandharpur and saw the deity Vitthal, a deity worshipped by people of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, he exclaimed, "Oh Lord Rama, why have you changed appearance? (Ethe ka re ubha Rama?)" He wanted to see his Lord with a bow and arrow.

During his pilgrimage to North India, Samarth Ramdas also went to Ayodhya. There is reference to Samarth Ramdas’ visit to Ayodhya in the biographical book, Bhedile Suryamandala, on the life of Samarth Ramdas, written after years of study by well-known Marathi writer, Shri Ravindra Bhat.

Ayodhya as seen by Samarth Ramdas has been described by the author in a graphic way. Samarth Ramdas was pained to find that every priest, at various temples in Ayodhya, claimed that his own temple was the real birthplace of Lord Rama in an attempt to hoodwink innocent devotees just to grab money from them in the form of dakshina. Samarth Ramdas could not stand the way in which the poor devotees were looted by the priests and he decided to establish his own Math in Ayodhya to teach people what real ‘Ram Bhakti’ – true worship of Rama was.

It may be mentioned here that the author, Shri Ravindra Bhat has also given an account of the oppression of Muslim rulers during those times, which may have some basis in truth, but these are accompanied by many uncharitable remarks against Islam and Muslims in general.

It is surprising to read of such a state of affairs centuries ago, with each priest claiming that his own temple was the real birthplace of Lord Rama – this shocked a great Ram Bhakt like Samarth Ramdas. It meant that there was no unanimity about the real birthplace of Lord Rama then. It also needs to be mentioned that there is no reference to a particular place of birth of Lord Rama in the literature of Sant Tulsidas, who is regarded as the greatest Ram Bhakt of all.

There is also no reference in the account of Samarth Ramdas’s Ayodhya visit to any Babri Masjid being built in Ayodhya after the destruction of a Temple of Rama, which people now claim to be the real birthplace of Lord Rama. In all of Tulsidas’ literature, one finds no reference to a Ram Temple being destroyed and a mosque, now known as the Babri Masjid, being built in its place. It is very strange that such great devotees of Rama, who lived not long after the reign of Babur, saw no trace of a Babri Masjid in place of Rama’s birthplace.

There were in fact some mosques in existence in Ayodhya at the time and Sant Tulsidas even had to take refuge in one of them because the priests in Ayodhya were harassing him for writing in a local dialect and not in Sanskrit, the language of the priests! Tulsidas’ Ramayana was written in Awadhi, in defiance of the priestly class, and he suffered considerably all his life. There is a reference in one of his writings to the fact that in Ayodhya he had to beg for his food and sleep in a mosque: ‘Mange ke khaibu, maseed may soiebu.’ It may also be mentioned that while one finds references to the oppressive rule of Muslim rulers in the literature of Samarth Ramdas, there is absolutely no reference to the existence of a Babri Masjid in Ayodhya.

The testimonies of the great saints of the 16th and 17th centuries show that the issue of the Babri Masjid being built after the demolition of a Ram Temple at the birthplace of Lord Rama is nothing but a figment of the imagination of today’s so-called Ram Bhakts. There is no historical proof of this and all available historical facts indicate its non-existence. If one goes by the testimony of these great saints, the Ram Bhakts of the past, one can conclude that the whole issue of the Babri Masjid is an issue created and generated by certain vested interests for their political ends.

What is termed a shameful blot on our history never actually took place. People are being hoodwinked once again. This is not only a distortion of history but is an insult to and contrary to the testimony of great saints. These saints would have been pained and shocked at all that is being done today in the name of Ram Bhakti.

(Ranjana Bobde is with the Association of Peoples of Asia, Harijan Sevak Sangh, Delhi).

 


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