Clearing the mists of time : Vanam Jwala Narasimha Rao

Clearing the mists of time

Vanam Jwala Narasimha Rao

Millennium Post, Delhi Sunday Edition (28-06-2020)

(Establishing a timeline to the life of Lord Rama, Bhatnagar’s Dating the Era of Lord Rama is a step in the right direction of pulling our ancient history out from the ambivalent realm of mythologies-Editor).

In the epic Ramayana, Sage Valmiki mentioned that when Lord Rama was born, the sun was located in Aries, Saturn was in Libra, Jupiter and the moon were in Cancer, Venus was seen in Pisces while Mars was located in Capricorn. Moreover, it was the ninth day of the increasing phase of the moon in the lunar month of Chaitra. These unique astral conditions were present in the sky on 10 January 5114 BC writes Pushkar Bhatnagar in his book ‘Dating the Era of Lord Rama’.

As an author of Ramayana in spoken colloquial Telugu sourcing from the great poet Vavilikolanu Subba Rau’s Andhra Valmiki Ramayana, I evinced keen interest in knowing the birth date of Lord Rama. Findings of Pushkar Bhatnagar enthused me and the result is this write-up. This is an excerpt from his investigative, exploratory and analytical findings.    

The story of Sri Ram's life was first narrated by Maharishi (Sage) Valmiki in the Ramayana. Valmiki was a great astronomer as he has made sequential astronomical references on important dates related to the life of Sri Ram indicating the location of planets vis-a-vis zodiac constellations and the other stars (nakshatras).

Pushkar Bhatnagar of the Indian Revenue Service had acquired a unique software known as "Planetarium" from the USA. He entered the relevant details about the planetary positions narrated by Maharishi Valmiki and obtained very interesting and convincing results, which almost determine the important dates starting from the birth of Sri Ram to the date of his coming back to Ayodhya after 14 years of exile.

Maharishi Valmiki recorded in Balakanda Sarga 19 and shloka eight and nine that Sri Ram was born on ninth Tithi of Chaitra month when the position of different planets vis-a-vis zodiac constellations and nakshatras (visible stars) were: Sun in Aries; Saturn in Libra; Jupiter in Cancer; Venus in Pisces; Mars in Capricorn; Lunar month of Chaitra; Ninth day after no moon; Lagna as Cancer (cancer was rising in the east); Moon on the Punarvasu (Gemini constellation and Pllux star) and Day time (around noon).

This data was fed into the software. The results indicated that this was exactly the location of planets and stars in the noon of January 10, 5114 BC. Thus, Sri Ram was born on January 10, 5114 BC (7123 years back). As per the Indian calendar it was the ninth day of Shukla Paksha in Chaitra month and the time was around 12 to 1 noontime. This is exactly the time and date when Ram Navami is celebrated all over India.

Sri Ram was born in Ayodhya. Ayodhya was located on the banks of the Sarayu River with Ganga and Panchal Pradesh on one side and Mithila on the other side. The present Ayodhya has shrunk in size and the rivers have changed their course.

Sri Ram went out of Ayodhya in his childhood when he was about 13-year-old, with Sage Vishwamitra. From there he went to Mithila, King Janaka's kingdom. Here he married Sita after breaking Shiv Dhanush.

It is mentioned in Valmiki Ramayana’s Ayodhya Kanda that King Dashrath wanted to make Sri Ram the king because Sun, Mars and Rahu surrounded his nakshatra and normally under such planetary configuration the king dies or becomes a victim of conspiracies. Dashrath’s zodiac sign was Pisces and his nakshatra was Revati. This planetary configuration was prevailing on the January 5, 5089 BC, and it was on this day that Sri Ram left Ayodhya for 14 years of exile. He was 25 years old at that time.

Valmiki Ramayana refers to the solar eclipse at the time of war with Khara Dushan in later half of 13th year of Sri Ram's exile. Similarly, on the basis of planetary configurations described in various other chapters, the date on which Ravana was killed works out to be December 4, 5076 BC, and Sri Ram completed 14 years of exile on January 2, 5075 BC. Incidentally, that day was also Navami of Shukla Paksha in Chaitra month. Thus, Sri Ram came back to Ayodhya at the age of 39.

In Valmiki Ramayana it is mentioned that Sri Ram's army constructed a bridge over the sea between Rameswaram and Lanka. After crossing this bridge, Sri Ram's army defeated Ravana. Recently, NASA put pictures on the Internet of a man-made bridge, the ruins of which are lying submerged in Palk Strait between Rameswaram and Sri Lanka. Recently the Sri Lankan Government had expressed the desire to develop Sita Vatika as a tourist spot. Sri Lankans believe this was Ashok Vatika where Ravana had kept Sita as a prisoner in 5076 BC.

The Astronomical Code of the Rig Veda, listed 63 ancestors of Sri Ram who ruled over Ayodhya. Sri Ram's ancestors have been traced out as: Sri Ram, King Dashrath, King Aja, King Raghu, King Dilip and so on.

The events and places related to the life of Sri Ram and Sita are true cultural and social heritage of every Indian irrespective of caste and creed. Therefore, it is common heritage. After all, Sri Ram belonged to the period when Prophet Mohammed or Jesus Christ were not born and Muslim or Christian faiths were unknown to the world.

During Ram Rajya, the evils of caste system based on birth were non-existent. In fact, Maharishi Valmiki is stated to be of shudra class (Backward), still Sita lived with him as his adopted daughter after she was banished from Ayodhya. Luv and Kush grew in his ashram as his disciples. We need to be proud of the fact that Valmiki was perhaps the first great astronomer and that his study of planetary configurations has stood the test of times. Even the latest computer softwares have corroborated his astronomical calculations, which proves that he did not commit any error.

Sabari is stated to be belonging to the Bheel tribe. Sri Ram's army, which succeeded in defeating Ravana, was formed by various Tribals from Central and South India. The facts, events and all other details relating to the life of Sri Ram are the common heritage of all the Indians including scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, Muslims, Christians, etc.

As people of Indian origin, let us all take pride in the fact that the Indian civilization is the most ancient civilization today. It is certainly more than 10,000 years old. Therefore, let us reject the story of Aryan invasion in India in 1,500 BC as motivated implantation. In fact, Max Mueller, who was the creator of this theory had himself rejected it. Let us admit that during the British Rule, we were educated in the schools based on Macaulay school of thinking which believed that everything Indian was inferior and that entire "Indian literature was not worth even one book rack in England". If there were similarities in certain features of Indian people and people from Central Europe, then automatic inference drawn was that the Aryans coming from Europe invaded India and settled here. No one dared of thinking in any other way. 

Therefore, there is urgency for the historians and all other intellectuals to stop reducing Indian history to myth. There is need to gather, dig out, search, unearth and analyze all the evidences, which would throw more light on ancient Indian civilization and culture.