Unique Documentary to string together Evidence of Ramayana soon : Vanam Jwala Narasimha Rao

 Unique Documentary to string together

Evidence of Ramayana soon

Vanam Jwala Narasimha Rao

The Pioneer (07-05-2023)

(The documentary, involving time travel, depicts how a team of five youngsters, all members of a cultural club in a university with differing ethnicities, start exploring the Ramayana in the process of making their own theater act for 'The International Vintage Theater Competitions -2125'-Editor’s Note)

A gigantic project has been launched to bring together various pieces of evidence concerning the Ramayana in the form of what is being called 'Cinematic Documentary cum-Drama' and billed as a new category in Indian Cinema. Bala Venkateshwara Rao Sankuratri, 40-year-old convener of the project 'Global Encyclopedia of the Ramayana', launched by the 'Ayodhya Research Institute's Department of Culture' and supported by the Government of Uttar Pradesh, is helming the documentary. Bala, author of the book titled 'My Name is Ravana', is out to blend the works of real-time researchers (through unscripted documentary) and scripted drama.

His vision is to present pieces of evidence of the Ramayana in a scientific and logical manner, beyond the borders of religion and beyond the borders of modern notions, in-line with modern thought process. He is working and networking with various governments, organizations, societies, and institutions to also build a harmonious global 'Ramayana circuit'. Bala presents himself as the one, who breaths Ramayana with deep understanding of the subject and content thoroughly.

A surprise guest Bala, met me a couple of days ago. Bala Venkateshwara Rao Sankuratri’s visiting card says, that he is currently Convener of the project of ‘Ayodhya Research Institute’s Department of Culture’ supported by Government of Uttar Pradesh’ on ‘Global Encyclopedia of the Ramayana.’ We had lengthy discussion on various aspects of the Ramayana, including those pertaining to the original Sanskrit version penned by Sage Valmiki. I introduced him to the essence of 'Andhra Valmiki Ramayana' rendered into Grammatical Telugu in verse form by Vavilikolanu Subba Rau or Vasudasa Swamy supposed to be the first and last Great Poet who wrote all Kandas ‘as it is’ with as many poems as the number of Shlokas numbering 24 thousands in Sanskrit Valmiki Ramayana. 

Bala, who shrewdly articulated several instances in Ramayana quoting elaborately and extensively on the subject has done considerable research on Culture, Cultural economy, and Cultural tourism, especially in relation to the Indian sub-continent and South-East Asia, also helped build and strengthen inter-national and inter-territorial relations in the backdrop of the Ramayana and other shared cultural values.

His book 'My Name is Ravana', written apparently from the standpoint of Sri Lanka, addresses certain issues pertaining to Sri Lanka and India with reference to the Ramayana. An interesting aspect in the book, as explained by him is, it crisply emphasizes Ravana as the incarnation of Jaya (Which is a known fact), who guards Vaikuntam, the abode of Sri Maha Vishnu and the reasons for ‘The Ultimate’ to send Jaya as Ravana on to the earth. Ravana, by having Jaya inside him as an alter ego and narrating Ramayana makes the book little more interesting and enthralling.

Some of his ideas, thoughts, and instantaneous responses to queries on Ramayana with reference to several narratives, be it on Ahalya or Laxman Rekha or Sambuca or Hanuman bringing Sanjeevani or Rama killing Ravana on the advice of Vibhishana or Sita entering in to holy fire at the instance of Srirama etc. are quite convincing as they had the source in Valmiki Ramayana.

Probably, recognizing his talent, enormous work on the subject coupled with his expertise, Bala Venkateshwara Rao Sankuratri, for a further shape of his works, the Department of Culture, Government of Uttar Pradesh, supported by Government of India made him convenor of the project ‘Global Encyclopedia of the Ramayana’ executed by Ayodhya Research Institute.          

To briefly mention about his Cinematic Documentary, which is quite interesting, involving time travel, depicts how a team of five youngsters, all members of a cultural club in a university with differing ethnicities, start exploring the Ramayana in the process of making their own theater act for 'The International Vintage Theater Competitions -2125'.

To make their script outstanding, upon the advice of their mentor, they travel to meet an old researcher on the Ramayana and go through several ancient scripts. The researcher recaps a documentary that was shot by his father and his team in 2023 in Sri Lanka and India, which primarily covered many pieces of evidence and records, virgin locations in relation to the Ramayana in Sri Lanka and India. 

Bala's documentary covers real locations and has interviews with researchers, historians, archeologists and scholars from the USA, Canada, France, India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and other parts of the world concerning the available pieces of evidence of the Ramayana. These interviews will be of the current times (Year 2023). It is likely that the world may witness some of the Evidence(s) of Ramayana for the first time through this series. He also mentioned that, the production house had obtained an exclusive access to all the Ramayana related reserves, locations etc. available in the islands of Sri Lanka and in its territorial waters.

The names of the characters in the documentary are curiously Hasina Begam, Iva Jones, Roshan Bharadwaj, Bobo Fernando, and Raymond Roy, in the age group of 21 to 36 years. They are of Indian, South-East Asian cum Western, Indian, African, and western origin respectively. Their university mainstreams vary from zoology and paleontology to earth science (archaeology, geology, and oceanography) to history and political studies to performing arts. They became good friends at the Cultural Club sharing and exchanging their views on various subjects intellectually. The characters are limited to just Sri Rama, Sita, Surphanaka, Ravana and Valmiki. The story, set in the year 2125, will take us through a documentary made about 100 years ago (2023-23).

While establishing the historicity and evidence of the Ramayana, it will mirror the hard work put in by the team in collecting research inputs spread over several centuries. Curious aspects of the documentary include dating of the Ramayana through scientific astronomical dating techniques; scientific discussion on the enormous amount of world's geography as penned by Valmiki and compared to present-day atlas as well as Google Maps, pinpointing the location where Ravana was killed by Rama in today's Sri Lanka; mapping the location of Ravana's city in present Sri Lanka; local legends in present-day Sri Lanka that fill the missing links in Valmiki's Ramayana, if any; linguistic and literary analysis on Rama Sethu and the region around it; how Ramayana text evolved from time to time and interpolations over time; Ramayana as cultural and historical text; historical and cultural pieces of evidence from across the world and so on. 

Bala's documentary is expected to be of immense value to historians, researchers, and spiritualists alike, if only adequate care and by way of consultation with experts on the subject is obtained. To lend my support to his project, I presented him with my book ‘Andhra Valmiki Ramayana Rasa Ramya Gathalu’ a simple 400-page work on Andhra Valmiki Ramayana in colloquial Telugu prose, released by Seer of Kanchi Sri Kama Koti Peetham, His Holiness Sri Sankara Vijayendra Saraswathi exactly two years ago. The book was released coinciding a temple for Lord Srirama coming up at His birth place Ayodhya.

(The writer is Chief Public Relations Officer to Chief Minister Telangana)