From: selvakum@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca (C.R.Selvakumar - Electrical Engineering)
Subject: The War on Behalf of Rama and Ravana
Keywords: Ramayanam, Ravana, Rama,Dravidian,Aryan
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Sun, 8 Nov 1992 23:20:47 GMT


Subject: Re: The War on Behalf of Rama and Ravana
Newsgroups: soc.culture.tamil

In article <45377@ogicse.ogi.edu>, partha@mse.ogi.edu (R. Parthasarathy) writes:
> Cool it guys. Your defences of Rama and Ravana are becoming rather
> emotional. We don't even know if these are fictious characters
> or real ones. Most of their grand characteristics must have been
> built by the bards over centuries.
> 
> To those of you who consider Ravana as a great Dravidian king
> and whose portrayal in "Aryan version" of Ramayana hurts you, I've
> heard from my folks that Ravana was born to Brahmin parents!
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
         I too have heard that Ravana was a Brahmin. It is said that
         Ramayana took place a long time ago. The belief in the 
         Sanskritic-culture followers is that Brahmin can NOT be
         a king and only a Kshatriya can be a king. How is it
         possible that a Brahmin Ravana rule a country in the 
         dravidian heartland ? Could it be
         that the true Tamil definition of 'anthaNan' = one who
         attained the highest which is the goal of human life ?
         [ as the Saiva Saints proclaim RavaNan achieved]
         [ In tamil 'saanROn' = scholar , 'anthaNan' = saint
          are NOT birth-based and thus are NOT castes. ]
          
> He became an asura due to his acquiring evil aspirations. Then
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
      Yes, RavaNan desired to achieve the 'final' with a ferocity
      like an 'arakkan' mercilessly which is trying to lift
       Mount Kailasam which as I had explained elsewhere refers to
       an inner process in the brain. [ see a map of brain, i suggest
       World Book Encycopaedia , article on Brain. see where the
       controlling centres are for sex organs, toe, and hearing
       centres you will begin to appreciate the connection between
       liberation, 'phalic' Siva worship, and the 'pressing of toe'.] 
       
> he was supposed to have been a great musician and a great warrior.
> Ravana was, according to what I've heard, a great player of the
> Veena. He was supposed to have lost a Veena competition to 
> Saint Agasthya (I wonder where Agasthya learnt his Veena) and so on.
> If you want you can add a few more ears and nose to the characteristics
> of Rama and Ravana and tell your grand children. 

      Our puranas are NOT mere stories !! Some religio-political
      and purely fictional material had been added by our 
      unwise and some facism-oriented ancestors. There is much
      significance to puranas if you know the keys !! The main trouble
      is due to these unwise-and-some-facist interpolators !!
> 
> Though all the epics are very interesting stories, let us not get
> carried away too far by them. There could have been many kings
> with the name Rama or Ravana. Who knows how many have been mixed
> up for their deeds! I remember seeing one Tamil Drama where Ravana
> is the hero. He abducts Seetha because she is his daughter! No
> kidding. 
> 
> If you read these epics, you'd find countless erraneous aspects.
> Dasaratha is supposed to have something like 60000 wives! So were
> Krishna and Arjuna! They could have made a regiment out of their
> wives alone. There is a Rishi called Suga Rishi who has a parrot's
> head. There must be many more - like the army of monkeys.  
> 
> So just treat these epics as great displays of human imagination
> and stop fighting over them. 
> 
> Partha sarathy


I understand your well meaning words. Thanks. Unfortuantely, some of the fiction
is carried beyond its original category. Think how many thousands of
man-hours are lost and how many lives killed and how much emotional
poisoning done by Ram-is-the-identity-of-Bharat-fellows ? 
You must have heard of Ayodhya ? Fiction or politics ?
In some quarters it is 'patriotism' !

The central problem of the kashmir and punjab appear to be religious
fundementalism. [i am attaching at the end of this article 
one reply to my only posting in the area
of Khalistan and remember that the person who replied was pro Khalistan]

The peaceful hindu-muslim-christian amity in Tamil Nadu is poisoned
by religious fundementalism. This is by hindu fundementalists who also
propagate vedo-centric aryanist theories with a lot of propaganda
muscle. I strongly believe that these religious fundementalism and
propagation of untruth as truth ARE seriously threatening the
unity of India and shttering the achievements of true hinduism.
 

I was trying to offer a perspective different from common view because
of what I sincerely believe is true. If you read the core
Saiva Acharyas you will see that Ravana is said to have attained the
final grace from Siva and it is NOT fiction but a statement of 
attainment of a king of ilankai ( they don't say that is a script for
future TV shows (-; ). The pari-bhashai (coded language)
used is clear enough that Ravana attained the final liberation and
Thiru_NYanasambanthar sings in praise of this in EVERY 8th stanza and 
Saint Thiru_Sundaramurthy Nayanmaar sings in 29 places. Both are quite
unusual. 
I am not aware of situations where the Saiva Saints say that Ravana 
abducted Sita Devi.  It is true Ravana attained power and wanted 
to lift mount kailash (which means something different and refers 
to an inner process within the brain) and in this process his 'aaNavam' 
is destroyed by Siva and he was given
a title 'IravaNan' and given 'sword('vaaL')' [ this means given wisdom
since vaaL means wisdom, light] and Grace by Siva.

Rama killing Ravana is religious feudism. Today it is used for 
politics and has several other serious connotations.
I was trying to offer some perspective on this.

I am attaching the reply for my posting on khalistan to point out
that by removing this religious fundementalism we might be able to
achieve emotional intergration of india. The main stumbling block 
appears to be the hard-core vedo-centric religious fundementalism 
which seems to be unacceptable to the vast majority of dravidianoids.
[dravidianoids include all non-vedic people in the indian sub-continent]
[ I also want to draw your attention that when Annadurai became a 
chief minister in 1967, the Punjab Chief minister showed a surprising
warmth and offered unprecedented cooperation which might be a sign of
some bond between dravidian feelings then in tamil Naadu and the feelings
between Sikhs...this is just recalling a curious happening for further
study..)

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From singhk2@lib103.its.rpi.edu Thu Nov  5 21:59:30 1992