Column by Devdutt Pattanaik | The Ravana of Ratanpur

At Ratan-gad, oregon Ratanpur Fort, adjacent Bilaspur successful Chhattisgarh — erstwhile portion of Madhya Pradesh — determination exists a uncommon and striking sculpture of Ravana. He is shown cutting disconnected respective of his 10 heads and offering it into a sacrificial fire. This country does not travel from Valmiki’s Ramayana, but from a aboriginal imagination. The offering is made to Brahma successful Mahabharata’s ‘Ramopakhyana’. And successful aboriginal determination versions, to Shiva.

This peculiar representation dates to astir 1000 AD. Its determination is significant, successful the portion that past texts called Dakshina (southern) Kosala. To its northbound laic Uttara Kosala, Ram’s homeland. To its eastbound was the portion that aboriginal came to beryllium known arsenic Pashchimi (western) Lanka, present called Odisha. To its southbound stretched the dense forests of Dandakaranya. This was the heavy southbound of Valmiki’s imagination.

This scenery is bounded by 4 large rivers. The Ganga to the north, the Godavari to the south, the Mahanadi to the east, and the Narmada to the west. Within this portion grows dense sala forests. This is crucial. The Valmiki Ramayana repeatedly speaks of sala trees. Sala forests bash not turn successful confederate India. They turn successful cardinal and eastbound India, northbound of Chhattisgarh and person to the Himalayan foothills. The wood Ram enters is not peninsular Tamilakam oregon Kerala. It is this cardinal Indian wood belt.

Rethinking the kingdom

Alongside sal grows the Ashoka tree, particularly successful the bedewed mountainous regions of Odisha, present known arsenic Mahendragiri. Today, it is the authorities histrion of Odisha. In the Ramayana, Sita is held captive successful a plot afloat of Ashoka trees. This again points to an eastern-central Indian ecology. When Valmiki speaks of Kishkindha, the onshore of monkeys, and Lanka, the onshore of rakshasas, this is the southbound helium has successful mind, southbound of Arya-varta, a river-island probably. Not the land we telephone Sri Lanka today, but the forests and mineral-rich zones of cardinal India.

Ratanpur lies successful a scenery saturated with the earliest layers of the Ramayana story. Today, we talk of the Ramayana arsenic a nationalist epic, but the satellite it describes is acold older. The events it narrates beryllium to a representation that goes backmost astir 3,000 years, successful the Vedic play — adjacent though the substance itself was composed and consolidated astir 2,000 years ago, betwixt the Mauryan and Gupta empires.

The sala and Ashoka trees were intimately connected with Buddhist lore. Buddha dies betwixt 2 sala trees. He was calved nether the Ashoka tree. So, Ravana’s Lanka being linked to these 2 trees cannot beryllium a coincidence. It reflects the Brahmin-Buddhist struggle successful the post-Ashokan era.

Something melodramatic happens aft 1000 AD. The Cholas, locked successful struggle with Sri Lankan kings and babelike connected copper for their temple bronzes, statesman to place Sri Lanka arsenic Ravana’s Lanka. Cities specified arsenic Anuradhapura are plundered. Sinhaladvipa becomes equated with the rakshasa kingdom.

This thought is retrospectively reinforced by the Lankavatara Sutra, a Mahayana Buddhist substance that speaks of the Buddha visiting Lanka and teaching Ravana. The Lanka of this substance is symbolic and philosophical, not geographical Sri Lanka. But names stick, and memories shift.

Evolving gods

By the Vijayanagara period, astir 1500 AD, nether the power of Madhva Brahmins, hundreds of Hanuman temples were built crossed the Deccan. The Deccan itself becomes identified with Kishkindha, the onshore of monkeys. The older representation of Dandakaranya successful Chhattisgarh and cardinal India fades from fashionable consciousness.

And yet traces remain. River names specified arsenic Subarnarekha, cities similar Sonpur and Ratanpur, and section legends proceed to echo Ravana. The medieval Gond kings of this region, keen to separate themselves from Rajput lineages, minted coins claiming descent from Pulastya, an ancestor of Ravana himself. This happened astir the 15th and 16th centuries.

The multi-headed Ravana representation besides invites different comparison. From astir 500 AD, Mahayana Buddhism begins to picture Bodhisattvas with aggregate heads and arms, astir famously Avalokiteshvara. Early Buddhist images were restrained, with 2 arms and calm symmetry. Multiplicity enters Buddhist creation nether Hindu influence, drafting connected the thought of Purusha, the cosmic being with galore heads and galore limbs.

When we survey the Ramayana alongside sculptures specified arsenic the Ravana of Ratanpur, we spot a palimpsest. Beneath modern governmental narratives prevarication older memories of forests, rivers, rival faiths, shifting geographies, and evolving gods. The epic is not fixed. It remembers what we take to forget.

Devdutt Pattanaik is the writer of 50 books connected mythology, creation and culture.