Laksmana rekha in Ramayanam
ks...@power.ee.ndsu.nodak.edu
I was reading the Aranya Kanda of a telugu (vachana) translation of
Valmiki Ramayana and did not find any mention of Laksmana drawing a line
imploring Sita not to cross it when he went to find Rama (after the maya mriga
shouts : hey sita, hey Laksmana). After being scolded by Sita that he was alway
in the lookout for an opprtunity like this, he goes in search of Rama.
I have the gone through the Valmik Ramayanam itself (with text and
Hindi translation) and did not find any such mention in any of the Hindi
translations (my Sanskrit is not good enough - a very understatement). Somebody
here has Thulasidas's Ramacharita Manas and there seems to be no mention of it
in that book either. Most of us have been fed by that story from our childhood.
My question is: how did that story got current? It seems to be prevelant
all over India and it is not in the original Ramayanam and not in the
Ramacharit Manas which most of the Hindi speaknig people would have heard the
story of Rama from.
K. Sankara Rao e-mail ks...@power.eee.ndsu.nodak.edu
Department of Electrical Engineering
North Dakota State University
Fargo, ND 58105 USA
Phone: (701)237-7217 (o)
(701)235-9912 (h)
Seetamraju Udaybhaskar
> I was reading the Aranya Kanda of a telugu (vachana) translation of
>
> I have the gone through the Valmik Ramayanam itself (with text and
>
> My question is: how did that story got current? It seems to be prevelant
My childhood pastime, was to bug my grandparents and their siblings
(whenever the latter visited us) to tell us ramayana & mahabharatam
and the various puranaas.
Their versions were always short -- (and since my generation was fed
on Amar Chitra Katha), we always pointed out `holes' in their stories
and asked them for `that version'(translated from telugu). of the
story just told. They obliged obviously.
The holes rivalled the population of india, in sheer size. What was
intersting, the `set of holes' was the same, no matter who told the
story. Some of the very famous ones are :-
1. sita & agni-parikhsa
2. babhruvaahana
3. jataayu-raavana fight
4. how hanuman approached rama & lakshmana
5. How krishna counter sisupaala's sins etc...
You will find a bewildering variety. I havent read the `originals'.
But (most of us) I have been fed only the politically correct versions
of the mahaa-granthaas. That much is JUST TOO CLEAR...
Seetamraju Udaya Bhaskar Sarma
(email : seetam @ ece7 . eng . wayne . edu)
Lets see if someone has the answer to sri sankara_rao gaaru's
question...