Indian poem Ramayana. The poem "Ramayana" - a journey of thousands of years

Written in Vedic Sanskrit. The final version of the poem dates back to the 2nd century. The poem consists of 7 books or 24 thousand "shlokas", i.e. double verses. The word Ramayana can be translated as "The Fates of Rama" or "The Acts of Rama." The name Rama means Handsome or Handsome in Indian. The author is supposedly the famous ancient Indian sage Valmiki.

A few words about Valmiki. He lived in the 4th century BC. e. and was, oddly enough, a robber. But one day, on his life’s path, seven wise men met. They conquered Valmiki with their knowledge and he heeded their instructions. From that moment on, the life of the robber Valmiki changed radically. He went as a hermit to the mountains and meditated on the name of Ram for a long time. Legends say that Valmiki's meditation was so long that an anthill grew around him. That is why he was called Valmiki, i.e. “came out of the anthill.” After a strange meditation session with ants, Valmiki told the world the story of Rama and Sita. This is how the famous was born in an unusual way poem "Ramayana". By the way, Valmiki died during another meditation. He did not move for a long time and was eaten by ants. Alas. It's time for us to start talking about the Ramayana.

monkey king hanuman

I must say that poem "Ramayana" loved by the Indian people more than the Mahabharata. Perhaps this is due to the fairy-tale plot, or to Rama, everyone’s favorite of India.

The plot line of the popular poem is very similar to Pushkin’s “Ruslan and Lyudmila”. The main characters are Prince Rama, his beautiful wife Sita, the chief adviser to the king of the monkeys, the wisest Hanuman, and the ten-headed demon Ravana. It all started with the fact that the ten-headed Rakhshasa demon Ravana received invulnerability as a gift from the god Brahma. Only a human could kill the demon ruler of the island of Lanka. Taking advantage of this gift, Ravana committed outrages, which did not please the god Vishnu. Therefore, he decided to be reborn as a human and end the demon. Vishnu chose Prince Rama for this. From this moment the great adventures of the protagonist of the poem begin.

the demon Ravana, having 10 heads, could easily sing in chorus!

How many strange creatures Rama has to meet on his way! Here is the ugly sister of the demon Ravana, who falls in love with the prince and tries in every possible way to destroy his beautiful wife Sita. And Ravana himself, captivated by Sita’s beauty, decides to steal her, sending a deer with golden horns into the forests. And flying monkeys that help Rama find the location of his stolen wife. The scout monkey transforms into a cat, which finds an opportunity to meet the captive. The gods take part in the poem every now and then. For example, in the episode, after the great battle with the demon and the release of Sita from captivity, Rama suddenly accuses his wife of adultery in front of everyone and demands proof of her innocence. The fire god Agni comes to the defense of the faithful woman, preventing Sita from being burned alive.

Rama had blue skin color

It was an interesting turn of events when it seemed like the fairy tale had a happy ending! After all, the important mission was completed - the enemy Ravana was defeated with an arrow to the very heart, his beloved wife turned out to be faithful, and Rama was finally able to begin his duties as king. But the Indian epic is rich in surprises, like life itself! This time the people aroused in Rama a feeling of jealousy towards the beautiful Sita. As a result, the king rejects his wife, who is pregnant with their sons, forcing him to leave the palace. Sita goes into the forest to visit the hermits. She is patronized by the sage Valmiki (i.e., the author of the poem). Sita gives birth and raises Rama's sons with dignity. In the forest they dedicate to their father poem "Ramayana", which they tell Rama when they meet. Rama realizes his guilt and bitterly repents of his mistakes. However, having found his wife, instead of reuniting with her, he again demands proof of fidelity. Upset, Sita begs Mother Earth to accept her as the required evidence. The earth “opens up its abysses and receives it into its bosom.” Rama laments his own mistrust, but it is not in his power to return the past time. Sita left forever, proving to him once again her purity. Only in heaven are the spouses destined to meet again.

The Ramayana is undoubtedly one of the most interesting works of foreign classics. In my opinion, everyone should definitely read this book in order to become familiar with the ancient Indian epic and appreciate the splendor of the imagination of human thought. Fantasy lovers will surely enjoy double the pleasure of reading such a classic. In addition, this “fairy tale” is full of life wisdom, rich in surprises and overflowing with colors of emotions and feelings.

Ramayana (Sanskrit: रामायण, Rāmāyaṇa IAST “journey of Rama”) is an ancient Indian epic in Sanskrit, the author of which in the Hindu tradition is considered to be the legendary sage Valmiki, whose name is mentioned in Vedic literature as one of the teachers of Taittiriya-Pratisakhya. It is one of the most important sacred texts of Hinduism in the Smriti canon.

The Ramayana consists of 24,000 verses (480,002 words - about one-quarter of the text of the Mahabharata, or four times the length of the Iliad), divided into seven books and 500 songs called kandas. The verses of the Ramayana are composed in a meter of thirty-two syllables called anushtubh.

Seven books of the Ramayana:

1. Bala-kanda- a book about Rama's childhood;

2. Ayodhya kanda- a book about the royal court in Ayodhya;

3. Aranya-kanda- a book about the life of Rama in the forest desert;

4. Kishkindha-kanda- a book about the union of Rama with the monkey king in Kishkindha;

5. Sundara-kanda- “A wonderful book” about the island of Lanka - the kingdom of the demon Ravana, the kidnapper of Rama’s wife - Sita;

6. Yuddha-kanda- a book about the battle between the monkey army of Rama and the army of demons Ravana;

7. Uttara-kanda- “The final book.”

The Ramayana tells the story of the seventh avatar of Vishnu, Rama (one of the four simultaneous incarnations of Vishnu, the other three are his brothers), whose wife Sita is kidnapped by Ravana, the rakshasa king of Lanka. The epic highlights themes of human existence and the concept of dharma. The poem contains the teachings of ancient Indian sages, which are presented through an allegorical narrative combined with philosophy and bhakti.

Main characters

Rama is the main character of the poem. The eldest and beloved son of the king of the country Koshala Dasaratha and his wife Kaushalya. He is portrayed as the embodiment of dignity. Dasharatha was forced to yield to an ultimatum from Kaikeyi, one of his wives, and order Rama to relinquish his right to the throne and go into exile for 14 years.

Sita is the beloved wife of Rama, the daughter of King Janaki, “born not of man.” She is the incarnation of goddess Lakshmi, wife of Vishnu. Sita is portrayed as the ideal of female purity. She follows her husband into exile, where she is kidnapped by the Rakshasa king Ravana, ruler of Lanka. Rama and his allies rescue her from captivity by killing Ravana. Later she gives birth to Rama's heirs - Kusha and Lava.

Hanuman is a powerful vanara and the eleventh incarnation of the god Shiva (or Rudra), the ideal of devotional performance of duty of honor. Son of the wind god. Plays an important role in the return of Sita.

Lakshmana is Rama's younger brother, who went into exile with him. Represents the snake Shesha and the ideal of a faithful friend. He protects Sita and Rama all the time. He was forced by Sita (deluded by the rakshasa Maricha, who shouted before his death in the voice of Rama “O Sita! O Lakshmana!”) to leave her in order to find Rama, who had gone into the forest, as a result of which Ravana was able to kidnap Sita. He was married to Sita's younger sister Armila.

Bharata is the son of Dasaratha, brother of Rama. When Bharata learns that his mother Kaikeyi sent the heir to the throne Rama into exile and made him king, which caused the death of Dasaratha, grief-stricken due to the treachery of his wife, he rejects the illegally obtained power and goes in search of Rama. When Rama refuses to return from his exile, Bharata places Rama's golden sandals on the throne as a symbol that Rama is the true king and he is merely his viceroy. Portrayed as the ideal of justice.

Ravana - Rakshasa, King of Lanka. Depicted as having ten heads and twenty arms; If you cut off its heads, they grow back. From the creator god Brahma received a wonderful gift: for ten thousand years he could not be killed by either a god, a demon, or a beast. Even the gods are in awe of his power. In order to defeat Ravana, Vishnu incarnates in the form of a man - in Rama and his brothers. Ravana, the kidnapper of Sita, intends to make her his wife, whom, however, he does not inflict violence, wanting to achieve her favor through threats and persuasion, since he is under a curse: in case of violence against a woman, he will immediately die.

Emergence of the plot

In contrast to the Mahabharata, to which the epithets itihasa (legend, saga) and purana (epic) are attached, the Ramayana refers to kavya, that is, to artificial poems. It is usually assumed that the plot of the Ramayana is allegorical and depicts, under the guise of the exploits of Rama, the spread of the Aryan civilization to the south of India to the island of Ceylon; but it is not incredible that this allegorical legend was based on some ancient myth.

Albrecht Weber expressed the opinion that the plot of the Ramayana depicts the struggle between Buddhists and Brahmins, that the entire poem bears clear traces of its author’s acquaintance with Homeric poems (the abduction of Sita = the abduction of Helen, etc.) and that its modern edition did not appear earlier than the 3rd century. BC e. This view, however, found almost no support from anyone).

Christian Lassen thoroughly pointed out in his “Indische Alterthumskunde” (2nd ed. vol. II, 503) a number of features indicating that the basis of the Ramayana is in no way younger than the Mahabharata. This assumption is supported by the absence in the Ramayana of indications of the existence of Buddhism, already available in the Mahabharata, the geography of Aryan settlement, which was more limited in the Ramayana than in the Mahabharata, etc.

Jacobi comes to a similar conclusion. In his opinion, the ancient original of the Ramayana (subsequently revised several times) arose in Eastern Hindustan before the 5th century. BC e., perhaps in the 6th and even the 8th century, when the Mahabharata was just being composed. This is clear from the fact that the latter epic sometimes uses material from the Ramayana. The style and meter characteristic of both epics was put into use by the author of the Ramayana and became generally used. There is no noticeable Greek or Buddhist influence in the Ramayana. Shipping was still unknown to its author. The language of the Ramayana became the model for the “artificial poets” (kavis).

The Ramayana has come to us in several reviews or editions, presenting, in general, the same content, but often differing from each other in the placement of material and choice of expressions. Initially, it was probably transmitted orally and was written down only later, perhaps independently, in different places. They usually accepted the existence of three reviews - northern, Bengali and western, but their number is greater, and the manuscripts of the Ramayana that have reached us often represent strong deviations from each other. The Bengal review contains 24,000 slokas (more than 100,000 in the Mahabharata) and is divided into seven books, of which the last is a later addition. In addition to Valmiki's Ramayana, there is another poem with the same plot, of comparatively new origin and of smaller magnitude - the Adhyatma Ramayana (Adhyâtma-R.), attributed to Vyasa, but constituting, in essence, part of the Brahmanda Purana. Rama is portrayed here as more of a god than a man.

According to Hindu tradition, the Ramayana takes place in the Treta Yuga era, about 1.2 million years ago. Modern scholars date the Ramayana to the 4th century BC. e.

Bhagavad Gita.

« Bhagavad-gita", or simply "Gita"(Sanskrit: भगवद्‌ गीता, Bhagavad Gītā IAST “The Divine Song” or “Song of the Lord”) is a monument of ancient Indian religious and philosophical thought in Sanskrit, part of the sixth book of the Mahabharata, consists of 18 chapters and 700 verses. It is the basis of Hindu philosophy.

The Bhagavad Gita is often called the Gita Upanishad or the Yoga Upanishad, asserting its status as an Upanishad and its quedanta identity. In Hindu philosophy, along with the Upanishads and the Vedanta Sutras, the Bhagavad Gita is one of the three fundamental texts of Vedanta. Since the Bhagavad-gita is part of the Mahabharata, it is classified as a smriti scripture, but referring to the Bhagavad-gita as an upanishad gives it a status close to sruti. The poems, using rich metaphors, are written in traditional Sanskrit meter, which is usually sung, hence the name, which translates as "Divine Song".

The text of the Bhagavad Gita consists of a philosophical conversation between Krishna and Arjuna, which takes place on the battlefield of Kurukshetra just before the start of the Battle of Kurukshetra between the two warring clans of the Pandavas and Kauravas. Arjuna, a warrior and one of the five brother-princes of the Pandava clan, before the decisive battle falls into doubt about the appropriateness of the battle, which will lead to the deaths of many worthy people, including his relatives. However, his charioteer - Krishna - convinces Arjuna to take part in the battle, explaining to him his duty as a warrior and prince and expounding to him various philosophical systems of Vedanta and yoga practices, including karma yoga, which is declared the main path to moksha.

For many centuries, the Bhagavad Gita has been one of the most revered sacred texts and has had a great influence on the life and culture of Indian society. It also influenced Western culture, attracting the attention of such outstanding thinkers as Goethe, Emerson, Aldous Huxley, Romain Rolland and others. In Russia, they learned about the Bhagavad Gita in 1788, after it was published for the first time in Russian by N. I. Novikov.

As Russian Indologist S. D. Serebryany notes, researchers are unable to indicate either the exact year or even the century when the Bhagavad Gita was created, which is a common situation for Indian literature. Most researchers agree that the Bhagavad Gita was compiled several centuries BC. e. According to V.V. Lobach, “Bhagavad Gita” was created as an independent work in the 8th-7th centuries BC. e. and recorded in the III-II centuries BC. e. According to the Philosophical Encyclopedia, Bhagavad Gita appeared in the 9th-6th centuries BC. e. Russian religious scholar E. A. Torchinov was of the opinion that the Bhagavad Gita was created at the end of the 1st millennium BC. e. and codified in the III-IV centuries. In the Bhagavad-gita itself, Krishna says that the knowledge contained therein was first transmitted to humanity more than two million years ago. According to Hindu beliefs and in accordance with chronology based on astronomical calculations, the Battle of Kurukshetra took place at the end of the 4th millennium BC. e. Indologist Arthur Basham notes that according to most popular Hindu beliefs, the Battle of Kurukshetra took place in 3102 BC. e. However, taking into account the existing evidence, this dating seems impossible to him. According to Basham, based on archaeological and literary evidence, it can be assumed that the Battle took place no earlier than the 9th century BC. e.

Based on differences in poetic style and purported outside influences (such as Patanjali's Yoga Sutras), many scholars believe that the Bhagavad-gita was incorporated into the Mahabharata at a later period and had previously existed as "something like an independent 'Upanishad'." S. D. Serebryany notes that in the text of the Gita there is “a certain number of expressions, lines and even entire stanzas that coincide with the expressions, lines and stanzas of the Upanishads,” and according to R. N. Dandekar, in the Gita they were developed many ideas of the main Shaivite philosophical text "Svetashvatara Upanishad". Proponents of these hypotheses believe that the first chapter, which acts as an introduction to the main part of the Bhagavad Gita, serves as a bridge between the epic material of the Mahabharata and the remaining chapters of the Bhagavad Gita, which are purely philosophical in content.

In the long process of folding the Gita, S. D. Serebryany identifies several stages:

According to the Russian Indologist G. M. Bongard-Levin, the authors of the Bhagavad Gita were influenced by Buddhism

“The Acts of Rama” is an ancient Indian epic consisting of 7 books and approximately 24 thousand couplets-shlokas; attributed to the legendary sage Valmiki (Vabmiki).

The epic poem consists of 24 thousand verses (slokas), combined into 7 books (kandas):

1. Bala Kanda- a book about the childhood of Rama.
2. Ayodhya Kanda- a book about the royal court in Ayodhya.
3. Aranya Kanda- a book about the life of Rama in the forest desert.
4. Kishkindha Kanda- a book about the union of Rama with the monkey king at Kishkindha.
5. Sundara Kanda- "A wonderful book" about the island of Lanka - the kingdom of the demon Ravana, the kidnapper of Rama's wife - Sita.
6. Yuddha Kanda- a book about the battle between the monkey army of Rama and the army of demons of Ravana.
7. Uttara Kanda- "The Final Book".

The popularity of the Ramayana is enormous, as evidenced by the abundance of its versions (the most important are the so-called Bombay, Western and Bengali); her influence on the later literature of India is incomparable; in dramatic and metrical forms, in Sanskrit and in modern Indian languages, episodes of the Ramayana were endlessly developed, individual images were unfolded - the images of Rama, his devoted brother Lakshmana, the brave and dexterous monkey knight Hanuman and especially the meek Sita, who became a symbol of marital fidelity and pure femininity.

The Ramayana is set in the Treta Yuga era; some interpret this as the 3rd millennium BC. e.

Once a lord

In the kingdom of the Rakhshasa demons on the island of Lanka there was a ten-headed Ravana. He received from the god Brahma the gift of invulnerability, thanks to which no one except a person could kill him, and therefore humiliated and persecuted the heavenly gods with impunity. For the sake of destroying Ravana, the god Vishnu decides to be born on earth as a mere mortal. Just at this time, the childless king of Ayodhya Dasharatha performs a great sacrifice in order to find an heir. Vishnu enters the womb of his eldest wife Kaushalya, and she gives birth to the earthly incarnation (avatar) of Vishnu - Rama. Dasaratha's second wife, Kaikeyi, simultaneously gives birth to another son, Bharata, and the third, Sumira, gives birth to Lakshmana and Shatrughna.

Already as a young man, having gained fame for himself by many military and pious deeds, Rama goes to the country of Videha, whose king, Janaka, invites suitors to a competition, vying for the hand of his beautiful daughter Sita. At one time, Janaka, plowing a sacred field, found Sita in his furrow, adopted and raised her, and now destined her to be the wife of the one who bends the wonderful bow given to him by the god Shiva. Hundreds of kings and princes try in vain to do this, but only Rama manages to not only bend the bow, but break it in two. Janaka solemnly celebrates the wedding of Rama and Sita, and the couple live for many years in happiness and harmony in Ayodhya in the Dasharatha family.

But then Dasharatha decides to proclaim Rama as his heir. Having learned about this, Dasaratha Kaikeyi's second wife, incited by her maid, the evil hunchback Manthara, reminds the king that he once swore to fulfill any two of her wishes. Now she expresses these desires: to expel Rama from Ayodhya for fourteen years and anoint her own son Bharata as heir. In vain Dasaratha begs Kaikeyi to renounce her demands. And then Rama, insisting that his father remain true to his word, goes into forest exile, and Sita and his devoted brother Lakshmana voluntarily follow him. Unable to bear the separation from his beloved son, King Dasharatha dies. Bharata is supposed to ascend the throne, but the noble prince, believing that the kingdom rightfully belongs not to him, but to Rama, goes to the forest and persistently convinces his brother to return to Ayodhya. Rama rejects Bharata's insistence, remaining faithful to his filial duty. Bharata is forced to return to the capital alone, but as a sign that he does not consider himself a full-fledged ruler, he places Rama’s sandals on the throne.

Meanwhile, Rama, Lakshmana and Sita settle in a hut they built in the Dandaka forest, where Rama, protecting the peace of the holy hermits, exterminates the monsters and demons that bother them. One day, Ravana's ugly sister Shurpanakha appears at Rama's hut. Having fallen in love with Rama, out of jealousy she tries to swallow Sita, and the angry Dakshmana cuts off her nose and ears with a sword. In humiliation and rage, Shurpanakha incites a huge army of rakshasas led by the ferocious Khara to attack his brothers. However, with a shower of irresistible arrows, Rama destroys both Khara and all his warriors. Then Shurpanakha turns to Ravana for help. She calls on him not only to avenge Khara, but, having seduced him with Sita’s beauty, to kidnap her from Rama and take her as his wife. On a magic chariot, Ravana flies from Lanka to the Dandaku forest and orders one of his subjects, the demon Maricha, to turn into a golden deer and distract Rama and Lakshmana away from their home. When Rama and Lakshmana, at the request of Sita, follow the deer into the forest, Ravana forcibly puts Sita in his chariot and carries her through the air to Lanka. The king of the kites, Jatayus, tries to block his path, but Ravana mortally wounds him, cutting off his wings and legs. In Lanka, Ravana offers Sita wealth, honor and power, if only she agrees to become his wife, and when Sita contemptuously rejects all his claims, he concludes her into custody and threatens to punish her with death for her obstinacy.

Not finding Sita in the hut, Rama and Lakshmana, in great sorrow, set out in search of her. From the dying kite Jatayus they hear who her abductor was, but they do not know where he disappeared with her. Soon they meet the monkey king Sugriva, dethroned by his brother Valin, and Sugriva's wise adviser, the monkey Hanuman, the son of the wind god Vayu. Sugriva asks Rama to return the kingdom to him, and in return promises help in searching for Sita. After Rama kills Valin and restores Sugriva to the throne, he sends his spies to all directions of the world, instructing them to find traces of Sita. The monkeys sent to the south, led by Hanuman, manage to do this. From the kite Sampati, the brother of the deceased Jatayus, Hanuman learns that Sita is in captivity in Lanka. Pushing off from Mount Mahendra, Hanuman ends up on the island, and there, shrinking to the size of a cat and running around the entire capital of Ravana, he finally finds Sita in a grove, among Ashoka trees, guarded by fierce Rakshasa women. Hanuman manages to secretly meet with Sita, convey Rama's message and console her with the hope of speedy liberation. Hanuman then returns to Rama and tells him about his adventures.

With a countless army of monkeys and their bear allies, Rama sets out on a campaign to Lanka. Hearing about this, Ravana gathers a military council in his palace, at which Ravana’s brother Vibhishana, in order to avoid the destruction of the rakshasa kingdom, demands that Sita be returned to Rama. Ravana rejects his demand, and then Vibhishana goes over to the side of Rama, whose army has already set up camp on the ocean shore opposite Lanka.

Following the instructions of Nala, the son of the heavenly builder Vishwakarman, the monkeys build a bridge across the ocean. They fill the ocean with rocks, trees, stones, along which Rama's army is transported to the island. There, at the walls of Ravana's capital, a fierce battle begins. Rama and his faithful companions Lakshmana, Hanuman, Sugriva's nephew Angada, the king of the bears Jambavan and other brave warriors are opposed by hordes of rakshasas with Ravana's military leaders Vajradamshtra, Akampana, Prahasta, Kumbhakarna. Among them, Ravana's son Indrajit, versed in the art of magic, turns out to be especially dangerous. So, he manages, having become invisible, to mortally wound Rama and Lakshmana with his snake arrows. However, on the advice of Jambavan, Hanuman flies far to the north and brings to the battlefield the top of Mount Kailash, overgrown with medicinal herbs, with which he heals the royal brothers. One by one the Rakshasa leaders fall slain; Indrajit, who seemed invulnerable, dies at the hands of Lakshmana. And then Ravana himself appears on the battlefield and enters into a decisive duel with Rama. During this fight, Rama cuts off all ten heads of Ravana one by one, but each time they grow back. And only when Rama hits Ravana in the heart with an arrow given to him by Brahma, Ravana dies.

The death of Ravana means the end of the battle and the complete defeat of the Rakshasas. Rama proclaims the virtuous Vibhishana as the king of Lanka, and then orders Sita to be brought. And then, in the presence of thousands of witnesses, monkeys, bears and rakshasas, he suspects her of adultery and refuses to accept her again as his wife. Sita resorts to divine judgment: she asks Lakshmana to build a funeral pyre for her, enters its flame, but the flame spares her, and the fire god Agni, who rises from the pyre, confirms her innocence. Rama explains that he himself did not doubt Sita, but only wanted to convince his warriors of the impeccability of her behavior. After reconciliation with Sita, Rama solemnly returns to Ayodhya, where Bharata happily gives him his place on the throne.

This, however, did not end the misadventures of Rama and Sita. One day, Rama is informed that his subjects do not believe in Sita’s good character and murmur, seeing her as a corrupting example for their own wives. Rama, no matter how hard it is for him, is forced to submit to the will of the people and orders Lakshmana to take Sita to the forest to the hermits. Sita with deep bitterness, but steadfastly accepts the new blow of fate, and she is taken under the protection of the sage and ascetic Valmiki. In his monastery, Sita gives birth to two sons from Rama - Kusha and Lava. Valmiki raises them, and when they grow up, he teaches them the poem he composed about the deeds of Rama, the same “Ramayana”, which later became famous. During one of the royal sacrifices, Kusha and Lava recite this poem in the presence of Rama. By many signs, Rama recognizes his sons, asks where their mother is, and sends for Valmiki and Sita. Valmiki, in turn, confirms Sita's innocence, but Rama once again wants Sita to prove her purity of life to all the people. And then Sita, as a final testimony, asks the Earth to embrace her in her maternal embrace. The earth opens up before her and takes her into its bosom. According to the god Brahma, now only in heaven are Rama and Sita destined to find each other again.

Retold by P. A. Grintser. Source: All masterpieces of world literature in brief. Plots and characters. Foreign literature of ancient eras, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance / Ed. and comp. V. I. Novikov. - M.: Olympus: ACT, 1997. - 848 p.

Hidden meaning

Main characters

Sita- beloved wife of Rama, daughter of King Janaka, “not born of man.” She is the incarnation of goddess Lakshmi, wife of Vishnu. Sita is portrayed as the ideal of female purity. She follows her husband into exile, where she is kidnapped by the Rakshasa king Ravana, ruler of Lanka. Rama and his allies rescue her from captivity by killing Ravana. Later, she gives birth to Rama's heirs - Kusha and Lava.

Hanuman- a powerful vanara and the eleventh incarnation of the god Shiva (or Rudra), the ideal of devoted fulfillment of duty of honor. Son of the wind god. Plays an important role in the return of Sita.

Lakshmana- Rama's younger brother, who went into exile with him. Represents the snake Shesha and the ideal of a faithful friend. He spends all his time protecting Sita and Rama. He was forced by Sita (embarrassed by the rakshasa Maricha) to leave her to search for Rama, who had gone into the forest, as a result of which Ravana was able to kidnap Sita. He was married to Sita's younger sister Armila.

Bharata- son of Dasharatha, brother of Rama. When he learns that his mother Kaikeyi sent the heir to the throne Rama into exile and made him king, which caused the death of Dasaratha, heartbroken by the treachery of his wife, Bharata rejects the illegally obtained power and goes in search of Rama. When Rama refuses to return from his exile, Bharata places Rama's golden sandals on the throne as a symbol that Rama is the true king and he is merely his viceroy. Portrayed as the ideal of justice.

Ravana- Rakshasa, king of Lanka. He is depicted as having ten heads and twenty arms; if you cut off his heads, they grow back. From the creator god Brahma received a wonderful gift: for ten thousand years he could not be killed by a god, demon or beast. Even the gods are in awe of his power. In order to defeat Ravana, Vishnu incarnates in the form of a man - in Rama and his brothers. Ravana is the kidnapper of Sita, intending to make her his wife, but does not inflict violence on her, wanting to achieve her favor through threats and persuasion, since he is under a curse: in case of violence against a woman, he will instantly die.

Some Hindus believe that their supreme god Vishnu descended from heaven to earth (incarnated in human form) a nth number of times. Moreover, sometimes he existed simultaneously in several people, and sometimes he came to our mortal world not alone, but in the company of his wife, the goddess Lakshmi.

The Ramayana is a story about the joint adventures of the divine couple, where Vishnu is represented in the incarnation of King Rama, and Lakshmi is represented as the royal wife Sita.

So, there lived and lived an evil and cunning demon Ravana, who had ten heads and a penchant for eating people.

And then one day this radish had insidious and rather banal plans to enslave heaven, earth and the underworld. To implement them, Ravana pretended to be an innocent lamb for ten thousand years, practiced severe asceticism, for which he received from his great-grandfather Brahman (creator of entities) invulnerability from gods and people.

Having become invulnerable, Ravana began to unleash chaos: he seized power over Lanka (Sri Lanka), created his own demonic kingdom, gobbled up people in batches and forced the gods from heaven to serve in his house. If the matter concerned only people, probably no one would have even scratched himself, but the gods, who really did not like working, began to cry to Vishnu and ask him to deal with the lawless man in his own way. Vishnu thought, agreed, and descended to earth - he was born in the form of the mortal prince Rama.

Further on in the course of the play (and it consists of 24,000 verses - four times more than the “Illiad”!!!) Rama grows up, marries Sita (in whom the divine Lakshmi was incarnated) and, following a slander, goes into voluntary exile in the deep forest wilds. Having gotten wind of this, the villain Ravana kidnaps Sita, hides her in a secret place and, like the Serpent Gorynych to Vasilisa the Beautiful, persuades the queen to get married. Sita, obviously not wanting to exchange the awl for soap, stubbornly refuses.

Ravana gives her a month to think about it and leaves. Sita, held hostage, is found by the monkey god Hanuman. He frees the captive and takes her to the camp of Rama, who has already waged war against the kidnapper of his wife.

In a fierce battle, Rama's troops win a crushing victory, the evil Ravana is defeated, but there is no happy ending. Rama, instead of rejoicing at the miraculous salvation of his wife, begins to doubt the latter’s marital fidelity (otherwise, Ravana has ten heads, how can a woman resist such a “dazzling” handsome man!!!). He demands that his better half undergo a test of fire to confirm his innocence.

Sita, like a humble woman of the East, enters the fire and comes out unharmed. Everyone is happy and lives happily ever after for 10,000 years. However, even after 10,000 years, Rama’s “loyal subjects” cannot forget the story of Sita’s kidnapping and call their king a cuckold behind his back. In response to this gossip, Rama will not come up with anything smarter than to drive his pregnant wife out of sight.

The poor thing settles in the forest, she gives birth to two sons, who, having matured, try to get even with their cruel father. They go to war against their father, defeat him, and... reconcile with him. Rama, looking at his sons, begins to feel intensely nostalgic and calls his exiled wife back to the palace.

But the courtiers, whom Sita did not please in some way, again begin to demand confirmation of her innocence by fire. At this moment, the woman’s patience comes to an end, she asks her mother Earth to accept her body, and the spirit of the sufferer leaves for the heavenly spheres. After some time, Rama also leaves this world, and with this the Indian series called “Ramayana” (finally!) comes to an end.

A shadow dances on the wall,
snow is dancing outside the window,
Someone's gaze in the dark mirror.
Leap night on your machine
Weaves a forgotten ancient pattern.
On the tops of the mountains, closing the loop
Endless circle
The four-faced god is dancing...
Kali Yuga...
Illet (Natalia Nekrasova)

Today we will talk about two legends with a paradoxical fate. Despite the fact that an entire civilization has grown and lives on their basis, most of us are familiar with them at best by hearsay. These stories are certainly fascinating, but too complex for European perception. And yet, without them, the world's collection of great legends would be incomplete. Let's talk about two famous epics of Ancient India - the Mahabharata and the Ramayana.

BOOK ABOUT EVERYTHING IN THE WORLD

The Mahabharata, or translated as The Great Tale of the Descendants of Bharata, should be the envy of all fantasy epic writers. They cannot write so much in their entire lives, unless with the involvement of a whole platoon of literary blacks. This grandiose canvas consists of one hundred thousand poetic lines. The Mahabharata is four times longer than the Bible and seven times longer than the Iliad and Odyssey combined.

Its authorship is attributed to the semi-mythical poet Vyasa, who is also called the compiler and editor of the Vedas, the main sacred books of Hinduism. He, according to legend, was the ancestor of the heroes of the Mahabharata, observed the events of the poem personally, and outlived many of its heroes. The scribe who recorded the poem was Ganesha himself, the elephant-headed god of wisdom and enlightenment. He agreed to this secretarial position on the condition that Vyasa would dictate this whole thing to him without interruption - and the poet really did it.

However, the Mahabharata would not have been so huge if it had been reduced only to the plot. This book says about itself that it has everything in the world, and in this it almost does not exaggerate. In addition to wars and intrigues, you can find many hymns and songs, discussions on philosophical, religious and political topics. The main plot occupies only ten books out of eighteen, and even that is constantly interrupted by inserted legends.

TRUE ARYANS

The central story in the epic tells of the rivalry between the noble Pandava family and the evil Kaurava family for the Kuru kingdom with its capital at Hastinapura. It all started with the fact that Duryodhana, the eldest of the Kauravas, won his kingdom from King Yudhishthira of the Pandava family... in dice. True, not forever, but for thirteen years, after which the kingdom must be returned.

Of course, the treacherous Kauravas did not fulfill this condition. Thus begins the war, the outcome of which was the grandiose 18-day battle of Kurukshetra. The Pandavas gained the upper hand, but at a terrible cost: they lost all their friends and relatives in the battle. It is with this catastrophe that the countdown to Kaliyuga, the “Iron Age” of human fall, begins.

In the war for the kingdom, the decisive role was played by the hero Krishna, an avatar (earthly incarnation) of the god Vishnu himself, the Guardian of the Universe. Krishna offered the parties a choice - his army or himself, but unarmed. The greedy Kauravas chose an army and miscalculated. Krishna became the charioteer of one of the Pandavas, the great warrior Arjuna, and taught him many military tricks. And most importantly, when Arjuna wanted to give up the fight, seeing his friends and relatives in the enemy’s ranks, it was Krishna who, with a fiery speech, convinced him of the need to fight. Krishna's preaching, Bhagavad-gita, is nothing but a condensed exposition of all the principles of Hinduism.

Despite the seemingly clear distinction between villains and heroes, the Mahabharata is not at all black and white. Even the treacherous Kauravas are depicted as brave warriors, and the noble Pandavas win the battle through dishonest tricks and are haunted by remorse for the rest of their lives. For the author of the poem, what is important is not which side the hero takes, and not even the means by which he achieves his goal, but how he fulfilled the duty of a warrior and ruler. After all, this is the only thing that matters for karma and subsequent lives, or even complete liberation from a series of reincarnations - the transition to Nirvana.

If you remove the gods and miracles from the Mahabharata, what remains is a completely plausible story of the struggle for the throne, an epic about war, similar to the Iliad. According to modern historians, the plot of the struggle between the Kauravas and Pandavas grew out of a real war between the alliances of tribes that inhabited Northern India in the Ganges Valley: the Kurus and the Panchalas. These are the tribes of the Aryans - newcomers from the west who conquered the peninsula in the 2nd millennium BC. Having assimilated some of the legends of the indigenous people, the Aryans reworked them in the spirit of their own ethical and religious views, borrowed something from their neighbors and guests - this is how the Vedas and subsequently the Mahabharata began to take shape.

The kingdom of Kuru with its capital in the city of Hastinapur, for whose throne the heroes of the poem are fighting, was located in the area of ​​​​modern Delhi in the 12th-9th centuries BC. The land of Kuru (Kurukshetra) was considered sacred: the most educated Brahmin priests who composed the Vedas and the first Indian epic lived here. Around the 9th century BC, judging by the genealogies of the rulers, the battle on the Kuru field could have taken place.

The bloody battle must have killed many men of the ruling Kshatriya caste. This probably led to troubled times in India at that time, which they hastened to call the beginning of the joyless Kali Yuga. So, perhaps, there is no need to panic about the “terrible era” in which we supposedly live. It was common for ancient peoples to consider themselves the center of the Universe, and consider all the troubles that happened to them to be universal. Take, for example, the biblical stories about the Tower of Babel and the Flood: rumors about their global nature were greatly exaggerated.

BY THE WAYS OF THE BALAMUT

Although the first translations of the Mahabharata appeared in Europe in the 18th century, they did not cause much excitement. Indian philosophy in the West was perceived separately from Indian legends about noble knights and beautiful ladies. Philosophy has always had fans, especially in the twentieth century, but “action films,” oddly enough, were much less interesting. Probably because European folklore also had an abundance of such goodness.

It’s funny, but the Mahabharata achieved real popularity among the masses thanks to all kinds of ufologists and cryptohistorians. They searched and managed to find evidence in the descriptions of gods and heroes that they were actually aliens from other planets or representatives of a powerful lost civilization. The epic of Indologist historian Dmitry Morozov “Twice-Born” (1992) is built on one of these pseudoscientific concepts. This book, written in a ponderous language typical of esotericism, promotes the fantastic idea that the heroes of the Mahabharata possessed supernatural powers thanks to the ability to control “brahma” - for Morozov this is not the name of God, but the name of universal energy. To be fair, you can find in it quite reliable information about the life, philosophy and way of life of the ancient Indians.

Given the rarity with which science fiction writers turn to Indian mythology, Henry Lyon Oldie’s epic novel “The Black Troublemaker” (1997) turns out to be especially valuable - a cult book that still causes fierce controversy. She not only gave the fandom the catchphrases “It’s good, and it’s very good!” and “The law has been observed, and the benefit is undoubted,” but also showed the world a fundamentally new look at the events of the Mahabharata.

According to Oldie, the Pandavas were not noble warriors at all - rather unfortunate madmen, and the Kauravas were completely victims. Both of them simply found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time - at the turn of the era, when the relationship between gods and people was changing. In the world of Bharata, people could become equal to the gods by accumulating, through humility and suffering, a sufficient amount of “heat-tapas” - spiritual energy.

But everything changed when Krishna came to Earth. His full name - Krishna Janardana - is translated from Sanskrit as “black troublemaker.” He is an avatar of Vishnu, a minor god, who learned to derive tapas not from suffering, but from universal love. Vishnu dreamed of becoming the only god, which led to a cataclysm that changed the universe. Oldie will return to the theme of the “divorce of Heaven and Earth” in the “Achaean dilogy” (“There Must Be One Hero” and “Odysseus, Son of Laertes”).

With all the merits of The Black Troublemaker (bright, lively characters, wonderful style, erudition and sense of humor of the authors), judging the Mahabharata only by it is the same as judging Tolkien by the Black Book of Arda. However, we have not written anything so close to the Indian epic and at the same time so far from it.

Critics called Ian Macdonald's novel River of the Gods (2004) a “Mahabharata” in cyberpunk style. The book takes place in India in the near future, which has broken up into several small states, one of which is called Bharat. Here there are sarisins (short for “self-developing artificial intelligence”), intelligent machines that are superior to humans in intellectual development. And as if this were not enough, an asteroid is also approaching the Earth, carrying a small but very formidable black hole. It seems that Brahma decided to die along with this world ahead of schedule... There is little left of Indian mythology in “River of the Gods,” but with the multidimensionality of the narrative and the subtlety of the details of the described world, MacDonald is definitely related to the great Vyasa.

It seems that we still have to wait for a full literary treatment of the legend of the Pandavas and Kauravas. As well as a truly interesting film adaptation. Of course, Bollywood has filmed the main Indian epic and individual stories from it countless times. The most famous adaptation is the 94-episode television series Mahabharata, directed by Ravi Chopra in the 1980s and becoming India's most successful television show of all time. For those who don't have the patience for that many episodes, English director Peter Brook's version of The Mahabharata (1989) is a six-hour film with an international cast. However, criticism did not rate it highly.

Prince Siddhartha, better known as Gautama Buddha, is considered by Hindus to be the penultimate avatar of Vishnu. Thus, Buddha was included in the Hindu pantheon. Roger Zelazny was certainly familiar with this concept - it was the inspiration for one of his most famous novels, the Hugo Award-winning Prince of Light (1967).

The action of "Prince of Light" takes place on another planet, colonized by earthlings. Having defeated the indigenous inhabitants - energy entities (“demons”), people remain to live here. They are ruled by mutants with paranormal abilities, like the X-Men. They become the rulers of the planet and organize society on it according to the model of the ancient Indian one. Karma and the transmigration of souls are completely real things here: the electromagnetic essence of a person (“soul”) can be transferred to another body, which one is determined by the “gods” based on the results of a brain scan.

The “Gods” try to keep all other people at the level of the ancient Indians for as long as possible, holding back progress. All except Sam, one of the First, who, wanting to give people the knowledge of the gods, recreates Buddhism. The other gods do not like this at all - which means that the reader is in for a fascinating and poetic story about battles, intrigue, love and betrayal. It is Indian only in its surroundings, but it perfectly conveys the style of Zelazny’s ancient epic.

DATE WITH FRAME

When King Yudhishthira was depressed about his lost kingdom, he was told the story of the legendary couple, Rama and Sita, as a consolation. This story was later called the “Small Ramayana”, as opposed to the complete “Ramayana” (“Journey of Rama”), a poem that is not inferior to the “Mahabharata” in popularity in India and its environs.

All the peoples inhabiting India and their neighbors have their own versions of the Ramayana. The names of her heroes have become household names. The plot of this fairy-tale story attracts interpreters like a magnet, and even Europeans understand it more clearly than the intricate and eloquent epic of the Mahabharata. There was also some religious content here: Prince Rama was the seventh avatar of the god Vishnu, just preceding Krishna.

The author of the Ramayana is considered to be the sage Valmiki, who lived in the 4th century BC. This was a very colorful personality. He was a robber until he met seven sages who set him on the right path. While meditating on the name "Rama", he fell into a trance, in which he spent several years. During this time, an anthill formed around his body, for which he received his name - “Valmiki” literally means “who came out of the anthill.” After awakening, he either composed or wrote down a poem about Rama and Sita, based on the retelling of another sage. This amazing man also passed away in an original way: while meditating, he attained perfect knowledge and froze in place, and his body, which had become unnecessary, was eaten by the same ants.

It would seem that the story about Rama, included in the Mahabharata, should indicate that the Ramayana was created earlier. However, some realities of the poem suggest that it appeared later, after the Vedic period, and was included in the Mahabharata as an inserted episode, of which there are many. This may indicate that the Ramayana was pure fiction, a “historical fantasy” about legendary times, written, however, based on realities contemporary to the author. The fairy-tale plot of the poem only confirms this hypothesis, although Rama is believed to be a real historical figure.

“DID YOU PRAY AT NIGHT, SITA?”

The king of the Rakshasa demons, Ravana, received from the god Brahma the gift of invulnerability from gods and demons - and abused it, conquering almost the entire world with its help. God Vishnu decided to end this. For this, Vishnu incarnated in a mortal - Prince Rama. He grew up to be a valiant warrior, and divine power helped him win the competition for the hand of the beautiful princess Sita.

Later, due to a conflict over succession to the throne, Rama, along with Sita and his faithful brother Lakshmana, went into exile in the forest, losing the throne to his half-brother Bharata. There Sita was kidnapped by Ravana, captivated by her beauty. Rama, along with his brother brother, the monkey king Hanuman, rushed to search. With the help of an army of monkeys, he defeated Ravana, and upon returning home he became king.

However, the drama doesn't end there. At first, Rama, doubting Sita's loyalty, subjected her to the test of fire, and later was forced to expel her from the palace because the people did not believe her innocence. Instead of their father, Sita's sons were raised by the same sage Valmiki. Many years later, Rama met his ex-wife and children again. But instead of reuniting with his family, the restless king for the third time demands proof of his wife’s fidelity. She prayed that Mother Earth would accept her into her arms if she was innocent. The earth opened up and swallowed Sita. Now, according to Brahma, Rama will meet her only in heaven.

It is the complicated story of Sita's loyalty that may indicate that the Ramayana was written later than the Mahabharata. This view of family relationships is in no way compatible with the polyandry described in the Mahabharata. At the same time, as befits the epic, Rama’s actions are not condemned: he is an ideal example of following the path of dharma, even though he is an avatar of the god Vishnu. His reign, according to legend, lasted ten thousand years, and it was an era of universal peace and prosperity.

EPICS AND COMICS

Despite the fact that the Ramayana simply begs for a high-budget film adaptation, its plot most often ends up in cartoons and comics. However, Indians film their favorite story often and with pleasure: the most famous is their 78-episode television series “Ramayana” (1988-1989), as well as its 2008 remake. And in 2010, the Indian division of Warner Brothers released the full-length cartoon “Ramayana: An Epic.”

This is not the only way Indians have made the ancient epic interesting for the younger generation. In 2006-2008, the American-Indian publishing house Virgin Comics published the luxurious graphic novel “Ramayana 3392”. Here Rama, the prince of the last human kingdom, battles the demonic invaders, mainly their ruler Ravana. There is a lot of dynamic action in this story, although the philosophy - in particular, the concept of dharma - is presented in it rather weakly. But, despite this, the comic received excellent reviews from critics who appreciated the original reading of the epic and the work of the artists.

Rama's colorful brother-in-arms, the monkey king Hanuman, received many of his own plot threads, in which he covered almost all of Asia. In China and Japan he is known under the name Sun Wukong; he became a character in the famous novel “Journey to the West” by Wu Cheng’en, ​​as well as its numerous film adaptations. Among them are the Sayuki anime and the upcoming new Chinese adaptation, which will be written by Neil Gaiman.

The Mahabharata and Ramayana deserve attention for the fact that for many millennia they have served as a source of spiritual culture for the second most populous country in the world. Perhaps, thanks to globalization, the whole world will get to know these stories better and will be impressed, if not by the philosophy, then at least by the scale of the events, the beauty of the style and the exciting plots. Many young science fiction fans will do well to know that the word “avatar” was not invented by James Cameron.