"The Secrets of the Humankind" -
Bankimchandra was annoyed with
so called “orientalist” explanation of ancient Indian literature as well as contemporary anglicised academic approach towards history of India. His mimicry
of those foreign scholar’s notes in the following article shows the depth of
his displeasure.
A Review of Ramayana:
(By a critic from abroad)
The book “Ramayana” surprised me - I read this
book starting from the cover page till the end. The poems are at some places
almost comparable to the works of some inferior European poets. This is
however, not a small achievement for a Hindu poet. The writer could certainly
become a good poet if he took a little more effort.
The overall purpose of this book is to describe
the triumph of the apes. Apes are probably the ancestors of the non-Aryan
Himachal residents called Bonerwal. The conquest of Lanka and the slaughter of
Rakshasa clan by the apes is the subject of these poems. Aryans were uncivilized
and the Non-Aryans civilized at that time.
Ramayana contains some morals. The poet tried to
explain the vice of not being intellectual. A stupid old king had four wives.
The ill-effect of polygamy soon came into sight. The intelligent Kaikeyi
succeeded to send the eldest son of the king, born of her co-wife’s womb to the
forest by convincing the uncultivated king. All she had done was to ensure the
prosperity of her own son. And the eldest son, having the innate laziness of an
Indian, went to the forest following his old father’s words, never trying to
establish own authority over the kingdom. I would suggest you to compare him to
the vigorous Turk Aurangzeb; you will be able to realise without difficulty,
why Mohammedans exercised authority over Hindus for so long. Ram took his young
wife along while going to forest – the result turned out to be also as
expected.
Sita’s activity proves very well how promiscuous
Indian women are! As soon as she left home, she started looking for another
man. She deserted Ram to enjoy the luxury
in the Kingdom of Lanka with Ravan. The foolish Ram roamed on the streets
wailing for her. This is reason Hindus do not bring their wives out of home.
Laksman is an example of another impurity in the
Hindu character. His characterisation tells us about his sluggishness. He could
be a successful fellow if he was born in some other community, but he never
tried to be one. He always followed Ram, but never strive for self-development.
This shows the in-born lethargy of Indians.
Bharat is another primitive fool. He returned the
kingdom to his eldest brother after accessing the throne. In fact, Ramayana is
the history of inactive people. Establishing this truth is another purpose of
the writer. As Ram lost his wife, seeing his distress, the non-Aryans (apes)
killed Ravan along with his entire family, snatched Sita back from them and
brought her back to Ram. But the brutality of an uncivilized clan never ends.
One day Ram attempted to burn his wife to death out of rage. She was saved
miraculously that day. Later he brought her to own country, but lived happily
only for a couple of days there. His in-born savage anger was lit up again by a
lame rumour and that made him drive her out of home. After a few years,
suffering from sheer poverty, Sita begged for his help. Her sight made Ram so
angry that he buried her under the ground. This is normal incident among savage
communities. This is the core story of Ramayana.
Who has written this story - is not easy to
determine. According to legends – this was written by Valmiki. But a doubt persists
that whether there was any author named Valmiki. The Hindu word Valmiki finds
its origin in the word Valmik, i.e. ant-hill. In my opinion, this book was
found in some ant-hill. Let’s see what conclusion we reach from this.
I have found a Bengali book named Ramayana. This
is written by Krittibas. Both the books have many similarities. So it’s not
impossible that Valmiki Ramayana is copied from the book by Krittibas. I agree
to the fact that it is not easy to determine whether Valmiki has copied from
Krittibas or Krittibas has copied from Valmiki. In this case, the name “Ramayana”
itself can be taken as evidence to verify the truth. The word does not mean
anything in Sanskrit, but there is a Bengali meaning. It seems that the word “Ramayana”
is a pejorative term derived from the word “Rama Yaban”. Only the alphabet “Y”
is dropped. Probably Krittibas had written this book first, adopting the
life-story of Rama-Yaban or Rama-Musalman. Later someone translated it into
Sanskrit and did hide a copy under an ant-hill. Finally it was named Valimiki
as it was found is Valmik.
We have published a positive criticism of the
book, but could not totally praise it. There are many errors in the book;
especially while this is full of vulgarity. The story of Sita’s marriage, Ravan’s
eloping with Sita – are not these all vulgar? The sentiment of misery is rare
in Ramayana. Misery is found only in the part where the apes built a bridge
over the sea. There is little heroic sentiment expressed in the act of eating
by Laksman. Some sentiment of humour is expressed using the character of seers
like Vashistha. The seers were really witty – they made a lot of jokes on
religious issues.
The language of Ramayana is simple and explicit –
still there are many mistakes. There is nothing about warriors (yoddha) in one
of its chapters and therefore the chapter should have been named No-warrior
tale (Ayoddhakanda). But the author had written Ayodhyakanda instead of
Ayoddhakanda. This kind of incorrect Sanskrit is frequently seen in old
Sanskrit texts. That is why modern European scholars should be the best people
to take charge of the language called Sanskrit.
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