The Ramayna and the Mahabharta
After the Vedic Age in India, when the Vedas were written, came what is called the Epic Age. It is called the Epic Age because two great epics, that is long poems telling us the stories of great heroes, were written then. These two books were the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, which you know.
During the Epic Age, the Aryans had spread out all over Northern India up to the Vindhya mountains. All this land was called 'Aryavarta', as I have told you. What is the United Provinces now was called the Madhyadesha, the middle country. Bengal was called Vanga.
Now there is an interesting fact which you may like to know. If you look at the map of India and imagine where Aryavarta must have been, between the Himalayas and the Vindhya mountains, you will see it is rather like a crescent moon. Therefore Aryavarta was also called the land of the Moon. Indu means moon and so Aryavarta was Indu- land.i The Aryans were very fond of the crescent moon. They considered all crescent-shaped places especially holy. Many of their great cities were crescent-shaped, like Benares. Even in Allahabad, I wonder if you know that the Ganga makes a crescent. The Ramayana, as you know, is the story of Ramchandra and Sita and of their fight againstRavana, king of Lanka, that is now Ceylon. The original story is written in Sanskrit by Valmiki. Many other versions were written later in other languages. The best known is Tulsidas's III Hindi, called the 'Rama Charita Manas'.
In the Ramayana, we are told that Rama was helped by monkeys in South India and Hanuman was the great hero of the monkeys. It may be that the story of the Ramayana is really a story of the fights of the Aryans against the people of the south whose leader was Ravana.
The Ramayana is full of beautiful stories but I cannot refer to them here. You must read them for yourself. The Mahabharata came long after the Ramayana. It is a much bigger book. It tells not of the fight between Aryans and Dravidians but of a great fight between Aryans and Aryans. But apart from the fight, it is a wonderful book, full of great ideas and noble stories. Above all, it is dear to all of us because of that jewel of a poem which it contains-the Bhagavad Gita.
These were the books written in India thousands of years ago. Who but the greatest of men could have written them? And although they were written so long ago, they live today in India and every child knows of them and every grown-up is influenced by them.
During the Epic Age, the Aryans had spread out all over Northern India up to the Vindhya mountains. All this land was called 'Aryavarta', as I have told you. What is the United Provinces now was called the Madhyadesha, the middle country. Bengal was called Vanga.
Now there is an interesting fact which you may like to know. If you look at the map of India and imagine where Aryavarta must have been, between the Himalayas and the Vindhya mountains, you will see it is rather like a crescent moon. Therefore Aryavarta was also called the land of the Moon. Indu means moon and so Aryavarta was Indu- land.i The Aryans were very fond of the crescent moon. They considered all crescent-shaped places especially holy. Many of their great cities were crescent-shaped, like Benares. Even in Allahabad, I wonder if you know that the Ganga makes a crescent. The Ramayana, as you know, is the story of Ramchandra and Sita and of their fight againstRavana, king of Lanka, that is now Ceylon. The original story is written in Sanskrit by Valmiki. Many other versions were written later in other languages. The best known is Tulsidas's III Hindi, called the 'Rama Charita Manas'.
In the Ramayana, we are told that Rama was helped by monkeys in South India and Hanuman was the great hero of the monkeys. It may be that the story of the Ramayana is really a story of the fights of the Aryans against the people of the south whose leader was Ravana.
The Ramayana is full of beautiful stories but I cannot refer to them here. You must read them for yourself. The Mahabharata came long after the Ramayana. It is a much bigger book. It tells not of the fight between Aryans and Dravidians but of a great fight between Aryans and Aryans. But apart from the fight, it is a wonderful book, full of great ideas and noble stories. Above all, it is dear to all of us because of that jewel of a poem which it contains-the Bhagavad Gita.
These were the books written in India thousands of years ago. Who but the greatest of men could have written them? And although they were written so long ago, they live today in India and every child knows of them and every grown-up is influenced by them.
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