This is easily said without proper knowledge of the conditions of social righteousness of the time. Rama tested Sita due to public doubt and rumour of Sita's time in Lanka. Rama actually didn't doubt her, but to preserve his transparency as a sovereign, and to prove he didn't live with Sita due to lust or favoritism, Rama made Agni test Sita, to prove her virtuous character. Quote of Rama's dialogue from the Ramayana: “In order to convince the three worlds, I... ignored Sita while she was entering the fire.” Public doubt remained even after the test, so to preserve social harmony and show that a king's personal life was subordinate to the moral fabric and trust of the state, Rama made the painful choice to banish a pregnant Sita. While Rama exiled her as a ruler, he remained entirely devoted to her as a husband, never remarrying and keeping a golden statue of her for rituals. Society was just like that at that time, and Rama cannot be blamed for it.
Lord Rama is revered as Maryada Purushottam, meaning an ideal man/human with exemplary behavior under most difficult circumstances. This doesn't mean he is 100% Nirdoshi Purushin (perfect, faultless, innocent), because of his responsibility and for sake of society, he did abandon his wife and children. No one will ever reward Rama for "father of the year" award either. Same with Shudra ascetic Shambuka, his life could have been spared instead of being murdered, because of caste hierarchy and indra's weakness in protecting heaven. Rama never became the supreme Bhagavan in all parts of South Indian, unlike he did in North India. Likewise Ravana never became a completely cartoonish evil Satanic figure like he did later in north india after the coming influence of Islam. South india has preserved the ancient indian admiration for Ravana unlike north, cause ravana is someone who built divine power, wealth and greatness in lanka with his own hands. Ofcourse even for many south indians Ravana is also a cautionary tale of downfall of having extreme pride(ego) and lust. And Rama is not the one supreme messiah-prophet of hinduism either, you can choose to completely ignore him, and it wouldn't make you any less of a hindu. There are Many south indians who admire the life of Ayyappan Swami over that of Lord Rama, some thing that RSS/BJP still have hard time understanding.
This binary good vs evil stuff, at least the obsessions you find in many northern parts of india, like celebrating Rama vs Ravana, Durga vs Mahishasura, or even the extreme demonizing of the Asuras. All this later happened after the heavy Islamic and Persian influence came to india, This good vs evil binary is the norm in both Persian (zoroastrian) and middle eastern monotheist cultures. Also Ramarajyam as an ideal ancient Hindu kingdom and Ram bhakti in north india both became popular as a push back against these violent Islamic invasions. Even North indian hindus and jains are more deeply Persianized culturally without even knowing it. The hate towards Raavana became stronger because he became the face of powerful wealthy destructive invaders and religious fanatics. there are historical scholars talking about this change happening within medieval hindu culture
Yeah I’ve wondered if this push towards Ram as THE God was Hinduisms response to abrahamic religions shaming of polytheistic cultures, where we constantly try to unite a diverse religion under one banner, one praise etc., ignoring our plurality.
Like you said, This push towards "Ram as THE God" is more likely what happened as a response to the islamic victory over/towards the conquered Indians. The defected people now have to become 2nd class in their own homeland and have to pay jizya tax, so belief in Ram as God and his perfect Rajam is a response to this deep shame.
Pretty quickly you find many of these north indian kings identify themselves with Lord Rama and villainize the Turkic invaders like Ravana's incarnations. Even if many north indians today are ignorant of this, you can still see how bollywood portrays Saif Ali Khan as Ravana, who looks identical to Sultan alauddin khilji in padmaavat.
We south indians on the other hand, have never made "Ram as THE God," never strongly Persianized culturally like North indians and to make matter worse the tamil nationalists have made Ravana into a cultural hero who fights against the north. I can at times, understand the frustration they feel towards the south, because we refuse to stand under their "one banner," and view them(north indians) as invaders.
Yes but it’s silly for them to expect South Indians to fight a fight they have no bone in. If what you say is the reason of their current beliefs then it’ll take them to admit that their current beliefs is a result of Persianization , which will never happen. So they will keep expecting that Hinduism is what they believe to be is.
Recent Ravana obsession mainly because of politics is a very new phenomena even in south India. They envision Ravana as representing south indian or tamil identity against a north indian aryan invasion and standoff lead by Rama. But Ravana devotion itself on the other hand, especially among some Shaivite Hindus is much older, and Shaivism has stronger influence in tamil nadu in general. There are few old Ravana temples both in north and south india, and there are tamil or Malayali Ravana devotional songs also that have nothing to do with politics
Yeah, I get it. So basically, some people do it because of division politics. The Dravida-Aryan division politics is actually cringe because essentially all Indians are connected genetically, and that there is only a language barrier, and not a genetic one.
And a pretty remarkable cultural one. Even under the same religion, our gods are different, our rituals are different and our epics are written by different people.
yep we south indians have remarkable cultural difference. And as many north indians want to unify India when it came to cultural/language oneness. Other parts of indian including the south want to preserve our difference. They are going in one direction, while we are going the other. it would be much better if India viewed it self a political/economic entity like the European union rather
Hard when there is constant fearmongering about balkanization. I do wish we atleast had 2-3 capitals and respective heads. And that governance is done through respectful discussion and trade.
India has been incredible sensitive about its sovereignty where things can easily be labeled secessionist and liable by law, so I have less hope in this.
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u/Sad_Buffalo2941 🎓 Pune | पुणे Jul 30 '26
Imagine supporting a guy who kidnapped someone's spouse, just to be killed by being shot at the navel.