In the Hindu religion , Rama is an avatar (‘descent’ from God) of the god Visnu . She was born in India to free her from the yoke of the demon Ravana.
According to the ancient Garuda-purana text (4th century n. E.), Rama is the seventh avatar of Vishnu , but seven centuries later, the Bhagavata-purana of Vopadeva (11th century) claimed that Rama is the eighteenth avatar.
Summary
[ hide ]
- 1 Sanskrit name
- 1 Other names
- 2 Iconography
- 3 Dating
- 1 Legendary date of birth
- 4 Legend
- 5 Sources
Sanskrit name
- rāma, in the AITS system (international alphabet for the transliteration of Sanskrit ).
- राम, in devanagari script from Sanskrit.
- Pronunciation:
- [ramá] in sanskrit. [one]
- [ráma] or [rám] in the current languages of India ( Hindi , Bengali , Urdu , Marathi , etc.).
- Etymology: ‘pleasure’. [one]
Other names
Rama also has other names such as:
- Ramachandra: branch: ‘pleasure’ and chandra: ‘moon’, in the ancient Sanskrit language .
- Rághava: ‘descendant of Raghu’ (ancient mythical king).
- Raghúpati: ‘leader of the Raghu dynasty’.
- Rāja Rāma (rayarám): ‘King Rama’.
- Sitapati: ‘master of Sītā’ (his wife).
- Dasarathi: ‘son of King Dásarath’
- Dasaratha-suta: ‘son of Dásarath’.
Iconography
The god king Rama is usually represented as a young man with light blue or light green skin, dressed in a yellow “dhoti” (tunic-pants typical of the Indians ), with his hair tied in a bun to the head in the manner of the ascetics. In one of his hands he can hold a bow, with the other he makes the “mudrá” (Hindu gesture) of promise of protection.
Its legends are told in the Ramaiana book of the Hindu religious and poet Valmiki (3rd century BC, and in Tulsi Das’s Rama-charita-manasa (1532-1623),
In the Bhágavata-purana (11th century) the god Rama is said to have lived at the beginning of the treta-iugá . That iuga started 864,000 years before kali-iugá (which started in 3102 a. N. E.).
Rama is praised in various plays, movies, and even comics.
Dating
In hymn 93 of mandala 10 of the Rig-veda (the oldest text in India, from the middle of the 2nd millennium B.C.E. ) he mentions a “rishi” (‘Hindu religious’) named Ramah:
pra tad duḥśīme pṛthavāne vene pra rāme vocamasuremaghavatsu
I have sung this [hymn] to Dujsima, Prithavana, [the rishi] Vena, the [rishi] Rama, the asuras [‘noble’], and the king.
Rig-veda 10, 93, 14 [2]
Hymn 110 of the same mandala 10 of the Rig-veda mentions as its author that same “Ramá, son of Yamádagni”.
In the Atharva-veda (several centuries more modern than the Rig-veda ) the night is called ramí ( ramá in feminine), possibly in the sense of ’cause of rest’, and also as’ black ‘, or’ colored Dark’.
Until the 3rd century BC. n. and. No mention is found of a god or king named Rama (although there were already lists of hundreds of Hindu gods ).
The first two texts that mention the legends of the god King Rama – and misleadingly portray them as “ancient” – are the Majabharata and the Ramaiana (both presumably written in the 3rd century BCE ).
In the fourth century n. E. , the Garuda-purana , in describing ten major avatars of the god Visnu, mentions that Rama is the seventh avatar , but seven centuries later, the Bhagavata-purana of Vopadeva (11th century) stated that Rama is the eighteenth avatar.
Legendary date of birth
The author of the Ramaiana – following a common usage in other Hindu hagiographic texts – chose for the moment of the birth of his hero a combination of stars that would generate the best astrological chart :
tataḥ cha dvādaṣemāse chaitre nāvamike tithau
nakṣatreaditidaivatye svochchasamstheṣu pañchasu
graheṣu karkaṭe lagne vākpatāvīndunā saha
Translation word for word :
tataj cha: that too;
duadashé masé: in the twelfth month;
chaitre navamike tithau: from chaitra the ninth day;
nakshatre aditi daivatie: star of the day whose ruling deity is Aditi;
panchasu grajeshu: of five stars;
suá: on his own;
uccha samstheshu: high position;
karkaṭe lagne: in Cancer ;
vak patí: from words, the Lord;
Indunā saja: the Moon together.
Translation : On the ninth day of the chaitra month [April-May], when the dominant star of the day was Punarvasu (whose ruling deity is the goddess Aditi), asterism is on the ascendant, and the five planets (Sun, Mars, Jupiter , Saturn and Venus) were in their highest position, when the Lord of Speech (Jupiter) was rising with the Moon in Cancer, and when the dawn was advancing.
Valmiki Ramaiana (1, 18, 8 and 9), 3rd century BC. n. and. [3]
Legend
The most powerful ape man Jánuman , the greatest devotee of the god Rama (who can be seen inside the chest of the great devotee).
King Dásharatha de Aiodiá had no offspring despite having three wives; that is why he performs a fire sacrifice in order to have children. Four were born to him: with his wife Kausalya he had Rama; with Kaikeyi, Bhárata, and with Sumitri, Láksman and Shátrughna.
In the Yoga-vasistha text it is said that Prince Rāma, after touring the country, feels completely disappointed after experiencing the supposed reality of the world. The King, very concerned about the immense disappointment of his son, seeks consolation among various sages until he reaches the sage Vasistha; He replies that Rama’s dispassion is a sign that the prince was ready to achieve spiritual enlightenment, since he has begun to understand the spiritual truths that are the cause of his confusion and for which he needs confirmation. From this, in court a speech and long conversation begins between the sage Vashista and Prince Rama; fact that will last several days.
Later in the Ramaiana text , we are told of the miraculous birth of Sita, and how Rama got his hand by tightening and still breaking the immense bow of the god Shiva .
Then we are told how Rama’s evil stepmother Kaikeyi wished to see her own son Bhárata on the throne. So she created an intrigue, by which Rama would be banished to the forest for fourteen years. His wife Sita and Lákshman accompanied him.
During his stay in the forest, the demon Ravana, the ten-headed Sri Lankan king , abducted Sita and took her to his palace.
While Rama and Lákshman search for her, they meet the ape-man Jánuman (‘who has [a great] jaw’), the minister of Sugriva (‘much neck’), king of monkeys exiled by his brother, the malicious Vali. These talking monkeys make a pact with Rama. He kills Vali and Sugriva puts his army at his disposal. The entire next chapter talks about the heroism of Jánuman, who jumps to the island of Sri Lanka to discover Sita.
Later the war between the monkeys and the demons is narrated. To access the island with his army, Rama bridges the Palk Strait (which separates the Indian continent from the island of Sri Lanka). The most important demons die at the hands of the monkey bosses, and finally, Rama kills Ravana. After recovering Sita, the gods appear to Rama and reveal his status as God, lord of the universe.
Rama represents, according to Hindu thought, the highest degree of virtuosity, both as king and as husband. To set an example for humanity and protect his good name, he banishes his wife Sita due to the gossip of the Hinduists from Ayodhya . She – epitome of the chaste wife who is burned in the incineration of her husband – unable to live without Rama is swallowed up by the Earth.
