Homeric Question of Mahabharata and Ramayana

Homeric Question of Mahabharata and Ramayana Jaspreet Kaur October 25,2020 The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India, the other being the Ramayaṇa. The religious and cultural life of the whole of the Indian sub-continent and much of the rest of Asia has been deeply influenced by the two great epic poems. Of the two the Mahabharata is in essence the older, its nuclear story having been transmitted from the shadowy period following the composition of the Rig Veda, the oldest literature of India. A few of the names of rulers, sages and priests mentioned in the Mahabharata also occur in sources of the later Vedic period, and the story of the epic may have developed around traditions of a great battle which took place about 900 B.C. But with the passing centuries the account was so enlarged and developed by the introduction of new characters and incidents that its historical kernel cannot now be established. There is even some reason to believe that the divine hero Krishna, who plays such an important role in the story as we now have it, was grafted into the poem, and had no part in the original martial tradition out of which it developed. From references in other Sanskrit texts, it seems that the story, in a form not very different from that which we now know, was current in northern India a century or two before our era and perhaps as early as 400 B.C. (Arthur L. Basham) The plot of the Mahabharata is a complicated one. Like the Greek stories of the Trojan War out of which emerged the Iliad, and like the cycle of Germanic myth and legend which crystalized into the Nibelungenlied, the Indian epic tells of a bitter quarrel which developed into a war of extermination. (Arthur L. Basham) Mahabharata narrates the struggle between two groups of cousins in the Kurukshetra War and the fates of the Kaurava and the Paṇḍava princes and their successors. The Ramayana The epic, traditionally ascribed to the Maharishi Valmiki, narrates the life of Rama, prince of the legendary kingdom of Kosala. Mahabharata contains philosophical and devotional material, such as a discussion of the four "goals of life" or puruṣartha. Among the principal works and stories in the Mahabharata is the Bhagavad Gita. Ramayana is also considered a sacred book. But the Mahabharata as we have it contains more than the poetic account of a legendary war. It is replete with interpolations of all kinds, which were obviously introduced long after the main narrative was composed. The longest of these is the Santi Parvan, the twelfth of the 18 sections or books into which the epic is divided...Here the slow death of the wounded Bhishma, the elder statesman of the Kauravas, is made the pretext for a long series of didactic passages on many aspects of polity, ethics and religion…Undoubtedly the most important interpolation of the Mahabharata is the Bhagavad-Gita, the long religious poem which has become the most influential text of modern Hinduism. Of all works of Sanskrit literature it is probably the most widely known outside India, and it has been translated into many languages and read by millions who know nothing else of the epic poem which contains it. (Arthur L. Basham) The second of the great epics, the Ramayana, differs from the Mahabharata both in theme and in character. The Ramayana is an account of the adventures of an almost supernatural hero, embroidered with wonders of every kind, and written in formal courtly language. According to Basham, “for a European parallel we should look not to the Iliad or even to the Aeneid, but to such works as Wolfram's Parzifal or perhaps Ariosto's Orlando Furioso.” It tells of the righteous prince Rama, who is unjustly exiled by his father, Dasaratha, king of Ayodhya. Accompanied by his wife Sita and his loyal younger brother Lakshmana he takes refuge in the wild forests of central and southern India, where the three have many adventures, the most exciting of which is the capture of Sita by Ravana, the demon king of Ceylon, and her ultimate rescue by the brothers, helped by an army of monkeys. The epic has many passages of drama and pathos, and shows considerable psychological insight. It inculcates the virtues of courage, loyalty, faith, forgiveness and fellowship. The Ramayana does not contain very lengthy interpolations, and in style and content it gives a much greater sense of unity than does the Mahabharata. Moreover, its length is less than a quarter of that of the other epic. The composition is more literary in character, and many similes and metaphors suggest classical courtly Sanskrit poetry of the kind written by Kalidasa. Lengthy descriptive passages punctuate the narrative, and these include beautiful word-pictures of the seasons of the Indian year, such as became formal and regular features of the later Sanskrit kavya or courtly epic. (Basham) In the Vedic tradition, Ramayana and Mahabharata are called Itihasa or history. Together they form the Hindu Itihasa. ("Ramayana | Summary, Characters, & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 18 February 2020.) These are also categorized as Smriti texts. Smriti, literally "that which is remembered" are a body of Hindu texts usually attributed to an author, traditionally written down, in contrast to Śrutis (the Vedic literature) considered authorless, that were transmitted verbally across the generations and fixed. Smriti is a derivative secondary work and is considered less authoritative than Sruti in Hinduism, except in the Mimamsa school of Hindu philosophy. The Smrti literature is a corpus of diverse varied texts. This corpus includes, but is not limited to the six Vedangas (the auxiliary sciences in the Vedas), the epics (the Mahabharata and Ramayana), the Dharmasutras and Dharmashastras, the Arthasashastras, the Puranas, the Kaavya or poetical literature, extensive Bhasyas (reviews and commentaries on Shrutis and non-Shruti texts), and numerous Nibandhas (digests) covering politics, ethics (Nitisastras), culture, arts and society. Valmiki is celebrated as the harbinger-poet in Sanskrit literature. The epic Ramayana is attributed to him, based on the attribution in the text itself. He is revered as Adi Kavi, the first poet, author of Ramayana, the first epic poem. The Valmiki Ramayana is dated variously from 500 BCE to 100 BCE or about co-eval with early versions of the Mahabharata. Ramayana is composed of about 480,002 words, being a quarter of the length of the full text of the Mahabharata or about four times the length of the Iliad. At about 24000 verses, it is a rather long poem and, by tradition, is known as the Adi Kavya (adi = original, first; kavya = poem). While the basic story is about palace politics and battles with demon tribes, the narrative is interspersed with philosophy, ethics, and notes on duty. While in that other Indian epic, the Mahabharata, the characters are presented with all their human follies and failings, the Ramayana leans more towards an ideal state of things: Rama is the ideal son and king, Sita the ideal wife, Hanuman the ideal devotee, Lakshman and Bharat the ideal brothers, and even Ravana, the demon villian, is not entirely despicable. Traditionally, the authorship of the Mahabharata is attributed to Vyasa. There have been many attempts to unravel its historical growth and compositional layers. The bulk of the Mahabharata was probably compiled between the 3rd century BCE and the 3rd century CE, with the oldest preserved parts not much older than around 400 BCE. The original events related by the epic probably fall between the 9th and 8th centuries BCE. The text probably reached its final form by the early Gupta period (c. 4th century CE). The Mahabharata has been described as "the longest poem ever written". At about 1.8 million words in total, the Mahabharata is roughly ten times the length of the Iliad and the Odyssey combined, or about four times the length of the Ramayaṇa. It is not uncommon in mythology to create elaborate stories around historic heroic figures to elevate them to the level of gods who have time and again formed the basis for the development of religious sects. In Hindu mythology the scene is slightly different where popular stories have been woven around Vedic themes that had nothing to do with history. The great Epic story “Mahabharata” (Mbh) which has influenced the life and culture in the Indian subcontinent for over 2200 years is probably another such example. So far all archeological excavations (Ghosh, A. Encyclopedia of Indian Archeology, New Delhi 1989), at some of the important places mentioned in the Epic have yielded nothing, which can corroborate the story. However, most textbooks on Indian history date the Epic around 950 BC. The recent discovery of large ruined cities belonging to probably ‘the Harappan civilization’1, (1900-3000 BC) along the bed of the now dried up Ghaggar River, and a submerged site (believed to be ~1500 BC) at Dvaraka, off the coast of Gujarat by S. R. Rao (1999), has encouraged many scholars to push Mbh to greater antiquity2. (S.S.N. Murthy) From early literature it appears that the story of Mbh was known to people by 450-600 BC (Brockington, J. Epic Threads. On the Sanskrit Epics, Oxford University Press, New Delhi 2000). Since the entire Epic revolved around a great war, there is a possibility that the Epic is actually an exaggerated version of a small battle, which may have taken place during the Vedic period. The basic plot of the Mahabharata is taken from the Rig Vedic “Battle of Ten Kings”. The author(s) have used this event and added creative mythological writing. This Battle of Ten kings has been dated by scholars to be between 14 to 10th C BC. This was a battle involving various tribes including the Bharata tribe, who were said to be the winners. Hence the name Mahabharata. These many episodes, both narrative and didactic, seem to have been incorporated into the text of the Mahabharata by various editors in the course of the five centuries between the Maurya and Gupta empires, from about 200 B.C. to A.D. 300. By about A.D. 500 the full epic existed in something like its present form. A terminal date may be established from the lists of tribes and peoples which occur here and there in the text. These include the Hunas (the Hephthalites or White Huns), who could hardly have been known to the Indians until about A.D. 400, when they had established themselves in Bactria, but they do not include other peoples such as the Gurjaras, who first appear on the scene in the sixth century. (Arthur L. Basham) S.S.N.Murthy also highlights the use of number five, in 81 contexts and in total over a 100 times in the Mahabharata. He adds: “It is clearly apparent that the composer(s) has/have been obsessed with the number ‘five’, and had tried to insert it in the story where ever and however possible with, of course some theme in the background… One can trace this obsession to the Vedas where it occurs about 100 times and in about 24 different contexts... Therefore, the composer must have seen some sacredness in that number. The obsession could even be spiritual in nature, as many a time the number was used in a spiritual context… it is clear that the composer was more concerned about the spiritual aspect and hence, we have to seriously doubt the historicity of the matter presented in the Epic.” According to Prof. B. Lal, the Mahabharata, as available now, (as an epic, a prabandhakavya) comprises over 100,000 verse, but earlier it consisted of 24,000 verses and called the Bharata. Still earlier, it had only 8,000 verses, called the Jaya. Results of Prof. B. Lal’s archaeological excavations at sites related to the Mahabharata revealed the lowest common denominator as the ‘Painted Grey Ware culture.’ He has derived the year of the War to be approximately 860 – 900 BCE, based on archaeological findings and literature reviews. Prof. B. Lal also refutes the time line of 3000 BCE, as none of the sites associated with the Mahabharata story were in existence – be it Hastinapura, Indraprastha or Mathura. He also refutes this by citing the timeline of 24 rulers from Parikshit, who ascended the throne after the War, to Udayana who ruled around 500 BCE. This gives an average of 108 years per ruler: 3102-500 = 2602, divided by 24 =108. This average per ruler is near impossible. The general average being of around 15 years. As mentioned in the texts, it was during the time of Nichakshu that the capital was shifted from Hastinapura to Kausambi. Nichaksu was the 5 th ruler in succession from Parikshit (Parikshit was a Kuru king. According to the Mahabharata and the Puranas, he succeeded his grand uncle Yudhishthira to the throne of Hastinapur, after Pandavas renounced the world), who ascended the throne after the War, and Udayana was the 24th. It is well known that Udayana was a contemporary of Buddha who passed away in 487 BCE. Udayana may have ruled around 500 BCE. With 15 years as an average per ruler, the total reign of 24 rulers would be approximately 360 years. If this number is added to 500 BCE, when Udayana was ruling, the date of the War will be 860 BCE. Dawarka, an ancient city associated with Krishna has been the most talked about underwater settlements within Indian marine archaeology. As the legend goes, Krishna, the most powerful personality in Mahabharat, is said to have founded the city, in a place with the same name at the Devbhoomi Dwarka district in Gujarat’s west coast. Krishna Vasudeva probably did exist, and may have ruled the now underwater city which sank for various reasons including global warming, like the city of Alexandrea in Egypt. Marine archaeological explorations have thrown light on a number of structures of different shapes, stone anchors and other artefacts. The exploration has found sandstone walls, a grid of streets and remains of a sea port, some 70 feet beneath the sea. However, the most common pictures shared of the underwater city have been false. These images are of an underwater memorial reef near Key Biscayne in Miami, Florida in United States of America called the Neptune Memorial. It is the largest man-made reef in the world. Two lion statues mark the entrance to the Neptune Memorial. The official website of the Neptune Memorial Reef has many more photos of the same statue. People who share these pictures also claim that the city was submerged around 3000 BC, around the same date that is used to date the MB battle using the planetary positions, which is 3102 BC. However, the National oceanographic Institute located in Goa has dated these submerged ruins to around 1500 BC. As per the NIO website: “Offshore exploration of Dwarka, initiated in 1982, has resulted in recovery of a large number of stone blocks. Among several semicircular structures that can be noticed, a few are widely scattered… Evidently, Dwarka was a very active port town during medieval period. The dates of these anchors are assigned between 10th century to 14th century AD.” Regarding Bet Dwarka, the website says: “Bet Dwarka Island, also known as Bet Shankhodha, is situated in the Gulf of Kutch. Our team has carried out onshore and inter-tidal zone explorations and a few trial trenches were laid to trace a proper cultural sequence. The most potential sites, where a large number of antiquities were recovered are Bet Dwarka-I, II, VI, and IX. The findings of Bet Dwarka may be divided into two broad periods: Protohistoric period which includes seal, two inscriptions, a copper fishhook and late Harappan pottery and the Historical period consisting of coins and pottery. Recently, Roman antiquities including sherds of amphorae and a lead ingot and lead anchors were found. There is also an indication of a shipwreck of Roman period in Bet Dwarka waters.” The NIO website says: “Two systematic excavations have been carried out by two different respected organizations such as Deccan College Pune under the direction of H.D. Sankalia in 1963 and he dated the earliest settlement to 2nd century BC whereas the excavation undertaken by S.R. Rao from Archaeological Survey of India in 1979-80 suggested the date of earliest settlement to 14th century BC. However, there was no confirmation with absolute dating method for this period… The underwater explorations in Dwarka waters yielded a large number of scattered stone structures which are well dressed and lying in 3 to 6 meter water depth. Though similar structures are also noticed in inter tidal zone of Dwarka during low tide. Along with these structures a large number of stone anchors have also been found. Based on detailed analysis of the finding it is suggested that these are the part of an ancient harbour. However, in absence of any absolute date from offshore region, it is difficult to assign any date to these structures.” On 19 May 2001, India's Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Science and Technology division (NDA), Murli Manohar Joshi, announced that the ruins of an ancient civilization had been discovered off the coast of Gujarat, in the Gulf of Khambhat. The site was discovered by National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) while they performed routine pollution studies using sonar, and was described as an area of regularly spaced geometric structures. It is located 20 km from the Gujarat coast, spans 9 km, and can be found at a depth of 30–40 meters. In his announcement, Joshi represented the site as an urban settlement that pre-dates the Indus Valley Civilization. Further descriptions of the site by Joshi describe it as containing regularly spaced dwellings, a granary, a bath, a citadel, and a drainage system. However it was later on 22 May, reported that the discovery has not been dated and the discovery (for example, great baths) resembles the Harappan civilization dating 4,000 years ago. Furthermore, the Indus civilization port Lothal is located at the head, Gulf of Khambhat. A follow-up investigation was conducted by NIOT in November 2001. One of the main controversies surrounding the GKCC is the dated piece of wood. Dr. D.P. Agrawal, chairman of the Paleoclimate Group and founder of Carbon-14 testing facilities in India stated in an article in Frontline Magazine that the piece was dated twice, at separate laboratories. The NGRI in Hyderabad returned a date of 7190 BC and the BSIP in Hannover returned a date of 7545-7490 BC. Some archeologists, Agrawal in particular, contest that the discovery of an ancient piece of wood does not imply the discovery of an ancient civilization. Agrawal argues that the wood piece is a common find, given that 20,000 years ago the Arabian Sea was 100 meters lower than its current level, and that the gradual sea level rise submerged entire forests. Another controversial issue is the artifacts retrieved from the site during the various excavations. It is disputed that many of the items that have been identified as artifacts by the NIOT investigators are actually man-made. Instead their artificial nature is contested and they are argued to be stones of natural origin. The Gulf of Khambhat was formed by a major rift that resulted in a down sliding of the Khambhat region. The area is very tectonically active today, and several faults can be found in the gulf. Periodic earthquakes also occur here. This knowledge has led several archeologists to state that the site is not in a secure enough context to be reliably dated. Because of the tectonic activity and strong currents, these archeologists claim that there is not sufficient stratification to be sure the recovered artifacts can be associated with the site. NIOT returned for further investigation in the Gulf from October 2002 to January 2003. During these excavations, NIOT reported finding two paleochannels flanked by rectangular and square basement-like features. The most recent work in the Gulf of Khambhat took place from October 2003 to January 2004 and was primarily a geologic study. One of the major findings from this investigation concerns the orientation of sand ripples at the site. NIOT researchers claim that there are two sets of ripples visible at the site; one set is a natural feature formed by tidal currents, whilst they say the other set has formed in relation to underlying structural features. Many debates also exist on which happened before, though the general consensus is that Mahabharata predates Ramayana. By tradition, it is believed Ramayana was in Treta Yug which is the second age. And Mahabharata happened in Dwapar Yug, the third age. However, the general cultural background of the Ramayana is one of the post-urbanization period of the eastern part of North India while the Mahabharata reflects the Kuru areas west of this, from the Rigvedic to the late Vedic period. Nowhere in the surviving Vedic poetry there is a story similar to the Ramayana of Valmiki. According to the modern academic view, Brahma and Vishnu, who according to Baal Kand was incarnated as Rama, are not Vedic deities, and come first into prominence with the epics themselves and further during the 'Puranic' period of the later 1st millennium CE. Also, in the epic Mahabharata, there is a version of the Ramayana known as Ramopakhyana. This version is depicted as a narration to Yudhishthira. Books two to six form the oldest portion of the epic, while the first and last books (Baal Kand and Uttara Kand, respectively) are later additions: style differences and narrative contradictions between these two volumes and the rest of the epic have led scholars since Hermann Jacobi to the present toward this consensus: the author or authors of Baal kand and Ayodhya kand appear to be familiar with the eastern Gangetic basin region of northern India and with the Kosala, Mithila and Magadha regions during the period of the sixteen Mahajanapadas, based on the fact that the geographical and geopolitical data accords with what is known about the region. As Dr A.K. Ramanujan tells the story, the number of versions of the epic which have existed in India and the rest of south-east Asia for the past 2,500 years or more is simply "astonishing". Though Valmiki's Sanskrit poem Ramayana is the most influential among Indians, Ram's story is available in at least 22 languages, including Chinese, Laotian, Thai and Tibetan. Many of these languages have more than one telling of the epic. Dr. Ramanujan writes: “Thus, not only do we have one story told by Valmiki in Sanskrit, we have a variety of Rama tales told by others, with radical differences among them.” He further adds: “In the West, we generally expect translations to be "faithful," i.e. iconic. Thus, when Chapman translates Homer, he not only preserves basic textual features such as characters, imagery, and order of incidents, but tries to reproduce a hexameter and retain the same number of lines as in the original Greek—only the language is English and the idiom Elizabethan. When Kampan retells Valmiki's Ramayana in Tamil, he is largely faithful in keeping to the order and sequence of episodes, the structural relations between the characters of father, son, brothers, wives, friends, and enemies. But the iconicity is limited to such structural relations. His work is much longer than Valmiki's, for example, and it is composed in more than twenty different kinds of Tamil meters, while Valmiki's is mostly in the sloka meter… in terms of basic elements such as plot, it is filled with local detail, folklore, poetic traditions, imagery, and so forth—as in Kampan's telling or that of the Bengali Krttivasa. In the Bengali Ramayana, Rama's wedding is very much a Bengali wedding, with Bengali customs and Bengali cuisine. We may call such a text indexical: the text is embedded in a locale, a context, refers to it, even signifies it, and would not make much sense without it. Here, one may say, the Ramayana is not merely a set of individual texts, but a genre with a variety of instances… We may call such a translation symbolic.” In her critique of the television production, Romilla Thapar calls attention to the plurality of Ramayanas in Indian history: "The Ramayana does not belong to any one moment in history for it has its own history which lies embedded in the many versions which were woven around the theme at different times and places. Not only do diverse Ramayanas exist; each Ramayana text reflects the social location and ideology of those who appropriate it: “The appropriation of the story by a multiplicity of groups meant a multiplicity of versions through which the social aspirations and ideological concerns of each group were articulated. The story in these versions included significant variations which changed the conceptualization of character, event and meaning.” Creation of Ramayanas, … involves both constraints and fluidity: while certain sets of codes structure expression, the fluidity of tradition accounts for the diversity of tellings. Like Thapar, he also calls attention to the fact that Ramayana tellings take shape in particular contexts. They may be influenced, for example, by the beliefs of individual religious communities, the literary conventions of regional cultures, and the specific configurations of social relations… we accept the idea of many Ramayanas and place Valmiki's text within that framework. Some scholars assume, either implicitly or explicitly, that Valmiki has written the definitive Ramayana. Hence, the diverse non-Valmiki Ramayanas —the "other Ramayanas "—have often been assessed against that standard, according to their angle of divergence from Valmiki's version. While Valmiki's importance is undeniable, we learn more about the diversity of the Ramayana tradition when we abandon the notion of Valmiki as the Ur -text from which all the other Ramayanas descended. We need instead to consider the "many Ramayanas ," of which Valmiki's telling is one, Tulsi's another, Kampan's another, the Buddhist jataka yet another, and so forth. Like other authors, Valmiki is rooted in a particular social and ideological context. His text represents an intriguing telling, but it is one among many. (Paula Richman). One of the interesting aspects is that Ramayana and Mahabharata as written works are not mentioned anywhere in the history of the Indian sub-continent before the invasion of Alexander (that is before 326 BC). The epics also have several similarities to the epic poems of Homer, with "cultural" differences applied. Homer is the presumed author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems that are the central works of ancient Greek literature. The Iliad is set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek kingdoms. It focuses on a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles lasting a few weeks during the last year of the war. The Odyssey focuses on the ten-year journey home of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, after the fall of Troy. Many accounts of Homer's life circulated in classical antiquity, the most widespread being that he was a blind bard from Ionia, a region of central coastal Anatolia in present-day Turkey. Modern scholars consider these accounts legendary. The Homeric Question – concerning by whom, when, where and under what circumstances the Iliad and Odyssey were composed – continues to be debated. Broadly speaking, modern scholarly opinion falls into two groups. One holds that most of the Iliad and (according to some) the Odyssey are the works of a single poet of genius. The other considers the Homeric poems to be the result of a process of working and reworking by many contributors, and that "Homer" is best seen as a label for an entire tradition. It is generally accepted that the poems were composed at some point around the late eighth or early seventh century BC. The ‘Sir Asutosh Mukherjee collection’ in the National Library, largest library located in Belvedere Estate, Alipore, Kolkata, contains a rare book by an East India Company officer arguing that the 'Ramayanastory' was strongly influenced by the Iliad, knowledge of which had been disseminated in India with the Greek invasion. This was nothing new. In the 2nd century AD, Dios Chrysostom (40-120 AD), mentioned the existence of a translation of the Iliad in India reiterated a couple of centuries later by Claudius Aelianus (e.g. the Trojan horse becomes Bhasa’s wooden elephant in Pratigya Yaugandharayana). In 1871 Weber claimed that the Ramayana was merely Buddhist legends grafted on to borrowings from Homer, an argument strongly refuted by W.T.Telang. Weber was refuting M.H.Fauche’s proposition (supported by A. Lillie in 1912) that Homer had used the Ramayana as a guide. Modern scholars did not take this seriously. Damaso Alonso, a Spanish professor of ancient history in the University of Malaga has carried out an extensive comparison of the Mahabharata with the Iliad, building up a strong case for the Greek influence on thematic and stylistic grounds. The volume is the first in the “Hindu Tradition Series” with Johannes Bronkhorst emeritus professor of Sanskrit at Lausanne University as general editor. (Dr. Pradip Bhattacharya) Dr. Bhattacharya writes: “Alonso’s hypothesis is that in the post-Alexander period the Mahabharata composers used “an extensive index of Hellenistic materials” systematically, beginning with the Iliad’s framework of the massacre of heroes at the behest of gods… Alonso notes as many as 97 major points of interconnection between Greek myth and the Mahabharata, beginning with the outer framework itself… Emily West has compared Homer’s Nausicaa and Chitrangada, single princesses with a married wandering hero. Weber had cited Odysseus’ archery feat to win Penelope as having influenced the archery contests of Rama and Arjuna to win Sita and Draupadi, ignoring the fact that Rama breaks the bow and Arjuna does not massacre rivals with it. Josette Lallemant’s 1959 study argued for the Mahabharata having influenced the Aeneid, which George Duckworth supported, arguing in 1961 that the portrayal of Turnus was based upon Duryodhana. Then, in 1968 Dumezil put forward his theory of an IndoEuropean tri-functional ideology well illustrated in the Mahabharata where the Pandavas depict this: the dharma-king, the warrior, and the grooms.” He adds: “The Greco-Roman world is interacting with India at least since the time of Darius-I (cf. Herodotus), and certainly post-Alexander. Evidence of this is the Bactrian Margiana Archaeological Complex in and around Afghanistan connecting Central Asia with Iran and India and, after Alexander, with the Mediterranean. Ashoka’s Edict XIII mentions embassies to Syria, Egypt, Macedonia, Cyrene and Epirus. His bilingual (Greek and Aramaic) and Greek Edicts exist… The Bhavishya Purana mentions Indian communities in “Misra” (Egypt), the MBH mentions Rome in the Sabha Parva, and Roman coins have been found at several archaeological sites. Philostratus’ Life of Apollonius of Tyana is about a voyage to India to engage local sages in philosophical debate. The Greco-Roman influence on art, astrology (Yavanajataka, Romakasiddhanta) shows the veneration in which Yavanas were held in India. Alonso claims that Greek fables were used extensively, and terms like “yavanika” show the influence of Greek drama. A Greek inscription in Kandahar authored by an Indian name (Sophitos son of Naratos) uses the opening verses of the Odyssey for his own woeful adventures.” The epic has remodelled folktale motifs based on the Indo-European tripartite ideology. This tripartite ideology was first theorized by G. Dumezil in 1956. It states that Indo-European society was divided into three classes or functions. Each of these classes had their duties and expectations. The first class was the class of the priests and judicial officers, responsible for the social and religious well-being of the community. The second function was that of the warriors, responsible for security. The third one was the so called "productive and reproductive function", built by agriculturalists and merchants (once trade developed). The second function is subordinated to the first; the third to both of them. The division into castes in the modern Indian society is still a reflection of Indo-European social structure (with the superimposed 'jati' structure). The division of European medieval society into clergy, knights and peasants is also a reflection of the tri-functional ideology. Brotherly love between them is an example of how an ideal Indo-European society (specifically the ideal kingdom of Ayodhya) has to be able to unite the three principles that structure it, in Indian terminology the brahmanas (officials of religion and law), the kshatriyas (warriors) and the vaisyas (merchants and agriculturalists). It is now to be shown how the brothers Rama, Laksmana and Bharata each represent one function of the Indo-European tripartite ideology. In both the Iliad and the Ramayana a hero's relationship to his brother(s) plays a very important role. Brotherly love may not be the main theme, but it is present throughout both works   Brotherly love is a traditional motif in folktales Both the Iliad and the Ramayana show and adapt, to different degrees, other tale motifs that are normally associated to the "two brothers" motif. (https://digilib.phil.muni.cz/…/N_GraecoLatina_06-2001-1_9.p…) In both the Iliad and the Mahabharata it is the gods who plan the holocaust of proliferating power-drunk rulers to relieve the burden of the earth and usher in a new age—that of the audience. Losses are exceptionally heavy on both sides—Trojans and Achaeans, Kauravas and Pandavas—across the board, from the very young to the ancient. There is, however, a major difference also. In Iliad, Zeus manipulates the gods deviously to shift the balance of battle every day. In Vyasa, the gods do not intervene in the 18 days of war at all, except that all the decisive moves are the avatar Krishna’s. The dharma-protector also engineers the massacre of his own clan. There is an interesting parallel, however: long before the Trojan War, Zeus destroyed almost all mankind by a flood. Before Kurukshetra was a similar annihilation of Kshatriyas in 21 battles towards the end of the Treta Yuga by another avatar, Parashurama. Moreover, the massacres are doubled in the same era. Other similarities between the two epics – Mahabharata and Iliad. 1. Pandavas were sent to forest for 14 years, The battle of Troy was fought for 14 years. 2. When the war starts out, Arjuna is reluctant to fight. Similarly, when the Trojan war starts, Achilees does not want to fight. 3. Arjuna laments over the dead body of his son Abhimanyu and pledges to kill Jayadrath the following day. Achilles laments on the dead body of his brother Patroclus, and pledges to kill Hector the following day. 4. Ghatotkacha attacks the Kaurava army during night and causes massive destruction. Ghatotkacha uses “Fire” as his weapon and “burns” the Kaurava camps. Hector attacks the greek army during night and causes massive destruction. Hector also uses “Fire” as his weapon and “burns” the ships. 5. Sanjaya narrates the war to king Dhritarashtra. Similarly, one of the minister narrates the war to the Trojan king. 6. Dhritarashtra is blind for his wicked son Duryodhana. The Trojan king is blind for his son, Paris. 7. Duryodhana wins Draupadi in the game of dice, he exclaims, “This is the happiest day of my life, Draupadi is our slave.” In The Iliad, Briseis, a Trojan, is awarded to Achilles during the Trojan War. She was awarded after she was molested by other Kings or soldiers. 8. In Iliad, the prophecy is about Paris, who will cause destruction to his kingdom. In Mahabharata, the prophecy is about Duryodhana, who will cause the destruction of his own kingdom. 9. Dhritarashtra had 100 sons. The Trojan King had a total of 68 sons, 18 daughters on record which equals to 86. 10. The Trojan War began because Paris stole King Menelaus’ wife, Helen. However, the war was also driven by the greed of Agamemnon, a powerful and fearsome king. In The Mahabharata, the war began mostly because of Duryodhana’s jealousy of the Pandavas. 11. Draupadi, although loves Arjuna, begins to have a soft corner for Karna. Helen, although loves Paris, begins to have a soft corner for Hector, for she knows that Paris is useless and not respected while Hector is the warrior and well respected. 12. Bhishma in Mahabharata is a character who cannot be defeated. Krishna had to trick him to kill him. On the Greek front, Hector is another impossible character who cannot be defeated. No Greek warrior is able to kill him. He can only be killed by Achilles (synonymous to Arjuna) but Achilles finds it difficult to break into Hector’s defence. Achilles succeeds in killing Hector in a duel, again with some degree of treachery. 13. In the Iliad, Achilles is the son of a goddess and a mortal king. When he wants to kill Agamemnon, he is stopped directly by Athena, goddess of war. In The Mahabharata, Radheya is the son of Kunti and the sun (a god). The god, Krishna, tries to convince him not to fight. 15. The Trojan horse is a cunning move to destroy the city of Troy, after many failed attempts. The final attack was launched during night when the soldier took over the “Gates of troy”. They caused huge destruction and burned the city when the citizens were “sleeping” Similarly, Ashwatthama, Kripacharya and Kritavarma took over the Pandava camp at night. Kripacharya and Kritverma held the “gates” while Ashwatthama went ahead, resulting in a massive bloodbath when the Pandava warriors were “sleeping”. There are several similarities in Homer’s Odyssey and Valmiki’s. Both ancient epics, are the products of oral tradition employing an array of literary devices; The Odyssey dated around 8th to 6th B.C.E. and The Ramayana proximately 5th century B.C.E. Comparing other epics from these civilizations, there seems to be a similarity with their order. The Ramayana and the Odyssey were both preceded by tales of war (The Mahabharata and The Iliad respectively), whereas they themselves focus on the journey of their main character; Odysseus of The Odyssey and Rama in the Ramayana… In an initial comparison of both epics, it’s interesting to see that their titles hold some sort of similarity. The Ramayana literally means, The Journey of Rama, while The Odyssey, according to Merriam Webster, has come to refer to a long adventurous voyage. Thus, even by their titles, we get the impression that the reader will be accompanying the protagonist on some sort of expedition, be it physical, mental or spiritual. (Vipul Jain) The predominant themes of self-control and pietas or duty are evident in the Odyssey while in the Ramayana it is the 'Hindu' concept of duty or Dharma. Self-control is another major theme in the Odyssey where the protagonist’s endurance and will is put to the test several times. The hero is treated as a human with fallacies but is expected to rise up to high moral standards even though the gods themselves flout them many a time. The portrayal of the hero or a human is as always weaker than the gods but the expectations directed at him of reaching a high moral pedestal is a curious feature of Greek Mythology. (Aashna Jamal) The Ramayana epitomizes the spirit of ancient India with its vague but grand concepts of moral rectitude and its consequences for a person’s fate. Both Rama and Sita are portrayed as following their dharma, a term meaning ‘personal duty’ as well as ‘law, eternal law,’ and personified as the God of Justice… Dharma is quite easily comparable to the Greek idea of Pietas or duty where Odysseus tried to pursue high ideals even if he suffered from occasional lapses. The difference is that Rama painstakingly puts Dharma over everything else where he first gave up the throne on his father’s insistence as a well behaved son and as a king who sets a precedent, he sent his wife away when questions were raised against her chastity against his own desires. (Aashna Jamal) The Odyssey conveys Odysseus’s wanderings after the Trojan War. Making his way back to Ithaca after the fierce battle, he is marooned on Calypso’s Island while his house is plagued by suitors after Penelope’s hand, thinking that Odysseus has perished on his homeward journey. By the grace of the Gods, Odysseus escapes from Calypso’s clutches, however, faces the wrath of Poseidon and other obstacles before he finally returns to Ithaca. The Ramayana tells the story of Rama, prince of Ayodhya who has been exiled to the Dandaka forest for 14 years, and the subsequent challenges which he faces, the most notable being the abduction of his wife, Sita, by Ravana and his quest to regain her freedom. Thus, both epics depict one man’s journey, ultimately, to their respective wives; Rama to Sita and Odysseus to Penelope…Sita is the ideal wife who places her husband’s interests over her own, her steadfast loyalty and chastity make her the ideal Hindu wife as is Penelope. The Avatar of God on Earth is the physical appearance of the Supreme Entity. But, in doing so, the Avatar becomes a part of human society and follows the laws or practices of human society at that time like Rama who is an Avatar of Lord Vishnu on earth and needs to always be on high moral grounds whereas Odysseus as a mortal is excused certain slips. Dharma is the ‘law of being’ without which humans cannot exist and in the same way duty is seen as of foremost importance in Homer’s epics. In conclusion, we don't have any clear evidence for the epics. The evidences we have are:    These were Iron Age stories (India the Iron Age was from 1200-200 BC. Also, the late Iron Age was when Iron would've been widespread enough to actually mobilize armies. Before that, it would've been a novelty used to make some tools. It would therefore be correct to say that the earliest wars could not have happened before 700-500 BC or so. These were clearly set in a universe that has no bearing on reality as we know it – magic, supernatural powers, and gods are an integral part of these stories The authors, redactors, and the re-tellers of the epics added and altered these stories, even after the oral traditions were replaced with writing the epics. This was done with complete ‘freedom of expression’, clearly demonstrating that they were aware of the fictional nature of these stories The evidences provided have mostly been falsified    The Indus Valley civilization was strictly Bronze Age and had nothing to do with the epics The Gulf of Khambhat research has not provided any concrete evidences The Ramayana mentions a bridge constructed by god Rama through his Vanara (apemen) army to reach Lanka and rescue his wife Sita from the Rakshasa king, Ravana.[5][6] The location of the Lanka of the Ramayana has been widely interpreted as being current day Sri Lanka making this stretch of land Nala's or Rama's bridge. Analysis of several of the older Ramayana versions by scholars for evidence of historicity have led to the identification of Lankapura no further south than the Godavari River. These are based on geographical, botanical, and folkloristic evidences as no archaeological evidence has been found. Scholars differ on the possible geography of the Ramayana but several suggestions since the work of H.D. Sankalia locate the Lanka of the epic somewhere in the eastern part of present day Madhya Pradesh.   The isthmus/sand bar dubbed "Ram setu" is 100% a natural formation. Geological evidence suggests that this bridge is a former land connection between India and Sri Lanka. The bridge is 48 km (30 mi) long and separates the Gulf of Mannar (south-west) from the Palk Strait (northeast). Some of the regions are dry, and the sea in the area rarely exceeds 1 metre (3 ft) in depth, thus hindering navigation. It was reportedly passable on foot until the 15th century when storms deepened the channel. Rameshwaram temple records say that Adam's Bridge was entirely above sea level until it broke in a cyclone in 1480. As we have seen the geographical locations associated, especially with the Mahabharata indicate the date of the War as around 900 BCE. Also consider this: It is said that Kauravas had 11 and Pandavas had 7 akshouhini senas during the entire 18 days of kurukshetra yudhdha. An akshauhini is described in the Mahabharata as a battle formation consisting of 21,870 chariots; 21,870 elephants; 65,610 cavalry and 109,350 infantry (Adi Parva 2.15-23). The ratio is 1 chariot: 1 elephant: 3 cavalry: 5 infantry soldiers. In each of these large number groups (65,610, etc.), the digits add up to 18. This means, the following were present on the battlefield:     Foot soldiers 19, 68,300 nearly 20 lacs Horses 1,172,880, that is nearly 12 lac horses with 12 lac soldiers mounted on them Elephants 2, 62,440 with at least one soldier and one mahout. Chariots 2,62,440 with at least one soldier and one charioteer That’s a total of 44 lac men, almost equal to the combined army strength of today’s India, China USA and Pakistan. Plus the horses and elephants. Or consider this: In the 7th chapter of Bhisma Parva, this shloka appears (No 9) – “mountain called Meru made of gold. Effulgent as the morning sun, it is like fire without smoke. It is eightyfour thousand Yojanas high, and, O king, its depth also is eighty-four Yojanas.” 1 Yojana is 8 km. So 84,000 yojana would be 6, 72,000 km. That would make this mountain 50 times the size of the Earth, the diameter of the Earth being 12, 742 km. References: 1. 2. 3. 4. https://www.slideshare.net/sfih108/mahabharata-historicity-prof-b-b-lal https://www.nio.org/galleries/show/dwarka https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Ten_Kings https://www.scribd.com/doc/118253720/Dating-Mahabharata-Two-Eclipses-in-ThirteenDays-by-Dr-S-Balakrishna 5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_archaeology_in_the_Gulf_of_Cambay 6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahabharata 7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramayana 8. https://web.archive.org/web/20041120090448/http://www.nio.org/projects/vora/project_v ora_1.jsp 9. https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-strongest-evidences-that-suggest-the-battle-ofMahabharata-actually-happened 10. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-south-asia-15363181 11. https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft3j49n8h7&chunk.id=d0e1254 12. https://www.ancient.eu/The_Ramayana/ 13. https://www.quora.com/Why-is-Ramayana-Mahabharata-considered-as-mythology-nothistory-even-when-there-are-so-many-monumental-scriptural-proofs-out-there 14. Masks of God: Oriental Mythology, Joseph Campbell 15. The Ramayana and the Mahabharata: two great epics of South Asia, Arthur L. Basham, UNESCO Courier, 1967 https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000078371 16. India: The Ancient Past,A history of the Indian sub-continent from c. 7000 bc to ad 1200, Burjor Avari, Routledge, 2007 17. The Questionable Historicity of the Mahabharata, S.S.N. Murthy, JNU 18. One Introduction: the Diversity of the Ramayana Tradition, Paula Richman, University of California Press 19. Did Homer Influence Vyasa? by Dr. Pradip Bhattacharya https://www.boloji.com/articles/48579/did-homer-influence-vyasa 20. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam%27s_Bridge 21. https://owlcation.com/humanities/Comparison-of-Ram-and-Odysseus FEB 27, 2020 Comparison of Ram and Odysseus, by VIPUL JAIN 22. Odyssey and Ramayana-A Thematic Comparison, Aashna Jamal https://www.academia.edu/4101146/Odyssey_and_Ramayana_A_Thematic_Compariso n