Monday, August 10, 2020

Was Ravana a Tamilian? (My speech in Desiya Siragugal)


On the day the Prime Minister Sri Narendra Modi conducted the Bhumi Puja for the construction of Ram temple at the birth place of Rama, a swarm of tweets trended the micro blogging site with the hash tag #LandofRavana  #TamilPrideRavana  and  #LandOfRavanan claiming that Ravana was a Tamil king who was wronged by Rama.

It was clear that this absurd war of tweets was the only way that certain elements in Tamil Nadu inimical to the BJP government could think of as a means of disapproval for the Ram temple coming up at Ayodhya. At the bottom of it lies the hatred for all Hindus and a plan to promote an idea that Tamils are not Hindus. For this they had taken up Ravana as an identity of Tamil people while completely forgetting the Brahmin origin of Ravana.

In this backdrop, I have given a short speech in a private YouTube Channel, Deisya Siragugal addressing four issues raised by the inimical forces.

After highlighting the fact that the hatred for Rama stems from the hatred for Hindus, I went onto to describe how this hatred was justified on the logic of “enemy’s enemy is a friend’. Since Hindus are treated as enemies, Rama, their God becomes the enemy of these elements. So Rama’s enemy Ravana got qualified to be their friend whom they defended against all sensibilities.

To name the oft repeated issues,
# they eulogized Ravana as a gentleman for not touching Sita without her ‘permission’.
# they condemned the ‘treatment’ to Shurpanakha of chopping her nose.
# they abused Rama for killing Vaali ‘unjustly’.
# they faulted Rama for forcing Sita to enter fire.
All these were in defense of Ravana, the Brahmin, by the same people whose hatred for Brahmins finds no limits.

I have replied to all these in the light of the question whether Ravana can be truly considered as a Tamil person. For this I have taken up Tirukkural as the sacred text of Tamils that they often invoke in support of Tamil culture.

I raised the question:  
Does one become a Tamilian by speaking Tamil or by following Tamil culture expounded by Tirukkural?
There is no evidence to say that Ravana spoke Tamil while on the contrary there are evidences to say that Sita and Rama spoke Tamil.

Ravana didn’t live up to the culture emphasized by Tirukkural.

Tirukkural admonishes one who desires another man’s wife; Ravana did just that – by desiring Sita. Vaali also did the same by desiring his brother’s wife.

Tirukkural condemns meat eating; Ravana and Shurpanakha were man-eaters.

Tirukkural  extols the virtue of living blemish-free life; it is for this reason Sita on her own decided to walk on the fire. The same was done by Draupadi too at the end of Mahabharata war which finds a continuous resonance till date as fire-walking ceremony in Draupadi temples.

Finally I have given the family tree of Ravana on both paternal and maternal side to prove the fact that he was not a Tamilian by birth or by location. Even Lanka was not his own, but snatched by him from Kubera, his half-brother.

The video can be watched here:





8 comments:

Unknown said...

I commend you for all your efforts. All our ancient literature both in Tamil and Sanskrit and other languages highlight same human values same culture same civilization. Your efforts at bonding them again is wonderful. THANKS.Sushil Aggarwal Delhi

Jayasree Saranathan said...

Thanks Sri Sushil Aggarwal.

V V Viswanadh said...

Namasthe, we shall appreciate you for your efforts to bring the truth to the fore and exposing the "Breaking India Forces" working in this country. Thank you very much, madam.

Abhishek Vishwakarma said...

Your are a great vidushi and scholar of our time. I am already reading your book in kindle and support your battle for exposing fake facts like nilesk Oaks and Ravanas and others..

Jayasree Saranathan said...

Thank you Mr Abhishek Vishwakarma.

Richtofen said...

Such a huge war was happening in lanka but no tamil kings were involved???
Despite the fact that valmiki mentions the golden gate of kavadapuram and praises the pandiya...what were the pandiyas doing when ram was building a bridge and waging a war?

Either The mention of cherala, andira and pandiyas in Ramayana was a later day addition
or there was no one down south(tamils/dravidians/ dint come into the region yet)
or Current lanka is not lanka of ramayana.

Rama could not have worshiped shiva linga in rameswaram cuz there was no shiva then. Shiva was created around 400+AD from kashmiri shivism.

The one rama worshiped was mahadev who is a vedic god. Vedic relgion denigrates phallus(lingam) worshipers. There is no reference to lingam in veda. Rudra was mapped to linga to pull in the locals who were worshipping linga. Shiva was used as intermediary to join rudra to linga. The word shiva found in rudram is an adjetive and not a noun.

Similary ravan being a shiva devotee is also a tall tale. And rama dint break shiva dhanus but varuna dhanush or rudra dhanush (one of them gave to the other).

A08 said...

Namaskar

I was going through Valmiki's Ramayana.

Where could be the places/villages described in Ayodhaya Kanda, 68 - 17. King Dasharatha ancestral area.

Best Regards

Walking Corpse said...

இராமன் ஊன் உண்ணவில்லை னு கதை கட்டறீங்களா நீங்களா? மான், மீன் எல்லாம் தின்றார், வால்மீகி தெளிவாக சொல்லிருக்கார்.
சூர்பனகையோ இராவணனோ கோபத்தில் மிரட்டும் போது உன்னை கொன்று தின்பேன்னு சொல்லறதை மட்டும் வெச்சு உண்மையாவே அப்படி செஞ்சாங்கன்னு சொல்லக் கூடாது. அவங்க சமயலறையில் என்ன இருக்குன்னு நேரடியா எங்க சொல்லப்படுதோ அது தான் அதிகம் நம்பத்தகுந்தது. அந்த காட்சி ஹனுமான் சீதையை தேடப்போகும் போது இராவணன் சமயலறைக்குள்ள போகிறான், அங்கே உண்டு மிச்சம், உண்ணாமல் மிச்சம் வெச்ச உணவுகள் வரிசையை சொல்கிறான். அதில் மான், எருமை முதலான மாமிசங்கள் இருந்தகு. ஆனால் மனித மாமிசம் இருந்ததாக ஒரு வார்த்தை கூட இல்லை.