Thursday, March 21, 2019

Ithihasas (people friendly compilations)



Ithihasas (people friendly  compilations)

Compiled by
P.R.Ramachander



      The Sruthi  and Smrithi    that I explained till now were   essentially   for the very intelligent intellectual .Though   extremely difficult to comprehend , stories were  used   to  illustatre  the principles of  Upanishads. It  is very clear  that majority followers  of Hinduism did not comprehend the meaning   of Sruthis and Smrithis. Even in  very great Vedic schools , what is taught  is to remember and recite the Vedas   and not the meaning  of what they were reciting .Few Vedic scholars  who understood what they meant  only were there.
    So as a  next step  to take  our religion to the masses our sages  used  Ithihasas first    and later  Puranas . Ithihasas  are supposed to be a narration of legends  known to the saint   and are  usually  in the story form.,They are  the essence of Vedas   as well as vehicles to teach the common man –Dharma –the just life,

Ithihasas(friendly  narration)
     There are four ithihasas  in sanathana  Dharma  viz  -Ramayana , Maha Bharatha , Yoga Vasishta  andHarivamsa.Evenamong the four  , the first  two are  more popular

Ramayana the story  of ideal  man

      This is the first  book  ever composed  by  a human being  and was done  by Sage Valmiki .It is interesting  to know  that  he was one of those persons who was living   when the story took place and he did not write it  but taught   to two disciples . It teaches us  the ideal life  through  the story of Dasaratha  , Rama, Sugreeva   and Ravana . Though most  incidents of the book euologises good deeds  , here and there  , the characters are  being shown as    doing acts which can be considered   as wrong. The story  of Lord Subrahmanya   and the river ganges  is a part  of the book. No where  any person is shown as going to the temple   and praying there. The  one great and long prayer is addressed to Lord  Sun God. There is a small prayer addressed  to river Ganges by Sita and another small  prayer addressed  to Rama, the man by Hanuman.
     The characters   do THapas to Lord Brahma  od Lord Shiva to get what they want   and in an emergency try   to do Yagas  (fire scraifices) . There is an indication in Sundara kanda   where  Lord Hanuman thinks   that Sita would come to the river   at dusk to pray  the Goddess  SAndhya.
     The book deals with  ideal character of Rama . It also illustrates  the angry outbursts  of Lakshmna, Sita, Vali   as well as Ravana , The  charecterisation of   various persons in the story is simply great.

Mahabharatha The story  of  the normal man

    It is the largest Ithihasa   that we have   and was written by sage Vyasa. Vyasa again  not only lived during the time of the story but is the  biokogical   father of  the kings Dritharashtra   and Pandu .Unlike  Ramayana where Dharma   is the prime subject, Mahabharatha  deals with our normal life(and not ideal life)    along with our normal reactions. Mahabharatha   deals   extensively with diplomacy, love, war and so on and on.  WE see  bad winning there some times and it does not insist  on pure dharma  . The most religious part of Mahabharatha is the BHagwad gita and the   teachings of BHishma to Yudhishtra  on his death bed. Unlike Ramayana, temple worship, prayers   as well as fire   sacrifices are  described there.

Yoga Vasishta
    Unlike the above two  , this is a book of philosophy written by  Valmiki  It is about the  philosophy    and way of ideal life taught by sage Vasishta   to  Lord Rama.  Unlike Vedas  , it is more friendly   and with little effort can   be understood

Hari Vamsa
     This is an appendix to Mahabharatha   written by sage  Vyasa  himself ,It has three chapters Adhi Parva  , Vishnu Parva and Bhavishya  Parva.Adhi Parva deals with creation of universe, Vishnu Parva  deals about  stories and incarnation of Vishnu   and BHavishya Parva deals   about what was going to happen (at that time)

I would continue   with Puranas  next

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