Debate Until Heads Fall Off: India's Religious Philosophy

A History of Mankind (71)

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The Ramayana (probably composed between the Seventh and Third century BC, but given its final shape around the Third century AD) is an Indian Odyssey, including the perennial story of a man on a quest, who eventually goes back to his faithful wife after a series of adventures[1].

Rama has a large bow that only the hero can string, same as that of Ulysses, but also diverges from the Greek version in that its protagonist is flawless, and often in contact with demons and monkeys – characters absent from Greek mythology[2]. The story was translated into Dravidian Tamil by Brahmins there to back up their primacy and later was prominent in Hindu Indonesia, Tibet, Burma, Laos and Cambodia; indeed, the Angkor Wat temples in Cambodia are full of Ramayana references[3].

The other great Aryan collection, the Mahabharata (composed between the Third century BC and the Third century AD, including the famous Bhagavad Gita), features flawed protagonists, multiple adventures and a much longer time of composition, since its stories were compiled over nine centuries, and is accordingly long: it has approximately 100,000 couplets, thirteen times more than the Iliad.

As in the Odyssey and the Ramayana, the Mahabharata includes a story about a contest to string a massive bow and then pass the arrow through a narrow course of obstacles[4].