Column | Ramayana, Mahabharata and the idea of dharma

While the dharma-shastra was for the elite, the Ramayana and Mahabharata were for the masses

The earliest Ramayana retellings do not refer to the Lakshman rekha. The earliest Mahabharata retellings do not refer to Draupadi’s vastra-haran. Both these ideas come from later versions of the epics. Does that make the oldest versions, composed in Sanskrit, the authentic narratives over which layers were added to make them more appealing to new target audiences?

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When we scan the Vedic corpus, we do come across names such as Dasharatha, Shantanu, Yayati and Krishna; but none of the stories of Ramayana and Mahabharata. The best evidence we have of these stories’ antiquity is from the Ganga basin when red-black pottery was replaced by painted greyware 3,000 years ago; here, villages of the 21st century continue to have names found in the two epics.

We hear of the phrase itihasa-purana in late Vedic literature (800 CE). It refers to the hundreds of stories found in the Vedic corpus explaining how various mantras came into being, how they summoned gods to help people and how various rituals originated. But there is no mention of Ramayana or Mahabharata.

Mahabharata is located on a stretch between what is today Delhi and Gujarat (Dwarka). Ramayana indicates movement through Bihar (Videha) towards Narmada. There is no reference to any southern river beyond Narmada in the earliest Ramayana manuscripts. Kishkinda and Lanka as per the oldest texts are full of sal trees, found in present-day Odisha, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, but not in South India.

The epics themselves were written much later, around 2,000 years ago, by which time there were trade routes from the Himalayas to the coasts. By the Mauryan era (300 BCE) the old privileged position of Brahmins was gone. While Mauryan kings did patronise Buddhism, they were essentially cosmopolitan, heavily influenced by the Persians and Greeks. The 2,300-year-old Ashokan edicts indicate familiarity with Buddhists and Brahmins, but but not with the Ramayana or Mahabharata.

The word dhamma was popular among Buddhists and indicated a monastic lifestyle. Brahmins challenged this view and argued that the concept is about fulfilling household obligations. Thus began the movement to popularise dharma through dharma-shastra texts and the Ramayana and Mahabharata. The tales, once told by wandering minstrels, started being narrated by Brahmin priests during royal ceremonies.