9. Ramayana and Mahabharata

The most important period in the history of Indian ethics was the Epic age. The Epics were two-the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Of these two, Ramayana has been the basis of popular ethics in India right from the Epic age till our own time. Ramayana has vividly described in details the duties peculiar to the king the people, the father and the son, the husband and the wife, the brothers and the sisters and all other relatives in family and outside it. They have described in detail individual as well as social duties, the duties peculiar to ordinary persons as well as to people having extraordinary status in society. They have presented high moral ideals in the form of the ideals of Rama and Krishna, Sita, Draupadi and others. Of the epics the ideals presented by Ramayana have been better from the moral point of view. Whatever may be said about the historicity of these two epics and the actuality of the ideal characters described in them, no one can doubt that Indian people have practiced morality mainly on the basis of these two epics. The Mahabharata has particularly pointed out exceptions to the moral rules and the circumstances under which exceptions can be made. In this direction, the conduct of Lord Krishna has been considered as the ideal for all the people of all the ages. The Mahabharata and Ramayana are the two most cherished works of popular Hinduism. The epics are splendid illustrations of the evolutionary character of Hindu thought, having undergone successive accretions and transformations over a period of four to five centuries. Ethics as the pursuit of happiness is given an important place in the Mahabharata. “All beings desire pleasure and seek to avoid pain”^[1]. What we desire is pleasure (sukham), and what we hate is pain (dukham)^[2]. In this world the two are mixed up^[3]. But both pleasure and pain are anitya, or ephemeral. The goal of human Endeavour is to gain a state where we can accept pleasure or pain with calm and composure^[4]. Righteousness is the stable condition which gives man perfect satisfaction. Apart from certain general principles, like truth-speaking, non-violence, dharma or righteousness is relative and dependent on the conditions of society. It has always a social implication. It is bond which keeps society together^[5].

The Mahabharata or “Great War of the Bharatas” is a history of the conflicts between two royal houses, the Pandavas and Kauravas. Its present form was substantially completed by the second century B.C. It reflects an era when Hinduism was being challenged by such heterodox movements as Jainism and Buddhism, and attempting to come to terms with the new liberal spirit that was in the air. Its voluminous verses contain teachings pertaining to statecraft, religion, and morals. In its later portions its heroes are much taken up with the performance of religious duties.

The comprehensiveness of its religious and ethical teaching is enunciated in its final section:

“Whatever is worthy to be known in matters relating to the welfare of man is here is nowhere else to be found.”

The heart of the Mahabharata is the Gita; indeed, the Gita is the heart of Hinduism itself. The song of the Lord was developed out of the philosophical matrix of the Upanishads, but unlike the metaphysical preoccupation of the Upanisads, the spirit of the Gita is practical. It emphasizes bhakti (religious devotion) and dharma (moral law). As the incarnation of Visnu, Krishna the charioteer engages in a charming dialogue with Arjuna the warrior-prince who is up against a prodigious moral dilemma. In the course of arguments and counterarguments, important issues of moral duty are raised, and the ethical validity of disinterested action is clearly explained. Because of its unparalleled influence in shaping Hindu ethics through the ages, a special section has been devoted to the ethical thought in the Gita.

The second epic, the Ramayana, is more secular and smaller than the Mahabharata (recensions vary from 50,000-90,000 lines against the Mahabharata’s more than 200,000 lines). It imparts the kinds of ideals that most characterize the personal, domestic, social, and public life of the Hindus. Like the Mahabharata, the Ramayana gradually developed into a textbook of dharma. Valmiki, the author, probably gave poetic form to the Rama legends he had collected in approximately the third century B.C. However, extant versions of the poem date from about 200 A.D. The story is about Rama who is an incarnation of Visnu. As the embodiment of dharma, he defeats Ravana the king of the demons. Sita, Rama’s wife, is the epitome of womanly virtues because of her faithfulness and unwavering devotion to her husband. The ethical influence of the Ramayana has been popularized through devotional movements in which Rama and Sita are worshipped as divinities. Mahatma Gandhi was inspired by the epic’s ideal of Ramarajya in his nonviolent struggle for India’s independence. Judged by its impact both on India’s leaders and the masses of her illiterate people, the prophecy in this poem seems to be correct, that as long as mountains stand and rivers flow on the face of this planet, so long shall the fame of the Ramayana story and its author be perpetuated.

With this thumbnail sketch of the literature, we turn to its contents. Thes Smritis continue to maintain the Upanisadic ideal of enlightenment as the summum bonum. Their institutionalization of the third and fourth ashramas emphasizing the ideals of contemplation and renunciation as the means to liberation, attest to the Smriti’s acceptance of this philosophical ideal. At the same time, the Smriti literature continues the tradition of the brahmanas with a view to evolving a definite order of brahmanical society. Thus, by espousing the ideals of the Upanisads and the Brahmanas, the Smriti writers unite “the realm of desires with the perspective of the eternal.” However, of the goals, the practical goal receives greater attention than the transcendental one. This evidenced by the formulation of the purusarthas(human values) constituting the ‘aims of man’. The three aims (trivarga) emphasized are: dharma, artha, and kama. The purusarthas provide the psycho-moral basis for the asrama scheme.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Santiparva, 311.17).

[2]:

Ibid.,295.27).

[3]:

Vanaparva, 260.49

[4]:

Santiparva, 25.16)

[5]:

Karnaparva, 69.59 ).