Diwali, Ram and Srilanka

Diwali is the celebration of lights. It is the day when people of Ayodhya celebrated homecoming of Ram the legendary hero of India after he had defeated Raban, the autocratic king of Lanka. 

photo: Rumassala mountain in Galle. 

Historians and folktale researchers worked hard to find exact location of Lanka as they tried to find the truth behind age old folk stories regarding Ram. Is he only a story character or a historical figure? “The truth” is not yet established. Yet believer associates him with Ayodhya, a more than two thousand year old city located in today’s eastern Uttarpradesh and Lanka, the kingdom of Raban as today’s Srilanka. And this is not solely Indian belief. 

Let’s travel to Srilanka to understand. We find stories of Hanuman, the the best devotee and friend of Ram in Ritigal Kanda in the Nuvara Kalâviya district, located in south east of Anuradhapura and Rumasala Kanda, today in the Galle district. What are stories? They say that from Ritigal Kanda, Hanuman jumped across to India carrying the joyful message of his discovering Sita, the abducted wife of Ram. The same story of Hanuman jumping across the sea to reach India from Lanka is found in all Hindu Ramayanas in India. Co incidence does not stop here. Ramayana tells that when Lakshman the younger brother of Ram was severely wounded during the war, Hanuman jumped across the sea again to carry a medicinal herb from Himalayas. He could not find the exact plant or forgot the name Vishalyakarani; hence he picked a portion of Himalayas and carried it back to Lanka so that Ram and the doctor Jambuban could pluck the required medicine from the hill. As he was approaching Lanka, he realised that he was little late to place it down – the medicine needed to be applied before daybreak. He threw the mountain down, the doctor found the plant and it miraculously resurrected Lakshman. Srilankan tradition says that Rumassala mountain in Unawatuna is the same hill which was once part of the Himalayan mountain range. This is a location where valuable medicinal herbs are found even today.

Does belief travel from one country to neighbouring countries or similar belief in two different countries tells us about an incident of unknown past? It is impossible to reach conclusion today. But do we need to reach a conclusion to celebrate Diwali, the mythical origin of which makes us remember the old association of India and Srilanka? Definitely not.