The Vedas, Upanishads, Ramayana, Mahabharata, and the eighteen Puranas, are the foundations of Indian religion and thought, culture and literature. Of these, the story-telling through epic-poetry namely the Ramayana and Mahabharata, caught the imagination of every being and became the threads that were interwoven to form the texture of Indian way of life, and which has stood the test of time through the ages. Through the centuries, violence, strife, lust for power, greed and hunger have created tension between people in societies. Today, it continues with the addition of an unprecedented technological advancement, leading to depletion both in natural resources and in humanity. In such a situation, the need for finding a moral compass is becoming increasingly evident and it is here that the message contained in the Ramayana is as significant today as it has been through the ages. The Influence of Ramayana has been far reaching, cutting across geographical and historical space. Several towns and villages in several parts of India, including Punjab, are known as Rampur or as Ayodhya. Some villages in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh are named Ayodhya. In Amritsar, the city founded in about 1574 A.D by Sri Guru Ramdass ji, the fourth guru of the Sikhs, the Ram Bagh Garden, which was later called Company Bagh by the British. Situated on the right bank of River Sutlej in eastern Punjab, Ramraipur is a village in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar district. Similarly, some of the other villages and towns that are named after Ram are Raman in Bathinda, Punjab, Ramsar in Ferozepur, Punjab, Ramnagar in Uttarakhand, Rampar village in Bhavnagar, Gujarat, Ramapara village in Baghpeta, Assam, Rampur Kamrup in Assam, Ramtek in Nagpur, Ramraj in Muzaffarnagar, UP, and cities in the South such as Rameshwaram, Tamil Nadu, Ramagundam (Telangana), Ramanagaram (Karnataka); Ramanathapuram (Tamil Nadu); Ramgarh (Jharkhand), to name a few. In fact, over 3,626 villages and 1230 cities are found to have been named after Ram! In Pakistan too, there is a Ajudhiapur. The Ayutthaya kingdom in Thailand is known to have been named after Ayodhya of the Ramayana while the Kings of the Chakri Dynasty, carry the name of Ram. From 11 century onwards, influence of Ramayana teached the rulers, noble elites and the local gentry of South East Asia. This was largely due to rich traders from southern India followed by adventurers, teachers and priests. Their dominating influence continued until about 1500 CE. It was the epic's ideals of righteousness, loyalty, and selfless devotion that ensured it being woven into the tapestry of their local culture. These became evident in their performing and wetual arts, The obstous link of beliefs and cultural practices from the lodian se notontinent to the Far East and to South East Asia has often been commented upon. The noteworthy feature of East anfluences was not based on political conquests, Hinduism and Buddhism, both of which have their roots in the northern regions and in the Indo-Gangetic belt of the Indian subschonment, spread to far corners of this sub-continent and also to areas of neighbouring countries and region, whiffs of which are still evident in their performing art practices. As const the profuse interaction of the southern Chola kingdom with South East Asia in the last millennium that led to cultural influences, yet prior to it, there were several phases of contacts of other regions of India with the Far East and the South-East regions. Swarnabhumi, or The Land of Gold, the name given to the regions of South-East Asia comprising Malay Peninsula and the Malay Archipelago, beckoned traders, craftsmen, and Brahmans who were the first to make Swarnabhumi their home A discussion on the cultural Influence on South-East Asian countries has to be understood against the background of above-mentioned key drivers as well as marriage alliances. Marriage alliances with north-eastern regions suggested a land route with these regions who were directly or indirectly under the hegemony of rulers from the Indo-Gangetic belt. During the Mahabharata era, one of Arjun's four wives, Chitrangada was stated to be from far off Manipur. Maritime activities, according to Megasthenes, was utilised by Chandragupta Maurya (4th century BC-3th century BC) for sending diplomatic missions. Local Burmese mythology suggests that there was immigration from the 'janapadas' of the Indo Gangetic belt as far back as circa 1000-600 BC. R.C. Majumdar says that "The migration of the Indians on a large scale to the Far East and their colonisation in this region are echoed in many stories and legends, current in India as well as in the colonies. Although these legends cannot be regarded as history, they preserve the memory of events long forgotten and the cumulative effect of evidence of this kind cannot be altogether ignored. In particular they throw interesting light on the objects and motives of the early colonists, the routes followed by the Indians in their journey to the Far East, and the perils and hardships encountered by them both in land and sea."" Mazumdar mentions a few "Buddhist Jataka stories which were probably current long before the Christian era refer to voyages between India and Suvarnabhumi. One legend speaks of carpenters from Benaras making a boat and sailing on the river towards the sea. Finally, they arrived at an island that lay in the midst of the sea"". Perhaps the legend is referring to the Bay of Bengal while also indicating the importance of rivers as modes of tel, In the case of Bali, the Mauryan period saw the spread of culture of the Gangetic bele be route via Kalinga, across Bay of Bengal, locally known as Kalinga Sagara.
Vedas (1182)
Upanishads (493)
Puranas (624)
Ramayana (741)
Mahabharata (354)
Dharmasastras (165)
Goddess (496)
Bhakti (242)
Saints (1503)
Gods (1290)
Shiva (370)
Journal (187)
Fiction (60)
Vedanta (362)
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