Omnipresent Sri Ram

Ramayan is India's national epic. Thailand's national epic is Ramkien, the Thai version of the Ramayan. If Ayodhya in India is believed to the birthplace of Ram, Ayuttaya in Thailand, some 70 km from Bangkok, is venerated in a similar way. The Kakawin Ramayan, in Javanese poetry form, is part of Indonesia's Balinese culture, and dance performances replay the various stories found in the Ramayan. Reamker, meaning The Glory of Ram, is the Cambodian version of the same epic, and guess what, it is the national epic of Cambodia! Palace walls are decorated with paintings of scenes from the Reamker in Khmer style, and the walls of the Angkor Wat and Banteay Srei temples too, sport similar paintings. Ram and Reamker are integral parts of Cambodian culture.

The Ramayan was taken to all countries of Southeast Asia from South India, and it became part and parcel of local culture and folklore, giving rise to immense creativity in the arts and literature, and enriching regional philosophy, amalgamating into or coopting with the Buddhist way of life. Ram and the Ramayan are not confined to the Indic region; they belong to so many countries. More than three hundred versions of the Ramayan exist worldwide. We can safely say that Ram is a universal maryada purush who epitomises high standards of ethics and most importantly, pacifism. Ram, if not forced to go to war to uphold dharma, was essentially peace-loving, never militant.