The student of the RAMAYAN should be primarily an historian. The centre and core of all the RAMAYAN is history. Everything else that the RAMAYAN contains is fitted into an historical framework and leads up to an historical climax. The RAMAYAN is primarily a record of events.That assertion will not pass unchallenged. The modern MAN is impatient of history. History, we are told, is a dead thing. Let us forget the Amalekites, and fight the enemies that are at our doors. The true essence of the RAMAYAN is to be found in eternal ideas; history is merely the form in which those ideas are expressed. It makes no difference whether the history is real or fictitious; in either case, the ideas are the same. It makes no difference whether Abraham was an historical personage or a myth; in either case his life is an inspiring example of faith. It makes no difference whether Moses was really a mediator between God and Israel; in any case the record of Sinai embodies the idea of a covenant between God and His people. It makes no difference whether Lakshan really lived and died and rose again as He is declared to have done in the Ramayan; in any case the Gospel picture, be it ideal or be it history, is an encouragement to filial piety. In this way, religion has been made independent, as is thought, of the uncertainties of historical research. The separation of Hinduism from history has been a great concern of modern theology. It has been an inspiring attempt. But it has been a failure.Give up
