Valmiki and Homer – A Critical Study of the alleged Greek influence onRamayana
K. V. Ramakrishna Rao B.sc., M.A., A.M.I.E., C.Eng (I)., B.L.,
(Source:http://navalanthivu.blogspot.com/2006/02/valmiki-and-homer-critical-study-of.html)Introduction: The controversy was initiated by Rev. D. C. Boyd1, by translating an articleof Albrecht Weber, a Professor at Berlin, written in German. D. C. Boyd brought out theWeber’s conclusions in Indian Antiquary (Vol.I, 1872) as follows:1. The entire narrative of the exile itself has to a large extent, been developed out of germs furnished by Buddhistic legends.2. In the existing condition of the text, however, we find unmistakable indications that theinfluence of Greece upon India was already firmly established.3. It is possible that in addition of these two elements (namely the abduction of Sita andthe siege of Lanka) by Valmiki, we should recognize the influence of an acquaintancewith the Homeric saga cycle.4. The work of Valmiki can hardly date earlier than this (i.e, about the beginning of theChristian era).K. T. Telang read a paper2 before the Student’s Literary and Scientific Society, Bombayon September 2, 1872 refuting the above points. M. Krishnamachariar3 (1937) and otherstoo pointed out the fallacies in such hypotheses. However, they were not publicized likethe Weber’s writings. After that, many western and Indian scholars proceeded in the linesof Weber and filled the libraries with their hypotheses and theories, thereby, the modernIndian mind is still haunted and daunted by their writings. R. C. Dutt, H. Jacobi, Lassen,Monier Williams, H. H. Wilson, J. C. Chatterjee, M, V. Kibe, P. E. Pargiter, C. V. Vaidya,H. D. Sankalia, S. N. Vyas, and host of historians, archaeologists and sociologists havethough delved on the subject, they have almost decided the issue by accepting the Greek influence. Therefore, the Homeric / Greek sources are analyzed here to find out the factsand review the issue in the right perspective.The Western Views on the Epics Contradicting: The western views on the epics have been contradicting, confusing, bringing extraneous issues and hence definitely motivated.One thing is clear that they wanted to bring all Indian history after the Alexander’sinvasion to prove the Greek influence on Indian arts and sciences. Even in the case of drama, their debate recorded is revealing as how they attempted to show the Greek influence on Indians just by taking the word “yavanika”! For illustrative purpose,Winternitze is quoted, as he covers all the debatable points:M. Winternitze4 concludes, “If we briefly summarize the results of our investigations intothe age of Ramayana, we can say the following :-1
1. The later parts of the Ramayana, especially Books I and VII, are separated from thegenuine Ramayana of Books II to VI by a long interval of time.2. The whole Ramayana including the later portions, was already an old and famous work when the Mahabharata has not attained its present form.3. It is probable that the Ramayana had its present extent and contents as early as towardsthe close of the second century A.D.4. The older nucleus of the Mahabharata, however, is probably older than the ancientRamayana.5. In the Veda we find no trace of the Rama epic and only very faint traces of the Ramalegend.6. The ancient Buddhist texts of the Tripitaka betray no knowledge of the Ramayana, butcontain traces of ballads in which the Rama legend was sung.7. There are no obvious traces of Buddhism to be seen in the Ramayana, but thecharacterization of Rama may possibly be traceable to remote Buddhist influence.8. There can be no question of Greek influence in the Ramayana, and the genuineRamayana betrays no acquaintance with the Greeks.9. It is probable that the original Ramayana was composed in the third century B.C byValmiki on the basis of ancient ballads.Indian writers have spent their times either accepting and few refuting these viewseffectively. As the dominant view prevailed, the other way was almost died down, but, itdoes not mean that whatever said about the Greek influence is completely correct inIndian context (Note point no.9 above). Therefore, the issue is dealt with directly startingwith the “Homeric question”.Who Was “Homer”? The very existence of “Homer” has been questioned5. Who Homer was, when he lived, where he was born and other details had / have been matters of doubt based on different traditions. Even the “Father of History” ventured to opine6 that helived not more than 400 years before him i.e., 900 and 850 BCE! J. B. Bury7 openlydeclared that the author of Iliad was a native of Chios. He gives the following details:1. The poets who composed the Iliad and Odyssey did not live before 9th cent.BCE.2. The name “Homer” means “Hostage”, implying that he had come from outside to settlethere perhaps captured or seeking asylum. He was hailing from a family of bards.3. Tradition made Homer the author of both the epics.4. Many critics think that the Iliad we have is not the original Iliad of Homer, but that his poem was a much shorter work and was remoulded and expanded by succeeding poets in2
a way that was not entirely to its advantage.5. It is impossible that he committed the Iliad in writing, because the earliest example of aGreek writing is available on an Attic jar of the 7th cent.BCE (thereby the writing couldhave attained the level of poetry with metre/scale). The Greek Alphabet was derived fromthe Phoenician invented in 10th to 9th cent.BCE.6. His successors sang the songs in Ionia and Iliad was arrayed in Ionic dress.Westerners claim that Aristarchus, a commentator who lived in Alexandria about 150BCE divided Iliad and Odyssey into 24 books each and even in his times, Chorizontes or Separatists also dubbed as heretics refused to accept the authorship of both to one person.Even today, though forceful views are expressed about the “Homeric poetry” in historicalsense, because of Troy and Minoan excavations, Homer and his reshaping of story areconsidered more a matter of myth than of historical fact, as it satisfied the social agenda.Gregory Nagy8, the most influential Homer scholar of our generation, besides the above point opines as follows:1. Around 1200 BCE, in the Anatolian plains, nothing would have been more frighteningthan a mass of Chariot warriors ready to attack.2. Chariot fighting in the Greek-speaking world in the first millenium BCE becamemetaphysical, cosmological and ceremonial. It might be introduced into the Olympicsaround 680 BCE.3. There was a Homer in the minds and hearts of the people who lived by the song culturethat was dominated by what we know as Homeric poetry. There was a Homer for theaudience of Homer, so to speak.4. Homer’s poems were being transmitted by being recited, not by being written down.5. The five stages of evolution of Homeric poetics are as follows:i. First stage: By the 5th cent.BCE, the Iliad and the Odyssey were performed at thePanathenaea (the principal religious festival of Athens) and the poems were evolving. For a long period, an amorphous collection of oral poems coalesces into a coherent cycle of poems.ii. Second stage: Then, this cycle of poems gets streamlined and regularized.iii. Transcript stage / phase: Poems recited by the rhapsodes (oral poets) at the festival of Panathenaea.iv. Script stage (4th cent.BCE): The poems are fixed, scripted; writing does not matter.v. Scripture stage (3rd cent.BCE): Homer is reconstructed with divinely inspired versionsof the Iliad and the Odyssey. One of the Alexandrian Library scholars Aristarchus of Samothrace (c.217-145 BCE) finally nailed it down.Thus, to Harvard classicist Gregory Nagy, the man who is called “Homer” is a myth.Who Was Valmiki? About the authorship of Ramayana, there is no dispute, as he is theauthor. Scholars might fix period for the composition based on different factors in therange pre-Buddhist - 600 BCE and 200 CE. But, Valmiki lived during Ramayana period(Tretayouga, traditionally) and Lava and Kusa rendered it before Rama himself.Valmiki’s original name was Ratnakara, and he was also known as Bhargava and3
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