Rāma of Ancient Xinjiang, China.
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| Ancient Indian Texts Call Xinjiang 'Uttarakuru' |
Ancient
Khotan or modern Hotan is a major oasis town in southwestern Xinjiang,
Khotanese
kings were Mahāyāna Buddhist but this sect incorporates Vedic and Tantric
systems, with all the devas such as Indra, Śiva, Viṣṇu and Sarasvatī, and just places the
Buddha at the head of the system . There was also Krishna worship in Khotan and
we find the Rāma story in Khotanese language, of which there is also a Tibetan
version.
The
Buddhists put a spin on the Rāma story, that has had immense power on the imagination of the people all over Asia.
The
Khotanese Rāmāyaṇa is
not the standard Rāma story. In it Daśaratha, who is called Sahasrabāhu
(“thousand-armed”), fights with Paraśurāma and gets killed, and his sons Rāma
and Lakṣmaṇa are saved by a queen. When they grow older they slay Paraśurāma in
revenge and become masters of all Jambudvīpa.
Meanwhile,
the Rākṣasas are ruled by Rāvaṇa (Daśagrīva). A daughter is born to his chief queen and it
is prophesied that she will be the cause of his ruin. So he orders the girl,
Sītā, to be cast upon the great river in a box. A ṛiṣhi chances upon the box and raises the girl lovingly. This is
somewhat similar to the account in Adbhuta Rāmāyaṇa.
Later in
the story, Rāma, Lakṣmaṇa and Sītā are in the forest and as the
brothers leave to hunt, Lakṣmaṇa draws the
magic circle around Sītā for protection. Daśagrīva sees this lovely woman from
the air, and not knowing she is his own daughter, approaches her and persuades
her to step out of the circle to abduct her.
There is
war and Dasagriva is defeated.
But in the
end Rāma doesn’t kill him. In their
variant, Rāvaṇa, after
losing the war is spared his life, and becomes a worthy Buddhist to accord with
the Laṅkāvatārasūtra, set in Laṅkā, in which the Buddha instructs Rāvaṇa.
At the end
of the story, the Buddha Śākyamuni is identified with Rāma and Maitreya with
Lakṣmaṇa.
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Europeans in recent centuries called the whole region Serindia, indicating the meeting place of China and India. The region northwest of Tibet, which is the part of Xinjiang below the Tian Shin Mountains, was Indic in culture and it was a thriving part of the Sanskritic world.
Subjects
Spirituality Bhagvad Gita Bhagwad Puran Buddhism Krishna Guru
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