After reading Rajagopalacharis views on Sitas Fidelity, I have begin to think if
Valmiki really intended to show to the "Then" existing society, in a subtle manner that Women are being subjected to something that they donot deserve?
This has happened many a times in the past when Jonathan Swift (in Gullivers Travel, has subtly hidden the fact that there are planets in the Solar system outside Saturn , and in those days it was a crime to talk of such things as new planets such as Neptune and Pluto, and hence he had to include them as subtle hints in the book), as well as in Nostradamus's predictions, and it can even be seen in the recent book that is causing quite a stir, "The Da Vinci Code", where he mentiones that Leonardo Da Vinci perhaps included a lot of subtle hints which a common man does not percieve.
In any case, Valmiki could just have done that to show how men "behave" , by lowering even his own Hero to act like one of the common folk. Luckily he chose to include it as part of Uttara Ramayan.
As Rajagopalachari says, the "blemishless" character of Rama ends the moment Ravana has been slain and his Avatar has achieved what it set out to do.
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I am appreciative of the fact that this incident had at least sparked disbelief even in people like Tulsidas and Kamban - that they somehow thought this was not the best way to treat the heroine of the epic. And I can see why you would want to compare this with the satirical Gulliver's Travels. My intention is not to banish Ramayana - but to raise awareness on how to treat epics with caution and not as "sacrosanct" and
"unquestionable" - and the mistaken notion that to question such incidents equates with "blasphemy".
"I have heard it said that with that meeting Parasurama's avatar came to an end. Likewise, it should be held, I think, that Rama's avatar came to an end with the slaying of Ravana. After that battle, Rama remained only as a King of the Ikshvaku race. "
When this has come from a conservative man like Rajaji, I need not press for this point anymore.
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