Valmiki's Era

[balakjaya]

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I wish to know whether Buddha was born earlier to Valmiki. In the 34th. sloka of the 109th. canto in Ayodhya Kanda, there is a reference to Buddha

 

[palindrome]

If Ayodhya Kanda contains the reference, it means Valmiki Ramayan was composed after the time of Buddha. Na?

 

[ShivKC]

In the 34th. sloka of the 109th. canto in Ayodhya Kanda, there is a reference to Buddha

Could you please share those references.. Just curious!!

 

[prasad1]

Buddha is a title which means the Enlightened One. There are many known and unknown Buddhas. Gautama Buddha was the 28th and the last one as of yet, Maitreya Buddha will be the next one.


So it could be anyone of the other 27 known or any unknown Buddha before Gautama.

yathaa hi choraH sa tathaa hi buddha


"A Buddhist is like a thief and deserves to be punished."


[Valmiki Ramayan; Ayodhya Kaand sarg 109, shloka 34]

 

[prasad1]

http://www.chezpaul.org.uk/fuengsin/dhamma/ramayana.htm
Buddism also has a connection with the Ramayana. In the [Mahayanan] Lankavatara Sutra, which is the most important teaching of the Yogacara School, the Buddha was invited by Ravana to teach the doctrine of inner perception and the real existence of mind. After preaching to the nagas beneath the ocean, the Buddha went in glory to Lanka in Ravana's chariot with some Bodhisattvas. The Buddha created a mountain peak on which he and Ravana were seen. Suddenly they all vanished and Ravana was alone. He had a sudden revulsion of feeling (paravritti) and realised that what he perceived was only his own mind. From his own previous good karma, he could understand every treatise, and with his contemplative power, he could see things as they really were. When Bodhidharma, the first Patriarch of Zen School, went to China, he took with him only the Lankavatara Sutra. The Tibetan Buddhists also use the same scripture. It is the discourse of the sole reality of the Absolute Mind.

All fictions can not be verified as History.

 

[sangom]

I wish to know whether Buddha was born earlier to Valmiki. In the 34th. sloka of the 109th. canto in Ayodhya Kanda, there is a reference to Buddha

Shri Balakjaya,

I think you have opened a Pandora's box.

Contrary to general perception among hindus, the valmiki ramayana could be a later work compared to Buddha. It is also possible, because of the Lankavatara sutra, that the story of Rama was widely known as some folk myth, by common people and Buddhists, as was their wont, managed to write as if their Buddha was every important personality, in one of his previous births.

A third and most possible reason could be that this sloka was an interpolation at a later date (the Sunga period) to create animosity against buddhists and to derive divine (Rama's) sanction to kill buddhists.

 

[palindrome]

A third and most possible reason could be that this sloka was an interpolation at a later date (the Sunga period) to create animosity against buddhists and to derive divine (Rama's) sanction to kill buddhists.

Putting words into the mouth of a God for killing Buddhists?????

 

[sangom]

Putting words into the mouth of a God for killing Buddhists?????

Rama was possibly only a folk hero when this interpolation was done. Rama became avatar and god later, and if you don't know it, who else here will?

 

[palindrome]

Rama was possibly only a folk hero when this interpolation was done. Rama became avatar and god later, and if you don't know it, who else here will?

sorry sir that was not what i meant. I agree Rama was a folk hero. My wonderment was in the context of killing buddhists. Agreed Sunga dynasty killed buddhists but why did they choose Rama to sanction their heinous deed? why Rama? Why not Shiva or any other god?

 

[sangom]

sorry sir that was not what i meant. I agree Rama was a folk hero. My wonderment was in the context of killing buddhists. Agreed Sunga dynasty killed buddhists but why did they choose Rama to sanction their heinous deed? why Rama? Why not Shiva or any other god?

Possibly none of the other puranas including Bhagavatham had come into being and even if these had, the lower classes were not aware or familiar with them (as is the case even today). But Rama and Ramayan might have been more popular and the lay people would blindly accept the killings if they were told that Ramayana itself said like this.