Best-selling author of the Shiva trilogy and the Ram Chandra series, Amish Tripathi sat down with OpIndia and talked about his new series Legends of The Ramayana, which is streaming on Discovery+.
Amish said he learned a new thing every day while making the series, and it brought him closer to Lord Ram and Goddess Sita. He thanked the makers for the idea of making the documentary and said it came as a blessing for him.
Amish, whose fourth book in the Ramchandra series is all set to launch very soon, said the makers wanted to make a documentary that was respectful to the Indian culture. Amish said they went to all the locations, including Ayodhya, Prayagraj, Chitrakoot, Panchvati, Hampi, Rameshwaram, and in Sri Lanka, Sigiriya, which was Ravan’s capital.
He said there could be many reasons Sanatan Dharma survived, but all the other pre-Bronze religions died. It could be our ancestors never surrendered, or it could be we were decentralized, so there was not a single head that, if cut, would end the Sanatan Dharma.
Amish added he feels we have a fine mix of rigidity and flexibility. We never got dethatched from our stories. However, we were flexible enough to add a little bit of modernization to the stories. He gave examples from Ramayana, in Valmiki Ramayana, there is no mention of Lakshman Rekha, but it finds reference in Ramcharitra Manas. However, the picturization in the 1980s Ramayana series is different from what was depicted in Ram Charitramanas.
While talking about the importance of including the ancient way of teaching in the modern education system, he said what we learn is the European way of history. They made it look like their history is history, but anyone else’s is mythology. He said fighting the battle of history and mythology on the European battleground is a waste of time, and instead of convincing others, we should concentrate on analyzing how our history can be beneficiary for us.
You can watch the interview here.
