Imagined geographies

It is impossible to wade into the raging debate over Ayodhya without being tagged with some derogatory label or the other. But if one does step away from the muck being flung around, what emerges is a fascinating display of how an imagined, mythical geography exerts such a strong pull over our communal identities.

Ayodhya is as much a location on the map as it is a part of the epic universe. And, as is usually the case with mythology, where geography is a function of the story being told, Ayodhya is more than a physical spot; it is made up of stories, events and characters. Diana L Eck (India: A Sacred Geography) says that in India, a (mythic) landscape is more than its topography; it is larger and more sweeping than any one single feature. 

In The Ramayana, Ayodhya is the centrepiece in a string of places that tie together the story of Rama. It is the point from where Rama begins his journey and comes back to at the end. The city encapsulates the theme of loss and separation that runs through the epic — be it between Rama and his kingdom, Rama and Sita, Dasaratha and Rama, and Urmila and Lakshmana. It is a character in the epic and has survived the numerous retellings of the epic. It did not matter if those telling the story had never been to Ayodhya or were unfamiliar with its physical contours. The city was so deeply embedded in the imagined landscape that it survived time and geographical boundaries. Kamban’s version, popular in Tamil Nadu, Krittibas’s epic in Bengal, Tulsidas’s Ramcharitmanas — they all use Ayodhya as bookends to Rama’s journey. 

The Ramayana has other holy cities; Kishkindha, Panchavati and Chitrakoot are part of the hero’s journey too. Along with Ayodhya, they make up the first ever pilgrim’s trail in the region. Interestingly, the pull of the city was so strong that when conquering kings from India set up their rule in Thailand, they recreated its myth in the city of Ayutthaya. It was the capital for Thai kings for four centuries, many of whom took the name Rama.    

MIND’S EYE: Rama and Bharata in The Ramayana

Myths look at geography as a tapestry of stories, songs, legends and climactic events. This gives a city and a region longevity and character, making them larger than the physical borders that confine them. A mythical city is part of the cultural fabric of the people who reside in and around it and, throughout history, invaders have claimed control over a region by capturing it. 

Myth and history are intricately interwoven in the documentary records of literate civilisations (World Mythology: The Illustrated Guide, general editor: Roy Willis). And this helps establish the authority of a capital city over the rest of the kingdom and of a king over his subjects. Take the myth of Romulus and Rome, for example. Twins Romulus and Remus (fathered by the god Mars and a princess) were abandoned by their uncle, King Amulius, on the banks of the river Tiber. But instead of being eaten up by the wild beasts as their uncle had hoped, the twins were cared for by a she-wolf until a shepherd Faustulus found them and brought them up as his own. When they grew up, the twins set out in search of the spot where the she-wolf had rescued them, when a dispute arose between Romulus and Remus. Romulus killed his brother and then marked the boundary around the chosen site and set up his kingdom with the capital city Rome taking its name from its founder. This myth has held sway over the collective imagination of the people of Italy for ages, so much so that the image of the twins being suckled by the she wolf is part of Rome’s popular iconography even today.

The mythic imagination crafts a narrative around cities just as it does for a hero or a divinity, say scholars; Delphi and the Oracle, Kashi and Shiva, Dwarka and Krishna and so on. In some cases, the cities are also imbued with a divine lineage, just as heroes are. For instance, Kashi is holy because Shiva decided to set up his home here. Similarly Delphi is one of the most important religious sites in Greek mythology because the story goes that Zeus released two eagles from opposite ends of the earth to discover the exact centre of the universe. They met at Delphi and the exact spot of their meeting is the navel of the universe. 

The point is that such cities have a life of their own. Ayodhya, Kashi, Rome, Delphi, Jerusalem, and even sunken cities such as Atlantis, outlive the people who inhabit them and their own physical boundaries. Saving them and their honour may then well be a lost cause. But that has never really come in the way of a good crusade.