Opinion - Letters to the Editor

Ayodhya's tale

Sir, — This is with reference to Mr. Jaiboy Joseph's letter (March 18) in which he has stated that the present day Ayodhya was known as Saket before the fifth century and it was renamed as Ayodhya by a Gupta king in the late fifth century. This is not correct. No doubt Saket was another name for Ayodhya. Rama is addressed both as `Saketha Rama' and `Ayodhya Rama' by our poets. The name Ayodhya occurs a hundred times in Valmiki's Ramayana which certainly predates the Gupta rule by several centuries.

Equally untenable is his contention that ``the rise of Rama worship is relatively new''. How new? Again, even a cursory reading of Valmiki's Ramayana would convince anyone that Rama was held in great reverence not only by the citizens of Ayodhya but also wisemen and women in distant lands like Vibhishana (Ravana's brother) and Mandodari (the noble wife of Ravana).

R. Chitra Raman,
Chennai

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