Epic talk

The innumerable variations of the Ramayan story have attracted scholars and artists through the ages. HUMRA QURAISHI meets two Mexican scholars whose love for Sanskrit and India is intertwined with their love for the epic.

Juan Miguel De Mora and Marja Ludwika Jarocka.

THAT THE Ramayan is a vital link between the cultures of India and the countries of South-East Asia is well known. It has however, travelled much further, uniting all those who love this intricate story with its infinite variations. So it is not surprising that Juan Miguel De Mora and Marja Ludwika Jarocka from Mexico are currently researching a relatively lesser-known version, the Jain Ramayan.This couple - the 82-year-old Juan and his 65-year-old spouse Marja - is here to give talks on love and death in the context of Indian and Western literature, and she to talk of Hindu Gods and Goddesses.

Juan Miguel De Mora, from the Institute of Philological Research (National Autonomous University of Mexico) is not just a well-known columnist, writer and political analyst but has also translated several Spanish books into Sanskrit. "Over 10 Spanish books have been translated by him into Sanskrit and over 100 hymns from the Rig Veda and Upanishads," informs Marja, his wife and companion for over 35 years..

Juan Miguel De Mora first came to India with the Mexican President Adolfo Lopez Mateos on the invitation of President Radhakrishnan. So taken was Juan by India and its literature and culture that he even took to studying Sanskrit at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes of the University of Paris (Sorbonne) and began translating Spanish books into Sanskrit. Marja also has her very own India fascination. "I did my B.A. from Mills College in California and though the main subject was Spanish Literature the elective course was on religions of India and that absolutely fascinated me. "

It is this love for India that brings this couple here. This time they have an added mission. He is doing a research project on the different types of emotions and love expressed in the two Ramayans: the Valmiki Ramayan and Tulsidas' Ramcharitmanas. Whilst researching that he found out there is another Ramayan - the Jain Ramayan. It is to study the Jain Ramayan that they are here, to spend time at the Jain Vishva Bharati Institute, Rajasthan, and also to meet the learned Jain monk Acharya Mahaprajna.

Juan Miguel De Mora does not conceal his anti U.S. sentiments. He blasts the U.S. and its policies quoting two former Mexican Presidents: "Mexican President General Porfirio Diaz (who was President of Mexico till 1910) had said way back - `Poor Mexico, so far from God and so close to the U.S.!' And then when another Mexican President Adolfo Lopez Mateos was asked what's Mexico's greatest problem, he'd said, `the U.S.' But in my opinion both persons were too diplomatic or because they were Presidents, theycouldn't speak very freely and openly. In my opinion American President Bush's democracy is like Stalin's democracy. In my recent columns I have been stating that Bush policies are a danger to humanity. Saddam could have been a tyrant but at least his policies were not a danger to humanity."

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