Rama

==Dating==
[[File:The Divine Hero Rama.jpg|alt=|thumb|281x281px|A 4th century terracotta sculpture depicting Rama]]In some Hindu texts, Rama is stated to have lived in the ''[[Treta Yuga]]''{{Sfn|Menon|2008|pp=10-11}} that their authors estimate existed before about 5,000 BCE. Archaeologist [[Hasmukh Dhirajlal Sankalia|H. S. Sankalia]], who specialised in Proto- and Ancient Indian history, find such estimate to be "pure speculation".<ref name="dhirajlal" /> A few other researchers place Rama to have more plausibly lived around 1250 BCE,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/news/india/was-ram-born-in-ayodhya/articleshow/77380259.cms|title=Was Ram born in Ayodhya|first=Devdutt|last=Pattanaik|website=mumbaimirror|date=8 August 2020|access-date=8 August 2020|archive-date=14 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200814150318/https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/news/india/was-ram-born-in-ayodhya/articleshow/77380259.cms|url-status=live}}</ref> based on regnal lists of Kuru and Vrishni leaders which if given more realistic reign lengths would place Bharat and Satwata, contemporaries of Rama, around that period. Sankalia dates various incidents of the Ramayana to have taken place as early as 1,500 BCE.<ref name="dhirajlal">{{cite book|last=Dhirajlal Sankalia|first=Hasmukhlal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bgVkAAAAMAAJ|title=The Ramayana in historical perspective|publisher=[[Macmillan Publishers]]|year=1982|isbn=9-780-333-90390-2|location=[[India]] (branch)|pages=4–5, 51|author-link=Hasmukh Dhirajlal Sankalia|access-date=8 March 2021|archive-date=31 January 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240131062703/https://books.google.com/books?id=bgVkAAAAMAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Aspects of Indian History and Archaeology|page=205|author=Hasmukhlal Dhirajlal Sankalia|year=1977|publisher=B. R. Publishing Corporation}}</ref>

The composition of Rama's epic story, the ''[[Ramayana]]'', in its current form is usually dated between 8th and 4th century BCE.<ref name=":02"/><ref>{{Cite book|last=Parmeshwaranand|first=Swami|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6F0ZIBIL2ZAC|title=Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Puranas|date=2001a|publisher=Swarup & Sons|isbn=978-81-7625-226-3|language=en|author-link=Swami Prameyananda}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Archaeology: Indonesian Perspective : R.P. Soejono's Festschrift|first=Truman |last=Simanjuntak |page=361|year =2006}}</ref> According to John Brockington, a professor of Sanskrit at Oxford known for his publications on the ''Ramayana'', the original text was likely composed and transmitted orally in more ancient times, and modern scholars have suggested various centuries in the 1st millennium BCE. In Brockington's view, "based on the language, style and content of the work, a date of roughly the fifth century BCE is the most reasonable estimate".<ref>{{cite book|author1=John Brockington|author2=Mary Brockington|title=The Other Ramayana Women: Regional Rejection and Response |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GgQzDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA3 |year=2016|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-39063-3|pages=3–6}}</ref>

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