de jure and de facto..

To be frank, any decision making process is heavily dependent on facts on hand and also the balance of convenience at the crucial moment.. most of the time value or ethical considerations are not the priority..


In fictional histories,(for that matter even in what we call pure history) often they cannot manage to obliterate all the inconvenient facts.. so the followers would try to whitewash or sugarcoat incidents wherever possible.. but contradictions do show.


The killing of Vali, the abandoning of Sita in the forest .. are all political decisions..(and not hasty ones for that matter).. the explanation may be that Rama had to do such things as a function of Kshatriya..


The epics and lore evolve.with time and generations of people ..

 First the Ramayana was a chronicle on what happened, nice or otherwise, in the lives of a few persons, may be historical, semi-historical, or fictional ..


However, as the story evolved and was churned in the furnace of time, many characters assumed dimensions of divinity..


The inherent flaws and contradictin  could all not be wished away..


So the chinks in the armour do show..



The intelligent reader should do himself a lot of good by analysing the issues dispassionately and by not persuading himself to be lulled into the belief that what is all written in some ancient text is Gospel and should form the basis for his own code of conduct.. पुराणमित्येव न साधु सर्वं