Are Ram’s Descendants Still Living ?
“Have they converted to Islam (as most of the areas in ancient Bharatvarsha are under Islamic rule today) or still living around us unnoticed in today’s India ?” – a WhatsApp message from unnamed person.
“Udayji, in all your articles, you say that Lord Ram was a historical character. If that is the case where has his dynasty disappear? Are there any descendants? Where are they living now? Is there any historical proof?” questions from a reader Sandeep Patil, Singapore.
“Sandeep, yes, he was a historical character.” I read Ramayan, other Puranic scriptures and learnt history long ago during my school/college days. Let me recall it from my memory, which is very limited.”
Ram was 67th king of the Suryavansha (Solar Dynasty). He had two sons – Lav and Kush.
Kush ruled north Kosala, including Ayodhya. He married a Nagkanya (Naga tribal girl) Kumuddhati. Kusha continued the solar dynasty that ruled Ayodhya.
“But what happened to Lava?”
Lav founded Lavapuri (the modern day city of Lahore), which is named after him. There was a temple associated with Lav (or Loh) inside Shahi Qila, Lahore.
– You can find names associated with Ram and his family everywhere in ancient Bharatvarsha (Hinduism was the civilized way of life of the entire human population from present day’s Iran till Bali and Laguna in Philippines). The Southeast Asian country of Laos and the Thai city of Lopburi were both named after Lav.
Coming back to Kush, who continued the solar dynasty – there were 145 descendants Kings ruled Ayodhya after him. Their descendants were scattered around Afghanistan (Gandhara), Pakistan and Rajastan. Suryavanshi Rajaputs still claim that they are the descendants of solar dynansty. However, no King in the dynasty was a perfect man like Ram in terms of Dharma.
For instance, Ram’s descendant, Brihadbalam, fought in Battle of Kurukshetra on the Kaurava side. Arjuna’s son Abhimanyu killed Brihadbalam in Mahabharata War. The solar dynasty continued through his son Brihatkshaya (or Bruhadrunam).
However, there had been confusion about the dynasty at a later stage. The 141th descendant in the dynasty was named as “Siddhartha”. A section of scholars noted that it was Gautama Buddha. Some people still consider Buddha as a Kshatriya from solar dynasty His father was Śuddhodana and son’s name was Rāhula. If this King was not Buddha, then it was too much of a coincidence!
However, according to historical data, the 143th descendant, son of Rāhula, Prasenjit II was a contemporary of Gautama Buddha and King Bimbisara of Magadha.
His sister, Koushala Devi, was married to Bimbisara. The city of Kashi (Varanasi) was given to her. After Bimbisara was murdered by his own son Ajatshatru, Prasenjit II undertook a long series of wars with Ajatshatru.
Prasenjit II also respected Buddha. In Buddhist literature he is addressed as “Pasenadi”.
King Saumitra (BCE 413-BCE 362) was the Last ruler of Suryavansha. He was 147th King in Suryavansha. He was born five generation after Gautama Buddha. Don’t know if he was Buddha’s great grandson! King Saumitra was born 66 generation after Lord Ram.
He was defeated and driven out from Ayodhya by Mahapadma Nanda. (Nanda’s details are given below.)
Nobody will record the whereabouts or future of a failed King. The only information available about Sumitra is that the Emperor Mahapadma Nanda forced him to leave Ayodhya. Sumitra went to Rohtas with his sons. His son Kurma established his rule over Rohtas.
According to some texts, Rohtās is located in Punjab, Pakistan. Probably, he had found some lineage of Lava in nearby Lahore. However, if you search in Google, there are still ruins of Rohtas Fort Hindu Temple.
If his descendants were there, they would have forced to convert into Islam or killed like other Hindus lived there earlier. However, some scholars say Rohtās is in Bihar. If that is true, you would be able to find some descendants of Ram there. However, there is equal chance of them migrating to any other counties too.
“India’s official history says Ram and his dynasty were purely mythical and not real. Modern historians ask for documental evidences.” Sandeep said.
“I have a question for them. There were 27 universities in ancient India with millions of documents in their libraries. Where are those universities now? Why don’t they teach you about these universities in your history classes?”
The historians will then be compelled to tell the truths that fanatic invaders destroyed all those universities and burned all books, scriptures and documents preserved there.
It’s so funny that today’s secular historians still seek documents! Any sensible human being can find that the education system in India is designed by die-hard fans of invaders, missionaries and communists in such a way that educated Hindu will feel ashamed of his great ancestors!
However, nobody can destroy many material evidences like Ram Sethu (though they intentionally named it as Adam bridge) and ruins of the ancient structures mentioned in Ramayana which was written thousands of years ago.
All the information about solar dynasty is available in Puranas like Harivansh. Since few people dedicated their life to learn Sanskrit even in the direst circumstances and remembered Vedic scriptures and Puranas by Smriti and Sruti tradition, we have at least those scriptures preserved. The world is really obliged to those Sanskrit scholars.
There could be lot of errors in Harivansh. That’s human. But I would rather prefer to follow Harivansh, rather than Indian history texts, as the errors in the latter are intentional with ulterior motives and cannot be considered just as human error. Those historians were liars and betrayed their own ancestors for first full of currency!
Kalidasa’s Raghuvanshi, Shrimad Bhagavatam and Puranas also provide some details of the solar dynasty.
There are very interesting twists and turns in the solar dynasty. The 44th king of solar dynasty was Sagara who had 60 sons. All his sons, except one, died in Ashwamedha Yajna. Asmanja, Sagara’s surviving son, was not made king due to his bad conduct. Instead Anshuman, the grandson of Sagara, became the successor as king.
Pained and angry by his father Sagara’s decision, Asmanja left ancient India with his followers beyond territories of his father to reach Egypt and establish his own rule by conquering Egypt. British historians and Egyptologists like Laurence Waddell and David Rohl say that his name was later pronounced as Aha Menes and the rebellion followed his exile involved 60,000 troops. Ancient Egyptians hieroglyphs also refer him as ‘Aha Manja’ in Abydos temple of Egypt. He conquered the neighbouring areas proclaim him as ‘Pharaoh’ or ‘Prabhu’ which in Sanskrit meaning master or sacred ruler.
Now, let us look at Mahapadma Nanda (BCE 450- BCE 362. He was the founder of Nanda Empire. He was a Shudra, a Barber by profession, turned to Kshatriya by Karma. Last ruler of Nanda Empire was Dhana Nanda (BCE 360-BCE 321).
38 years old Dhana Nanda was defeated and killed by 19 years old Chandragupta Maurya (BCE 340-BCE 298) with the help of Chanakya (Kautilya), who was hailed from South India. Chandragupta was also a Shudra, son of a servant maid called Mura.
Many South Indian dynasties claim that they are associated with Suryavansh in some form or the other. The Tamil Dynasty of Cholas claim to be descended from the Solar Dynasty of Rama. The Gangas, Pallava, Kekeyas and Satavahanas were also related to descendants of solar dynasty.
Our ancestor’s history is amusing and exciting. But our historians distorted and insulted them to please few politicians to get vote.
Other countries didn’t do like that. For instance, the Kings of Thailand retained the name of Rama to show their respect to the perfect King who once ruled the earth. The Chakri dynasty of Thailand is often referred to as Rama.
By
Udaylal Pai
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