Chapter Five: Avatāra Doctrine and Rama Worship
—BCE. Rama worship may have been especially prevalent then, although no strong evidence survives. In the second century BCE, after the Mauryas, the Shunga dynasty gained power in India. Vedic religion was revived; the Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata circulated widely; and Rama and Krishna were especially worshipped as avatāras. The Rāma-pūrva-tāpanī Upaniṣad also indicates that Rama worship had become prominent by this period.
After Ravana’s death, when the gods witness Sita’s ordeal by fire in the thirty-fifth chapter of the Yuddha-kāṇḍa, they say:
You are the maker of all the worlds, the sovereign and highest among those who know. How can you watch Sita enter the bearer of offerings? How do you not recognize yourself as the foremost of the gods?
Rama worship is also described in the dialogue between Agastya and Sutikshna. The Vāyu Purāṇa recounts Rama’s descent. In canto ten of the Raghuvaṃśa, Kalidasa accepts Rama’s supreme divinity in the words “I, becoming Dasharathi.” From 1014 CE onward, the tradition expanded especially widely. Bhavabhuti likewise regarded Rama as the supreme object of worship.
Is Rama worship Vedic or Tantric?
The question whether Rama worship is Vedic or Tantric is a serious one. In the Mantra Rāmāyaṇa, Nilakantha interprets Vedic mantras as expressing the life of Rama. At its outset, the Rāma-tāpanī Upaniṣad regards Rama as the avatāra of Mahavishnu.1 It may therefore be called Vedic. At many places the revealed texts conceive Rama as complete Brahman.
Yet the Nārada Pañcarātra and Śāradā-tilaka also describe Rama worship, making it Tantric as well. Rama worship is therefore neither exclusively Vedic nor exclusively Tantric; it is both Vedic and Tantric.
In the seventh century CE, Vaishnava devotion rose powerfully in South India. This was the age of the Alvar Vaishnavas. Bhandarkar states that although Rama had been regarded as an avatāra of Vishnu since the beginning of the Common Era, his distinct prominence began only around the eleventh century.2 Even if, as Bhandarkar argues, Rama-bhakti gained special prominence in the eleventh century, it is already present in seed form in the hymns of the Alvars. Its origin must therefore be placed no later than the seventh century.
The Alvars number twelve. The works of Kulasekhara Alvar preserve the earliest mature exposition of Rama-bhakti. The renowned Vaishnava teacher Sri Ramanujacharya arose in this same Alvar lineage—