When was Lord Rama Born?.


Lord Ram was born on the noon of January10 in the year
5114 BC. In Hindu calendar, it was the ninth day of
Shukla Paksha in Chaitra month. Stunned! Well, this
exact date of the birthday of Lord Rama is found in
the book ‘Dating the Era of Lord Ram’ by Shri Pushkar
Bhatnagar. The exact date was obtained by entering the
planetary configuration at the time of the birth of
Lord Ram as mentioned in the Valmiki Ramayana in
Planetarium Software. Interestingly, for thousands of
years Hindus have been celebrating Ram Navmi, the
birthday of Lord Ram, exactly on the same time and
date.

In the original Sanskrit Ramayana written by Sage
Valmiki, while mentioning about the birth of Lord Ram,
Valmiki had mentioned the astronomical details of the
precise moment. Valmiki himself was present in the
palace of Dasaratha and he mentions it thus in Bala
Kanda of Ramayana.

On completion of the ritual six seasons have passed by
and then in the twelfth month, on the ninth day of
chaitra month when the presiding deity of ruling star
of the day is Aditi, where the ruling star of day is
punarvasu, the asterism is in the ascendant, and when
five of the nine planets viz., Sun, Mars, Jupiter,
Saturn, and Venus are at their highest position, when
Jupiter with Moon is ascendant in Cancer, and when day
is advancing, then Queen Kausalya gave birth to a son
with all the divine attributes like lotus-red eyes,
lengthy arms, roseate lips, voice like drumbeat, and
who took birth to delight the Ikshwaku dynasty, who is
adored by all the worlds, and who is the greatly
blessed epitome of Vishnu, namely Rama.

When this data was entered in the Planetarium
software, the day was January 10, 5114 BC. But how
could Chaitra Shukla Navami occur in January? We
celebrate Ram Navami in March or April. The answer to
this was found in an article in Organizer.

There is an astronomical phenomenon called ‘precision’
of the sun as also of the equinoxes. According to the
latter, the star which is now taken to be the Pole
Star (Dhruv Tara), would yield the place to the Star
Abhijit (Vega, alpha Lyrae), 14,000 years from now. So
when the lunar month of Chaitra occurred seven
thousand years ago in the month of January, 7000 years
later, it occurs in the month of (generally) April.

Further, Valmiki had mentioned about other planetary
configuration. One such was the planetary
configuration when King Dashratha decided to make Lord
Ram the king of Ayodhya. According to the book, such a
planetary configuration was prevailing on January 5,
5089 BC. Lord Ram was then 25 years old and there are
indications in the Ramayana that Lord Ram left Ayodhya
when he was 25.

The solar eclipse mentioned in the Ramayana work out
precisely to the Ramayana period. From an article
written in 2003 in the Tribune by Saroj Bala on the
book ‘Dating the Era of Lord Ram’

Valmiki Ramayana refers to the solar eclipse at the
time of war with Khardushan in latter half of 13th
year of Shri Ram’s living in forests. Valmiki has also
mentioned that it was Amavasya that day and planet
Mars was in the middle. When this data was entered,
the computer software indicated that there was a solar
eclipse on October 7, 5077 BC (Amavasya day) which
could be seen from Panchvati. On that date, the
planetary configuration was the same as has been
described by Valmiki i.e. Mars was in the middle, on
one side were Venus and Mercury and on the other side
were Sun and Saturn. On the basis of planetary
configurations described in various other chapters,
the date on which Ravana was killed works out to
December 4, 5076 BC. Shri Ram completed 14 years of
exile on January 2, 5075 BC. That day was also Navami
of Shukla Paksha in Chaitra month. Thus, Shri Ram had
come back to Ayodhya when he was 39 years old
(5114-5075).

To understand the book ‘Dating the Era of Lord Ram’
one needs to have some elementary knowledge of
astronomy.

When we try to prove the birth of Hindu icons, it must
be understood that these Hindu icons rarely bothered
about birth and death. Through Sanatana Dharma they
teach us to rise above birth and death. It believes
that life is a continuity. And therefore it scoffs at
the debates like ‘No Ram’ and ‘Yes Ram lived.’

For readers benefit please.