Hindus call rAvaNa as rAvANasura i.e. the demon rAvaNa.
At post No. 145 at this blog, we have already seen that the State of jhArkhand has about a hundred thousand people speaking the language 'Asuri'.
The Asuri language is spoken, among others, by the people belonging to the 'asura' culture also.
The Planning Commission of India, listed as under, the tribes of jhArkhand:
Jharkhand: Asura, Baiga, Banjara, Bishor, Gond, Oran, Santhal, Ho, Kharia, Khond, Korwa, Mundra, Mal paharia, Bhumij,
source: planningcommission.nic.in/reports/sereport/ser/ser_chr.pdf.
I do not want to use the word 'tribe' for the people living in the forest areas of different States of India. Doing so will be condescending, or 'holier than thou' approach. For that matter, every Indian was a tribal in the eyes of the British rulers or European colonialists. Whatever that did not belong to the blind British culture or the European culture was atavistc, barbaric and tribal in their eyes. The European colonialists and the imperialists never looked into mirrors as long as they were trading or capturing places in India. This trait of calling everybody not belonging to their Continent, race and religion, as uncivilised and savageous, the European Colonialists and the Imperialists inherited from the Indo-European and Norman invaders of the B.C. Era. This name-calling and mud-slinging sometimes spilled even to their own co-settlers.
The early European settlers from Britain, France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Germany etc. alighting the ships on the Eastern Coast of United States, sometimes moved like great friends and at some other times as great foes. While moving westward, on the one hand, they overcame the Indians of the American Continent, by acting as a united white race. At the sametime, they fought within themselves, using firearms in both the instances i.e. while fighting the Indians and while fighting among themselves.
In India also, the Aryan settlers and the Dravidian settlers who arrived into India from Europe, via the Iran route, fought among themselves and also fought with the natives living in India at that time. In their eyes, every enemy is a demon.
Poet vAlmiki and balladeers who spread rAmAyaNa among the subjects of the kings belonging to the Sun dynasty, had in the same way treated rAvaNa as a demon.
But hanumAn, the Minister of the forest-dwelling vAnarAs, treated rAvaNa as a brahmin (priest class).
Vol. 5, The Book of Beauty i.e. sundara kAnDA (the book of hanuman searching for SItA.
Sarga 30 i.e. chapter 30.
SlOka 18 i.e.verse 18.
yadi vAcam pradasyAmi
dvijAtihi iva samskritAm
rAvaNam manyamAnA mAm
sItA bhItA bhavishyati.
CONTEXT
HANUMAN entered lanka, searching Sita.
He found her in a garden of aSOka trees.
Hanuman was brainstorming in his own mind whether to speak in Sanskrit language or any other language (presumably prAkrit or pALi).
GIST
hanumAn contemplated: "If I speak in Sanskrit, SIta will thank that I am a brAhmin like rAvaNa. She will get frightened."
The poet vAlmiki, used the remaining 27 verses of the Chapter-sarga (the chapter has in toto 44 verses), on the thought process of hanuman, about the consequences of his speaking in sAnskrit.
Finally, he chose to assume a very small form, so as not to frighten SIta, and started speaking in sAnskrit.
hanuman's worrying about his being a 'monkey' speaking in a human language, was all, nothing but a part of the fantasy, which rAmAyaNa was.
Should we, therefore, call rAvaNa, a sura brAhmaNa, an asura brAhmaNa, or a dvija brAhmaNa? (Expl: dvija = a person who has two birth. The first is physical birth from the mother's womb. The second is the birth of awareness (gnAna) from the thread-ceremony called upanayanam, he undergoes.). These two births 'dvija' term applies to all brahmins whether Arya or draviDa.
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