What is Diwali (also spelled Devali in certain regions)/also called Dipavali?
1.It is popularly known as the “festival of lights,” and is a festival celebrated between mid-October and mid-November. Diwali is celebrated for five days. The most significant spiritual meaning of the event is “the awareness of the inner light”.
2.For Hindus, Diwali is the most important festival of the year.
3.Diwali is an official holiday in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Mauritius, Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago, Surinam, Malaysia, Singapore, and Fiji.
4.The name “Diwali” is a contraction of “Dipavali” , which means “row of lamps”.
Diwali involves the lighting of small clay lamps/colourful paper lanterns filled with oil to signify the triumph of good over evil. These lamps are kept on during the night and one’s house is cleaned. Firecrackers are burst in order to drive away evil spirits. During Diwali, all the celebrants wear new clothes and share sweets and snacks with family members and friends.
5.Diwali commemorates the return of prince Rama after 14 years of exile.
The poem “The Journey of Rama/Ramayana”
The Ramayana is an ancient Sanskrit epic. It is ascribed to Valmiki. The Ramayana is one of the two great epics of India, the other being the Mahabharata.
Traditionally, the Ramayana is ascribed to Valmiki, regarded as India’s first poet. Indian tradition is unanimous in its agreement that the poem is the work of a single poet, the sage Valmiki and it dates to the 5th to 4th century B.C. The poem is not seen as just a literary monument, but as an integral part of Hinduism, and is held in such reverence that the reading or hearing of it, or certain passages of it, is believed by Hindus to free them from sin and bless the reader or listener.
The Adventures of Rama
Rama is the seventh avatar or incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu, he is the eldest and favorite son of the King of Ayodhya, which is a real city in India. Rama’s father is forced to command Rama to relinquish his right to the throne for fourteen years and go into exile.
In a forest Rama’s wife Sita is abducted by the demon king of Sri Lanka, Ravana. Sita is the beloved wife of Rama. Sita is the avatar of goddess Lakshmi, the consort of Vishnu. Sita is portrayed as the epitome of female purity and virtue.
The Monkey who is a Hero
Rama is helped by a monkey general called Hanuman. He leads a monkey army and in one scene jumps all the way from India to Sri Lanka in one leap, what a monkey. Sita is rescued and Rama returns to Ayodhya. The Hindus built a temple in honor of him in Ayodhya, in the place where they thought he had been born.
About Babar and the Temple of Rama in Ayodhya
Babur/Babar (1483-1530)
He was a Turkic-Muslim conqueror from Central Asia who established the Mughal dynasty in India. He was a descendant of Tamerlane, the Turkic conqueror, through his father, and a descendant of Genghis Khan through his mother. The name Babur is derived from the Persian word babr, meaning “tiger”.
Babur wrote his autobiography known as the Baburnama/Book of Babur which is considered the first true autobiography in Islamic literature. He wrote it in Turkic, his mother-tongue,and he was equally at home in Persian, the lingua franca of the Timurid elite.He says:
“I have not written all this to complain: I have simply written the truth. I do not intend by what I have written to compliment myself: I have simply set down exactly what happened. Since I have made it a point in this history to write the truth of every matter and to set down no more than the reality of every event, as a consequence I have reported every good and evil I have seen of father and brother and set down the actuality of every fault and virtue of relative and stranger. May the reader excuse me; may the listener take me not to task.”
Babur also had a great passion for killing people, cutting the heads of people and creating pillars out of them. He claimed to have created several such pillars in his autobiography.
Babur conquers Northern India
Babur claimed to be the true monarch of the lands of the Lodi dynasty. He believed himself the rightful heir to the throne of Tamerlane, and it was Tamerlane who had originally left Khizr Khan in charge in India and who became the leader, or Sultan, of the Delhi Sultanate, founding the Sayyid dynasty. The Sayyid dynasty, however, had been ousted by Ibrahim Lodi, an Afghan, and Babur wanted it returned to the Timurids.
Babur wins the First battle of Panipat
In 1526. Babur’s army of 25,000 defeated Ibrahim Lodi, the last Sultan of Delhi, whose army was 100,000. One of his generals, Mir Baki Khan came to Ayodhya in 1528 and after destroying the temple of Rama, built a mosque, naming it Babri Masjid/Babur Mosque.
Babur also obtained the Koh-i-Noor or “Mountain of Light’.the biggest diamond that has ever existed.Later the diamond was cut. Diamonds were once only found in India, in the Golconda region, till the 1730′s when diamonds were discovered in Brazil. The famous Hope diamond, which is said to be cursed, but that is not true, is also from Golconda.
The curse of the Koh-i-Noor Diamond
It is believed that the Koh-i-Noor has a curse and only when in the possession of a woman will the curse not work. All the men who owned it have either lost their throne or had other misfortunes befall them. Queen Victoria is the only reigning monarch to have worn it. According to the legend, if the monarch is a male, the diamond is passed to his spouse.
The possibility of a curse pertaining to ownership of the diamond dates back to a Hindu text relating to the first authenticated appearance of the diamond in 1306:
“He who owns this diamond will own the world, but will also know all its misfortunes. Only God, or a woman, can wear it with impunity.”
The Mosque has been Destroyed
1.In December 1992 it was demolished by 150,000 Hindus.
2.More than 2,000 people were killed in the riots following the demolition,as Muslims began killing Hindus and viceversa.
3.Before 2003, the standard view that an ancient Rama temple was demolished and replaced with the Babri Mosque, was not supported by any archaeological evidence. However, archaeological excavations in the site have clearly found the evidence of a large Hindu complex that existed on the site.
4.In 2002 at least 58 people were killed in Gujarat, in an attack on a train carrying Hindu pilgrims from Ayodhya. Riots followed in the state and over 1,000 people were killed.
Other Vandalism commited by Muslims in India
“One of the Most Sacred Hindu Temples, that of Shiva in Somnath, was Destroyed 6 Times by the Muslims”
“The Greatest University of India at its Time was destroyed by the Muslims”
“Jauhar,or the Mass Suicide of Hindu Women(1300-1600) to Avoid becoming the Sex-Slaves of Muslims”