Was the Ramayana copied from Homer?
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A German Indologist suggested the Ramayana borrowed from the Iliad: a stolen queen, a great war, a siege. Indian and Western scholars rejected the idea.
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Indian claim
The Ramayana is an original Indian epic by Valmiki, with its own roots in Indian tradition.
Evidence for the Indian claim
- Kashinath Trimbak Telang replied in 'Was the Ramayana Copied from Homer? A Reply to Professor Weber' (1873), showing how weak the parallels were.
- The Ramayana's story, values, places and style are Indian, and its core differs greatly from the Iliad.
Commonly credited to
Albrecht Weber argued in the 1870s that the Ramayana's plot (the abduction of Sita and the war at Lanka) was shaped by Homer's story of Helen and Troy.
Evidence for the other claim
- Both epics do share broad themes (an abducted wife, an allied army, a siege), which led some 19th-century scholars to look for a link.
- There was contact between Greeks and Indians after Alexander, during the long period in which the Ramayana took its final form.
What historians and scientists say
Weber's idea is now regarded as unsuccessful. The similarities are the kind found in heroic epics in many cultures, and the two epics are seen as independent creations.