You don't have to be rooted in any culture, to be taken aback about some aspects of a country's ancient past, whether Chinese, Persian, Mexican, Mesopotamian or Indian! That the Valmiki Ramayana specifies Hanuman was born at Anjanahalli in Kishkindha, which was believed to have been located on the banks of the Tungabhadra River near Hampi, is however a fact.
Based on astronomical information such as position of constellations and time of eclipses available in scriptures, they have concluded that events in the Ramayana took place 7,000 years ago. Now, even that bit can be taken as conjecture, for when faith gets mixed up with emotion and then with belief, the casualty is obviously logic and then reason.
My take is "How come, a being with simian & human features, steeped in legend & culture, branded into our consciousness, not explored further ?" Anyone's imagination is fired by a superhero with a God-like status, fitting into a 'missing link' description, credited with super-human strength, including moving a mountain to find 'Sanjivani', the elusive magical herb .
We now know that Adam's Bridge, also known as Rama's Bridge or Rama Setu, which is a chain of natural limestone shoals, between Pamban Island, also known as Rameswaram Island, off the south-eastern coast of Tamil Nadu, India, and Mannar Island, off the north-western coast of Sri Lanka. Staggering, but this has been proved a fact, whether or not it is the same as described in the Ramayana.
I am amazed that even nay-sayers & sceptics are silent in these days of renewed interest in UFO's (Unidentified Flying Objects) which has been rechristened 'UAV' (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles). NASA's UFO study team recently said "One of the main goals of what we're trying to do here today is to move conjecture and conspiracy towards science and sanity." Note that they are dismissing nothing!
Therefore, going a step forward, Irrespective of faith, away from tradition, what we actually require is an examination of how or why or what such a depiction in popular culture truly means. Myth or reality, mystery or fact, such an exercise in true scientific spirit will help unravel fact, fiction & the limits to imagination!
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