Rising Tide Foundation

Jul 20, 2023

Ramayana is well-known all over India, and its impact is seen in ancient and popular culture spread across south-east Asia, including Japan, China and Mongolia. I often state the incongruity of Indian culture spreading only to its east, but not to its west — as asserted by Western historians. Several attempts have been made to associate ancient artifacts in Iraq, Europe and Americas with Ramayana, but we do not yet have validation of these associations.

In this article, I will highlight startling echoes of Ramayana in ancient Celtic stories. Celts are an ancient people who lived in Europe, and the ancestors of the Britons, with languages belonging to the so-called “Indo-European” family. Their genetics shows paternal and maternal ancestry from ancient India (R-M269 deriving via R1b, and H & U haplogroups). Given this framework, it is perhaps not surprising that their stories have echoes with Ramayana.

The Celts have a story of a hero who builds a causeway across the waters to challenge a foe, and how his wife outwits the foe. Is this beginning to sound familiar? Read on!

The hero is Fionn mac Cumhaill with a magic thumb that bestows him great wisdom, morality, fairness, just, and honesty.

We will point out several instances from the stories of Fionn mac Cumhaill and how they are echoes from Ramayana.

· Fionn is born after his father dies.

· Rama’s father Dasaratha is under a curse (due to Shravan’s old parents) that he will die when his son moves away from him. Dasaratha dies soon after Rama is exiled from Ayodhya.

READ MORE