Shri Ram's Birth Certificate
Two birth narratives, two scholarly standards. A piece on why one tradition is read as history and the other as legend.
The Film
A short multimedia piece produced under Prachyam, examining the different scholarly standards applied to religious figures from Eastern and Western traditions. It compares the birth narratives of Shri Ram and Jesus Christ, and challenges the treatment of one as legend and the other as history.
How I Made It
The argument is about the asymmetry between the two traditions rather than about either figure, so the piece sets them side by side. It draws on classical Indic sources, particularly Valmiki's Ramayana, for astronomical details, stellar positions and the genealogy tracing lineage to the Ikshvaku dynasty, and sets these against inconsistencies in the Matthew and Luke nativity accounts regarding parentage, birthplace and ancestry. It cites the researcher Nilesh Oak, whose astronomical analysis cross-references Valmiki's descriptions against planetarium simulations and, on over 500 stated observations, calculates a birth date of 29 November 12,240 BCE. Animated sequences, manuscript imagery and textual overlays balance satire against evidence. Production was handled internally by me.
Where It Landed
The piece is part of a broader effort to present Indic narratives through contemporary methods and stated verification.
