Every pundit is expounding their take on Ram Rajya (RR). Some hardcore cineastes are even waxing eloquent about the Vijay Bhatt film, Ram Rajya, the third-highest grossing Indian movie of 1943, the first to premiere in the US. But it’s the reference to the rule of Ram – the ideal state of governance – that’s doing the buzz in our Kali Yug ka Amrit Kaal. The first round of RR, it must be remembered, was conducted in absentia, with the king-designate, then still prince, spending 14 years – almost three electoral cycles in today’s parliamentary democratic India – in the wilderness and fighting a war. The job was left to Ram’s brother Bharat. But he, too, decided to move from the capital and operate from a more austere Nandigram with his wife Mandavi, outsourcing royal duties to youngest bro, Shatrughan. So, it was really the royal couple of Shatrughan and Shrutakeerti who administered the kingdom for those 14 years.
So, by the time Ram returned to Ayodhya, the stage was already set for RR by the able, under-celebrated Shatrughan. Ram ruled for the next 30 ½ years – 11,000 years mentioned in the Ramayan once converted by the metric provided by the earlier Mahabharat: ‘Ahoratram maharaja tulyam samvatsarema hi’ (a day of a maharaja – who lives in accordance to dharma – being equal to a year). So, a big hand to SR – Shatrughan Rajya – too.
