Ramayana and Mahabharata in distant lands

The humanistic spirit embedded in Indian epics is better understood in Southeast Asia

In his speech at the Ram Mandir Bhoomi Pujan at Ayodhya on August 5, Prime Minister Narendra Modi referred to the popularity of the Ramayana in distant lands, in particular, the Muslim majority countries of Indonesia and Malaysia and in other countries of South and Southeast Asia. The irony was perhaps lost on him that it was on the site of the criminal demolition of a mosque that a temple to celebrate Ram was being built. Would the countries with adherents of Islam really consider the building of a temple to Ram an occasion to celebrate with the people of