Had Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings been a brainchild of some Indian writer during the earliest times, then the book would have been tagged as an Ancient Holy Text.
Every human civilization looks for stories so that they may relate themselves with mythologies. They try to associate themselves with a so called ‘reality’, which is very much outside of the contemporary tangible world and once such reality is discovered, they cling onto it and try to fit-in links of their present life with the glue of the myths of the epic fantasy world.
Every mythological story has a latent meaning running throughout the plot line, yet very few are able to decipher the significance for applying practically in life. Then there is large chunk of audience for whom the story itself is the end goal. They do not have questions, no curiosity to know the reasons behind the whats and the whys.
However, I feel writers of any mythologies were no less than philosophers whose precepts are valuable across ages and nations as they were majorly concerned with the comings and goings of humanity’s moral dilemma.
Anyways, without getting into the religious mythologies, I’d like to shed a few points, which I feel would have taken place, had the origin of the famous The Lord of the Rings be somewhere in Asia, India to be more precisely. My aim is not to hurt anybody’s religious sentiment, especially my Indian friends. It’s just an expression of my point of view, which I felt for the story if it had been a part of Indian tradition. Things would have been very different then, like:
1) People would have fragmented into factions calling themselves descendants of dwarves, elves, hobbits and goblins. And the real inhabitants of Arnor, Gondor, Mirkwood, Denethor and Rohan.
2) People would have divided the current civilization into castes, creed, color, and sect accordingly to the ‘self created hierarchy’ of the high-fantasy world of the epic.
3) Everywhere temples would have been erected to worship Frodo Baggins
4) Gandalf would have looked upon with great awe & reverence and might have given the title of the ‘highest sage’
5) Mount Doom would have been the only place on Earth where people could purge themselves from all their sins
6) Aragorn would have taken the position of the guardian angel of entire human race and hence have kept in high esteem and offerings were given at an altar
7) World of Orcs would be especially designated for the sinners or those who do not adhere to the cultural archetypes
8) Women might have fasted on the day of Frodo Baggins’s birthday so that their lives could be protected from the ‘evils’ of society especially from the worlds of Sauron, Witch-king of Angmar, Saruman the White and Gríma Wormtongue.
9) The One Ring would have morphed into one of the major religious symbolism. People might have started wearing some form of ring around their necks for protection.
10) Eowyn, Galadriel and Arwen enveloped the entire feminine characteristics and were taken as goddesses symbolizing strength, wisdom and sacrifice.
