There’s an unusual connection between India’s Balakot mission and Sri Lanka’s first ever satellite — the epic Hindu Mythology, Ramayana

• The Indian Air Force code named the Balakot strike as Operation Bandar.
  
• Sri Lanka named its first ever satellite, RAAVANA-1.
  

India and Sri Lanka have been inspired by Ramayan so much that they named their important missions after their characters.

Hindu gods and goddesses are often a significant part of comic books, graphic stories in South Asian countries, especially the epicenter of the mythology-- India. And, these colourful stories inspire South Asians even today.

The Indian Air Force code named the Balakot strike as Operation Bandar. Also island country Sri Lanka named its first ever satellite, RAAVANA-1. These two neighbouring countries’ ‘operations’ have something in common, a reference to the ancient Indian epic — Ramayana. And, opposing views!

When the all-powerful Ravana who is known to be the King of Lanka abducted Lord Rama’s wife, the latter waged a war against him. And, Rama’s army consisted of thousands of monkeys, as per the ancient Sanskrit epic. Several historians suggested that Lanka referred to in Ramayana is today’s Sri Lanka, but it is yet to be proven so.

Operation Bandar

The Indian Airforce code name for Balakot strike is ‘Operation Bandar’. Although the logic behind naming the operation remained a mystery, news Agency ANI said that monkeys have “always held a special place in India’s war culture as seen in the epic Ramayana, where Lord Rama’s lieutenant Lord Hanuman (also a monkey) quietly sneaked into Lanka and destroyed the entire capital city of the demon Ravana”.

Operation Bandar is modelled after the mythical Hanuman who sneaked into enemy territory. As many as 5,000 Indian Air Force personnel and 12 Mirage-2000 aircraft were reportedly a part of Operation to cross Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and carry out strike early morning on 26 February in key training centres of the terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed in Balakot.

The Prime Minister Narendra Modi too drew a reference between Lord Hanuman and the operation in one of his TV interviews saying that India is like ‘Bajrang Bali’ (yet another name for Lord Hanuman).

Raavana-1

The arch enemy of Rama, Ravana is in vogue too. Sri Lanka has named its first ever satellite after the biggest villain of Hindu mythology. Raavan whose figurines are burnt as a part of Indian festivities, has a different place in Sri Lanka which is believed to have been ruled by him.

Ravana is believed to be the direct descendant of one of Gods of the Hindu Holy Trinity’s Bramha. Ravana who is also a demon king is known to have waged and won many wars, turning his country so prosperous that some of his cities were made of gold. For the Hindu minority in this majorly Buddhist country, Ravana is no villain.

The RAAVANA-1 was launched with two other BIRDS 3 satellites from Japan and Nepal. It is expected to orbit 400 km away from earth and will have a lifespan of one and a half years.