[Advaita-l] bharata or lakshmaNa who is elder ??

[Bhaskar YR]

praNAms
Hare Krishna

Y'day I was listening to Sri Bannanje GovindAchArya's pravachana on 
rAmAyaNa..He makes one important observation against popular belief that 
bharata is elder to lakshmaNa...He says bharata is infact younger to 
lakshmaNa and there is not even a single sentence that proves that bharata 
is elder to lakshmaNa in mUla vAlmeeki rAmAyaNa.  OTOH, when rAma & 
lakshmaNa both return after rAvaNa vadha to ayOdhya bharata offers praNAms 
to 'both' rAma & lakshmaNa addressing them as 'arya'.  He also says that 
lakshmaNa and shatrugna are not twins & there is 9 to 10 months gap 
between their birth :-))  and there is no mention of 'lakshmaNa rekha' 
episode as such in mUla rAmAyaNa...Would appreciate any valid inputs with 
regard to this.

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar