SHRI RAMA

Mon, 24 Sep 2007 00:41:11 +0200

There was a shocked silence and then a backlash as a DMK Chief Minister said something which could not be imagined by any Indian about Shri Rama. That very Shri Rama whose name was invoked by Mahatma Gandhi when he wanted the British to quit India in the 1920-1948 period was abused in no uncertain terms. I will not term this blasphemous simply because there is no real blasphemy in Hinduism. There can be ignorance and that and foolishness is what was displayed by the DMK CM.
So did this excuse for a Chief Minister even look at some of evidence in recent times about some of these epics? Well I suppose that he would if he could. But perhaps his education in these matters may be suspect. Besides it is politically suicidal for him to start looking at proofs that Shri Rama may have existed at this late juncture in his life.

Since time immemorial we Indians have enjoyed a sort of history which people of all other cultures have envied for years.
A short blip of time came when in the 50 years after Independance, people came to associate Shri Rama and indeed the Ramayana and also Shri Krishna and the Mahabharata with myths.
We must realise the difference between myths and history.
Myths are fiction and history is reality.
Myths are imagination and history is that which has occured.
Western historians and indeed a lot of Indian historians read the epics of the Ramayana and the Mahabharat and could not imagine the events in them to be true. As is also so often the case, historians are people who write a theory and the history of a nation becomes their perspective, their take on things. It does not neccessarily imply that it is the truth.

And in the case of India this happened with great vigour. We were the conquered people who had recently cast of the yoke of oppression of our European masters. But we still were mindful of being judged by them. In the times just before Independance and after for at least 40 years ther was no way of proving things in ancient history either way. Remember that the Ramayana had taken place in "Treta Yuga" which occured 1.7 million years ago.
There was an impression among educated Indians that they had to move with the times. They did and what you see in the year 2007 is unfortunately the direct result of that movement. So most people probably felt that man was living in caves prior to a few thousand years ago and so how can Shri Rama have existed prior to this.

It is actually quite easy. For this we have to look only at a few things in Hinduism scientifically.

Point number 1:
Go to any house in India where Sanskrit and indeed where ever something called as the samkalpa ( even in Tamil) is said prior to every major event in life. All through this immense country and including in that state of Tamil Nadu where the CM comes from ( actually Telegu but domiciled there) the samkalpa says the following words which ensure that no Indian who knows this can be in any doubt about the time scales
involved.
It goes like ( translated from sanskrit) In the day of Brahma(60 kalpas long), in its second part in that kalpa called as the White Boar kalpa, in that Manvantara ruled by Vaivasswat and inside that, in the 28th cycle of kali Yuga ( starts 11 Feb 3102 BC and extends 432000 years) in its first cycle, with Moon in this nakshtra, I Mr so and so of this lineage take this vow that I will perform such and such ritual for obtaining such and such (happiness, victory etc).
What fools do not ask is that how it would be possible for such a standardised set of conditions of time as stated above to be used in a set of places ( over a million places ) in a land the size of India.
There is not some stupid reason like some historian's theory about collective myth of anything else, it signifies the existance of an oral tradition on astronomy and on all Indian history.

Point number 2:
There are numerous astronomical data actually mentioned in the Mahabharata ate salient ones including the following
3 eclipses occuring in a short lunar fortnight of 13 days.
Presence of a comet at the end of Virgo near the star Spica.
Mars apparent retrograde movement at the star Antares( Jyeshtha).

Dr B Narahari Achar who is an astro Physicist at Memphis verified most of the 72 sets of data in the Mahabharata using a software to precess the movements of the grahas to the year 3067 BC and published his data in a scientific journal. Now, its quite easy from here: If the Mahabharata war took place in History as stated above then everybody knows that the banner of Hanuman who served Shri Rama was present of top of the chariot of Arjun so that means that the Ramayana was around before 3067BC.
Further it is not a simple one or two references in the Mahabharat but what is stated in the MahaBharata is that Bhima met Hanuman at that time. That stands to reason or does it? Well some fools argue that Hanuman cant have been present at the time of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata but seeing that the astronomical evidence in the Mahabharat stand up to scientific scrutiny, then there is a strong possibility that it can be true.
Anyway at least the existance of Krishna historically is in no doubt.

Point number3
In the Ramnathpuram Gazetteer, the following details have been furnished about SETHU BRIDGE (Sethu Palam) or Adam's Bridge. Adam's Bridge is a name which evokes Islamic traditions. Adam banished from heaven, travelled walking on this bridge to reach Sri Lanka. This is also referred to as Nala Sethu and as Tiruvanai (Sacred dam) in Tamil. This is also referred to as RAMA SETHU. There is also another name called ADI SETHU. This bridge is 110 miles east-south-east of Madurai, 43 miles along the same direction from Ramanathapuram. The bridge is 15.5 miles east of Rameshwaram. This is called Ramar Palam because this bridge was built under the leadership of Hanuman and with the participation of Vaanara Sena (Kuranguppadai) and facilitated the crossing by Rama to reach Sri Lanka and to attain victory. Upto 1480 AD, this bridge had served as a land bridge to Sri Lanka. Thereafter, a severe cyclone created fissures changing the dimensions to 30 miles long and 1.25 miles wide....During the south-west monsoon season, severe ocean currents and surges impact on the Adam's Bridge.

In the same Gazetteer, it has also been stated 'Sethu is the bridge that has linked India with Sri Lanka for centuries from times immemorial. According to Karna Parambarai (Karna Tradition), in order to render continued help and assistance to the countless pilgrims visiting Rameshwaram and Sri Lanka, Lord Rama appointed Raja Rama Sethupathy of Ramanathapuram as Trustee and Guardian to guard the Rama Sethu Bridge'.

Karunanidhi is misleading Tamilnadu State and the nation by saying that great intellectuals like Sir A Ramaswamy Mudaliar had recommended the implementation of the Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project (SSCP) and that his proposals were not implemented. It is very clear that he has not cared to read the official Report of Sir A Ramaswamy Mudaliar. His main recommendation was that a canal should be aligned through Mandapam to create a land-based canal like the Panama or Suez Canal. Sir AR Mudaliar specifically warned that any idea of cutting a channel passage through the Adam's Bridge (that is, Rama Sethu or Sethubandha) SHOULD BE ABANDONED (see paragraph 16 of the official Report).

Karunanidhi is now denying the above facts both in the Tamilnadu Legislative Assembly and outside. Perhaps, Rajaji had 'great' and 'consistent' men like Karunanidhi in view when he spoke in the Tamilnadu Legislative Assembly in the early 1950s: 'Brutal and solid public facts do not cease to exist by our cussed refusal or voluntary ignorance to see or understand or recognise them'.

Lord Pentland was Governor of Madras from 1912 to 1919. He visited Rameshwaram in 1914 when Sir Alexander Tottenham (1873-1946) was the District Collector of Ramanathapuram. Lord Pentland was so overwhelmed by what he saw in Rameshwaram that he wrote as follows to Lord Hardinge, the then Viceroy of India: 'For me Rameshwaram, very much like India as a whole is the real world. We English men live in a mad house of abstractions. Vital life in Rameshwaram has not yet withdrawn into the capsule of the head. It is the whole body that lives. No wonder the English man feels dreamlike: the complete life of Rameshwaram is something of which he merely dreams.... I did not see an English man in India who really lived there. They are all living in England, that is, in a sort of bottle filled with English air.... History can be events or memory of events.... along the Bay of Bengal the Madras Presidency runs, with the well-governed city of Madras at its centre and the sublime and glorious temples of Tanjore, Tiruchi, Madurai and Rameshwaram adorning its Southern boundaries. And then Adam's Bridge- a reef of sunken islands' beckons us across the Palk Straits to Ceylon, where civilisation flourished more than 2000 years ago....Linga stones may be seen in many places on the highways in my Presidency. Hindus break upon them the coconuts which they are about to offer in sacrifice. Usually the phallic ritual is simple and becoming; it consists in anointing the stone with consecrated water or oil, and decorating it with leaves. At the Rameshwaram temple, the Linga stone is daily washed with Ganga water, which is afterwards sold to the pious, as holy water or mesmerized water has been sold in Europe. All these are a little part of my beloved Presidency - indeed my favourite India. Right from the dawn of history, India is extraordinarily continuous in time. In space, on the other hand, it is extraordinarily discontinuous....from early times in India, it is ethnology, philology, and archaeology that give and will give us some notions of the truth. From archaeology much can be expected. I would earnestly request you to direct the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to undertake an extensive and intensive survey of Rameshwaram and its beautiful environs, particularly with reference to the historic and primordial Adam's Bridge'.
I will come to the other points in a little while when I get a bit of time to write.

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