SEARCH RAM FIRST BEFORE REACHING RAM’s BRIDGE
[Dravida Kazhagam General Secretary K.Veeramani is convening an All Party Meeting on 8 th May 2007 to counter the false propaganda unleashed by BJP and VHP on the so called Rama’s Bridge, which they claim as Heritage site and needs protection. We all know once upon a time
India was an island nation surrounded by seas hence it had the name நாவலந் தீவு . Continental Drifts had altered the world map many times. Once all continents were in one super-continent called Pangaea which in Latin meant all earth. The drifts continue. Certain oceans are expanding and certain are shrinking. In such a scenario to claim that a Land Bridge built 1,750.000 years ago when no human being had inhabited the Earth, is intact and it must be protected lacks logic and mere faith cannot be scientific foundation for a claim like this. Dravida Peravai challenges the contention and puts forward our views, which is open to debate, as we are rationalists, we will not run away from debate. Nandhi Varman General Secretary Dravida Peravai]
The BJP and its policies based on a mythical hero with no relevance to people’s issues is a mirage chase. A mirage which BJP cannot reach to quench its thirst for power. Hue and cry over non existent Ram’s bridge had been catapulted into a matter of national debate. Dravida Kazhagam, the parent body of all major and minor Dravidian political parties including Dravida Peravai had done the logically correct thing to counter the propaganda of falsehoods unleashed by the forces of fascism.
Paula Richman wrote a book titled “Many Ramayanas” Yes the question before us is to accept which Ramayana as true story?. Vishwa Hindu Parishad is not ready to accept truth or explore hidden truth or accept the multiplicity of Ramayana versions. That is fascism and nothing else. Paula Richman refers an incident in her book. “In 1993 the VHP destroyed an exhibition because it depicted the Jain Dasaratha Jathaga version of Rama and Seetha as siblings.” Who could be the arbiter? Should anyone take the matter to International Court of Justice because it involves Ramayanas originating from different cultures and countries? Individuals cannot go to International Court of Justice. Some nation must take the matter to court, to prove its version of Ramayana as true history. Till the matter is decided, no question of resolving Ram’s birth place and Ram’s Bridge could be resolved or settled. First and foremost to be decided is which of the Ramayanas is true history?
Laos Ramayana: Buddha recited the story of Rama to his disciples, in
Laos; they believe that the jataka tale to be tale of Buddha’s previous birth. There are two popular versions of Ramayana namely Phra Lak Phra Lam and Gvay Dvorahbi. According to these Ramayanas, Ravana is the nephew of King Dasarath. Rama while roaming in desert in search of Sita eats a fruit and becomes a monkey. [The biblical Adam and Eve’s story and its resemblance could also be taken note of] After becoming monkey Rama meets Nengsi, a woman turned into monkey and marries her. Hanuman is their son. After killing Ravana, Ram marries his widow.
Thai Ramayana: The earliest version of Ramakien dates back to 13 th century and Thais believe their version to be the original story. In Ramakien many places in Thailand have been identified with Ramayana episodes. The city of Ayutthaya i.e. Ayodhya has been mentioned as capital of the kingdom. Ramakien vividly describes the marriage of Hanuman. According to Thais, Hanuman had many affairs and children.
Jain Ramayana: According to historian D.N.Jha in Jain Ramayana it is Luxman who kills Ravana. Neither Ram, Luxman nor Hanuman is monogamous. Luxman has 16,000 wives while half that number Ram has, says D.N.Jha. “In Buddhist Ramayana Rama and Sita are siblings who later got married while in Jain Ramayana Rama has 8000 wives. Historian D.N.Jha links the monogamous Rama to the patriarchal society, a symptom of which is also Sita’s agnipariksha.”
Cambodian Ramayana: Cambodian version “The Reamkher” states Ram as incarnation of Vishnu. Akaingameso which means God’s doorkeeper was reborn as Ravana. Sita, in her earlier birth was the wife of Indra, who was insulted by Ravana. To avenge the wrong she was born as Ravana’s daughter. Ravana was cautioned by his astrologer and brother Bibhek about his daughter’s evil birth. Ravana put her in a chest and buried her. King Janaka later discovered her. The Reamkher follows Valmiki episodes on Ram’s friendship with monkey chiefs and construction of the bridge. There is one important deviation. Sita gave birth to a son named Ramalaksha parented by Valmiki.One day she went to the river for a bath with her son when the sage was in deep meditation. After meditation Vamiki could not see his son, hence created another son by his yogic power and named him Jupalaksha.
These are some of the versions. BJP and VHP must first of all find out whether Sita is the wife of Valmiki ? They must find out whether Rama had 8000 wives, Lakshman had 16000 wives or Dasarathan had 60000 wives. The Ravana and Sita being father and daughter and the Rama and Sita being brother and sister, are existing stories in various cultures. We did not write these Ramayanas, and all Ramayanas are written by pious people and not atheists like me.
The Dravidian Movement took up cudgels against the Kamban’s version of Ramayana and the journal Kudi Arasu edited by Thanthai E.V.Ramasamy Periyar published series of articles by Chandrasekara Paavalar. Aringnar Anna challenged Tamil scholars to come for open one to one debate on the purpose of Kambaramayanam and its imposition on Tamils to subjugate them under Aryan Illusion [ஆரிய மாயை ] .
Navalar Somasundara Bharathiar and சொல்லின் செல்வர் R.P.Sethu Pillai debated with Anna and openly admitted they have lost the debate. This debate in Tamil Book “Let Fire Spread” தீ பரவட்டும் wants to illuminate Tamil hearts by symbolically burning Kamba ramayanam. Pulavar Kuzhanthai wrote இராவண காவியம் . Ravana Kavyam can be considered as Dravidian version of Ramayanam.
The question before us which of these versions is based on true historical facts. These are not days where everyone will accept anything with blind faith. If you place new facts to reopen a settled issue in history, you should place facts and prove it. Blind faith of BJP and VHP will not stand the scrutiny of the Age of Science.
Chinese had some truth to add to world’s history, yes they wanted to tell the world that their sons only discovered America and not Columbus. Gavin Menzies wrote a book: 1421 : The Year China Discovered America. The book states about the 7 expeditions by Admiral Zheng He between 1405 and 1423 with a fleet of 317 ships and 28,000 men. Chinese Government organized exhibitions, and the postal authorities of Hong Kong, Macao, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand issued postage stamps commemorating Zhen He’s discovery. At a cost of 50 million dollars a Museum is being set up. If BJP and VHP had truth in their arsenal let them use it first. Lungpower alone will not establish truth. When they ruled India, BJP combine tried its best to use all money at its command to prove many falsehoods; ultimately they failed in all such adventures.
HOW FAST DO MONKEYS FLY?
In October 2004, a lecture by Berkeley Professor R.P.Goldman titled “How fast do monkeys fly? How long do demons sleep” which took place in New Delhi is reported in the Times of India [Mumbai edition] dated Saturday October 30 2004. According to Dr.R.P.Goldman “ancient Sanskrit scholars who made intense study of Hindu mythological texts like Ramayana tried to rationalize several of the seemingly improbable tales like Ravana’s ten heads, or how fast Hanuman the monkey god could have flown to get the sanjivini or elixir, for Laksman or even how long Kumbakarna, Ravana’s brother, might have slept.”
In order to apply the rationalist paint to the absurd story of Ravana having 10 heads, since none of the findings about extinct species have found a single 10 headed human fossil, they said that Ravana actually had one head and the other 9 were reflection on the large 9 polished gems that he wore around his neck. The success of rationalist movement compels scholars to spin new tales to justify foolish tales.
Another important question that these scholars raised was how long could Hanuman have taken to fly to the Himalayas to the Mahodaya Mountain to fetch the life giving herb for Laksmanan from Lanka, where the battle was raging? Goldman says that some of the scholars calculated that roughly at a speed of 660 kilometers per hour Hanuman flew, plucked the mountain, and flew back to Lanka. Then “Hanuman was quite ecologically conscious” the Professor R.P.Goldman states in order to save ecology Hanuman flew again back to Himalayas and pasted the plucked mountain with an adhesive still not found by scientists.
This is the scholarly research which BJP and VHP want us to accept. Can anyone with brain assimilate this research as proven scientifically and established beyond an iota of doubt? No one will swallow this foolish finding. Dravida Peravai wants BJP and VHP to prove all these impossible feats first before staking claim to Rama’s Bridge in Gulf of Mannar.
RAMA’s BRIDGE
So far historians have found evidences that first human on Earth dates back to 60,000 years. Journey of Man by Spencer Wells which was also telecasted in National Geographic Channel claims that first human beings were from Africa. The book also claims that all humans are one; there exists a common gene named Sangene in all human beings. While writing about this book in my article titled Black Race and Brahma’s Face, I had written that these findings which prove human race is one is a severe indictment of a race that claims superiority among others and one which never accepts all humans as equals, thus people who claim to have born from Brahma’s face who built castles of lies in the name of varunasharadharma, have been proven to be totally unscientific and idiots claiming superiority on earth at the cost of fellow human beings,
The reason to state this is because in www.virtuallibrary.com of Srilanka claims:
“NASA Images Find 1,750,000 Year Old Man Made Bridge between India and Srilanka”
Under this title the Aryan lobby writes “In the 18 th incarnation of Lord Krishna, the Lord appeared as King Rama. In order to perform some pleasing work for the demigods, he exhibited superhuman powers by controlling the Indian Ocean and the killing of the atheist King Ravana, who was on the other side of the Sea”…. Srimad Bhagawatham, the site claims.
Let us examine the falsehoods one by one. We from the Dravidian Movement are atheists but not Ravana; all know that Ravana as per epics is a devotee of Lord Siva. The doubt which arises to me is why should a reincarnation of God perform superhuman deeds to impress demigods? Does it mean that Demigods are more powerful than the Original God on reincarnation?
How does God control Indian Ocean?
UNESCO had constituted an Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission to undertake research of the Indian Ocean. This commission had not found yet anything that Gods did in Indian Ocean as per Srimad Bhagawatham. Well Dravida Peravai urges the Indian Government to refer the matter of Rama’s Bridge to this Intergovernmental Commission and if this commission says that there is no Rama’s bridge, will all BJP and VHP followers give up their religion and become atheists. Graham Hancock had written a book titles Underworld: The Mysterious Origins of Civilization. In 1981 Daniel Behrman had written a book Assault on the Unknown. There are many books on Indian Ocean. All these books give us evidences on the continental drift, the submerged lands of the Lemuria, which Tamils prefer to call as the Kumari Kandam. The challenge posed by BJP and VHP must be accepted and we must use the National Institute of Oceanography to indulge in the study of under water archaeology to bring to light the great past of the Tamils. Tamil literature says 49 countries were lost to the seas, including River Kumari and River Pahruli. If Ramayana, an epic says Rama constructed a bridge and if that has to be probed, we Tamils demand that what all Tamil literature says about First and Second Tamil Sangams and the land loss to Tamil homeland namely Kumarikandam also should be studied.
In 2004 Dinamani Tamil Daily reported that in Bangalore a scientist Graham Cook displayed finds from the under water exploration he made near off the coast of Poompuhar, the Chozha Port and displayed video scenes of submerged Poompuhar and bdisplayed out 2000 artifacts from the Sea. Using carbon dating and other scientifically proven methodology in archaeology he said that the Poompuhar Civilization dates back to 7500 B.C. Tamils must be proud to have scientific evidence that pushes its civilization to an earlier period compared to Indus Valley Civilization. Instead of repeating like parrots that we have 2000 years of history, Tamil scholars must claim that we have a civilization which is 10,000 years old.
The probe BJP wants to undertake will only prove the Tamils past. It is well known fact that due to rise and fall of sea level both India and Srilanka got linked up in land 65,000 years ago, Before 27000 years due to rise in sea level India and Srilanka got separated. Around 17,000 years ago when sea level dropped both land masses joined and later parted. The study made by Trichirapalli Bharathidasan University Earth Sciences department states that before 1.4 million years sea was close to Madurai. Before 90,000 years Chennai, Puducherry and Vedaranyam were surrounded by seas. We all know that global warming will result in rise in sea level and Tamilnadu coast will undergo changes. These are all natural phenomenon. When lands get linked and then gets separated sand domes will naturally be formed. Such domes could not be claimed as bridge. Contrary buildings exist beneath the seas near Poompuhar, where we can prove Tamil civilization,
Right from the beginning Srilanka had been conspiring to stall Sethusamudram project, and we all know the proposal by Srilanks to construct a bridge linking Srilanka and India, for which it gave an eye catching name Hanuman Bridge, perhaps to hoodwink the BJP. For argument sake if Hanuman
Bridge had been constructed instead of Sethusamudram project will it not affect the Rama’s so called Mirage Bridge? Dravida Peravai opposed it by calling it a Berlin Wall across the Seas.
Now again with no economic programme in its arsenal BJP wants to use an emotional appeal, hence resorts to Ram’s bridge. But BJP conveniently forgets that Atal Bihari Vajpayee speaking in Indian Parliament in 1974 called Kachateevu as Valideep, where Rama fought Vali. Why BJP is silence on Valideep? Why they don’t want to reclaim Valideep? Loss of Kacchateevu results in out fishermen getting killed. Reclaiming Kachateevu is not in BJP’s agenda, but a Bridge is, what a mentality these fascist forces have ?
Nandhi Varman General Secretary Dravida Peravai
DRAVIDA PERAVAI 