[MannoFr]

Dr Satya Pal Singh who was appointed as the new Commisioner of Police -Mumbai today has written this article in 2008 at the height of the Sethusamudram controversy...The article touches the umbilical chord & I liked it...It rubbishes the so called secularists and western media for taking a jaundiced view of the story of Lord Rama

.Since thousands of years, not just in India but also all over the world, one of the greatest men who influenced and touched the hearts of millions – both common men and elite alike -- with his strength of character is Ram. His time was that of great kings and world empires. This was the era when the whole world understood one language and speech, as mentioned in the holy book, the Bible (Genesis 11.1). Then neither was the world divided into Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Jews etc, nor broken up on the basis of modern day caste barriers. Then there were only two divisions in human society – Arya and Un-Arya (asurs, rakshas). Those who were not strong of character and men of words were un-arya. All mankind had only one culture.

Literary work

The most authentic and original source of knowledge about Ram is the Valmiki Ramayana. This noble work of literature credits Valmiki as the earliest poet of the world. The story of Ram did not remain confined to the pages of Valmiki Ramayana, but it also finds a mention in various other scriptures of history and ancient literature. It is talked about in Muni Vyas's Mahabharata at four places -- Ramopakhayan, Aaranyak Parva, Drona Parva and Dashrath Kathanak; in Buddhist literature it finds mention in three Jatak parables, viz, Dashrath Jatak, Anamak Jatak and Dashrath Kathanak; in Jain literature many manuscripts were written on Ram, like Padam Charitra (Prakrit) by Vimal Suri; Padam Puran (Sanskrit) by Ravisen Acharya; Padam Charitra (Apbhransh) and Charitra Puran (Sanskrit) by Swambhu; and Uttar Puran (Sanskrit) by Gunbhadra. As per Jain tradition the original name of Ram was 'Padam'. The story of Ram was also written in various other Indian regional languages.

There are at least 11 versions of Ramayana in Hindi, eight in Marathi, 25 in Bangla, 12 in Tamil, five in Telugu and six in Oriya. Apart from these, more versions of the Ramayana have been written in Sanskrit, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Assamese, Urdu, Arabic, Persian, etc. The Hindi Ramcharitmanas authored by Tulsidas has achieved a very prominent place in northern India. More than 400 great poets and saints like Kalidas, Bhas, Bhatti, Praversen, Bhavbhuti, Kshemendra, Rajshekhar, Kumardas, Vishwanath, Somdev, Gunadutt, Narad, Lomesh, Guru Govind Singh, the Samarth Guru Ramdas, Maithili Sharan Gupt, Keshavdas and Saint Tukdoji etc, have written poems, prose and literature on Ram and other characters of the Ramayana.Even in other countries we can find versions of Ramayana, like the Tibetan Ramayana, Turkistan's Khotani Ramayana, Indonesia's Kakbin Ramayana, Java's Seratram, Sairiram, Ramkeling, Patani Ramkatha; Indo-China's Ramkerti (Ramkirti), Khamer Ramayana; Burma's Ramyagan of Yuto; Thailand's Ramkiyen etc all narrate the story of Ram in a picturesque way. Scholars also believe that Homer's Illiad and the Dionysia of poet Nonus of Rome have surprising similarities with our Ramayana. In world literature, no other historical person has been narrated with so much devotion on such a grand, magnified and detailed scale by so many poets and authors of varied countries.

Temples and terracotta

All over the world, not just hundreds but thousands of temples of Ram, Lakshman, Sita, Hanuman, etc are being constructed since time immemorial. The walls of the 9th century Shiv temple Parambanan (Parambhram) of Java and the 11th century Angkorwat Temple of Cambodia are pictorially engraved with the scenes of Ramayana and Mahabharata. Hundreds of terracotta based on the Ramayana have been found from Sirma, Haat, Nacharkheda of Hisar; Jind, and Santhai (Yamuna Nagar) of Haryana; Koshanbhi (Allahabad), Aahichatra (Bareilly), and Katinghar (Etah) of Uttar Pradesh and Bhadra (Shriganganagar) of Rajasthan. They depict the major events of Ram's exile, mainly Ram, Sita and Lakshman's Panchvati gaman; Maareech Mrugh (golden deer); the dialogue of Tirshira with Khar-Dushan; the execution of 14 demons by Ram; Sita-haran by Ravan; Sughreev sighting Sita throwing down her ornaments from Pushpak (Ravan's plane); Sughreev welcoming Ram to his abode; Sughreev-Bali combat; Ram's assassination of Bali; Hanuman burning Ashok Vatika; Trishira Rakshas's killing; Indrajeet, the son of Ravan, going to war, etc. Some of the terracotta have the verses of Valmiki Ramayana written in the script of pre-Gupta age. They can be seen in the archaeological museum of Gurukul Jhajjar (Haryana).
Apart from these, hundreds of terracotta can be seen in different museums of India as well as in the British Museum of London

Kushan emperor Kanishka had an engraving of the wind-god Hanuman on his regime's seal. Emperor Akbar had also similarly depicted Ram-Sita on one of his golden guineas. Scenes from Ramayana have been sketched in the Safdarjang Madarsa of Delhi. Central India's Dhar and Ratlam principalities had engraved Hanuman on their seals. Brass guineas introduced by the Sant regime also had the etchings of Ram and his three brothers, as well as Sita and Hanuman.The biggest travesty of facts is that even after so many literary and archaeological evidence, Lord Ram is not universally accepted as a historical personality.

The time of Ram

According to ancient Indian chronology and Puranic tradition Ram was born in the 24th Treta Yuga (Great Age). Apart from the Valmiki Ramayana and other versions of Ram's biography, there are four important references to Ram, Ravan, etc in ancient scriptures. 1. Treta yuge chaturvinshe ravane tapseh shakshyat |Ram dashrtathi prapiye sagane shakyamiyeewan || (Vayu Puran 70.88)2. Sandho tu samanupraptre tretayaam dwaparisya cha |Ramo daasrathirbhutva bhavishami jagatpati || (Mahabharata 348.19)3. Chaturvinshe yuge chapi vishwamitra pure sare |Loke ram iti khyate tejsah bhaskaropam || (Harivansh 22.104)4. Chaturvinshe yuge vats tretayaam raghuvanshaje |Ramo naam bhavishyami chaturvhayu sanatane || (Bhramand Puran 2.2.36.30)On the basis of the given literary references and evidences it can be inferred that Ram, Ravan, Vishwamitra etc lived in the 24th Treta Yuga. According to the Mahabharata, Ram lived in the transition phase between Treta and Dwapar ages. It however does not mention the order of the Treta.

It will help to know that Satyug, Treta, Dwapar and Kalyug have a continuous cycle, like the cycle of the months in a year or the days in a week. As Monday is followed by Tuesday and January is followed by February, Satyug is followed by Treta and this cycle continues endlessly. Or these, Kalyug has the shortest span of 4,32,000 years, Dwapar is double the years of Kalyug at 8,64,000 years, Treta is triple the years of Kalyug at 12,96,000 years and Satyug is four-times the years of Kalyug at 17,28,000 years. Thus one unit of four yugas is called Chaturyugi, having a total of 43,20,000 years.

We are presently in the Kalyug of the 28th Chaturyugi and so far 5,108 years of Kalyug have lapsed. If we accept that Ram indeed lived during the last phase of the 24th Treta Yuga then it can be calculated that he lived 1,81,49,108 years ago. But if we accept that he lived in the Treta of the present 28th cycle of Chaturyugi then he lived 8,69,108 years ago.

After so many years it's impossible for any buildings, dwellings, statues, seals, coins, cloths, bones or weapons to exist. There also cannot be physical records or evidences of every person who walked this earth so long ago. Even if someone has passed away five generations ago without leaving his progeny behind, we have no natural or physical evidence to prove his life. Even if he had a house, without documentary evidence or word-of-mouth we cannot prove that it belonged to him. Even in modern times, the existence of the ruling presidents and prime ministers of today cannot be proved 1,000 years hence without any literary proof. Their story can be passed verbally from one generation to the next but no physical evidence of their existence will be available.

In the last few years, some highly motivated computer-literate group of people have designed a software called 'Planetarium Gold Software' which is generally used by scientists to measure the distance and locations of planets from earth and to predict lunar and solar eclipses. The Valmiki Ramayana (Bal Kanda 18.8.9) mentions (the planetary positions vis-à-vis zodiac constellations) at the time of Lord Ram's birth as 'the ninth lunar day of the bright fortnight of Chaitra, asterism Punarvasu was in the ascendant and (as many as) five planets (viz, the Sun, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter and Venus) happened to be exalted (appeared in the zodiacal signs of Mesa or Aries, Makara or Capricorn, Tula or Libra, Karka or Cancer, and Mina or Pisces respectively) and Jupiter in conjunction with the Moon appeared in the zodiacal sign of Karka'.

'Ram was 39 years old when he killed Ravana'

The same details were entered in the Planetarium Gold software to determine the important dates in the life of Lord Ram vis-à-vis the present planetary positions and zodiac constellations and calculated that Ram was born on January 10, 5114 BC, which means to say 7,122 years ago. While they deserved all appreciation and thanks for this new approach, their ignorance of astronomical calculations and in the absence of any literary proof, their result cannot be relied upon. According to astronomy, the positions of zodiac constellations come back to their original place after a cycle of approximately 26,000 years.

For this reason, the exact same planetary position repeats itself every 26,000 years. So, Ram could have been born in any of the repetitive cycles in planetary positions. Even if we believe Ram to be born in the Treta of the present 28th Chaturyugi, as mentioned earlier, the position of constellations have completed 33 cycles and if, according to literary evidence, we believe Ram to be born in the Treta of 24th Chaturyugi, then the position of the constellations have completed 698 cycles.

The scientific interpretation of the photographs of the remains of Adam's Bridge (Ram Setu) taken by NASA's [ Images ] Gemini-11 spacecraft in 2002, reveals that this ancient bridge linking India to Sri Lanka [ Images ] was manmade, and it was dated to be at least 1.75 million years old. According to Valmiki Ramayana, it is true that Ram and his engineers constructed this bridge for transporting his army into Lanka. If we accept that it was indeed Ram who got this bridge constructed then he lived in the middle years of the 28th Treta, and not in the 24th, and neither in the transition between Treta and Dwapar of the 28th era (Chaturyugi). Even if we accept this, it doesn't alter the calculations based on planetary positions of the constellations. Then the constellations would have completed 66 cycles before coming back to its original position.

It is also not wrong to state that an email message was sent by NASA officials in July 2007 to N K Raghupati, chairman of the Setu Samudram Ship Canal Project, stating therein that the remains of the bridge do not appear to be connected to any human activity. Why NASA differed from its original stand is unknown. Even if Adam's Bridge is a natural geological formation, it could have been beautifully used by Ram to construct a temporary bridge for his army to cross over to Sri Lanka. No scientific test has yet been carried out to measure the ascending or descending contours of Adam's Bridge. Moreover, after millions of years since its construction, no human activity can be linked to this or any other structure.

False propagation by foreign scholars

Most foreign scholars and Indologists believe that Indians taught and learnt their lessons verbally, without the aid of any written material. Indians did not even know how to write. They were not inclined towards maintaining any historical records, nor did they have any notion of placement of events in its proper sequence in time. They believed that the Aryans came from abroad, defeated the original inhabitants of India, the Dravidians, and settled here. The Harappan civilisation was destroyed by invading Aryans. The human history they know is only 5,000 years old. The ancestor of man was an ape or a chimpanzee. In brief it can be stated that all the above assertions of foreign scholars are unscientific, illogical, untrue and pure false propaganda. It has been revealed across the world today that scholars like Max Muller, H H Wilson, A A MacDonell, Rudolph Roth, Albrecht Weber, Ralph T H Griffith, M Winternitz, Monier-Williams, all had the same basic objective which is expressed in Max Muller's words which he wrote in a letter to his wife: 'This edition of mine and the translation of the Veda will, hereafter, tell to a great extent on the fate of India. It is the root of their religion and to show them what the root is, I feel sure is the only way of uprooting all that has sprung from it during the last three thousand years.' (Life and Letters of F Max Muller, Vol I, Chapter XV, Page 34).

Similarly, Monier-Williams wrote in the preface of his Sanskrit-English dictionary: 'I must draw attention to the fact that I am only the second occupant of the Boden Chair and that its founder Colonel Boden stated most explicitly in his will (dated August 15, 1811 AD) that the special object of his munificent bequest was to promote the translation of scriptures into English so as to enable his countrymen to proceed in the conversion of the natives of India to the Christian religion'. Prof Goltuster had revealed that Roy, Weber, Whitling, Fuhan, and other scholars were determined because of some mysterious reason to ruin the prime glory of India in any way possible.

More recently, in July 2007, a book titled Invading the Sacred: An analysis of Hinduism studies in America edited by Krishna Ramaswamy, Antonio de Nicolas and Aditi Banerjee was released in Mumbai The book states, 'Unlike in India, the academic study of religion is an important undertaking for intellectuals in America and a few hundred scholars study Hinduism and other Indian religions. Many of them have continued to perpetuate myths and biases about Indian culture and religion through misinterpretation and mistranslations. These are in line with the colonial and missionary caricature of India.' The book is the product of a multi-year research project that uncovered shoddy and biased scholarship driven by certain power cartels, its authors said.