Book Review
Rama & Ayodhya by Meenakshi Jain Publisher: Aryan Books International
Dt: 22/6/16
Book Review
Rama & Ayodhya
by
Meenakshi Jain
Publisher: Aryan Books International
Pages:342; Price: Rs. 695
The great bhakta, poet Ramadas (born Kancharla Gopanna 1620-’80) of Andhra built a temple for Sri Rama in Bhadrachalam in the then Nizam’s territory from the funds of the Nizam’s government of which he was a tax collector. He wrote great soul- stirring Keertanas (hymns) in praise of Lord Ramachandra. The most famous of them is:
anta rama mayam ....ee jagamantha Rama mayama...
meaning, this entire universe is pervaded by Rama .
Rama is equated to dharma; it is dharma which upholds the universe. Sri Rama was described by Valmiki as dharma personified. Ramo vigrahavan, Dharmah, Rama’s conduct and deeds illustrate dharma which men have to follow in different stages of their lives and in their relations to family and society and nature. Gandhiji spoke of Rama Rajya, that is, a government where dharma rules. There are several avataras, that is, the descent of Vishnu on earth in order to uphold dharma whenever it declined, to punish the wicked and to protect the weak. Of these Narasimha, Rama and Krishna are sung and celebrated by Bharatiyas since millennia. Rama is present in literatures and in places of worship throughout the country.
Once when Sri L K Advani was speaking in the Lok Sabha about Ayodhya, Babri masjid and Ram Mandir, a “secular” warrior Ram Vilas Paswan (who was then a Minister in the government) interrupted him to ask what is all this fuss about Rama and who and where he was. Sri Advani gave a deadly reply : Rama is everywhere in the consciousness of every Indian. He is in you as Ram Vilas Paswan in your name and then he cited more than 200 former and present MPs whose names contain Ram as Ram Subhag Singh, Ram Manohar Lohia, Ram Naresh Yadav, Rama Chandran , Ram Lakhan Yadav, Sundara Raman and so on.
2. While Valmiki’s Ramayana is the basic and full text in Sanskrit, and whatever is there in that is included in the Ramayanas that are written by saints, sages, poets and devotees in almost all the languages of India, poets in the regional languages tried to localise the legend of Rama. They felt happy to expound that Rama trod their land. Facts became stories; stories became legends; and legends became myths, mythologies. That is why we have different versions of Ramayana in different languages but keeping to the facts in Valmiki Ramayana as the core. They are embellished by some other stories current among people in the different parts of Bharat.
3. The land of Bharat as cultural entity and as one people has been and is continuously strengthened by the stories of Rama and Mahabharata. These two epics are the cement and glue that keep Bharateeyas throughout Bharata Varsha as one people. They may be under different kings but all the kings are to follow dharma and the standards set by Ramachandra.
4. Smt Meenakshi Jain Associate Professor of History in Gargi College , University of Delhi has written this book “Rama and Ayodhya”. It is a panoramic description of several Rama temples and Ramayana’s in different parts of the country, in different languages. These have been spread over about 2,500 years Buddhists and Jains also have legends about Rama which show that Rama was an inspiration and a model to all the people in the entire Bharata varsha throughout the centuries.
5. The American Indologists like Sheldon Pollock and Wendy Doniger in their assault on Sanatan dharma and the current Hindu national resurgence, have been spreading the canard that Rama was a little known deity for centuries; and that it is only during the invasions and rule of Islamic hordes that Hindus picked up the legend of Rama in order to instil in the people a spirit of resistance and war against the invaders. That this is a total lie and that Rama’s life in story, legend and literature and worship has been inspiring the lives of the people through millennia is what is brought out by Meenakshi Jain.
6. Rama in story and song was not confined to the upper classes but ordinary people like Kabir and Raidas of non-Brahmin castes have also written the Ramayana and composed hymns in praise of him. That shows that Rama was an ideal that he was dharma personified and his life and conduct are what should be guiding the people of India. This is exactly what Gandhiji meant by Rama Rajya. It is significant that when Rajiv Gandhi started his election campaign in 1989, he started it from Ayodhya, the birth place of Rama and said that his Congress party would establish Rama Rajya ; that is, a dharmic government.
6. Rama as adjective for names of Bharatiyas is extensive. An Indian child is a Dasaradha Rama, Janaki Rama, Rama Mohan, Rama Krishna, Rama Dulari, Ram Subhag, Rama Lakshmi, Ram Singh, Rama Sastri, Ram Kumar, Kodanda Rama, Sethu Rama, Kalyana Rama, Ayodhya Rama, ........ It is significant that in the South, Kodanda and Sethu are the frequent adjectives for Rama – alluding to Rama’s vanara army building the bridge to Sri Lanka an d wielding the Kodanda bow slaying Ravana, the abductor of Sita.
7. The most important part of this book is concerning the Rama Janma Bhoomi movement and the exchanges between the Babri Masjid Action Committee (BMAC) and the proponents of Rama’s temple in Ayodhya. The arguments before the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court are given in great detail. Ordered by the Court the Archaeological Survey of India conducted a deep penetration radar exploration of the ground under the Babri structure. Their findings and those of the archaeologists who trenched the area have conclusively established that there was a Hindu temple under the Babri structure. A number of JNU historians calling themselves “ eminent” appeared before the High Court . The court found that their submissions are based more on their ideology and faith and not on any facts that had come out of the archaeologists findings. These are Marxists and known communists. They were more vehement even the Muslims of the BMAC. It is this portion of the book that is worth reading in order to understand that even if Muslims agree for the construction of a temple at Rama Janmabhoomi, JNU’s “eminent” historians and communists would still be arguing that there was no Rama, no temple, no destruction of the temple and so on. It is because of this dogmatic Marxist communist commitment to anti-Hinduism that is leading to the decimation of the communist parties in this country.
8. The Babri Masjid Action Committee (BMAC) had fewer Muslims than Marxist historians with Hindu names. One of them D. Mandal was a Member of the Communist Party of India. He had no doctorate in ancient history or archaeology but under his guidance several students were awarded doctorates .
One Sri Susheel Srivastava was a witness before the Allahabad High Court. He did his BA & MA from Allahabad University in history and political science. He completed his P.hd after 11 years. He converted to Islam and got the name Sajid. He said he knew no Persian or Arabic but got some inscriptions translated his father in law. He found a job in Gujarat university from where he was expelled for mis-conduct.
There was another “eminent” , Suraj Bhan Kurukshetra University who said he has a MA Sanskrit degree from Delhi but when asked by the court whether he could read or speak, he said he could neither read, write or follow it !
The BMAC persons who deposed before the Allahabad High Court (judgment 30 Sept 2010) were all inspired and instructed by the Marxist “eminent” historians, Irfan Habib and Romila Thapar. The High Court observed in respect of several of these that their depositions /evidence could not satisfy the requirements of law and held all of them as ideologically inspired rather than academically and professionally reliable.
The Privy Council of the UK (the equivalent of Supreme Court of India before independence) and the Supreme Court of India held that when once a deity and temple had been consecrated , even if the temple is demolished and even if the idol is lost, the place belongs to the God and that God as a juridical person could be treated as a minor and any beneficiary could sue on behalf of that God.
It is in law as well as in belief that Rama Janmasthan had a temple and that it was broken and on its place and on its many columns and materials the Babri structure was built. It is unfortunate that because of the Marxist “eminent” historians, Muslims are being misguided and incited to be cantankerous. obstructive and divisive . They appealed against the judgement of the Allahabad High Court. The Muslim judge on the Bench held that the Babri structure was on the ruins of a Hindu temple .
END