A bridge, its history and its mythology...
In 1860, a British Indian Naval Officer, Alfred Dundas Taylor, proposed that the time and distance taken by ships traveling from the west coast of India to its east coast and vice versa could be cut down significantly, if a sufficiently wide and deep passage was made connecting the Gulf of Mannar and The Palk Strait, separating the Indian mainland from Sri Lanka. Because of the shallow waters in the Gulf and the Strait, ships had to circumnavigate 400 nautical miles more, around Sri Lanka, taking them upto 30 more hours and a commensurate increase in cost. From 1860 till Indian independence in 1947, nine proposals were made and evaluated. But no action was taken.
In 1955, the independent Indian government set up a committee called the Sethusamudram Project Committee. After evaluating the costs and benefits, this committee found the project feasible and viable. Five more proposals and technical reports followed. But no action still, till 2005, when Dr. Manmohan Singh, the then Prime Minister, inaugurated the project, 145 years after the original proposal was made.
The project, budgeted at INR 2600 crores, was supposed to take 3 years, and was supposed to dredge a canal 165 km long, 300 meters wide and sufficiently deep to let cargo ships traverse that route.
Today is 2020. Fifteen years have passed and still no Setusamudram canal. Why? Because, right from its inception, the project had a few issues:
1. About 65 % of the ships in that area come from Africa and Europe. For them, the time saving was not 30 hours, but just 8 hours.
2. The channel could take only 30000 tonnage vessels. But most of the new ships, which are of 60000 tonnage and tankers, which are 150000 tonnes or more, cannot use the canal.
3. The project would disturb the ecological balance and destroy corals and kill marine life. It would also destroy conch trade worth INR 150 crores annually.
But the biggest issue was - the Sethusamudram canal would cut through and destroy what was left of the mythological Ram Sethu or Adam's bridge. And that would be disastrous to the political fortunes of the government that did that.
So what exactly is the story of the Ram Sethu or Adam's bridge? And why is it so sensitive? Therein lies a tale.
The Ram Sethu is today, a 50 km long chain of limestone shoals, between a village called Dhanushkodi, on Rameswaram Island (also called Pamban Island), in Tamil Nadu, India, and another village called Talaimannar on Mannar Island, in Sri Lanka. The bridge is believed to have been made by Lord Rama and his Vanara army to reach Lanka and rescue his wife, Sita from the evil king, Ravana. The Sri Lankan muslims, on the other hand, believe that Aadhaam, their first Islamic leader, walked over this bridge by foot from India to Lanka and thus this bridge has a holy connotation for them. Aadhaam got morphed to Adam, because the British found it easier to pronounce. Hence, this bridge was also called Adam's bridge. But for most Indians, especially Hindus, this bridge is Rama Setu or Nala Setu (because it was built by Nala, the architect-monkey in Rama's army).
That makes it mythological, right? Why worry about mythology in the 21st century?
Because that also makes the issue religious. In India, religious issues become political issues. Right wing parties like BJP and organizations like VHP put their foot down and said, "How can you break a bridge built by Ram?" Secular parties said, "Since Ram is mythological, Ram Sethu is mythological too."
I also grew up believing Ram and Ramayan to be undoubtedly mythological. But recently, I read a book called Historical Ram, written by D K Hari and his wife, D K Hemahari (who run an organization called Bharat Gyan), wherein they attempt to provide scientific and logical proof that Ram and Ramayan are historical.
The various arguments they put forward are as follows:
1. They say Ramayana and Mahabharata are called Itihasa in Sanskrit. Itihasa = Iti + hasa. Meaning - It happened like this = History.
They say that until the British came to India, Ramayana and Mahabharata were indeed considered to be have happened. The British classified these epics as mythology.
2. They use a technology called archaeo-astrology and make some powerful propositions. Archaeo-astrology is a technique of charting the future or past sky using a scientific tool called planetarium software. This tool helps to arrive at planetary positions, given a date in future or past. Vice-versa, given a set of planetary configurations, the tool can help identify the date in future or past, when the planetary configuration will or could have occurred.
This software was apparently developed by NASA to estimate the planetary positions of Voyager missions that would take 10-12 years to reach their destinations. Now, declassified, it is available for public use. Reminds me of how the internet was a classified invention of the US defence before it was made publicly available.
The authors refer to one Mr. Pushkar Bhatnagar, who used the original Sanskrit text of Ramayana and this technique to date the era of Lord Ram. For example, the birth of Rama is explained in detail by Valmiki.
This information, when fed into the software, tells us that Ram was born on 10th January, 5114 BC, at 12.30 pm, as per the Gregorian calendar!
This way, all major events in Ramayan were dated. Fantastic, isn't it?
Notice how the dating shows that Ram gets exiled when he was 25 years old, and how the Khar-Dushan episode happens in the 12th year of exile. Pretty consistent results, eh?
3. The geographic locations in Ramayan are actual places that exist even today - some of them have the same names then and now.
4. There is one school of thought that says that Ram Setu could be a natural phenomenon. The book refutes this possibility by saying that the layers of the bridge are so discrete that they can only he man-made.
None of these arguments are conclusive by themselves. But honestly guys, put together, there is a strong case that, after all, Ram and Ramayan may not be mere mythology. Maybe they are history - Itihas!
If they are, I would agree with Dr. Hari and his wife that Ram Sethu should be a protected monument. I will join them in demanding for a UNESCO world heritage site declaration for this piece of geography. Already in the past 500 years, a large part of it was lost to a cyclone. It is said that till 1480 AD, the bridge was a meter over sea level and one could walk from India to Sri Lanka over it.
And I look forward to the current BJP led NDA government and its minister, Nitin Gadkari's proposal that a bridge should be made from India to Sri Lanka, instead of a canal. This fits beautifully with this government's Look East foreign policy, whereby they are connecting all our neighbouring countries, as a counter to China and its aggressive intent.
