Babri Masjid Issue

“The  tendency to turn human  judgment  into  Devine  command  makes religion  one of  the  most  dangerous  forces in the world.”

After demolition  of an  old dilapidated  building  called ” Babri Masjid” in DEC ’92,  a  few leaders, belonging to Saffron – Outfit  danced in glee, as though they  have performed a most  heroic  deed  in the history of this country,  just like the primitive tribes dance around the Fire after a good  Game-Hunt, There after  hundreds  of columnists in  both English and other languages  wrote hundreds of  articles bringing to our notice many historical   facts, which we laymen had not known earlier.

In Barkha  Dutt’s ‘We The People’ Programme   on 26th Sept. 2010 many legal luminaries gave their opinions, but only one Panel member pointed  out, that  Hindus too demolished Jain & Buddhist - structures to convert them into Hindu temples. In coastal district of Karnataka the local Brahmins forcibly took over Jain temples and converted them into Hindu temples.  Many Historians and Archeologists have recorded that the Buddhist Enclave ‘Nagarjunakonda’ was vandalized extensively by hordes of people on Shakaracharya’s instigation.

The verdict on 30th Sept 10 confounded many legal luminaries. One prominent leader from Saffron-front declared authoritatively that the learned Judge gave his verdict based on what he perceived and tradition. On this, another expert remarked that the verdict was like   the Village-Panchayat’ judgement. It is surprising how such learned people haven’t read what the world-teacher Jiddu Krishna Murthy had repeatedly said that ‘Tradition clouds perception. Tradition betrays the present and those who follow tradition are trapped in the past’.   Another word widely used by Hindus is “Parampara” meaning tradition. Most irrational acts are committed under Parampara – even killing ones sister or daughter for violating Parampara by men even from elite society. This word has become an evil bug planted in the minds of Hindus through indoctrination over centuries. Thus the verdict appears to be based on Parampara and not on legal grounds of a modern secular democracy.

As a genesis to this whole episode, I am reproducing below a few excerpts relevant to the context from an Article ” The Lost Civilizations ” (Published in Indian Express 2-3 decades back) by S.B.Roy, Director of the Institute of Chronology, New- Delhi, in which he re-constructs the Proto-History of the world, 4000 years ago, when dynasties like Devas, Rakshas, Vanaras and many others lived and fought in Aryana.

Two generations of scholars had toiled for hundred years to prepare the first definitive History of the world–Itihasa–Purana. It was compiled under the supervision Vyasa and delivered by Ugrashrava Sauti at the time of Naimisharanya conference of the Intellectuals.   (circa.1316 B.C )

Vyasa the encyclopaedist who lived at the time of Mahabharata battle (1400 B.C.) collected material for a world history and entrusted the work to Roma Harshana. The scholars who helped in this gigantic task were , Atreya  Sumati, Kashyapa, Akripabrana, Bharadwaja, Agnivircas, Vashista mitrayu, Savarni  Somataki, Susirman Samsapayana and Ugrashrava Sauti son of Romaharshana

The Astronomical material in the Rigveda reveals the following Date.

Some of   Those dynasties      were misrepresented as devils, beasts or aboriginals by Europeans    and some Indian Ideologists. For example  great injustice has been done to the rakshasas by the Indian poets who  showed only their evil traits. The Rigveda apparently    took no notice of them because neither Rama nor Ravana appear in any hymn. As mentioned earlier, Dasaratha was a junior contemporary of Divodasa and fought Timidhwahaja, an ally of Shambara, the  Harappan. The synchronism is confirmed  by Pargitar and Pradhana.  Both pointed out that Divodasa’s sister Ahalya was married to  Sarantvanta  Gautama, a priest of  Siradhwaja  Janaka(Siradhwaja’s daughter  Sita was married to  Rama, son of Dasaratha) Where did Ravana  live and rule? It is certain he was a great and powerful king who was a terror to the Aryan kings. It is also possible  that  Ravana was a title, like  Janaka, because  one  of  the Ravanas    was said to be a cotemporary   and  friend of  Kartivirya  Arjuna  who lived thirty generations earlier than  Dasarathi-Rama. Be that as it may, Ravana was a powerful king and the field-worker   who will search for his bones (and gold) amidst the Neolithic graves of the Gond Tribal- chiefs will be disappointed.

It is possible to associate Sita and Janaka with the agricultural revolution in the Northern India in 2000 B.C. Sita was deified as the goddess of the earth .  Sita was deified as the furrow or the goddess of agriculture. We do not know where Rama lived and ruled.  Rama was already deified in Mitanni by 1400 B.C as is shown by a letter from Tusarata (cf. Dasaratha) to Amenhotep  found in  Tellai–Amarna achieves .The locale of the Rama-Ravana battle is yet to be found. There must be a great city of 2000 B.C like Mohanjo Daro still to be excavated.

In all other civilizations mythologies were consigned to the dust-bin of history. In Indic civilization, mythologies were constructed from the Proto-History, These mythologies were made up to masquerade as history and a few characters were made up to masquerade as gods and divinities, having been   attributed with magical and supernatural traits.  Rama is one of them. The whole of Ramayana the epic is based   on a bad verdict. It is a fact that the priests and rulers were liberally consuming the heady-wine called ‘Soma’   King Dasaratha     that night might have drunk lot of wine and went to the queen Kaikayee. He was not sober and in a half–sleepy state when the queen got his promise for making her son Bharat the next king. When the time arrived for fulfilling the promise Dashrath    consulted in anguish his Raj-Purohith (Royal Priest). This crafty priest, instead of going by “Dharma” and tradition sided with the queen. Thus Rama had to go to forest and the epic was born. Had the priest taken the path of ‘Dharma’ the present Lalla–Gulla and spilling of blood would not have occurred.  As this is only a fiction no one raised the question of logic. It is an irony that the modern judiciary went  by tradition and perception  and the ancient  “Raj-Purohith” went by legality of  a king’s  promise but not by “Dharma” and tradition of crowning the Eldest  prince.

Here is a major question to saffron ideologues. By 7th or 8th century all were aware that there was the Holy- Bible in practice in southern India, and Holy Koran was knocking at the doors of North-West India. In such a political situation a conclave of  Vaidic- high-priests and rulers found it necessary to compile a Holy-Book for  Hindus. Two Books were compiled: One was “Yoga-Vashist”, an imaginary dialogue between Rama and Sage Vashist; and the other “Gita” an imaginary dialogue between Arjun and Krisna. But the Vaidic priests rejected ‘Yoga-Vashist’ as that was a large document with profound thoughts and metaphysical world-views, giving them no scope for interpolations. But ‘Gita’ was short with a few hundred verses (made up to 700 verses by interpolations). In Gita they could scrumptiously put words into Krishna’s mouth, out of context, to comply with their agenda of Caste-Based society, a legion of Gods and senseless rituals. At that period they rejected Rama and now they use his name to create hatred and bloodshed.

Can the media be courageous to address   the youth with the facts from history to raise their level of consciousness. A section of youth and the large middle-class are sucked into a ‘Black–Hole’ created by saffron ideology, obscurantism  originated in rituals,   priests, highly -commercialized temples,  astrologers, fake god-men, intellectually barren TV soaps and consumerism.

Youth is the future. Therefore media should be futuristic. They should canalize the youth –energy to “Ever-widening thoughts and actions and not allow their ‘clear stream of reason to loose its way into the dreary desert-sands of dead– habits’” (R.Tagore)

The essence of Hindutva is defined by “Upanishadic verses ’thou are that spirit’,  “Aham Brhamasmi”. Upanishads propounded that every living being is part of this ‘Brahma’  an ever moving,  ever transforming ,progressive force (S.Radhakrishnan) – A formless God. Jiddu  Krishna  Murthy had beautifully said this –”You are rest of humanity, ‘You are the observer and you are  the observed” ” We are all  part of the same consciousness’.