Author: Sandhya Jain
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: September 18, 2007
Tulsidas' seminal rendition of the Rama story
makes no mention of the Lakshman rekha in the episode dealing with Sita's
abduction. The line surfaces only later, in distant Lanka, when Ravana's wife,
Mandodri, advises him to give up his obstinacy and refrain from fighting the
illustrious Raghus. She points out that Lakshman had drawn a protective line
around Sita in the forest, which Ravana couldn't even cross! Sita could be
abducted only after she was tricked into breaching it; the Lakshman rekha
has since become the ethical standard of Hindu self-restraint, discipline,
and sense of limit.
This moral dimension was shaken when a Central
Government-approved affidavit claimed before the Supreme Court that there
is no 'historic' or 'scientific' evidence of the existence of the maryada
purushottom. This contemptuous attitude towards Hindu civilization's greatest
moral exemplar has caused shock all over the Hindu universe, from Kashmir
to Kanyakumari, to Trinidad & Tobago, Fiji, Guyana, Mauritius, Myanmar,
Kampuchea, Indonesia, Bali, Malaysia, Nepal, Java, Philippines, Sri Lanka,
Thailand; regions whose national culture has been shaped by the benign presence
of Shri Rama.
Originally a dispute over a sand and coral
formation uniting the Indian mainland with its island neighbour, Ram Setu
has catapulted into a bridge of India's Hindu identity and nationhood, straddling
centuries of collective sloth and amnesia. The Tamil Kings of Jaffna (thirteenth-sixteenth
centuries AD) once called themselves "Sethu Kavalar," protectors
of Rameshwaram and the surrounding seas; South India principally reveres Rama
as Kodanda-Rama, deity with the bow.
The military career of this armed god, born
to defeat the forces of darkness and tyranny and uphold dharma, was a saga
of successive triumphs. He was invincible before the Rakshasas and Asuras
who were inimical to Vedic dharma. Even prior to the first century BC, Krishna
identified Rama as the highest example of a warrior (Bhagvad Gita, X.31).
Significantly, of the multifarious roles of
this divinity - ideal son, ideal brother, ideal husband, ideal human being
- post-independence India has most valued the ideal king! This is precisely
what is sought to be demeaned by the Archaeological Survey of India's audacious
affidavit, duly vetted by the Union Law Ministry, declaring Rama a non-historic
figure. For Rama was a king deeply concerned with his subjects' judgment of
his way of living, and anxious to measure up to their expectations of him.
The backlash over the Ram Setu affidavit may
yet teach modern India's foreign-born and native-secular rulers that in the
Hindu civilizational ethos, rajdharma (duty of the king) means embracing and
upholding the dharma of the people. There are no exemptions; Ashoka's decision
to make Buddhism the state religion and propagate it through state-appointed
missionaries is perceived as an undesirable aberration. The quest for Ram
rajya is the search for an ideal realm where people are happy, prosperous,
well-behaved and contented; poverty and social ills are rare. India is thus
the only country in the world where a ruler may not impose his dharma upon
the people (convert them); he must honour the dharma of the people.
Even if Rama was a figment of the collective
Hindu imagination, he cast an enduring spell over subsequent epochs. The Harivamsa,
a second-third century AD work on Shri Krishna, lauds Rama's rule as the most
righteous age on earth. The Vayu Purana, dated not later than fifth century
AD, says Rama had a long reign and in his kingdom the chants of the Rig, Yajur,
and Sama Vedas were heard ceaselessly and people gave and ate to their hearts
content. Kalidasa, himself a Shaiva, honed his poetic skills glorifying the
Iksvakus and Rama. The Gurjara-Pratiharas who worsted the Arabs in the ninth
century AD, trace their genealogy to Lakshman, brother of Rama, as revealed
by the Gwalior Prasasti of Mihir Bhoj, seventh king of the dynasty. Tukaram
extolled Shivaji's reign as Ram rajya in which ruler and subjects were all
equal and there was all-round welfare.
Interestingly, the first tsunami of 2004 came
soon after the arrest of the Kanchi Shankaracharya on specious grounds of
conspiracy to murder. The second warning, when the Ocean literally growled
and tremours measured 8.0 on the Richter scale, came within hours of the Centre
declaring there was no historic evidence of Shri Ram and the Setu was a mere
sandbank.
Retreat was equally swift. With midterm elections
looming threateningly on the horizon, the official dogma reinvented itself:
certainly there is Rama. Till recently a mythological hero, the god metamorphosed
into "an integral part of Hindu faith" whose existence can never
be doubted. In the three months reprieve sought to 'study' the feasibility
of the canal, there may finally be a Ram Setu as well. Popular belief (astha)
is nothing; but popular vote surely counts!
The tsunami warning is not a secular matter
of environmental degradation. For Hindus, also at stake is our rna (debt)
to the panch-tatva that make the universe: earth, water, fire, air, ether,
and all creatures within. Contrary to the Western world-view, man alone is
not the measure of all things, and we have no right to desecrate nature. The
Gulf of Mannar is an indivisible water body which impacts the coasts of India
and Sri Lanka. Any dredging here can trigger the fault-lines and the heat-flow
zone, causing incalculable damage to the coast and aquatic resources. Yet
tsunami effects and tsunami protection measures were not included in the Sethusamundram
project report, though this affects coastline security. Hopefully, this lacuna
will be addressed in the three month review period.
At stake is a rich and endangered marine life
and the sensitive ecosystem in the Palk Bay and Gulf of Mannar, including
Dugong sea turtles, dolphins and sea horses that thrive in the coral reefs.
Under UNESCO's Man and Biosphere Programme, the Gulf of Mannar environs were
notified as a Marine Biosphere Reserve by the Government of India. The 10,500
sq. km area, with twenty-one islands with continuous stretches of coral reef,
is home to over 3600 rare species of flora and fauna. Five coastal districts
depend upon this marine resource.
The ASI affidavit was a shameful attempt to
humiliate Hindu dharma by belittling a defining feature of Hindu tradition.
Unsurprisingly, this flagrant violation of the Lakshman rekha roused the languorous
Hindu elephant to protest. Let it now trumpet the regime's fall.
