By IANS
New Delhi : Defending its plan to build a shipping canal that its opponents say would destroy a ‘bridge’ held sacred in Hindu legend, the government has told the Supreme Court that epics were not historical records that could prove the existence of Lord Ram.
“The Valmiki Ramayana, the Ramcharitmanas by Tulsidas and other mythological texts, which admittedly form an ancient part of Indian literature, cannot be said to be historical records to incontrovertibly prove the existence of the characters or the occurrence of the events depicted therein,” the government told the apex court Wednesday.
This statement was made in an affidavit filed by the culture ministry in response to a bunch of petitions opposing the execution of the Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project (SSCP).
The Rs.24 billion project aims to provide a shorter navigational sea route around India’s southern peninsula by dredging the peak of what is believed to be the Ram Sethu, also geographically known as Adam’s Bridge.
According to the epics, the bridge was built by Lord Hanuman’s monkey army to enable Lord Ram, revered by Hindus, to cross over to Lanka (now Sri Lanka) to Rescue his wife Sita from the clutches of demon king Ravana.
In the affidavit, the government added that it was “aware of, and duly respects, the deep religious import bestowed upon these texts (the Ramayana and the Ramcharitmanas) by the Hindu community across the globe.”
The affidavit was filed by C. Dorjee, monuments director of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) under the ministry of culture.
The government’s affidavit came in response to the apex court’s query asking it to clarify if the Adam’s Bridge, between India’s Rameswaram island and Talaimannar in Sri Lanka, regarded as the Ram Sethu, could be declared a protected monument.
The affidavit said: “The formation known as Ram Sethu or Adam’s Bridge is not a man-made structure but rather a natural formation made up of sand bars, which are possessed of their particular shape and form due to several millennia of wave action and sedimentation.”
The apex court on Aug 31 had restrained the government from causing any damage to the mythological Ram Sethu in the process of constructing the navigational sea route.
A bench of Justices B.N. Agarwal and P.P. Naolekar had allowed the government to continue dredging the peak of Ram Sethu in the narrow sea between Rameswaram in India and Talaimannar in Sri Lanka, but without causing any damage to it.
The apex court is set to take up the hearing of the matter Friday.
It had restrained the government from damaging the Ram Sethu on a petition by former union minister Subramanian Swamy, who had approached the court apprehending that plans may be afoot to blow apart the bridge that Hindus consider holy to pave way for the proposed canal.
Meanwhile, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) organised road blockades across the country Wednesday to protest the canal project.