Should the Mahabharata and Ramayana be part of the history curriculum in Indian schools? Most Hindus would say yes to the idea but the National Council of Educational Research and Training – an autonomous organization which advises the Central and State Governments on school education in India – seems to be divided over the issue.
On November 22, several leading media outlets reported that the NCERT’s Social Science Committee, led by Professor CI Isaac, has recommended the inclusion of the ancient Indian epics Ramayana and Mahabharata in school textbooks. [1] However, according to another report, the NCERT has refuted the claim, saying there is no such committee and “whatever Issac is saying is in his personal capacity.” [2] Note that the second report has come via NDTV, a notoriously anti-Hindu outlet that has routinely peddled fake news. On the other hand, Professor Issac is a respected historian and member of the Indian Council of Historical Research.
The conflicting reports are symbolic of the state of Indian history, which has been distorted and defiled by India’s secular rulers, who have accepted the distorted history handed down by British colonial rulers. [3] Clearly, there is a tussle going on between the diehard seculars and reformists within the NCERT. It also indicates the challenges that face Hindus when it comes to correcting the distortions.
Why is the Abrahamic-Leftist Nexis hell-bent on keeping Hindu ‘Itihasa’ out of school textbooks?
The Ramayana, Mahabharata, and other ancient Indian texts like the Vedas, Puranas, and Upanishads are true records of Indian history, interwoven with strands of mythology, philosophy, and spirituality. Just because they talk about battles between gods and demons is no reason to dismiss their accounts of kings and other contemporary developments as mere storytelling. The Christian Bible mentions numerous incredible events like Jesus walking on water and instantaneously healing the sliced ears of a servant by his mere touch, and yet it is considered a history of Christians and Jews, while the ancient texts of the Hindus are relegated to the status of mythology.
But what was the need for the Europeans to falsify Indian history? The primary motive was the missionary agenda. A vast majority of the Western Indologists were (and are) either Christian missionaries or strong believers who participated directly in missionary activity and saw their work as contributing to Christianity’s triumph. In their iconic book ‘The Nay Science: A History of German Indology.’ Vishwa Adluri and Joydeep Bagchee say: “The purpose of uncovering and translating Hindu scriptures was to provide foundations for evangelism,” says Adluri. [4]
There is also a sub-agenda: To falsify Indian history so that it could be claimed that it all started after the creation of the world according to the childish Christian cosmology, which puts creation at 4000 BCE or 6,000 years ago. So they fixed the date of the Rig Veda – humanity’s oldest book – as 1,200 BCE. Again, the Mahabharata is said to have been composed between 400 BCE and 400 CE.
The nexus of European Indologists and Christian missionaries, which developed during the early years of the British period, has been supplemented by leftist Indian historians. These craving brown sahibs gleefully accept the verdict passed by their former white masters, who were not qualified to speak on the subject in the first place. This nexus, which now includes a substantial section of the media, has proved so powerful that those who dare to question this view of history are branded Hindu fundamentalists. In their view, because the British declared that Indian epics do not predate the Christian Bible, then it must necessarily be true.
In her History of India, academician Romila Thapar describes the celebrated Rig-Veda as “primitive animism”; the Mahabharata as the glorification of a “local feud” between two Aryan tribes; the Ramayana as “a description of local conflicts between the agriculturists of the Ganges Valley and the more primitive hunting and food-gathering societies of the Vindhyan region” (sic). [5]
Such falsified history has led to millions of Indian school children growing up without any sense of respect for their past – a recorded history of at least 10,000 years.
“Every year, thousands of students leave the country and seek citizenship in other countries because of the lack of patriotism among them. Therefore, it is important for them to understand their roots and develop a love for their country and their culture.”
Against this backdrop, Professor Issac comments: “The committee has insisted on teaching epics like the Ramayana and Mahabharata in the social science syllabus to students. We think that students in their teenage years build their self-esteem, patriotism and pride for their nation. Every year, thousands of students leave the country and seek citizenship in other countries because of the lack of patriotism among them. Therefore, it is important for them to understand their roots and develop a love for their country and their culture.” [6]
“Although some education boards presently teach Ramayana to students, they teach it as a myth. What is a myth? There is no purpose of the education system if the students are not taught these epics, and it will not be nation-serving,” he added.
Digging up the truth
Scientific advancements have a habit of shaking up the deepest foundations if they rest on a bed of lies. Catholic Christians – or, more accurately, their boss, the Pope – had to admit at long last in 2009 that the Earth was not the center of the universe, a discovery made by Galileo 400 years ago (and which the Hindus and Greeks knew thousands of years before that). Using archaeological, scriptural, literary and astronomical data, scholars and scientists are coming round to the view that Rama and Krishna were historical figures.
Let’s first take a look at the historicity of Krishna as he is of a more recent era than Rama, and there is vastly more evidence.
Archaeological evidence
The key to the Krishna story is Dwarka. The Mahabharata says the city was reclaimed from the sea. The strongest archaeological support for this comes from the structures discovered in the late 1980s under the seabed off the coast of modern Dwarka in Gujarat by a team of archaeologists and divers led by the late S.R. Rao. The diver teams discovered that the submerged city’s walls were erected on a foundation of boulders, suggesting that land, indeed was reclaimed from the sea. [7]
An emeritus scientist at the marine archaeology unit of the National Institute of Oceanography, Rao, excavated a large number of Harappan sites, including the port city of Lothal in Gujarat. In his book The Lost City of Dwarka, published in 1999, he writes about his undersea finds: “The discovery is an important landmark in the history of India. It has set to rest the doubts expressed by historians about the historicity of Mahabharata and the very existence of Dwarka city.”
The discovery of Dwarka is definitive proof of the historicity of the Mahabharata as well as Krishna.
Conducting 12 expeditions during 1983-1990, Rao identified two underwater settlements, one near the present-day Dwarka and the other on the nearby island of Bet Dwarka. This tallies with the two Dwarkas mentioned in the epic. The underwater expeditions won Rao the first World Ship Trust Award for Individual Achievement.
The discovery of Dwarka is definitive proof of the historicity of the Mahabharata as well as Krishna. Says Rao, “The Mahabharata mentions the city having 50 openings. We found about 25 or 30 bastions. There must be more because they must have protected the wall against currents. On the bastion, invariably, there are window openings. So that may be the reference.” [8]
Another important find by the divers was a seal that establishes the submerged township’s connection with the Dwarka of the Mahabharata. The seal corroborates the reference made in the ancient text, the Harivamsa, that every citizen of Dwarka should carry such a seal for identification purposes. Krishna had ruled that none without the seal should enter it. A similar seal has been found onshore as well. [9]
Literary evidence
The Mausala Parva of the Mahabharata gives a vivid and heartbreaking account of the end of Dwarka as predicted by Krishna, who had asked the citizens to abandon the city: “The sea, which had been beating against the shores, suddenly broke the boundary that was imposed on it by nature. The sea rushed into the city. It coursed through the streets of the beautiful city. The sea covered up everything in the city. Arjuna saw the beautiful buildings becoming submerged one by one. He took a last look at the mansion of Krishna. In a matter of a few moments, it was all over. The sea had now become as placid as a lake. There was no trace of the beautiful city, which had been the favorite haunt of all the Pandavas. Dwarka was just a name, just a memory.” [10]
Does this account from the ancient Indian epic have a true historical core? Did Lord Krishna, indeed the favorite Indian deity, walk the streets of ancient Dwarka? Did Krishna, considered the Lord of the universe by a billion Hindus, rule the Yaduvanshi clan thousands of years ago? One cannot separate Dwarka from Krishna. If the city existed, then surely Krishna ruled over it.
That Dwarka was ruled by Krishna is corroborated by the Bhagavad Purana, which says that Krishna led the Yadavs thousands of kilometers west to establish Dwarka so they could start a new life, safe from their many enemies in the Gangetic Valley. [11]
Astronomical
The late Narhari Achar, who was a professor of physics at the University of Memphis, Tennessee, dated the Mahabharata war using astronomy and regular planetarium software. According to his research conducted in 2004-05, the titanic clash between the Pandavas and the Kauravas took place in 3067 BC. Using the same software, Achar places the year of Krishna’s birth at 3112 BC. [12]
Dr Manish Pandit, a nuclear medicine physician in the UK, after examining the astronomical, archaeological, and linguistic evidence, agrees with Dr Achar’s conclusions. Dr Pandit, who is also a distinguished astrologer and has written several books on the subject, traced the route of Krishna’s journeys to shoot the documentary “Krishna: History or Myth?” [13]
Dr Pandit says there are more than 140 astronomy references in the Mahabharata. Simulations of the night sky have been combined with geographical descriptions to arrive at various dates. He says the chances of these references repeating are next to nothing.
According to historian S.M. Ali, the author of Geography of Puranas, “The geographical matter contained in the Mahabharata is immense. It is perhaps the only great work which deals with geographic details and not incidentally, as other works.” [14]
Dating the Ramayana
Did Rama exist? A billion Hindus believe he did, and an unbroken tradition of Rama worship has continued for thousands of years in India. Rama is also a hero in Indonesia (despite it being a Muslim country), Thailand, and several other Southeast Asian countries. Without the weight of the long historical tradition, the Ramayana would have been swept away by the tidal waves of conquests that India suffered over a period of 1,300 years.
The wonderful thing about the Ramayana is that when Valmiki wrote the epic, he made it idiot-proof. (For fun, let’s assume Valmiki, being a prescient sage, knew that secularists, communists, India haters, British invaders, and Macaulayites would exist in the future and try to run down his historical opus.) He packed so much information about the various planetary positions of those days, the geography of the areas mentioned in the epic, the seasonal events, and the genealogy of various kings that modern astronomers and scientists can have a crack at the dates on which those events occurred.
Note that the cabal that labels Hindu epics as myth is led by discredited communist academicians, Nehru family carpetbaggers, and Western Indologists who have penetrated Indian cultural outfits and Indians who have slept with their Anglo-American Ph.D. guides to become, in Arun Shourie’s words, “eminent historians.” [15]
On the other hand, most of those trying to prove the epics are history are scientists. For instance, at a global colloquium jointly organized by The Mythic Society, Bangalore, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, and Sir Babasaheb (Umakanth Keshav) Apte Smarak Samithi Trust on January 5 and 6, 2003, the late Raja Ramanna, the father of the Indian nuclear bomb, said the “best clock for dating was the sky itself and the position of stars.” [16]
These scientists are studying facts. They are looking back in time at precession or the position of stars. They are not regurgitating the discredited writings of Karl Marx or Max Muller, the racist Germans who both supported English rule over India. It’s not too difficult to figure out who is speaking the truth.
So, how is astronomical dating done? Historian P.V. Vartak says: “Sage Valmiki has recorded the dates of events in detail, albeit by describing the positions of stars and planets. To decipher the astronomical encodings has not been a trivial task, and not many have attempted to do so. It should be noted that the ancient Indians had a perfect method of time measurement. They recorded the ‘tithis’ (days) according to the nakshatra (star) on which the moon prevailed, the months, the seasons, and even the different solstices. By noting a particular arrangement of the astronomical bodies, which occurs once in many thousand years, the dates of the events can be calculated.” [17]
Vartak has taken hundreds of illustrated passages from the epic to establish dates. He writes: “Valmiki records the birth of Rama as Chaitra Shuddha Navami (9th), on Punarvasu Nakshatra and five planets were exalted then; Sun in Mesha up to 10 deg; Mars in Capricorn at 28 deg; Jupiter in Cancer at 5 deg; Venus in Pisces at 27 degrees and Saturn in Libra at 20 degrees. (Bala Kanda 18, Shloka 8.9). December 4, 7323 BCE, therefore, is the date of birth of Rama, when the four planets exalted. Ramayana occurred over 9,300 years ago.”
King Guha’s descendants
In 2015, an international team of researchers consisting of geneticists, anthropologists, archaeologists, and historians found that Ramayana is a chronicle of events and characters recorded by Sage Valmiki and not a work of fiction. [18]
The team, led by Gyaneshwer Chaubey, a genetics scientist of the Estonian Biocentre in Estonia, included scientists from the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad; Delhi University; Indian Institute of Technology-Kharagpur; and the Institute of Scientific Research on Vedas. It found that the Bhils, Gonds, and the Kols communities are the true descendants of characters featured in Ramayana.
The Kol tribe, found mainly in areas like Mirzapur, Varanasi, Banda, and Allahabad in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, are the descendants of the Kol mentioned in the Ramayana, the study says. Guha, the Nishad king, who helped Rama cross the Ganga during his journey to the forests, is the ancestor of the present-day Kol tribe. “These groups of people carry the basic indigenous genetic traits of India… they are the true descendants of Rama and his contemporaries,” Chaubey said.
Who knows, further research could come up with more surprises. For, unlike the liberals and Marxists who are unanimous that Rama never existed, the scientists are not tied to any particular position. They are not adamant that the date of the Ramayana is fixed. Like good scientists, they just want to continue looking in the hope that one day they’ll nail the truth.
Endgame
Of course, none of the evidence is good enough for the ossified historians that lord over India’s academia, regurgitating the lies written by British colonial scholars, who were, in reality, Christian missionaries.
Of course, none of the evidence is good enough for the ossified historians that lord over India’s academia, regurgitating the lies written by British colonial scholars, who were, in reality, Christian missionaries. According to Marxist historian R.S. Sharma, “Although Lord Krishna plays an important role in the Mahabharata, the earliest inscriptions and sculpture pieces found in Mathura between 200 BC and 300 AD do not attest to his presence.” [19]
What a brilliant deduction! Going by Sharma’s logic, any fool can dig at a random site and, upon failing to discover an artifact, declare Krishna never existed. Sadly, millions of Indian schoolchildren are being taught such lies.
Unfortunately for the leftists like Sharma, their destiny is the dustbin of history. Their biggest nightmare is the new scientific evidence that keeps emerging with clockwork regularity. Whether it’s the Ram Temple discovered by archaeologists under the site of the erstwhile Babri Mosque in Ayodhya or the Hindu dharma icons found inside the Gyanvapi Mosque in Varanasi, the digging is exposing the lies spun over decades by the cabal of liberals and Marxists. [20]
Rao, the archaeologist who discovered Dwarka, believes that further digging and diving, in tandem with India’s vast treasure trove of historical facts, will further corroborate key dates of our eventful and glorious past.
The inclusion of the Ramayana and Mahabharata in the school curriculum would be a step in the right direction. It will inculcate pride in Indian children and inspire them to undertake research on these epics in a more scientific way. It would also create interest in history and the search for truth, and who knows what else they might find. Perhaps that’s what really worries the liberals and Marxists.
Citations
[1] Ramayana In Ncert Syllabus: Teach Ramayana as part of history: NCERT panel | India News – Times of India; https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/teach-ramayana-as-part-of-history-ncert-panel/articleshow/105396014.cms?from=mdr
[2] Ramayana, Mahabharata In School Textbooks? NCERT Denies Report (ndtv.com); https://www.ndtv.com/education/ncert-panel-proposes-including-ramayana-mahabharata-in-school-textbooks-4595197
[3] ‘Indian history was distorted by the British’ | Kolkata – Hindustan Times; https://www.hindustantimes.com/kolkata/indian-history-was-distorted-by-the-british/story-0XmF9oSZpLPrFMcdwQdsOP.html
[4] The Pseudoscience of Indology: An Interview with Joydeep Bagchee – Indic Today; http://www.indictoday.com/interviews/the-pseudoscience-of-indology-an-interview-with-joydeep-bagchee/
[5] Romila Thapar, A History of India, Vol 1, Penguin Books, 1990
[6] NCERT panel recommends inclusion of Ramayana, Mahabharata in school textbooks | Latest News India – Hindustan Times; https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/ncert-panel-recommends-inclusion-of-ramayana-mahabharata-in-school-textbooks-101700567132062.html
[7] The lost city of Dwarka (mahabharata-research.com); https://mahabharata-research.com/about%20the%20epic/the%20lost%20city%20of%20dwarka.html
[8] The Hindu: Unearthing historical vestiges (archive.org); https://web.archive.org/web/20021226135039/http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mp/2002/11/20/stories/2002112000450200.htm
[9] Dvaraka – History re-incarnated (swarajyamag.com); https://swarajyamag.com/reviews/dwaraka-history-re-incarnated
[10] The Submerged city of Dwaraka (hinduismnet.com); https://www.hinduismnet.com/submerged-dwaraka.htm
[11] Dwarka: The Home of Krishna is a Gateway to Heaven and an Underwater City | Ancient Origins (ancient-origins.net); https://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-asia/dwarka-home-krishna-gateway-heaven-and-underwater-city-004227#google_vignette
[12] Sri Krsna avatara July 27 3112 BCE Rohini naksatra vrsabha rasi sravana month Sri Jayanti Janmastami | Srinivasan Kalyanaraman – Academia.edu; https://www.academia.edu/48866787/Sri_Krsna_avatara_July_27_3112_BCE_Rohini_naksatra_vrsabha_rasi_sravana_month_Sri_Jayanti_Janmastami
[13] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dalNJ4luBws
[14] (9) Krishna’s City. Re-discovery the Sunked Dwaraka | Horacio Francisco Arganisd Ph D – Academia.edu; https://www.academia.edu/39998682/Krishna_s_City_Re_discovery_the_Sunked_Dwaraka
[15] Eminent Historians Arun Shourie : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive; https://archive.org/details/eminent-historians-arun-shourie
[16] Best clock for Dating the Kurukshetra War is the sky itself –Raja Ramanna, MP, Nuclear scientist | Srinivasan Kalyanaraman – Academia.edu; https://www.academia.edu/50863026/Best_clock_for_Dating_the_Kurukshetra_War_is_the_sky_itself_Raja_Ramanna_MP_Nuclear_scientist
[17] hindunet.org/hindu_history/ancient/ramayan/rama_vartak.html; https://hindunet.org/hindu_history/ancient/ramayan/rama_vartak.html
[18] Ramayana not a work of fiction (dailypioneer.com); http://www.dailypioneer.com/todays-newspaper/ramayana-not-a-work-of-fiction.html
[19] True legends? – Times of India (indiatimes.com); https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-times/deep-focus/true-legends/articleshow/1746526.cms
[20] I Feel Vindicated: KK Muhammed On Supreme Court Verdict On Ayodhya (outlookindia.com); https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/india-news-i-feel-vindicated-kk-muhammed-on-supreme-court-verdict-on-ayodhya/342004
(The article was published on Hindudvesha.org on November 28, 2023 and has been reproduced here)
