Veracity of Ramayana

 This is an article recently published in Pioneer though interesting but do we actually need to prove veracity of "Ramayana" . Isn't  the teachings in the book sufficient enough to excel it beyond doubt ? deserves veneration from sane mind ?

Ramsevak Kol, a tribe from the Sidhi district of Madhya Pradesh, stands head and shoulders above other Indians.  Genetic studies prove that he is one of the descendants of King Guha of Ramayana.  An international team of researchers consisting of geneticists, anthropologists, archaeologists and historians have found that Ramayana, written 10,000 years ago, is a chronicle of events and characters recorded by Sage Valmiki and not a work of fiction.

The mystery behind the characters in Ramayana has been solved by a team led by Dr Gyaneshwer Chaubey, ace genetic scientist of the Estonian Biocentre in Estonia. A three-year long research by Dr Chaubey and his team drawn out from Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, Delhi University, Indian Institute of Technology-Kharagpur and Institute of Scientific Research on Vedas has found that the Bhils, Gonds and the Kols, categorised as Scheduled Castes and Tribes by the modern day administrators of India are the true descendants of characters featured in Ramayana. The peer reviewed scientific paper authored by the team has been published by PLOS ONE, a respected scientific portal.

The Kol tribe, found mainly in areas like Mirzapur, Varanasi, Banda and Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh, are the descendants of the Kol mentioned in Ramayana, according to Dr Chaubey and his team. Remember Guha, the chieftain of Sringiverapuram who helped Lord Rama, Sita and Laksmana cross the Ganga during their journey to the forests? “Guha, the Nishad King, is the ancestor of the present day Kol tribe we found in these regions. This ancestry was established by genetic studies. These groups of people carry the basic indigenous genetic traits of India. Ramsevak and thousands like him spread across the States of UP, MP, Odisha, Chhattisgargh are the true descendants of Lord Rama and his contemporaries,” Dr Chaubey told The Pioneer from Tartu in Estonia via video conferencing.

Dr Chaubey and Prof VR Rao, an anthropologist in Delhi University, said that the studies proved that these groups of people have maintained their genetic continuity for more than 10,000 years. “This again sets at rest the Aryan invasion theory. There is no inflow into the genetic traits of these tribes from outside elements,” said Saroj Bala, a specialist in Vedic and Ramayana studies, who shot into fame by calculating the date of birth of Lord Rama based on planetary positions.

Prof Rao said the studies confirmed that the characters mentioned by Valmiki in Ramayana are real life characters. “King Dasaratha, Rama and others were not fictional characters,” he said.  Dr S Kalyanaraman, an Indologist of repute, said the Kols are the iron smelters about whom there are mentions in Indus Script excavated from the banks of Indus as well as River Saraswathi.

“This paper by Gyaneswer Chaube and team is an attempt to explain the roots of Hindu civilisation which has been distorted by creating false ethnic identities by the categorisation of people,” said Dr Kalyanaraman. He said a comprehensive study incorporating all tribes should be undertaken which would prove that the breaking up of essential unity of Bharatiya identity based on caste and ethnicity are academic fiction with no basis and a distortion of the history of ancient India

Zafarnama

I am always an admirer and believer of Sikhism. "Zafarnama" as i am going to elaborate upon is not just a victory letter but it speaks about the virtues of defending dharma & righteousness against all odds. It speaks about the selflessness and unflinching path of sacrifice against formidable tyrant. Zafarnama is a victory letter sent by 10th guru Shri  Guru Gobind Singh in 1705 to the Mughal Emperor of India, Aurangzeb. Even after the loss of men and material in battle at Chamkaur and sacrificing his beloved sons, the letter portrays the moral victory,valor ,confidence and truthfulness of Guru ji against a deceitful and treacherous Aurangzeb who lied an oath sworn on Qur'an. It was written in persian ,and is believed after reading it Aurangzeb who was around 91 felt miserable about his life deeds. He was remorseful and lost his peace of mind. The Zafarnama had a demoralizing effect on emperor Aurangzeb who saw his end looming over the horizon and his future regrettably bleak. Afterwards Aurangzeb passed away from feelings of remorse and regretful at what he had done in his sinful life time.

Economy in distress

    Recent comments by RBI governor over threat of world economy slipping into a phase reminiscent of great depression of 1930's a scary preposition even though he was upbeat about Indian economy. No matter how much we were preached about the resilience of Indian economy, its nothing more then a lip service meant for newspapers headlines. It's bound to falter even though we are less dependent on exports but not completely immune. Till few months ago, our economy was reeling under the double whammy of high inflation and high crude prices though situation is contained now with moderation in commodity prices but food inflation hasn't abated yet. With rural economy under tremendous stress due to earlier non seasonal rains and now the threat of below average monsoon predictions. But central bank has taken some pro active steps to spur growth through reduction in rates unfortunately these rate cuts haven't been of any help to masses due to reluctance of banks to pass on benefits, thus, so far these steps turned out to be nothing more then  merely cosmetic steps devoid of any materialistic impact on economy. What's astounding is the concerted steps executed by the previous govt to tame inflation were illogical and beyond comprehension. Certainly raising interest rates and choking infrastructure projects on ambiguous reasons besides corruption were partially responsible but truth is world economy never rebounded to pre lehman era, even depreciation of currency over a period of time hasn't cushioned steep decline in exports. Only comforting factor is the softening crude prices and bullion import decline that aided monetary deficit . Curious case is the burgeoning non recovery of public money from corporate houses, what's bizarre is as per the combined NPA list of PSU banks released in 2013 by the All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA), the combined default by the 50 companies totaled to Rs 40,528 crore of bank loans of total 1,64,641 crores. As much as 25 per cent of the total non-performing assets (NPAs) in public sector banks (excluding SBI) is accounted for by 50 corporate innuendo's corruption at higher levels or plain inexperienced management . By emphasizing on the poor state of banks, i am trying to draw attention to recapitalization of psu banks either through govt infusion of capital or raising money through markets is inevitable , but raising money by these banks is doubtful as there books are messy.We need robust banks to support economy and so emphasis should be to take drastic measures to improve there lethargic inefficiency.

   Sucess of Modi govt's initiative of "Make In India " will depend on many factors, available capital from banks will be one such factor, although corruption has been sternly dealt with (auction of mines and spectrum in full transparency)  under incumbent govt and faster clearance of stalled projects is welcome step,yet failure of govt to implement GST , land ,labor reforms are major impediments to negotiate. Emphasis should also be given on increasing farm productivity through innovation to consolidate and augment rural income which lately is in shambles. There are many challenges but silver lining is resolve of govt to tide the crisis ushers hope.

Yoga for masses

It's becoming increasingly acceptable to lampoon Hinduism by non- Hindus in the name of secularism. There's a big, boisterous, noisy lobby who come in strength to defend such ignominious acts on one pretext or another. Not surprisingly our media who claims to be fiercely secular(pseudo) plays second fiddle in denouncing anyone who complains about such venomous sermons. This hate filled intellectuals mock anything remotely hindu, so much so, that nowadays they go overboard in condemning it and still play victim. There had been numerous instances when people in social media have raised there voice against this lopsided portrayal of hinduism but they are instantly labeled as "communal". These so called liberals who pride themselves as torchbearers of secularism often ignore deliberately objection of singing "Vande Matram" in Kerala schools by one section or violating the modesty of a policewoman in the name of venting anger on Burmese riots. These liberals hate anything resembling Hindu rituals becomes more starkly clear when festivals like holi ,diwali are objected in the name of saving environment . Strangely these concerns are confined to only hindus as none of environmental concerns are propagated during festivals of other religious practices. In my opinion these liberals wants us to be not only receptive of such venomous ideas but practice and preach such blasphemy. Truth is such liberals are traitors and anti national who try to sow the seeds of discontentment among masses. 

The latest case in point is condemning International Yoga Day by these liberals. They started of with hairsplitting the merits of organizing such an event then zeroing on resentment among a section to perceived forcefull "Surya Namaskar " by organizers, clarification and canceling it didn't satisfy perverts who continued there vociferous campaign. It's astounding that 47 muslim countries supported and participated in International yoga day.