Come May 15, DMK chief M Karunanidhi, his family members and party workers will take to the streets demanding the demolition of Ram Sethu and construction of the Sethusamudram Shipping Channel Project. The SSCP, for which the works began in 2005, has been put on hold following the Supreme Court order staying the construction of the 167-km channel.
Karunanidhi says that there is no reference of Ram Sethu at any point of time in the history. He blames the Sangh Parivar for the campaign to preserve the Setu. The UPA Government led by the Congress is wavering in its stance on the Sethu and is yet to file any affidavit in the Supreme Court negating any evidence to prove that the Ram Sethu was built by lord Rama.
The AIADMK Government led by Jayalalithaa filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court pleading the court to issue an order cancelling the works of the SSCP and declare Ram Sethu as a national heritage. This provoked Karunanidhi and his family to come out with an agitation.
Archaeologists and scientists are of the view that Ram Setu dates back to 5000 years. Though the Government of India has not yet filed any affidavit in the apex court regarding the authenticity of the Ram Sethu, the Union Railway Ministry has officially recognised that the Sethu was built by lord Rama and his army of monkeys.
Marvels of South Indian Railway 1859-1951, a book published by Southern Railway and authored by S Subramhanyan, Divisional Railway Manager, Tiruchchirappallai, has devoted one full chapter to the visit of lord Pentland, the then Governor of Madras to Dhanushkodi on February 24, 1914. The South Indian Railway Company welcomed the Governor by presenting him with a commemorative casket featuring the Ram Sethu (Page 73).
“The panels exhibit the present method of bridging the seas between India and Ceylon. The front panel represents the viaduct between the mainland of India and the Island of Rameswaram with a train passing over it. The back panel represents the old order of things. On the left hand side is the fortress in Ceylon which lord Rama has set out to attack for the purpose of recovering his wife Sita who had been abducted by Ravan, the demon King of Ceylon.
In the middle is Rama’s Army of monkeys crossing over the causeway which they had constructed. On the right hand side of it is Rama himself leading his hosts. The panel is copied from an ancient Sanskrit manuscript which was purchased by the India Office at london. The other end panel represents the temple at Rameswaram which Rama himself founded on his return from Ceylon. The casket was made in london by “Goldsmiths’ and Silversmiths’ Company”, situated at No 112, Regent Street,” Subramhanyan writes in the book which was published after years of painstaking research.
The book, priced at Rs900 was published by the UPA Government in 2010. Interestingly, the book is published at a time when the parliamentary committee on Railways is headed by Thalikottai Rajuthevar Baalu, Karunanidhi’s representative in New Delhi.
S Kalyanaraman, former adviser to Indian Railways, is of the view that the memento presented to Governor lord Pentland during his visit is significant. “The Englishmen are cautious and guarded while choosing the mementoes. They know its historical significance,” he told The Pioneer.
Karunanidhi’s argument against Ram Sethu is further demolished by The Setu and Rameshwaram, a book authored by Sanskrit scholar N Vanamamalai Pillai in 1929. The book has a foreword by Dewan Bahadur Sir CV Kumaraswamy Sastrigalm, the Judge of the Madras High Court. Pillai traces the history of Ram Sethu, the temple town of Rameshwaram and the Setupatis of Ramnad, the rulers of Rameshwaram.
He explains how the Kings of Ramnad got the name of Setupati. The reigning king of Ramnad was assigned the responsibility of guarding the Ram Sethu by lord Rama himself, writes Pillai. “No pilgrimage to the Sethu can be complete without getting a look at the famous Setupati”, said the Maharajah of Travancore during his address to the people of Ramnad. Pillai has quoted from Nelson’s 1868 Madura Manual to drive home the authenticity of Ram Sethu and the role of Sethupaties as the official guardian of the bridge.
Shikaripura Ranganatha Rao, the doyen among the Indian marine archaeology has said: “This natural rock connecting the Mannar island with Rameshwaram island is now submerged in the sea owing to the rise in sea level during the last 4000 years or more but then it was perhaps in the Intertidal zone and likely to have been further raised by piling up of rubble to enable Rama’s followers to reach lanka.” The husband-wife team of DK Hari and Hema Hari has brought out the book Historical Rama with all available scientific evidence in the world to prove that Ram Sethu is a reality and not a mythology.
The icing on the cake happens to be the Survey of India, the National Survey and Mapping Organisation of India which was set up in 1767. It is the oldest scientific department. The logo of the Survey of India has the words Aa Sethu Himachalam inscribed on it. Aa Sethu Himachalam means “from the Sethu to the Himalayas”.