Ayodhya

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crossposted from Bharatnirbhaya - posted by Pramod Kumar



Howlers on Ayodhya



Here is another addition to the list of absurd, boring & secular analysis of the ASI report on Ayodhya. Some amusing excerpts are reproduced here. Not a single photo from the report has been published, only "artist's

impressions" of ancient pottery! For fear of letting the cat out of the bag?



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Cover story

The unknown Ayodhya

Oct 19, 2003.

The Week

[url="http://www.the-week.com/"]http://www.the-week.com/[/url]

By R. Prasannan

After months of excavation in Ayodhya, the Archaeological Survey of India

found that a Hindu temple had existed under the debris of the razed Babri

mosque. A gladdened Vishwa Hindu Parishad is gearing up for another

agitation for constructing a Ram temple there. It has called for a special

session of Parliament by mid-October for legislation to facilitate it, and

devotees from one lakh villages are expected to converge on Ayodhya on

October 17. What exactly did the ASI unearth? Was part of its report

written on the orders of powers that be? What was life like in Ayodhya? The

Week unrolls a tapestry of life from 6th century BC to 21st century.





"If Ram was a historical figure, and if his date is older than that of

Achaeminid emperors, he could have been the ruler of an Indus valley

kingdom where Harappan cities had existed earlier."



"NO structure of a capital city has been unearthed by the ASI. No palaces,

temples, trading marts, assembly halls or stables. If they are there, they

could be lying elsewhere."



"Though Pasenadi bore the name of an ancient king of the Ikshwaku line,

says D.D. Kosambi, "he was not properly a Ksatriya... He was of low tribal

origin."



How did the legend of Ram and the Ikshwakus come to be associated with

Kosala and Ayodhya? Prof. E.J. Rapson has this explanation: "In the

Puranas, which were the common scriptures of the ruling Aryan peoples of

northern and western India, the traditional genealogies of the royal houses

have been collected and made to form a consistent whole. Not only are the

ancient tribes of the Rigveda and the kingdoms immediately descended from

them represented here, but the realms of Kosala (Ayodhya), Videha, Vaisali,

and Magadha, which were not Aryanised until a later date, have also been

brought into the scheme and furnished with a still longer and more august

pedigree."



"Styling themselves after mythical or ancient dynasties was a fashion among

kings of the post-Gupta period which witnessed a Hindu revival at the

expense of Buddhism. There was a clan calling themselves Ikshvakus in the

Andhra country. Their kings followed Vedic practices while their wives

patronised Buddhist sangha. They built the magnificent Nagarjunakonda. The

counter to this argument is: If Skandagupta wanted to wallow in Suryavanshi

glory, he would also have built a temple for Ram in the town he called

Ayodhya. "



"Glazed tiles have been found at the site. "Glazed ware was not at all used

in temples," says Habib. "



The VHP came on the scene in 1984 calling for removal of the mosque. Rajiv

Gandhi allowed shilanyas for a temple (1989); L.K. Advani began a rath

yatra (September 1990); and the V.P. Singh government fell (November).

Narasimha Rao allowed a kar seva on December 6, 1992. Kar sevaks pulled

down the mosque, installed the idol of Ram in a make-shift temple, and

smashed cameras of photographers.



An item recovered, and registered as No 982 from Trench ZE2, Layer No:

ZE1/ZE2 Baulkh, is a 157134 Fuji non-TV zoom lens made in Japan.