Rama Setu -1

05-08-2007, 05:45 PM

Rama Sethu: Historic facts vs political fiction - I 
V SUNDARAM

Simon Cameron said, 'An honest politician is one who, when he is bought, will stay bought'. Karunanidhi is a rabidly racist and dishonest politician who even after he has been bought lock, stock, barrel, will politically bolt in the opposite direction and assert his rational Dravidian right with fervour based upon his grandiloquent and self-deluding notions of 'self-respect' founded upon anti-Aryan Dravidian racism, not to stay bought. No wonder he stabbed Atal Behari Vajpayee with delectable Dravidian delight just 2 or 3 months before Parliamentary Elections in 2004 and switched over to Sonia Gandhi - a non-Aryan Kannagi from Italy! As a politician Karunanidhi has always approached every controversial public question during the last 40 years with an open mouth, twisted tongue and a closed mind. As the senior most Dravidian politician, on the fundamental issue of the historical or literary or epigraphic evidence relating to the existence or otherwise of the Rama Sethu Bridge, he always strives to rise above established truth and principle. On this issue whenever he shakes your hand, he does so in the hope of shaking you down. On the controversial issue of his deliberate attempt in close political (commercial not excluded!!) collaboration and collusion with T R Baalu to somehow destroy by hook or by crook the Rama Sethu Bridge, a timeless symbol of Hindu faith and culture which has withstood the onslaught of centuries, Karunanidhi loves to talk in circles while standing foursquare. In his style of politics, no abominable absurdity is ever an impediment to his cosmic self-delusion. With him, a blatant untruth is not always a Himalayan lie. Romancing rationally, as he often revels in it, it only means the telling of 'secular' untruths that are not 'communal' falsehoods. Thomas Jefferson (1743 -1826), one of the founding fathers of the American state had very honorable and scrupulously truthful men like Karunanidhi in view when he declared: 'it is untruth alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself'.

I am not therefore surprised that in the Tamilnadu Legislative Assembly Karunanidhi recently came down heavily on 'religious fundamentalists' opposing the Sethusamudram Project under the pretext of saving Rama's bridge, appealing to them not to obstruct a scheme that would lead to prosperity. Karunanidhi also spoke like the Imam of Jamma Masjid when he said that the opponents of the scheme were 'religious fundamentalists' who wanted to create a situation similar to the one that obtained after the demolition of the Babri mosque. Further he has even put a great comedian like Kalaivanar N S Krishnan to shame by declaring in the Tamilnadu Legislative Assembly: 'Majority of those fundamentalists belong to north India and they do not want South India to prosper. By making this charge I am not raising the demand for a Dravidian country once again'.

In my view, Union Shipping Minister T R Baalu, Union Minister for Culture Ambika Soni, Tamilnadu Chief Minister Karunanidhi are all guilty of uttering unabashed falsehood when they say in unison: 'There is no credible or valid or tenable or acceptable archaeological or scientific evidence about the existence of Rama Sethu Bridge'. Their falsehood either individually or collectively or severally not only disagrees with historically established truths but also raucously (if not rationally!!) quarrel among themselves! Das Munshi, Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, has squarely beaten the virulently anti-Hindu trio of T R Baalu, Ambika Soni and Karunanidhi by declaring that Sethusamundaram (Rama Sethu Bridge) would not be allowed to be destroyed during the UPA rule like the Babri Masjid that was demolished when BJP was in power in Uttar Pradesh in December 1992! More and more original fireworks can be expected from other Union Ministers like Arjun Singh, Antuley, Mani Shankar Iyer on this very exciting and excitable 'secular' theme of planned destruction of Rama Sethu Bridge as an integral part of the Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project (SSCP).

When other politicians somersault on any public issue, Karunanidhi will always attack them as betrayers. When Karunanidhi himself indulges in the same game, he would expect the world around him to view it as a new article of his revised rational faith! I have browsed through the pages of Ramanathapuram District Gazetteer in Tamil published by Tamilnadu Government in 1972. In his forward dated 14 June 1972, Karunanidhi wrote as follows: 'To those policy-makers, scholars and public interested in ascertaining authentic and reliable information related to social, political, economic, and traditional lives, this district-wise gazetteer has been compiled as an encyclopaedic reference'. By publishing this Ramanathapuram District Gazetteer, a means will be provided for researches on this district's social history.

In this Gazetteer, the following details have been furnished about SETHU BRIDGE (Sethu Palam) or Adam's Bridge. Adam's Bridge is a name which evokes Islamic traditions. Adam banished from heaven, travelled walking on this bridge to reach Sri Lanka. This is also referred to as Nala Sethu and as Tiruvanai (Sacred dam) in Tamil. This is also referred to as RAMA SETHU. There is also another name called ADI SETHU. This bridge is 110 miles east-south-east of Madurai, 43 miles along the same direction from Ramanathapuram. The bridge is 15.5 miles east of Rameshwaram. This is called Ramar Palam because this bridge was built under the leadership of Hanuman and with the participation of Vaanara Sena (Kuranguppadai) and facilitated the crossing by Rama to reach Sri Lanka and to attain victory. Upto 1480 AD, this bridge had served as a land bridge to Sri Lanka. Thereafter, a severe cyclone created fissures changing the dimensions to 30 miles long and 1.25 miles wide....During the south-west monsoon season, severe ocean currents and surges impact on the Adam's Bridge.

In the same Gazetteer, it has also been stated 'Sethu is the bridge that has linked India with Sri Lanka for centuries from times immemorial. According to Karna Parambarai (Karna Tradition), in order to render continued help and assistance to the countless pilgrims visiting Rameshwaram and Sri Lanka, Lord Rama appointed Raja Rama Sethupathy of Ramanathapuram as Trustee and Guardian to guard the Rama Sethu Bridge'.

Karunanidhi is misleading Tamilnadu State and the nation by saying that great intellectuals like Sir A Ramaswamy Mudaliar had recommended the implementation of the Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project (SSCP) and that his proposals were not implemented. It is very clear that he has not cared to read the official Report of Sir A Ramaswamy Mudaliar. His main recommendation was that a canal should be aligned through Mandapam to create a land-based canal like the Panama or Suez Canal. Sir AR Mudaliar specifically warned that any idea of cutting a channel passage through the Adam's Bridge (that is, Rama Sethu or Sethubandha) SHOULD BE ABANDONED (see paragraph 16 of the official Report).

Karunanidhi is now denying the above facts both in the Tamilnadu Legislative Assembly and outside. Perhaps, Rajaji had 'great' and 'consistent' men like Karunanidhi in view when he spoke in the Tamilnadu Legislative Assembly in the early 1950s: 'Brutal and solid public facts do not cease to exist by our cussed refusal or voluntary ignorance to see or understand or recognise them'.

Lord Pentland was Governor of Madras from 1912 to 1919. He visited Rameshwaram in 1914 when Sir Alexander Tottenham (1873-1946) was the District Collector of Ramanathapuram. Lord Pentland was so overwhelmed by what he saw in Rameshwaram that he wrote as follows to Lord Hardinge, the then Viceroy of India: 'For me Rameshwaram, very much like India as a whole is the real world. We English men live in a mad house of abstractions. Vital life in Rameshwaram has not yet withdrawn into the capsule of the head. It is the whole body that lives. No wonder the English man feels dreamlike: the complete life of Rameshwaram is something of which he merely dreams.... I did not see an English man in India who really lived there. They are all living in England, that is, in a sort of bottle filled with English air.... History can be events or memory of events.... along the Bay of Bengal the Madras Presidency runs, with the well-governed city of Madras at its centre and the sublime and glorious temples of Tanjore, Tiruchi, Madurai and Rameshwaram adorning its Southern boundaries. And then Adam's Bridge- a reef of sunken islands' beckons us across the Palk Straits to Ceylon, where civilisation flourished more than 2000 years ago....Linga stones may be seen in many places on the highways in my Presidency. Hindus break upon them the coconuts which they are about to offer in sacrifice. Usually the phallic ritual is simple and becoming; it consists in anointing the stone with consecrated water or oil, and decorating it with leaves. At the Rameshwaram temple, the Linga stone is daily washed with Ganga water, which is afterwards sold to the pious, as holy water or mesmerized water has been sold in Europe. All these are a little part of my beloved Presidency - indeed my favourite India. Right from the dawn of history, India is extraordinarily continuous in time. In space, on the other hand, it is extraordinarily discontinuous....from early times in India, it is ethnology, philology, and archaeology that give and will give us some notions of the truth. From archaeology much can be expected. I would earnestly request you to direct the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to undertake an extensive and intensive survey of Rameshwaram and its beautiful environs, particularly with reference to the historic and primordial Adam's Bridge'. This very request of Lord Pentland has been made again by Dr Subramanian Swamy in his letter to Mrs Ambika Soni last month.

There is irrefutable and unassailable historic, literary, epigraphic and cartographic evidence about the existence of the Rama Sethu Bridge which can stand the strictest judicial scrutiny in any Court of Law. I will be presenting these facts in these columns in a serialized manner.This ought to put all the cowardly and unscrupulous politicians of Tamilnadu on the run!

(To be contd...)

(The writer is a retired IAS officer)

e-mail the writer at vsundaram@newstodaynet.com

http://newstodaynet.com/2007sud/may07/070507.htm

Bodhi · (This post was last modified: 05-08-2007, 05:48 PM by Bodhi.)

continues...
Rama Sethu: Historic facts vs political fiction - II 
V SUNDARAM

I would assert my proud and unshakable constitutional right to be a Political Hindu, a Social Hindu, a Cultural Hindu, an Economic Hindu, a Religious Hindu and above all a Spiritual Hindu and declare from the house top that for more than 800 millions of Hindus in India and millions of Hindus outside India throughout the world the RAMA SETHU BRIDGE is as holy and as sacred as the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem to the Jews, the Vatican in Rome to the Roman Catholics, the Bodh Gaya in Bihar to the Buddhists and Mecca in Saudi Arabia to the Muslims.

In this timeless and transcendental cultural and religious continuum of ages past, I cannot help quoting the beautiful words of the great French philosopher and historian Etienne Gilson (1884-1978): 'History is the only permanent laboratory we have in which to test the consequences of our thought in the past, present and the future.' George Santayana (1863-1952) went to the extent of declaring 'A country without a memory is a country of madmen'.

Winston Churchill (1874-1965) not only made history but also wrote great history. He said 'History like a flickering lamp stumbles along the trail of the past, trying to reconstruct its scenes, to revive its echoes and to kindle with pale gleams the passions of former days'. These thoughts on history come in a flood to my mind when I try to survey the glorious history of the Rama Sethu Bridge. For an avid student of Indian history in general and India's cultural history in particular, the ancient and time-defying Rama Sethu of history and geography, of culture and tradition, of song and music , of legend and literature and above all the Rama Sethu of our minds and hearts can never change.

The great history of Rama Sethu through the ages presents the pleasantest features of poetry, drama and fiction?the majesty of the epic, the moving accidents of the drama, and the surprises and moral of the romance. What moves me and many others recount Rama Sethu through the Ages? I can only say with humility and reverence: 'I do so because it bridges the past with the future; it embodies the social memory of our civilization and is an inspiration to the present and future generations. After all, it is our Dharma, our responsibility to protect and safeguard the riches of this mother earth which we hold on temporary lease from our future generations.'

One of the greatest historians of all time Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) wrote his famous book 'The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'. Dr S.Kalyanaraman, the Edward Gibbon of India, is a great Cultural Historian and Linguistic Anthropologist who has authored several volumes on the history of Sindhu Saraswathi Civilization. I have been greatly moved and inspired by these words of Dr S Kalyanaraman: 'Rama Sethu is an ancient monument of national and international importance, a monument of pristine glory and sacredness at the confluence of the Punyabhumi with the life-giving waters of the Indian Ocean currents. It is a breath-taking geophysical reality, a metaphor of a civilization enshrining good triumphing over evil. Indeed, this millennial heritage of Bharatam is the very idiom of Sri Rama as vigrahavaan dharmah, Sri Rama as the personification of dharma venerated in many countries of the world and in particular, along the Indian Ocean Rim which constitute an Indian Ocean community (HINDUMAHAASAAGAR PARIVAAR). This Sethu is the bridge and a tirthasthana which bridges people and signifies the quintessence of the inclusive nature of Indian civilization. Archaeological, scientific, textual and cartographic evidences reinforce the imperative to declare and protect Rama Sethu as a World Heritage Site. Rama Sethu should become the inspiration to create an Indian Ocean Community, as a vibrant, developed comity of nations, inspired by the ideals of Sri Rama. The ideals venerated for generations is a legacy of an ideal human being who attained divinity; a prince, a son, a husband, a dharmaatmaa who was divine. Rama Sethu is an evocation of that sacred, indelible social memory of a civilization. The national poet, Kalidasa puts it eloquently in Raghuvamsa (sarga 13) ? Rama, while returning from Sri Lanka in pushpaka vimaana, says: 'Behold, Sita !, See my Sethu of mountains dividing this frothy ocean is like the milky way dividing the sky into two parts'. This sacred monument of world heritage shall be preserved, as politics encounters history.'

Dr S Kalyanaraman has compiled a detailed monograph titled 'Rama Sethu through the Ages'. I am presenting some vital and irrefutable facts gleaned from his study to show as to why Should Rama Sethu or Sethu Bandha be deemed to be an ancient monument of national and international significance?

The most important source book for demonstrating, establishing and proving the importance and relevance of Rama Sethu is 'A HISTORICAL ATLAS OF SOUTH ASIA' edited by Joseph E Schwartzberg, published by the University of Chicago in 1978. In Schwartzberg's Atlas, on page-99, in a graphic map Holy Places of South Asia have been clearly indicated which includes all the holy places of Hinduism in India and South Asia. The legends shown on this map clearly demonstrate the importance of Rameshwaram and the link to Tirukketisvaram (in Sri Lanka) as a holy tirtha. Rameshwaram is recognized as one of the twelve jyotirlingas of Shiva. Sri Lanka gets associated with Naga. Historical sources attest to the fact that Rama Sethu was a land bridge linking Bharatam and Lanka for many millennia.

The Epics refer to the link between Kapaata and Lanka. From the time of the pre-Mauryan and Mauryan Empire (from 6th century BCEE), the holy site called Koti gained prominence. This is the short-form of Dhanushkoti, evoking the Ramayana narration of Sri Rama confronting Samudra Raja (King of Ocean) by fixing the end of his bow at this island which linked with Lanka at Tambapanni or Tamraparni (at a place called Mahatittha, meaning Maha Tirtha, or Great Tirthasthaana) through Sethu Bandha. Thus, the link between Dhanushkodi and Mahatittha has constituted the tirthasthaana for over two millennia, famed in history and tradition, song and legend.

During the Satavahana-Saka-Kusana age, c. A.D. 1-300, Rameshwaram close to Dhanushkodi gained prominence as a holy place. Puranic India (Bharata) recognized Sethuka as the bridge connecting Bharatam (Pandyan kingdom) and Lanka (then called Simhala). Koti (Dhanushkodi) and Mahatittha continued to be holy, religious places during post-Mauryan period, from circa 200 BCEE.

The region across the Rama Sethu constituted the limits of regions under the control of Rastrakuta during the age of the Gurjara-Pratiharas, Palas, and Rastrakutas, circa 700-975.
Gulf of Mannar Naval expedition to southeast Aia leading to conquest of Srivijaya and its dependencies proceeded from Gangaikondacholapuram and contacts were also established with Maldive islands circa 1000 going through the Gulf of Mannar. Thus we have an exquisite Ajanta fresco depicting the arrival of King Vijaya in this region.
During the period of Islamic expansion and changing Western views of South Asia, between 7th-12th centuries, the Rama Sethu (bridge) between Rameshwaram and Marqaya was also called Sethu Bandha, evoking the Prakrit kavya written in the 6th century by King Pravarasena with the title Sethu Bandha or Ravana Vaho. It was during this period, ca. 12th century that Sethu gets bracketed and referred to as Adam's Bridge linked to Islamic mythology (noted in the District Gazetteer of Ramanathapuram published by Tamilnadu Government in 1972 ).

During the days of Khaljis and Tughluqs, c. 1290-1390 the island on Lanka side was referred to as Mannara (later called Talaimannar).

At the height of the Bhakti Movement from the 13th to the 15th century which coincided with the expansion of Islamic rule in India, the Sethu Bridge area and its environs got referred to as SETHUBANDHA RAMESHWARAM, as a holy tirtha. Two maps of Netherlands drawn in 16th and 17th centuries and a French map of 18th century, clearly refer to Adamsbrug (or Pont) as a functioning bridge between Rameshwaram and Talaimannar.

Coming to the 20th century, it is interesting to note that the great and pioneering film maker Phalke in an early talkie-movie immortalised the historic and religious significance of Sethu Bandha. He gave the same title to this movie ought to culturally shock all the third grade and rabidly communal politicians of Tamilnadu, with their own convoluted connections with the film world.

Even as NASA and Indian Space Research Organization images dramatically establish the land bridge between Bharatam and Sri Lanka today, these historical references to Rama Sethu come alive, aflame with fire and aglow with light, as an indestructible part of the imperishable tradition of the Bharatiya civilization. Finally what should not be lost sight of is that the Gulf of Mannar region got recognized by the United Nations Educational Social and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) as the first Marine Biosphere of South and Southeast Asia, in 1956. The Gulf of Mannar Biosphere Reserve covers an area of 1,050,000 hectares on the south-east coast of India across from Sri Lanka. It is one of the world's richest regions from a marine biodiversity perspective. Gulf of Mannar is the first marine area in India to be declared as World Biosphere Reserve under UNESCO's Man and Biosphere Programme. As a part of the conservation initiatives of the Government of Tamilnadu, a Gulf of Mannar Biosphere Reserve Trust (GOMBRT) has been formed with the support of Global Environmental Facility (GEF).

(To be contd...)
(The writer is a retired IAS officer)
http://newstodaynet.com/2007sud/may07/080507.htm

05-08-2007, 06:08 PM

For those who do not already know, writer of the above article is not just a side by commentator. V Sundaram was the first Chairman of the Tuticorin Port Trust, which is now the authority that is leading the SSSCP.

ramana · (This post was last modified: 05-08-2007, 11:01 PM by ramana.)

From Telegraph, 7 May 2007

Ramâs bridge in man-made row Scientist find triggers claim that islet chain was built by monkeys

QUOTERamâs bridge in man-made row
- Scientist find triggers claim that islet chain was built by monkeysÂ
M.R. VENKATESH
Â
Chennai, May 7: Government scientists have suggested that an islet chain in the Palk Strait is man-made, triggering claims that it is the remnant of the bridge Ramâs mythological monkey army built to Lanka.

The issue has raised political passions because a Rs 2,427-crore navigation project that will save the country Rs 1,000 crore a year requires the demolition of the ridge.

Adamâs Bridge, a series of sand-dune islets and shallows south-east of Dhanushkodi near Rameshwaram, links India with Talaimannar off the Sri Lankan coast. It has long been held locally to be the bridge Ram built to invade Lanka and rescue Sita, and is called âRamar Setuâ.

<img src='http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070508/images/08map1.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />

The Centreâs department of earth sciences has given an âopinionâ to the government that the islets are probably a result of human activity.

The department, under the ministry of science and technology, says the sand dunes have a base of coral and sandstone that seem to have been âtransportedâ from elsewhere.

Its unpublished report, of which The Telegraph has a copy, says the naturally formed corals in Lakshadweep, the Andamans or the nearby Gulf of Mannar grow vertically from a hard-rock base. But the Adamâs Bridge coral doesnât grow vertically and appears to ârestâ loosely on the seabed.

âThe coral formations hardly occur 1 m to 2.5 m in length and rest on loose marine sands. Mostâ¦ seem to be rounded pebbles of corals. These things appear to point that theseâ¦ have been transported and placed in these areas,â the departmentâs note says.

âSince the calcareous sand stones and corals are less dense (and therefore lighter) than the normal hard rock and quite compact, probably these were used by (the) ancients to form a connecting link to Sri Lanka on the higher elevations of the Adamâs Bridge ridge and this is analogous to (a) modern-day causeway.â

The leaked report led to a ruckus in the Tamil Nadu Assembly on Friday. The Opposition, including the BJP, demanded that the ridge be spared and chief minister M. Karunanidhi hit back with accusations of a ânorth Indianâ and âfundamentalistâ plot to derail the project.

The Sethusamudram Ship Canal Project involves dredging the islets to deepen the Palk Strait and thus open a direct channel between Indiaâs west and east coasts. Currently, ships have to make a detour around Sri Lanka.

The 167-km channel, dubbed the âSuez of the Eastâ, will shorten shipping routes by up to 424 nautical miles (780 km) and sailing time by 30 hours, saving fuel. Indiaâs import-export trade will save the Rs 1,000 crore a year it now spends in foreign exchange because of transhipment of cargo outside the country, through Colombo.

The Opposition ADMK, BJP and the Janata Party cited the âscientific opinionâ to buttress their case that the project, for which dredging is under way, should find an alternative route.

âSuddenly, some communal elements have banded together to give this controversy a religious hue, attempting to create a bloodbath here, just as they did by demolishing the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya to build a temple to Ram,â Karunanidhi told the House. âMost of these people opposing the project are north Indian religious fundamentalists.â

ADMK chief Jayalalithaa has threatened to move court to stay the project if Adamâs Bridge is touched. The ridge, which she wants spared in deference to âpeopleâs religious sentimentsâ, acted as a barrier during the 2004 tsunami, protecting large parts of southern Tamil Nadu and Kerala.



Maybe JJ will redeem herself now atleast due to political compulsions! If this issue is handled correctly it will end the DMK hold on the TN people's psyche.

Bodhi · (This post was last modified: 05-10-2007, 10:49 AM by Bodhi.)

QUOTEBJP to stall Parliament on Setu - PTI

Accusing the government of taking "undue advantage" of the opposition's cooperation in passing the Budget, the BJP today said it will not let the Parliament session to progress without an open discussion on the Ram Setu issue.

BJP Parliamentary Party spokesman V K Malhotra told reporters here the ruling party was not letting the discussion take place in the House for past three days despite a calling attention motion being passed on it.

Malhotra alleged the UPA government wanted to "blow up" Ram Setu before any discussion took place on the issue. "If any harm is done to Ram Setu, there will be a countrywide agitation," he warned and said not only religious-minded people were against the government's plan to breach Ram Setu but experts from different fields were also against the plan (for a shipping canal).

He said there was a conspiracy behind deferring the discussion on the issue and accused the government of an anti-Hindu policy to destroy the ancient bridge.


QUOTEChandraswamy joins Save Ram Setu Mission - Patna Daily 

Controversial 'godman' of yesteryears, Chandraswamy, during a press conference at the residence of Janata Dal (U) leader Nagmani on Wednesday in Patna, accused the central government of trying to demolish the Ram Setu, the ancient bridge between Rameshwaram and Sri Lanka, to develop a shipping canal project, saying he would intensify his protest to discourage the government from doing so.

"The bridge should be declared a national heritage site and until that goal is achieved, we will continue our fight against the government's attempt to destroy it," adding he was not averse to seeking support from the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) and prominent Muslim and Buddhist organizations in this regard. Chandraswamy arrived in Patna to promote his crusade after visiting Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh. From Patna, he is to organize protests in Jharkhand, Nagmani said.


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{Translation: Baalu answering in writing to a question of MP Mr. Avinash Rai Khanna in Lok Sabha, once again reiterated that government does not believe there is any man-made structure on the channel configuration, therefore question of protecting it as heritage does not arise}


Rama Sethu: Historic facts vs political fiction ? Part III by V SUNDARAM
http://newstodaynet.com/2007sud/may07/090507.htm
(several images - content hard to copy)

05-13-2007, 06:25 AM

Rama Setum Rakshatu!!! - A downloadable Booklet published by Suruchi Prakashan.

05-13-2007, 10:13 AM

05-13-2007, 06:50 PM

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The above is a nice piece. For those who are not proficient in old style hindi, an english traslation is:

QUOTELike Guru-Nanak's standard-bearer (Guru Govind singh) for the protection of our nation and dharma
Freely perform the ruler's duties (rAja-dharma)

Ignorantly casting stones of insults
Don't raise a tide in the heart of hindu ocean

(Those symbols) that awaken valour and sing the stories of greatness
Don't erase those symbols of Indian civilisation

Rama-setu which is a point of honour for the hindus
Destroying that, don't go the way of Ravana.

Bodhi · (This post was last modified: 05-13-2007, 11:33 PM by Bodhi.)

Thank you Ashokji for the beautiful translation.

A little context would probably make more sense. Above is a heart-felt appeal of the poet (Dr. Kailash Nath Prajapati) to PM Dr. Man Mohan Singh, that "O, 'NAnak ke mAnak' - the follower of Nanak, discharge your rAj dharma, which is protection of nation and swadharma, like Guru Govind Singh his standard-bearer did.

But with due apologies to the poet, I am not sure if such sentiments reach the ears of Dr Singh, or if they do, then if they touch the secular heart of the man who has declared FirstPriorityToMuslims, who quotes Marx but not Mangal Pandey on 1857-memoral day, and who takes open exception to Muhammad cartoons but praises MF Husain.

05-14-2007, 03:28 AM

Thanks! The double meaning of "Nanak ke Manak" as MM Singh, and Guru Govind Singh, makes much more contemporary sense.

05-14-2007, 06:37 AM

QUOTEProject disaster - 1
Nothing justifies the proposed Sethusamudram shipping canal, says
Preeti Sharma.

8 May 2007: It would seem the most natural thing to have a channel
that cuts the sailing time from the east to the west coast and the
west coast to the east by a day and saves a distance of about five
hundred nautical miles. And yet, the proposed Sethusamudram Shipping
Channel Project (SSCP) could turn out India's worst environmental
nightmare, potentially deplete thorium reserves, risk a LTTE-Indian
Navy confrontation drawing India unwillingly into Sri Lanka's civil
war, and become a financial liability.

The Centre and the Tamil Nadu government insist that SSCP will bring
international shipping traffic to the Tuticorin Port. The Port is
situated in the Gulf of Mannar/ Palk Bay/ Palk Strait (GoMPBPS) area
where the maritime boundaries of India and Sri Lanka meet. Presently,
oceanliners skip Tuticorin and instead anchor at Colombo because
GoMPBPS has an average draught of 7.5 metres. Almost in the middle of
this area lies a sandstone reef called Ramar Bridge (Adam's Bridge)
where the draught shallows to less than three metres.

SSCP conceives dredging a one hundred and sixty seven kilometre long,
twelve metre deep and three hundred metre wide channel in this region
cutting through the Ramar Bridge, which has separately angered the
Sangha Parivar. The Tamil Nadu government hopes that this channel will
become an alternative, shorter sea lane to going around Sri Lanka for
ships bound either for Chennai or to South East Asia and beyond.

The state government believes that with Tuticorin, about fifteen
smaller ports will also benefit from international shipping in the
GoMPBPS area. Off and on, security dimensions have been given to SSCP,
but never very convincingly. One argument is that in an Indian Ocean
war, a major rival power could prevent the Indian Western and Eastern
fleet from joining up for common action, and that the SSCP could
prevent this. To this writer, an Indian Navy spokesman did not deny
such a scenario. But he added, "Look, the Navy has nothing to do with
the project. We were not consulted at any stage. It is entirely a
Shipping Ministry project."

On one hand, this would not matter. It is no secret that the Minister
of Shipping, Road, Transport and Highways, T.R.Baalu, of the Dravida
Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), is pushing the project at the behest of the
Tamil Nadu chief minister, M.Karunanidhi. Perhaps with the exception
of the Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (ADMK) chief, J.Jayalalithaa, no
Tamil Nadu political leader or party is opposed to SSCP. All of them
believe that it will miraculously turn Tuticorin into a trade hub in
the region much like Singapore. Except that our researches show this
won't happen. But rather, that the project would make the peninsular
region more vulnerable to tsunami and provoke unprecedented
environmental degradation.

Not only is SSCP economically unviable, the well known international
tsunami expert, Professor Tadepalli "Tad" S.Murthy, has warned that it
would draw in any tsunami originating in the Sumatra/ Andaman Sea area
to hit the west coast and most devastatingly South Kerala. More
immediately, the project will kill South East Asia and South Asia's
first marine biosphere in the almost still, calm waters of the Gulf of
Mannar. This biosphere is home to more than three thousand six hundred
rare plant and animal species.

Four other factors should weigh in against the project. One is the
confirmed heritage value of the Ramar Bridge, dated by a NASA digital
image to be 17.5 lakh years old, which matches the ancient age of
human settlement in Sri Lanka. Indeed, Sri Lanka sought a bridge on
the stone reef to India. But the proposal came to nothing.

Second, GoMPBPS is a major sedimentation sink for the east coast.
While the causes for the sedimentation are Indian/ Sri Lankan rivers
and long shore currents, what makes the area a sink is perhaps the
Ramar Bridge. It acts as a natural breakwater and forces ocean
currents the longer way around Sri Lanka. By that token, Ramar Bridge
has also made the marine biosphere possible. And now, tsunami experts
by and large agree that the Bridge considerably diminished the
intensity of the 26 December 2004 tsunami. While Nagappattinam north
of GoMPBPS and Kanyakumari to the south were brutally impacted by the
tsunami, places within the region themselves escaped more lightly.

Third, because GoMPBPS is a sedimentation sink, there is frenetic land
building happening to its immediate north. Experts like G.Victor
Rajamanickam, Professor of Earth Sciences at Thanjavur's Tamil
University and India's eminent coastal geo-morphologist and
mineralogist, say that this land building activity will likely connect
Vedaranyam to Sri Lanka's Jaffna peninsula in another four hundred
years. His studies reveal that the Palk Strait has grown shallower by
an astonishing six metres between 1960 and 1986, which would suggest
that this Strait is being silted in at the rate of twenty four
centimetres a year. The Sethusamudram Shipping Channel Project goes
against this natural land building activity, and would ravage a rare
natural breakwater, and condemn the unique environment of the region.

To be continued

Preeti Sharma is Newsinsight. net's Correspondent.

05-14-2007, 06:39 AM

QUOTEProject disaster - 2
The Sethusamudram canal will never make profits, argues Preeti Sharma.

10 May 2007: Four, the project will kill the fishing industry and
destroy the livelihood of about 3.5 lakh fishermen in six coastal
districts of Tamil Nadu. Already, dredging activity has scared the
fish to other areas, reducing catches. These waters have anyhow become
dangerous for Indian fishermen. Inadvertently crossing into Sri Lankan
waters, they face firing from the Sri Lankan Navy, which accuses them
of smuggling arms for the Tamil Tigers. On the other hand, the Tamil
Nadu police chief has newly disclosed that the LTTE has had a hand in
the killing of Indian fishermen and even capturing them. With the
upcoming project, the fishermen face a bleak future. While the
shipping minister, Baalu, makes an unacceptable comparison between the
project and alleged increases in catches with the development of the
Tuticorin Port, an NGO representing the fishermen, Coastal Action
Network (CAN), has filed a public interest litigation in the Supreme
Court which is due for hearing in July. The fate of the Sethusamudram
Project rests on the judgment.

The Sethusamudram Project was conceived by a British commander of the
Indian Marine, A.D.Taylor, in 1860. He could well have drawn
inspiration for it from the Suez Canal which was then being
constructed. Nearly one and a half centuries later, India has
commenced on his abandoned dream project, but any similarity it bears
to the vastly profitable Suez Canal or Panama Canal projects is
illusory. SSCP's major backers, including the Tamil Nadu government
and the Tuticorin Port Trust, make untenable comparisons with both
Suez and Panama. While the sixty four kilometre long Panama Canal
saves ships a 22,500 kilometre journey around South America, the Suez
contributes an eighty six percent reduction on a trip that would
otherwise have to be taken about the African continent. On the other
hand, Sethusamudram cuts off sailing time of less than a day and a
distance of about five hundred nautical miles, which is a negligible
saving compared to the costs of using the channel, according to the
calculations of a former deputy chairman of the Tuticorin Port Trust,
K.S.Ramakrishnan.

Any ship using SSCP will have to pay pilotage charges. There are
various ways to calculate pilotage charges. Ramakrishna' s method is
simple. In his short paper of July 2005, he uses the lowest amortized
pilotage charges of Chennai Port. He arrives at a figure of Rs 1.11
lakh per kilometre which a ship has to pay for pilotage. The
comparable cost for Tuticorin Port, which is still recovering its
capital cost on the approach channel, is more than two and a half
times higher. For a channel length of Sethusamudram that would require
pilotage, which Ramakrishnan fixes at fifty six kilometre, even at the
lowest, amortized Chennai Port cost, a ship would end up spending
eight times more than it would to go around Sri Lanka. Ramakrishna,
therefore, concludes that ships won't use the channel.

When Ramakrishnan made his calculation, SSCP had not revealed its
pilotage charges. Later, almost as if to rebut Ramakrishnan, it made
public its tariff plan, but used another formula. These two, that is
Ramakrishnan' s conclusion and SSCP's projections, cannot be
reconciled. But in any case, Captain Balakrishnan, a retired Indian
Navy frigate commander and merchant seaman, says that the bulk of
international shipping, comprising vessels larger than sixty thousand
tonnes, cannot use the SSCP because the draught of ten metres is
inadequate.

Captain Balakrishnan says, "For international shipping, time is of the
essence. Ships cannot afford to wait for pilots and berths, and it is
unlikely that in a channel sixty kilometres long, pilotage will be a
streamlined and time saving affair. At any rate, pilots are always in
shortage. The major container vessels avoid Indian ports by and large,
preferring Colombo in between Singapore and Dubai. Container feeder
vessels from Colombo may use Tuticorin, but this traffic, if it at all
generates, will be negligible in relation to any substantial revenues
for the port. The port will make no money. In addition, this area is
cyclonic. Major shippers do not like cyclonic coasts."

Captain Balakrishnan says that GoMPBPS and further north are virtually
unnavigable during the months of October to January when cyclones rage
in the area. He remembers of his navy days when, on one occasion in
April 1986, for thirty hours he could not see the aircraft carrier
Vikrant during a cyclone. He was providing frigate escort to it.
Everything on his deck was washed away. His radar would not swivel in
strong winds. He also recalls in the early Nineties when an oil
drilling ship broke six heavy anchors in the Cauvery basin and washed
ashore because of powerful cyclonic storms. Captain Balakrishnan says
that ships prefer taking the longer route around Sri Lanka even to go
to Tuticorin and, at any rate, they would burn up fuel forced at a
slow speed of ten knots per hour to go through the channel. "They call
it the cyclonic coast, and the Sethusamudram Project will make no
difference," he says. "And let's forget about the project making any
money."

What galls fierce critics of the Sethusamudram Project, however, is
that it will sink the investments, already projected upwards of Rs
2400 crore, without any chance of recovery. In this, the Tamil Nadu
government mostly covers itself, but loss makers would include the
major stakeholders in the Sethusamudram Project Limited SPV, including
the major port trusts and the Centre. V.Sundaram, a former IAS officer
and the first chairman of the Tuticorin Port Trust, cannot reconcile
to the huge costs of dredging, which would ultimately amount to
nothing. "As the first chairman of the Tuticorin Port Trust, I was a
member of the Lakshminarayanan Committee which was set up to examine
the feasibility of the Sethusamudram Project," says Sundaram. "We
estimated the cost of dredging in 1981 at Rs 180 crore and now it is
shown as Rs 2400 crore (the project dredging estimate is Rs 1719.6
crore), which will further increase. Please investigate why the
dredging costs have shot up and who is making money."

To be continued

Preeti Sharma is Newsinsight. net's Correspondent.

05-14-2007, 06:39 AM

QUOTEProject disaster - 3
SSCP could degrade India's ambitions in the Indian Ocean, writes
Preeti Sharma.

12 May 2007: Even assuming the worst that SSCP will make no money,
does it redeem itself at all? One argument is that SSCP will reinforce
India's sovereign maritime territorial rights in the GoMPBPS area,
although neither the Centre nor the Tamil Nadu government have ever
officially taken this line. Before the government clarified, questions
were raised in Sri Lanka's parliament about the project, but its then
foreign minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar, said that the SSCP alignment
was in Indian waters but that anyhow India was keen to remove
misapprehensions.

But a bigger threat has been cited from the United States, although
significantly, the Indian government has been silent on it. In August
1976 and June 1979, the Indian and Sri Lankan governments declared the
waters of the Gulf of Mannar as "historic" and those of the Palk Bay
as "internal". Rejecting this, the US Navy conducted "operational
assertions" as late as 2001. On 23 June 2005, the US Department of
Defence reiterated that these claims were untenable through reissue of
a manual for operational assertions. Less than a month later, despite
pointed warnings by the international tsunami expert, Professor Tad
Murthy, the Centre and the Tamil Nadu government expeditiously
commenced on the Sethusamudram Project. While again, there is no
official word, it is implied that the project would warn the US Navy
off the GoMPBPS area.

The US does not accept India and Sri Lanka's "historic claim" to the
Gulf of Mannar waters. In the absence of a navigable channel, the US
Navy cannot do much more than show its flag, and with its growing
operational burdens in the Middle East, the Taiwan Strait, and with
rising tensions with Russia, it is unlikely that it will do further
assertions here. In any case, the Indian Navy has the capability to
bottle up any such intention, and on current account, the US claims
only a friendly intent with India. North, in the Palk Bay and Palk
Strait, Indian and Sri Lankan straight baseline territorial claims
exceed the twelve nautical mile limit set by the UN Convention on Law
of the Sea (UNCLOS). The United States has not ratified UNCLOS but
insists on its right to free passage in the GoMPBPS area under UNCLOS.
But SSCP is not the answer to keep the US away.

For one, SSCP is in Indian territorial waters. If the US insists, it
can still force its Navy into the strip of water lying between the
UNCLOS-mandated Indian and Sri Lankan claims. But with India laying
historical claims over and above those granted by UNCLOS, the US would
have to confront the Indian Navy, which it would not want. But in any
case, this bears no connection to the SSCP. So how SSCP helps in
reinforcing our territorial claims in the GoMPBPS area is an open
question.

Commodore Rajeev Sawhney of the New Delhi-based National Maritime
Foundation sees no connection between SSCP and any perceived threat
from the United States. "In any case, SSCP lies in our territorial
waters," says Commodore Sawhney. "It would not help the government to
counter US operational assertions in the area." Adds Rear Admiral
(Retired) O.P.Sharma, an expert on maritime law, "Sri Lanka is
comfortable with the boundary agreement with India, so I see no reason
for an US objection. The US has not ratified UNCLOS anyhow. India
should not bother." The key thing is that the Indian Navy has not been
broached on this issue specific to SSCP. So, if the Indian government
has a sense that somehow SSCP will assist it against the US claim, it
is putting good money after a bad project.

SSCP's second alleged advantage is that it would enable the Indian
Eastern and Western fleet to quickly join in action in a contingency.
The underlying apprehension, although never expressed by the Indian
Navy, is that a rival power could establish in the rough area of the
Gulf of Mannar and divide and take on the two fleet. The logic of this
is hard to deny, and it follows on the British capture of Gibraltar in
The War of the Spanish Succession in the early eighteenth century
which denied the French the advantage of having fleet in the Atlantic
and in the Mediterranean Sea. The Indian Navy spokesman told this
writer that there wasn't much strategic basis to this, although there
was no deny that a channel would cut sailing distance and time.

Captain Balakrishnan more forthrightly rejects any strategic setback
to the Navy not having the Sethusamudram Project. "Since at least the
Seventies," says Captain Balakrishnan, "India has worked on a
two-fleet principle. Once a year or during VIP visits, the fleet join.
Otherwise, they work perfectly independently, and no power can prevent
them from coming together. Anyhow, Sethusamudram is not the answer.
Naval ships never move alone, and they need wide seas to operate. In
the channel, ships have to move in single file. The escort profile can
never be maintained. V.Prabhakaran (of the Tamil Tigers) will salivate
at the sight of the unescorted Indian Navy. There are the Sea Tigers
to contend with in the area. And remember that not only has the LTTE
air power, it has also shown skills in night flying. For the Navy, the
channel only represents a source of trouble." Since the channel
draught is no more than ten metres, it rules out the aircraft carrier
Viraat in full load, and the under-refurbishment Admiral Gorshkov
cannot pass Sethusamudram at all. For Indian naval power projection in
the Indian Ocean, a naval base in Rameshwaram would be an asset. But
the SSCP could be a liability.

On the other hand, the Sethusamudram Project's positive disadvantages
are several. It could, for a start, draw India into the LTTE-Sri Lanka
civil war. India has said no to joint patrolling with the Sri Lankan
Navy in the area as this would bias it against the LTTE, whereas India
wants to stay neutral. Even without any channel traffic, Indian
fishermen are being fired upon both by the Sri Lankan Navy and the
LTTE, each claiming that the fishermen are spying or working for the
other party. Imagine when the channel opens, and in addition to
securing such international shipping as passes through it, the
fishermen also have to be protected by the Navy. Also, in the triangle
pointing to the Gulf of Mannar and in the scalene triangle north of
Palk Bay, currently no international ships go. But with the channel
and ships coming, smuggling to the LTTE gains impetus. The Indian Navy
would not care for the additional responsibility of boarding ships to
search for LTTE weapons. And in case LTTE air power is deployed
against ships using the channel, it would destroy India's image and
circumscribe its ambitions in the Indian Ocean.

To be continued

Preeti Sharma is Newsinsight. net's Correspondent.

05-14-2007, 06:50 AM

Damaging 'Ram Setu' will undermine India's nuclear power: BJP

Bodhi · (This post was last modified: 05-17-2007, 04:18 AM by Bodhi.)

UPA is indeed doing what Taliban did.

In its latest issue, Panchjanya has published the Hindi version of the article "UPA is to Setu what Taliban is to Bamiyan", which can be read in Hindi here.

Sri V Sundaram has seconded our assertions in his below article that indeed 'UPA is to Setu what Taliban is to Bamiyan'. Read in full using the link below.

QUOTEShould T R Baalu out-Taliban the Afghan Talibans?
V Sundaram
On 15 May 2007, the Madras High Court two-Judge bench consisting of Justice Jayapal and Justice Sivakumar admitted one writ petition filed by Hindu Munnani leader Ram Gopalan and two writ petitions filed by former Union Law Minister and Janata Party president Dr Subramanian Swamy relating to the current controversial issue of Rama Sethu Bridge.

Dr Subramanian Swamy, relying on references in the Valmiki Ramayana and a NASA study, contended that it had been established that the bridge was not a natural formation but was a 'deliberately constructed bridge by placing shoal stones in a bridge formation.' He denied that 'Rama Sethu' was either imaginary or mythical, and said the Government of India and the Archaeological Survey of India had not undertaken any official study about the bridge and its origin.

I understand from some of my Advocate friends who were present in court that Dr Subramanian Swamy presented his arguments before the Madras High Court in a brilliant manner yesterday (15 May, 2007) through his inimitable means of producing conviction in a Court of Law, I mean through his plainness, conciseness and accuracy. He had charm. He had charisma. He was in full control.

It is understood that during the course of arguments, the Madras High Court indicated that it may be necessary to appoint an Advocate -Commission to ascertain the facts related to the existence of Ramar Palam (Rama Sethu). When Dr Swamy pointed out that there is an imminent danger to cause damage to the Rama Setu Bridge, through a lightning process of sudden rock blasting (perhaps with anti-Hindu T R Baalu even resorting to the use of RDX ?the suggestive words within brackets here mine!!!), the court observed that within two weeks, the Government is not expected to damage the Rama Sethu Bridge, and directed the issuance of notices to Government of India and posted the case for hearing on 29 May, 2007.


Meanwhile, BJP continues the protest in Parliament.

Congress, commies and 'third front' will now come out in thier true colours, now that UP Elections are behind. Punish those darn Hindus.

QUOTEParliament adjourned over Sethusamudram project

Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and United Progressive Alliance-Left members clashed in Lok Sabha on Wednesday over the Sethusamudram project forcing its adjournment for the day, as the government said there was no evidence of any historical structure in the area.

BJP leader V K Malhotra said the alignment of the project would "destroy the Ram Setu" (a mythological bridge connecting India and Sri Lanka) and such a move would hurt "religious sentiments of the Hindus."

This provoked Congress, Left and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam members. Noisy protests from treasury benches prompted a similar response from the BJP forcing Speaker Somnath Chatterjee to adjourn the House.

"There is no Ram Setu and there is only the Adam's Bridge," said Shipping Minister T R Baalu, drawing strong protests from BJP members who came into the well.


Government's disregard for heritage, rues Balram Misra in Pioneer :

QUOTERam Setu under threat 
Balram Misra

It would be a little short of a bucolic inference to say that the Government is destroying the Ram Setu because its existence is harmful for the country in terms of money and time. The Government knows well that the existence of the Setu will protect parts of southern India and Sri Lanka from any oceanic fury. It knows that the huge quantity of Thorium deposits in the sand along the sides of the Setu, if harnessed properly, would be enough to meet our need of nuclear fuel for many decades, if not centuries. It also knows what implications this has for the US and China.

The Government cannot deny the possibility of Rameshwaram, one of the holiest places for Hindus, being submerged like Dhanushkodi or Poompuhar, if the Ram Setu were to be destroyed. Dhanushkodi, the southernmost township of India, was submerged in ocean in 1964. Poompuhar, once a flourishing ancient port city (in the Thanjavur district of Tamil Nadu) known as Kaveripattinam, which was once a capital of Chola kings, was washed away by some kind of tsunami in 500 AD.

Whether Poompuhar was the Pampapur of Ramayana, a centre of learning and training in politics, where Hanuman met and befriended Sugreeva, may attract scrutiny by researchers. There are instances of classical Greek, Egyptian, and Indian heritages having been excavated from below the seas. Excavations at sites like Poompuhar under water may result in lavish enrichment of our heritage and civilisation. All those possibilities would be washed away if the Government of India does not honour the popular sentiments of the masses.

However, highlighting and re-invigorating the knowledge of the physical existence of the Rama Setu among the Hindu masses - especially after the NASA discovery - is bound to be more than a tsunami for the anti-Hindu ideologies that motivate the UPA Government. It is unfortunate that some myopic politicians, instead of appreciating the meaning and implications of the all-embracing Hindutva, feel threatened by it. They must be under tremendous pressure from the fundamentalist Christians, Communists and pseudo-secularists.

A couple of months ago, PTI released this NASA based report: "The NASA shuttle has imaged a mysterious bridge between India and Sri Lanka, as mentioned in the Ramayana. The evidence is, say experts, in the Digital Image Collection. The recently discovered bridge, currently named as Adam's Bridge, and made of chain of shoals, 30 km long, in the Palk Straits between India and Sri Lanka, reveals the mystery behind it. The Bridge's unique curvature and composition reveals that it is man made. Legend as well as archaeological studies reveal that the first signs of human inhabitants in Sri Lanka date back to about 1,750,000 years ago, and the Bridge's age is also almost equivalent."

The aboriginals of Australia believe that some mountains in their country are divinely sacred. They draw peace and solace from those holy mountains. The Government of Australia honoured their belief and preserved the mountains. A national highway passing through the mountains was shifted to honour the popular belief. Unfortunately, things don't work like that in Hindustan. It must be a matter of serious concern for every right thinking Hindu to note that the Rama Setu is being destroyed in free India under the domain of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Babar, the invader, destroyed the Ram Janmabhoomi temple to build a mosque after his name, about 500 years ago. Hindus did not forget the humiliation, and in 1992 they demolished the mosque and rebuilt a temple at the venue, though for now it is a makeshift arrangement. What would Hindus do if the Rama Setu is demolished completely? Nobody can predict.

The most predictable course of action on the part of the followers of Rama seems to be their forced unanimous decision to use their weapon, the collective vote, the only Brahmaastra to win the alien forces. Hindus would be ever grateful to the venerable Shankaracharyas, Acharyas and social organisations like the VHP for their massive campaign to protect the Rama Setu.

Is BJP alive to the problem? That is yet to be tested, but the agitation for Rama's karmabhoomi in southern India can no way be less important than the agitation for the Rama Janmabhoomi in the northern part of Hindustan.

http://ramasetu.blogspot.com/2007/03/latest-news.html

Bodhi · (This post was last modified: 05-17-2007, 08:58 AM by Bodhi.)

So the 'natural' isthmuses connecting islands and peninsulas are all nature made? Well. An 'Alexedar Setu', if you will, though much shorter, discovered:

<img src='http://www.sciam.com/media/inline/8C7873EF-E7F2-99DF-3362C13B1773CF70_1.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />

How Alexander the Great Laid Waste to an Island Fortress
Shallow water may have given him a solid foundation to build a road
By JR Minkel

Would-be warlords, take note. Researchers say they have figured out how the Macedonian conqueror Alexander the Great was able to build a nearly kilometer-long road over the sea to strike at the island of Tyre in 332 B.C. Based on geologic samples taken from the area, in what is now Lebanon, they conclude that the island and shore were linked by a stretch of sand a few meters below the water's surfaceâwell-suited for traversing with an artificial bridge.
The island today is in fact more of a peninsula, connected to the coast by an outgrowth of sand called a tombolo, says geoarchaeologist Nick Marriner of the European Center for Research and Teaching on the Geosciences of the Environment in Aix-en-Provence, France. But researchers had never studied the tombolo's history to see if it might shed light on Alexander's attack on Tyre, he says.

On his way through Persia and Egypt, Alexander marched along the Phoenician coast, swiftly taking control of all the major cities except the island city-state of Tyreâthen a major trading outpostâwhich refused to surrender. "All previous settlements on his journey from Macedonia had capitulated with little resistance," Marriner says. "Of course, these all lay on land."
Alexander's armies laid siege to the island for seven months. At some point during the siegeâthe timing is not clear, Marriner saysâhis engineers built a long causeway, or raised road, from which to strike at Tyre's defenses. How they were able to build the presumably timber and stone road was a mystery, he says.

Looking to geology for the answer, Marriner and colleagues analyzed long cores of sediment they drilled from the modern tombolo. They conclude that more than 8,000 years ago Tyre was an approximately six-kilometer-wide island, but that between 6,000 and 8,000 years ago sea levels rose enough to shrink its size to four kilometers.

The newly sunken, inland part of the island made it harder for waves from the sea to get past the island to the shore, Marriner and colleagues report in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. As a result, sediment from the coast was able to accumulate in the space between it and the island. "It meant," Marriner says, "that the causeway foundations could be laid down in relatively shallow water."

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa...773CF70&ref=rss

05-17-2007, 11:45 PM

Punjab Kesari Editorial on Ram Setu

05-18-2007, 08:57 AM

QUOTEThe New Indian Express, Friday, May 18, 2007, page 4
Realign Sethu channel: BJP (Express News Service)
'Ramar Setu found confirmation in literary texts, epigraphs and in the reports of the Department of Earth Sciences.'

Chennai, May 17: The State Unit of the BJP on Thursday demanded re-alignment of the Sethusamudram Shipping Channel in the 'interest of national sovereignty, security and livelihood of coastal people'.

Representing the BJP, S. Kalyanaraman, director, Sarasvati Research Centre, told journalists that the project could be implemented by cutting across Dhanushkodi, instead of damaging the Ramar Setu ( Adam's Bridge).

Showing cartographic evidences for the existence of Ramar Setu, he said the computer simulation clearly revealed that the ancient man-made bridge connecting Dhanushkodi and Thalai Mannar in Sri Lanka had saved the southern coastline of the State in the 2004 tsunami.

The present shipping canal project would envisage removal of the proven 'tsunami protector' in Ramar Setu, he added.

The 1956 report on the shipping canal project by Sir AR Mudaliar Committee categorically advised the government to choose a canal and not the mid-ocean channel passage. "The idea of cutting a passage in the sea through Adam's Bridge should be abandoned," he said, quoting from the report.

Besides, the mid-sea channel would affect the livelihood of lakhs of fishermen of both countries, who fished in the 'historic waters'.

After the project, the waters would become 'international waters' as per the designs of the United States.

Ramar Setu was an ancient heritage monument with attested evidences, both textual and scientific, he said, arguing that damage to Ramar Setu would be a violation of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958.

Kalyanaraman also presented the Malabar Bowen Map (1747), Hindoostan under Moghul Empire, a map by Joseph Parks (1788) and the map by James Rennel, first Surveyor General of India in 1804, when the Ramar bridge was renamed as Adam's Bridge.

Ramar Setu also found place in maps showing religious and cultural sites between 8 and 12 AD, Islamic expansion and Puranic India.

The Madras Presidency Administration Report, 1903, referred to the bridge as the one connecting Ceylon and India until 1480.

A book by Alexander Hamilton in 1744 describes his visit to 'zeloan' traversing the bridge on foot, he claimed.

M. Karunanidhi himself, as Chief Minister in 1972, wrote a forword for the Ramanathapuram District Gazetteer, which has reference to Ramar Setu (also called Nala Setu), said L. Ganesan, State President of BJP.

Ramar Setu found confirmation in literary texts, epigraphs and in the reports of the Department of Earth Sciences, he added.

Ganesan, however, ruled out a legal recourse to stop the project, stating that they preferred to take up the issue to the peoples' court

05-18-2007, 08:58 AM

http://kalyan97.wordpress.com/2007/05/18/18/
Rama Setu: as seen by Resourcesat-1 (Indian Space Research Organization, National Remote Sensing Agency)

05-18-2007, 08:18 PM

Rama Setu: commentary on Project Disaster

http://www.newsinsight.net/archivedebates/...recno=1611&ctg= (18 May, 2007)

http://www.newsinsight.net/archivedebates/...recno=1610&ctg= (16 May, 2007)

http://www.newsinsight.net/archivedebates/...recno=1609&ctg= (14 May, 2007)

http://www.newsinsight.net/archivedebates/...recno=1608&ctg= (12 May, 2007)

http://www.newsinsight.net/archivedebates/...recno=1607&ctg= (10 May, 2007)

http://www.newsinsight.net/archivedebates/...recno=1606&ctg= (8 May, 2007)

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