The god Ram was "meddling" in the construction of a navigation channel

New Delhi, Sep 14, 2007. - An unusual controversy over the historical existence of the god Ram remains paralyzed the construction of a shipping channel between India and Sri Lanka to destroy a bank of coral sacred to the Hindu mythology.
Given the avalanche of protests by Hindu radicals, the government was forced to withdraw a report today that support the project, arguing that sacred texts do not serve to prove that the god Ram existed.
The Government has in mind to open a waterway, for about $ 590 million, to permit the passage of ships through the waters of Sethusamudram southern sea, which separates India from Sri Lanka, and hence shorten the navigation route in 36 hours.
The project, however, has raised a huge dust storm that has come to social Supreme Court because it will mean the destruction of a coral sand road and cited in the Hindu holy book "Ramayana" and, therefore, sacred to many Hindus.
The underwater reefs, visible from the air, forming a spectacular chain of about 50 kilometers long with just a few meters deep, located on a narrow strip of sea that separates India from Sri Lanka.
But, according to Hindu tradition, the string is actually a bridge built for thousands of years by the army of the monkey god Hanuman ape to enable Ram to reach Sri Lanka and rescue his wife Sita was abducted by King Ravana devil.
So, with the possible desecration of the "bridge" known as "Ram Setu", thousands of activists of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Organization) Wednesday burst into the streets, some disguised as the protagonists of the "Ramayana "- and cut roads and railways.
That same day, had come to the Supreme Court a report by the Indian heritage authority, the ASI, which held that "the contents of the 'Ramayana' and 'Ramcharitamanas' and other mythological texts can not be considered a historical record to prove the existence of the characters and the events described. "
The main opposition party, the radical Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was quick to demand an "apology" to the Government, claiming that the statements of ASI had "hurt the faith of millions of faithful."
The Government decided today to appease the spirits by removing the ASI report, after saying he had no intention of hurting the religious sentiments of any community, and have three months to submit a new one before the Supreme, the agency said India IANS.
The parties of "Hindutva" (the "Hindu-")-a term that encompasses a number of conservative and extremist formations, ensure that NASA has dated the age of the "bridge" at 1.7 million years, which has denied the very organization, surprised by the controversy in India.
"I have no idea of any kind of dating," said NASA spokesman Michael Braukus, quoted by the IANS.
"The mysterious bridge is nothing more than a natural chain of shoals," he explained another NASA spokesman Mark Hess, in October 2002, at the onset of the first aerial photographs of corals.
While most Indian historians and geologists have closed ranks with NASA, there are also those who insist that science offers no explanation for the existence of the mythological "bridge".
"How can archeology establish historical events of 7,000 years ago?" He asks in the newspaper "The Times of India" Pushkar Bhatanagar writer, author of "The Age of Ram".
"The 'Ramayana' is based on 'Itihasas' (stories). 'Itihas' means that it happened. The existence of Ram is captured in the epic 'Ramayana', "he said in a statement on popular Indian saint Ravi Shankar.
So, pending the court ruling on the barrier reef, the sailors will have to continue for the time away waving from the bridge armed Hindu simian and surrounding Sri Lanka.
To them, the adventures of a book will cost about two days' journey.

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