NEW DELHI: The Ramayan, most revered by Hindus, will get a contemporary facelift in August by Akhil Bharatiya Itihas Sankalan Yojana, (ABISY), a RSS affiliate. At a massive historical seminar to be held at the eponymous university in Gorakhpur—the fiefdom of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath—historians from across India will debate the narrative that Lord Ram banished Sita to the forest and forced her to undergo agni pariksha to prove her purity after Ravan abducted her. The ABISY’s mandate is to write and rewrite Indian history from a national perspective.
“Historians working on Lord Ram and the Ramayana have been invited for a debate on stories surrounding Ram,” said Balmukund Pandey, Sangathan Pramukh of ABISY.
He said there are different versions of the Ramayan across the world—all written according to the social preferences of the time. “Lord Ram is Maryada Purushottam. He is worshipped as an ideal. He is an ideal prince, ideal husband, ideal son and an ideal for humanity. But many writers have distorted his character,” said Pandey. He says Sita’s trial by fire told in the Ramayan is also a misinterpretation. “It doesn’t mean Ram forced her to sit on a pyre. Agni pariksha means ‘tough circumstances’, which even he had to endure,” Pandey said.
He added the additions were made to Ramayan, particularly in ‘Uttarkand’ section, which “don’t look right”. He adds that Ram, who held both queens Manthara and Kaikei in the highest esteem, could not have exiled Sita on the basis of a rumour.
The Ramayan, written by Maharishi Valmiki in Sanskrit, is believed to be the authentic version. However, numerous writers across the centuries modified it, with Ram Charit Manas by Tulasidas being the most popular chronicle.
In 2014, ABISY had completed a research project to retrace the lost Saraswati River to counter the Aryan migration theory.