Is it man-made?

Ram Setu (2022)

Director: Abhishek Sharma

If I tell you today is Thursday, how do you really know that today is indeed Thursday? It is not good enough because yesterday was Wednesday, and tomorrow is Friday, as today is no different from any day. As we know, during the era of Pope Gregory, the Church realised it was missing a few days. It had overlooked the leap years and had to erase 10 days in 1752. So, for all you know, Thursday today could be a Monday.

Well, the Hindus have the bragging rights to say their calendar says we are in the year 12,000, and they did not have to correct for errors and had had remarkable ways of calculating events. Even when the world was scared of venturing too far off on sea as they thought they would slip off at the edge of a flat earth, Hindu scriptures knew the planets were spherical structures. Scriptures say that Varaha, Vishnu's avatar, saved Earth from massive floods by placing the spherical planet on its snout.

When it comes to stating events in the ancient scriptures, the scribes have been quite precise with their descriptions. They have referenced events to planetary and astronomical positions to the tilt. Take Rama and Krishna's date of birth, for example. Rama, being a prince, his time of birth and his astrological chart is recorded precisely. Krishna's hush-hush delivery within the confines of prison walls, too, is noted duly. 

With the knowledge of modern astronomy and the help of planetarium software, we can predict precisely when such a constellation occurred aeons ago. Scientists have determined that Rama and Krishna lived around 7000 and 5000 years ago, respectively. (January 10, 5114 BCE  and July 21, 3228 BCE). From Valmiki's Ramayana, we know that Rama's date of birth is January 10, 5114 BCE, between 12 noon and 1pm in Ayodhya, Shukla Paksha in Chaitra month. Due to equinox precision calculation, a day is adjusted every 72 years. That explains why Ram Jayanthi is celebrated in March or April now. 

The critical question now is whether the story of Rama is a myth or part of history. Most landmarks mentioned about Rama and his father's kingdom have disappeared into the abyss of time. Ram Sethu remains the only relic to claim a stake in his existence. Descriptions of King Rama, his expedition to fight King Ravana in Lanka and the Vanara army is mentioned in many writings, even outside India. But can these writing be proof of historicity? Valmiki's Ramayana, unlike its other versions, like Tulsidas', Kalidas' or Kambar's, is referred to as itihasa (meaning 'thus it happened') because of its extensive descriptions. The others are labelled great poetical works (kavya).

There is a pressing need to clarify this issue now more than ever. There have been plans for a long time of dredging through the shoals to deepen the Palk Straits to allow ocean liners to skirt around the Indian peninsula. That would mean much ecological damage and possible destruction of an ancient engineering marvel, Ram Sethu or Nala Sethu, after Rama's chief engineer who conceived the idea when Rama's Army wanted access to Lanka.

Present-day engineers have proposed a possible prototype ancient builders may have used with the material available to build the bridge between India and Sri Lanka.

As early as the 18th century, the idea of deepening the sea bed between Palk Strait and the Gulf of Mannar was mooted. Many electoral promises were made to increase between the two countries and avoid the need for big vessels to circumvent Sri Lanka to get to the East coast of India. After many feasibility studies, the Government of India, in 2005, decided to get serious. It met resistance from religious and environmental groups. 

Some plans showed the need to drill through sacred areas, while others may pose an environmental nightmare.

The Government of India and the concerned parties have an ongoing legal battle. The opposition to the project wants the area to be declared a national heritage. Most parties agree that the construction of such a structure would not make any business sense. The amount of fuel saved by the distance is offset by the time taken by pilots navigating through the narrow strait. Detractors accuse the proponents of simply erasing any remnant trace of the rich culture and marvellous engineering feats the ancient Hindu civilisation could showcase. It is in their vested interest.

This 2022 movie which did not really make an impact at the box office, shows the diversity of Indian moviemaking. Deviating from their usual dance, music, romance and melodrama fare, they are venturing into other genres. This one must have had a cue from 'Indiana Jones' or 'The Mummy'. In cahoots with governmental officials, a private enterprise wants to develop Palk Straits. An atheist archaeologist who initially thought that Ram Setu is a natural occurrence is now convinced that it is indeed a man-made structure. He has to race against time to convince the Supreme Court of his findings before the greedy entrepreneurs usurp the land for their selfish needs.  

[There are veiled references in this movie. Aryan, the archaeologist, is the learned man. Aryan means learned in Sanskrit, not Northerners, as coined by Max Müller introduced in his now-debunked Aryan Migration Theory. The floating lab is named Pushpak with obvious reference to Pushpak Vimana, a flying vehicle owned by Kubera and used by Rama and his entourage after the tour-de-mission in Lanka. Anjaneya is another name for Hanuman. Here, the mysterious character who helps Dr Aryan is Anjaneya. There is a hint that he appeared out of thin air and disappeared mysteriously. Legend has it that Hanuman, being a true Ramaa devotee, received the boon of immortality. He sometimes manifests in various forms to help people in distress, so believe the reciters of Hanuman Chalisa.]

The Catholic Church, living under a rock, all these while imprisoning people like Galileo and Copernicus, realised under the leadership of Pope Gregory of their follies. Scientists of that era were summoned to recalculate the calender for modern consumption. The modern calendar, however, was not immediately practised by everyone at once.

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