Engineers, religious scholars, a Hindu god, NASA and an army of monkeys could all be set to make appearances in court, not necessarily all in person of course. A row over a proposed shipping canal in the area between India and Sri Lanka is pulling this remarkably disparate set of characters together. The Indian government wants to improve shipping lanes by removing part of what scientists say is a natural ridge linking islands between the subcontinent and Sri Lanka. But some Hindus believe the ridge is the mythical Rama’s Bridge, built by an army of monkeys at the command of the god Rama. The row has now ended up in court.
An Indian government body is in hot water, having been forced to withdraw a report submitted to the court saying that claims the ridge was built by Rama were based entirely on the text Ramayana and there was no scientific evidence that events described in this book ever took place (BBC, Times of India, The Hindu). This report led to claims of blasphemy (Reuters).
NASA was previously dragged into the row over the provenance of ‘Rama’s Bridge’, with claims being made in 2002 that its satellite photographs support the Ramayana version of events. “NASA has clarified that images of the area were being captured for several years and no scientific discovery has been made so far in respect of the origins of the formation known as Adams Bridge,” C Dorjee, monuments director of the Archaeological Survey of India, which prepared the report said this week (Hindustan Times). On a more prosaic note, Salon highlights several non-religious reasons to have misgivings about the project including the environmental impact from the dredging and whether “saving just the few hours required to circumnavigate Sri Lanka is worth all the trouble” (other sources say it will save about 30 hours). Thaindian says there could be major economic benefits however.
Just to make things messier, the ridge is also called Adam’s Bridge. According to Britannica Muslim legend has it that Adam crossed it to reach Adam’s Peak on Sri Lanka, where he stood repentant on one foot for 1,000 years.
Image: NASA