From:
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2538301.ece#.TpigGhBACTQ.facebookMost academicians at Delhi University are feeling betrayed by their own fraternity, the reason — the Academic Council’s recent decision to drop from the history syllabus a celebrated essay by the late scholar and linguist A. K. Ramanujan on the Ramayana, despite intense opposition from the history department.
The essay, “Three Hundred Ramayanas: Five examples and three thoughts on translations,” which forms part of the B.A. History (Honours) course, had attracted the ire of Hindutva activists because it talks about 300 different versions of the Ramayana that abound in our country and beyond. And when the decision to scrap the course was put to vote at the Academic Council meeting this past Sunday, only nine of the 120 members present dissented.
Kannada writer Chandrashekhar Kambar, the winner of this year’s Jnanpith award, said: “The Ramayana and the Mahabharata are texts which have been re-created many times over by several cultures in India and outside. Intolerance shown towards a scholarly study of these versions should be condemned by the entire academic fraternity.”
Prof. Ananthamurthy added: “India has always made a distinction between Shruti, Smriti and Purana. There are different Shrutis for different believers, which remain mostly unchanged like the Vedas, the Koran and other scriptures. On the other hand, Smritis and Puranas are dynamic and change with time and culture. And great poets like Bhasa took the liberty of resolving the entire problem of Mahabharata without a war. It is strange that religious beliefs and practices are being commercialised and vulgarised in the modern world. We have given up the celebration of diversities of beliefs that our ancestors practiced. The banning of Ramanujan’s essay on the Ramayana is an insult to the imagination of the Jains, Buddhists and several folk practices.”
