Ayodhya Forever

Dr Koenraad Elst was born in Leuven, Belgium into a Flemish Catholic family. He graduated in Philosophy, Chinese Studies and Indo-Iranian Studies. During a stay at the Benares Hindu University, he discovered India’s communal problem and wrote his first Book about the budding Ayodhya conflict.

Dr Koenraad Elst recounts his recent trip to Ayodhya, while analysing its historicity and devotional zeal; and takes an evaluative look at the road ahead for Hindus to preserve important Dharmik sites from the tourism-driven, possibly unnecessary beautification and commercialisation.

Once in a while, human beings have to go on a pilgrimage to a place pregnant with what to them is Divine. This is why for a few thousand years, numerous Hindus trek to Ayodhya to spend some time with the deified hero born there, Rama.

Being a modern person myself, I never felt called to visit sites associated with people I admire, not even within my own country. But then again, in my own life, Ayodhya has played quite a role. When I started realizing the unusual nature of the controversy surrounding it, in 1989, I did visit it, but back then Rama’s birthplace was still occupied by the Babri Masjid, a structure planted there as a mosque but used as a temple since 1949.

I didn’t realize yet that I was going to play a modest role in the Ayodhya affair, and even when the time came, I didn’t feel the urge to go there again. I thought I’d wait for the moment when a proper temple architecture would adorn the site. It’s almost that far, and I wouldn’t have to wait for long anymore. But then, it so happened that I was expected for some lectures at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur, and a few days later for the same in Benaras Hindu University (BHU) Varanasi, so it was logical to bridge the gap with a visit to Ayodhya, lying halfway. On 1st and 2nd November of 2022, I visited Ayodhya, the ancient capital city of its founder, the patriarch Manu Vaivasvata, and of the Solar Dynasty founded there by his son Ikshvaku. It is in this dynasty in around the 64th generation after Manu according to the Puranic king-lists, that Rama Dasharathi was born. This is in the period of the Rigveda.

At very short notice, I was invited to give a lecture at the Awadh University, and the topic naturally was the scholarly debate on the Rama Janmabhumi, of which I had been a privileged witness years before these students were born, and soon also a participant. Indeed, now that most of the scholars concerned have left this world, I consider it a duty to bear witness before the new generation about this confrontation between, on the one hand, an ad hoc gathering of innocent scholars armed only with factual data but forced into this politically-charged battle, and on the other the activist Eminent Historians supported by an army of media hacks and international India-watchers.

On that campus, I was joined the next day by a Hindu friend from Gurugram, Baijnath Aryan, who runs the museum for folk and tribal art founded by his father, the KC Aryan Lokadivasikala Museum. One of the collections he manages is the worldwide best series of artworks depicting Hanuman, hence he insisted on visiting the Hanumangadhi and other temples dedicated to Hanuman.

Being a major capital city, it is no wonder that Ayodhya attracted or brought forth many important people. Thus, five of the twenty-four Tirthankaras are said to have been born there, and the Buddhist philosophers Asanga and Vasubandhu lived there, as did the Buddha himself for a few years.

The Rama Janmabhoomi temple was still under construction, so it was cordoned off and not yet open to the public. But we did manage to talk with Champat Rai, the overseer of the construction (an Indian politician, Vice President of Vishva Hindu Parishad, and currently serving as the General Secretary of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra) after having accompanied him to the last half hour of a Rama Katha performance. Being more a reader of scripture than a listener to scriptural recitations, I was taken aback by the austere beauty of this show. What was really noteworthy in this visit was not so much this or that temple, but the dedication of the worshippers. There was a Parikrama going on, a walk of about 45 km around the sacred city. Some 300,000 devotees were participating. Their energy and good cheer were impressive and contagious. Enthusiasm etymologically means ‘being in God’, and that seems to have been their secret.

Another sign of devotion : In one street leading towards the Rama Janmabhumi, a series of houses each turned out to conceal a little temple inside. This is what Hindus used to do under Muslim rule : Preserve as much as possible of their Dharmic tradition under adverse circumstances. It exemplifies what Sita Ram Goel said about Hindu society, both the institutional situation back then and the resulting psychology palpable till today : “Hindu society is an underground society”. The same situation prevailed in Varanasi (where we went on the 3^rd), in the Jnanvapi area. Unfortunately, though these makeshift temples may have survived centuries of Muslim rule, they proved powerless against the modernizing zeal. And here, reform did not mean societal or faith-driven reform, only commercialization. The pilgrimage site was, according to the former owners and inhabitants of these temple-houses, redesigned to satisfy the wishes of the tourist industry, and to hell with the bravery of the earlier generations that had risked so much to safeguard the sanctity of the place.

This, then, is the new challenge to the guardians of Dharmic landscapes. The threat of Islamic temple destruction has become much less dramatic, at least in India, but it has made way for the threat of lukewarmness and irreligion. The devotional gems that earlier generations have bequeathed to the present one may fall prey to soulless secular exploitation. Let us see whether the zeal that was so conspicuous in the Rama Janmabhumi agitation of 1989-92 can still be translated into a similar zeal for worship, or if the need arises, for a similar agitation.

(Courtesy : Excerpts from an Article under the same title on – pragyata.com/ayodhya-forever/)

The devotional gems that earlier generations have bequeathed to the present one may fall prey to soulless secular exploitation !