LUCKNOW, INDIA, July 12, 2005: The BJP political party has taken strong exception to the contents on Ayodhya in the updated class IX NCERT (India’s national commission which issues school texts) book on ancient history. BJP state unit president Keshari Nath Tripathi, who says he has read the contents, said he had raised the issue with the party high command. ”Since the book is published by NCERT and meant for students across the country, we have asked the central leadership to intervene,” he said.
Referring to the BJP’s objections, he read out a paragraph: ”Archaeological evidence should be considered far more important than long family trees given in the Puranas. Puranic tradition could be used to date Rama of Ayodhya around 2000 bce, but diggings and extensive explorations in Ayodhya do not show any settlement.”
Tripathi alleged that another portion on Lord Krishna was also objectionable. He pointed to the following paragraph: ”…though Krishna plays an important part in the Mahabharata, inscriptions and sculptural pieces found in Mathura between 200 bce and 300 ce do not attest his presence. Because of such difficulties, ideas of an epic age based on Ramayana and Mahabharata have to be discarded….”
The former Speaker of the UP legislative assembly alleged the updated book, by Prof Ram Sharan Sharma, tried to make the students discard country’s old civilization. He referred to another section, which reportedly reads: ”Ancient India’s march to civilization was accompanied by growth of social discriminations. The attempt to bring back the past will mean perpetuation of social inequity which plagued the country.”
Times of India also published a story on this, here.