NEW DELHI, INDIA, July 2, 2014 (Telegraph India): A retired history professor who has written articles arguing that stories from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata are truthful accounts of events that took place has been named chief of the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), the government agency to promote historical research.
Yellapragada Sudershan Rao, whose interests include Vedic literature, Sanatana Dharma and Bharatiya Sanskriti, set the tone for his three-year tenure after taking charge on Saturday. Under his leadership, the ICHR, he told The Telegraph, should take up projects to rewrite ancient history to establish the “continuous Indian civilization,” including the period of the two epics.
“The stories of the Ramayaan and the Mahabharata cannot be termed a-historical just because there is not enough archaeological hard evidence. Excavations cannot be done in many places since people are living there and you cannot evict them,” explained Rao.