Modern iconoclast – Karunanidhi

In a recent interview with Mr. Shekhar Gupta, Editor-in-Chief, Indian Express, on NDTV 24 x 7’s Walk the Talk show, (published in the Indian Express on October 29), Tamilnadu’s chief minister and DMK chief said: “In the Tulsidas Ramayana, Sita is not Ram’s wife but sister. Only in the Valmiki Ramayan is she his wife”. This is his yet another blasphemous slander on Hindu icons Ram and venerable Sant Tulsidas. Throughout his epic, Ramcharitmanas, Tulsidas has referred to Sita as the wife of Ram. He names Dashrath as the father and Kaushalya as the mother of Ram, while stating Janak as the father and Sunayana as the mother of Sita. How the two could be brother and sister?

Earlier, Karunanidhi had mischievously proclaimed that Valmiki had called Ram a drunkard. Now, he has advanced the argumentn: “He (Valmiki) says, ‘Hanuman tells Sita that because of being separated from her, Ram has not touched any liquor”. It is nothing but Karunidhi’s perverse imagination.

Valmiki Ramayan, Sundar Kand, contains a long dialogue, in about 500 shlokas, between Hanuman and Sita, (Sargas 31 to 40 and 56). At one point, Sita asks Hanuman, “Will I shortly see Ram’s weapons killing Ravana, with his kith and kins?… Has Ram’s bright golden face faded in my absence, like lotus dries without water?” Hanuman has the tedious job of re-assuring Sita that Ram was equally in pain by her separation, but had also the will and strength to destroy Ravan and to rescue her. So, Hanuman says, (Sunder Kand, 36/41-42), “Na mansam Raghavo bhunktey na chaiva madhu sevatey/ Vanyam suvihitam nityam bhaktamashnati panchmam// Naiva danshaan, na mashkaan, na keetaan na sarisripaan/Raghavo-apnayed gatrat twadgatenantaratmana//, (Those of the Raghu dynasty do not, as a rule, take meat nor drink liquor. Following the life of hermits, Ram takes his food according to shastric prescriptions. He remains so absorbed in your thoughts that he does not care to remove from his body insects, mosquitoes and reptiles)”. In Ayodhya Kand, (75/38-39), Ram’s younger brother Bharat cites drinking as one of he vices. In Kishkindha Kand, (33/46 and 34/12), reprimanding Sugriva, Lakshman calls drinking a sin. With these glaring facts it is blasphemous to use the fair name of Valmiki to call Ram a drunkard. This remark is also a slur on Mahrishi Valmiki, revered by Hindus

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