The three-day exhibition on Ramayana manuscripts at the Oriental Institute of M S University will end on January 24. The manuscript, containing 10 chapters and written in Devanagari script and Sanskrit language, is part of the Skand Purana, the sacred religious book of Hindus believed to be from 8th century AD.
The manuscript vividly describes Ayodhya on Saryu river banks.
“We are exhibiting Ramayana manuscripts including the 369-year-old Ayodhya Mahatmya that had acted as evidence for the historic judgment. The exhibition will remain open to the public till January 24,” said Dr Sweta Prajapati, director of the Oriental Institute.
In November 2019, when the country was rejoicing in the Supreme Court’s historic Ayodhya judgment, Banyan City had its own reasons for merriment. On Monday, when the consecration ceremony of the idol of Lord Ram was held at Ayodhya, it gave another reason to rejoice.
For, the apex court had relied heavily upon a manuscript — Ayodhya Mahatmya — to end the decades-old Ram Janmabhoomi impasse.
The manuscript is a prized possession of the Oriental Institute of MS University.
The manuscript was earlier part of an old collection of the Central Library which was set up by Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III. The visionary ruler of the erstwhile Baroda state had appointed pandits to collect such manuscripts from across the country.
The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Punarudhar Samiti, Varanasi, used this manuscript as evidence to establish their case of the disputed site being the birthplace of Lord Ram. This manuscript was collected from the institute by the director of the Shree Dwarkadheesh Sanskrit Academy and the Indological Research Institute at Dwarka, professor Jayaprakash Narayan Dwivedi when the case was being heard at Allahabad High Court for the first time in 2005.
The manuscript bears the name of Harishankar as the author with the date of compilation as ‘samvad 1712’ (September 14, 1655 AD).
“Page 34 of this manuscript vividly describes Ayodhya at the banks of river Saryu which is blessed by Lord Ram. SC had mentioned ‘Ayodhya Mahatmya’ and Skand Purana on several occasions while delivering its landmark verdict in 2019,” said Prajapati.
“It can, therefore, be held that the faith and belief of Hindus regarding the location of the birthplace of Lord Ram is from scriptures and sacred religious books, including Valmiki Ramayana and Skanda Purana, and it cannot be held as groundless. Thus, it is found that in the period before 1528 AD, there were sufficient religious texts, which led the Hindus to believe the present site of Ram Janmabhoomi as the birthplace of Lord Ram,” the SC had stated in its order.
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