Many find it hard to digest that Rama is historical and He lived 7100 years ago. This is because we have been brought up with the understanding that Rama lived in Treta Yuga and when one hears the term Treta Yuga, the mind immediately imagines millions of years. However, study of various texts shows that the terms Yuga, Yojana do not have just one fixed value. Ancient texts talk of over 7 types of Yuga scales ranging from • 1 year being a Yuga (which is why we celebrate Yugadi every year) to • 60 years being a Manava Yuga (which is why we have a cycle of 60 years with names for each year) to • 12000 years being a Ayana Yuga (based on precession of the earth) to • 432000 years being a Kali Yuga unit from which comes Chathur Yuga of 4320000 years on an astronomical scale. Valmiki Ramayana does not specify which Yuga scale was used when mentioning Treta Yuga. Hence we cannot assume it to have been the astronomical Yuga scale alone. The date 7100 years fits in with Treta Yuga in the Ayana scale as well as the astronomic configurations mentioned in the text. Our book Historical Rama details how. Ramayana is an Itihasa meaning history. So Rama was historical. Rama was also an Avatar, a form in which divine forces had descended. Historicity need not take away divinity if one understands the true meaning of divinity. When a text has been classified as itihasa, it mentions facts as they were. So if the text mentions that wood of certain trees were used in building a bridge, it should have been so. Just because we are unable to understand how, need not take away authenticity from the fact and reduce it to a mere figment of imagination. What exactly was the technology that was used to prevent the wood and the stones from floating away, was beyond the scope of that text. But that need not mean that the people were devoid of technical knowhow. Please see the entire film for comments by marine archaeologists on the technical feasibility in those days. Research has found evidence of a wood layer as mentioned in the text. It is for our generation now to use this bridge not only as a showpiece for the world's oldest and available engineering marvel of an ancient civilization but also as a specimen to study further the engineering techniques of an ancient knowledge based civilization. These steps could yield lot more revenue and benefits along with undisturbed ecology and thorium than what could be yielded by a small shipping channel with a convoluted and limited use. The name Bharatha comes from "Bha" meaning knowledge, enlightenment and "ratha" meaning to relish. "Bharatha" is the land where people relish knowledge. Our land was named Bharatha for a reason. It was a knowledge base civilization. Let us not dismiss our
texts and their contents as works of imagination or just containing some moral stories. There is relevant knowledge in them as otherwise these texts would not have come this far. It is for us to open our eyes and minds to see it. If interested to know more, you may read our book Historical Rama and watch a film by the same title which look at the historicity of Rama and this bridge in a wholistic manner using various disciplines. Comments on the same are welcome.