Episode 242

NEW DELHI: Delivering the Ayodhya judgment, the apex court relied on Hindu scriptures Skand Puran, Sri Ramcharitmanas and Valmiki’s Ramayana and three foreign travelogues— English historian William Flinch, accounts of Jesuit missionary Joseph Tiefenthaler and British surveyor Robert Montgomery Martin. Referring to the Skand Puran, the court said there is a reference to the place of birth of Lord Ram in an extract for scripture. Appearing for the Sunni Central Waqf Board, Zafaryab Jilani argued that there is no reference to the Ram Janmabhumi site either in Valmiki’s Ramayan or in Ramacharitmanas. “The religious scriptures contain no reference to a Ram Janmabhumi temple or to the Janmasthan temple except in the Ayodhya Mahatmya and Vaibhav Khand in the Skand Puran,” he argued. Even televised series on Ramayan found a place in the verdict. “The witness relied on an extract from Shri Tulsi Dohashatak by Goswami Tulsi Das and on Episode 18 (Bal Khand) of Valmiki Ramayan and the Vaishnav Khand of Skand Puran to sustain the faith and belief in the birth-place of Lord Ram,” the judgment read. The verdict also has recorded entries of many travellers like Flinch, Tiefenthaler, Martin and former chief officiating officer of Faizabad district P Carnegy. Among various observations made by these travellers, one of the most eminent came from Carnegy, who noted: “Ayodhya is to Hindu what Macca is to the Mohamedan and Jerusalem to the Jews.”