‘Unlike Ram, Mohammed and Christ were historical figures’
Vinay Krishna Rastogi
Unlike Lord Ram, Prophet Mohammed and Jesus Christ were historical personages, Dr Sita Ram Rai, 28th witness of the Sunni Central Waqf Board told the Allahabad High Court yesterday.
Dr Rai made this statement during cross-examination by Ved Prakash, counsel for Dr T P Verma, plaintiff in suit number five, that is, Sri Ram Lalla Virajman versus others.
When the hearing of the Ayodhya case resumed yesterday after a week’s break, the counsel asked Dr Rai, a retired director of the Department of Archaeology and Museums, Bihar, if he considered Prophet Mohammed and Jesus Christ too as imaginary figures (Dr Rai had earlier called Ram as one).
To this, Dr Rai reiterated his statement about Ram being an imaginary figure but said Mohammed and Jesus were indeed historical figures.
Asked if he regarded the genealogy of Lord Ram, as drawn by British historian Positor in his book Ancient Indian Traditions as historical or not, Dr Rai replied in the negative. Ram’s father King Dashrath was also an imaginary figure, he said.
However, when the counsel suggested that he was indulging in a misinformation campaign (kuprachar) about Lord Ram, Dr Rai stoutly denied doing so. ‘‘This (charge of spreading the wrong information) is not correct,’’ the witness told the court.
Dr Rai also said he had not become witness for money, and no money had been offered to him from any quarter.
Asked when he had shown his published article Ayodhya: A Historical and Archaeological Study to Zafaryab Jilani, counsel for the Sunni Central Waqf Board, Dr Rai said he had done this after he arrived in Lucknow on April 21 to appear as witness in the case.
When the counsel wanted to know if he had seen a stone bearing the Varah Avatar of Lord Vishnu found at the disputed site, Dr Rai replied he had not seen the stone but had seen its photograph in court.
Puttu Lal Misra, counsel for Rajendra Singh, plaintiff in suit number one, then asked the witness if he had done any study on Rishi Vishwamitra’s ashram in Buxar. To this, Dr Rai replied that he had studied the matter but had found no evidence of Vishwa-mitra’s ashram in Buxar or Mithila in Bihar.