To pick out details and characters from Indian mythology to argue that they are proof of scientific advance in ancient times is “insulting our own imagination”, said Jnanpith Award-winning writer Girish Karnad here on Saturday.
Making an oblique reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who linked medical science to mythology recently by stating that the creation of Ganesha is proof of the existence of plastic surgeons thousands of years ago, Mr. Karnad said such claims amounted to denying and falsifying the “mythical imagination and symbolism” of our ancient writers. Mythologies across the world were rich in such symbolisms, he added.
At a discussion organised by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), he said claims on 2,000-year-old texts providing answers to all present-day problems amounted to “freezing” ourselves in a historical past. He recalled that Gandhiji, who revered the Bhagavad Gita , said that only 33 shlokas in it were relevant to him. “We should pick what is relevant to us from our past and discard the rest,” he said.
On the Hindi film PK around which the discussion was organised, Mr. Karnad said the Rajkumar Hirani production showed a remarkable “rationalist courage”. Writer K. Marulasiddappa said the common thread between the terrorist attack on the office of the French satirical journal and protests against PK was the “death of a sense of humour” among fundamentalist groups of all hues. PK had to be viewed as comedy with a comment on organised religion and not as a polemic on religion, he said. Mr. Marulasiddappa added that humour and freedom of expression were two important markers of a healthy democracy that need to be preserved.
Humour and freedom of expression are two important markers of a healthy democracy, says Marulasiddappa