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When Ambedkar exposed the foundational myths of Hinduism

Kanwal Bharti reviews Ambedkar’s studies of myths that are even today passed off as Ancient Indian History. Ambedkar discovered that the ‘Gita’ was written to nullify the Buddha’s anti-caste movement and that the characters of Ram and Krishna aren’t role models, much less gods

Wendy Doniger[1]defines a myth as a story that a lot of people believe although they know it is not true. In fact, the essence of a myth is veiled and therefore people do not pay attention to it. She gives the example of a myth about a Hindu king who had executed 8,000 Jains and says that to understand the myth, one needs to make use of history. If we try and find out why this was written, we will know that Hindus were at loggerheads with the Jains at the time[2]. However, we cannot use the myth to reconstruct the actual history behind it, and we also cannot take it as evidence of cruelty of the Hindu king. Therefore, when we read about Rakshasas in the Ramayana (that Ram killed several Rakshasas), we have to keep in mind that it is an imaginary world and “Rakshasa” was used as a metaphor to describe a group of people who were regarded as enemies. History of ideas, though not the source of “hard” history, is nevertheless a valuable thing, for stories and ideas in stories steer history towards a different future.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE: When Ambedkar exposed the foundational myths of Hinduism

 

 

 

About The Author

Kanwal bharti

Kanwal Bharti (born February 1953) is a progressive Ambedkarite thinker and one of the most talked-about and active contemporary writers. Dalit Sahitya Kee Avdharna and Swami Achootanand Harihar Sanchayita are his key books. He was conferred with Dr Ambedkar Rashtriya Award in 1996 and Bhimratna Puraskar in 2001

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