HINDU MYTHOLOGY ALIVE & WELL

Government officials have raised the ire of devout Hindus by suggesting that the monkey god Hanuman did not use a monkey army to build a land bridge to Sri Lanka:

A 30-mile chain of limestone shoals called Adam's Bridge connecting India with Sri Lanka has become the unlikely centerpiece of a political drama. Devout Hindus believe that the Ram Sethu, as they call it, was constructed by a monkey-army led by Lord Hanumana to enable Lord Rama to cross over to Lanka to rescue his wife Sita, who had been kidnapped by the Lankan king, Ravana. Scientists, however, say it is a natural structure that joined Sri Lanka to the Asian continent during the last Ice Age.

When the government submitted an affidavit in the Supreme Court last week saying "mythological texts" could not "incontrovertibly prove" the existence of Lord Rama or the simian construction of the Ram Sethu, all hell broke loose. Opposition Hindu hardliners held spirited demonstrations accusing the government of "hurting Hindu sentiments" by suggesting the gods were mythological figures. The government was forced into damage-control mode — two senior officials were immediately suspended, an inquiry was ordered, and the affidavit was withdrawn. The controversy reached such heights that NASA was obliged to declare it had nothing to do with the use of its photos by some Hindu groups to imply that Adam's Bridge was 1,750,000 years old and hence synchronous with "Ramrajya" — the golden period of Lord Rama's rule.

Here's a picture of yours truly along with everyone's favorite monkey god from this past January. He certainly looks fit enough to build a land bridge.