NASA poured cold water on claims by Hindu news services that the US agency's spaceborne cameras had discovered the remains of the mythical bridge built by Rama across the Palk Strait. "Remote sensing images or photographs from orbit cannot provide direct information about the origin or age of a chain of islands, and certainly cannot determine whether humans were involved in producing any of the patterns seen," said NASA official Mark Hess. NRI websites like Indolink.com and the Vaishnava News Network had run a story earlier this week saying that "space images taken by NASA" had revealed "a mysterious ancient bridge in the Palk Strait." The story gained currency when it was picked up, unquestioningly, by the PTI. NASA said the mysterious bridge was nothing more than a 30 km long, naturally-occuring chain of sandbanks called Adam's bridge. Hess said his agency had been taking pictures of these shoals for years. Its images had never resulted in any scientific discovery in the area. The Internet story further claimed "archaeological studies reveal that the first signs of human inhabitants in Sri Lanka date back to%u2026about 1.75 million years ago" as does the age of the bridge. This, in turn, matched the age when the events of the Ramayana took place.
RE:Its an old hoax part 1
by Prasad Manokaran on Apr 15, 2008 10:18 AM Permalink
Its an old Hoax part 2 Historian B.D. Chattopadhyay of Jawaharlal Nehru University says the archaeological record says nothing of the sort. There is no evidence of a human presence in the subcontinent, he says, before roughly 250,000 to 300,000 years ago. It is generally believed man's hominid ancestors did not leave their African home until about two million years ago. At least three ship channels have been dug through Adam's Bridge without any evidence of manmade construction. The sandbanks are not at a greater depth, never being more than 3 or 4 feet at high tide. Geologists believe the sandbank did at one time rise above sealevel. Temple records suggest it was submerged by a violent storm as recently as 1480.
Communication experts say that false, suspect news finds much greater circulation than normal because of the internet. NASA's Hess said, "The images reproduced on the websites may well be ours, but their interpretation is certainly not ours."
RE:Its an old hoax part 1
by Kris iyer on Apr 15, 2008 02:38 PM Permalink
Prasad, As "Sunshine" says below, it is not clear what NASA's stand is. The formation is too neat and straight in the linkage it provides, to give rise to the initial question -"Could it have been built for the sole purpose of crossing this sea?" There are many reef formations but none as "deliberate-looking" as this. I am told there no other reefs in the vicinity, so that we can see this as part of a greater chain, such as the Great Barrier Reef in Australian waters. Do you know of any other connecting two land-masses? If you take the totality of the Ramayana, all the detailed and accurate description of the mountains, lakes, forests and savannahs in India and Sri Lanka, it makes you pause to think hard. The Ramayana is too entrenched in the traditions of not just one Asian country but in almost all of SEAsia as well - as far as the Philippines. Raja Ram's sons, Lava and Kucha travelled throughout North, Northwest India, narrating the story of their parents, Lava settled in the Punjab in a city now named after him, LAHORE [LAVAHOOR]. So, place names, the depth to which the ordinary people of India know the Ramayana for generations. Did you know, TulsiDas wrote the RamCharitMananas because he found that the ordinary people did not understand Valmiki's Sanskrit Ramayana. He wrote his Hindi version by PUBLIC DEMAND, so to speak. I have seen agnostics and atheists listening to a good Upanyasakar narrating the Ramayana, shedding tears as the story unfolds. It is a moving story.
RE:Its an old hoax part 1
by Eternal Sunshine on Apr 15, 2008 10:39 AM Permalink
As religious groups protested on the grounds that the bridge was built by Lord Ram more than a million years ago, project officials and the shipping ministry had said Nasa documentation showed the linked formations were a natural phenomenon and %u201Ctheir occurrence is not evidence of any human activity.%u201D
But now a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) spokesman says the agency has made no official statement over the origins of the Adams Bridge, a coral walkway between Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka slated for dredging to shorten shipping routes.
So we see, NASA also poured water over the claims that the bridge was a natural formation.
Let us now keep NASA away from this , till they come up with more fantastic ideas, none of which can be 100% true, given the fact that their data is limited.
