New Delhi:
An Indian delegation of Ayodhya Sodh Sansthan, a research body under the Uttar Pradesh Department of Culture, has claimed to found an image of Lord Ram in Iraq at a mural circa 2000 BSE. The mural carved on the Darband-i-Belula cliff depicts a bare-chested king holding a bow while a person is sitting next to him with folded hands, resembling to Lord Hanuman.
The delegation, headed by Indian ambassador to Iraq Pradeep Singh Rajpurohit, visited the cliff on a request by the Ayodhya Shodh Sansthan. An Indian diplomat at the Ebril consulate, Chandramouli Karn, historians from the University of Sulaimania and the Iraqi Governor of Kurdistan also accompanied him during the visit to probe the claims.
“There is anecdotal evidence on imprints of Ram in Belula pass, but this delegation collected graphical proof to undertake a detailed study to establish a link between the Indian and Mesopotamian cultures,” Yogendra Pratap Singh, Director, Ayodhya Shodh Sansthan was quoted as saying by IANS news agency.
“The king and the supplicant in the mural is an unintentional reminder of Ram and Hanuman to many of us,” he said.
However, historians in Iraq do not agree with the claim. They are of the opinion that the mural doesn’t depict Lord Ram but Tardunni, head of a mountain tribe. They said that similar etchings also show a king and kneeling supplicants, they believe could be the slaves.
