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On King Arthur

The Ramar Sethu row and claims about Rama’s existence remind me of the efforts to prove the existence of another mythological but historically unaccounted for figure, King Arthur of England. In his book The quest for Arthur’s Britain, Geoffrey Ashe says: “Historically speaking, Arthurian Fact is far clearer than Arthur himself. An archaeologist might argue that because there is no physical proof of King Arthur of Camelot, he never existed. To say Arthur did not exist is to take a shallow look at all the data surrounding him (legends, folk tales, literary compositions, etc.). The majority of Arthur’s existence is not buried in Camelot or Tintagel, but in the minds and hearts of people around the world ...” The same logic applies to Rama and a host of religious and literary figures who live in the tales of the land that forms the bedrock of culture.

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