Bhopal: Giving a new twist to the raging debate over the caste of Hindu deity Hanuman, Dwarka Peeth Shankaracharya Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati on Saturday declared ‘Him’ a Brahmin.
He cited description of the mythological hero in Tulsidas Ramayan to back his claim on the caste of the ‘monkey god’.
Tulsidas has described Hanuman in his mythological classic Ramayan as “Kandhe muj Jinou saje… (The sacred thread- wore by Brahmins- adores the shoulder of Hanu-man)” which has clearly established that Bajran-gbali was a Brahmin, he told reporters in district headquarters town of Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh.
“Lord Hanuman is a Brahmin and belonged to Hindu religion”, he asserted.
He slammed the recent purported statement by Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath that Hanuman was a Dalit, saying the word was not even in vogue during the “Traitaya” period (one of four ages defined in Hin-du scriptures) to which epic Ramayan referred.
The UP chief minister’s office has, however, disowned such a statement by him.
Mahatma Gandhi had first referred the disadvantaged sections of society as “Harijan”.
Later, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) Mayawati coined the term “Dalit” to describe the section, the Shankaracharya added.
A Jain seer here has earlier added new dimension to the debate, by claiming that Bajrangbali or Hanuman belonged to his religion.
The Shankaracharya also dismissed the demand raised by a section of Hindu leaders including the RSS to promulgate an ordinance to pave way for construction of Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh, calling it, “irrational and illogical”.
“Ordinance will be irrelevant since 67 acre of land has already been earmarked for construction of Ram temple near disputed site in Ayodhya”, he argued.
He suggested the parliament should pass a resolution seeking to construct Ram temple in Ayodhya. The resolution can be referred to supreme court to remove all bottlenecks before construction of the temple.
