CHANDIGARH: Maharishi Valmiki was not a dacoit before turning into a sage and writing the Ramayana. In a ruling that could change an age-old belief about the writer of the great epic, Justice Rajive Bhalla of the Punjab and Haryana High Court recently said that though “actual facts appear to be lost in the mists of antiquity,” he was basing his views on a research by a Punjabi University scholar.

Justice Bhalla was hearing an appeal by a national television channel, asking the court to quash an FIR filed against it in Jalandhar for airing a serial that raised a question about Valmiki being a dacoit before he turned into a sage.

“Admittedly, a character in the teleserial asks another character whether Maharishi Valmiki was a dacoit before he became a saint. The other character, while not denying this fact, makes laudatory references to Maharishi Valmiki.

“The research appears to cast a doubt about the authenticity of the story that Maharishi Valamiki was a dacoit,” observed Justice Bhalla. He quoted the research done by the head of the Maharishi Valmiki Chair of the Punjabi University, Patiala, Manjula Sehdev, on the origin and authenticity of the belief that Valmiki was a dacoit.

“We have watched the serial — Bidai — and the dialogues are derogatory. A character in the serial asks whether it is true that Valmiki was a dacoit before turning into a sage. Another character replies that he indeed was a dacoit before he underwent a change of heart. In the next dialogue, the character asks the other whether it is possible for a person to change so dramatically and the reply is in the affirmative. It is this second part of the dialogue that has been mentioned as ‘laudatory’ by the television company in its reply to the court,” says Navvikas, a member of the Valmiki community, who had filed the FIR on October 6, 2009, charging the channel under 295 of IPC for hurting religious sentiments.

The judge stated the salient features of the research, saying that “from Vedic literature up to 9th century AD, there is no reference as such that Maharishi Valmiki led a life of a dacoit or highwayman.” It was also stated that in his own work ‘Ramayana’, Valmiki is called Bhagwan, Muni, Rishi and Maharishi and no reference of his highwaymanship is available there.

Justice Bhalla dismissed the petition filed by the channel and observed: “Electronic media with its immense power and reach must pause, reflect and exercise a greater degree of restraint and responsibility, particularly when it seeks to disseminate religious information likely to affect the sensibility of its audience.”

However, the high court made it clear that their opinion would not affect the investigation of the case, which is being conducted by the Jalandhar police against the channel.

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