Dainik Nation News Portal
A textbook used by Gujarat board to teach Sanskrit in Class XII has come under fire for stating that it was Lord Ram who abducted Sita and not Ravana.
A paragraph on page 106 of the ‘Introduction to Sanskrit Literature’, the book mentions: “Here the poet has brought out a beautiful picture of the character of Rama with his original thought and thinking. There is a very heart-touching description of the message conveyed by Laxman to Ram when Sita was abducted by Rama (sic).”
Not just this glaring error, the book is also said to be filled with multiple spelling errors. While the English-medium students got this version of ‘Raghuvansham’ wrong, the Gujarati textbook got the image right. ‘Raghuvansham’ is an epic by Sanskrit poet Kalidas.
As per a report in Times of India, executive president of Gujarat State Board of School Textbooks, Gandhinagar, Dr Nitin Pethani admitted the mistake. He said he was not aware of the error but accepted it as a translation mistake. “It is a translation error where Ravana is replaced with Ram. In the Gujarati textbook there is no mistake,” Pethani was quoted as saying.
