NE NEWS SERVICE
TIRUPATI, APR 10
An ”evidence” based book to ”prove” that Lord Hanuman was ”born” on one of the seven sacred hills of Tirumala, home to the Sri Venkateswara Swamy shrine, would be released on April 13, a senior official of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams said on Saturday.
The book with “astronomical, epigraphical, scientific and puranic evidence,” to prove that Lord Hanuman was born on the Tirumala hills would be unveiled by a committee of scholars on ”Ugadi”, the Telugu New Year day, the official, who did not want to be quoted said.
However, Prof V Venkataramana Reddy, former Director of National Mission for Manuscripts, said such a ”quest” on the ”birthplaces of divinities” was not proper, while chief priest of the hill temple, AV Ramana Dikshitulu declined to comment.
TTD executive officer KS Jawahar Reddy had constituted a high-level committee of scholars during last December to study and gather evidence to establish that ”Anjanadri,” one of the seven hills, is the birthplace of Lord Hanuman.
Telugu Desam Party spokesperson N B Sudhakar Reddy, said there was “every possibility to believe that Lord Hanuman was born and raised on Tirumala hills.” “Once, the hills were a dense rain forest and also close to Sri Lanka, which was then ruled by demon king Ravana who abducted Maa Sita,” he said.
The temple of Lord Venkateshwara is located on Venkatadri hill, the seventh and Narayanadri, Seshadri and Garudadri are among the other hills of Tirumala. Hanuman is also hailed as ”Vayuputra” and as son of Anjana Devi who did ”tapas” in the one of the seven hills of Tirumala and it was named after her as ”Anjanadri.” Hanuman is popularly known as ”Sri Anjaneyaswamy” in south India.
The committee of scholars comprises Prof Sannidhanam Sudarshana Sharma, Vice-Chancellor of Sri Venkateswara Vedic University here, Prof Muralidhara Sharma, Vice-Chancellor of National Sanskrit varsity, professors Ranisadasiva Murthy, Sri Janumaddi Ramakrishna and Sankaranarayana of the varsity.
Also, scientist Sri Murthi Remilla, Deputy Director of State Archaeology, Vijay Kumar are members and the panel is led by Project Officer, Higher Vedic studies, A Vibhishana Sharma who is also the convenor, the official said.
