Former MP and Congress veteran Karan Singh on Friday said it was “absolutely ridiculous” to say that the King Rajaraja I of the Chola dynasty was not a Hindu.
He was reacting to the recent controversy that erupted after filmmaker Vetrimaaran commented in a function that there were attempts to give a Hindu identity to Rajaraja Chola. He implied that the Chola king was a Shaivite and Hinduism as a religion did not exist in that era. Actor Kamal Haasan on Thursday had backed this line of argument.
In a statement, Mr. Singh said to say that Rajaraja was a Shaivite and not a Hindu was akin to saying that “someone is a Catholic but not a Christian”. “These semantic gymnastics in a way denigrate and confuse our great religion,” he said.
