The
cultures of the West should look beyond the Roman and Greek civilizations for
new inspiration. There existed centuries
before a great work of antiquity attributed to a sage. Its date of composition can never be fixed
with any certainty, particularly as, in common with other Sanskrit classics, it
was not at first committed to writing but passed on generations from singer to
singer.
The sage Valmiki,
Chief among Munis and most eloquent of men, constantly engaged in study of holy
scriptures enquired the most knowledgeable Narada - “who is there in
the World, endowed with excellent and heroic qualities, who is versed in all
duties of life, grateful, truthtul, firm in his vows, benevolent to all beings,
learned, eloquent, handsome, patient, slow to anger – one who is truly great;
who is free from envy and One whose wrath can strike terror to celestial
beings. Narada replied - " Rare indeed are those, endowed with the qualities
thou hast enumerated, yet I can tell thee of such a one – born in Ikshwaku
clan, named Sri Rama. Srimad Ramayanam, the most ancient and reverred
epic comprises of nearly 24000 slogas stating the journey of Lord Rama set to
annihilate the demon Ravana in lanka. In
this beautiful land replete with scholars, I do not possess enough knowledge to
write at length on the mahakavya.
Rampur Raza
Library, located in Rampur, Uttar
Pradesh, is a repository of Indo-Islamic
cultural heritage and a treasure-house of knowledge established in last decades
18th century, and built up by successive Nawabs of Rampur and now managed by
Government of India. It contains very rare and valuable collection of
manuscripts, historical documents, miniature paintings, astronomical
instruments and rare illustrated works in Arabic and Persian.
We have heard about
Persia. Prince of Persia is an
entertaining video game created by Jordan Mechner, originally published by
Brøderbund, then the Learning Company, and currently Ubisoft. It was all about
setting free a beautiful princess amidst various dangers.
Persian, also known
as Farsi, the predominant modern
descendant of Old Persian, is one of the Western Iranian languages within the
Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. It is primarily
spoken in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan.
Persian is a pluricentric language and its grammar is similar to that of
many contemporary European languages. Wikipedia states that there are approximately
110 million Persian speakers worldwide, with the language holding official
status in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan. For centuries, Persian has also
been a prestigious cultural language in other regions of Western Asia, Central
Asia, and South Asia by the various empires based in the regions.
The
holy Ramayan has been translated in many languages. Valmiki Ramayan is available in many English
versions. Way back in 1880 FS Growse
translated Thulasidas Ramayan. In 1952,
Oxford University Press published the work of W. Dagnal P Hill. Now we are reading more about one particular
version of 1715, which has attracted so much of media attention, thanks to our
PM Shri Narendra Modi.
US President Obama’s historic visit to Hanoi,
where he announced the U.S. is ending the 41-year U.S. arms embargo against
Vietnam, and also oversaw new business deals worth about $16 billion was
historical. More fraught part of the
continent is that of three leaders—Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani, Indian
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani—signing a
flurry of deals in Tehran on Monday, aimed at reworking political obstacles
that have hobbled the region’s economies through years of war and economic
boycotts.
Shri Modi spoke
thus - Centuries of free exchange of
ideas and traditions, poets and craftsmen, art and architecture, culture and
commerce have enriched both our civilizations. Our heritage has also been a
source of strength and economic growth for our nations. The richness of Persian
heritage is an integral part of the fabric of the Indian society. A part of
Iranian culture lives in Indian hearts. And, a slice of Indian heritage is
woven into the Iranian society. Our ancient heroes and epics bear striking
parallels. .. .. .. .. .. The great
medieval poets of India have called the Persian and Sanskrit the two sisters.
India's religious epic Ramayana which has seen over a dozen translations in
Persian is known to have about 250 words of Persian. It served as a court
language in medieval India. But, its popularity is also because it is written
on the hearts of the Indians. It is taught in around 40 universities in India.
All India Radio has been running the Persian language service for last 75
years. India has a proud collection of almost 5 million manuscripts of Persian
in public and private collections. There are more than 20 million documents in
Persian in National and State Archives.
More than the
speech, Indian Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi, gifted the supreme leader of
Iran Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei a specially commissioned
reproduction of a rare seventh-century manuscript of the Holy Quran attributed
to Hazrat Ali, the fourth caliph. Written in Kufic script, this manuscript is
stated to be a prized possession of the Ministry of Culture’s Rampur Raza Library.
Modiji also gifted the Iranian President
Dr. Hassan Rouhani specially commissioned reproductions of Mirza Asadullah Khan
Ghalib’s collection of poetry in Persian, Kulliyat-e-Farsi-e-Ghalib, as also Sumair Chand’s Persian
translation of Ramayana.
Translated
into Persian in 1715 and copied in 1826, Sumair Chand’s Ramayana is a rare
manuscript at the Ministry of Culture’s Rampur Raza Library, and contains over
260 illustrations – possibly the largest number in any hand-written Ramayana
manuscript. Not
much was written about this earlier, but the media is all buzz about the
Persian language translation of holy Ramayana !
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
22nd May 2o16.
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