Persian Ramayana, Arabic Gita preserved
In this age of religious bigotry,many Muslim organisations of the
State are working tirelessly to preserve rare Hindu scriptures.
The 117-year-old Dairatul Maarif treasures its copy of the Arabic
version of the Bhagawad Gita, probably the only one of its kind
in the world. Similarly valued is the Persian Ramayana, estimated
to be more than 600 years old,which is kept in the
library-cum-research centre of the 132-year-old Jamia Nizamia.
The Arabic Gita and the Persian Ramayana are merely two among the
200-odd rare Hindu religious manuscripts and books preserved in
various Muslim research institutes including madarasas. These
organisations take great care of such manuscripts. The organisations
use state-of-the-art methods to protect them for posterity. Several
manuscripts been digitised and the CD versions are available for
scholars of comparative religion.
The Arabic version of the Holy Gita, known as Al Kita, is about
100 years old. The Jamia Nizamia, a deemed university with
international recognition, also possesses a 500-year-old manuscript
of the Mahabharata in Persian. Both these documents have been
laminated and preserved by Nizamia.
Al Kita was published by Dairatul Maarif in the beginning of the
last century on the request of a noble from Kolkata. Its pirated
editions are available in the Gulf countries. Another valuable
possession of the Daira is the Arabic version of Rabindranath Tagore’s
great Geetanjali.
Dozens of researchers visit these libraries to study the rare documents.
The Islamic Academy of Comparative Religion also has in its possession
score of Hindu religious books, including 188 Upanishads, four Vedas,
Bhagawad Gi-ta, Valmiki Ramayana, Ma-nusmriti and several Pura-nas.
It also possesses 30 Bibles in Hebrew, Arabic, Urdu, Telugu and Greek.
posted by Unknown @ 7:55 PM
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