Fw: [t'venkatam] Persian Ramayana, Arabic Gita preserved

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"Narayanan Pydakula Thiruvengadam" <ptnv2000

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Sunday, September 25, 2005 3:57 PM

[t'venkatam] Persian Ramayana, Arabic Gita preserved

 

 

> AN ARTICLE FROM DECCAN CHRONICLE FORWARDED FOR

> INFORMATION PLEASE.

> ptnarayanan

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> Persian Ramayana, Arabic Gita preserved

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> Hyderabad, Sept. 24: 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. "They are invaluable," said

> Syed Akbar Nizamuddin, chancellor of Jamia Nizamia.

> "The Mahabharata manuscript is in bad shape and we

> have now carefully hand-laminated it. We have also

> micro-filmed and digitised the scriptures."

>

> 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.

>

> "There's nothing comm-unal about knowledge," Mufti

> Khaleel Ahmad, the grand mufti and vice-chancellor of

> the Nizamia, told this correspondent. "Only people are

> communal. Reading books of different religions

> enha-nces one's understanding. No religion teaches

> hatred," the Mufti said.

>

> 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.

>

> "Luckily, our books are still in good condition," said

> M. Asifuddin, president of IACR. "We have been taking

> great care to preserve them." Another city Muslim

> organisation labouriously preserving Hindu scriptures

> is the Iqbal Academy. It has rare copies of the Gita

> and Mahabharata. The Asafia Library and the HEH Nizam

> Trust's Library have several Hindu scriptures in Urdu,

> Persian and Arabic. "Study of different religions

> will help prevent misconceptions, hatred and

> mistrust," said secretary of the All-India Muslim

> Per-sonal Law Board Abdul Rahim Qureshi.

>

> "We can eradicate social evils by promoting religious

> values," Queshi said. Hafiz Shujath Hussain, a

> research scholar poring over the Al Kita, said it was

> heartening to see Muslim organisations preserve such

> rare manuscripts. "We have to take care to keep them

> safe for ever," he said.

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> Namo VenkateshAya namah:

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