Persian Ramayana, Arabic Gita preserved

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Persian Ramayana, Arabic Gita preserved

 

 

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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