OUR LITERATURE -- National Mission for Manuscripts

OUR LITERATURE -- National Mission for Manuscripts

It is estimated that the total manuscript wealth available, in India, today is in the order of 5 million according to the National Mission for Manuscripts which was established in February 2003, by the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, Government of India. A unique project in its program and mandate, the Mission seeks to unearth, preserve, catalog, index and make available for research the vast manuscript wealth of India.

These manuscripts cover a variety of themes, textures and aesthetics, scripts, languages, calligraphies,illuminations and illustrations. Together, they constitute the ‘memory' and the DNA, of India's history,heritage and thought. These manuscripts lie scattered across the country and beyond, in numerous  institutions as well as private collections, often unattended and undocumented. The National Mission for Manuscripts aims to locate, document, preserve and render these accessible—to connect India's past with its future, its memory with its aspirations. The electronic catalogue or database contains data on about three hundred thousand (300,000) manuscripts, and the database is steadily increasing day by day.

This is the case despite heavy losses due to wars, destruction and natural decay. Out of this staggering number about 1 million have been catalogued in India and perhaps another 200,000 abroad in various libraries such as the Bodleian Library in Oxford. This is by far the largest extant literature from the ancient world for any civilization. There is nothing even remotely comparable anywhere else. In one field alone,namely astronomy, the late David Pingree found so many manuscripts that he called the resulting effortat cataloguing a Census, yes Census which took several volumes to compile and yet we are told repeatedly that the ancient Indics were deficient in historical record keeping. Our riposte is the query ‘relative to whom are we deficient ?’. Where else in the world do we find a literature going back to 4000 BCE. It is no wonder that scholars have found the study of India to be such a fertile field and continue to find it so even today.

పులగము (పొంగలి)

From Janardhana Sarma’s blog Vibhaataveechikalu 

ముద్గాన్న నైవేద్యము ఈ ధనుర్మాసములో మహా విష్ణువుకు ముద్గాన్నమును నైవేద్యముగా సమర్పిస్తారు. [ పెసర పప్పుతో 

చేసిన పులగము ] దీని గురించి ’ ఆగ్నేయ పురాణము ’ లో ఇలాగుంది , || కోదండస్తే సవితరి ముద్గాన్నం యో నివేదయేత్ | 

సహస్ర వార్షికీ పూజా దినేనైకేన సిధ్యతి || " ధనూరాశిలో సూర్యుడుండగా పులగమును ఒక్క దినమైనా విష్ణువుకు సమర్పించిన 

మనుష్యుడు ఒక వేయి సంవత్సరముల పాటు పూజ చేసిన ఫలాన్ని పొందుతాడు " అని వివరిస్తుంది ఈ నైవేద్యమును 

పాకము చేయు విధమును కూడా పురాణమే తెలుపుతుంది. దాని ప్రకారము , " బియ్యమునకు సమానముగా పెసర పప్పును 

చేర్చి వండు పులగము ఉత్తమోత్తమము. బియ్యపు ప్రమాణములో సగము పెసరపప్పు చేర్చితే అది మధ్యమము. బియ్యపు 

ప్రమాణములో పావు వంతు పెసరపప్పు చేర్చితే అది అధమము. అయితే , బియ్యపు ప్రమాణమునకు రెండింతలు పెసరపప్పు 

చేర్చితే అది పరమ శ్రేష్టమైనది. భక్తులు తమకు శక్తి ఉన్నంతలో శ్రేష్ట రీతిలో పులగము వండి పరమాత్మునికి నివేదించవలెను. 

ఎట్టి పరిస్థితిలోనూ పెసర పప్పు ప్రమాణము , బియ్యమునకంటే సగము కన్నా తక్కువ కాకుండా చూసుకోవలెను. " అంతే 

కాదు , ’ పెసర పప్పు , పెరుగు , అల్లము , బెల్లము , కందమూలములు , ఫలములతో కూడిన పులగమును భగవంతునికి 

సమర్పిస్తే సంతుష్టుడై భక్త వత్సలుడైన మహా విష్ణువు తన భక్తులకు సకల విధములైన భోగములను మోక్షమును కూడా 

ప్రసాదిస్తాడు ’ అని పురాణము తెలుపుతుంది. అందుకే , ధనుర్మాసమనగానే విష్ణు పూజ మరియు పులగము [ పొంగల్ ] 

తప్పని సరియైనాయి. శ్రద్ధాళువులు తమ తమ శక్తి మేరకు ధనుర్మాసములో శ్రీ మహావిష్ణువును పూజించి కృతార్థులై , ఆయన 

కృపకు పాత్రులు కాగలరు.

25 years since the exodus of the Pandits. Do you know the real history of #Kashmir ?

Posted on January 18, 2015 by François Gautier | 5 Comments

Do you know the real history of #Kashmir ?
Even as it is 25 years now that the #Hindus were chased out of the Valley of Kashmir by the #Muslims, there is a lot of misconception in people’s mind, bothIndian and western, that Kashmir did not always belong to India, or that it is a “disputed area”. This is why FACT (Forum Against Continuing Terrorism) chose to do an exhibition, which was shown with a great success all over the world, including to the US Congress in 2006 (http://refugees-in-their-own-country.blogspot.in/). Here are some of the facts we highlighted.
For two thousand years, the Himalayan valley of Kashmir in Northern India has been the home of Learning and Wisdom. From this small valley have issued masterpieces of history, poetry, romance, fable, and philosophy and many of the greatest Sanskrit scholars and poets were born and wrote in the valley. Kashmir flourished under some of India’s greatest rulers, such as Mauryan emperor Ashoka, who reigned between 273 and 233 BC and is recorded to have founded the old city of Srinagar. Under his sovereignty, many Buddhist scholars, missionaries, and intellectuals permanently settled in the valley. Or the great Hindu King Harsha (1089 to 1101 A. D) who was versed in many languages, a good poet, lover of music and art, making his court a centre of luxury, learning and splendour.
Unfortunately In the beginning of 14th century, a ferocious Mongol warlord, Dulucha, invaded the valley through its northern side Zojila Pass, with an army of 60,000 men. His savage attack ended for all purposes the Hindu rule in Kashmi and he is said to have destroyed many temples and killed thousands of Hindus. Muslim rule was further tightened in 1389, during the rule of Sultan-Sikandar. He banned all celebrations and would not even listen to music. He imposed Jizia (tax on Infidels) upon Hindus and stopped them to use tilak. Almost all the Muslim chroniclers of that time speak of the wholesaledestruction of Hindu shrines including the famed ‘Martand’ Temple, and forcible conversion of Hindus to Islam. Thousands of Hindus fled to India to save their religion and holy books, and also to escape the wrath of the Sultan
Then, after a period of relative tolerance and peace, came the rule of Afghans warlords till 1819, roughly a period of 67 years. The very first Afghan governor Abdullah Khan Aquasi, immediately after assuming powers, started a reign of terror. People were looted and killed indiscriminately, and even soldiers began to amass wealth beyond any imagination. Fortunately, in 1819, 30,000 soldiers of Sikh Maharaja Ranjit Singh attacked Kashmir, defeated the Pathans, and the state became a part of Ranjit Singh’s empire for nearly forty years, providing some relief to Hindus in Kashmir. But the British defeated the Sikhs and became undisputed masters of India. Not interested by Kashmir, they sold it in perpetuity for 75 lakhs of rupees (appr 150.000 $) to Maharaja Gulab Singh of the Doghra dynasty (what wonderful merchants the British, who sell something which does not even belong to them!).
By treaty, conquest, or inter-marriages, the Doghras created a state comprised of five major units, which are fundamentally very different from each other in terms of geography and ethnicity and have further complicated the problems of Kashmir: the territory around Gilgit (today in Pakistan), which belongs basically to Central Asia; Ladhak, which is an extension of Tibet and is peopled at 55% by Buddhists and 45% by Muslims; the area around Muzarrafad which is today under Pakistan control, comprised mostly of Punjabi Muslims; Jammu, which in essence belongs to Himachal Pradesh and is Hindu in majority; and the valley of Kashmir, of course, which was Indian Muslim at 95 % in 1947.
Finally, India gained its independence from in 1947 and was disastrously divided by the British, against the advice of saints and seers, such as Sri Aurobindo, along religious lines into India and Pakistan. Although many Muslims chose to stay in India, knowing that they would be granted the freedom of practicing their own religion, most Hindus had to flee Pakistan as they were being slaughtered mercilessly. Maharaja Hari Singh of Kashmir decided to attach his state to free and secular India. Furious, the Pakistan Government invaded Kashmir, and encouraged the Muslim tribal people to carry loot, plunder, death and destruction into the hearths and homes of innocent Kashmiris in general and among Hindus in particular.
Since 1947, Pakistan, aided by China, which also claims parts of Indian territory, has initiated three wars to regain Indian Kashmir, four, if you include the Kargil war fought in the icy reaches of upper Kashmir. Worse, the proxy war which they are waging on India today, by arming, training and financing not only Kashmiri separatists, but also Islamic militants coming from Afghanistan, or even faraway Sudan, has cost the lives of nearly 60.000 innocent people, both Hindus and Muslims. It should be added that Pakistan decided in the late eighties that it would be easier to regain Kashmir if all the Hindus were pushed out by a campaign of terror, both in the valley, where they were a tiny minority and in Jammu where they still have a thin majority. Thus 450,000 Kashmiri Pandits, constituting 99% of the total population of Hindus living in the Kashmir Valley, have been forcibly pushed out of the Valley by terrorists. Since 1989, they have been forced to live the life of exiles in their own country.

People should also be reminded that terrorism in Kashmir is not about separatism only, it is also an ideological struggle with specific fundamentalist and communal Agenda. Terrorist violence aims at the disengagement of the state of Jammu and Kashmir from India and its annexation to Pakistan. It is a continuation of the Islamic fundamentalist struggle.

François Gautier

Original Home of All Religions

It did not take long for the question to acquire another dimension, the dimension of time. India gave a religion which was not only rational but was also prior to all other religions. In 1760, Voltaire acquired a copy of Ezourvedam, a forgery of the Jesuits (most probably of Di Nobili). But even this served an unintended purpose. Voltaire with his acumen saw even in this document the voice of an ancient religion. While he praised Brahmins for having "established religion on the basis of universal religion", he also found that India was the home of religion in its oldest and purest form. He described India as a country "on which all other countries had to rely, but which did not rely on anyone else". He also believed that Christianity derived from Hinduism. He wrote to and assured Frederick the Great of Prussia that "our holy Christian religion is solely based upon the ancient religion of Brahma".