Published On:Saturday 27 September 2014

Posted by Celebrate Life Style information Blog

Artist, director, writer and Sanskrit scholar Lubna Marium from Bangladesh is of the view that all efforts to sow seeds of radicalism in the Islamic Republic of Bangladesh have proved unsuccessful in the face of strong tradition among Bengali people to constantly inquire and engage in search of inner reality as represented by the wandering minstrels or Bauls.


Lubna, who is the lone delegate from Bangladesh at the ongoing international seminar on Sanskrit, said, “Both East and West Bengal are purveyors of rich tradition of performance based rituals, an expression of free will and action as practised by the Bauls, a repository of Buddhist, and Vaishnavism traditions.”

At the seminar she presented a paper tracing the unique religious and cultural heritage of Bengal. A major part of her education was at Shantiniketan and Sagar University.

She sympathised with the plight of Bangladesh writer Taslima Nasreen, who had been granted asylum in India, and said the writer should return home and take on the right wingers. “There are several activists and writers who had suffered the worst persecution here during the freedom movement, but they never left their country and sought asylum elsewhere. I would ask Taslima to return home and be brave enough to face it all. She has enough support back home,” said Lubna.

As Director of Shadhona, Lubna is credited with reviving Chariya Nritya, a dance based on Vajrayana Buddhism and sung in the old Bangla language. “Priests were against the public performance of the religious ritual, but in 1956 after a conference, it was unanimously decided to allow public performances so as to keep the art alive,” she added.

Meanwhile, Sanskrit is studied in six top universities in Bangladesh and is offered in schools to Hindu students. It is the dwindling population of Hindus in Bangladesh that worries Lubna. “Once, the Hindus were in a sizeable number in Bangladesh. But now they are just 8 per cent of the total population. This is a black spot on the history of our country,” she noted.

Scholars want Sanskrit texts translated

On the second day of the international seminar on Sanskrit, scholars stressed on the need to translate works of Sanskrit in different languages and also said that the knowledge of Sanskrit was essential in spreading the message of world peace.

During the six technical sessions held today, around 100 scholars presented their papers before the Governor of Uttarakhand Aziz Qureshi.

The scholars deliberated on the efforts to translate Sanskrit works in different languages so that the rich knowledge in the traditional scriptures, science and art is easily accessible to a wider population.

Speaking on the occasion Prof Ramkripal Tripathi said that Sanskrit language has been referred to as the language of the Devtas as whoever acquires the knowledge of the language does not have to worry about earning a livelihood or people’s respect.

Scholars also revealed before the audience the rich texts available in Sanskrit on economic, political affairs and world peace.

Prof RC Sharma of Garhwal University said that the solution to world conflicts can be found in Sanskrit Vagmaya. In the evening the delegates were taken to witness the world famous Ganga arti held at Parmarth Niketan, Rishikesh.[ The Tribune ]