E-Paper
A rare manuscript that is museum?s pride
'AVTAAR CHARITRA Geeta' penned by Narhar Das is an exclusive manuscript which is being conserved by the Allahabad Museum. Written by Narhar Das, the manuscript is illustrated with 33 coloured photographs and has 629 pages.
'AVTAAR CHARITRA Geeta' penned by Narhar Das is an exclusive manuscript which is being conserved by the Allahabad Museum. Written by Narhar Das, the manuscript is illustrated with 33 coloured photographs and has 629 pages.
"The bulky book is an exhaustive source of the details of avtaars of Lord Vishnu.
Narhar Das is said to be the person in whose 'ashram' Tulsi Das stayed for some time during the period of his learning," said RC Mishra, manuscript in-charge.
There is the use of Devnagari script and the language used is Awadhi and Apbhransha. There is also the use of Anushtup chhand and dohas in the manuscript.
What makes this manuscript rare is the use of Mughal style of painting in the illustrations. The details have been taken care of in the illustrations, which are made very finely. Shweta Singh, who assisted in the conservation work, made hectic efforts to give a fresh look to the worn-out pages.
"Right from the incident of the emerging of Brahma from the navel of Lord Vishnu, the manuscript deals with the details of Kali avtaar, Krishna avtaar, Ram avtaar, Parashuram, Ved Vyas, Dhanvantari, Vaman avtaar Narsingh avtaar, Kurma avtaar and Matsya avtaar etc. There are also the narratives of 'Gajendra moksha', 'Samudra manthan' and several other incidents," said Mishra.
The writer has given an auspicious start to his writings with the Ganesh vandana and he also admits of drawing inspiration from Puranas. He also mentions at the end that the manuscript has been penned by him as a part of a tradition where he wants the next generation to imbibe the details about their religion.
Noticeably, Ram avtaar occupies a great portion of Avtaar Charitra Geeta. Right from the birth of Ram, it has all the 'kands,' quite similar to the ones mentioned in Ramcharit Manas.
