A German man took to Reddit to share the pictures of an unknown Devanagari text he found at a flea market in Hamburg. Sharing pictures of two yellowed pages filled with text in either Hindi or Sanskrit, the user said that he needed help identifying where the pages were from and what it meant.
"Found this on a flea market in Hamburg, Germany. Can you tell me what it is?" he wrote in his post on r/india seeking help from Indians to help figure out what the text was.
Indian users were quick to come to the rescue and swiftly translated the text to help the German man out. Most users identified the text as belonging to a panchang printed in Varanasi. A panchang is a Hindu calendar and astrology almanac primarily used for timing events and rituals in Hinduism.
Take a look at the post here:
"This is a Hindu calendar known as a Panchang, printed by the Bhargava Press. The press was owned and managed by Pandit Nawal Kishore Bhargava, who was one of the biggest publishers of his time. His significance is even mentioned in the movie "Mirza Ghalib," where he famously declined to publish for Ghalib. This calendar is at least 150 to 180 years old, if I'm not mistaken. I know this because he was our ancestor, our relative from about five generations back. His descendants still live in Lucknow, but they no longer operate the press," one user said explaining in detail.
{{/usCountry}}"This is a Hindu calendar known as a Panchang, printed by the Bhargava Press. The press was owned and managed by Pandit Nawal Kishore Bhargava, who was one of the biggest publishers of his time. His significance is even mentioned in the movie "Mirza Ghalib," where he famously declined to publish for Ghalib. This calendar is at least 150 to 180 years old, if I'm not mistaken. I know this because he was our ancestor, our relative from about five generations back. His descendants still live in Lucknow, but they no longer operate the press," one user said explaining in detail.
{{/usCountry}}"Thanks a lot everyone! I would have never managed to find it out. One question remains, is it rare? Asking so I can preserve it accordingly, if it’s common I’ll just pin it on my wall," the user said.
Many told the German man that while the text was not particularly expensive it was a significant artefact to have, "especially because of how it got to the other side of the world."
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