105-year-old Urdu copy of Shri Ramcharitmanas found

Varanasi, August 24

A 105-year-old Urdu copy of Shri Ramcharitmanas has been found from a scrap market in New Delhi.

The copy of Shri Ramcharitmanas, printed in Urdu way back in 1910 at Lahore, was found in a pile of torn books three years ago in a scrap market at Hauz Khas in New Delhi and was bought only for Rs 600 by the Sankat Mochan temple priest family.

The priest family came across the Urdu copy while searching for an ancient manuscript of Sri Ramcharitmanas, which was stolen along with other precious articles related to Goswami Tulsidas from the Sankat Mochan temple at Tulsi ghat.

When the manuscript was stolen, the former Sankat Mochan temple priest Veer Bhadra Mishra, who was also a Professor of Hydraulics at BHU, and his two sons Vishwambhar Nath Mishra and Vijay Nath Mishra along with other temple staff launched a countrywide hunt for it.

The Urdu version was written by an ardent follower of Goswami Tulsi Das, Shiv Brat Lal, a native of Bhadohi district, in 1904 and was later printed at Lahore's Half-Tone press in 1910.

The copy carries a prologue of 20 pages and has 'four hand-drawn photographs' in which one photograph not only carries the pictures of Lord Ram, Sita, Laxman and Hanuman but also of Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh.

"A photocopy of one of this hand-drawn photograph was also handed over to Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to Sankat Mochan temple, who too was surprised after seeing this photograph of Vishu, Brahma and Mahesh in it," Sankat Mochan temple's Mahant Vishwambhar Nath Mishra said. — PTI