STATE VISIT: Sandalwood box, Upanishads among Narendra Modi's gifts to Joe Biden

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 22

PM Narendra Modi on Wednesday presented uniquely inspired and crafted gifts to US President Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden as the two hosted him for an intimate dinner at the White House.

To President Biden, the PM presented a set of earth elements offered in the Indian tradition in celebration of a person attaining over 80 years of age.

As a second gift, the PM presented the US President a copy of the first edition of ‘The Ten Principal Upanishads’, an English translation of the Upanishads co-authored by Swami Purohit and WB Yeats, published by Faber and Faber of London and printed in Glasgow.

The principal gift to Biden — a sandalwood box complete with earth elements — was inspired by the ancient Indian ritual of honouring a person who lives to see 80 years and beyond.

The box with a silver idol of Ganesha and an oil lamp have been handcrafted by a family of fifth-generation silversmiths of Kolkata, a PMO note said. A copper plate, also in the box, has been sourced from UP and has a shloka inscribed on it.

Presents for US Prez, his wife

SPECIAL SANDALWOOD BOX FROM MYSURU

• Sourced from Mysuru, it has intricately carved flora and fauna patterns
• It has been handcrafted by a master craftsman from Jaipur
• The box contains handcrafted silver boxes with symbolic ‘das danam’ or 10 donations
• It denotes the donations made on the occasion when a person has seen 1,000 full moons on completing 80 years and eight months

COPY OF ‘THE TEN PRINCIPAL UPANISHADS’

• It is the first edition of an English translation of the Upanishads
• Irish poet William Butler Yeats and Shri Purohit Swami co-authored it
• It was published by Faber and Faber Limited of London and printed at the University Press Glasgow
• Yeats had a deep admiration for India, Biden said

Lab-grown diamond for First Lady

• To US First Lady Jill Biden, the PM gifted a lab-grown 7.5-carat diamond
• It is eco-friendly as eco-diversified resources such as solar and wind power were used in its making
• It has been sculpted with precision and care using cutting-edge technology and emits only 0.028 gram of carbon per carat

Surat industry glitters

The lab-grown diamond has been manufactured in a Surat factory by recreating the same process that takes place beneath the earth in formation of natural diamonds. India has decided to promote these to boost the diamond industry, which has its headquarters in Surat.

Kashmiri artisans thank PM

Papier mache artisans in Kashmir are elated that one of their products — the exquisite box holding the diamond gifted by PM Modi to US First Lady — has graced the White House.

Vintage camera among return gifts

• A handmade, antique American book galley from the early 20th century
• An archival facsimile print of George Eastman’s Patent of the first Kodak camera
• A hardcover book on US wildlife photography; a vintage American camera
• A signed, first edition copy of ‘Collected Poems of Robert Frost’

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