AJMER, RAJASTHAN, July 11, 2008: At a bustling market in Masuda town, a large number of people from the Mehrat community gather every day. A majority of them are poor and illiterate. They are people with a mixed Hindu-Muslim identity, and face an identity crisis.
Deepa, 60, has a Hindu name but he thinks he is a Muslim because he follows Muslim practices. “In my family, we celebrate Hindu festivals such as Holi and Diwali. But we also offer namaz (prayers) at Muslim Festivals. We worship both local gods and Allah. I do not know whether my ancestors were Hindus or Muslims.”
Forty-two-year-old Sohan Singh is delighted to call himself a “full-fledged” Hindu. Recently he cremated his mother, defying a family tradition of burying their dead.
Barely 25 years ago, the community members had flexibility to switch between the religions. But contact with other areas of the country exposed the situation. Both Hindu and Muslim groups have mobilized efforts to bring the locals fully into their fold. This is putting a lot of stress on families.
The VHP general Secretary in Byawar, Nitesh Goel says “Some ill practices have crept into their behaviour, but this can be purified and they can become Hindus again. These people are not Muslims, they only follow certain customs that are common to Muslims. They are Hindus at heart and, therefore, should return to the religion.” But the state president of Jamaat-e-Islami, Salim Engineer, says that “Many centuries ago, they declared themselves Muslims. But they did not know what Islam was and so remained with the old culture and rituals.”
Ancient Deity Found in Bangladesh
http://vedaprakash.indiainteracts.com/2008/07/12/vishnu-idol-found-in-bangladesh-in-a-pond/
SULTANPUR, BANGLADESH, July 12, 3008: Brahmanbaria Sadar upazila found a 10th century statue of Lord Vishnu five metres below the ground in Sultanapur, Bangladesh. The night after the discovery, a local art smuggling group offered him US$15,000 for the statue, but he refused and contacted the local police station to handover custody of the statue.
Meanwhile, local journalist and cultural activists contacted Asiatic Society of Bangladesh (ASB) and urged them to help preserve the statue properly. Editor of Smatat Barta, a local daily of Brahmanbaria, Manjurul Alam said, “We thought it is our responsibility to protect our heritage from the clutches of smugglers.”
The experts claimed the five feet high and 2.6 feet wide statute of Lord Vishnu, weighing 262 kg, is an artefact of 10th century made during the Chandra dynasty”s rule of Samatat Kingdom, now the greater Comilla district.
Renowned archaeologist AKM Zakaria said, “It is a unique piece of art made with superior quality black stone… could be made of high-quality Basalt. It is one of the finest and one of the largest artefacts discovered in the country.”
On why the artefact was found five metres under the ground, Zakaria said it was a practice of the ancient Hindu community to bury the image of a deity, when a part of it was distorted. Of the four hands, two hands and the nose of the Vishnu statute are broken. But there is another theory. Archeologist Dr. R. Nagaswamy says Hindu scriputes give instructions on how to preserve a Deity by burying it under the ground or throwing it in a pond, lake etc., so that they can escape invaders and marauding iconoclasts. Later, they could be recovered and re-installed.
Last year, a Vishnu murti was reported in Russia fonud in similar circumstances as reported here. The statue found in Staraya dates back to the 8th century AD. Staraya Maina village in Ulyanovsk region was a highly populated city 1700 years ago, much older than Kiev, believed to be the mother of all Russian cities. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1046928.cms