Ramayan and Mahabharata ~ the inspirational thread to learn Sanskrit by Muslim Friends.

Two Muslim students win all 3 Sanskrit medals in Gujarat University.

“inspired to learn Sanskrit after hearing stories from the Ramayana and Mahabharata”……

“Muslim boys and girls diversifying into other educational fields is a good sign”…….

Syed Khalique Ahmed | Indian Express | Ahmedabad, | Thu Mar 07 2013 ::  Defying stereotypes, a Muslim boy and girl have bagged all three medals instituted for the BA course in the ancient Indian language by the Gujarat University.

Two of the medals for Sanskrit were won by Taiyab Sheikh, a student of Y S Arts and Commerce college in Devgadh Baria in Panchmahals district. The third went to Yasminbanu Kothari of the Adiwasi Arts and Commerce college in Santrampur in the interior of the state’s tribal belt.

Sheikh got 75.5 per cent marks and Kothari 68.5 per cent. The medals were awarded at the convocation Tuesday.

Sheikh, 23, who is now studying for a B.Ed. degree in a Godhra college, said he was inspired to learn Sanskrit after hearing stories from the Ramayana and Mahabharat told by his teachers in primary school in his village of Tokarwa.

He said he wants to be a post-graduate in Sanskrit and pursue teaching it as a career. Sheikh enrolled himself for a BA degree with Sanskrit as his main subject as he failed to get a teaching job in a primary school after doing a teachers training course.

His elder brother is a head master in a government primary school and there was no opposition in the family to him studying Sanskrit. “My parents, who are farmers and not educated, only wanted me to perform well,” Sheikh said.

Kothari said she developed a liking for Sanskrit when she was in class 12. The daughter of a fruit-seller who studied up to class 12, she too said she did not face any opposition to her choice of the language. “In fact, my father and his friend Rafiq Sheikh, a college teacher, encouraged me to study it,” she said.

Kothari teaches at a primary school in Santrampur and like Sheikh, she too wants to do an MA in Sanskrit and work as a teacher.

“A language does not belong to any community. Anyone can learn any language provided he or she has interest in it,” said J R Machchi, Sheikh’s Sanskrit teacher.

“Muslim boys and girls diversifying into other educational fields is a good sign,” added J S Bandukwala, a retired Physics professor from M S University who runs Zidni Ilma Trust, which promotes professional and technical education among poor Muslim students.

Courtesy: Indian express.

3 comments on “Ramayan and Mahabharata ~ the inspirational thread to learn Sanskrit by Muslim Friends.”

1. kumarathasan

   March 7, 2013

   

   this is a good sign for communal harmony amoungst differerent communities with different views and believes. If we learn other culture, and language and literature. there will be peace in the world.

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   Reply
2. Shiv Shankar

   March 8, 2013

   

   As long as their orthodox Islamic faith stick with them, there will be no change of situation. In some (In fact most of the cases) cases it may go against Hinduism. In most of the cases they use their little learning in a very dangerous purpose. This will be proved like Trojan Horse.

   Shiv Shankar.

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   Reply
3. Pratap Chattopadhyaya

   March 12, 2013

   

   So What? All Muslims are member of a separate nation called Millat. If they learn Sanskrit they will become Indian? Sanskrit is just a subject of reading.. If I learn Arabic shall I become a Muslim? Sheer stupidity of Hindus!
   Pratap Chattopadhyaya

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   Reply

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