In most, if not all cases the poets were orthodox, believing, practicing hindus. Of the 100 or so translations/re-compositions of the ramayan in urdu more than 80 were written/composed by hindu writers/poets. One of the important reasons that East Pakistan separated and declared baNgladesh was that it did not want urdu to be imposed on it in preference to its own language, beNgali. There are large numbers of muslims (Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka) who do not know/speak urdu. It is highly contentious to say that urdu is a muslim language (as if a language has religion) or even to say that urdu is a language of muslims. Since god, like language, has no religion, these odes/hamd/vandana are entirely secular/universal. One is struck deeply by the acceptance and seamless adoption of multiple religious traditions as indicated by the observation that many ramayan renderings (even some by hindu poets) start with вЂњbismillah ir-rahman ir-rahimвЂќ and a вЂњhamdвЂќ (an ode and/or expression of gratitude to god). The sheer number and the high poetic and linguistic quality of this literature surprised me as I worked to string together representative parts of urdu nazm/poems of ramayan by different poets, like pearls strung in a necklace, into a near complete story.ДЄ close reading of urdu ramayan translations offers some fascinating lessons about mingling of cultures in India, the origins and вЂњownershipвЂќ of Urdu language, the power of the pen across languages and cultures and the universality of basic human emotions.

Why has this significant piece of literature been relegated to a neglected and ignored heap of disdain? This needs to be corrected.

What is surprising is that there are more than twice as many poetic translations/trans-compositions of the ramayan in urdu as there are of the qurвЂ™aan and that the ramayan was translated into urdu even before the qurвЂ™aan was.ДЄ book вЂњ urdu meN hindu dharmвЂќ (Hindu Religion in Urdu), Ajai Malviya, written in Urdu, catalogues in detail urdu translations of the vedas (66), ramayan (103), mahabharat (38), bhagwad gita (83), puranas (44), manu smriti (4), biography of vashisht (14) and miscellaneous other religious compositions (472) spanning about 200 years of publications. It is not surprising then that the Ramayan has been translated not only into all major languages, but also into unexpected ones like Polish, Norwegian and Swedish. The ramayan has fascinated minds in India and worldwide for millennia, for the beauty of its literary composition, for its fascinating story content as well as for faith and reverence.

Dum dum song honey singh