Manipuri gods in Texas syllabus
- English professor's paper finds place in graduation classes of US varsity
Khelen Thokchom (Telegraph) *
Th. Ratankumar Singh - Pix by The Telegraph, Calcutta India
A happy news carried by The Telegraph (by Khelen Thokchom) reads, "Manipuri gods in Texas syllabus", I rubbed my eyes, "Is this for real?" Well, it all happen because of Th. RantanKumar Singh, professor of English at Manipur University who was the only Indian academician to be invited to the Oxford round table conference held at the University of Oxford from March 28 to April 2 last year.
He presented a paper titled, "God in Manipuri Literature". The news reports further writes, "Though the paper created quite a stir among the participants, for it says "gods lived together with mankind since ancient days.
Quoting Cheitharol Kumbaba, the royal chronicle of Manipur that recorded its history since 33AD, the paper said the gods often took possession of portions of land and ruled as kings", it impressed Charles Robinson, an elderly instructor in the department of history and philosophy at South Texas University".
Some interesting parts of the paper read, "The origin of god can be traced to the narratives which, in turn, are a part of literature. In a sense, we can say that god is a creation of literature. If there was no Vedic literature, the Hindu gods might have never existed,"
The ultimate triumph of the paper is that, Charles Robinson has introduced the four-page paper titled God in Manipuri Literature in the graduation syllabus last autumn.
Ratankumar's response to The telegraph on the news was, "I did not expect such a response. I am happy that our culture has found an audience in the outside world".
The article further reveals Ratankumar's decision on taking up a project on Manipuri gods. Well, good luck to you, that's all we can wish for.
Read the entire article by Khelen Thokchom on Telegraph here
Read the actual article "Manipuri gods in Texas" by Th. Ratankumar Singh
* This is an edited version by e-pao.net.
This article was webcasted on July 01, 2011.
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