-The TMC Desk
Senior IPS officer Amitabh Kumar Das made it clear that the Indian heritage should not be confused with the Hindu heritage.
Delivering a key-note address at the Heritage Society talk show, which was organised at the DAV Public School, BSEB Colony in Patna today he at the very outset said the heritage of this country is a composite one called the Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb (culture).
Das expressed dismay over the recent controversies surrounding the Taj Mahal. He said that some Hindu fanatics had been spreading the canard that the Taj Mahal was originally a Shiva temple. Politics is being played over a world heritage site for petty gains. Das told students that they should keep their ears and eyes open because heritages were shattered everywhere.
He said that few people knew that the name of Pataliputra had been derived from the Patali tree. Fewer people have seen the Patali tree.
Das exhorted DAV students to see the Patali tree in the Patna Museum campus and asked each and every student to take a selfie with the Patali tree.
Speaking about the Deedarganj Yakshi, Das, who is an IG-rank officer, told the students that the most famous Maurya era statue was accidentally discovered by washermen a hundred years ago.
For hundreds of years the Deedarganj Yakshi lay buried upside down and ignorant washermen used to wash clothes on its base. Das also enlightened students about the discovery of the Madhubani paintings by the outside world.
In 1966, a famine struck Mithila, a gentleman from Maharashtra, Bhaskar Kulkarni, visited famine-stricken villages and saw colourful paintings on their earthen walls. Kulkarni asked village women to draw those paintings on papers. None of them did so. For centuries, women drew paintings on earthen walls of their huts, he said, adding that drawing on papers was nothing short of sacrilege. But Kulkarni offered to buy their paintings and the starving women obliged. The rest is history.
Das also dwelt at length on the Kesaria Stupa in East Champaran and the Ghora Katora Lake in Rajgir.
The session was interactive and students were surprised to learn some of the hitherto unknown facts. They were quite excited and asked the top cop several questions.
The Chairman of the Heritage Society informed students that the Society organised heritage bus tour every Sunday. He offered to take the DAV students to different heritage sites.
In the end the school principal Dr. V S Ojha honoured Amitabh Kumar Das with a shawl .
