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Book: Nepal Bidya: Siddanta ra Prayog by Kedar Bashistha. Publisher: Bidyarthi Pustak Bhandar, Kathmandu. ISBN: 978-9937-739-24-5. Pages: 418. Price: Rs. 650.

 

Lumbini, the birthplace of Gautam Buddha, is not just a geographical location or a faith of about 10 per cent of the world population, it has also been a subject of politics and economy. Lumbini was marked by a pillar erected by Ashoka, a Mouryan Emperor in the third century in Nepal’s Rupandehi district. Although archaeological evidences and religious scriptures clearly declared that the birthplace of Lord Buddha is in Nepal, immediate neighbor India knowingly denied the fact for centuries and tried to establish a duplicate Lumbini in its territory. 

India was forced to come out of the British-era colonial mindset when the UNESCO declared Lumbini a world heritage site in 1997 recognising its religious, cultural, spiritual and archaeological values for the world. India is also claiming that Kapilvastu is in its territory nearby Nepal-India border.

The spiritual heritage was pushed to the controversy by Indian government and British scholars and archaeologists but their vested interests couldn’t be fulfilled. It has long been a political issue. Millions of tourists reach Lumbini to have spiritual blessings. It is not only helping to create Nepal’s image as a ‘peace zone’ but also attracting a large number of foreign tourists and pilgrims to Nepal. 

So, it is an economic issue. What India wanted was to have all four important locations – Lumbini (birth), Bodh Gaya (enlightenment), Sarnath (sermon) and Kushinagar (parinirvana) – of Buddha’s life in its own map so that it could attract more pilgrims and tourists.

Nepal and Israel are perhaps the two countries that had the origins of two of the world’s great religions but have very few followers of these faith. There are only 9 per cent Buddhists in Nepal. However, most of the Nepali people worship Lord Buddha while the region’s largest religion Hinduism considers him the ninth incarnation of Lord Bishnu. Therefore, Lumbini is a faith and sentiment for Nepalis who are doomed to repeatedly shout out and present the proof that the birthplace of Lord Buddha is in Nepal.

This is what ‘Nepal Bidya: Siddanta ra Prayog’ establishes through an extensive study of national and international literature and historical artifacts. Author Kedar Bashistha answers a hunting question – Why the southern neighbor keeps trying to push the ‘holy place’ into controversy and wanted have it within its territory? He also analyses the politics and business in the name of Buddha.

Bashistha presents the chronological developments in finding Lumbini from Mouryan Emperor Ashoka to German Indologist Dr. Alois Anton Fuhrer and Khadga Shumsher Rana to present day. He sheds light on the historical facts distorted by India and British archaeologists and unhealthy competition between the German Fuhrer and British L. A. Waddell and V. A. Smith.

However, the book is not about the history of Lumbini. It is a volume on ‘Nepalology’ or knowledge about the ‘country’ Nepal. It tries to bring forth the importance of that knowledge on society, economy, history, geography, commerce, culture and other relevant areas. 

Bashistha traces the entire history and practice of ‘Nepalology’ in and out of Nepal and excavates interesting facts from ancient scriptures like Vedas and ancient civilisations like Greek and Roman. The historical analysis of Lumbini is made to solidify the knowledge of Nepal since an impressive amount of literature about Nepal that exists globally is about the Buddha’s birthplace.

The second section of the book is dedicated to the existence of Nepali language. In this section, the author vigorously discusses about how the country got its name while discussing about various cultures, languages and human mobility in Eurasian region. Readers will be amazed to see their language that originated from Sanskrit is an amalgamation of other rich languages like Latin, Arabic, Armenian, Persian and English.

The author says that Nepal is not poor in society, civilization, culture and heritage but is poor in investigation, research, analysis and use of those treasures. “Many others have benefitted from our wealth but we are lagging behind them and have been fence sitters for long. We should be a guide, and this is not impossible,” says Bashistha.

The 418 pages text-book size volume has more than 1450 citations of various book, scholarly articles, historical letters, documents and artifacts including stone inscriptions. General readers might find the first unit of the book more academic and less interesting but it clearly establishes the need for the education about Nepal. The language is repetitive occasionally which should be improved in the future edition of the book. 

However, the second and third unit on Lumbini and Language are written in a lucid narrative that will hold the readers’ attention. There is no doubt that you will appreciate the efforts of the author and the way he tells the story of your language and history. At the same time, you would realise the richness of Nepal’s history, culture and language, and feel pride in it. ‘Nepal Bidya’ is a treasure Bashistha has given to the academia, people and the country.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 8 January 2021.