HAPPY BIHAR DIWAS !

We have been celebrating Bihar Diwas in recent years (since 2011). It is indeed a day when as imaginative residents of Bihar, we must gaze back into history and trace the steps as we prepare for the future. Today, I felt like tracing some visible landmarks in the intellectual traditions of Bihar.

Bihar is justly famous a cradle of two human religions – Buddhism and Jainism. Much has been written and discussed about Buddhism by scholars from various nationalities. The Light of Bihar in the form of the Buddha became the Light of Asia for a considerable period of human history. The new Buddhist intellectual line of thinking became famous instantaneously, and is rated as one of the most remarkable contributions of Bihar to humanity. However, the line of thinking was always under duress and susceptible to new challenges. The new millennium saw the destruction of the Statues of the Buddha by the Taliban in Afghanistan, which was the surviving Bihar link there. Many such links were disrupted in turbulent medieval times. However, countries like China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Sri Lanka still bear the influence of the Bihari intellectual tradition.

What is not very famous or well known is that Bihar is also the cradle of several thoughts enshrined in the Vedanta. The traditions of Sanskritic learning in Bihar are steeped in antiquity. During Maurya and Gupta periods we see great scholars like Kautilya who wrote the Artha Shastra and Aryabhatta who was a great astronomer. The contribution of several scholars from Bihar, to the development of Mathematics and the Sciences is invaluable.

Whereas it is well known that the Holy Vedas originated from the visions of the Rishis who meditated mainly on the banks of the Saraswati (in Western India and present Pakistan) and the Himalayas (including the Suvastu or Swat valley), the origins of several thoughts in the esteemed Vedanta are found to be in Mithila. Vedanta is believed to be the end of the Vedas. It is the highest level of human intellect, as elaborated in the Upanishads. The Kingdom of Mithila, under Janaka was a great centre for philosophical and intellectual discourse. The Great Sage Yagyavalkya was the shining star of Mithila, whose discourses with Janaka and his wife Maitreyi are revered to be of the highest intellectual degree. The Vedantic tradition of Bihar was continuing till the times of Adi Shankaracharya, who travelled all the way from Kerala to the house of Mandan Mishra in Mithila, searching for a true Vedic Scholar, and having been guided by Shri Govind Bhagwad Pad near the banks of the Narmada and thereafter by Kumarila Bhatta.

Interestingly and fortunately, Bihar especially Mithila survived as a centre of Sanskrit learning along with Kashmir and Vijayanagar Empire, even when other centres of Sanskrit learning like Takshashila and others had been destroyed by foreign invaders. Even after the fall of Vijayanagar, the centre in Mithila survived the onslaught of those times. Several scholarly works by the legendary Vidyapati can be traced to such turbulent times.

During the present times, the students of Bihar are doing well in all fields of education globally. However, there seems to be a feeling of ignorance and a sort of disconnect with the great intellectual traditions of Bihar over the ages among present students. We must resolve that Bihar should continue to contribute more intellectually to the overall human evolution. It should be felt that Bihar and our India of the ages is not dead and neither has she spoken her last creative word as remarked by the esteemed Aurobindo.

Jai Hind.