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The President, Ms Pratibha Patil, today hailed the glorious history of Bihar which is the birth place of several legendary personalities in various walks of life, including science, culture, religion and in the field of governance.
“It was the auspicious land of Bihar where the ancient ruler Chandragupta Maurya laid the foundation of the Maurya dynasty which was said to the golden period the country,” she said at the legislative council's centenary celebrations at the State legislature premises here.
He (Maurya) was succeeded by an equally illustrious son Chandragupta-1 who set up the Gupta dynasty in which some of the greats from the world of literature and science such as Kalidasa, Aryabhatta, Varasmihira, Vishnu Sharma, Vatsayan and Pushpadutt were born, Ms Patil said.
“The State had several centres of academic excellence such as Vikramshila and Nalanda universities during ancient times visited by students and intellectuals from across the world for studies and research,” the President said.
She said Bihar was also a land of religions as Maharishi Valmiki composed the epic Ramayana in this State, while the founder of Jain religion Mahavir was born in Vaishali, and Lord Buddha attained enlightenment at Bodh Gaya.
The Sikhs and followers of Sufism too have great affection for Bihar as the tenth Sikh Guru Govind Singh was born in Patna and his birth place Patna Sahib is a pilgrimage centre for the followers of Sikh religion from the country and abroad, Ms Patil said.
Even during the modern era, Bihar produced a great freedom fighter in Babu Kunwar Singh who valiantly participated in the First War of Independence against the British colonial rulers in 1857 and subsequently the father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi visited Champaran in 1917 to lead another battle against the foreign rule from here, Ms Patil said.
Paying a glowing tribute to the State and its people, she quoted Gandhi as saying in 1947 at a prayer that it was Bihar that had given him national identity 30 years ago.
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