More than 120 people, ranging from 13-year-olds to octogenarians, participated in the event to demonstrate their proficiency in the 13th century script of Maharashtra that was introduced to speed up administrative work.
Nine Muslim girls from the Abeda Inamdar College, who took part in a Modi script writing competition organised by the Bharat Itihas Sanshodhak Mandal (BISM), Sadashiv Peth, on Sunday were the cynosure of all eyes. The results will be declared in a week’s time.
More than 120 people, ranging from 13-year-olds to octogenarians, participated in the event to demonstrate their proficiency in the 13th century script of Maharashtra that was introduced to speed up administrative work.
Afreen Ismail Shaikh, a student of Abeda Inamdar College said, “Since I am a student of history, we have to study historical documents. A workshop on Modi script was being organised in our college. That’s how I started learning Modi.”
Asfiya Khan, another student said, “Modi is a totally different and interesting language. Since most historical documents are in Modi our teacher, Shaukat Khan, encouraged us to learn it. Since many Modi experts took part in the competition, I was a bit afraid.”
Naseem Shaikh, who is studying in the third year of the BA course at Abeda Inamdar College said, “Since I can read and write Marathi, learning Modi was easy. But in the competition there were some unfamiliar words, which were a bit difficult.”
Historian Mandar Lawate, one of the organisers of the competition, said the contest was held to promote the script. “The participants were given a page in Devanagari (Marathi) script, which they have to convert into Modi. We got a very good response to the competition. The winner will get Balaji Ahvji award, while the runners-up will get consolation prizes,” he added.
Dasharath Nivrutti Parkhe, 88, who had studied Modi script in school said, “After school, this is the first time I got the chance to write in Modi. Earlier, novels and short stories were available in Modi, but now these books are not in the market. The government should start courses on the Modi script.”
Vidyadhar Rayrikar of Bharat Ithihas Sanshodhak Mandal said most of the rare historical documents in the possession of the Mandal are in Modi. “Although nearly 400 people have learnt to read the script in the last four to five years, there are just 40 who are helping out by reading the historical documents. It is necessary to train more people in Modi script to help in historical research,” he said.
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