Jaipur artist pens ‘Ramcharitmanas’ with paintbrush

Jaipur, Sep 24 (IANS) In an unique endeavour, Sharad Mathur, a Jaipur-based artist, has written the "Ramcharitmanas" with a paintbrush in over 3,000 pages and now wishes to donate it to the grand Ram Temple to be built in Ayodhya.

"I wanted to offer something unique to Lord Ram, besides prayers. Hence, the idea to write Ramcharitmanas in bigger fonts with paint and brush. Each word measures 1-1.5 inch," he told IANS. The book weighs 150 kg, he added.

Most bookbinders refused to bind it citing technical reason, then Mubarak Khan came forward and took it upon himself to bind it, Mathur said.

"I approached many bookbinding units. But no one could accomplish the task. But Mubarakbhai has done an excellent job adding a strand of communal harmony to the artistic effort," he said.

The man, who earns his livelihood by teaching music to school children and singing bhajans, devoted five-six hours a day to complete the book in over six year. Each page of A3 size roughly took a day to complete, he added.

The artist said he would like to visit the Ayodhya temple, once it was built, and offer his services to Lord Rama. "My wife and son, Poonam and Shubham, and my friends helped me too, in putting the book together, laminating it," he said.

So what next? "I dream to present a handwritten copy of Sundarkand, the fifth part of the epic Ramayana, to Modi and Chief Minster Ashok Gehlot," said the artist. The Sundarkand is the only chapter of the Ramayana in which the hero is not Rama, but Hanuman.