Union Home Minister Amit Shah has released the second edition of ‘Hindi Kahavat Kosh’, authored by Sharad Agrawal, a renowned physician from Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly.
The book is a comprehensive compilation of over 10,000 Hindi proverbs and more than 200 stories explaining their origins, aimed at preserving and promoting Hindi linguistic heritage.
The book was released here on Saturday at the fourth Akhil Bharatiya Rajbhasha Sammelan held on the occasion of Hindi Diwas.Addressing the programme, Shah said reading Agrawal’s book will greatly improve his speaking abilities in the language.
Agrawal, with a passion for language preservation, said the idea for the book came from his grandmother, and it took him 20 years to collect these proverbs from various sources, including books and the internet. The first edition of the book, containing 5,400 proverbs, was released in 2021 by Uttar Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel.
Agrawal said this expanded edition not only increased the collection but also enriched it with stories and pictures, illustrating the objects and origins of the proverbs.
“The main objective of this was to preserve these proverbs for the coming generation. I believe that increased awareness of these sayings will further enrich the Hindi language and the vocabulary of the people,” he said.
In addition to his literary contributions, Agrawal runs the website ‘healthhindi.In’, which provides valuable information about common diseases and their prevention in simple Hindi, promoting health awareness. Looking ahead, Agrawal said he plans to include folk songs in future editions of the book, continuing his efforts to preserve India’s cultural and linguistic heritage.
“In Hindi literature, apart from the work done by well known writers, there is a vast area of folk literature contributed by unknown people of society through ages. This was transferred verbally and has accumulated through the generations. This includes proverbs, idioms folklores, folk music and puzzles etc. Due to massive impact of social media, people are forgetting all this legacy of Hindi literature. These invaluable creations are now on the verge of being extinct,” Agrawal said.
He said to preserve Hindi proverbs and to make them available for the common people, he has authored this book.
This book also includes pictures of many things which are mentioned in proverbs but are unknown to the new generations. “This definitely is the largest collection of Hindi proverbs and the stories related to them,” he said.
The writer said to preserve other precious creations of folk literature, he has also collected a large number of lyrics of folk music, proverbs recited by children, Sanskrit proverbs, common proverbs written on transport vehicles and so many good old puzzles told to “us by our grandparents”.
