Talk on “Nepal, Newar, Nepal Bhasha – The Science Behind Legends”
Rotary Club of Yala organized Talk Program on “Nepal, Newar, Nepal Bhasha – The Science Behind Legends” by Prof Dr Gobinda Bol Shrestha at Patan High School in associated with Network of Rotary Clubs of Lalitpur (NRCL). 75 people participated from different Rotary Clubs and organization during the event.
Synopsis of Presentation
Newaras were considered the original dwellers of Nepal valley and the Newara language was recognized as Nepala Bhasha at least since Lichchhabi times. Lately, there has been suggestions that Newara, both the people and the
language, are only a thousand year old. Such ad-hoc revision of views are deemed plausible because of the fluid nature of Nepal’s history.
The commonly perceived history of Nepal goes back to more than two millennia starting with Gopala Vansha. However, the written evidences go back barely five hundred years in the form of Vamshavalis, and rarely beyond a
thousand years in terms of archeological evidences like Shilapatras, etc. So most of the present day ancient history of Nepal is guess work, may be educated guess work at best. These guess works are usually based on (i) a whole stock of legends available starting from the time when the valley was still a lake, and/or (ii) some fancied assumptions of the experts. But we have no verifiable proofs for them.
Lately, there has been scientific investigations, such as geological studies, which can give credible evidences to the evolution of Nepal valley. However, these two approaches have been exclusive of each other. Legends cannot
incorporate the scientific findings and the scientific findings do not seem eager to account for the legends.
Introduction of Prof Dr Govinda Bol Shrestha
Govinda B. Shrestha: is a retired professor of Electrical Engineering. He has taught at Virgania Tech, USA, NTU, Singapore, and IIT Guwahati, India. He has also worked as an Electrical Engineer at Electricity Department of HMG, Nepal.
He pursued his fancy with the analytical nature of Sanskrit Grammar after retirement. After realizing the chaotic condition of his mother tongue, he is presently engaged in charting a complete new framework for the unique
nature of Newara Language or Nepal Bhasha.
His academic degrees are BEE from Jadavpur University (India), MBA from University of Hawaii, MS from RPI, New York, and Ph.D. from Virginia Tech, USA. He was a Colombo Plan Scholar, East West Center OG Scholar, and a recepient of 3 Mahendra Vidya Bhushan Medals.
Apart from his extensive publications and presentations in his technical/engineering field, he has made invited presentations in the field of language and linguistic at, Nepal Academy, Jadavpur University, The Statistical Institute of India, Rabindra Bharati University, Ram Krishna Mission School, IIT Guwahati, and the 39th and 40th Annual Conference of Linguistics Society of Nepal.