Indian Ambassador in Madagascar Abhay Kumar met country's President Francois Rajaoson and addressed a special session of the Malagasy Academy on how to strengthen cultural and academic connections between the two countries.
During his address, Ambassador Kumar recalled a study published in 1951 titled "The etymological dictionary of Malagasy language" by a Malagasy scholar Dma-Ntsoha who listed about 300 words from Sanskrit in the Malagasy language, according to a statement.
He also emphasised the need for greater cultural, literary and academic exchange between India and Madagascar, the two maritime neighbours in the Indian Ocean connected by Monsoon.
According to the statment, Madagascar has rich oral literature that is expressed in Hainteny (art of words), Kabary (art of speech) and Ohobolana (proverbs).
Madagascar's greatest poet Jean Joseph Rabearivelo is considered Africa's first modern poet. He was inspired by poetry of Rabindranath Tagore and had mentioned him in poem number 15 in his poetry collection titled "Translated from the Night."
Recently the Embassy of India, Madagascar organised the first-ever joint reading between Indian and Malagasy poets at its monthly programme LaLitTana and plans to organise more such interactions in the future.
Earlier hundred of Great Indian Poems from over two dozen languages covering a period of over 3000 years of Indian poetry was translated and published in Malagasy in 2020, making Indian poetry available in the Malagasy language.
On this occasion, Ambassador Kumar also presented his haiku collection La Magie de Madagascar|The Magic of Madagascar to the President of the Malagasy Academy.
( With inputs from ANI )
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