The High Commissioner of India in New Zealand, Sanjeev Kohli, has released a new Ramayana stamp in Wellington on Thursday, September 29, during a local Navratri festival.
This is another initiative from the current government in New Delhi to strengthen India’s emotional, cultural and spiritual ties with its global diaspora.
Recently the Department of Posts in India has brought out a set of commemorative postage stamps on Ramayana, which was later decided to be made available to the members of Indian diaspora abroad.
Ramayana, an ancient Hindu epic, which narrates the struggle of divine prince Rama to rescue his wife Sita from the demon king Ravana. It consists of nearly 24,000 verses (mostly set in the Shloka meter), divided into seven Kandas (books) and about 500 sargas (chapters).
The epic is also one of the largest ancient epics in world literature with local adaptation and variations in many other countries and cultures around the world.
The stamps are currently available with the High Commission of India in Wellington.
Speaking with The Indian Weekender, Indian High Commissioner Sanjiv Kohli, acknowledged that "these stamps are very special for the members of the Indian diaspora."
"We are thankful to the Department of Post in India who have made these stamps available for our global diaspora," Mr Kohli further added.
Arrangements are being made to make them available to the Indian diaspora in other cities either through Indian banks or community organisations.
The stamps consist of sheet-lets (quantity 500), Miniature sheets (quantity 100), First Day Covers (quantity 200) and Brochures (quantity 100).
A full set of one each costs NZ$ 3- and the sheet-let costs NZ$ 2 each.