3 Guinness World Records Created in Samajik Adhikarita Shivir, Gujarat

Three Guinness World Records were created at Samajik Adhikarita Shivir and Scheme of Assistance to Disabled Persons for Purchase/Fittings of Aids/Appliances (ADIP) Camp in Navsari, Gujarat. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 66th birthday was marked by these three world records set at events held at Navsari.

About Navsari :

• Navsari is a city and municipality in the Surat Metropolitan Region and also the administrative headquarters Navsari District o fGujarat, India. Navsari is also the Twin City of Surat, and only 37 km south of Surat.
• Navsari, one of the oldest cities of Gujarat, has an inspiring history of over 2000 years. According to the Greek historical writings, a celebrated Egyptian astronomer and geographer named Ptolemy mentioned Navsari’s port in his book written about 150 A.D. The geographic location he showed as Narispa, is in fact the Navsari of today.
• The origin of the name “Navsari” has a very fascinating history. In the past, the city of Navsari has been associated with many names such as Nag Vardhana, Nag Shahi, Nag Sarika, Nag Mandal, Nav Sarika and Nav Sareh.
• Shayashray Shiladitya, who ruled over Navsari in the seventh century named this city NAG VARDHANA in honor of his Guru Nag Vardhana. During the same period, the name changed to NAV SARIKA as is evidenced by a recovered copper plate dated 669 A.D.
• The legend is that Shayashray Shiladttya presented a copper plate to a priest in his town. The copper plate read that Shiladitya, the ruler of “Nav Sarika,” had bestowed a nearby village upon this priest of the Kashyapclan.
• After subduing the rest of Gujarat, Umayyad Muslim invaders were repulsed in the vicinity of Navsari in 120-21 AH/738-39 AD.
• Another recovered copper plate dated 821 A.D. implies that the city’s name later changed into NAG SARIKA. The copper plate indicates that a Rashtrakut king named Kark Suvarna Varsh gave “Nag Sarika” as a gift to his teacher named AparaJeet, pupil of Sumati kaharishi, who in turn was a pupil of the famous Digambar Jain teacher Acharya Mallavadi.
• There is a popular legend behind the name “Nag Sarika.” Fables suggest that there was a big papal tree on the bank of a pond in the city. A huge Cobra lived in a hollow of this tree. On this same tree, Sarika _ a singing bird _ had her nest. As they resided in the same place, both became friends. Everyday Sarika entertained the Cobra by singing her melodious tunes.
• The legends have it that due to this remarkable friendship between the Nag (Cobra) and the Sarika (singing bird), the city’s name became popular as NAG SARIKA.

Three Records,

Navsari holds three Guinness world records namely,

1. “Highest number of Oil lamps lit simultaneously at single location” was set on the eve of the Mega camp.  An incredible 989 Divyangs (Person with Disabilities) came together to set an all-new record- almost doubling the minimum of 500 participants they needed in order to achieve the title. The challenge was for each person to light the lamp exactly at the same time after a given signal within 30 seconds.
2. ‘Biggest Wheelchair Logo’ was also broken on 17th September, 2016 in Navsari, Gujarat. The 1,000 participants in wheelchairs depicted a message saying ‘Happy Birthday PM’ in Tri-colour. It bettered the previous record of 346 participants that was achieved by Hope Inc. in Moorhead, Minnesota, USA.
3.  ‘Most people fitted with Hearing Aid in 8 hours – Single location (600 Hearing Aid) was also set on the same day. Free assistive devices kits were handed out to thousands of Divyangs throughout the weekend, in addition to the hearing aids distributed during the record attempt

The administration set Guinness world record by distributing 1,000 hearing aids to hearing impaired and 1,000 divyangs on wheelchair making a formation of ‘Happy Birthday PM’ in presence of the PM. While, most persons (989) lighting earthen lamps within 30 seconds.