American asks “nice people from India” to explain the meaning of this text to him. Here is the result

In India, it is a tradition for many to mention God’s name before starting a book. This custom recently caught the attention of an American. The curious individual shared on X a photo of a math textbook that he had received from his Indian professor nearly 50 years ago. On the first page of the textbook, there was a Tamil inscription that piqued his interest. He was intrigued by the unknown text and asked the “fine people of India” about the meaning of the text. The post quickly attracted numerous responses, with each person offering a unique explanation for the meaning of the inscription.

The man wrote: “Dear, kind people of India. Could anyone translate this inscription into English? This book belonged to my Indian math teacher/professor in college and he gave it to me to study with him for a year. When I graduated, he gave it to me as a gift.”

Reacting to the post, one user wrote, “It says Shri Ramajayam. As Lord Ram achieved victory, we write it before starting any good endeavor and pray to him to help us emerge victorious in our endeavors.”

Another said: “This language is Tamil. It is the same state in India where the mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujam comes from.”

“It is customary to place such inscriptions praising God before every teaching text (at least that is what I learned from my parents),” said one comment.

Another wrote, “People with religious beliefs write Sri Ramajayam or variants of it to seek God’s blessings to give them strength and positivity to succeed in the activity they are about to undertake. It can be considered as a form of prayer or faith. To each his own.”

Someone shared, “It is written as the first note on any page to invoke the blessings of Lord Ganesha, the remover of obstacles. Handwritten, the alphabet can look like the side profile of the elephant-faced god.”

Another added, “I think it’s great that you kept a copy of the textbook you received from your advisor over 50 years ago.”

Since the US citizen shared the post on X, it has been viewed over 1 million times.