Developing 'hobbies', both amateur and of compulsive nature, is one of the earliest of modern human passions. Notwithstanding the fast decline in the number of people nurturing one or another hobby, society can still feel proud of its people pursuing innocuous hobbies. Many run after weird hobbies. The topics of these hobbies come up because of the 'grisly' collections flaunted by people in both highly developed, as well as primitive societies. The latter hobbies have their unique collectors and clients. Their number is limited to clandestine fraternities. In place of the common hobbies of stamp or coin collection, this hobby is related to morbid exhibits like ancient grave-stones, burial earth, taxidermy of humans and animals or hanging ropes. However, many of them have been termed fake.
The tendency to collect rare and strange objects has long been considered universal. Yet, many people lack the faculty of being attracted to objects that belong to earlier times. This is nothing unusual. Lots of people develop the habit of selling out priceless household objects like heirlooms, generations-old utensils, books, diaries, even those having personal experiences and observations. It's not known exactly when in the annals of time, the trend of developing hobbies began. But researchers on relic collections believe the early batches of people pursuing their hobbies emerged in the 18th/19th century Europe. As the Orient had emerged then as a land of ancient learning as well as the studies aimed at unravelling life's mystery, many Europeans travelled to the vast area covering lands from West Asia to the southern part of the continent --- South Asia. Lots of others had long travelled China in the East in quest of the in-depth knowledge storage of the walled empire. A few of them learnt the Chinese language and wrote books on the ancient China, its dynasties at conflict with each other, and, mostly, their defence systems citing their cities of walls constructed to protect the borders.
The overseas scholars in China in the Middle-Ages had to depend on an invaluable ancient treasure trove of articles found in the vast territory. In the later years, scores of loose documents and mementoes on Chinese life became the targets of antique buffs. Over the centuries, this irresistible urge to discover day-to-day items of exotic and thousand-year-old empires and civilisations, drew collectors to distant lands ranging from Egypt to the Indian sub-continent. Many would choose horse rides or set sail for the then Burma, Cambodia, Laos or Indonesia to visit the Southeast Asia's centres of Buddhism. Besides these Oriental peaceful kingdoms, many would start for the now-extinct small Buddhist neighbourhoods.
Unlike Egypt, all of these Buddhist-dominated kingdoms would be ruled by functional kings. The monks also played a remarkable role in the kingdom's administrations. Thanks to the strong administrative machinery being at work in these kingdoms, treasure hunter had little opportunities to pilfer relics from the region. Still a lot of original Buddhist objects required in both large and small rituals and festivals were stolen in the gap of thousand years --- up to the early 20th century. However, to satiate the curiosity of the Western lovers of Buddhism, local friendly monks would distribute for free statuettes of Lord Buddha, miniature pagodas etc. Those mementos are said to be viewed as chief attractions at many museums nowadays. Devout people and their descendents have been preserving them for over hundred years.
Coming to the ruins of the Egyptian pyramids, the very sites of the largest one at Giza, and the Sphinx, along with the smaller pyramids in the area and their underground burial places make the tourists spellbound as long as they spend time there. Unlike at other tourist attractions, kiosks selling mini-pyramids or the Sphinx are a rare sight there. One can look out for view-cards containing photographs of pyramids and the pharaohs and the queens in the Cairo street-sides. At the super-shops, tourists might chance upon mini-pyramids and sphinxes. All this might transport one to the land of pharaohs Tutankhamun, Ramses-II or the queens Nefertiti or Cleopatra VII.
In the southern Asia, the countries which serve as sources of antiques and early manuscripts include the greater India, including Bangladesh and Pakistan. In the times since the 16th century, Delhi has served as the capital of the Mughal and the British empires. Earlier, the historic city functioned as the administrative centres of the Sultanate and other dynasties. Dhaka, the capital of Bengal, now Bangladesh, once ruled East Bengal and Assam. Being the capitals of two regions, Delhi ruling the greater part that also included the provinces of today's Pakistan and almost the entire India, became the source of information of whole India. The news that the undivided India takes pride in its early civilisations Harappa and Mohenjodaro was broken to the Western relic hunters by the Dehi-based sources. Same were the cases with Ajanta, Ilora caves with colourful ancient rock-cut frescos decorating their inner walls. Those caves' inner space didn't have much scope for large-scale vertical statues. But rock-made and low-height human figures and figurines lined the caves' interiors. They were especially made to remain stuck at the caves' entries and exits. In the one-and-half centuries after the caves' opening, large-scale lifting and robberies were committed. The native Indians of the time point the finger at the outsiders, who were allegedly behind the burglaries.
Some historical sites in today's Bangladesh do not lag behind. With the discovery of countless burnt clay-made pottery, toys and myriad types of household items and farming tools there, the city of Mahasthangarh, and the Paharpur Buddhist Bihar's hostels, and others stood out with distinctive glories. Most of those and the building parts have allegedly been stolen, along with the small bricks used in constructing both high-end and the commoners' residences. Many ancient historical documents belonging to the Maurya dynasty have also reportedly been stolen during Mahasthangarh's digging. The small red bricks may have been used in the rooftop gardens of the country's rich known to society as people with refined taste and attitude. Who are going to enquire about the strange bricks' origins? Thus these people go scot-free. But the chilling truth is, a large segment of the Indian or Persian manuscripts, pre-Christ codes like that of the Babylonian King Hammurabi, the priceless gems stuck to \an obscure pharaoh's throne are passed off as being collected as hobby items. It became a global norm.
The South Asian region's Bengal and Bihar parts were not free of the antique thieves; the objects being sold on the black markets. On most of the occasions, smugglers clandestinely transported the articles to far-off countries. But the items' demand among the local self-declared aesthetes, their manoeuvres being sham, is not negligible nowadays. They have to justify their ill-gotten money and wealth. Hobbies provide them with an escape route. In fact, pure hobbies include the possession by inheritance of the first edition of a widely admired book, or the rough sketch of a nationally or globally important monument. The first editions of many Bangla translated books, originally written in languages like Persian, Arabic or Turkish, on Bengalees or Bangladesh, have the potential for turning out to be the avid collectors' items.
