LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday compared the Covid-19 vaccines given by India to Brazil to 'Sanjeevani Booti', a mythological life-saving herb figuring in the Hindu epic Ramayana.
Yogi made the comparison a day after Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro invoked Lord Hanuman while thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for providing two million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to fight the deadly coronavirus infection in his country, one of the worst-hit nations by the pandemic.
Referring to the Brazilian president's tweet of an image of Lord Hanuman flying from India to Brazil with a mountain of the life-saving herb, Yogi said Bolsonaro himself likened India's vaccine to 'Sanjeevani Booti'.
"While saving lives of the countrymen, the Covid-19 vaccines are also reaching other parts of the world," Adityanath said while addressing the UP Divas programme here.
"Yesterday, the President of Brazil (Jair Bolsonaro) thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He compared India's vaccine with Sanjeevani Booti.
The way Sanjeevani Booti saved the life of Lord Lakshman, India's vaccine too will similarly act for the citizens of Brazil," the chief minister said.
One of the world's biggest drugmakers, India on Friday began commercial exports of the serum and sent two million doses of domestically manufactured Covishield vaccine to Brazil.
Tweeting an image of Hindu god Hanuman carrying a mountain of coronavirus vaccine to Brazil, Bolsonaro thanked India for helping his country with the jabs.
"Namaskar, Prime Minister @narendramodi. Brazil is honoured to have a great partner to overcome a global obstacle. Thank you for helping us with vaccine exports from India to Brazil. Dhanyavaad!" read the post accompanying the picture.
The image was a reference to a tale in the Ramayan epic wherein Lord Hanuman lifted an entire mountain to deliver ''Sanjeevani Booti'', a magical life-saving herb, to Lanka to save Lord Ram's brother Lakshman, who had been wounded in a war.
In April, India had also provided the Latin American country raw materials for the production of anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine.
Brazil has the second-highest number of coronavirus cases in the world next only to the United States.
The total number of cases are over 8.7 million and 2,14,000 deaths related to COVID-19 have been recorded.
India has undertaken contractual supplies of coronavirus vaccines to Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Brazil, Morocco, Bangladesh and Myanmar, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in New Delhi on Friday.