Culture

Arjun Bharadwaj started off the day’s proceeding with the fourth session of kavya-samskrtam, which has been a regular morning activity of the summer school. In this session, Shashi and Arjun have helping understand and appreciate the beauty of a few Sanskrit verses. In today’s session, Arjun covered five verses from Lilashuka’s Krishnakarnamrtam. While explaining the nuances of the verse with respect to grammar, prosody, etc. he also brought out the various suggestions (dhvani) in those verses.

Day 5, Session 1: Meghadutam

Shatavadhani Dr. R Ganesh

Kalidasa cannot be compared with anyone – he is totally unique, totally Indian. He is the ideal poet – one who observes keenly both the outer and inner worlds. He is like a scientist, a naturalist, and a businessman the way he astutely sees the external world. He is like a seer, a philosopher, and a scholar the way he calmly regards the internal world. By observing the world outside, we get the details; by observing the world within we get the emotional connections.

Day 4, Session 1

Shatavadhani Dr. R Ganesh and Dr. Nagavalli Nagaraj

Dr. Ganesh started out by mentioning about the all-pervading influence of Vyasa, Valmiki, and Kalidasa on all aspects of Indian life and culture. While the story of the Ramayana moves in a longitudinal manner, from North to South and back to the North, the story of the Mahabharata moves in a latitudinal manner, from East to the West. Thus in the movements of Rama and Krishna, all corners of India have been covered. And Kalidasa connects all these in his writings.

Day 3 started on a bright note with Dr. Ganesh speaking about the beautiful qualities of the two great epics as well as Kalidasa's creation, followed by Shashi Kiran's wonderful presentation of the seven sections of the Ramayana. The post-lunch session had a riveting presentation on Kalidasa's Kumarasambhavam by Arjun Bharadwaj and a wonderful audio-visual presentation by Nirupama Rajendra about the dance ballets produced by Abhinava Dance Company. The day ended with a fabulous Carnatic classical concert by Dr.

The second day of the Summer School jointly organized by Chinmaya Vishwavidyapeeth and Chinmaya International Foundation took the participants into a wonderful journey into the past. Starting off with an overview of the poets, it took everyone on the path of Rāma, helped them make friends with Kālidāsa and Guṇāḍhya, gave an artistic and insightful glimpse into the Pañcatantra, and finally concluded with a wonderful Hindustani classical music performance by Swapnil Chaphekar and Pramodini Rao.

Chinmaya Vishwavidyapeeth and Chinmaya International Foundation have jointly organized a ten-day Summer School from 17 to 26 June, 2017 to realize the spirit of Indian culture through the creations of Vyāsa, Vālmīki, Kālidāsa (and Guṇāḍhya) at the Adi Sankara Nilayam, Veliyanad. The Summer School is support by Indian Council of Philosophical Research. Prekshaa is delighted to present a daily summary of the discussions over the course of the next ten days.

This is a translation of the article by Dr S. L. Bhyrappa that appeared in a Kannada daily on September 24, 2006.

Translator’s Note: This is the second and concluding part of the iconic D.V. Gundappa’s series profiling the life and lifestyles of numerous traditional Vedic scholars. The first part translated and published on Prekshaa Journal is available at this link.

The epics and mythology of a culture deeply influence art and literature. This is pronounced in the case of India, as our heritage still has the unbroken, living tradition of the sublime epics and their fascinating stories. For close to three millennia, our culture has drawn inspiring themes from these perennial sources, thus perpetuating their metaphorically powerful and aesthetically elevating expressions. All art forms of India—irrespective of distinctions like classical and non-classical, traditional and modern—are indebted to our extraordinary epic heritage.