In a play, at minimum there would be a hundred to hundred and fifty songs and verses. Their tunes would be composed on the lines of ‘Kamalākṣi nāṃ dhanyanādè,’ or the cakli song, or ‘Nāri māyākarāḻè,’ or ‘Nāḻè baruva rītikeḻi.’[1] In between these, on and off, there would be a tukaḍa jāvaḍi[2] or a tune of ‘iṅgliṣ cāl’ [Western classical tune], and so forth.
In the branch of the Vèllāḻa family that had settled in Srirangapatna, one Candraśekhara-śāstrī was famous. Either it was he or his son Rāmacandra-śāstrī who composed the Vyāyoga titled ‘Śrī-kṛṣṇa-vijayam.’ It was composed during the early part of the nineteenth century or perhaps even earlier.
Rao’s writings on different schools of Indian philosophy are immensely valuable and provide a lot of clarity to its readers. It is important to note that Rao has written works on the thoughts and philosophies of Śaṅkarācārya, Rāmānujācārya, and Madhvācārya. As though to aid these writings, he has penned works such as ‘Śaṅkara-vāṇī.’ He has also written a work called ‘Śāradā Pīṭhada Māṇikya’ (The Gem of the Śāradā-pīṭha) about Śrī Candraśekhara-bhāratī Mahāsvāmī, whom he considered his guru.
Srikanta Sastri’s family history deserves to be mentioned here.
Sir Mirza Muhammad Ismail Saheb’s ancestors hailed from Persia. Persia is known as the land of famous poets like Firdausi [Abul-Qāsem Ferdowsi Tusi], Hafiz [Khwāja Shams-ud-Dīn Muḥammad Ḥāfeẓ-e Shīrāzī], Omar Khayyam [Ghiyāth al-Dīn Abū al-Fatḥ ’Umar ibn Ibrāhīm al-Nīsābūrī al-Khayyāmī], Sadi [Abū-Muhammad Muslih al-Dīn bin Abdallāh Shīrāzī]. Persian literature and culture had come to Mirza as a family trait. His ancestors had come to India from Persia as traders.
Recent research has debunked the theory—built on philological grounds—that the Aryans came to India from Central Asia or elsewhere and settled here. The person who sharply criticized the ‘Aryan Invasion’ Theory of European scholars even before the decades of 1940–1950s is the renowned historian Dr.