Profiles

Real-life Examples

He used to give real-life examples to drive home the import of a scriptural tenet. This made his lessons entertaining—a feature common to lessons given by Śrī Hānagal Virūpākṣa Śāstri.

He recalled the following incident while explaining Syādvāda[1]:

I have heard that Chinnaswamy Shetty is the son-in-law of a wealthy landlord of Polepalli^[1]. I may have gotten to know him around 1910-11. I was in need of some loan. I brought it up with my close friend, Dr K. Shesha Iyer.

The Mysore People’s Convention that convened in Bangalore in December 1919 under the aegis of the Mysore Representative Assembly was largely the result of DVG’s enthusiasm. More than three hundred eminent people hailing from various parts of Karnataka attended the Convention. Some names include M. Venkatakrishnayya, C. Narasimhayya and B. Narasinga Rao, from Mysore, C. Srinivasa Rao and Vasudeva Rao from Chickmagalur, S.R. Balakrishna Rao, K. Shankaranarayana Rao, and C. Subba Rao from Shimoga, S. Venkateshayya and Nanjundayya from Hassan, C.B. Gopala Rao, T. Srinivasachar, and M.S.

Disseminating Dharma

Organizer of Society

One of the vows of DVG’s life was to infuse dynamism in society. He made one or the other attempt in this direction for about fifty or sixty years.

Śri Ḍoṅgre Vīreśvara Śāstri who hailed from Maharashtra was Lakṣmīnarasiṃha Śāstri’s classmate during one of the batches. In later years, he served in various institutions in a number of capacities: in Andhra Pradesh, as professor of Vedic exegesis; in the Sanskrit section of Deccan College in Pune, as a senior scholar; and in the Pāṭhaśālā established by Svadharma-svarājya-saṅgha in Hyderabad, as professor. Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha based in Tirupati honoured him with the title ‘Mahāmahopādhyāya.’ He passed away on 14.08.2001.

Around 1914-1915, when Visvesvaraya was the Diwan, Hariyanna, who was a trader in the wholesale market (Mandi), was appointed by the government to the Legislative Council.

In those days, I wasn't well acquainted with Mandi Hariyanna. I had heard that he was a big businessman and a very respectable person. I had also gone to him a few times seeking donations for some public cause. Then it was imprinted in me that he was a great man.

Beauty in his Words

Even if a minor grammatical mistake in the English language fell on Sastri’s ears, he would react as though he was gravely wounded on his body. He was very particular about the right pronunciation of English words too. Suppose an English word has two to three syllables, there is going to be a stress on one of those and this is called accent. Sastri was always particular about getting the accents right.