May 2020
Turban
I shall tell you the story of the turban. A distinguished muslim lived near the Avani Mutt near Mulbagal. Apparently he was a goldsmith. One day, he roamed from one road to another with a carriage full of turbans with new type of borders, shawls, and dhotis, and when he came in front of our house, he gave one turban to Ramanna too and asked him to use it. Ramanna asked him the price for it. He said, “You don’t have to pay. It’s free”....
Sātavāhana
Paithan is a town on the banks of the Godavarī in the Aurangabad district of the Hyderabad province and is now in the state of Maharashtra. This is the erstwhile city of Pratiṣṭhāna. The Āndhra kings or the Āndhra-bhṛtyas ruled this town. The coins they minted declare them to be Sāta-vāhanas or Sāda-vāhanas while the purāṇas call them 'Sāta-karṇis.' There were many kings by these names. Therefore we should assume that Sāta-vāhana is...
P V Kane in Parliament
For a long time, Dr. P V Kane ('PVK') was managing his court work, along with writing of History of Dharma-śāstra. Although he was offered several posts at various junctures in his life, he emphatically denied such posts or positions; he was glued to his chair for completion of the work. As he advanced in his age, he felt that court work had increasingly been coming in the way of the completion of the work. One fine day,...
ಕಾಳಿದಾಸ ಅವರಿಗೆ ಪರಮಾರಾಧ್ಯನಾದ ಕವಿ. ಆತನ ರಘುವಂಶವನ್ನು ಸಾಂಗೋಪಾಂಗವಾಗಿ ಅವರು ಅನೇಕವರ್ಷಗಳ ಕಾಲ ಆಸಕ್ತರಿಗೆ ಪಾಠ ಹೇಳುತ್ತಿದ್ದರು. ಅವರು ಅಭಿಜ್ಞಾನಶಾಕುಂತಲವನ್ನು ಸಹಜವಾಗಿಯೇ ತುಂಬ ಮೆಚ್ಚಿಕೊಂಡಿದ್ದರು. ಇದನ್ನು ಕುರಿತು ಉಕ್ತಲೇಖನಕ್ರಮದಲ್ಲಿ ಒಂದು ಪ್ರಬಂಧವನ್ನು ತೆಲುಗಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಬರೆಸಿದ್ದರು. “ಅದ್ಭುತಶಿಲ್ಪಂಲೋ ಆರ್ಷಸಂದೇಶಂ” ಎಂಬ ಈ ಬರೆಹವನ್ನು ನಾನು ಹಸ್ತಪ್ರತಿಯಲ್ಲಿಯೇ ಓದಿದ್ದೆ. ಇದು ಕಾಳಿದಾಸನ ರೂಪಕದ ಹತ್ತಾರು ಸ್ವಾರಸ್ಯಗಳನ್ನು ಸೊಗಸಾಗಿ ವಿವರಿಸಿ ಅಲ್ಲಿಯ ಪುರುಷಾರ್ಥತತ್ತ್ವವನ್ನು ಹೃದ್ಯವಾಗಿ ನಿರೂಪಿಸಿತ್ತು. ಇದಕ್ಕೆ ಮುದ್ರಣಯೋಗ...
Jaggery
The major part of expenditure of the house was, jaggery. The arrangement for jaggery was similar to the one above. Ramanna was to pay the designated farmer some money in advance. In return, the farmer was supposed to give four-five aḍige[1] of jaggery. One aḍige was equivalent to the amount of sugarcane juice that was processed in a huge vessel in one batch. It probably amounted to around 40-50 blocks of jaggery. I’m not familiar with...
Bhūta-bhāṣā – Paiśācī-bhāṣā
Guṇāḍhya did not compose the Bṛhat-kathā in the Sanskrit language and it is said that he wrote it in the Paiśācī-bhāṣā. (Daṇḍin and others call this ‘Bhūta-bhāṣā’). This is quite possible. It is but natural for all regional stories to be first born in the vernaculars and then spread through them. They enter formal written literature only later. It is also common to be faced with the following doubt upon seeing the...
Personal Take on Rituals
Many of Dr. Shantaram Kane’s ('SK') friends would ask him how much time his grandfather spent every morning on his daily rituals and if he was a very religious man, given that he was so keen about the study of the dharma-śāstras. SK said, “When someone asked me this, I told them that my grandfather spent hardly two minutes in the pūjā room. It would come as a surprise to many and even as a shock to some, but Grandfather...
ಈ ಭಾರತಕಥಾನಕದಲ್ಲಿ ಮೂಡಿ ಬಂದಿರುವ ಸ್ನೇಹದ ಚಿತ್ರಣ ಅತ್ಯಂತ ಅಮೂಲ್ಯವಾದದ್ದು. ಪರಸ್ಪರ ದ್ವೇಷ, ಅಸೂಯೆ, ಮತ್ಸರದ ಪ್ರಪಂಚದಲ್ಲಿಯೂ, ಸ್ನೇಹ, ಪ್ರೀತಿಗಳು ಮೊಳೆತು ಬೆಳೆಯುವ ಪ್ರಕ್ರಿಯೆ, ಒಳಿತುಕೆಡಕುಗಳ, ಸತ್ವ ರಜೋ ತಮೋಗುಣಗಳ ಸಮ್ಮಿಳನವಿಲ್ಲದೆ ಜೀವನವಿರದೆಂಬುದನ್ನು ಅಭಿವ್ಯಕ್ತಿಸುತ್ತದೆ. “ಮಮ ಪ್ರಾಣಾ ಹಿ ಪಾಂಡವಾಃ” ಎನ್ನುವ ಕೃಷ್ಣ ಮತ್ತು ಕೃಷ್ಣಾರ್ಜುನರ ಸ್ನೇಹ, ಮತ್ತೊಂದೆಡೆ ಕುಲಹೀನನೆಂದು ಜಗವೆಲ್ಲ ತಿರಸ್ಕರಿಸುತ್ತಿದ್ದ ಅಸಮಾನ ಪರಾಕ್ರಮಿ ಕರ್ಣನನ್ನು ತನ್ನ ಅಂತರಂಗದ ಮಿತ್ರನನ್ನಾಗಿ ಮಾಡಿಕೊಂಡು ಸ್ನೇಹದ ಹೊಳೆ ಹರಿಸುವ ದುರ್ಯೋಧನನ ಸ್ನೇಹ. ಅದೇ...