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Mirza Saheb’s Gurubhakti

It was night-time. Sometime during 1914-15. Venkatanaranappa visited my house and said, “I had been to Mysore the day before yesterday to attend the senate meeting. Mirza saheb[1] was there. He is a senate member and an old disciple of mine. He was seated next to me and he asked me, ‘Sir, do you know the editor of The Karnataka[2]?’ I replied, ‘Yes, I know him well. His father and I are good friends.’ Encouraged, Mirza saheb continued, “He writes well. His English is great.

Mahābhārata – Episode 25 – Vāsudeva meets the Pāṇḍavas in the Kāmyaka Forest

Kirmīra was an asura endowed with magical powers who inhabited the Kāmyaka forest. He was a brother of Bakāsura and a friend of Hiḍimba; Bhīma killed him. When Vidura visited the Pāṇḍavas in the forest, Kirmīra’s fallen body was still lying there. Having seen this and heard all the details about the episode, Vidura told Dhṛtarāṣṭra later on, after he returned to Hastinagara.

M L Shreekantesha Gowda

In an earlier episode, while discussing the revival of modern Kannada, we reminisced about Mysore’s GTA, the university graduates’ association. One among the main people driving the association was M L Shreekantesha Gowda. Soon after completing his B.A., B.L., he got a job in the government’s Judicial Department. For a few years, he was a munsif in Madhugiri. After his retirement he lived in Basavanagudi on the first floor of a house that he owned. The house was in a corner and faced the Maharashtra Girls School.

Avadhānam – An Aesthetic Perspective

Avadhānam is an ancient art/sport of India. It involves extempore creation of metrical verses on a variety of topics under myriad aesthetic constraints. It is a quintessential representative of that defining trait of all Indian classical arts – spontaneity. “Cittaikāgryam avadhānam,” “Avadhānam is the focusing of the mind” is its traditional definition. Any exercise in any art form requiring extensive concentration can borrow this term.

The Era of Heroism: The Splendour of Shashanka

Age of Glory

In the recent writings on Indian history, there are several episodes and events that have been given undue respect and importance. Several details that are not found in honest treatises of history have been presented to us and we are misguided and cheated; these also come in the way of our pursuit for the vision of truth. Almost all our history textbooks of today fall under this category of deceitful writing.

Timeless Romance of the Gāhā-Satta-Saī – Part 3

Here we see a fluttering of the left eye of a woman separated from her husband. For women, this is a good omen indeed! Anticipating the return of her husband, she ties a festoon with her eyes to the entrance door and tells the left eye, “O Left Eye, who signalled the good omen of my husband’s return! Out of gratitude for your help to me, I will first see my husband through you and will reward you in that manner.” Look here, we find a charitable rest-house; a place where weary travellers are offered water to quench their thirst. There’s a beautiful girl here who offers the water.