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Alaṅkāras in Homer's Iliad -1

The primary purpose of any work of art is to evoke ‘rasa’, i.e. aesthetic experience in the connoisseur. The experience of rasa is universal and holds true for all times. This is achieved in poetry through verbal expression, by portraying the emotions of characters under various circumstances and also by employing a variety of imagery. Creative expression is what distinguishes poetry from a non-poetic text. (Here, the word ‘poetry’ is used to include aesthetic expression through prose and lyrical poems).

Shiva-Rama-Krishna: The Social Ideal

Public life is replete with seeming paradoxes. A person closely involved in the public space cannot be hassled by what other people think about him but if someone accuses him of a wrongdoing, he must be capable of clearing his name. After all, his reputation is one of his greatest assets. A classic example in the case of Krishna is the episode of the śyamantakamaṇi. Satrajit’s brother who had been wearing it was found dead. Krishna was accused of theft and murder by Satrajit. He declared that if he did not find the jewel within twenty-one days, he would not return to Dvaraka.

Rāgānurāga – Part 3

Hindola is one of my favourite rāgas. The equivalent of Hindola in the Hindustani system is a rāga called Malkauns. Many feel that the manner in which it is rendered in South Indian classical music is different. In my opinion, however, Hindustani musicians have used Malkauns in a more aesthetic, mature, and creative manner as compared to the Carnatic musicians, barring a fewlike Dr. M Balamuralikrishna and Dr. Nagavalli Nagaraj.

Cricket and reflections on sports

For a cricket-crazed nation like India, we do not have to wait long before a cricket series starts, grooves us in to a sway of emotions, and causes a deluge of frenzied reactions to the victories or the defeats. Even as the cricket World Cup follows each other, every two years in the shortened 20-20 format and every four years in the longer version, the cricketing nations, a good number of them, are treated to a veritable swing of emotions from euphoria to depression following their team’s wins or losses.

The Impact of the Destruction of Hindu Temples: A Brief Survey

Introduction

The conception, origin, evolution, and development of temples as physical, architectural structures is perhaps as old as the dawn of human civilisation as we know it. Temples represent one of the finest, deepest, grandest, and most profound expressions of the Human Spirit of awe, wonderment, and a timeless yearning for spirituality, philosophy, art and creativity etched in stone, wood, and other mediums.

Mahābhārata – Episode 4 – Test of Skill of the Kuru Princes

There lived a teacher by name Kṛpācārya[1] who taught archery to the kings of the Vṛṣṇi clan and other kṣatriya clans. The Kauravas and Pāṇḍavas were his disciples too. Bhīṣma was not content with this; he thought that his grandchildren should be trained under a person who was an expert in several śāstras and skilled in combat; he wanted the teacher to be a genius and nurture the grandchildren to turn them into extraordinary people. As he was looking for such a person, an interesting episode took place.

The Music of Ananta Sastri

Sri Ananta Sastri had distinguished himself as one of the most prominent (Classical) musicians of Bangalore. He possessed an extremely manly voice in both singing and teaching music. I listened to his music for the first time in 1904. He was in his youth back then. That particular concert was attended by quite a large number of Vidwans belonging to the older generation.

Society in Sanskrit Poetry: Separating the Wheat from the Chaff - 2

The Sanskrit Language

Our ancients sculpted a language to give perfect expression to their exuberant emotions. It has a well-developed scheme of letters and an inbuilt etymological structure that has endowed it with variety and a rare word-generation power. Being an inflected language, it is not tied down by a linear pattern of word order. It is thus highly flexible[1].