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The Tradition of Kshaatra in India – The Influence of Alexander

The Influence of Alexander

(continued)

When a great emperor decentralizes a vast kingdom, if he doesn’t use his absolute sovereignty to establish friendly relationships and maintain constant communication with all the regions, if he doesn’t keep his eyes and ears open all the time, his empire will collapse. We get examples for this in Ashoka’s time itself. Why, even in the case of the ambitious Alexander who set out to conquer the world and establish an enormous empire, his sovereignty had an untimely end.

The Story of 'Da'

Buried beneath and interspersed among the numerous layers of terse and detailed philosophical expositions are the thousands of amazing stories in the Upanishads. It is indeed a tragedy of our modern education system—that treats the human as no better than a component of economic production—that these stories have completely vanished from our school syllabi, supplanted instead by mindless Christian moral education.

A Story for a Verse - Mankha

यद्वक्रेण पथा प्रयासि सततं यद्वासि विद्वन्मन-
श्चौरी यच्च करोषि पूर्वसुकविप्रौढिप्रथोत्पुंसनम् ।
तस्माद्भारति सद्भिरत्रभवती तीक्ष्णेति संभाविता
तूर्णं पार्श्वममुष्य पार्थिवमणेरभ्येहि शुद्ध्यर्थिनी ॥

A Story for a Verse - Bilhana

बिंदुद्वन्द्वतरङ्गिताग्रसरणिः कर्ता शिरोर्बिन्दुकं
कर्मेति क्रमशिक्षितान्वयकला ये केऽपि तेभ्योऽञ्जलिः ।
ये तु ग्रन्थसहस्रशाणकषणत्रुट्यत्कलङ्कैर्गिरां
उल्लासैः कवयन्ति बिल्हणकविस्तेष्वेव संनह्यति ॥