The India Government awarded the Mahamahopadhyaya title to Sri Virupaksha Shastri. Our [Mysore] Maharaja awarded him the Vidyanidhi honorific.
And so, in order to express our joy at this, we constituted an Award Committee. B.V. Lakshman Rao (who has been mentioned earlier) was prominent in this Committee. The Award ceremony was fixed at five in the afternoon on a Sunday.
As instructed by K Ramachandra Rao, I went to meet K A Krishnaswamy Iyer. During those days, he lived in his own house on 5th Cross, Basavanagudi (behind the house named ‘Chidvilaasa’). I went to his house at around three in the afternoon. Soon after I knocked the door, he opened it himself and ushered me inside. The room was sparsely furnished without a hint of ostentation. A bookshelf, two floor mats, a couple of cushions, and a violin – this is all I saw.
This is part two of the paper presented at the international conference New Frontiers in Sanskrit and Indic Knowledge in June 2017 organized by the Chinmaya International Foundation. Part 1 of the paper can be found here.
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This paper by Shashi Kiran B N and Hari Ravikumar was presented at the international conference New Frontiers in Sanskrit and Indic Knowledge in June 2017 organized by the Chinmaya International Foundation.
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Sanskrit, one of the greatest gifts of India to the world, is unique in many ways. The Pāṇinian system of grammar, logical in its structure and exhaustive in its delineation, gave the language great strength in terms of word-generation ability, brevity, and freedom from ambiguity.
There is a beautiful poem ascribed to Vedānta-deśika (born Veṅkaṭanātha) that deals with the topic of vairāgya (detachment from worldly indulgences).
क्षोणी-कोण-शतांश-पालन-कला-दुर्वार-गर्वानल-
क्षुभ्यत्-क्षुद्र-नरेन्द्र-चाटु-रचना-धन्यान्-न मन्यामहे।
देवं सेवितुम्-एव निश्चिनुमहे योऽसौ दयालुः पुरा
धाना-मुष्टिमुचे कुचेल-मुनये दत्ते स्म वित्तेशताम्॥ 1
(Meter: Śārdūlavikrīḍitam)
अत्तुमम्ब तव पाकमद्भुतं
वाञ्छितं स्म करपञ्चकं मम ।
अश्म-केश-तृणशोधनाय य-
त्ताडनार्थमुदरास्ययोरपि ॥
Shatavadhani Dr. R. Ganesh
The day started off with a Sanskrit appreciation session by Arjun Bharadwaj and ended with a wonderful puppet show based on the fourth act of Shaakuntalam, by Smt. Anupama Hosakere and team.
Anupama Hosakere
The day began with Shashi Kiran's session on appreciating Sanskrit through subhashitas and ended with a wonderful dance performance by Ramaa Bharadvaj titled Mitra, which dealt with the friendship between Krishna and Sudhama. This was followed by a creative appreciation of the dance with the artist having a discussion with Arjun Bharadwaj.
Shatavadhani Dr. R Ganesh
The day began with a trip to Fort Kochi, followed by a visit to the Paradesi Synagogue, the oldest active synagogue in India, which was built in the 16th century. After some shopping on Jew’s street, the participants visited Hill Palace in Tripunithura, which is the largest archeological museum in Kerala. At one point, it was the official palace of the Cochin maharajas. It was built in the middle of the 19th century. After a traditional Kerala lunch, the participants returned to the Chinmaya Eswar Gurukula campus.