Lockwood and Bhat in their introduction (page 10) use this conversation where Parivrājaka punishes Śāṇḍilya as an example to prove that Parivrājaka himself isn’t on par with the standards he had set earlier. And this alone would prove that Parivrājaka isn’t a true ascetic. They also say that by such an assumption, the play becomes more entertaining since everything Parivrājaka utters would be hypocritical. While there seems to be a contradiction in the behaviour of the Parivrājaka here, this alone isn’t sufficient to say that he is a quack!
Author:gsr
Just to illustrate with an example, let us take his paper titled, ‘A Note on the Date of Śaṃkara,’ which was published in The Quarterly Journal of the Mythic Society.[1] The thesis is that Śaṅkara lived in the latter half of the sixth century and the former half of the seventh century CE, long before the destruction of Pāṭalīputra and Srughna.
Note: This is the transcript of a lecture delivered under the auspices of Gokhale Institute of Public Affairs and Prekshaa Pratishtana, as part of a lecture series titled Exemplars of Indian Wisdom from Karnataka.
Most people are under the impression that the term Yakṣagāna is only a reference to the particular form of theatre art that is found in the Karāvaḻi-Malènāḍu region—i.e., the coastal regions—of Karnataka. This kind of colloquial attribution of the term to the particular art is also justified to some extent because the majority of the artistes and connoisseurs hail from these above-mentioned regions of Karnataka.
A poor man once found a bag of gold coins. While he could have gone elsewhere, he foolishly sat down at the same place and started counting the coins. In the meantime, the person who had lost the money came looking for it. He found this man and snatched his belonging back.
Thus, anything that a fool finds will come of no use to him.
~
A person wanted to show the full moon to a foolish guy. He stretched his hand out and pointed a finger at the moon. The fool kept staring at the tip of his finger and never saw the moon!
Another dimension that dance research can explore is to understand and analyse the correlation between music and dance. Music is essential for the successful staging of a dance piece. The two go hand in hand and are both subservient to Rasa. We must understand how the three octaves and the three speeds present in music – an auditory medium, translate into movement into the visual medium of dance.[1]
There is another thing to consider. Illustrious people such as Janaka, who are greater than you have all performed karma much before you.
karmaṇaiva hi saṃsiddhim āsthitā janakādayaḥ।
loka-saṅgraham-evāpi saṃpaśyan kartum-arhasi ॥ BG 3.20“Janaka and others attained fulfilment by karma only; You should also perform your duty keeping the welfare of the world in mind”.
Aśvaghoṣa clearly states that his work is principally a scripture. It is structured as a poem, yes, but that is only a veneer, a convenient pretence. Nevertheless, his work is appealing because of two reasons: one, he was a gifted poet; two, he chose the lofty story of the Buddha’s life as his subject. From this we understand that at times even purpose-driven compositions get the glitter of pure poetry. We should be wary of the fact that not all purpose-driven compositions are good.
