Profiles

Huzūr Secretary

Family Lineage

Srikanta Sastri’s family history deserves to be mentioned here.

Concern for the Society

Adherence to the Tattva – Fundamental Philosophy

Sir Mirza Muhammad Ismail Saheb’s ancestors hailed from Persia. Persia is known as the land of famous poets like Firdausi [Abul-Qāsem Ferdowsi Tusi], Hafiz [Khwāja Shams-ud-Dīn Muḥammad Ḥāfeẓ-e Shīrāzī], Omar Khayyam [Ghiyāth al-Dīn Abū al-Fatḥ ’Umar ibn Ibrāhīm al-Nīsābūrī al-Khayyāmī], Sadi [Abū-Muhammad Muslih al-Dīn bin Abdallāh Shīrāzī]. Persian literature and culture had come to Mirza as a family trait. His ancestors had come to India from Persia as traders.

Recent research has debunked the theory—built on philological grounds—that the Aryans came to India from Central Asia or elsewhere and settled here. The person who sharply criticized the ‘Aryan Invasion’ Theory of European scholars even before the decades of 1940–1950s is the renowned historian Dr.

Studies and Teaching

Kāleju Baravaṇigè (‘College Writings’)

Rajarathnam gave ample opportunities to his students to showcase their talents through publications like Namma Bendre, Namma Nammavaru, and Bāla-sarasvati.

Recognition of Self

Understanding and responding to the tender minds of children needs a kind of dissolution of Self. It needs an assessment of our self from a perspective outside of us. This came to Rajarathnam somewhat by nature. (After his graduation he worked in śiśu-vihāra—kindergarten—among children for some time). The following extract from his work Hattu-varuṣa that is presently relevant, which can be considered as a part of his autobiography, has remained in the minds of many people –

Janab Muhammad Buḍan Khān was the inspector of Urdu schools. He would come to inspect the Anglo-Hindustani school in our town[1] once or twice a year.