Profiles

Moral Values

In those days, four or five of us met up every evening at the Century club in Sheshadri memorial club. We chatted, had discussions, and had light refreshments -- this was our routine. One evening three or four friends joined us. That evening, at 6:30 PM there was a discourse arranged at the YMCA assembly hall. The discourse was given by a famous European woman from Madras. We planned to reach the assembly hall in time for the lecture from the club. After refreshments a couple of friends decided to part ways. Murthy asked them:

Felicity of Language

Fruits of Scholarship

After a few weeks, that discourse was published in the magazine [Karnataka] . A person who was close to Murthy read that work and said: “Murthy the article that you wrote -- what do you call it -- Grotius -- It is atrocious? How do we understand it?”

This is the fruit of scholarship.

I have already written about my Sanskrit teacher, Kashi Raghavendracharya elsewhere.[1] I shall now move on to reminiscences of my English teacher.

Interesting puranic exposition

Giriyamma came home after a discourse on Purāṇa. Murthy asked:

Murthy: Giri, which story was the topic of the discourse today?

Giri: The story was about lord Hanumān making fun of Rāvaṇa in Laṅkā.

Murthy: What is that story?

Giri: Murthy, don’t you even know this story? Hanumān used his special powers to convert his tail into a throne that was thrice bigger than Rāvaṇa’s throne. Did he not?

One of the most popular personalities among the old Mysore citizens was one V N Narasimha Iyengar. He was also known as mīsè (mustachioed) Narasimha Iyengar. The reason was: Narasimha Iyengar was the one who started the tradition of growing a moustache, which was not prevalent among the Śrīvaiṣṇava brāhmaṇas. He was from the Hebbār Śrīvaiṣṇava community. In the era of British Commissioners, the few who could reach better positions, owing to their educational capability, were largely Hebbār Śrīvaiṣṇavas.