Profiles

Rāḻḻapalli Ananthakrishna Sarma (Part 7)

Powerhouse of Genius

Sarma received awards for many of his Sanskrit and Telugu works. Śrī Mahīśūra-rājyābhyudayādarśaḥ, his classical poetry composition about the progress of Mysore, was awarded the first prize. Those verses are delightful to hear. In his eyes, Karnataka was a land of enjoyment in all seasons[1] and this kingdom of Mysore could only be enjoyed by fortunate people.[2]

Moṭagānahaḻḻi Subrahmanya Shastry - Kannada Translations

Subrahmanya Shastry seemed to have had quite a long relationship with the Skānda-mahā-purāṇa. This was probably the earliest of the works he had taken up. He had started working on a prose rendition of the Skānda-mahāpurāṇa running to twelve volumes back in 1928. In the edition thus published, the original text was not given and only the translation was given in the form of running prose. He has dedicated the work to his father, Moṭagānahaḻḻi Śaṅkara-śāstri.[1]

Moṭagānahaḻḻi Subrahmanya Shastry - Major Works

On 29th August 1959, Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan visited Mysore to inaugurate the All India Conference on Philosophy. Subrahmanya Shastry wrote the following verses to welcome him –

yasmin jñāte janeṣu prasarati vimalo bhrātṛ-bhāvaḥ suhṛt-tvaṃ

puṣṭis-tuṣṭis-samṛddhir-nirupama-vibhavaḥ saṃskṛter-dīptimat-tvam|

mānuṣyaṃ yena samyag jagati vijayate dharmam-ujjīvya satyaṃ

pāyād-vaḥ śāśvataṃ tat prarucira-sudhiyāṃ darśanaṃ bodha-pūrṇam||

Moṭagānahaḻḻi Subrahmanya Shastry - Childhood and Household Affairs

Childhood and Education

Subrahmanya Shastry lost his father when he was just about seven or eight years old (c. 1913).

He received his early lessons in the Sanskrit language from Kāśinātha-śāstri and then joined the Cāmarajendra Saṃskṛta Mahāpāṭhaśālā in Bangalore. He studied kāvya, nāṭaka, and other genres of literature. He must have been sixteen or seventeen years of age.