June 2019
BHĪṢMA-PARVA
नारायणं नमस्कृत्य
नरञ्चैव नरोत्तमम् ।
देवीं सरस्वतीं व्यासं
ततो जयमुदीरयेत् ॥
Having saluted Nārāyaṇa,
the human and the divine;
Sarasvatī; and Vyāsa –
May Jayabe hailed!
As the army prepared itself for battle, Duryodhana called for Duśśāsana and told him, “Duśśāsana! Prepare the mighty warriors and the army for the protection of Bhīṣma. The great task that lies ahead of us is the defence of Bhīṣma; there is no...
ನಿದ್ರೆಯು ಪ್ರಕೃತಿಯಾದರೆ ಹಾಸಿಗೆಯು ಸಂಸ್ಕೃತಿ. ಮಂಚ-ಮಧುಮಂಚಗಳು ಮತ್ತೂ ಮಿಗಿಲಾದ ಸಂಸ್ಕೃತಿ. ಅಷ್ಟೇಕೆ, ಭೋಗಲೋಕದ ಸ್ವೀಕೃತಿ, ನಾಗರಕಜಗತ್ತಿನ ಸತ್ಕೃತಿ. ಸಂಸ್ಕೃತಸಾಹಿತ್ಯದಲ್ಲಿ ಈ ಎಲ್ಲ ಸ್ತರಗಳೂ ಸೇರಿ ಶೃಂಗಾರಶಯ್ಯೆಯು ಪದರುಪದರಾದ ಸುಪ್ಪತ್ತಿಗೆಯೇ ಆಗಿದೆ. ಅಲ್ಲಿಯ ಕೆಲವೊಂದು ಶಯ್ಯಾಸ್ವಾರಸ್ಯಗಳನ್ನು ವಾಚಿಕವಾಗಿ ಮಾತ್ರ ಸಹೃದಯರೊಡನೆ ಹಂಚಿಕೊಳ್ಳುವ ಹವಣು ಇಲ್ಲಿದೆ.
ಸಂಸ್ಕೃತದ ಶಾಸ್ತ್ರಜಗತ್ತು ಹಾಸುಗೆ-ಮಂಚಗಳನ್ನು ಕುರಿತು ವಿಪುಲವಾದ ವ್ಯಾಸಂಗವನ್ನೇ ಮಾಡಿದೆ. ಮಂಚ, ಪರ್ಯಂಕ, ಪಲ್ಯಂಕ, ಶಯ್ಯಾ, ಖಟ್ವಾ, ತಲ್ಪ ಮುಂತಾದ ಮೂಲಭೂತವಾದ ಹೆಸರುಗಳೂ...
Literary Work
In reality, Rajagopalachari’s first love was literature. He had deep interest in good books. Once on a visit to Bangalore when he was the Governor General, he sent word for me to meet him. Accordingly, I went to the Residency Bungalow. Instead of sitting inside the building, having fetched some chairs and tables, he was sitting on an easy chair a few yards away, by the shade of some bushes. There were two or three books on the...
Visvesvaraya’s Library
By the time (Sir M.) Visvesvaraya rose up to become a diwan, his acquaintance with Venkatanarappa had grown stronger. Visvesvaraya requested Venkatanarappa to help him put his personal collection of books in order. Venkatanaranappa carried out the task diligently and with great joy. Visvesvaraya was thrilled and he, as per his usual norm, intended to reward Venkatanaranappa with a material gift. This gave rise to a...
I had the acquaintance of Sri Kempe Gowda for a really short time—about two or three hours.
Sri Kempe Gowda hailed from the Coimbatore region. There was no one to tell how he acquired the craze for music. After his childhood, he became the disciple of Sri Pattanam Subrahmanya Iyer who was renowned in Tiruvayur in the Tanjavur district. Out there, Kempe Gowda was the classmate of Vidwan Mysore Vasudevacharya. I have heard that in his final days,...
New Dimensions of Meaning
The qualities of poetry, song, and sastra are all infused in the Gita. In the view of the Three Acaryas [Adi Sankara, Ramanuja and Madhva], it is evident that the Gita forms the foundation stone for Vedanta-Sastra. However, in the context of the Gita, the term “Sastra” has a deeper connotation than is commonly understood. Here, Sastra means those procedures or processes or methods that come in handy for the pursuit of...
Kṛṣṇa reached Upaplavya, met the Pāṇḍavas and narrated everything that transpired in Hastināpura. He finished by saying these words – “Though Bhīṣma, Droṇa, Vidura, Gāndhārī, Dhṛtarāṣṭra, and others tried to counsel Duryodhana, he refused to listen. He never changed his mind. He only got enraged, his eyes turned red and he left the court without caring for anyone. He was followed by the kings who had taken shelter under him. He commanded them...
ಅಮರುಕನ ಹೆಣ್ಣುಗಳ ಹಠ ಕಾವ್ಯಪರಿಧಿಯನ್ನೂ ಮೀರಿದ ಅತಿಕವಿತಾಭೂಮಿಕೆ. ಮನಸ್ಸನ್ನು ಕಲ್ಲಾಗಿಸಿಕೊಂಡು ನಲ್ಲರನ್ನು ಮುನಿದ ಹೆಣ್ಣುಗಳು ಹೊರದೂಡುವರೆಂದು ಬಲ್ಲವರ ಅಭಿಪ್ರಾಯ. ಆದರೆ ಅಮರುಕನ ಹೆಣ್ಣುಗಳು ಮೊದಲು ತಮ್ಮೊಡಲಿನಿಂದ ಪ್ರಾಣವನ್ನು ದೂಡಲು ನಿಶ್ಚಯ ಮಾಡಿಕೊಂಡ ಬಳಿಕವೇ ಪ್ರಾಣೇಶ್ವರರನ್ನು ಮನಸ್ಸಿನಿಂದ, ಮಂದಿರದಿಂದ ಹೊರಡಿಸಬಲ್ಲರು. ಇಂಥ ನಾಯಿಕೆಯ ಬಳಿ ಮುಂಜಾನೆ ಪ್ರಿಯತಮನು ಬಂದು ಬಾಗಿಲು ತಟ್ಟಿದ್ದಾನೆ. ಇರುಳೆಲ್ಲ ಅವನಿಗಾಗಿ ಕಾದು ಕಳವಳಿಸಿದ್ದ ಆಕೆ ಅಗುಳಿ ತೆಗೆದು ನೋಡಿದಾಗ ಅವಳಿಗೆ ಕಂಡದ್ದೇನು? ಅಲತಿಗೆಯ ಬಣ್ಣವನ್ನು ಹಣೆಯಲ್ಲಿ, ತೋಳಬಂದಿಯ...
A Logical Intellect
Rajaji was endowed with critical thinking, backed by sound logic. Whatever the topic, he first examined the sentence that communicates the idea; he analyzed its literal meaning and then grasp its essence; he then verified ‘Is this aspect true?’ If there was more than one piece of information, he considered their compatibility. It was his method thus to dissect every topic, and weigh and value each of them. This is the logical...
“Vijñāna” (ವಿಜ್ಞಾನ) - A Science Monthly
Venkatanaranappa was always keen on the propagation of science (and scientific thought) among the masses. For his ideas to capture the minds of the people, the language of presentation had to be simple and clear. The magintude of the efforts that Venkatanaranappa put to turn his ideas into reality can only be known by seeing them first hand. The main trouble he encountered was the indefinite grammatical...