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• 18:21, 19 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page The Water that Became Ghee (Created page with " One of the most common legends about the sacred centers of India that we all grew up listening to is the legend of the water that turned into ghee. The sacred pulse of India is never out of sight. A great temple, a sacred centre is never far away. This is as true about north India where there is hardly any ancient temple left, as it is about south India. Almost every district and region in India have at least one such great centre. In north India, it is often called a...") Tag: Visual edit
• 18:14, 19 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page Symbolism of Temples Part I: Do Hindus Understand their Sacred Symbols? (Created page with "==== Do Hindus understand the symbolism of temple sculpture and architecture? ==== Many will argue that today this is largely not so. The symbols lie unrecognized by many devotees. The rituals continue without connecting meaning to symbols. In general, the appreciation of both sculpture and architecture is going down because the faculties of appreciating them are disappearing. The reasons are too well known. The cultural disconnect that modern education and socio-poli...") Tag: Visual edit
• 18:10, 19 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page Symbolism Of Temples Part II: The Shared Vocabulary Of Indian Arts (Created page with "==== The Universal Metaphors ==== Indian arts are not isolated disciplines. They are connected to each other with a shared vocabulary and universal metaphors which pervade all of these disciplines. It is the all-pervasiveness of these metaphors which connects Indian art with the connoisseur; which connects the sculpture and the architect with the devotee. One such metaphor is bija, or the cosmic seed coupled with the symbolism of hiranyagarbha, or the cosmic womb. These...") Tag: Visual edit
• 18:06, 19 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page Symbolism of Temples Part III – Pradakshina and Kshetram (Created page with "==== Pradakshina and Kshetram – The Sacred Sense of Space ==== The most potent means of imparting meaning to rituals and symbols is pradakshina or the ritual of circumambulation. The Agamas which dictate how a temple should be built, how worship should be offered in the temple, how a priest shall behave and conduct affairs, also speak upon the conduct of the devotee. There are very clear instructions on how to visit a temple and what to do upon visiting a temple. Every...") Tag: Visual edit
• 18:04, 19 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page Yayati Prashna: Why there can be no Technological Solutions to Cultural Problems (Created page with " A few hundred years ago, during the Industrial Revolution, a pipedream was sold to humanity: that unlimited economic progress is possible for humankind, with limited resources, on one planet. A fifth standard student can easily understand that this is theoretically impossible, let alone practically possible. And yet the dream was sold to a certain section of humanity: what became known later as the West, or Western Europe and the USA. Initially it led to economic, milit...") Tag: Visual edit
• 18:02, 19 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page Did Brahmins Monopolize Knowledge in Ancient India? Part 2 (Created page with "==== The Fluid Category of the Pancham Veda ==== The Ayurveda is also called the fifth Veda. It is an entire science, an entire discipline. And yet it is called the fifth Veda for it is a life science and instructs not just on medicine or food, but on the entire lifestyle and thus qualifies to be a text akin to the Vedas in its orientation towards pure knowledge. It also shows that the very idea of Pancham Veda was kept fluid, to convey the sense that though the Vedas we...") Tag: Visual edit
• 18:00, 19 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page Did Brahmins Monopolize Knowledge in Ancient India? Part 1 (Created page with " One of the most common charges against the Hindu society is that the Brahmins monopolized knowledge and hence powered themselves in ancient India. They claim that only the Brahmins and Kshatriyas were allowed to perform Vedic Yajna while the Shudras and in most cases the Vaishyas were prevented from gaining any knowledge or power. Anyone who is not addled with colonial, racist and anti-Hindu propaganda will realize that this is not true in most ways, but a case of a l...") Tag: Visual edit
• 17:55, 19 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page Dharmic Circuits: The Temple, The Grove And The Lake Part 2 (Created page with "==== The Destruction of the Sacred Groves ==== These sacred groves started disappearing as soon as the cultural ecosystem embedded in dharma necessary to sustain it became outlawed by the Indian State. In fact the destruction of these sacred kshetras had started much earlier. First there were the Islamic invaders and then came the British with various laws freezing temple lands. And the most damage was done post-independence with the Tenants Act which made the temple dep...") Tag: Visual edit
• 17:53, 19 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page Dharmic Circuits: The Temple, The Grove And The Lake Part 1 (Created page with "==== The Wonder that is Sringeri ==== Shri Sringeri Sharada Peetham, located in the foothills of the Western Ghats in the Chikamagaluru district of Karnataka, seems to be straight out of a fairy tale. It is like a portal to another world; a world of flowing rivers, great temples, running deer, roaming elephants, students in white studying Vedic disciplines, teachers taking classes under the shade of a grove, right beside the sinuous watercourse. One of the greatest seat...") Tag: Visual edit
• 17:42, 19 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page Dharmic Circuits: The Tale of Many Kailashas (Created page with " For the Armenians, the greatest collective pain is to stand in their national capital Yerevan and look at their most sacred symbol, Mount Ararat. It is indeed sad because Armenia is a Christian country and Mount Ararat lies just across its national border in Turkey, a Muslim country which is guilty of committing a number of genocides of Armenians over the centuries. Mount Ararat, the sacred center – the very core of their religious, national and cultural consciousness...") Tag: Visual edit
• 17:39, 19 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page Dharmic Circuits: Sacred Pathways – Part 2 (Created page with "==== Chandrashekhar Temple and the Largest Shiva Linga of Himachal ==== In a remote village Saho, nesting in the secluded valley of the Sal River, in the hills of Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh, lies the Chandrashekhar Temple. The present structure is attributed by Laxman Thakur to be one thousand years old, but the core and the Shiva Linga is older. (Thakur 66) The village is 18 kilometers from the Chamba town and is completely surrounded by high hills. The village...") Tag: Visual edit
• 17:36, 19 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page Dharmic Circuits: Sacred Pathways – Part 1 (Created page with "==== Kshetra, Desha and Yatra ==== The Hindu sense of space is sacred. It has a center and a periphery.  The centre has multiple locations. They are the Teertha Kshetras of India. The periphery coincides with the boundaries of the cultural space of Bharatvarsha and the phenomenon which connects these multiple centers to Bharata’s peripheries is the process of Teertha Yatra. Teertha Yatra is literally the sutra which binds Bharatvarsha together. It is the underlying t...") Tag: Visual edit
• 17:30, 19 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page How Old Is The Hindu Temple Part 2 (Created page with "==== Evidence from the Inscriptions ==== Though not many Hindu temples exist which date back earlier than 3rd or 4th century CE, there are inscriptions which testify to the existence of temple and temple worship before Christ. Gopinatha Rao while writing about a 2nd century BCE inscription found in Brahmi script, on a Garuda Stambha, in Besnagar, Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh, says:<blockquote>“This is about the earliest known inscription mentioning Vishnu as Vasudeva; and f...") Tag: Visual edit
• 17:28, 19 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page How Old Is The Hindu Temple Part 1 (Created page with " India has the largest number of monuments in the world. Even after large-scale destruction of its temples during the Islamic invasions of India, still thousands upon thousands of the Hindu temples survive. Though most are in ruins, they give an idea about the Hindu architecture and sculpture. After at least six centuries of Islamic destruction and two centuries of British neglect, it is only in the 21st century that the Hindu temple is getting its due fame in the age...") Tag: Visual edit
• 17:11, 19 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page What Is A Hindu Temple? (Created page with " In an interview last year, of Dr. R. Nagaswamy, the great scholar of temple architecture in India, I dared to put up a rather naïve question to his formidable intellect: “How old is the Hindu temple?” The questions about the antiquity of the Hindu temple constantly occupied my mind. Most of the western scholars credit the emergence of the Hindu temple in India to Buddhism, alleging that the Hindu temple is a development of the Buddhist temple which in turn is ins...") Tag: Visual edit
• 17:08, 19 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page Many Meaning of the Hindu Temple Part 2 (Created page with " ==== '''The Temple as the Divine Tree''' ==== The symbolism of the seed is taken further. This seed is believed to have sprouted upwards in the form of the temple ''vimana'' and branching out in various shoots, leaves and branches, it again coalesces at the top in one ''kalash'', bearing fruit which again contains the seed from which it came, and thus directly above this, outside the temple, over the ''vimana'', another ''kalash'' is installed which has the same ‘see...") Tag: Visual edit
• 17:05, 19 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page Many Meanings of the Hindu Temple Part 1 (Created page with " The Hindu temple like all other Hindu objects is symbolic, symbolizing the most refined knowledge that the ancient saints of India had codified. In this article, some symbolical aspects of the Hindu temple are discussed. ==== '''Temple as a Sacred Mountain''' ==== The Hindu temple is built and perceived in the image of Mount Meru, the sacred mountain. Mount Meru represents ultimate knowledge and climbing it symbolizes attaining self-realization. The Hindu temple is c...") Tag: Visual edit
• 17:01, 19 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page The Story Of A Priest (Created page with "==== A Heritage Temple ==== Prashant S. Bhardwaj is the head priest of the Veera Narayana Temple, Belavadi. The Veera Narayana Temple is dedicated to Veera Narayana, a form of Lord Vishnu, in the village of Belavadi, Chikamagalur district, Karnataka. The temple was built in the 12th century CE by the Hindu dynasty of the Hoysalas, based at Halebidu which was then called Dwarasamudra. They also built the famous temples at Belur and Halebidu. It is not in the scope of th...") Tag: Visual edit
• 16:54, 19 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page World Civilizations: Mesopotamia, Part 12 - Epic Themes and Mesopotamian Proverbs (Created page with " Having seen the story, even though we cannot say how exactly the epic was understood by its own people in its own time, I think it is a safe bet to say that the epic conveys deep messages about some themes which are: * Civilization vs Wilderness: The wealth and grandeur of the city of Uruk is contrasted to the wilderness and primitivity of the forest. The conflict between Enkidu and Gilgamesh is a conflict between civilization and wilderness. But the eventual friendsh...") Tag: Visual edit
• 16:46, 19 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page World Civilizations: Mesopotamia, Part 11 - The Culture Hero and Epic, Gilgamesh (Created page with " The epic of Gilgamesh forms the core of Mesopotamian civilization in the same way the Rāmāyaṇa and the Mahābhārata do for our civilization. While not all would have been literate philosophers in ancient Mesopotamia who could think and do abstract philosophy, everyone in that civilization would certainly have been familiar with this epic. In this section, I will summarize the contents of the epic. Tablets of this epic have been found in not just Mesopotamia but als...") Tag: Visual edit
• 16:35, 19 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page World Civilizations: Mesopotamia, Part 10 - Creation and Cosmogony (Created page with "==== Creation & Cosmogony: The Enuma Elish and the Bible ==== As we saw previously, in Mesopotamia water from the rivers and from the rains were not only the lifeline of agriculture and life; but also sources of disasters through floods and storms. In fact, the Mesopotamians thought of the world they lived in as a gap between two waters: First, there was definitely water below the ground which came up in springs, wells, and flowed in rivers. Then, there was definitely wa...") Tag: Visual edit
• 16:29, 19 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page World Civilizations: Mesopotamia, Part 9 - Sacred Geography, the Mother Goddess, and the Afterlife (Created page with "==== Sacred Geography: Temples & Pilgrimages ==== One day, an adventurous man from Mesopotamia would have traveled across the mud all the way - and at the end, he would have found an unusual sight for a muddy flatland - the Zagros mountains which were the source of life (rivers) and death (storms & floods) - and he would have been awed! So, the Mesopotamians considered the mountains as abodes of gods; hence their temples were designed to serve as replicas of mountains. T...") Tag: Visual edit
• 16:24, 19 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page World Civilizations: Mesopotamia, Part 8 - Religion, the World of Gods and Men, and Civilizational Constants (Created page with "==== Religion: The World of Gods and Men ==== First, regarding gods and temples: Mesopotamians believed in a variety of gods. Each god had a Sumerian name and an Akkadian name, and both were considered to be equivalent. The Sumerian and Mesopotamian deities might have been different originally, in pre-civilizational times. But by the time they had interacted and constituted a single civilizational identity, their gods had merged and were considered equivalent. We will se...") Tag: Visual edit
• 16:07, 19 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page World Civilizations: Mesopotamia, Part 7 - The Real Meaning of Myths and Gods (Created page with "This series of articles studies other ancient civilizations: their history, their achievements, their intellectual thought, their religions and their eventual takeover by either Christianity or Islam. Last time we started our exploration of the Mesopotamian civilization by looking at their civilizational geography, political history and how bilinguality shaped their lexicographic bases for tradition and its consequences in their intellectual thinking and their worldview...") Tag: Visual edit
• 11:50, 19 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page World Civilizations: Mesopotamia, Part 6 - Spoken, Written, and Dictionary to Religion (Created page with "==== Spoken vs Written ==== Indian tradition on the contrary, places primacy in the spoken word over the written word. In fact only very late, writing was used to record ancient sacred texts. Writing down a sacred text like the Veda was considered a sin for a long time as the written perishable material word was considered inferior compared to the heard word that is ethereal. The most authoritative Saṃskṛta texts in Hinduism are referred to as śruti which literally...") Tag: Visual edit
• 11:46, 19 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page World Civilizations: Mesopotamia, Part 5 - From the Dictionary to Poetry, Philosophy, and Reality (Created page with "==== From Dictionary to Poetry ==== Exhaustive lexicographic lists also stimulated poetry as they revealed clearly the alliterations and rhymes of related words which could be exploited in composing poems. Such parallelism in structure and meaning can be seen in the poetry of all languages and exhaustive lists of a theme of items in a rhyming manner too occur in the poetry of all languages, but it becomes easier to spot and exploit when one constructs an exhaustive word...") Tag: Visual edit
• 11:41, 19 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page World Civilizations: Mesopotamia, Part 4 - Is Dictionary Literature? (Created page with " The cuneiform script and the bilinguality in Sumerian-Akkadian is so integral to Mesopotamian culture that their entire philosophy and worldview is based on this process of writing and reading. Let me ask the following questions: * What is the first greatest literature that the English language has produced? * What text should one start with to first read in order to get a feel for English culture? * What text is the trademark of English culture? * What text forms the...") Tag: Visual edit
• 11:30, 19 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page World Civilizations: Mesopotamia, Part 3 - The Written Word and How Cuneiform Works (Created page with " A very important aspect of Mesopotamian culture is its writing - they attached a huge importance to writing soon after they developed into a full fledged civilization. It is impossible to understand the worldview of this civilization without appreciating the bilingualism and its writing script - the cuneiform. Cuneiform initially started off as a pictogram - a picture of water like 💧 representing water - much like our whatsapp emojis. This was in the very beginning...") Tag: Visual edit
• 11:28, 19 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page World Civilizations: Mesopotamia, Part 2 - A Brief History and Bilingualism (Created page with "==== A Brief History of Mesopotamian Civilization ==== In this section, we shall sketch a brief overview of the political and cultural history of this civilization. Mere facts about events are not useful for most people; hence, only as much that is required to understand the intellectual aspects and worldviews of the civilization is presented. As was said in the geography section, Mesopotamia being flat with no natural impenetrable barriers, is predicted to see the rise...") Tag: Visual edit
• 11:21, 19 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page World Civilizations: Mesopotamia, Part 1 - Geography, Destiny, A Civilization from Mud (Created page with " This series of articles studies other ancient civilizations: their history, their achievements, their intellectual thought, their religions and their eventual takeover by either Christianity or Islam. I believe that this has valuable insights to offer for modern Hindus as well. First, we are one of the few surviving ancient civilizations who still maintain our continuity with the very beginnings of our civilization. Most of the world is now dominated by the two Abraha...") Tag: Visual edit
• 11:10, 19 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page The Forgotten Legacy of Raja Subodh Mallik: Part 2 - Aurobindo, the House, and a Story of Shameful Neglect (Created page with " Subodh Mallik was also a close partner and confidante of someone who I consider to be one of the most important figures in modern Indian history - Aurobindo Ghosh. The well-known Śrī Aurobindo, in his political avatar, was one of the most prominent names in the nationalist politics of this period. Having spent many years working as a teacher in the administration of the Gaekwad Maharaja of Baroda, Aurobindo also worked to rouse the national consciousness through his f...") Tag: Visual edit
• 11:01, 19 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page The Forgotten Legacy of Raja Subodh Mallik: Part 1 - The Man and the Setting (Created page with " The address is 12, Wellington Square, Kolkata. There’s a park across the building that is named after a famous man, and the infamous Lenin Sarani is just a small walk away, being one of the few things that starkly remind you that the Communists really did rule West Bengal for 35 years! We are standing in front of what’s left of Raja Subodh Chandra Mallik’s ancestral home. Wellington Square itself is now known as Raja Subodh Mallik Square in his honor, and so is...") Tag: Visual edit
• 10:58, 19 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page Pāṇinian Grammar: Part 10 - The Light Before Heavy Principle (Created page with "==== Where Should the Head Be ==== Now which is a better way of communicating - telling the head first and then its modifiers (head initial)? - or telling the head last after describing it completely using the modifiers (head final)? What are the advantages and disadvantages of a head-initial versus head-final communication at least for a noun-adjective case? Think about it for a minute yourself before reading further. Turns out head-initial constructions where the main...") Tag: Visual edit
• 10:47, 19 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page Pāṇinian Grammar: Part 9 - Initial and Final Heads (Created page with " This series of articles is dedicated to Pāṇinian grammar of the Saṃskṛta language, as presented in his treatise “Aṣṭādhyāyī”. In trying to characterise the grammar of the Saṃskṛta language spoken in his day, Pāṇini Maharṣi manufactures legitimate and only legitimate words of the Saṃskṛta language, by designing a set of 4000 rules in a highly compressed language of the “sūtra” that operates on the sounds, verb roots, prefixes and suffi...") Tag: Visual edit
• 10:42, 19 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page Pāṇinian Grammar: Part 8 - The Programming Genius of Pāṇini (Created page with " Let us now see an example of the multiple inheritance case. Consider the three sets of Sandhi rules below. # इ/उ/ऋ/ऌ + vowel = य्/व् /र् /ल् + vowel (Part 1 - इकः यण् अचि) # अ + vowel = guna (medium grade of the vowel) # Vowel + Vowel (same pair) = Long Vowel I give various examples of the three rules: # प्रति + उषा = प्रत्युषा, सु + आगतम् = स्वागतम्, मा...") Tag: Visual edit
• 10:38, 19 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page Pāṇinian Grammar:Part 7 - Introduction to Object Oriented Programming (Created page with " In this section, I will take a little step further and introduce object oriented programming concepts. Again, this can be safely skipped for those to whom it is a day job. In this section, I am going to introduce a few more concepts that may sound sophisticated but are in essence simple to understand. They are the following - class, object and inheritance. ==== Class & Object ==== The standard types of data that computers are trained to manipulate are routine objects...") Tag: Visual edit
• 10:31, 19 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page Pāṇinian Grammar: Part 6 - Introduction to Programming (Created page with " This series of articles is dedicated to Pāṇinian grammar of the Saṃskṛta language, as presented in his treatise “Aṣṭādhyāyī”. In trying to characterize the grammar of the Saṃskṛta language spoken in his day, Pāṇini Maharṣi manufactures legitimate and only legitimate words of the Saṃskṛta language, by designing a set of 4000 rules in a highly compressed language of the “sūtra” that operates on the sounds, verb roots, prefixes and suffi...") Tag: Visual edit
• 10:27, 19 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page Pāṇinian Grammar: Part 5 - Uses of Consonant इत् Markers (Created page with "==== What Suffixes a Root or a Nominal Stem Can Take ==== There are a lot of suffixes in English taken by lots of words. For example, take the suffix “ion” in English that converts a verb ending in a silent “e” into an abstract noun. * dilute = dilution * substitute = substitution * deplete = depletion But not all verb roots in English that end in “e” can take this “ion”. As examples, see below. take = taktion make = maktion measure = measurtion (these...") Tag: Visual edit
• 10:23, 19 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page Pāṇinian Grammar: Part 4 - Saṃskṛta Roots, Ablaut, and the Vedic Accent (Created page with " To understand what Pāṇini did, we must have a rough idea of the Saṃskṛta language - after all, that is the language for which he is designing a formal grammar, right? You do not need to remember all the language specific information that I tell below, but only the overall gist of what is happening. ==== Roots & Ablaut ==== For that, let us look at some Saṃskṛta words with their meanings: करोति = he/she/it does सरति = he/she/it flows च...") Tag: Visual edit
• 01:22, 19 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page Pāṇinian Grammar: Part 3 - Generative Grammar (Created page with " This series of articles is dedicated to Pāṇinian grammar of the Saṃskṛta language, as presented in his treatise “Aṣṭādhyāyi”. In trying to characterize the grammar of the Saṃskṛta language spoken in his day, Pāṇini Maharṣi manufactures legitimate and only legitimate words of the Saṃskṛta language, by designing a set of 4000 rules in a highly compressed language of the “sūtra” that operates on the sounds, verb roots, prefixes and suffix...") Tag: Visual edit
• 01:16, 19 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page Pāṇinian Grammar: Part 2 - Pāṇini’s Problem (Created page with " Pāṇini was facing the same problem as a fruit vendor. There is a phenomenon called Sandhi in Saṃskṛta wherein final sounds of a word change so as to accommodate well with the beginning sound of the word that follows it. For example, no language in this world tolerates two vowels coming together at word boundaries - they avoid it by some or the other means. Example: a book (OK in English) but a egg (not OK in English). Why? Because there is a succession of two v...") Tag: Visual edit
• 13:42, 18 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page Pāṇinian Grammar, Part 1 - Introduction to Optimal Ordering and Meta-Language (Created page with " This series of articles is dedicated to Pāṇinian grammar of the Saṃskṛta language, as presented in his treatise “Aṣṭādhyāyi”. In trying to characterize the grammar of the Sanskrit language spoken in his day, Pāṇini Maharṣi manufactures legitimate and only legitimate words of the Sanskrit language, by designing a set of 4000 rules in a highly compressed language of the “sūtra” that operates on the sounds, verb roots, prefixes and suffixes, to g...") Tag: Visual edit
• 04:47, 18 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page The Saga of the Padmanabhadasas IV - Practice and Patronage of the present day Travancore Royals (Created page with " Śrī Padmanābhasvāmī Perumāḻ is the lord and sovereign of the land here in Thiruvananthapuram. Even while flying in, it is apparent from the skies that He has blessed this land with abundance. On landing, the small and elegant airport offers a royal welcome: the entrance is adorned with lamp-holding madanikās, distinctive Kerala murals, a portrait of the Travancore Mahārājā, and a sleek snake-boat from the famous races. This airport land, once owned by the mo...") Tag: Visual edit
• 04:38, 18 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page The Saga of the Padmanabhadasas III - Upholders of Tradition (Created page with " In the previous part, we discussed how Travancore stood against the inimical forces to defend Dharma. Now, we will look at their role as upholders of tradition. Even while being Dāsas of Padmanābha, the Mahārājas of Travancore also looked after temples belonging to other deities. For instance they donated the seven and half (miniature) gold coated elephants of Ezharaponnana to Ettumanoor Shiva temple. The family deity of Travancore Mahārājas was also the Godde...") Tag: Visual edit
• 04:33, 18 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page The Saga of the Padmanabhadasas II - Defenders of Hindu Dharma (Created page with " If there is one kingdom that we can showcase as a model state that followed Hindu dharma in its truest most sincerest form it is the Travancore Kingdom. The followers were not only enlightened men and women of the arts but also looked after their state subjects with love and care. Feeding the poor, participating in traditions and festivities with the public, making donations where needed, making social changes as required, involving themselves in education of their citi...") Tag: Visual edit
• 04:29, 18 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page The Saga of the Padmanabhadasas - History of Travancore Kingdom 1 (Created page with " The Travancore monarchy is one of the most dhārmika kingdoms of Bhārata. Along with Mysore, Maheshwar, Baroda, Bikaner, Udaipur, and a few others, these royalties have embodied the ideals of Rāma Rājya both in their politics, as well as in their attitude towards their public. Above all, they have been role models for their piety, simplicity, and śraddhā in our devatās. During the Padmanabhaswamy Temple fracas, where the non-Hindu Kerala government wanted to take...") Tag: Visual edit
• 04:25, 18 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page Conversion to Hindu Dharma - Sugama Ji’s Journey (Created page with "==== Introduction ==== There were many disciples of Amma who came to serve her at the World Hindu Congress (WHC) in Bangkok, in November 2023. It was a wonderful sight seeing them in handloom saris, bindis, vibhutis, or dhotis as the case maybe, walking in groups and spreading good cheer all around. Some helped in handing out audio translation devices, some in offering ‘Amma’ shoulder bags, many assisted in giving books and literature to the attendees, and many more...") Tag: Visual edit
• 04:21, 18 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page Conversion to Hindu Dharma - Kate Herse’s Personal Account (Created page with " When I first visited Eugene, USA, in 2014 I was pleasantly surprised to find myself amongst a small community of non-Indian Hindus. In terms of dedication, service and sincerity of practice they seemed to be far ahead of any deracinated Indian Hindu. This was not a Hare Krishna group, nor a Swaminarayan group which are the two major Hindu-makers outside of India. Nor did they belong to any of the Isha Yoga, Art of Living, Amma, and other similar global traditions. Here...") Tag: Visual edit
• 04:18, 18 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page Conversion to Hindu Dharma - Case for Sanatana (Created page with "==== Conclusion ==== In previous articles, we discussed the issue of converting to Hindu Dharma in the context of certain texts. If anything, it is the starting point for a deeper reflection and conversation. While being mindful of our texts, we can also be respectful of the growing needs of a silent majority who want to join the Hindu fold. For example, the sacrifices to the Gods and ancestors mentioned in Indra’s discourse are hardly practiced even among traditiona...") Tag: Visual edit
• 04:17, 18 July 2024 Akshayjha talk contribs created page Conversion to Hindu Dharma - Textual Precedents (Created page with "==== Conversion into a “Generic” Hinduism – Textual Precedent ==== Now, that leaves us with the question as to whether it is possible for a foreigner to convert into a less-defined Hinduism that falls outside well-defined sampradāya spaces. And that is intertwined with the 2nd issue that we highlighted at the beginning of this article: What does conversion to Hindu Dharma mean in terms of belief and/or praxis? Surely, if an outsider can convert into what we may ca...") Tag: Visual edit