The year was 1290 . A crowd had gathered around a clearing, where broken down pillars marked the presence of an ancient temple, now long gone. A young boy, just 14 years old, leaned against one of those pillars, deep in thought. Then, he began speaking, and the crowd fell silent, listening to his every word. He spoke without any notes, translating the Bhagavat Gita, from Sanskrit, which only the pundits knew, to the language everyone in the village knew and spoke – a variety of Prakrit which developed into the Marathi language. Even as he spoke, one of the men in the audience realized how momentous this event was, and how important this composition would be. He began writing down the words the young boy spoke, and this composition was named by its author and composer, the Bhavartha Deepika – the enlightening meaning (of the Bhagavat Gita). Now, the ancient, holy text, was no longer restricted to the pundits, but accessible to all, understood easily by them, composed as it was, in their...
Our final day at Kumbhalgarh dawned bright and clear. We had decided to leave early in the morning and visit some temples along the way before reaching Falna in time for our train. Accordingly, we were provided with a driver who knew all the temples on that route. Prakash was indeed a well informed driver who had made the temple circuit on many occasions. The Amaj Mata Temple The Amaj Mata Temple was the first temple he took us to. It was not on my list, but he said we would enjoy it. This is a small temple to the goddess on a small hill, remarkably fertile. Just outside the temple is a tank, which is full of water throughout the year. Even though it was early in the morning, there were a number of people filling water from the tank. The temple is the usual kind, with an image of the Devi. Life-size sculptures of two elephants stand guard at the door, and on the side of the temple, under a banyan tree, are the images of the “NavaDurgas’, nine forms of the Goddess --- a simple, but ni...