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...
Taking a break from the festival posts, here is a book review instead, for you, while I gather more Navaratri - related material to post! I had high hopes from ‘Asura’ – Tale of the vanquished - The story of Ravana and his people , by Anand Neelakantan. After all, how often is it that we get to read the other side of an epic? I should have been warned by the title – or rather, the long explanation to the title. The book is just the same, a long, rambling monologue, which brings little new or interesting to the fore.