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...
The spectacular landscapes of Ladakh continued to astound us as we continued on our way past Lamayuru. Somewhere along the route, the Wakha river joined us, and along her canyon were stunning natural rock formations, which reminded me of the ancient temples of central India. This continued all the way to Mulbek , where we stopped to see the colossal Maitreya Buddha carved into the rock. We had seen many colossal statues of Maitreya in Ladakh. But this one is different. Those are made of clay and stucco. This one is carved into the rock, and is dated to the 9 th century CE. It is considered one of the finest such figures seen in the region. The figure of Maitreya is carved on a huge boulder, standing in the middle of the village, right by the side of the road. He is shown with 4 hands, and richly adorned, holding a lotus stalk and rosary in his upper hands, the lower hands in varada mudra, and holding a kamandalu. There has been a lot of speculation regarding his identi...