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...
In the days gone by , the Shaivite saints used to walk from one temple to another, living on the temple premises, cleaning it up, performing the rituals, singing songs in praise of the Lord, and then move on to the next temple. This way, they managed to visit an astounding number of temples on foot. After visiting the temples in the Thanjavur – Kumbakonam belt, it seems to me that they were wise, for that is certainly the best, and maybe the only way one can see all the temples in the area. The city of Kumbakonam alone has about a hundred temples. One can then imagine the number of temples there are around the city. In fact, for every kilometer in any direction, one comes across at least one Shiva and one Vishnu temple. Every village seems to have a big temple, either dedicated to Vishnu or Shiva. While the Vaishnava temples are well maintained and seem prosperous, most of the Shiva temples, though built beautifully, are in disrepair, and lack funds. Many of them don’t even have enough...