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 this, his second guest post, Niranjan continues his reminiscences of his Kutch trip, with a more detailed report of the fifth day spent on the Rann of Kutch. To read his earlier post, click here. We started from Zainabad to Moti Virani, Kutch district on the morning of the fourth day of our trip – 28 th December. We reached our destination by evening and had ample time to cool our heels and take some rest before embarking on another adventure into the wild. We were greeted with a terrific lunch. Whoever says that Gujarati food is sweet, should try out Kutchi food. It is very spicy and reminds of Andhra J