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 April this year , as I was making the last minute arrangements for my Bangalore-Mysore trip, I received an offer from Thomas Cook, to try out one of their planned trips at a concessional rate. The offer was just too good to refuse, and as I wrote about it earlier , I took up their offer of exploring Wayanad. Since I returned, you have been treated to my long series on Wayanad, and now, finally, my post is up on their blog too.... Click here to read the post.