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...
Happy New Year, friends! A post shared by Anuradha Shankar (@anushankarn) on Dec 31, 2017 at 4:28pm PST 2017 brought me lots of travel , to new destinations, as well as lots of inspiration. However, it also brought along a massive writer's block which I am still trying to overcome. So here I begin this New Year with my latest attempt to break the jinx, hoping this is the year I finally manage to bring the blog up to date with all my travels! If you have followed me on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook, you would know that I have just returned from two trips - one to the Konkan with my husband, and the other to Ahmedabad with my son, a friend, and her son. The two trips were very different, to different types of destinations, what different points of interest as well. However, as usual, they included a mix of nature and heritage, since these are my two main interests these days. A post shared by Anuradha Shankar (@anushankarn) on Dec 24, 2017 at...