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A N D Haksar
Aditya Narayan Dhairyasheel Haksar (born 3 December 1933) is a well known translator of Sanskrit classics into English. Born in Gwalior, central India, he is a graduate of The Doon School, Allahabad University and Oxford University. He was a career diplomat, serving as Indian High Commissioner to Kenya and the Seychelles, Minister in the United States, Ambassador to Portugal and Yugoslavia, and he also served as Dean of India's Foreign Service Institute and President of the U.N. Environment Programme's Governing Council. Haksar is noted for his collection of translations from Sanskrit. He has increasingly focused on the '' kathā'' or narrative Sanskrit literature, the manuscript archive of which may amount to some 40,000 volumes. This is in part because many generations of orientalist scholars had overlooked this rich tradition in favor of more ancient religious texts. His ''kathā'' translations include '' Shuka Saptati'', and the first ever renditions into English of ''Madhava ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gwalior
Gwalior() is a major city in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh; it lies in northern part of Madhya Pradesh and is one of the Counter-magnet cities. Located south of Delhi, the capital city of India, from Agra and from Bhopal, the state capital, Gwalior occupies a strategic location in the Gird region of India. The historic city and its fortress have been ruled by several historic Indian kingdoms. From the Kachchhapaghatas in the 10th century, Tomars in the 13th century, it was passed on to the Mughal Empire, then to the Maratha in 1754, and the Scindia dynasty of Maratha Empire in the 18th century. In April 2021, It was found that Gwalior had the best air quality index (AQI 152) amongst the 4 major cities in Madhya Pradesh. Besides being the administrative headquarters of Gwalior district and Gwalior division, Gwalior has many administrative offices of the Chambal division of northern Madhya Pradesh. Several administrative and judicial organisations, commission ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Katha (storytelling Format)
Katha (or Kathya) is an Indian style of religious storytelling, performances of which are a ritual event in Hinduism. It often involves ''priest- narrators'' (kathavachak or vyas) who recite stories from Hindu religious texts, such as the Puranas, the Ramayana or Bhagavata Purana, followed by a commentary (''Pravachan''). Kathas sometimes take place in households, involving smaller stories related to the '' Vrat'' Katha genre. The didactic Satyanarayan and Ramayana kathas instill moral values by revealing the consequences of human action (karma). Claus, p. 331 History Each region of India has developed its own style and tradition of storytelling in local languages. Epics and puranas, ancient stories of wisdom told in Sanskrit, are the story material common to most regions. Performances are given in temples and at weddings and other religious (or social) functions. The single performer should be versatile in exposition and able to interestingly narrate humorous anecdotes. The story ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samaya Matrika
The samaya (, Japanese and , J: ''sanmaya-kai'', C: ''Sān mè yē jiè''), is a set of vows or precepts given to initiates of an esoteric Vajrayana Buddhist order as part of the abhiṣeka (empowerment or initiation) ceremony that creates a bond between the guru and disciple. According to Keown, ''et al.'', ''samaya'' may be defined as: *A particular system of teaching or doctrines;Keown, et al. (2003) P.247 *The conduct required of a tantric practitioner, often as a set of vows or commitments; *The realization ('' abhisamaya'') of Buddhahood; *In Tantric Buddhism, union with the trikaya, the body, speech and mind of the Buddha. Indo-Tibetan Buddhism Fourteen root downfalls In one of the most widely followed teachings on samaya, Sakya Pandita, a preeminent 12th century Tibetan Buddhism scholar, outlined fourteen primary points of observance to consider in keeping one's samaya vow pure. # Disrespecting the vajra master. # Transgressing the words of the buddhas. # Insulting one ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Subhashita
A subhashita ( sa, सुभाषित, link=no, subhāṣita) is a literary genre of Sanskrit epigrammatic poems and their message is an aphorism, maxim, advice, fact, truth, lesson or riddle. ''Su'' in Sanskrit means good; ''bhashita'' means spoken; which together literally means well spoken or eloquent saying. Subhashitas in Sanskrit are short memorable verses, typically in four ''padas'' (verses) but sometimes just two, but their structure follows a meter. Subhashitas are one of many forms of creative works that have survived from ancient and medieval era of India, and sometimes known as ''Suktis''. Ancient and medieval Indian literature created tens of thousands of subhashitas covering a vast range of subjects. These epigrammatic verses and their anthologies are also referred to as ''Subhashitavali'' or ''Subhashitani''. Philosophy Subhashitas are known for their inherent moral and ethical advice, instructions in worldly wisdom and guidance in making righteous deeds. Subh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
14th Dalai Lama
The 14th Dalai Lama (spiritual name Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, known as Tenzin Gyatso (Tibetan: བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་, Wylie: ''bsTan-'dzin rgya-mtsho''); né Lhamo Thondup), known as Gyalwa Rinpoche to the Tibetan people, is the current Dalai Lama. He is the highest spiritual leader and former head of the country of Tibet. He was born on 6 July 1935, or in the Tibetan calendar, in the Wood-Pig Year, 5th month, 5th day. He is considered a living Bodhisattva, specifically, an emanation of Avalokiteśvara in Sanskrit and Chenrezig in Tibetan. He is also the leader and a monk of the Gelug school, the newest school of Tibetan Buddhism, formally headed by the Ganden Tripa. The central government of Tibet, the Ganden Phodrang, invested the Dalai Lama with temporal duties until his exile in 1959. The 14th Dalai Lama was born to a farming family in Taktser (Hongya Village), in the traditional Tibetan region of Amdo (administra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Simhasana Dvatrimsika
''Singhasan Battisi'' is a collection of Indian folk tales. The title literally means "thirty-two (tales) of the throne". In the frame story, the 11th century king Bhoja discovers the throne of the legendary ancient king Vikramaditya . The throne has 32 statues, who are actually apsaras that had been turned into stone due to a curse. Each of the apsaras tells Bhoja a story about the life and adventures of Vikramaditya, in order to convince him that he is not deserving of Vikramaditya's throne. The original collection, written in Sanskrit, was known as ''Siṃhāsana Dvātriṃśikā''. Other titles for the collection include ''Dvātriṃśat Puttalikā'' ("Thirty-two Statue Stories"), ''Vikrāmaditya Simhāsana Dvātriṃśika'' ("Thirty-two Tales of the Throne of Vikramaditya"), and ''Vikrama Charita'' ("Deeds or Adventures of Vikrama"). In modern vernaculars, the collection is known as ''Singhasan Battisi''; other transliterations of the title include ''Sinhasan Battisi'' and ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hitopadesha
''Hitopadesha'' (Sanskrit: हितोपदेशः, IAST: ''Hitopadeśa'', "Beneficial Advice") is an Indian text in the Sanskrit language consisting of fables with both animal and human characters. It incorporates maxims, worldly wisdom and advice on political affairs in simple, elegant language, and the work has been widely translated. Little is known about its origin. The surviving text is believed to be from the 12th-century, but was probably composed by Narayana between 800 and 950 CE. The oldest manuscript found in Nepal has been dated to the 14th century, and its content and style has been traced to the ancient Sanskrit treatises called the ''Panchatantra'' from much earlier. The author and his sources The authorship of the ''Hitopadesa'' has been contested. 19th-century Indologists attributed the text to Vishnu Sharma, a narrator and character that often appears in its fables. Upon the discovery of the oldest known manuscript of the text in Nepal, dated to 1373, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Narayan Pandit
Narayan Pandit (Hindi: नारायण पण्डित), or Narayana, was the Brāhmaṇa author of the ''Sanskrit'' treatise called ''Hitopadesha'' — a work based primarily on the '' Panchatantra'', one of the oldest collection of stories, mainly animal fables, in the world. Narayana's dates are not known, but scholarly consensus places the composition of the ''Hitopadesha'' at around 800 to 950 CE. The last lines of the book indicate the name of the author as Narayan Pandit: नारायणेन प्रचरतु रचितः संग्रहोsयं कथानाम् Narayan Pandit was the royal poet of Dhawalchandra, the king of Bengal. (in Hindi) The beginning and ending |
Daśakumāracarita
''Dashakumaracharita'' (''The narrative of ten young men'', IAST: ''Daśa-kumāra-Carita'', Devanagari: दशकुमारचरित) is a prose romance in Sanskrit, attributed to Dandin (दण्डी), believed to have flourished in the seventh to eighth centuries CE. However, there is some obscurity surrounding its textual tradition, the identity of the author and the date of composition. It describes the adventures of ten young men, the ''Kumaras'', all of whom are either princes or sons of royal ministers, as narrated by the men themselves (however, there are irregularities in the text). These narratives are replete with accounts of demigods, ghosts, prostitutes, gamblers, intrigues with voluptuous women, astonishing coincidences, cockfights, anthropophagy, sorcery, robberies, murders and wars. The reader is treated to some very striking passages; for instance, a seductive young girl (all of whose anatomical features are very frankly described) deftly prepares a fragra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bhāsa
Bhāsa is one of the earliest and most celebrated Indian playwrights in Sanskrit, predating Kalidasa. His name was already well-known by the 1st century BCE and he belongs to the late-Mauryan (322-184 BCE) period at the earliest, but the thirteen plays attached to his name are commonly dated closer to the first or second century CE. His plays had been lost for centuries until the manuscripts were rediscovered in 1913 by the Indian scholar Ganapati Shastri. Bhāsa had previously only been known from mentions in other works, like the '' Kavyamimamsa'' on poetics from 880–920 AD. In the Kavyamimamsa, Rajashekhara attributes the play ''Swapnavasavadattam'' to Bhāsa. In the introduction to his first play ''Malavikagnimitram'', Kālidāsa wrote: "Shall we neglect the works of such illustrious authors as Bhāsa, Saumilla, and Kaviputra? Can the audience feel any respect for the work of a modern poet, a Kālidāsa?" Date Bhāsa's date of birth is uncertain, but his name was a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
