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Nala Somanadri
Nala (Sanskrit: नल) is a character in the ''Vana Parva'' book of the ''Mahabharata''. He was the king of Nishadha Kingdom and the son of Veerasena. Nala was known for his skill with horses and for his culinary expertise. He married princess Damayanti, of the Vidarbha Kingdom. He was blessed by goddess Kali. He was also a great cook and wrote the first-ever book on cookery, Pakadarpanam (Sanskrit: पाकदर्पण). Even today, a consistently good chef/cook is credited as someone with Nala-Bhagam to mean that their dish tastes as if Nala has prepared it. He is said to have been able to cook a full Thali, meal without lighting fire. Story Nala's story is told in the Vana Parva of the Mahabharata and was adapted into various versions. According to the 12th century text Nishadha Charita, one of the five ''mahakavyas'' (great epic poems) in the canon of Sanskrit literature, written by Sriharsha, Nala, King of Nishadha, found a beautiful swan in a forest. The swan to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Raja Ravi Varma
Raja Ravi Varma ( ml, രാജാ രവിവർമ്മ; 29 April 1848 – 2 October 1906) was an Indian painter and artist. He is considered among the greatest painters in the history of Indian art. His works are one of the best examples of the fusion of European academic art with a purely Indian sensibility and iconography. Specially, he was notable for making affordable lithographs of his paintings available to the public, which greatly enhanced his reach and influence as a painter and public figure. His lithographs increased the involvement of common people with fine arts and defined artistic tastes among common people. Furthermore, his religious depictions of Hindu deities and works from Indian epic poetry and Puranas have received profound acclaim. He was part of the royal family of erstwhile Parappanad, Malappuram district. Raja Ravi Varma was closely related to the royal family of Travancore of present-day Kerala state in India. Later in his life, two of his grandda ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sriharsha
Shri-harsha (IAST: Śrīharṣa) was a 7th century Indian philosopher and poet. Shri Harsha's works concern Advaita Vedanta, Nyaya and other themes in Hindu Philosophy. Early life Śrīharṣa was the son of Śrīhira and Mamalladevī. His father, Śrīhira, was a poet in the court of the Gahadavala king Vijayachandra. His father was also a guide of common people towards god with vedas, Bhagavad Gita's thoughts etc. His father asked Harsha at the time of his death to study well and become a pandit. He told him to use his shiksha (education) towards making life of common people divinity oriented and better. Also, he told Śrīharṣa to take thoughts of Bhagavad Gita to every one. Śrīharṣa went to gurukul for education and studied under Guru's guidance. He mastered all scriptures and all schools of thoughts prevailing at that time. He wrote the unparalleled book (granth), खण्डन-खण्ड-खाद्य, on Advaia Vedanta. In this book, he has refuted Nyayadarsh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Rockwell Lanman
Charles Rockwell Lanman (July 8, 1850 – February 20, 1941) was an American scholar of the Sanskrit language. Early life and education Charles Rockwell Lanman was born in Norwich, Connecticut, the eighth of the nine children of Peter Lanman III and Catherine (Cook) Lanman on July 8, 1850. His mother died when he was three years old, and his aunt Abigail (Abby) Trumbull Lanman helped raise him. His Aunt Abby was an artist, and as one of two legatees of the estate of her great uncle American Revolutionary War artist John Trumbull, inherited many of Trumbull's Revolutionary War period paintings and sketches. At age ten, a young Charles Lanman read a copy of the Journal of the American Oriental Society containing a translation of a textbook of Hindu astronomy, which sparked his interest in Sanskrit. Lanman graduated from Yale College (Phi Beta Kappa) in 1871, was a graduate student there (1871–1873) studying Greek under James Hadley and Sanskrit under WD Whitney and eve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Franz Bopp
Franz Bopp (; 14 September 1791 – 23 October 1867) was a German linguist known for extensive and pioneering comparative work on Indo-European languages. Early life Bopp was born in Mainz, but the political disarray in the Republic of Mainz caused his parents' move to Aschaffenburg, the second seat of the Archbishop of Mainz. There he received a liberal education at the Lyceum and Karl Joseph Hieronymus Windischmann drew his attention to the languages and literature of the East. (Windischmann, along with Georg Friedrich Creuzer, Joseph Görres, and the brothers Schlegel, expressed great enthusiasm for Indian wisdom and philosophy.) Moreover, Karl Wilhelm Friedrich von Schlegel's book, ''Über die Sprache und Weisheit der Indier'' (''On the Speech and Wisdom of the Indians'', Heidelberg, 1808), had just begun to exert a powerful influence on the minds of German philosophers and historians, and stimulated Bopp's interest in the sacred language of the Hindus. Career In 1812, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norman Mosley Penzer
Norman Mosley Penzer (30 September 1892 – 27 November 1960) — known as N. M. Penzer — was a British independent scholar and Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society who specialised in Oriental studies. He translated the tale of Nala and Damayanti in 1926 from Sanskrit. Biography Penzer’s father, the Reverend Seymour Penzer (1857–1918), was ordained in the Established Church (Church of England) and finished his career in charge of the Chapel Royal, Brighton, Sussex. Educated at the University of Cambridge, Penzer's interests encompassed economics, geology, comparative anthropology, folklore, the history of exploration, and old silver. In Penzer’s obituary, the Royal Geographical Society lamented that his "gifts of scholarship were never as fully developed as many thought they might have been". An eminent authority on Sir Richard Francis Burton, the Society remarked that “it will always be a matter of regret that he did not write the definitive biograph ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rituparna
Rutuparna (IAST): Rutuparṇa ( hi, ऋतुपर्ण) was a king of Ayodhya, and son of Sarvakama, into whose service king Nala entered after he had lost his kingdom. Rutuparna was a master mathematician and profoundly skilled in dice Kali (Demon). Nala, as Bahuk (one with a hump) became a minister and later the charioteer in King Rituparna's court on the advice of the King of Snakes (Nagas) to learn from him the skills of dice. According to the story of Nala-Damayanti of Mahabharata, after the disappearance of King Nala, his queen, Damayanti and her father's (the father-in-law of King Nala, the king of Vidarbha Kingdom) courtiers sent out a search party to find him. One of the courtiers reported a person "resembling in behaviour, but not in features" with Nala in King Rutuparna's court in Ayodhya. To test this fact it was proclaimed that Queen Damayanti (known for her beauty) had assented to remarry, and consequently an invitation to a swayamvara for the same was sent to R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Karkotaka
Karkotaka ( sa, कर्कोटक, translit=Karkoṭaka) is a naga king in Hinduism. One of the children of Kashyapa and Kadru, Karkotaka is regarded to have lived in a forest near the Nishadha Kingdom. According to Hindu mythology, he stings King Nala, transforming him into a twisted and ugly shape. Legend Karkotaka once deceived Narada, the divine sage, in a game of chance. Angered, Narada cursed him that he would remain stationary in the forest until he is saved by King Nala. In the Mahabharata, Karkotaka encountered King Nala when there was a wildfire in the forest where he dwelt, calling out to the king to rescue him. Reducing himself to the size of a thumb, he urged Nala to save him, and the king promptly moved the serpent to a safer spot. Thus, he was freed from Narada's curse. Karkotaka asked the king to step forward ten steps, and after he did so, stung him, causing him to turn ugly. The serpent explained that he had bit the king because the malevolent Kali had ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gambling
Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of value ("the stakes") on a random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy are discounted. Gambling thus requires three elements to be present: consideration (an amount wagered), risk (chance), and a prize. The outcome of the wager is often immediate, such as a single roll of dice, a spin of a roulette wheel, or a horse crossing the finish line, but longer time frames are also common, allowing wagers on the outcome of a future sports contest or even an entire sports season. The term "gaming" in this context typically refers to instances in which the activity has been specifically permitted by law. The two words are not mutually exclusive; ''i.e.'', a "gaming" company offers (legal) "gambling" activities to the public and may be regulated by one of many gaming control boards, for example, the Nevada Gaming Control Board. However, this distinction is not u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dharma
Dharma (; sa, धर्म, dharma, ; pi, dhamma, italic=yes) is a key concept with multiple meanings in Indian religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and others. Although there is no direct single-word translation for ''dharma'' in European languages, it is commonly translated as "righteousness", "merit" or "religious and moral duties" governing individual conduct.Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. (9 April 2019)Dharma. ''Encyclopedia Britannica''. Accessed 14 September 2021. In Hinduism, dharma is one of the four components of the ''Puruṣārtha'', the aims of life, and signifies behaviours that are considered to be in accord with '' Ṛta'', the order that makes life and universe possible. It includes duties, rights, laws, conduct, virtues and "right way of living".see: *"Dharma", ''The Columbia Encyclopedia'', 6th Ed. (2013), Columbia University Press, Gale, ; *Steven Rosen (2006), Essential Hinduism, Praeger, , Chapter 3. It had a transtempor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kali (demon)
In Hinduism, Kali ( Devanāgari: , IAST: ', with both vowels short; from a root ', 'suffer, hurt, startle, confuse') is the being who reigns during the age of the Kali Yuga and acts as the nemesis of Kalki, the tenth and final avatar of the Hindu preserver deity, Vishnu. Mahabharata According to the Mahabharata, the gandharva Kali became jealous when he was late to Princess Damayanti's marriage ceremony and discovered she had overlooked the deities Indra, Agni, Varuna, and Yama (and ultimately himself) to choose Nala as her husband. In anger, Kali spoke to his companion Dvapara, the personification of Dvapara Yuga: Kali traveled to Nala's kingdom of Nishadhas and waited twelve long years for the right moment to strike. Because Nala had rendered himself impure by not washing his feet before his prayers, Kali was able to bewitch his soul. Kali then appeared before Pushkara and invited him to play a game of dice with his brother, guaranteeing Nala's downfall. Dwapara took the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Swayamvara
Svayamvara ( sa, स्वयंवर, svayaṃvara, translit-std=IAST), in ancient India, was a method of marriage in which a woman chose a man as her husband from a group of suitors. In this context, in Sanskrit means 'self' and means 'groom'. The bride wishing to marry would select an auspicious time and venue and then broadcast her intentions. Kings typically sent messengers to outside lands, while commoners simply spread the news within the local community. On the appointed day, suitors would gather at the venue and declare their qualifications. The bride would place a garland on the man of her choice and a marriage ceremony was held immediately. Indian literature Sīta In the Hindu epic ''Ramayana'', King Janaka proclaimed that Sita would be wed to the man who could lift and string the Shiva Dhanush (Shiva's bow), calling this feat , meaning the cost to be paid by a suitor. Sita married Rama, the only man strong enough to lift and string the bow. Kunti King Kuntibho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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