T.V. Kapali Sastry (3 September 1886 in Mylapore – 17 August 1953 in

Pondicherry Pondicherry (), now known as Puducherry ( French: Pondichéry ʊdʊˈtʃɛɹi(listen), on-dicherry, is the capital and the most populous city of the Union Territory of Puducherry in India. The city is in the Puducherry district on the sout ...

) was an eminent

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

scholar, author, translator and disciple of

Sri Aurobindo Sri Aurobindo (born Aurobindo Ghose; 15 August 1872 – 5 December 1950) was an Indian philosopher, yogi, maharishi, poet, and Indian nationalist. He was also a journalist, editing newspapers such as ''Vande Mataram''. He joined the ...

Biography

Sastry was born in 1886 in a traditional Vedic family at Mylapore,

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

. He received his early education at home in Sanskrit under the guidance of his father, who was a Sanskrit scholar at the Oriental Manuscripts Library in

Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

. After completing his education, he became a Sanskrit teacher at a High School in Madras. At the age of twenty he came under the influence of Ganapati Muni, a prominent disciple of

Ramana Maharshi Ramana Maharshi (; 30 December 1879 – 14 April 1950) was an Indian Hindu sage and ''jivanmukta'' (liberated being). He was born Venkataraman Iyer, but is mostly known by the name Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. He was born in Tiruchuli, Ta ...

and great scholar and poet, who passed on his vast knowledge and learning to Sastry. The latter got deeply immersed in Vedic and Tantric studies and published books and articles in English,

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

and Sanskrit. After having been a disciple of Ramana Maharshi for some time, he went to Pondicherry in 1929 and became a disciple of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother (

Mirra Alfassa Mirra Alfassa (21 February 1878 – 17 November 1973), known to her followers as The Mother, was a spiritual guru, occultist and yoga teacher, and a collaborator of Sri Aurobindo, who considered her to be of equal yogic stature to him and c ...

). He studied deeply Sri Aurobindo's philosophy and writings, especially his interpretation of the

Rig Veda The ''Rigveda'' or ''Rig Veda'' ( ', from ' "praise" and ' "knowledge") is an ancient Indian collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns (''sūktas''). It is one of the four sacred canonical Hindu texts (''śruti'') known as the Vedas. Only one Sh ...

which he explored comprehensively in several books.Tribute
/ref> Mother-blessing-kapali-sastry-1951

Sastry died on 17 August 1953 in Pondicherry.

Works (selection)

English

* Lights on the Veda * Sidelights on the Tantra * Sri Aurobindo: Lights on the Teachings * The Maharshi * Gospel of the Gita * Rig Bhashya Bhumika

Sanskrit

* Rig Veda Bhashya (Siddhanjana) * Matr-tattva-Prakasha * Savitri * Ahnikastava

Tamil

* Agni Suktangal * Sri Aravindar * Vennira Sudaroli

Telugu

* Matra Vakkulu

Secondary literature

* P. Raja (1993), ''M. P. Pandit. A Peep into his Past.'' Pondicherry, Dipti Publications, pp. 21–26 * S. Ranade (1997), ''Madhav Panditji''. Pondicherry, Dipti Publications, pp. 10–11 * ''Kavi Yogi Shri Kapali Sastry'', Inaugural Address of Dr. K. Venkatasubramanian, Vice-Chancellor, Pondicherry Central University. In: M.P. Pandit, ''Sat-Sang'', Vol. V, Pondicherry 1987, pp. 156-160

References

{{authority control Indian Vedic scholars 1886 births 1953 deaths Sri Aurobindo 20th-century translators