Monthly Archives: September 2006

Flights of fancy

Posted on September 28, 2006 by

The black basaltic rock had assumed the delightful shape of a large throne, fit for a mighty rakSha like atikAya, who was slain by the saumitra. It was a cool refugium in the hot plains baked by the eye of … Continue reading →

Posted in Life

Wanderings in oDDiyAna

Posted on September 26, 2006 by

Long ago the great old vaiShNava wandered in the hallowed oDDiyAna pITha, when he reached an old desolate prAsada towards the evening hour. There he seated himself and concentrated ThaM bIja. Then the divine boar-faced mistress of the 5th lunar … Continue reading →

Posted in Heathen thought

The gotra-specific elements of the installation of the gArhapatya fire

Posted on September 25, 2006 by

-The udgAtA starts singing the rathanthara and ya~jna-yaj~nIya sAman-s [The jaiminIyas recite their samans in a low inaudible voice on the occassion of this rite].-The adhvaryu starts installing the gArhapatya from the fire he has just kindled with the araNi-s … Continue reading →

Posted in Heathen thought

On some dAnas and utsargas of the mediaeval Hindus

Posted on September 24, 2006 by

The dharma texts interminably dilate on the performance of a variety of dAna-s and utsarga-s to deserving people or for public benefit which ranged from elephants, cattle, horses, clothing, umbrellas, footware, toothbrushes, gold, gems, grains, sugar etc. These have all … Continue reading →

Posted in Heathen thought

memories arising from the padmAvatI stones

Posted on September 24, 2006 by

As mentioned earlier in my explorations of the maharaTTa country with shUdra-shreShTha, S and Mis-creant I came across several aniconic padmAvatI stones painted orange with a lead paint. However, in the exploration of Satmala we did see a couple of … Continue reading →

Posted in Heathen thought

The new australopithecine skeleton

Posted on September 23, 2006 by

R and I discussed the new find of Australopithecus afarensis by Alemseged et al with some excitement. It is not so common that we get relatively complete remains of the australopithecines. This particular one from the Hadar formation is the … Continue reading →

Posted in Scientific ramblings

The worship of the pa~nchAkSharI vidyA of shiva

Posted on September 20, 2006 by

Late in the evening the my clansmen and me left by an uncomfortable bus journey through the drAviDa country to the outpost of aunts N and H. Their clansmen had been killed by fiery abhichAras of their shatrus, but they … Continue reading →

Posted in Heathen thought