Monthly Archives: September 2006

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 →

-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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

All polygons with n>4 are vector polygons because they occur as families of polygons i.e the polygon and its stars (or n-grams) The considerations described here apply to regular polygons that are chiefly used in yantra construction. All regular polygons … Continue reading →

One of the tragic battles that represents the epitome of the valiant struggle of Hindu rulers against the numerically superior Moslem armies buttressed by the quintessential Hindu traitors was the battle of Haldighat. It stands for that great freedom struggle closer … Continue reading →

The muni and me were in a sense like branches of the same tree. We wondered what might have happened if only the muni and me could have joined our forces on the battle field. Our coordination on the field … Continue reading →

|| OM namaH kumArAya || namo.astu te raktavarNAya shaktidharAya nilakaNThavAhanAya mahAsvamine We bow to the great red-hued wielder of the shakti, who is seated atop a fierce peacock. Sadly, many of the great tantras pertaining to the god kumAra appear … Continue reading →

varAhamihira was a Hindu encyclopedist who lived in the 500s of the CE era. He may have descended from a family of shAkadvIpI brAhmaNas, as suggested by the mihira epithet in his name combined with varAha. This is also suggested … Continue reading →

The rohiNI shakaTa bheda is a peculiar conjunction mentioned repeatedly in Hindu astronomy. It is technically defined in the sUrya-siddhAnta (8.13) thus: vR^iShe saptadashe bhAge yasya yAmyo .aMshakadvayAt | vikShepo .abhyadhiko bhindyAd rohiNyAH shakaTaM tu saH || In the constellation … Continue reading →