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Silent revolutionaries - Sowbhagyalakshmi Srirama Bharati It was May 2017, and that trip to Chennai was not just a routine stopover on the way to Kanchipuram. In April I had won the Justice Telang Fellowship in Indology - with just no more than a love for Alwars and their verses and a deep interest in traditional performing arts I had chosen the topic 'Araiyar Cevai - Millennial Retrospective'. I didn't know where to begin. Someone told me Kalakshetra had archived 'Araiyar Cevai' and I thought I will begin there. That is when a friend told me how she was part of the team that worked on that archiving, archiving works of Srirama Bharati, the man who took Araiyar Cevai from its traditional practitioners and setting to a secular stage. I had heard about his moving, devotion soaked Cevai but just around the time I got to know about him he passed away. Too young and too early - in 2000 when he was just 50. In May ‘17 when I searched for his videos on...

“Kannan ennum karum deivam” “karumanikkam en kannuladaagume’ “Roopa saavala sundara” “Saavale sundara roopa manohara” The Alvar poetry, very many verses, time and again dwell on the beauty of the “black God”, the beautiful black Krishna. The idea of looking at the Gods housed in the south Indian temples as black Gods never occurred till one saw the flawless white marble idols in the north. Then came the Panduranga Vittala, a black God who again gets specifically invoked as the beautiful black deity. Many have gone into analysis of the “white” and “black” and the colours of our Gods.  Coming from where I am the black God was just what He or She was, there was no big thought process behind the worship. The familiarity with the granite or the saligrama moolavar murtis, and the bronze utsavar murtis were something not “researched” upon. Very few moolavr murtis one sees, the “sudhai” stucco creations painted in vibrant colours like the Tiruthankal Appan or the Vatap...

I thought life as a work from home professional would give me lot of time and enable reading and writing on my favourite subjects, religion, history, heritage etc., So, with great enthusiasm in 2010 I thought I will attempt blogging live my experience reading Mahipati's 'Bhakta Vijaya'. Neither did I complete reading the book nor could continue blogging. Here is a compilation of the few days of jotting down on blog what I felt as I read through a few chapters. May be some day, I will complete reading as well writing on it. Till then .... Bhaktavijayam I remember reading Mahabhaktavijaya in Tamil published by Lifco with stories of Saint poets of India, especially the Maharashtrian Saints Jnaneshwar, Tukaram and Namdev when I was still in school. I gave the book to my maternal grandmother with whom I was spending my vacation at that time as she was interested in reading it and forgot all about it. At the time I had no clue about the greatness of the work and i...

Visnuchitta goes to Dakshina Mathura ….and others carried arisalu and other sweets in a kavadi for the king, Visnuchitta proceeded towards Mathura in great pomp and gaiety! Out of affection, his devoted wife packed in a sack, Porivilangayas ……. -             Krishnadevaraya’s Amuktamalyada Krishnadevaraya must have been a hardcore foodie. Not only did he write extensive grants to Tirupati temple for various prasadams, he writes many a culinary details in his epic ‘Amuktamalyada’. One of the interesting references therein is a porivilangaya. As interesting as the item mentioned is the debate it gets into while being translated from the original Telugu text to English. Srinivas Sistla who has translated the text into English in his introduction talks a little about the confusion over the word  porivilangaya which is identified as a Tamil word, and on the other explained as wood apple. Luckily for the tra...

These aren’t instagrammable pictures right? Definitely not as food pictures, black and boring right? Yet, these are things that are pretty useful. One, we are prepared for the rains, stocking up for days vegetable supplies may be low, difficult to get out in the rains and shop and such circumstances. It may also help farmers if we are going to buy up produce when the demand is low, make use of more than abundant sunshine sun dry them and store for the rainy day. I am not saying anything new or not known. These are the annual rituals, seasonal rituals our mothers and grandmothers followed. I am only reiterating it – instead of complaining about high prices of vegetables at times, and about farmers throwing away their produce some other times, these age old practices may help even in urban area with a small balcony or a sunlight window. I have also   been guilty of not doing much all these years, though occasional dried amlas made for Dwadashi pachadis, pickles in sea...

 “ ஒழிவில் காலமெல்லாம் உடனாய் மன்னி , வழுவிலா அடிமை செய்ய வேண்டும்நாம் , தெழிகு ரல்அரு வித்திரு வேங்கடத்து , எழில்கொள் சோதி எந்தைதந்தை தந்தைக்கே ” “At all times and forever by his side, we Must perform stintless service, to the Radiant lord of Venkatam, the hill with Streams. He is my father’s father”  - Nammalvar (Translation Srirama Bharati) It is this attitude of service every Sri Vaishnava devotee yearns for at the feet Sri Venkatesa, or the Lord of Thiruvenkatam. If one Azhwar echoes the devotion to the Lord, another sings about how he yearns to be born as something on Tirumala hills. Tirumala is very special to Sri Vaishnavas, and to all the devotees of Sri Venkatesa. He is a family deity to millions, and every auspicious occasion in the family prayers to him, offerings to him and pilgrimage to Tirumala is undertaken. Unlike the pilgrimage to other divya desams, Tirumala has always been different. May be because of the terrain in...

"Vishnu is the primary deity of the stepwell, and the sculptures are depictions of one of his many forms. This well had seven terraces, each on a separate level, along with a large torana or ceremonial gateway that welcomed the visitor and looked beautiful in its time" -Kirit Mankodi  Sri Vishnu as a Seshasayi is the most remarkable and central iconic deity visible through the winding stairways at various levels of Rani Ki Vav, the most ornate stepwells built in 11th century by Queen Udayamati in memory of her husband and Solanki ruler King Bimadeva I. The technological aspects of the well have been praised by experts and endorsed by UNESCO in its recognition of the site as a World Heritage Site in 2014. It combines the utilitarian with the spiritual, as the 24 forms of Vishnu, Gauris, Bhairava and other deities are seen beautifully etches all around the inner niches of the well. Vishnu as a Seshasayi, we recently heard an expert on stepwells, A.S.Pathak s...