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Defining Itihāsa: Correcting Common Mischaracterizations

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Abhimanyu Vadh (The Slaying of Abhimanyu) — Painting From Mahabharat by Nandalal Bose. NOTE TO READER: All references are provided through hotlinks identifiable by underlined words and phrases in the main body of the text. The hotlink opens the relevant page of the citation. There is a peculiar violence in translation. When a word from one civilization is dropped into the vocabulary of another, it rarely arrives unaccompanied — it drags the assumptions of its new home along with it, and those assumptions quietly begin to govern how the word is read. Along with many other indic terms, this is what happened to itihāsa ( इतिहास ). Translated as “ history ,” it was made to answer to the standards of Ranke and the archive . Translated as “ myth ” or “ mythology ,” it was made to answer to Frazer and the comparative anthropologist ’s suspicion of any claim to divine agency in a factual narrative. Neither translation was chosen by the tradition itself. Both were imposed on it, in the sam...
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KALINGA - Land of my ancestors

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Chapter 1: How we came to be Sri-Vaishnavas Thanks to the over told story of Ashoka, almost everyone has heard of Kalinga.  Kalingadesa was ruled by the long line of Ganga lineage starting from about the 5th century all the way up to the early 14th century. Of them, Anantavarman Chodaganga Deva who ruled during the early part of the 12th century was one of most celebrated due to his accomplishments that created a chain of events that play pivotal roles in preserving our ways of life. According to a copperplate inscription, he is credited with building the Jaganath Temple at Puri. When the great SriVaishnava scholar, and the proponent of Visishthadvaita, Sri Ramnujacarya visited the temple, Anantavarman was so impressed by the Acharya, that he gave up shaivite traditions and adopted SriVaisnavism. Anantavarman was also called asTrikalingadhipathi or Sakala Kalingadhipati (Lord of Kosala, Kalinga and Utkala) and had his capital at Mukhalingam (currently on the outskirts of Srikakula...
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Hanuman Jayanti - Celebrating the original superhero!

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Hanuman Jayanti - Celebrating the original superhero! तदा शैलाग्र शिखरे वामो हनुर् अभज्यत |  ततो हि नाम धेयम् ते हनुमान् इति कीर्तितम् || ४-६६-२४   when Indra hurled the thunderbolt at young anjineya (son of Anjana), he fell on the mountain top and broke his Zygomatic Arch (cheek bone) and hence got the name Hanumaan (one who has a broken cheek bone).  I was trying to find out why the southerners celebrate it on a different day than in the north (in parts of the south it is celebrated over a month later . According to one claim, in the north, it is celebrated on the occasion of his birthday and in Andhra it is celebrate the day he met Rama. Most of us have heard how he meets Rama & Laxmana by using his kamarupam siddhi (shape shifting ability) in bhikshu-rupam (ascetic). And it’s interesting what he asks them in a somewhat concerned tone but using precise grammar and utmost respect: राजर्षि देव प्रतिमौ तापसौ संशित व्रतौ ||  देशम् कथम् इमम् प्राप्तौ भवन्...
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