Thursday, November 08, 2007

Wish you all a Happy Deepavali/Diwali !!

Nice write-up by Francois Gautier wishing all Indians a Happy Diwali...


Also on this day about 200 years ago, Tipu Sultan who is lionized(or should I say Tigerized) by all the 'seculars' in India, slaughtered an entire village of learned Brahmins in Karnataka called Mandyam Iyengars. To this day the Mandyam Iyengars do not celebrate Deepavali to mark that sad day. Here is a little excerpt about them from an nice article about Sanskrit preservation.

In early 19th century, Tipu Sultan's army descended on a Deepavali day and massacred 800 citizens, mostly of a sect known as Mandyam Iyengars. Sanskrit scholarship had been their forte. [To this day Melkote does not celebrate Deepavali]. That slaughter rendered Melkote a near ghost town. Its environmentally connected life was broken, kalyanis went to ruin, water shortage became endemic, the hills went brown. Sanskrit lost a home.


Ironically, Jayalalitha who prides herself as a Mandyam Iyengar had the Shankaracharya of Kanchi arrested on Deepavali day 3 years ago...

5 comments:

KapiDhwaja said...

Nice write-up by Francois Gautier wishing all Indians a happy Diwali...
link

KapiDhwaja said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
karyakarta92 said...

Happy Diwali to all. May Vikram Samvat 2064 usher in an era of renewed unity, vigour and strength for Hindu society to defeat the serious threats posed to it by the forces of darkness and evil. May it also give some
Sadbuddhi , in particular to the Dhimmi enablers of evil to discard their dhimmitude.
Please spare a thought for the underprivileged sections of Hindu society and consider making a donation to a Hindu charitable organisation on this occassion like Vatsalya Gram ,
Ekal Vidyalaya ,
Sankara Eye Foundation
so that there is not a single destitute Hindu Karna in Bharat left vulnerable to 3M Duryodhanas.

shankar said...

I dont want to nitpick, but the following phrase in the article about mandyam iyengards perked up my ears:

"But nearly no one does this exposition with greater commitment, catholicity and religious neutrality than Prof M A Lakshmi Thathachar at the Academy of Sanskrit Research, Melkote, Karnataka."

What exactly is the catholicity and religious neutrality that is required in the research and preservation of Sanskrit?

R.A.Krishna said...

Small correction! Jayalalitha is an Iyengar but not a Mandyam Iyengar. Anyway her timing for arresting the Kanchi Acharya certainly sucked! Thanks for this tidbit on our little community.