Tukaram: 17th century Marathi and Saint

Tukaram was born in the family of a farmer at Dehu, a town near the city of Pune . He inheritred some landed property and cattle, but lost them all in a great famine. He also lost his parents, one of his two wives, and a son in the famine. Left with nothing to fend for, he lost interest in life. Added to this, constant nagging of his other wife, who was a shrew, troubled Tukaram very much. Fed up with the turn of events, Tukaram took to the study of the works of Jnaneswar, Ekanatha and Namdeva he retreated to the hills of Bhamhanatha and Bhandara and practised mediation.

Tukaram is credited to have written several abhangas, which are highly popular in Maharshtra. These abhangas embody his teachings. Some of these abhangas were translated into Bengali by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore. A contemporary of great Maratha ruler Shivaji, Tukaram declined to accept the offer of rich presents made by him.

Keshab Chandra Sen: The doyen of Social Reforms in Pre-independent India

Born to a respectable family in Calcutta on 19 November 1838, Keshab Chandra Sen was one of the most famous social reformers of India and took the leadership of the Brahmo Samaj during the absence of Debendranath Tagore. A strong votary of widow remarriage, Keshab Chandra Sen started Bamabodhini Patrika, a journal for women.

Keshab Chandra Sen launched several radical reforms, such as giving up of caste names, advocating inter caste marriage and launched movement against the social vices prevailing at that time like child marriage. These radical reforms resulted in the first schism in the Brahmo Samaj. The original Brahmo Samaj, founded by Raja Ram Mohan Roy, came to be known as Adi Brahmo Samaj and the other, the Brahmo Samaj of India was established by Keshab Chandra Sen in 1867.

In 1870 Keshab Chandra Sen founded the India Reform Association which succeeded in persuading the British Government to enact the Native Marriage Act of 1972 (popularly known as Civil Marriage Act) legalizing the Brahmo marriages and fixing the minimum marriageable age for boys and girls.

It was under the advice of Keshab Chandra Sen that the reformist Dayanand Saraswati began to use Hindi for his writings and teachings.  

Avalokitesvar: The Lord who looks down

There are numerous Bodhisattvas in the universe of the Mahayana Buddhism. Chief among them is Avalokiteśvara (the "Lord who looks down"), also called Padmapani (the Lotus Beraer). He is an embodiment of compassion and his helping hand reaches even to Avici, the deepest and most unpleasant of the Buddhist purgatories.

Karanda-vyuha is an important Mahayana text that glorifies the compassionate qualities of Avalokiteshvara and his different forms and manifestations.

History of Christianity in India

Christianity has quite a good presence in India. Ever since its early years, Christianity has had its roots in India. If we are to rely on a tradition, India come in contact with Christianity very early. In fact tradition credits the Disciple Thomas himself with evangelizing India. The legend has it that Gondophares, one of the Pahalva rulers, was converted by St. Thomas himself. According to Roman Catholics, tomb of St. Thomas was buried in the cathedral at Mailapur or Mylapore in the southern part of Chennai.

If we have to put aside the legend, the first definite historical evidence to the Christian activity can be found in the Topografia Christiana (Christian Topography) of Cosmas Indicopleustes, an adventurous Alexendrian monk of the 6th century AD. Cosmas Indicopleustes, literally meaning who sailed to India, left a voluminous account of his travels. Indicopleustes saw churched in Kerala and according to him these churches were in the hands of Persian priests. This amounts to the explanation that Christians in India had embraced the Nestorian heresy, then widespread in Persia. When Christianity was stamped out in Persia, the Christians in India benign to be guided by the patriarch of Syria and continues to be so even today.

At the end of the 15th century Italian traveler Marco Polo referred to the tomb of St. Thomas and dwelt on its popularity as a sacred place.

According to The Anglo Saxon Chronicle in 884 AD, King Alfred sent an envoy to India to with rich present for the tomb of St Thomas. The envoy named Sithelm returned home with rich gifts given to him by the Chola king Aditya I.

There are several Christian communities in India, who on a whole constitute approx2.34% of the Indian population with Roman Catholics forming the majority of Indian Christians. Today Christians mostly live in the northeast states of India as well as in the southwestern states of Kerala and Goa.

Battle of Plassey

Date : June 23rd, 1757
Place: Plassey (present day Palashi ) on the Ganga in Nadia district of West Bengal

Image source: commons.wikimedia.org/

The battle of Plassey was fought between the army of Siraj-ud-Doula, the last independent Nawab of Bengal and the troops of the British East India Company under Robert Clive. Clive had 1100 Europeans and 200 sepoys whereas Siraj-ud-doula’s army composed of about 50,000 men strengthened by a train of heavy artillery. However about 45000 of the Nawab’s troops were under command of three traitors Mir Jafar, Yar Latif khan and Rai Durlabhram. Mir Jafar was the general of Siraj-ud-doula. A small force under Mohanlal and Mir Madan joined the battle.

After Mir Madan’s death from a stray shot, Siraj-ud-doula suspended the fight for the day on Mir Jafar’s treacherous advice. The withdrawal result in the complete disaster for the nawab’s army. Fearing his life Siraj fled from the battle. The chaos reigned supreme. The casualty on English side numbered 23 killed and 49 wounded. 500 were killed on Nawab’s side.

Though battle of Plassey was a mere skirmish, going by the results of the battle it can be safely concluded that its importance was more than that of the some of the greatest battles of the world. It facilitated the British conquest of Bengal and subsequently the whole of India.

Indulal Yajnik: A brief biography

Born at Nadiad in the present-day Kheda district of Gujarat, Indulal Yajnik was one of the finest editors. A freedom fighter, social worker and peasant leader from Gujarat he was a gifted journalist.

He was associated with the home rule movement started by Annie Besant. Yajnik actively participated in the Kaira Satyagraha organized by Gandhi to secure exemption for the peasants from payment of land tax for the crops that had failed. He launched two Gujarati monthlies – Navjivan Ame Saty and Yugadharm and a daily Nutnan Gujarat.

Indulal Yajnik established schools for the Bhil children and was the secretary of the Antyaj Sava Mandal, with Thakkar Bapa as its president. He was actively associated with the Kisan Sabha work and organsied the cooperative movement among the peasants of Gujarat. In 1942 he presided over the annual session of Akhil Hind Kisan Sabha. He was a founder of the Gujarat Vidyapeeth. In 1956 he took lead in the Maha Gujarat Movement for a separate state and became founder president of the Maha Gujarat Janta Parishad.

Samarth Ramdasa , great Marathi saint of Bhakti Movement

Born in a Brahmin family in 1608 Ramdasa was the spiritual guru of the great Maratha ruler Shivaji. He travelled throughout India for twelve years and finally settled at Chaphal on the banks of the Krishna where he built a temple. During the political upheaval Ramdasa regarded the realization of God as primary aim.

Samarth Ramdasa established monasteries in different parts of Maharashtra. These monasteries served as centres of spirituality. He emphasized the need of physical yoga exercises as well as meditation.

In his magnum opus Dasabodha, Samarth Ramdasa combines his vast knowledge of various sciences and arts with the synthesizing principle of spiritual life. He is credited to have written several abhangas which deals with the ways to realize God.