Sri Narayan Guru: Reformer Saint of Kerala

Born in 1856, Sri Narayan Guru was a great socio – religious reformer, saint, seer, poet and philosopher of the southern state of Kerala. Belonging to a lower caste, he fight against the Brahmin domination was relentless. His contribution to the spread of education in Kerala was immense. He stressed the need of education and for freedom. According to him, the essence of all religions is one and same, and exhorted the people to study all religions.

Aravipuram Movement
In 1888 an important event took place in the life of Narayan Guru when he installed a Shiva idol at Aravipuram (consecration) located in the district of Thiruvananthapuram.  This event known as the Aravipuram pratistha is celebrated on Shivaratri Day every year. The consecration of Shiva by Narayan Guru assumes historical significance in Hinduism because it was done by a person who himself was forbidden from entering the shrine due to his being a lower caste.

Revered by millions of people, Sri Narayan Guru instructed to inscribe the following words on the wall of the temple:

“Devoid of dividing walls of caste, of race, or hatred of rival faiths, we all live here in brotherhood”.  

Charles Freer Andrews: A Biography

An English missionary and social reformer, Charles Andrews Freer (also known as C. F. Andrews) had a fascination for everything Indian. Born in 1871 in England, He taught at St. Stephens College in Delhi. A close confidante of Mahatma Gandhi, he maintained close association with Gopal Krishna Gokhle, Rabindranath Tagore, and other Indian freedom fighters. He spent time with Gandhi at the Phoenix ashram in South Africa and worked hard to improve the lot of Indians living in African countries, West Indies, Fiji, etc.

A veteran trade union activist, Charles Freer Andrews was president of the Trade Union Congress two times (1925 and 1927). He also actively participated in the movements for the eradication of untouchability. Andrews took active participation in the famous Vaikom Satyagraha in 1925. Vaikom Satyagraha was a movement in Travancore in Kerala against removal of deep-rooted malaise of untouchability in Hindu society. Working closely with Dr.B R Ambedkar he formulated the Dalit (Harijan) demands in 1933. His love for the poor earned the title of Dinabandhu from Mahatma Gandhi.

Charles Freer Andrews died in Calcutta in 1940. 

A Selection of Famous Quotes on India

There is no doubt that world’s debt to India is immense. Many good things have been said, rightly so, about this country by scholars, scientists and great men of the world. Below are some of the famous quotes on India.

"India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grandmother of tradition. Our most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only."

-       Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his pen name Mark Twain. American Author

"India was the motherland of our race, and Sanskrit the mother of Europe's languages: she was the mother of our philosophy; mother, through the Arabs, of much of our mathematics; mother, through the Buddha, of the ideals embodied in Christianity; mother, through the village community, of self-government and democracy. Mother India is in many ways the mother of us all".

-       Will Durant, American writer and historian

We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made.

-       Albert Einstein, American scientist

If I were asked under what sky the human mind has most fully developed some of its choicest gifts, has most deeply pondered on the greatest problems of life, and has found solutions, I should point to India.

-       Max Mueller, German scholar:

If there is one place on the face of earth where all the dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India.

-       Romain Rolland, French scholar.  

India - The land of Vedas, the remarkable works contain not only religious ideas for a perfect life, but also facts which science has proved true. Electricity, radium, electronics, airship, all were known to the seers who founded the Vedas.

- Wheeler Wilcox, American Poet

India conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border.

-       Hu Shih, former Ambassador of China to the US.

History of Buddhism in Sri Lanka

Image Source: Wikipedia

Sri Lanka, formerly known as Ceylon, is a country where Buddhism entered very early. Mahavamsa (Great Chronicle) of the island country deals with the history of Buddhism in Sri Lanka. It was during the reign of the great Mauryan emperor Ashoka that Buddhism embarked on a career of world religion.

Sri Lanka was converted to Buddhism in the 3rd century BC by Mahendra (in Pali Mahinda), Ashoka’s son or his brother by some sources, during the reign of great king Devanampiya - Tissa, who was Mahendra’s first convert. Mahendra had become a Buddhist monk.

Asoka’s daughter Sanghamitta is said to have carried to Sri Lanka the southern branch of the original Bodhi tree of Gaya, under which the Buddha sat and got enlightenment. From then, this tree planted at Anuradhapura, capital of the early kings of Ceylon, has been an object of pilgrimage to the followers of Buddhism in Sri Lanka.

The Buddhist stupas of gigantic proportions were built in Sri Lanka. 327 feet in diameter, the Abhayagiri Dagaba at Anuradhapura was larger than some of the pyramids of the Egypt.  Another stupa at Anuradhapura, the Ruwanmalisaya Dabaga, used by the Buddhist as a place of worship, rises white in the distance out of the plain and is a marvel to look at.

Pali, one of the early Prakrit languages, is the religious language of the Buddhist in Sri Lanka.

Akbar's Religious Policy

Akbar (1555-1605), the greatest of the Mughal emperors, was a contemporary of Queen Elizabeth I and is known for his rejection of bigotry. He was firmly of the view that an empire can last only on a basis of complete toleration.

Born in Umarkot into a Sunni Muslim family in 1542, Akbar had been brought up in an atmosphere where he came into contact with conflicting religious influences. Sufism also had an impact on him and he made it a point to visit the famous shrine of Shaikh Muinuddin Chisti at Ajmer every year from 1562, and continued this practice for eighteen long years.

Formation of Akbar’s religious views in some part was determined by the influence of his Rajput wives and his Hindu officials like Man Singh, Todarmal and Birbal. Scholars like Faizi and his brother Abul Fazal and the Bhakti movement of the sixteenth century also helped in moulding his religious views.

Subsequently In 1578, Akbar took the step of converting the Ibadatkhana into a “Parliament of Religions’. He became convoked that for a fruitful discussion on  religious matters there was a need for a broad base. He threw Ibadatkhana open to Hindus, Jains, Zoroastrians and Christians.

In 1582, Akbar created an order known as Din-I-Ilahi ("the religion of God") . Whether Akbar tried to found a religion in the form of Din-I-Ilahi is a topic of debate among the historians.

Mudrarakshasa of Vishakhadatta

Mudrarakshasa (The Minister Signet’s Ring) is a 4th century AD Sanskrit drama written by Vishakhadatta, who is also credited with the authorship of Devichandragupta. It describes the overthrow of the Nandas ruling the Magadhan empire by the first Mauryan emperor Chandragupta Maurya who was aided in this endevour by Kautilya also called variously as Chanakya and Vishnugupta.

There is no unanimity among the authorities on the date of Mudrarakshasa. However, majority of them are in favour of assigning the composition of this Sanskrit work to 4^th-5^th centuries AD. The Minister Signet’s Ring centers around the schemes of the wily Chankya to frustrate the plots of Raksasa, the minister of Dhana Nanda, the last ruler of the Nanda dynasty. Consequently Chankya was able to place Chandragupta on the throne of Patliputra (modern day Patna), the capital of Magadh.

Though the plot of Mudrarakshasa is exceedingly complicated, Vishakhadatta has been able to unravel the story with great skill.

Qutb-ud-din Aibak: First Muslim Ruler of Delhi

Though he ruled for only four years, Qutb-ud-din Aibak’s main claim to fame rests on his being the first Muslim ruler of Delhi. He was the founder of the Slave Dynasty, the first of the five Muslim dynasties, known as Delhi Sultanate. He is also famous as the builder of Qutb Minar in Delhi, a signature monument in the capital of India. The monument is located in Mehrauli where he laid the foundation of the first so-called 'seven cities' of medieval Delhi.

When Muhammad of Ghur died in 1206, Qutb-ud-din, who was his slave (Mamluk), assumed the title of Sultan and became the ruler of Indian territories won by his master. The dynasty which he founded came to be known as Mamluk Dynasty (Slave Dynasty). He belonged to the Aibak tribe.

Death of Qutb-ud-din Aibak

A Turk and native of Turkistan, Qutb-ud-din Aibak died in 1210 of a sudden fall from a horse at Lahore while playing polo (chaugan). He lies buried in a tomb in Lahore.  

Qutb-ud-din Aibak's Tomb in Lahore / Image source 

According to the contemporary Muslim historians, he was famous for his generosity and earned the sobriquet of lakh-baksh (giver of lakhs).      

Adhai-din-ka-Jhonpra

Adhai-din-ka-Jhonpra located in Ajmer in Rajasthan was initially a temple. It was converted into a mosque by Qutab-ud-ding Aibak.

Adhai-din-ka-Jhonpra / Image Source