The whole world of Carnatic Music aficionados, institutions, Vidwans, Rasikas and musicologist should watch this video-clip below and hang their collective heads in shame and sin. https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1DLUSD44eC/?mibextid=wwXIfr The Muslim woman castigates Kamal Haasan for having disgraced Sri Thyagaraja once when he spoke during an Instagram Live conversation with actor Vijay Sethupathi on May 4, 2020.Continue reading “The Carnatic Music world quietly forgot (maybe even forgave?) Kamal Hassan deriding Saint Thyagaraja… but not this feisty Muslim woman!”
Tag Archives: History
“Eepa” (Sri. Indira Parthasarathy) and I discuss T.M.Krishna’s caricature of the “guru sishya sambhandham”
https://scroll.in/article/1090081/how-the-traditional-guru-shishya-system-undermined-critical-thinking-in-india https://swarajyamag.com/culture/no-the-guru-iya-parampar-was-never-about-blind-obedience This morning I forwarded/ Shared the above to links to “Eepa” Sir to read and give his views. He is a deep scholar in the traditional literature of India and I was keen to know what he would make out of TM Krishna’s specious thesis on the ancient Hindu educational institution handed downContinue reading ““Eepa” (Sri. Indira Parthasarathy) and I discuss T.M.Krishna’s caricature of the “guru sishya sambhandham””
“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark”: William Shakespeare
When this biography above of EV Ramaswamy (aka “Periyar”) grabs a lot more readership and eyeballs in Tamil Nadu and in far away Cambridge than my own recently published book on Rt. Hon’ble Srinivasa Sastri does even in Mylapore, Chennai, India (see below), you might tend to say that it brings to mind at once a veryContinue reading ““Something is rotten in the state of Denmark”: William Shakespeare”
“Brahmins as secret Muslims”: Devdutt Pattnaik’s hodge-podge he tries selling as exotic delicacy
Devdutt Pattanaik’s recent framing of “Brahmins as secret Muslims” and his analogy between Brahminical and Islamic ways of life rests on several contestable historical, textual, and sociological assumptions that can be systematically challenged. The “secret Muslims” thesis collapses very different histories and concepts into a single polemical frame. A counter‑narrative can be built by takingContinue reading ““Brahmins as secret Muslims”: Devdutt Pattnaik’s hodge-podge he tries selling as exotic delicacy”
Bhakti’s triumph over plunder and mayhem: revisiting the legend of Sri Rangam “thulaka naachiyaar” with “Eepa”
This morning “Eepa” — a doyen of Tamil literature known for his Sahitya Akademi Award-winning novels and plays — Indira Parthasarathy sent me a sharp question as a WhatsApp message. It tested my familarity if not knowledge, as a Sri Vaishnava (albeit an “Unknown and Unusual” one!), of age-old temple customs and traditions in theContinue reading “Bhakti’s triumph over plunder and mayhem: revisiting the legend of Sri Rangam “thulaka naachiyaar” with “Eepa””
“Could not even understand the secret of their talent”!
Both Ramanujan and Shakuntala Devi probably had very rare noetic faculty. Their minds had intuitive capacity to unravel abstract and abstruse constructs without using Reason… Reasoning was just an aid but not the driver of their mathematical prowess. Sometimes , they even did not understand how their mind and intellect came up with the mathematicalContinue reading ““Could not even understand the secret of their talent”!”
An “Unusual” speculation on the “U” and “Y” symbolism of Sri Vaishnavism
The verdict of the Madras High Court dated November 28, 2025 in the long-standing dispute over which Sri Vaishnava sect has the right to press for and exercise its “mirasi rights” to chant its own sectarian litanies and hymns in the sanctum has ruled wholly in favour of the Tenkalais. The judgement has now leftContinue reading “An “Unusual” speculation on the “U” and “Y” symbolism of Sri Vaishnavism”
PART- 2 of 2 (CONCLUDED): Did a flawed, ill-conceived legal strategy result in Vadakalais losing their case in the Madras High Court over their rights in Kanchi Varadaraja Perumal temple ?
The 1910 decree did certainly establish the legal framework that later, in Kanchipuram right until Nov 28, 2025, became as reported, the single most compelling reason why the Madras High Court relied upon it as overriding precedent governing the religious rights, honours, and rituals of the Tenkalai and Vadakalai sects in all major temples suchContinue reading “PART- 2 of 2 (CONCLUDED): Did a flawed, ill-conceived legal strategy result in Vadakalais losing their case in the Madras High Court over their rights in Kanchi Varadaraja Perumal temple ?”
PART-1 of 2: Did a flawed, ill-conceived legal strategy result in Vadakalais losing their case in the Madras High Court over their rights in Kanchi Varadaraja Perumal temple ?
This detailed analysis below of the Common Judgment dated November 28, 2025, passed by the Division Bench of the High Court of Judicature at Madras in a batch of cases (including W.A. Nos. 1381 & 1382 of 2022) reveals the plausible story of how and why perhaps a flawed legal strategy adopted by the VadakalaisContinue reading “PART-1 of 2: Did a flawed, ill-conceived legal strategy result in Vadakalais losing their case in the Madras High Court over their rights in Kanchi Varadaraja Perumal temple ?”
What’s the hallmark of a Sri Vaishnava “Kovil”? The “Rangarajan Narasimhan Doctrine”!
This debate is old, petty, stale, futile and reflects so poorly on the general cultural traits of the entire Sri Vaishnava community of Tamil Nadu. Sri. Rangarajan Narasimhan has made his name as an indefatigable firebrand activist for protection of Hindu temples in Tamil Nadu. I have great personal respect for him on that account.Continue reading “What’s the hallmark of a Sri Vaishnava “Kovil”? The “Rangarajan Narasimhan Doctrine”!”