A Wisdom Archive on Itihaas

The period between approximately the 12th and the 2nd centuries BC saw the composition of the two great Hindu epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. They are known to Hindus as itihaas, or "that which occurred" and are both collective works, having evolved through the centuries before finally being put into writing sometime in the 2nd century AD. Sanskrit literature - The Ramayana. While not as big as the Mahabharata, the Ramayana is still twice as big as the Iliad and the Odyssey put together. Tr ...

Read more here: » Sanskrit literature: Encyclopedia II - Sanskrit literature - The Epics

Whenever I come across news of violence, be it between individuals, mob factions or between countries, a nightmare usually envelops me, of a return to the days of the caveman. But scenes of the incineration of innocents at Godhra and the retaliatory mass live-burning of hundreds in other parts of Gujarat brought back poignant memories of the Partition massacres.
 
In extenuation, apologists among us could seek to ascribe the latter at least partially to the departing Brits but who do we blame for our own Millennium Abel and Cain act this past week? Only ourselves: In a land which boasts of its sanskriti, sabhyata, and itihaas - noble words uttered from political pulpits especially at election times, what surfaced in the past week is bestiality at its best (worst?).

 
(See also: Peace on Earth, God and Religion, Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul )

Read more here: » Peace on Earth: Our Ishta Devata Lives Within Us

She married actor Akshay Kumar on January 14, 2001. Their first child was born on September 15, 2002. There were rumours in 2004 that Akshay might have been having an affair with actress Priyanka Chopra and Twinkle wanted him to stop making any films with her. She bears a coincindential resemblance to actress Raveena Tandon ...

Read more here: » Twinkle Khanna: Encyclopedia II - Twinkle Khanna - Personal Life

Please remove this notice after the article has been expanded. Details are on this talk page or at Wikipedia:Requests for expansion. The Harivamsa (Skt. हरिवंश) is an important work of Sanskrit literature. It is a kind of appendix to the Mahābhārata, that runs to 16,375 verses and focuses specifically on the life of Lord Krishna. Along with the Rāmāyaṇa and Yogavasishtha, the Harivamsa is considered to belong to the category of Hindu scripture known as itih� ...

Read more here: » Harivamsa: Encyclopedia - Harivamsa

She is the daughter of film stars Dimple Kapadia and Rajesh Khanna and sister of Rinke Khanna. She made her debut opposite Bobby Deol in Barsaat. She then went on to do many films which got her good reviews and recognition from the audience. She has acted with some of the best stars in the industry including Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Salman Khan and Govinda. Her other notable film roles include the village girl looking for revenge in Mela and the undercover spy in Baadshah. She left the film industry after her marriage to Akshay ...

Read more here: » Twinkle Khanna: Encyclopedia II - Twinkle Khanna - Biography

Composed between approximately 2000 BC and 500 BC, Vedic literature forms the basis for the further development of Hinduism. There are fours books of Vedas - Rig, Yajus, Sāma and Atharva. Some people consider the first three as the more important ones. Each veda contains four parts - hymns, rituals, meditation and mystical philosophy. The Vedas were not written at any single time, and have been compiled over several centuries by thousands of people. As a result, the Vedas provide an insight into the historical and cultural developmen ...

Read more here: » Sanskrit literature: Encyclopedia II - Sanskrit literature - The Vedic Period

This refers to the poetry produced from the 3rd to approximately the 7th centuries. Kalidasa is the foremost example of a classical poet. While Kalidasa's Sanksrit usage is simple but beautiful, later Sanskrit poetry shifted towards highly stylized literary accents: stanzas that read the same backwards and forwards, words that can be split in different ways to produce different meanings, sophisticated metaphors, and so on. A classic example is the poet Bharavi a ...

Read more here: » Sanskrit literature: Encyclopedia II - Sanskrit literature - Classical Poetry

Some important works from the 11th century include the Katha-Saritsagara and Geeta Govinda. The Katha-Saritsagara (An Ocean of Stories) by Somadeva was a poetic adaptation in Sanskrit of Brihat-katha, written in the 5th cent BC in the Paishachi dialect. The Paishachi manuscript of the Brihat-katha has not been found. The thousands of short stories embedded in this book inspired numerous later stories, most notably several stories of the Arabian Nights (note that the Arabian Nights was f ...

Read more here: » Sanskrit literature: Encyclopedia II - Sanskrit literature - Later Sanskrit literature

Arguably, no grammarian has had as much influence over the grammar of any language as much as Panini has had over Sanskrit grammar and phonetics. Panini was a Vaishnava grammarian from approximately the 5th cent BC. The Ashtadhyayi was his magnum-opus. The book completely standardized Sanskrit grammar and phonetics. Panini's grammar became widely accepted and is still the standard (a common way to classify ancient Sanskrit b ...

Read more here: » Sanskrit literature: Encyclopedia II - Sanskrit literature - Panini and Ashtadhyayi