The Dharma Dispatch

A Murder that Unearthed a Second-Century Sanskrit Manuscript   WHAT BEGAN AS AN ARGUMENT between two businessmen led to the murder of one of them and launched a manhunt against the murderer and culminated in the accidental discovery of a 2nd Century CE Sanskrit manuscript that rattled the world of Indology in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.   This is the first episode of a new, exciting series on a little-known event of recent Indian history.  Anything said beyond this will ruin the suspense. 😀   Please do read the full piece! 📑😊🕉🪔 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/history/a-murder-that-unearthed-a-second-century-sanskrit-manuscript-episode-1

ಶ್ರೀ ಬಿ.ಕೆ.ಎಸ್ ವರ್ಮ: ಕುುಂಚ ವಿರುಂಚಿಯ ಒಳನೋಟ - ಒಂದು ಮಧುರ ಸ್ಮೃತಿ --- ನಮ್ಮ ಕಾಲದ ರವಿ ವರ್ಮನೆಂದೇ ಪ್ರಸಿದ್ಧರಾದ ಅಪ್ರತಿಮ ಪ್ರತಿಭೆಯ ಶಿಖರವಾಗಿದ್ದ ಚಿತ್ರಕಲಾಮಾಂತ್ರಿಕ ದಿವಂಗತ ಶ್ರೀ ಬಿ. ಕೆ. ಏಸ್ ವರ್ಮ ಅವರಿಗೆ ಖ್ಯಾತ ವಕೀಲರು ಹಾಗು ಕಲಾರಸಿಕರಾಗಿರುವ ಶ್ರೀ ಕಶ್ಯಪ್ ನಾಯಕ್ ಅವರ ಅಂತರಂಗದ ನಮನ. 🕉🛕🪔🪔 #TributetoBKSVARMA https://www.dharmadispatch.in/culture/a-tribute-to-bks-varma

The Last Days of a Sadhvi   Read this profoundly moving episode of the last days of Sri C. Vasudevaiah's sister-in-law shows what the Hindu society has really lost. --- She is among the proverbial “ordinary,” simple folks who ensured our civilisational continuity and preserved the stability of the Hindu social life. Their number was in millions and they truly belong to the tranquil eons.   What does it speak of the strength of character of a person who says she needs only a drop of Tirtha on Sri Krishna Janmashtami while facing certain death?  -- Do read this extremely moving episode narrated by none other than the venerable DVG.🛕🕉🪔🪔 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/culture/the-last-days-of-a-sadhvi

[New Course Announcement] Basic Training in Shilpa-Chitra or Temple Art -- Do enrol in this programme if you want to explore the nuances of temple art and sculpture. An extremely educative course! 🛕🛕🛕🪔 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/dispatches/new-course-announcement-basic-training-in-shilpa-chitra-or-temple-art/

A Cultural Syllabus for the Judiciary -- A slew of judgements over various aspects of the Hindu society and culture in recent times have exposed the alarming extent of the deracination of India's judiciary. We present an outline cultural curriculum in the hope of undoing this state of affairs.   Notice who all our judges rely on as authorities in constitutional or political issues: their authority figures invariably reside in the West. These authority figures continue to shape their psyche and worldview and logically, also influence the rationale behind their judgements.    Our deep concern stems from a fundamental truth: it is the Sanatana civilisation & culture that gave “independent” India its Constitution, and not vice versa.   Equally, our esteemed judiciary should also remember an even more fundamental truth: Cultural education preserves civilisational integrity.   Indeed, the Sanatana civilisation and its cultural inheritance is way too precious to be left at the mercy of court judgements. -- Read the whole powerful piece! 📑🛕🪔🕉 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/commentary/a-cultural-syllabus-for-the-judiciary

The Poor Brahmin and the Five Gold Cups   Presenting a simple but enchanting folktale from South India that is also deeply instructive.   On the surface, it is simple and straightforward. The “modern” Hindu mind might even dismiss it as childish. But on deeper reading, we unearth resplendent gems of timeless wisdom.    These are the kind of stories that our children must be exposed to at a very young age. Better still if the parent narrates these tales to their kids at bedtime. -- Do read the delightful story! 😊😀📑🪔 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/culture/the-poor-brahmin-and-the-five-gold-cups

How Hair-Dyes were Prepared in Ancient India: A List of Recipes and Methods   Did you know that ancient India had evolved an astonishing range of recipes and procedures for preparing hair dyes?   ONE OF THE EARLIEST RECORDS that give detailed recipes and procedures for preparing hair-dyes is a delightful Sanskrit work titled Navanitakam, dating back to the 2nd Century CE!   What strikes us immediately is the intimate and detailed knowledge of a stunning range of plants, herbs and chemical compounds used for making hair-dyes. Even more stunning is the manner in which it provides precise information for making a variety of concoctions and mixtures to produce specific results.    Here's a delightful sample: "One prastha (about 10 Kg) of the juice of Bhingaraja, the same quantity of milk, and one pala (about 11 gms) of liquorice, boiled in one Kudava (about 186 gms) of oil, will make even a crane to turn black." 😊😊   We've published the full recipes and procedures as well. --- Do read the whole essay! 📑🛕🪔📝    https://www.dharmadispatch.in/culture/how-hair-dyes-were-prepared-in-ancient-india-a-list-of-recipes-and-methods

True Education is Removing the Walls that Enclose the Light Within us   Teachers in the past weren’t infected with the madness of the “new” method which wants to make the job of the students easy. The student has to work hard on his own; his fruit was proportional to his effort—this was the philosophical attitude of the ancients.    Knowledge is a light that resides within the student. The only task of the teacher is to move the walls that enclose and block this light. If he does just this, the light within will spread out on its own. Knowledge is not something to be shoved in from the outside; it is to be called out from within. This is the only, real work of the teacher.    The vision of our Rishis, saints, seers and sages was this: it is always better to have a cultured society than a wealthy society that lacks culture.    Because our mainstream or formal educational institutions no longer have the capacity to produce such teachers and students, Hindu parents have to discharge that noble duty today by consciously becoming a Guru or Acharya. Nature has made them parents but Dharma should make them Gurus. -- Do read the concluding part of our series. 🕉🙏🛕🪔 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/commentary/true-education-is-removing-the-walls-that-enclose-the-light-within-us

Dharmic Education in an Era of Planned De-Hinduisation of India   What we now call as “Dharmic education” was the natural state of our social and cultural life even 60-70 years ago. The very fact that we’re now using Dharmic as an adjective only shows the severity of our loss.   Since time immemorial, a major part of our education was “taught” at home through the behavior, lifestyle, customs, codes, manners, speech, rituals and conduct of the family members.    The role that the Hindu joint family system played in nurturing and preserving this education has all but been forgotten. Plus, with the ongoing rapid pace of urbanization, this process will only accelerate. Add to this the divorce epidemic and the systematic de-Hinduisation of Hindu children in schools and colleges, the future resembles a nightmare. -- Read the whole powerful piece in full! 💪📑🕉🛕🪔 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/commentary/dharmic-education-in-an-era-of-planned-de-hinduisation-of-india

Schooling Randeep Surjewala https://thedharmadispatch.substack.com/p/schooling-randeep-surjewala

Dharmic Education is not Learning but Realisation   In the Sanatana theory and practice, education was not merely learning but realisation. Literacy was merely one subset of it. --   FUNDAMENTALLY, A COUNTRY’S APPROACH TO EDUCATION depends on how it regards human beings: as mere economic units who are capable of nothing higher than earning money, consuming material goods, and performing the basic animal functions of eating, sleeping and reproduction. The contemporary term “human resources” is a direct outcome of this conception of the human being.   This approach is the Western approach.  Unfortunately, India over the last century, especially after Independence has mindlessly imitated the western model. The result is the industrialization of education in its worst form.    In our educational heritage, learning was not reading but realisation, and knowledge was to be in the blood, as an organic part of one’s own self. -- Read the whole powerful piece in full! 🛕📑🕉🪔 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/culture/dharmic-education-is-not-learning-but-realisation

An Imperative for Dharmic Education for Hindu Children in an Woke Pandemic Era -- Rediscovering the ideal and roots of our Dharmic education is an urgent imperative to prevent Hindu children from getting sucked into the Woke blackhole.   An excerpt follows. -- One of the central goals of our ancient ideal of education was to create a Praja, or a citizen in the truest sense of the word. Everything else came second. Notwithstanding what a person became later in life – a minister, bureaucrat, businessmen, professional, sports star – his standing, status and respect in society derived primarily from being a good citizen. Today, we have the exact inversion of this ideal: respect has been detached from ethics and conduct.    The brilliant scholar, Prof M. Hiriyanna captured the whole essence of the Sanatana educational ideal in these words: “the aim of education is not to inform the mind but to form it.”  -- Read the whole essay! 🛕🕉📑🪔 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/commentary/an-imperative-for-dharmic-education-for-hindu-children-in-an-woke-pandemic-era

[Tales from our Archives] The Sinister Plot of Qazi Mohammed Essa and Other Stories from 1947 Firsthand accounts of the situation on the ground on the eve of India's independence including the sinister role played by Qazi Muhammad Essa. https://thedharmadispatch.substack.com/p/tales-from-our-archives-the-sinister

Who Drank European Liquor in the 19th Century Gorakhpur?   This is a truly eye-opening picture of alcoholism in 19th century Gorakhpur. It also reveals the minute details of how our society had been degraded back then. Centuries of alien invasions and misrule and British colonialism had pushed our society to the brink.   For example, here is the case of a community known as Doms. This was their sad plight. The total number of Doms in the Gorakhpur district is only 1,400, of whom about 250 are adult males not in jail. The principal reason of the large numbers of Doms in prison is their arrears. That is, the money they owe for purchasing drinks, which they have not paid. As they are mere beggars, they are seldom able to pay at all; but their vocabulary of abuse is large and their character is the lowest.    No society should be pushed to this extent. 🥲🙏📑🛕 -- Read the whole depressing piece! https://www.dharmadispatch.in/culture/who-drank-european-liquor-in-the-19th-century-gorakhpur

How Indians Intoxicated Themselves in the 19th Century: The Case of Gorakhpur   A fascinating report by a colonial British bureaucrat published in 1890 reveals the substances that Indians used to intoxicate themselves in north western India. This report classified the intoxicants on the basis of caste and religion. --  Here's a small excerpt.   "The stimulants used are tobacco, preparations of hemp, preparations of poppy and alcohol. Tobacco is consumed in three forms, smoking tobacco, chewing tobacco, and snuff. The last two forms of consumption are common to all classes; the former is considered a digestive, and the name of the latter is Brain-clearer.   Opium is eaten and drunk and smoked, and there is no prohibition of it in any class. Opium is smoked as either kafe, or madak, or chundu.   In the city of Gorakhpur, with a population of about 60,000 people, a recent census of opium eaters and smokers gave a total of 998 Mussulmans and 190 Hindus. In the Gorakhpur district, the Musalmans consume more opium than the Hindus."  -- This report has great historical importance. Do read it in full! 📑☺️😊🙏 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/culture/how-indians-intoxicated-themselves-in-the-19th-century-the-case-of-gorakhpur

[LONG FORM] If you Loot Hindu Temples, you Suffer for 60,000 Years in the Gutter as a Worm. -- Hindu Sastras and inscriptions offer a timeless dictum and warning for people who steal from Hindu temples. It is more relevant today. 🙏🛕🛕

The 1949 Dehradun Session of the Congress: Or Nawab Nehru as an Apologist for Corruption   In this episode, DVG provides several eye-opening details about how pervasive corruption had become as early as 1949. We learn that the Dehradun Session of the Congress witnessed Nehru offering a pathetic apologia for this rot.   An excerpt.   If Gandhi had been alive today, it is highly doubtful whether be would have been able to control the forces of evil now working havoc in the body politic.    The discipline taught by Gandhi was forgotten when the Congress won power without a rival to check it or criticize it. It flung itself on the sweets of office and scrambled for the rewards of its years of sacrifice. -- Remember, this was written in 1949.   Do read the superb piece! 📑💪💪🕉🛕 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/commentary/the-1949-dehradun-session-of-the-congress-or-nawab-nehru-as-an-apologist-for-corruption

The Problem is Far More Serious than Including or Dropping Lessons on the Mughals in History Textbooks   The latest fracas over the chapters related to the Mughals in the NCERT history textbooks is also the latest testimony to the durable success of the Marxist mangling of Indian history. The wreckage has been so utter and extensive that every attempt to repair it is bound to fail. Like an embedded virus, it appears as if the Marxists have preprogrammed failure.    If the real and true history of India has to be written from the scratch, it requires scholars and writers and historians equipped with the knowledge, skill, talent and discipline that it demands. The Marxists have aborted at least three generations of such historians in the foetus.  -- Do read the full piece! 📑💪🪔 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/commentary/the-problem-is-far-more-serious-than-including-or-dropping-lessons-on-the-mughals-in-history-textbooks