The Dharma Dispatch

[SUNDAY READING] There is the largely-forgotten "original contribution” of Izlamic "culture" to India: the debauched institution of the Kotha or brothel. Wherever Muslim power was supreme, the Kotha was its ubiquitous accomplice because its chief patrons included the Muslim aristocracy. Indeed, the historical Kotha system is something that the Muslim aristocracy has perfected to an art form. It has withstood the ravages of time and has today transformed itself as Bollywood. -- This is not culture, it is the depraved celebration of its absence. https://www.dharmadispatch.in/history/the-appalling-lifestyle-of-the-muslim-aristocracy

A Portrait of Desolation: Bihar and Bengal in the Aftermath of the Barbarian Bakhtiyar Khalji’s Devastation. -- AMONG THE SEVERAL MEANINGS of the word Nalanda, the one which truly epitomises it is its Sanskrit root-derivation, na alam dadaati: ”that which does not give less.” BUT IN BAKHTIYAR KHALJI’S EYES, NALANDA was only a Kaffir fort, which like others earlier, offered yet another tantalising opportunity for plunder, another virgin field to plant the victorious flag of Izlam in Hindustan. This is what happened next: "The greater number of the inhabitants of that place were Brahmans, and the whole of those Brahmans had their heads shaven; and they were all slain. There were a great number of books there; and, when all these books came under the observation of the Musalmans, they summoned a number of Hindus that they might give them information respecting the import of those books; but the whole of the Hindus had been killed." However, the destruction was not restricted merely to some universities. Large chunks of two vast states—Bengal and Bihar—became Islamic wastelands overnight where only banditry, plunder, rapacity and lawlessness ruled. Peace evaporated. The accumulated prosperity of generations fell into the hands of primal savages who used it for drink, debauchery and depravity. Social stability, the hallmark of Hindu civilisation, was replaced by a continuous struggle for survival. 🛕✍️🥲🔖 -- https://www.dharmadispatch.in/history/a-portrait-of-desolation-bihar-and-bengal-in-the-aftermath-of-the-barbarian-bakhtiyar-khaljis-jihad

When the Sevuna Empire Detonated a Big Bang of Sanatana Cultural Glory in Dakshinapatha -- In an astonishingly short span of just a century, the Sevuna Empire erected a Himalayan superstructure of Sanatana cultural glory in the realm of culture and economics. The feat remains unsurpassed till date. The most noteworthy contribution to the Indian knowledge system occurred in the realm of astronomy. The output was encyclopaedic, learned and prodigious, and most of it emanated from the members of a scholarly family founded by Kavichakravarti Trivikrama, author of the Damayantikatha. Here's a partial list of works on astronomy produced in that era: Sekhara, Laghutika, Lilavati, Siddhantasiromani, Karanakutuhala. It is the Sevuna cultural climate that gifted to the world the pioneering and genius-level work on music, Sangitaratnakara authored by Sarangradeva. This treatise is the most comprehensive and definitive synthesis of ancient and medieval musical knowledge of India. It has been an inevitable source-book for every single musicology text produced in India. -- Go on, do read the story of the full brilliance of the Sevuna Cultural Complex! 🛕🛕✍️🎵🎻🛕🕉 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/history/when-the-sevuna-empire-detonated-a-big-bang-of-sanatana-cultural-glory-in-dakshinapatha

The Sevuna Empire of Embracive Abundance: A Forgotten Brilliance of Hindu History -- This is the first part of a new series tracing the brief history of the Sevuna or Yadava Empire of Devagiri whose stellar contributions to Hindu civilisation and culture have largely been forgotten. The origin and phenomenal success of the Yadava Empire is the proverbial story not of rags to riches, but rags to an empire. It was a magnificent Hindu Empire that had soared to an impressive summit during a vital pivot in Indian history. Indeed, few Hindu dynasties in the post-Gupta era can boast of cultural accomplishments rivalling that of the Sevunas both in quality and prolificacy. At least, the Guptas had nearly three centuries at their disposal to build and bequeath a grand and enduring Sanatana Cultural Complex. The Yadavas achieved a comparable feat in less than half that time. A pronounced socio-cultural feature that strikes us instantly is how the Yadavas sustained the intimate and seamless social and cultural bonds between what is known as Karnataka and Maharashtra. -- Read the whole inspiring story! ✍️🔖🛕🕉🛕🛕 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/history/the-sevuna-empire-of-embracive-abundance-a-forgotten-brilliance-of-hindu-history

The Story of an Unknown Vijayanagara Hero: The Barber Kondoja who Obtained Tax Exemption for his Entire Community. -- Kondoja, an expert barber in Karnataka impressed Aliya Rama Raya with his beard-shaving skills and used the opportunity to get a tax exemption for his community throughout the Vijayanagara Empire. CLEARLY, THE WHOLE EPISODE opens a wealth of insights into the Hindu social life of the period, and should hopefully help us dispel several myths and toxic narratives about Hindu society that were seeded by the British and continued with greater vigour by the Congress ecosystem. Although the notion of low status was accorded to barbers during the Vijayanagara period, it is striking to notice that no obstacle “built into” the so-called “caste system” prevented the community from generating powerful leaders like Kondoja. In fact, Kondoja makes for an eminent case study for the flexibility and mobility of the Hindu society in Vijayanagara. -- No history textbook or movie tells these stories. Please do read and circulate widely. 🛕✍️✍️🔖 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/history/the-story-of-an-unknown-vijayanagara-hero-the-barber-kondoja-who-obtained-tax-exemption-for-his-entire-community

The Brief and Delightful History of the Dramma in India -- The Kannada and Telugu words, “Dammadi” over time, generally meant only a coin. The term was in vogue even in Kannada cinema of the early 1970s. https://t.co/BN5rjKyO0I

When the Unclean Turushka Ala-ud-din Khalji Ravished Vidisha -- AS A COMMERCIAL POWERHOUSE, Vidisha and its surroundings were renowned for centuries for a stunning variety of industries, trades and businesses. It was a thriving cotton hub and manufactured and exported various grades of cotton that reached all the way to Rome. Vidisha was also famed for its exquisite ivory work, sculptural and architectural marvels. It produced some of the finest swords, which were in huge demand throughout Bharatavarsha and central Asia. The deadliest blow to this Vidisha came in the form of the Turushka monster Ala-ud-din Khalji. Ala-ud-din Khalji had a feast of rapacity. His plunder-hungry army recklessly wasted the city with abandon, wrecking its teeming temples and stupas and smashed the ”filthy infidel idols“ on an epic scale. Needless, the Bhayillaswamin Temple was pounded to the ground never to rise again. -- Read the full tragic tale. 🛕✍️🥲🥲 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/history/when-the-unclean-turushka-ala-ud-din-khalji-ravished-vidisha

Announcement of a New Course on Sanatana Dharma by Vibhu Academy. It covers all the major aspects of Hindu Dharma including fundamental concepts such as Veda,-Agama-Darshana, Dharma, Varna and Ashrama, social, cultural and environmental dimensions, folk traditions and contemporary challenges. The course is offered in both English spread over 20 sessions. It is open to anyone aged 14+ years. Details of the course are as follows: Start Date: May 13, 2022 Total Sessions: 20 Days: Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Time: 7 P.M - 8:30 P.M. India Time. -- For full details, see: https://www.dharmadispatch.in/dispatches/announcement-of-a-new-course-on-sanatana-dharma

How Acharya Jadunath Sarkar Wrote the Majestic Volumes of the History of Aurangzeb -- WITHOUT DOUBT, ACHARYA JADUNATH SARKAR’s five-volume History of Aurangzeb is not only his magnum opus but remains an enduring masterpiece dissecting that Islamic monster to the last cell of his bigoted entrails. It is also a fine specimen of history-writing being elevated to art. These majestic volumes are akin to forces of nature. And like it, no one can really understand the sheer ardour, dedication and penance he put into it. Or the pain and suffering he had to endure in the process. He never required the services of a stenographer or a typist. His own drafts were always better than printed matter, accurate to a comma. Nor did he disclose his troubles and hard work. On the contrary, he considered it vulgar, a breach of decency and taste to speak about his own work. The actual preparation and final execution of these brilliant volumes consumed a quarter century of his highly productive and fruitful life. -- Read the highly inspirational essay! ✍️✍️🔖🛕😀 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/culture/how-acharya-jadunath-sarkar-wrote-the-majestic-volumes-of-the-history-of-aurangzeb

[SUNDAY READING] In Bharatavarsha, politics was constrained by the tenets of Dharma, and it is Dharma which guarantees spiritual freedom to the individual. All other freedoms are meaningless without spiritual freedom. 🛕🛕📓 https://t.co/DxDpk3M9D5

The Colonial Origins of the Contemporary Western Media Discourse on India. -- A majority of the anti-India and anti-Hindu discourse streaming from the West has its origins in pre-colonial and colonial narratives, which remain unchanged. That is the root cause that Hindus must identify and fight against. The substance of this history of European narrative-building about India is clear to us today: Indology has wildly succeeded in its foundational purpose of giving the Hindu civilisation and culture a rotten name. It is also not a coincidence that Indology departments in the West began to die a slow death after the British left. By 1947, there was not much left to loot, plus the cultural destruction and societal emasculation of the Hindus had been pretty much thorough. Colonised and self-loathing Hindus would continue the unfinished business of finishing India off. -- Read the in-depth, powerful essay.🔖✍️🔖🔖 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/commentary/the-colonial-origins-of-the-contemporary-western-media-discourse-on-india

The Magnificent Mangalana Step-Well: A Sanatana Oasis Amid Turushka Chaos. -- Do read this essay narrating the ennobling history of the forgotten Mangalana step-well in Rajasthan. The tradition and practice of constructing step-wells is another great marker of the cultural unity and civilisational continuity of Bharatavarsha. Like Sanskrit. Like temples. Like our Deities. Indeed, step-wells are a beautiful confluence of functionality, mathematics, art and Sanatana piety. The story of the Mangalna step-well opens in the reign of Vallanadeva, the ruler of the Rantambhor branch of the Chahamana dynasty. Its hero is his Mahāmaṇḍaḷēśvara or chief feudatory named Jaitra Simha, a Kshatriya descended from the Dadicha gotra. Jaitra Simha was pained to observe the plight of his citizens suffering from water scarcity in this Daumāra bhūmi or the Marwad region. Accordingly, Jaitra Simha ordered the construction of a large step-well in the Maṅgaḷānaka region so that its inhabitants would never fall short of water again. Today, Maṅgaḷānaka is the nondescript Manglana village, lying eighty kilometres north of Ajmer, in the Parbatsar district. The remarkable feature of this episode is the fact that Jaitra Simha did not levy any tax to meet the capital expenditure to fund the step-well construction. -- Read the whole brilliant piece! 🛕🛕🔖✍️ https://www.dharmadispatch.in/history/the-magnificent-mangalana-step-well-a-sanatana-oasis-amid-turushka-chaos

The Cosmic Sweep Of Hindu Statecraft -- An introductory essay exploring some facets of Hindu statecraft and polity. -- THE LUMINOUS HALLMARK that reveals itself even in a preliminary study is the remarkable antiquity, unrivalled continuity, sturdy endurance and intrepid resilience of Sanatana statecraft and polity. With a recorded history of over two thousand years—dating back to at least the 4th century BCE—this tradition endured and retained the core elements of its original glory till the downfall of the Maratha Empire. ✍️✍️🔖 https://thedharmadispatch.substack.com/p/the-cosmic-sweep-of-hindu-statecraft?s=w

Rana Ayyub as a Dividend of Sustained Western Interference in India's Sovereignty. The recent burst of Rana Ayyub's hate-filled rants against PM Narendra Modi and India on foreign soil must be contextualised in the historical backdrop of the West's continual meddling in India's internal affairs. Read a shocking excerpt. -- The legal legend Nani Palkhivala wrote a letter to Prime Minister Morarji Desai dated January 22, 1979: "Last week a source from the [U.S.] State Department here called on me and told me in strict confidence that according to American Intelligence, the Govern🔖ment of the Soviet Union had decided that they should work to see that you cease to be the Prime Minister and he added that some chosen persons in the Communist Party of India who are pro-Soviet had already received the message." Morarji Desai says George Fernandes, like the others, was an ambitious fellow and fancied himself as the first Christian Prime Minister of India. And that George and Madhu Limaye worked closely is a known fact. -- Read the whole explosive piece! 🔖✍️✍️💣 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/commentary/rana-ayyub-as-a-dividend-of-sustained-western-interference-in-indias-sovereignty

The ongoing #RamNavami j!had against Hindus is reminder #632217864335 of a permanent behaviour pattern. Read what happened to the Hindus of Kohat exactly a century ago. BTW, they were just 6%. 🙏🙏🙏 https://t.co/nQEeL2XzzG

Nawab Nehru as the Curse on Prayaga. This is the third episode of our series on Prayaga. -- PERHAPS THE MOST UNFORTUNATE facet of Nawab Nehru’s blighted life is the fact that he was born in Prayaga but imbibed the worst elements of the culture of Allahabad. He had every opportunity to become a sort of contemporary Rajarshi but chose to become a Nawab. Every honest student who studies Nawab Nehru’s ignorant and rancid “expositions” on Hindu civilisation, culture, customs and traditions will reach this inescapable conclusion: that Nawab Nehru remains a curse on Prayaga. -- Read the whole thing! ✍️🔖🛕 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/history/nawab-nehru-as-the-curse-of-prayaga