The Dharma Dispatch

The Daring Saga of the Kshatriya-śrēṇis Kshatriya-śrēṇis or armed guilds form an important part of the history of Hindu corporate and social life. Their vestiges have endured till this day. -- Guilds and corporations played a central role in executing what are today known as community projects, and they took this role seriously, and punctiliously left behind stellar track records inscribing their demonstrated spirit of public service.   Kshatriya śrēṇis or guilds which lived by the profession of arms played a significant and decisive role in Indian politics. The Chola Era reveals an outstanding scene of the power and prestige that these armed guilds enjoyed. The Vēlaikkāra community dominated the business and political life of the tenth and eleventh centuries. Two of its most powerful subgroups included the Vaḷaṅgai (Right Hand) Iḍaṅgai (Left Hand). Both Rajaraja Chola I and Rajendra Chola I named their army regiments after these two military guilds. -- The Third Episode of our series on business and corporate life in ancient India. ✍️🛕🔖   https://www.dharmadispatch.in/history/the-daring-saga-of-the-kshatriya-%C5%9Br%C4%93%E1%B9%87is

Have you heard the names of two Heroes named Rabindranath Vasisht and Devabrata Vasisht from Haryana? Or the brutality they suffered during the #Emergency? 🙏🙏😒📓 -- Makes for disturbing reading. https://www.dharmadispatch.in/commentary/the-unknown-media-heroes-named-rabindranath-vasisht-and-devabrata-vasisht-and-the-continued-downfall-of-rajdeep-sardesai

The Emergency as a Seedbed of Separatism -- The aftermath of Indira Gandhi's #Emergency birthed a frightening growth of separatist forces who acquired enormous political clout 📖📃👓 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/commentary/the-emergency-as-a-seedbed-of-separatism

The Extraordinary Universe of Artisan Guilds in Ancient India This episode introduces the magnificent world of artisan guilds in ancient India with details of their organisation, functioning and the laws and regulations governing them. — In fact, artisan guilds or corporations were also a powerful force to reckon with in both politics and society. An eminent proof of this fact emerges when we observe town planning methods in ancient and medieval India. Entire townships, villages, streets, and quarters were named after specific artisans. Even until recently, it was common to find streets with such names. In Karnataka, every city and town had a Ganigara-Keri (quarters of oil millers), Kumbarara-beedi (carpenters’ street) and so on. We once again notice how this even facet indicates the Hindu civilizational continuity viewed from the perspective of our commercial history. For example, in ancient India, the word Kammara-Gaamo meant a village of ironsmiths. The Kannada word Kammara even today means an ironsmith. An intriguing fact is that these guilds were also highly mobile and could move or migrate to long distances at astonishing speeds.  — Read the full story! ✍️✍️🔖🛕 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/history/the-extraordinary-universe-of-artisan-guilds-in-ancient-india

Please join me in exploring the Exciting World of Gāna, śrēṇi, pūga and Corporate Bodies in Ancient India. -- ONE OF THE MOST ENDURING and ubiquitous corporate organizations was something known as the Shreni. Shreni was a guild or commercial body in ancient India. A highly interesting facet of Shrenis is the fact that while its legal character was a guild or corporation, its members belonged to the same or different Varnas and Jatis. But all of them followed the same trade or industry. -- Episode 2 of our series on business & corporate life in ancient India. 🛕📓😊🛕 -- https://www.dharmadispatch.in/history/the-exciting-world-of-g%C4%81na-%C5%9Br%C4%93%E1%B9%87i-p%C5%ABga-and-corporate-bodies-in-ancient-india

Please join me in exploring the Exciting World of Gāna, śrēṇi, pūga and Corporate Bodies in Ancient India. -- ONE OF THE MOST ENDURING and ubiquitous corporate organizations was something known as the Shreni. Shreni was a guild or commercial body in ancient India. A highly interesting facet of Shrenis is the fact that while its legal character was a guild or corporation, its members belonged to the same or different Varnas and Jatis. But all of them followed the same trade or industry. Episode 2 of our series on business & corporate life in ancient India. 🛕📓😊🛕 -- https://t.co/VZdN8cgQS0

Day Three of my lecture series on Acharya Jadunath Sarkar delivered at Gokhale Institute of Public Affairs. https://youtu.be/mpRDXa6jsKY

As India faces Agnipath protest, it’s time to study how Left manipulates political system -- My column in Firstpost 🙏📖 https://www.firstpost.com/opinion/as-india-faces-agnipath-protest-its-time-to-study-how-left-manipulates-political-system-10817151.html

Corporate and Business Life in Ancient India: A Brief Journey -- This is the first episode of a series tracing the history of corporate and business life in ancient India. As the title of this piece indicates, it is a brief journey into the exciting, enriching and sprawling world of business and corporate life in ancient India. The subject is as vast as Bharatavarsha itself and is spread over several millennia beginning with the Vedic Era. In my limited explorations, it clearly has enough research potential to produce at least ten full volumes, and if that feat is accomplished, it will be nothing short of national service. -- Do read the full story 😊🛕📓 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/history/corporate-and-business-life-in-ancient-india-a-brief-journey

Day Two of my lecture series on Acharya Jadunath Sarkar delivered at Gokhale Institute of Public Affairs. https://youtu.be/J02qtpNXqZc

The Wonderful World of Vipravinodins: The Forgotten Brahmanas of Vijayanagara -- Vipravinodins were Brahmanas in the Vijayanagara Era whose profession was jugglery. This essay attempts to trace their chequered & tragic history using inscriptional evidence. 🛕🕉🪙🛕 https://t.co/dt0a1wFiRU

To the Hindu com­munity, the Kashi Vishwanath Temple destruction is one of the most enduring and high-profile proofs of their civilisational and spiritual loss and a heartless usurpation of their piety. In Muslim chronicles written during Aurangzeb’s rule and later, the demolition is described as a celebration of the conquest of ignorance and infidelity. -- Do read the full story 🚩🕉️🕉️🚩🚩🙏 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/history/historical-cookery-over-the-gyanvapi-mosque?utm_source=one-signal&utm_medium=push-notification

Hijab, the Prophet Row, Nupur Sharma and the Quranic Concept of War THE GLOBAL ISLAMIC LOBBY and its willing and fear-ridden Shariafied harems in the media, academia and commentariat have their faces deep in camel dung, to borrow an early Arabian idiom. Who would have thought that a mere statement on a TV debate would transform Nupur Sharma into an inadvertent herald of a massive and much-needed Hindu consolidation? The consolidation happened because Nupur Sharma spoke the truth found in Islamic primary texts. THE LAST TIME we heard, no Fatwa was issued against Rana Ayyub for wearing profoundly un-Islamic clothes and leading a thoroughly Haraami lifestyle while simultaneously recommending the Hijab to her Muslim sisters. This, dear Hindus, is the precise juncture where the Mullah meets and merges with masquerades such as Rana Ayyub. She feeds and sustains the Ulema’s thralldom over the community and the Ulema gives her the driving licence to indulge in Haraam activities. The Washington Post subsidises both. Muslims jealously guard the reputation of their Prophet. Muhammad is held in the highest possible esteem. No pictorial representations are allowed. The reason for the caution is what may be called 'the posthumous authority of Muhammad'. From the beggars in the slums of india to the spectacularly wealthy sheikhs of Saudi Arabia, from the illiterate peasants of Pakistan to the erudite scholars of al-azhar, from the village women of the third world to the sophisticates of western female society. Undoubtedly, this is one of the clearest explanations for the violent outrage that has erupted from the Muslim community over Nupur Sharma’s statement. — Read the whole piece! 🔖🔖🕌✍️✍️ https://www.dharmadispatch.in/commentary/hijab-the-prophet-row-nupur-sharma-and-the-quranic-concept-of-war

The Enduring Possibilities of the Vasistha-Visvamitra Story and a Contrast with Leo Tolstoy -- Maharshi Valmiki has given us a timeless raw material in his Vasistha-Visvamitra story. A contrast with Leo Tolstoy's popular fable shows a clear difference between Bharatavarsha and the Christian West. -- TOLSTOY'S STORY, WHILE EVOCATIVE, works only on the mundane plane, delivering the eternal maxim: excessive greed causes death. Its underlying impulse is thoroughly Christian. Kaushika’s case is markedly different. His desire to possess Kāmadhēnu arises from his ignorance, which mistakes her as a magical cow which grants unlimited material bounty. In reality, Kāmadhēnu is a profound symbol of eternal and universal spiritual knowledge, which cannot be owned by anyone, and attempts to do so will assuredly end in disaster. Thus, the hand that freely granted such a grand feast to Kaushika also punished him with equal ferocity. This in turn led not to Kaushika’s death but an inner awakening. It was punishment that purified and then sanctified. -- Read the whole piece! 🛕🕉🔖🐄🛕 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/culture/the-enduring-possibilities-of-the-vasistha-visvamitra-story-and-a-contrast-with-leo-tolstoy

A Passage from Maha-Brahmana: Transforming Sacred Lore into Literary Pearls — Devudu Narasimha Sastri's literary crowning glory, "Mahabrahmana" gives us a memorable depiction of the famous Vasistha-Visvamitra story. DEVUDU NARASIMHA SASTRY, one of the most acclaimed litterateurs of Kannada who blazed an independent path in the last century, *gives us an evocative, brilliant and insightful depiction of the Vasistha-Visvamitra story in his pathbreaking classic, Mahabrahmana.* The work easily ranks as one of the classics of world literature and continues to run into multiple reprints. The genius of Devudu is his original brand of amalgamation of the various versions of this celebrated Vasistha-Visvamitra story and then owning it: to the extent that after reading Mahabrahmana, it is hard to visualise it in any other manner. — Read the whole essay. Hindu cultural values will be propagated in a more effective manner through such stories. 🛕🛕🕉✍️🔖🛕 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/culture/a-passage-from-maha-brahmana-transforming-sacred-lore-into-literary-pearls

The Next Time you Visit Vidisha, Remember Hatiya’s Sacred Service to Bhayillasvamin — An inscription dated 878 CE reveals the elevating story of Hatia, a Hindu merchant who performed a signal service to the deity Bhayillasvamin or Surya at Vidisha. As a true Hindu businessman, Hatia was deeply wedded to the core values of living a Sanatana life. Dāna was one such core value. Accordingly, Hatia purchased three Vīthis in Bhilsa and endowed the rental income derived therefrom to meet the expenses involved in performing the niyata-bhoga to the Narayana-Vishnu and Devi deities. As a devout Hindu, Hatia believed that this endowment would bring Punya to his deceased parents, a profound conviction, Śraddhā that is as old as Sanatana Dharma itself. Needless, to the defiled and vulgarised “modern” Hindu psyche, such notions sound funny or ridiculous or both. — Read the whole ennobling piece! 🛕🛕🕉🔖✍️🛕 https://www.dharmadispatch.in/culture/the-next-time-you-visit-vidisha-remember-hatiyas-sacred-service-to-bhayillasvamin

The Secularist Perfidy Called Ganga-Jamuni Tehzeeb -- A historical exploration of the spurious phenomenon commonly known as Ganga-Jamuni Tehzeeb.✍️🔖🕌🛕🔖 https://thedharmadispatch.substack.com/p/the-secularist-perfidy-called-ganga?sd=pf

From Dusshera to Ugadi: How the Hindu Military Tradition Obeys Bharata’s Geography — Indian military history shows how climate and season were inextricably woven with the dictates of Bharatavarsha's geography. The close of monsoon heralds the onset of Dusshera.in the Hindu tradition of statecraft, this is also the most auspicious time to embark on a Digvijaya.  The overall picture of the military geography of Bharatavarsha viewed from the lens of history is this: the fall of great Hindu Empires in North India was often determined by just one decisive collision of two great armies. With it, almost half of Bharatavarsha was gobbled up by the alien invader. However, Dakshinapatha presents perhaps the most obstinate, sustained and successful story of Hindu resistance against the alien invader. Till the very end, no Muslim Empire was able to bring the whole of South India under its control. — Read the whole thrilling essay! 🔖🔖✍️🛕🕉🕉✍️ https://www.dharmadispatch.in/history/from-dusshera-to-ugadi-how-the-hindu-military-tradition-obeys-bharatas-geography

Revisiting the 1967 General Elections: A Pivot of India's Downfall -- The 1967 General Elections of India was a crucial juncture in the history of "independent India." It was the clear line that separated decency from brazenness. https://www.dharmadispatch.in/commentary/revisiting-the-1967-general-elections-a-pivot-of-indias-downfall