GO TO SOURCE TRINCOMALEE, SRI LANKA, June 5, 2002: For the first time since 1983, pilgrims could undertake the arduous six-week pada yatra or foot pilgrimage to Kataragama, the ancient shrine to Lord Muruga. Sinhalese and foreign devotees as well as ardent Tamil devotees from Jaffna, Mannar, Vavuniya and Trincomalee reached the first leg in Trincomalee. Vallimalai Balananda Sadhu, bears…
GO TO SOURCE SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, June 21, 2002: Chitresh Das is renowned all over India for his mastery of kathak. In 1971, at 26, he arrived in the US on a Whitney Fellowship to teach kathak — a northern India style of dance — at the University of Maryland. Now 57, he runs six kathak dance schools in the…
GO TO SOURCE CHENNAI, TAMIL NADU, June 26, 2002: The successor to the present Rajaguru of the Royal Government of Thailand is all set to undergo training in different subjects such as purohitam, karmakanda, sastras, Sanskrit and Tamil at Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi Viswamahavidyalaya at Enathur near Kanchipuram. The 12-year-old brahmin boy is currently on a visit to Chennai along with…
GO TO SOURCE PUERTO RICO, June 28, 2002: The Vedanta society of Puerto Rico is honored to welcome Swami Pareshanandaji, the director of Ramakrishna mission Ashram in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on his third visit to Puerto Rico. He will stay in Puerto Rico from July 2 to July 12, 2002. He will give a formal lecture on Meditation and Spiritual…
GO TO SOURCE AGRA, INDIA, June 14, 2002: Residents in the city of Agra were horrified on June 14 when they awoke to the sight of thousands of dead fish on the banks of the river Yamuna. While the citizens of Agra are concerned about the safety of the water for human consumption, fishermen in the city may have to…
Source: The Hindu CHENNAI, INDIA, June 19, 2002: The recent find of a submerged city in the Gulf of Cambay, off the state of Gujarat, perhaps as old as 7500 bce, brings attention to the existence of southern sources for the civilization of ancient India. The discovery of Cambay as well as Lothal, Dholavira and others in Gujarat have been…
GO TO SOURCE TRINIDAD, June 23, 2002: The Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha (SDMS) of Trinidad and Tobago and the History Department of The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine will be jointly hosting a conference on the Hindu Presence in Trinidad and Tobago. The event will be held from October 25 to 27, 2002, at the SDMS Headquarters, Eastern…
GO TO SOURCE PUNE, INDIA, June 24, 2002: The ambitious Sanskrit dictionary project – arguably the largest lexicographical work ever — at the Deccan College in Pune has become a hostage of time as the work, though under way for 45 years, has not even completed the first letter of the alphabet as yet. The monumental project, titled “Deccan College…
GO TO SOURCE INDIA, June 23, 2002: The age-old tradition of a solely male-dominated profession is slowly giving way as more women are trained for the priesthood. In Maharashtra’s orthodox brahminical order, Pune-based Shankar Seva Samiti has trained over 7,000 women priests from all castes since its inception in 1976. In Kerala, until a few years ago, anything related to…
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, June 18, 2002: In her new book, “Tiger Ladies” ($24, Beacon Press), Sudha Koul tells of growing up in the beautiful Valley of Kashmir where Muslims and Hindus coexisted in peace for centuries. Born in 1947, the year of India and Pakistan’s partition, Koul writes of a land of unparalleled beauty where people admired learning,…