•Nataraja- A masterpiece of Bharatiya Art
•Agastya, Lopamudra
•Ghosa
•Valmiki
•Patanjali
•Vedavyasa
•Yajnavalkya
•Gargi
•Caraka
•Susruta
•Kanada
•Kautilya
•Panini
•Aryabhata
Nataraja- A masterpiece of Bharatiya Art
•The word Nataraja is a Sanskrit term, from नट Nata meaning “act, drama, dance” and राज Raja meaning “king, lord”; it can be roughly translated as Lord of the dance or King of the dance.
•The sculpture is symbolic of Shiva as the lord of dance and dramatic arts, with its style and proportions made according to Hindu texts on arts.
•Nataraja is the form of Shiva in which he performs his functions of creation, destruction, preservation, and is also attributed with maya and the act of blessing his devotees. Thus, Nataraja is considered one of the highest forms of Shiva.
•The two most common forms of Shiva’s dance are the Lasya (the gentle form of dance), associated with the creation of the world, and the Ananda Tandava (dance of bliss, the vigorous form of dance), associated with the destruction of weary worldviews—weary perspectives and lifestyles.
•Shiva’s dance can be explained as:
•First, it is seen as the image of his rhythmic or musical play which is the source of all movement within the universe. This is represented by the circular or elliptical frame surrounding Shiva.
•Secondly, the purpose of his dance is to release the souls of all men from the snare of illusion.
•Lastly, the place of the dance, Chidambaram, which is portrayed as the center of the universe, is actually within the heart.
Agastya
•Agastya was a revered Indian sage of Hinduism. Agastya is considered to be the father of Siddha medicine.
•Agastya appears in numerous itihasas and Puranas including the major Ramayana and Mahabharata.
•He is one of the seven most revered rishis (the Saptarishi) in the Vedic texts.
•Agastya is the named author of several hymns of the Rigveda. Agastya Saṁhitā (literally: “Agastya’s Compendium”) is the title of several works in Sanskrit, attributed to Agastya.
•One of those works is the Agastya Samhita, sometimes called the Sankara Samhita.
•His Vedic poetry is particularly notable for two themes. In one set of hymns, Agastya describes a conflict between two armies led by gods Indra and Maruts. The second theme, famous in the literature of Hinduism, is a discussion between his wife Lopamudra and him about the human tension between the monastic solitary pursuit of spirituality, versus the responsibility of a householder’s life and raising a family.
•Agastya Muni lived an extraordinary life. It is believed that he also lived an extraordinary span of life. The legend says that he lived for 4000 years.
•Yoga came in a particular format to Southern India through Agastya. In many ways, Agastya is the father of Southern Indian mysticism.
•Kalaripayattu is probably the oldest martial art form on the planet. It was essentially taught by Agastya Muni because martial arts are not just about kicking, punching or stabbing. It is about learning to use the body in every possible way. It not only involves exercise and other aspects of agility, it also involves understanding the energy system. There is Kalari chikitsa and Kalari marma which involves knowing the secrets of the body and healing the body quickly to keep the body in a regenerative mode.
•Siddha vaidya is an evolution from the Yogic science and was essentially formulated by Agastya Muni.
•Sage Agastya is mentioned in the Hindu epic Ramayana in several chapters with his hermitage described to be on the banks of river Godavari.
Ghosha
•Ghosha was an ancient Vedic period Indian female philosopher and seer. Her father was Kakshivat and grandfather was Dīrghatamas and both of them had written hymns in the Rigveda.
•She was taught Madhu Vidhya, a Vedic teaching, a science of secret learning to restore youth and acquire immense knowledge, to get her cured of skin ailment. From a young age she suffered from a skin ailment which had disfigured her. Ashvin Kumars cured her and restored her youthfulness, health and beauty.
•She was proficient in the Vedas and had even scripted two hymns in the Rigveda. She was called as mantradrika meaning well versed in mantras. She was also known as a Brahmavadini or speaker or proclaimer of Brahmana and led a purposeful spiritual life. She had a son, Suhstya, who also composed a hymn in the Rigveda.
Valmiki
•Maharishi (the great sage) claims the distinction of being the author of the holy epic ‘Ramayana’, consisting of 24,000 verses.
•He is also believed to be the author of Yoga Vasistha, a text that elaborates on a range of philosophical issues. There are different versions regarding the time period and life of Valmiki. The Valmiki Ramayana is believed to be dated variously from the period 500 BC to 100BC. But at the same time Valmiki is also said to be the contemporary of Lord Rama.
•Maharishi Valmiki was born as Ratnakara to sage Prachetasa. At a very young age, Ratnakara went into the forest and got lost. A hunter, who was passing by, saw Ratnakara and took him under his own care. Ratnakara turned out to be an excellent hunter. As he approached marriageable age, Ratnakara was married to a beautiful girl from hunter’s family.
•As his family grew larger, Ratnakara found it next to impossible to feed them. As a result, he took to robbery and began looting people passing from one village to another.
•One day, the great sage Narada, while passing through the jungle, was attacked by Ratnakara. As Narada played his Veena and sang praises of the Lord, he saw a transformation coming over Ratnakara. Narada taught him the sacred name of ‘Rama’ and asked him to sit in meditation, chanting the name of Rama, till the time Narada came back. Ratnakara followed the instructions and kept sitting in a meditative posture for years. Ratnakara followed the instructions and kept sitting in a meditative posture for years. Ratnakara was given the name of Valmiki. Sage Valmiki founded his ashram at the banks of River Ganga.
Patanjali
•Patanjali also called Gonardiya or Gonikaputra, was a Hindu author, mystic and philosopher. Very little is known about him, and while no one knows exactly when he lived; from analysis of his works it is estimated that it was between the 2nd and 4th centuries CE.
•He is believed to be an author and compiler of a number of Sanskrit works. The greatest of these are the Yoga Sutras, a classical yoga text. The Yogasutras is one of the most important texts in the Indian tradition and the foundation of classical Yoga. It is the Indian Yoga text that was most translated in its medieval era into forty Indian languages.
•The author of a medical text called Patanjalatantra. He is cited and this text is quoted in many medieval health sciences-related texts, and Patanjali is called a medical authority in a number of Sanskrit texts such as Yogaratnakara, Yogaratnasamuccaya and Padarthavijnana.
•Patanjali continues to be honoured with invocations and shrines in some forms of modern postural yoga, such as Iyengar Yoga and Ashtānga Vinyāsa Yoga.
Vedavyasa
•Vyasa is perhaps the greatest sage in the history of Hindu religion. He edited the four Vedas, wrote the 18 Puranas, the epic Mahabharata, and the Srimad Bhagavatam.
•According to the Puranas, Vyasa took initiation from his guru sage Vasudeva. He studied the Shastras or scriptures under the sages Sanaka and Sanandana and others. He arranged the Vedas for the good of mankind and wrote the Brahma Sutras for the quick and easy understanding of the Shrutis; he also wrote the Mahabharata to enable common people to understand the highest knowledge in the easiest way. The Brahma Sutras, also known as the Vedanta Sutras is believed to have been written by Vyasa along with Badarayana. They are divided into four chapters, each chapter being subdivided again into four sections. Vyasa wrote the 18 Puranas and established the system of teaching them through ‘Upakhyanas’ or discourses. In this way, he established the three paths of Karma, Upasana (devotion) and Jnana (knowledge). Vyasa’s last work was the Bhagavatam which he undertook at the instigation of Devarshi Narada, the celestial sage, who once came to him and advised him to write it, without which, his goal in life would not be reached.
Yajnavalkya
•Yajnavalkya, sage and teacher who figures prominently in the earliest of the Hindu philosophical and metaphysical texts known as the Upanishads, the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. He is also mentioned in various Brahmanas and Aranyakas.
•Yajnavalkya is credited by Witzel for coining the term Advaita (non-duality of Atman and Brahman). The ideas attributed to him for renunciation of worldly attachments have been important to Hindu sannyasa traditions.
•Yajnavalkya is associated with several other major ancient texts in Sanskrit, namely the Shukla Yajurveda, the Shatapatha Brahmana, the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, the Dharmasastra named Yājñavalkya Smṛti, Vriddha Yajnavalkya, and Brihad Yajnavalkya. He is also mentioned in the Mahabharata and the Puranas.
Gargi
•Gargi was an ancient Indian sage and philosopher. In Vedic literature, she is honored as a great natural philosopher, renowned expounder of the Vedas, and known as Brahmavadini, a person with knowledge of Brahma Vidya.
•Gargi was the daughter of sage Vachaknu in the lineage of sage Garga (c. 800-500 BCE) and hence named after her father as Gargi Vachaknavi. Right from a young age, Vachaknavi was very intellectual.
•She acquired knowledge of the Vedas and scriptures and became renowned for her proficiency in these fields of philosophy.
•Her name appears in the Grihya Sutras of Asvalayana. She was a leading scholar who also made rich contributions to propagate education.
Charaka
•Charaka was one of the principal contributors to Ayurveda, a system of medicine and lifestyle developed in ancient India. He is known as a physician who edited the medical treatise entitled Charaka Samhita.
•The Charaka Samhita is a comprehensive treatise on various aspects of medicine, including etiology, diagnosis, treatment, and ethical considerations. It covers a wide range of topics, including anatomy, physiology, herbal medicine, surgical techniques, and the use of minerals and metals in medicine.
•Charaka’s contributions to Ayurveda were not only medical but also scientific. He emphasized the importance of observation, experimentation, and logical reasoning in the practice of medicine.
•He classified diseases based on their etiology and symptoms, and his diagnostic methods included examination of the pulse, urine, and other bodily fluids.
Susruta
•Sushruta s the listed author of the Sushruta Samhita a treatise considered to be one of the most important surviving ancient treatises on medicine and is considered a foundational text of Ayurveda.
•First surgeon in the world was Maharishi Sushrutha. His famous book was Sushruth Samhita which is an authentic book in the field of surgery. Plastic surgery is known to be a big achievement in the field of medicinal science, as mentioned in his book.
•The great Sushruta is remembered by the world for his contribution to surgery in general and plastic surgery in particular. His work on rhinoplasty (plastic surgery performed on the nose) especially has been lauded for centuries. His code of conduct for surgeons and practitioners is still revered deeply in the field.
Kanada
•Kaṇāda was an ancient Indian natural scientist and philosopher who founded the Vaisheshika school of Indian philosophy that also represents the earliest Indian physics.
•His traditional name “Kaṇāda” means “atom eater”, and he is known for developing the foundations of an atomistic approach to physics and philosophy in the Sanskrit text Vaiśeṣika Sūtra. His text is also known as Kaṇāda Sutras.
• Kaṇāda suggested that everything can be subdivided, but this subdivision cannot go on forever, and there must be smallest entities (paramanu) that cannot be divided, that are eternal, that aggregate in different ways to yield complex substances and bodies with unique identity, a process that involves heat, and this is the basis for all material existence.
The text states:
•There are nine constituents of realities: four classes of atoms (earth, water, light and air), space (akasha), time (kāla), direction (disha), infinity of souls (Atman), mind (manas).
•Every object of creation is made of atoms (paramāṇu) which in turn connect with each other to form molecules (aṇu). Atoms are eternal, and their combinations constitute the empirical material world.
•Individual souls are eternal and pervade material bodies for a time.
•There are six categories (padārtha) of experience — substance, quality, activity, generality, particularity, and inherence.
Kautilya
•Kautilya as a founder of political economy: It is claimed that Kautilya is an early pioneer of political economy.
•Kautilya, addressed as an Acharya (professor) and statesman, wrote The Arthashastra – the science of wealth and welfare, containing 150 chapters.
•The Arthashastra develops three interlinked and mutually complementary parts:
1.Arthaniti (economic policies) to promote economic growth;
2.Dandaniti (administration of justice) to ensure judicial fairness; and
3.Videshniti (foreign affairs policy) to maintain independence and to expand the kingdom.
•The Arthashastra contains a sufficient number of coherent economic concepts and hypotheses and an inter-dependent system of relationships.
Panini
•Panini is known as the father of Sanskrit and is considered the earliest known Indian linguist. He wrote the Ashtadhyayi, which can be translated as “eight chapters” or “Eight Chapters on Grammar”.
•Astadhyayi was composed in the sutra-style treatise. It is considered as one of the greatest books on Sanskrit grammar. The entire book had 3,959 “verses” or rules on linguistics elaborated syntax and semantics of Sanskrit, and the grammar in “eight chapters”. This work of Sage Panin has become the foundational text of the Vyakaraṇa branch of the Vedanga, which is regarded as the auxiliary scholarly discipline of the Vedic period. His literary works are highly commendable, and his aphoristic text had attracted various “Bhashya”, which can be translated as commentaries. Among all the Mahabhashya, Sage Patanjali’s work is famous in Hindu Pantheon. He had attracted several Buddhist scholars to study and elaborate on his works. His morphological analysis is highly advanced. His usage of metalanguage and meta-rules are highly helpful in computational devices.
Aryabhata
•Aryabhata (476–550 CE) was the first of the major mathematician-astronomers from the classical age of Indian mathematics and Indian astronomy.
•Aryabhata is the author of several treatises on mathematics and astronomy.
•He was student of Nalanda university, later he even became head of one department of it. Many researches were made at Nalanda in astronomy, mathematics, physics, biology, medicine and other fields. So Aryabhata got his major source of knowledge from Nalanda and his major work was based on previous inventions by Greeks, Mesapotamians and Nalanda university itself.
•In his only surviving work, Aryabhatiya, he covered a wide range of topics, such as extracting square roots, solving quadratic equations, and predicting eclipses.