Musings from Antique Origins

M ost people who have heard of Frits Staal, the philosopher and Sanskritist, know him as the chief organizer of Athirathram , an ancient Vedic ritual also called “Agnicayana” that was conducted in a small hamlet of Panjal, Kerala in 1975. I was completing my graduation and my father was retiring from service around the time keeping me tied up with future plans, lest I would have visited the place that had aroused much interest in a 3000-year-old ritual and tradition. The  “Agnicayana ” rituals were documented with the help of Harvard anthropological filmmaker Professor Robert Gardner along with others like Romila Thapar and Adelaide de Menil, a photographer and an heir to the Schlumberger oilfield-services fortune. The Vedic ritual conducted from 12 th  to 24 th  of April 1975 was funded among others by the Harvard University, Smithsonian Institution, and the Rock Foundation. Agnicayana 1975 Panjal, Kerala During my recent Onam holidays at our ancestra...

A nother Onam is round the corner and the streets of Kerala are full of people out for purchases of all kinds, the omnipresent potholes and the rains notwithstanding. The CMOs of all companies seem to have a field day luring customers to buy all things wanted and often unwanted. On a personal front, I feel that the thrill and charm of Onam of yore have diminished much. With my parents gone for the final journey and the children gone abroad for studies, I feel more spiritless. (pun intended) Onam 1989. Sindhu on the extreme left seen with my parents. Lavanya, my daughter presently in the US doing her PhD is seen held by my sister. Last week, we had been to the hospital for a check-up. One of the good things that I felt about going to the hospital were that we met a wonderful orthopaedic surgeon, Dr.Ravi G Nair. Here is a doctor, who had done his post-graduation from Bombay and who is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons (Edinburg), so cool and dedicated. ...