Lucknow: To fully understand the concept of a temple tree, we must understand the connection between forests, trees and worship in early times and how the concept of sacred groves has developed over the centuries. We know that in very early times in India, deities were first worshipped in the open, sometimes with stone or wood images. Hero stones were also quite popular in the worship of the common people. There is much evidence for the fact that many temples came up in locations long considered sacred with specific deities…
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A Brief History of Prakrit and Sanskrit
Lucknow: Prakrit refers to a bunch of languages that belonged to different epochs in different regions of ancient India, as it represents the changing aspect of the spoken language. So they are studied in three main time periods i) The Ancient Period 2500 BCE to 500 CE – The Prakrit language used in this period is mostly termed Pali, based on the literature available from these times, which are mostly Buddhist sources. Some of the key features are that the dual number (dvivacana) is left out, ṣa and śa sounds…
Read MoreEnvironmental Sustainability through the IKS prism
Lucknow: A unique feature of Indian philosophy is the concept of dharma—the ethical and moral law that guides human behaviour. Unlike animals, which are driven by instinct, humans are expected to follow dharma. This distinction between humans and animals is highlighted in the Hitopadeśa: आहारनिद्राभयमैथुनञ्चसामान्यमेतत्पशुभिर्नराणाम् | धर्मोहितेषाम्अधिकोविशेषःधर्मेणहीनापशुभिस्समानाः || ‘Food, sleep, fear, and mating, these are common between men and animals. It is dharma, the performance of one’s duties, which specially distinguishes men from animals. Those who are bereft of dharma are no different from animals.’ Thus, philosophical inquiry in India is…
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