Miyan Tansen or Ramtanu Pandey (1493 or 1506 – 1586 or 1589) is considered among the greatest composer-musicians in Hindustani classical music. He was an extraordinarily gifted vocalist, known for a large number of compositions, and also an instrumentalist who popularized and improved the rabab (of Central Asian origin). He was among the Navaratnas (nine jewels) at the court of the Mughal Emperor Akbar. Akbar gave him the title Miyan (an honorific, meaning learned man).
Mannathu Padmanabhan (1878-1970) was a social reformer and a freedom fighter from the State of Kerala, India. He is recognised as the founder of the organisation called the Nair Service Society. This organisation represents the Nair community which constitutes almost 13 percent of the population of the state. Padmanabhan is considered as a visionary reformer who organised a 10 million Nair community under the NSS.
Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, (7 November 1888 – 21 November 1970) was an Indian physicist and Nobel laureate in physics recognised for his work on the molecular scattering of light and for the discovery of the Raman effect, which is named after him. In this Indian name, the name "Chandrasekhara" is a patronymic, not a family name, and the person should be referred to by the given name, "Venkata Raman".
Life after prison: Tilak had mellowed after his release in June 1914. When World war I started in August, Tilak, cabled the King-Emperor in Britain of his support and turned his oratory to find new recruits for war efforts. He welcomed The Indian Councils Act, popularly known as Minto-Morley Reforms which had been passed by British parliament in May 1909 terming it as ‘a marked increase of confidence between the Rulers and the Ruled’.
Acts of violence actually retarded than hastened the pace of political reforms, he felt. He was eager for reconciliation with Congress and had abandoned his demand for direct action and settled for agitations ‘strictly by constitutional means’ - a line advocated his rival- Gopal Krishna Gokhale since beginning
Picture: Sardar Griha, Tilak’s residence in Mumbai
Journalism: Tilak co-founded two newspapers with Gopal Ganesh Agarkar, Vishnushastri Chiplunakar and other colleagues: Kesari, which means "Lion" in Sanskrit and was a Marathi newspaper, and ‘The Maratha’, an English newspaper in 1881. In just two years ‘Kesari’ attracted more readers than any other language newspaper in India. The editorials were generally about the people’s sufferings under the British. These newspapers called upon every Indian to fight for his or her rights.
Bal Gangadhar Tilak (Marathi: बाळ गंगाधर टिळक) 23 July 1856(1856-07-23)–1 August 1920 (aged 64), was an Indian nationalist, teacher, social reformer and independence fighter who was the first popular leader of the Indian Independence Movement. The British colonial authorities derogatorily called him the "Father of the Indian unrest", a title which the Indian Nationalists paradoxically considered a badge of Honor. He was also conferred upon the honorary title of "Lokmanya", which literally means "Accepted by the people (as their leader)".
Historical and cultural impact: At the time of Adi Shankara’s life, Hinduism was increasing in influence in India at the expense of Buddhism and Jainism. Hinduism was divided into innumerable sects, each quarreling with the others. The followers of Mimamsa and Sankhya philosophy were atheists, insomuch that they did not believe in God as a unified being. Besides these atheists, there were numerous theistic sects. There were also those who rejected the Vedas, like the Charvakas.
Picture: The Hamsa (Sanskrit: "swan") is an important motif in Advaita Vedanta. Its symbolic meanings are: firstly; upon verbally repeating hamsa, it becomes soham (Sanskrit, "I am That"). Secondly, even as a hamsa lives in water its feathers are not sullied by it, a liberated Advaitin lives in this world full of Maya but is untouched by its illusion. Thirdly, a monk of the Dashanami order is called a Paramahamsa ("supreme hamsa")
Picture: Vidyashankara temple at Sringeri Sharada Peetham, Sringeri
Mathas: Adi Shankara founded four Maṭhas (Sanskrit: मठ) to guide the Hindu religion. These are at Sringeri in Karnataka in the south, Dwaraka in Gujarat in the west, Puri in Orissa in the east, and Jyotirmath (Joshimath) in Uttarakhand in the north. Hindu tradition states that he put in charge of these mathas his four main disciples: Sureshwaracharya, Hastamalakacharya, Padmapadacharya, and Totakacharya respectively.
The heads of the mathas trace their authority back to these figures. Each of the heads of these four mathas takes the title of Shankaracharya ("the learned Shankara") after the first Shankaracharya. The table below gives an overview of the four Amnaya Mathas founded by Adi Shankara and their details.
Picture: Statue of Adi Shankara at his Samadhi Mandir, behind Kedarnath Temple, in Kedarnath, India
Accession to Sarvajnapitha: Adi Shankara visited Sarvajñapīṭha (Sharada Peeth) in Kashmir (now in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir). The Madhaviya Shankaravijayam states this temple had four doors for scholars from the four cardinal directions. The southern door (representing South India) had never been opened, indicating that no scholar from South India had entered the Sarvajna Pitha. Adi Shankara opened the southern door by defeating in debate all the scholars there in all the various scholastic disciplines such as Mimamsa, Vedanta and other branches of Hindu philosophy; he ascended the throne of Transcendent wisdom of that temple.
Picture: Sharada temple at Sringeri Sharada Peetham, Sringeri
Missionary tour: Adi Shankara then travelled with his disciples to Maharashtra and Srisailam. In Srisailam, he composed Shivanandalahari, a devotional hymn in praise of Shiva. The Madhaviya Shankaravijayam says that when Shankara was about to be sacrificed by a Kapalika, the god Narasimha appeared to save Shankara in response to Padmapada’s prayer to him. As a result, Adi Shankara composed the Laksmi-Narasimha stotra.
