Articles by Prof. P.C. Jain and Dr Daljeet.

"She has always believed that this would redeem her of her distress….A coconut, otherwise an ordinary dried fruit or the source of edible, or at the most, beauty oil, has always been revered as an auspicious object effecting good and well-being and the food that gods most loved….The tree in the Buddhist tradition was later identified as Bodhi-tree, seated under which Buddha had attained Enlightenment….Body gestures and symptoms, signs, indications among others must have been the early man’s tools of communicating oneself and knowing and understanding the world around….Kirttimukha was initially conceived as a mystical mask….Lion does not figure in the wide range of animal toys or figurines excavated from Indus sites."

"No epithet, even any contextual to his father Shiva, defines him so completely as does ‘the son of Parvati’....Ganesha himself is the manifest cosmos, duality diluting into his very form – an entirety, a presence beyond act.... Ganesha only assures that ‘Shri’ or Lakshmi, the goddess of riches, shall precede him when his presence is invoked....The innocent looking Ganesha ever remains, essentially and exclusively, the mother-born, the product of an innocent playful mind filled with positive energy desiring creation and effecting it.....Brahma was ordained to create a world of numbers, measurable, subject to rule and that which decayed and had an end....Full of zeal, energy, sportiveness, mischievousness in eyes, carefree disposition, cool, soft, simple, benign, child-like innocent looking Ganesha is essentially the mother’s son – Uma-sutam."

"A myth is a broad truth in regard to an event or a set of beings, men, animals or others....This world does not accept dividers, those dividing man from woman, man from animal, or live from dead, nor accepts the scale of time fragmented into past, present and future....The legend of the Great Flood is a part of many other traditions of the ancient world....Virabhadra, Lord Shiva’s son born of his sublime wrath, and one of his guards and generals, is a rare character from Indian mythology in which a weakness, such as anger, sublimates into a divine form....Among traditions related to emergence of Devi a more popular one, perhaps as popular as the one that contends that Devi is beyond time and beyond form."

Sita, the term literally meaning ‘furrow’, the line made by plough, is the Vedic name of the goddess associated with the ploughed fields....It was for her emergence from fire that Sita is sometimes alluded to as Agnija....This gives Sita her name Raktaja, one born of blood.....Sita represents absolute devotion, unshakable faith, chastity, service, constant companionship and a desire to help accomplish his cause, besides her unique divinity with which blends the highest kind of womanhood....When Rama feared that the forest life, and that too for fourteen years, would be difficult for Sita, she relieves him of his reluctance by telling him that astrologers, considering the position of planets at the time of her birth, had predicted that she would pass a part of her life in the forest."

"A postal address is not Mira's home-address....Mira was wedded to One Infinite who manifested in human, personal, beatific and joyous form of Krishna.....Mira's mother smiled at her innocence and picked the idol of Krishna and giving it to her said that he was her groom.....She yearns for Krishna but these are her own yearnings, not Krishna's.....Krishna had taken on him poison's evil effect with the result that his image turned blue.....Now her devotional life was in full swing. She moved in sadhus' company, danced and sang in temples.....When in her forties, Mira came to Dwarika. Now every moment of her life was devoted to Krishna.....Those who had seen her entering the temple never saw her coming out.....The moment Mira met Girdhara, sorrows vanished and happiness emerged, all agitations of mind and body extinguished, and the cycle of birth and death is destroyed. "

"Rigveda acclaims that 'he who is described as male is as much the female....When invoking her in her entirety, describing her beauty, limb to limb, these hymns did not stop short of anything....Devi Bhagavata is the foremost of scriptures that consider Devi as the Adishakti, the divine power that preceded all things, all beings and all gods....Devi Mahatmya in the Markandeya Purana and other texts relate her origin to the elimination of Mahishasura, a mighty demon who once ruled the earth.....She also created her 'shaktis', subordinate powers.....As Kali she was ferocious, as Durga, valorous, and as Parvati, Uma or Gauri, lovable and incomparably beautiful."

"Coleridge is not known to have ever seen Ajanta but in his words reverberates the same mystique as one experiences when visiting Ajanta....imagery at times was closer to flesh rather than spirit....Even the figure of the monk Mahajanaka has been modeled much on sensuous lines.Ajanta sculptures reveal a conscious attempt at capturing the grace, sublimity and spirituality....Ajanta sculptures are mostly reliefs. The Mahayana variation of Buddhism promoted polytheism in Buddhism and with it the cult of worshipping Bodhisattvas emerged with an irresistible appeal. Endowed with humanistic qualities and spirit of self sacrifice, Bodhisattvas comprised more popular theme of Ajanta sculptures. As much significant is the presence of the child-eating evil spirited-goddess Hariti with a child in her lap. Most magnificent and glaring aspect of Ajanta is its mural art, which been the fountain-head of the entire painting tradition in India."

"The Buddhist art, which... revolutionized the art scenario of the entire ancient Indian sub-continent, was essentially a narrative art.... In that age with little literacy... oral and visual narration... was the traditional tool of... stimulating a mind to know; and, the Buddhist art seems to have best exploited it... Narration... was thus the prime or perhaps the only mode of communication in the entire ancient world, not India alone...Buddhist art was conceived thus more or less as a visual alternative of its scriptures, and narration was the essence of both...The legend of Buddha's life, in this birth as also in previous births, is the main subject-matter of Buddhist narratives...The events emerging...might belong to more than one story. This Buddhist model of narrative visual art...is the proto-model of India's visual narrative art."

"Born in an era of social disparity, killing and violence ....Lord Mahavira emerged as a reformist, thinker, law-giver and guide....re-defined sanctity and potentialities of individual self - 'jiva' ...in attaining salvation - 'nirvana', by its own doing...the ultimate aim that he set before all 'jivas' was: 'parasparopagraha jeevanam'...Lord Mahavira was the last of the twenty-four 'Thirthankaras' of the concurrent eon...At about 30 years of age, he renounced the world after duly seeking his parents' permission...For over twelve years... he moved from one place to other, moving, knowing and meditating - all in simultaneity...Gautama with his ten Brahmin disciples was the first to convert to Mahavira's path...Mahavira's philosophy has eight principal cardinals...He also talks of Tri-ratnas - three gems, which are both, the means of the above as also their goal..."

"Shiva's...is the imagery and iconography that evolved over a period of five millennia - perhaps the longest period for an image, or worship tradition, to have evolved and sustained through... Shiva's imagery reveals wondrous unity and unique growth perspective... there is absolute unanimity in regard to the fact that he had iconic presence much before the Vedas came into being... Shiva has been conceived in visual arts as timeless youth, though sometimes with moustaches defining an advanced age and sometimes without them close to juvenescence..."

"Human nature is like a chariot yoked to a team of powerful horses. One of them is prana (breath), the other is vasana (desire)...the yogi masters the science of breath and by the regulation and control of breath, he controls the mind and stills its constant movement...Yoga is one of the most ancient spiritual concepts of East, and despite a philosophical look it has an equally significant physical basis...Yoga is a collection of simple practices...consisting of action, method and technique...the method by which the restless mind is calmed and the energy directed into constructive channels"