Opinion Job loss

The editorial concludes: “Global job loss is a reality. Indians who went in search of greener pastures are back home adding pressure on the already shrinking job market. The repatriation is more remarkable from the US and the West Asian countries. The government cannot conceal the truth from the people for long. Added to a cutback in foreign investment and export,the UPA has vitiated the Indian economic scene by its profligate public spending. It has not learnt any lessons even after the catastrophe hit the country hard. It still believes in freebies,unproductive doles to buy votes at the time of election. That is what its stimulation doses are all about. It has no long term or medium term plan for reviving the economy.”

Southern comfort

In a piece titled ‘The lure of Manimekhalai’ M.S.N. Menon observes: “How was the greatest philosopher of Hinduism — Shankara — a man of the South,and not of the heartland of Hinduism — the Gangetic plain? Because the South was the centre of the greatest debates between Buddhists,Jainas and the Hindus. The South also produced Nagarjuna,the greatest philosopher of Buddhism. He was born in Kanchi,a seat of the Shankaracharya. Kanchi also produced some of the greatest Buddhist missionaries of India. Kerala was a major centre of Buddhism and Jainism before it became the stronghold of Hindu orthodoxy. There is a belief that the Ayyappa temple was a Buddhist vihara,equally popular…”

He adds: “We know a great deal on Buddhism and Jainism from the Tamil classics (Tamil was the lingua franca of the South) — Silappathikaram and Manimekhalai,composed by Ilango Adigal,a brother of the very famous Chera king Senguttuvan. He was perhaps the first to send an embassy to China. While Ilango Adigal was a Jain monk,his friend Sathanar,who helped him in composing the two classics,was an eminent Buddhist dialectician and scholar. Manimekhalai is a mine of information on Buddhism,Jainism and the various trends of Hinduism…”

He further adds: “Manimekhalai furnishes another information of a Buddhist vihara at Srivanchikulam (North Malabar) ‘whose turrets touched the sky’. This shows how well entrenched Buddhism was in Kerala. No wonder,one of the teachers of Shankara was a Buddhist scholar. There were major disputations among the Hindus,Buddhists and Jainas in Kerala. We also know from Tamil literature that a temple was constructed in North Malabar dedicated to Kannaki,the heroine of the classic Silappathikaram,by Senguttuvan,at which the king of Sri Lanka,Gajabahu,was present. They were all Buddhists. All these show that Shankara was not only a great scholar of Hinduism but also of Buddhism and Jainism. Which explains how he could defeat the various scholars of Hindu,Buddhist and Jain sects,and established the supremacy of Vedanta,the Advaita philosophy.”

Compiled by Suman K Jha