THE MAGIC CLASSICAL LANGUAGES POSSESS

WITH the Mahakumbh starting on January 13, based on Jupiter's planetary revolution, it seems appropriate to recall some very human love stories with the source of this event, the Sanskrit language.

- RENUKA NARAYANAN

But what is Mahakumbh? The legend goes that after the Samudra Manthan that day, Mahavishnu was carrying a kumbh (pot) of amrit (the elixir of immortality) when a scuffle broke out between the devas and asuras, four drops were spilled on earth. They fell at the four tirthas of Prayag, Haridwar, Nashik and Ujjain, a tirtha being a place where devotees hope to attain salvation. The next Mahakumbh will be in 2037. How did they know millennia ago about the 12-year revolution of Jupiter (Brihaspati) around the sun? The mind boggles.

As for the love stories, let's start with Frits Staal, the eminent Dutch-born Indologist. He was an emeritus professor of philosophy and South and Southeast Asian Studies at the University of California, having studied in Amsterdam and Varanasi, with his PhD from the University of Madras. I first met Frits in Bangkok 15 years ago, and he asked me to visit him at his house in the hills outside Chiang Mai.

Frits set great store by Rishi Yajnavalkya and was not best pleased with my levity in calling him "a big show-off" and "a bully." Only to annoy, I mailed him an old thing I'd written called 'What Gargi really said'. He looked forward, he said, to talking about it. I should have run away right then to save myself from certain death-by-inadequacy, but though learned, Frits was interested, kind, and so bitingly funny that I said I would love to. "We will talk all day, eat, and walk in the woods," he mailed.