About the Author
Sri Devudu Narasimha Shastry M.A. of Mysore University (1896-1962) an outstanding personality in Kannada literature was a versatile person who had contributed, in Karnataka unification. Kannada Theatre, Educational field, Adult Educational Movement, Children literature, Basic Sanskrit and had participated in freedom struggle.
Popularly known by his pen name "Devudu" he was an outstanding Kannada writer, and scholar of 20th century. His erudition and scholarship covered Kannada as well as Sanskrit. It is spiritual luminance elevated him to the level of Darshana (seers) and he bequeathed his wisdom through his immortal works "Maha Kshatriya", "Maha Darshana" and the incomparable "Maha Brahmana" which is the story of the great Vishwamitra through whom the sacred "Gayathri Mantra" which Veda describes as 'Veda Mata' become revealed to benefit mankind.
"Devudu Prathishtana" takes pride in bringing out this English version of "Maha Brahmana" rendered into English by the profound scholar in English N. Nanjunda Sastry.
Introduction
Devudu Narasimha Sastri (1896-1962) was a colourful personality and a polymath. He was a thinker and writer of unusual and extraordinary merit. A forceful speaker, he was equally a persuasive writer; and an indefatigable enthusiast for reformation and revolution within the ambit of tradition. He was a votary of essential values enshrined in our scriptures and epics. The significance of his life and work is by no means meagre for contemporary Karnataka.
He was a novelist of acclaimed celebrity; his famous trilogy (Mahā Brāhmaņa, Mahā Kshatriya and Maha Darshana), as well as nine other novels have an abiding place in the history of Kannada literature. He has also written stories, long and short, especially for children and pen portraits of great charm. He has authored a remarkable play relating to the trail of Jesus Christ. His criticisms of Rāmāyaņa, Bhagavadgita and Kälidāsa's works illustrate his profound scholarship and poetic insight. He has translated not only classical Sanskrit pieces like Kathāsaritsāgara, Meghasandesha of Kalidāsa, but also the lectures of Swami Vivekananda; his Kannada rendering of Thoreau's Walden is itself a classic. His short work of Pürva mimämsă (called Mimamsādarpana) is unexcelled in its brilliance. Another short work from his pen deals with the folk culture of Karnataka. It is a monument of brevity and comprehension. A work of abiding interest is his rendering of Yoga Väsishța in twenty-four volumes (brought out by the Mysore Palace). [This translation in chaste Kannada of a Sanskrit original, which is at once recondite and mystical, is a monument for Devudu's literary skills and philosophical insights. It was not for nothing that he served a term of tutelage under two giants, Professor M. Hiriyanna and Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, as a student in the Mysore University (1917-1922).
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