*By Dr. Devan The Church, in her wisdom, has always sought to honor the saints not simply for what they accomplished but for what they represent. Among them all, no one holds as exalted a place as Mary, the Mother of Jesus. She is honored as the first disciple, the most faithful believer, and the one who bore in her womb the King of Kings. It is fitting, therefore, that the Church sets aside a special day to honor her as Queen of Heaven and Earth. This is the Feast of the Queenship of Mary, celebrated every year on August 22. This feast is not a mere liturgical formality. It is a profound reminder of who Mary is, what she has become, and what she continues to mean for the faithful. It is also a feast that speaks to our own destiny, for Mary’s crown is a foreshadowing of the glory that awaits those who walk faithfully in Christ. The Origins of the Feast The roots of Mary’s queenship lie deep within the history of salvation. In the ancient Davidic Kingdom, the mother of the king held a p...
By M Chenna Nagaraj* Veerashaiva poet cum scholar of the Vijayanagara period, Maggeya Mayideva, is one of the most important milestones in the Veerashaiva/Lingayat literary scene, not merely in Kannada but also in the Sanskrit language, a rare feat for any literary person in the southern region. A bold attempt to take a Kannada literary work to the vast Sanskrit ocean: His importance knows no boundaries because he has ventured into something unusual but not impossible for his time. He collated Kannada vachanas of Allama Prabhu to Sanskrit literary circles through his magnum opus ‘Prabhu Gita’, a translation cum critique, which speaks volumes about his bold attempt to take a Kannada literary work to the vast Sanskrit ocean. Did it receive the attention it deserved? It is common knowledge that all translations have been from Sanskrit to Kannada, whereas Mayideva has reversed this established trend by introducing the 12th-century Vachana mystic Allama Prabhu to Sanskrit literature. A rar...