Sangam Tamil books are at least 2000-year-old; chronologically Tamil stands next to Sanskrit in India; though 6000 year old Vedas are still available and recited in all the temples and Vedic Schools, Tamils have lost many of their ancient works. But fortunately, we see the continuity of Vedic thoughts in Tamil Sangam books; they are 18 in number. There is another grammatical treatise Tolkappiam which is considered older than the 18 books. We see full-fledged Hinduism in it. The book mentioned Vedic Gods as the Gods of the Tamils. I have been writing about it from 2011. This book has some of the articles on this topic.

Here in this book, I have dealt with Tamil belief in tree nymphs, water nymphs and ghost and ghouls. We must understand that we are reading about a civilization that lived 2000 years before our time. But the amazing virtues of hospitality, helping the poor, equality in delivering justice and respect for truth and honesty are seen. Like every ancient society there were brutal wars; and Tamils were the only society in the world where we see internal fights between Chera, Choza and Pandyas for over 1500 years. But they united when Rajasuya Yajnam was performed by a Choza king. That shows their respect for Hinduism. All the three parts written by me show the Hindu religion or Sanatan Dharma was practised at that time in the southernmost part of India.

This book is a sequel to my earlier publication Hinduism in Sangam Literature. I am continuing the topic ‘Tamil Hindu Encyclopedia’ from part 16. Hinduism was practiced in day-to-day life with great enthusiasm. It is very visible in the 2000 year old Sangam poems. According to historians, the Puranas took the current shape in the Gupta Age. But Sangam poems are earlier than that. If it is the correct dating, then the first evidence for several Puranic anecdotes come from Sangam literature. It is amazing to see that the southern most part of India had practiced Hinduism in minute detail with great enthusiasm.

KALIDASA is one of the greatest poets in the world. He became famous because of his apt similes and imageries in his seven works. He was a playwright and poet. His age is still an unsolved mystery. He is dated between second century BCE and 4th century CE, that means any date in a range of 600 years! Foreigners placed him in Gupta period around 4th century CE. But great Indian scholars dated him around first or second century BCE. I wrote a thesis to get Ph.D.in this matter. But the Sanskrit University asked me to put it in Sanskrit and I am yet to do it. After reading all the 18 books of Sangam Tamil literature and all the seven dramas and poems of Kalidasa, I came to conclusion that Kalidasa lived in Pre-Sangam period. Indian tradition also links him with the greatest of the Indian Emperors, Vikramaditya. After the original Vikramaditya of first century BCE died, hundreds of Hindu Kings called themselves Vikrama or Aditya or Vikramaditya. The proof for my thesis lies in the Kalidasa’s 200++ similes found in Sangam Tamil literature. Sangam poets even used the same epithet to the Himalayas (Kaanchana Srnga- Por Kotu) ‘Golden Peaked’. The first ten slokas of Kumara Sambhava of Kalidasa are used by Sangam poets to describe Himalayas and sages.

This is the third part of my collection of anecdotes from an old book of anecdotes. I have not written anything. I have only compiled them. It will be very useful for party goers. The beauty of the book is that the anecdotes are arranged topic wise. Students may use this book for essay writing. Anecdotes regarding doctors, salesmen, sportsmen, politicians, authors, producers and other people from various walks of life are covered in this part.

This is a Book of Quotations with a difference. I have selected over one thousand quotations mainly from Hindu scriptures. I have included books from Sanskrit and Tamil languages. Most of the quotation books have more foreign quotations than Hindu quotes. It is very rare to see Kalidasa or Tamil Tiruvalluvar in such books. I have given quotations from Dr. Radhakrishnan, Vedas, Upanishads and Tamil ethical works.

Hindus worship both animate and inanimate objects. They find and see god in everything. They worship bells, shoes of great people, trees, birds, animals, snakes, stones, weapons, pictures and what not. Unless one knows the true meaning behind every ritual, it may look ridiculous to others. Tamil temples around the world carry Gods and Goddesses on different Vahanas that is metal or stone animals and birds, even trees (Karpaka Vrksha). This is in practice even today. Once it was practised around the world. Many South Indian temples are associated with birds, animals and insects which show God liberates even lower creatures. All the Vahanas (Mounts of Gods) are explained in this book through articles written over years; now and then newspapers report animals visiting the temples and worshipping the god. Such newspaper stories are collected by me and explained here.

This book has five parts dealing with Hinduism in Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand and the Middle East. There are lot of Sanskrit inscriptions in South East Asia. Over 800 Sanskrit inscriptions covering almost all the countries in SE Asia. The country names Malaysia, Singapore, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam/Champa have Sanskrit origin. Ramayana and Mahabharata were part of their lives for over 1500 years. We can see the vestiges of Hindu festivals. Lot of books have produced pictures of beautiful sculptures.

supplemented by a commentary; both seek to emphasize how the teaching is

This book contains articles on various subjects. If you look at the contents page, you will get an idea of the range of subjects I have dealt with. But the main focus is on two books Amarakosa, the Sanskrit dictionary cum thesaurus and Brihat Samhita of Varahamihira, an encyclopaedia in Sanskrit. The commentaries on Amarakosa give us enormous information. But not all the commentaries are available in English. I have collected as much information as possible through a Sanskrit scholar.