The greatest epithet of a teacher is Ācārya. In course of writing on several sūtra (sutra; formulae) of Pāṇini (Panini), Patañjali (Patanjali), the author of Mahābhāṣya(Mahabhashya) has mentioned four types of teachers — Ācārya (Acharya), Upādhyāya (Upadhyaya), Śikṣaka (Sikshaka) and Guru. Amongst these, Guru is the most common epithet, and Ācārya is the highest. Patañjali himself […]

Irāvatī(Iravati) is a famous holy river of the Vedic period. In the Vedic era itself, Irāvatī had already been marked as an alternative name of river Paruṣṇ̣ī (Parushni). In Nadī-sūkta(Nadi-sukta; Hymn dedicated to rivers) of Ṛgveda (Rigveda), river Paruṣṇ̣ī is praised along with the other ancient rivers like Gaṅgā (Ganga), Yamunā (Yamuna), Sarasvatī (Sarasvarti), Śutudrī(Sutudri) in […]