[INDOLOGY] Sad news

[Dominik Wujastyk]

Like so many, my life was also touched by Pt. Lakshimtatacharya.  He was an
immensely gracious as a host when I visited him at his institute in Melkote
in the early 90s.  He showed me the plants that grew in their garden, and
he had great knowledge of them and their properties.  With characteristic
wry humour, he showed me a plant that Brahmanas could eat to get the taste
of garlic, that wasn't actually garlic. The meal he shared with me later
that day was deliberately pre-colonial.  No tomatoes, chillies, potatoes,
etc.  Coconut and rice, etc.  He was fully conscious of how food habits in
India had changed after trade with the New World began in the sixteenth
century.

My first encounter with him was in Bangalore in about 1994, when we both
attended a talk about libraries and manuscripts.  After a speaker gave a
somewhat inflated talk, starting with manuscripts and ending with samadhi
and cosmic consciousness, a tall, imposing and very orthodox-looking
Brahmana rose in the audience and said, "yes, it may well be as you say.
But how are you able to distinguish what you have just described from a
random, subjective neurological event?"   My jaw fell open :-)  It was
obviously friendship from that moment on.

I am indeed sorry Pt. Lakshmitatatacharya, a genuinely unique person, has
passed from our lives.  Thank you for that very nice photo, Gérard.

Dominik Wujastyk
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://list.indology.info/pipermail/indology/attachments/20210515/cc440acc/attachment.htm>