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