Picture of Philosopher Ms Gargi Vachaknavi (850 BCE)  from Bihar.

Written by London Swaminathan

Post No. 14,636

Date uploaded in London –  14 June 2025

Contact – swami_48@yahoo.com

Pictures are taken from various sources for spreading knowledge.

this is a non- commercial blog. Thanks for your great pictures.

tamilandvedas.com, swamiindology.blogspot.com

xxxx  

Seven hundred years ago a clever woman by name Ganga Devi  (1370 CE) accompanied her husband Kumara Kampannan, Commander of the Vijaya Nagara Empire, to Madurai and wrote what she has seen in the battle field. Kumara Kampannan destroyed the Muslim Rule in Madurai and reopened the world famous Madurai Shiva temple known as Madurai Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple. Now I think she has inspired Veera Shivaji of Maharashtra, Ahilyabai Holkar of Madhya Pradesh and Thirumalai Nayak and Rani Mangammal of Madurai. All these great people renovated the temples destroyed by Muslim rulers.

Modi Government must include these people in the school syllabus all over India .

There were other great women such as Pandya Queen Magaiyarkarasi (600 CE) who brought Miracle Boy Saint from Choza country to drive out the political Jains occupying Madurai,  Choza Princess  Kunthavai (1000 CE) who inspired Raja Raja Choza to build the monumental Big Temple in Thanjavur. But those queens lived before Ganga Devi who is the first war correspondent according to the available record.

I know that several Greek and Roman historians accompanied Alexander and wrote about his campaigns. But we got only the fragments and not the full book  but in the case of Ganga Devi we got her full book Madura Vijayam .

(Several individuals accompanied Alexander the Great and wrote about his campaigns. Callisthenes of Olynthus was Alexander’s official historian, tasked with recording his deeds. Other companions who wrote accounts include Ptolemy, Nearchus, Aristobulus, and Onesicritus. While their works are not all fully preserved, they are crucial sources for understanding Alexander’s life and conquests). 

Women of India were cleverer than Egyptian, Sumerian, Greek and Roman women . The proof for this is in Rig Veda, Sangam Tamil literature and the Brihad Aranyaka Upanishad. A woman by name Gargi Vachaknavi attended the All India Philosophers Conference convened by Emperor Janaka 2800 years ago. She not only attended the conference but also challenged the great philosopher Yajnavalkya. Other male philosophers simple kept quiet when Yajnavalkaya asked whether anyone could challenge him. One must remember Homer did not even write Iliad and Odyssey at that time. There was no Persian Tamil, Latin, Greek book at that time!

(Gargi Vachaknavi was an ancient Hindu sage and philosopher. In Vedic literature, she is honoured as a great natural philosopher, renowned expounder of the Vedas, and known as Brahmavadini, a person with knowledge of Brahma Vidya.)

Dr Devakunjaris book on Madurai is the best book on History of Madurai.

The first canto of Madura Vijayam, a Sanskrit Poem, shows how learned Ganga Devi was. Though there were 1000 Sanskrit poets she chose the best among the and advised everyone to follow Kalidasa, the greatest poet of India.

Let us look at the first 16 slokas in the first canto.

Slokas 1 to 16: Gangadevi’s obeisance to the poets who influenced her.

1.May the elephant faced God , who like divine Kalpaka Vriksha fulfils the desire of those that surrender to his grace, be propitious to the good

(Please note that Kalidasa used a famous simile in the very first sloka of his great kavya/ classic Raghuvamsa. And Gangadevi also used a simile in the very first sloka/couplet; Kalpakavrksa is the Divine Wish fulfilling Tree)).

2.For the sake of wisdom, I prayerfully approach God Siva and his spouse, who embody the Universal Consciousness and who bear the form of the Creator’s model for making man and woman.

3.I make obeisance to goddess Saraswati who lives in the lotus like mouths of great poets, as a Sarika bird in a jewelled cage and who acts like moon light on the ocean of Universal Intelligence.

(Note all the similes in each sloka)

4.I bow to Guru Kriyasakti, unparalleled in wisdom and resplendent with auspiciousness like another Trilocana (Siva) with Sarvamangala( Parvati) shining by his side.

(Kriyasakti was the Kula Guru for three or four Vijanagara kings. Probably he inspired the Vijayanagara emperors like Vidhyaranya)

5.May the sage Valmiki, who is (as it were) the first foot set on the earth by poesy, brings cheerfulness to the minds of the virtuous.

(Valmiki is called Adi Kavi, the first Sanskrit poet on earth; though we see great poets like Ucanas in the Rig Veda, they composed poems in Vedic Sanskrit. Even Panini called his language Bhasa, and not Sanskrit, in 700 or 800 BCE (dated by Goldstucker) .

6.Just as there is delicious juice in every joint of red sugarcane there is sweet essence in every section of Vyasa’s string of expressions (the Mahabharata) which imparts immediate enjoyment to men of good taste.

(Valmiki first and then only Vyasa comes according to Hindu tradition. Here is a puzzle

7.Who are the poets that do not play the role of a slave to Kalidasa? for even now those that are, live by his ideas

(Note that next to Valmiki and Vyasa comes Kalidasa the greatest of the Indian poets)

8.How could others comprehend the eloquence of Bhatta Bana, which captivates likes the musical sound of the Vina played by Saraswati’s own hand?

9.Just as the garland of Vakula flowers yield its sweet fragrance only when pressed, so too, the language of Bharavi discloses its excellence and gives delight to the learned only if pondered upon.

(This shows that she has studied all the above literature)

10.The flourish of expressions of Acarya Dandin drunk (as it were) with the wealth of nectar, shines like the fashionable precious stone- mirror of the Creator’s spouse.

11. I fancy that Bhavabhuti’s compositions must be some species of Kamadhenu; for they produce in the ears of the learned a pleasure akin to drinking of ambrosia.

12.Whom would the expressions of the poet of Karnamrta fail to delight – expressions which are an ocean of honey flowing from the flower clusters of the Mandara tree?

13.Even as the thirsty Cakora birds love to drink the rays of the moon, poets find immense relish in the composition of Kavi Tikayya.

14.Breathes there the man of learning who will not be jealous of the poet Agastya whose wealth of learning is demonstrated by the production of seventy-four poetic compositions.

15.We respectfully greet the great poet Gangadhara as second Vyasa , in that he has made the story of the Bharata actually seen by the device of dramatization

16.May the lord of the poets, Viswanatha, flourish long; for it is by his , even in individuals like myself, has dawned a sense of omniscience.

We will look at the 74 poetic compositions of (NEW) Agastya in another article .

–subham—

Tags- Cleverest woman, Ganga Devi, World’s First War Correspondent, Madura Vijayam, Sanskrit poets, Kalidasa