21–26 of 26 posts
> a longstanding association of elephants and alcohol in popular thought What? the hell? Maybe not watching television for over 20 years has left me more out of touch with "popular thought" than I realized...
Didn't Dumbo get drunk in the eponymous movie? You don't get more pop than that.
The most well-known text (mentioned in the article) on "Elephant Science" is Matanga lila (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matanga_Lila) but there is also Gaja Sastra (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gajashastra) and chapters from Manasollasa by Somesvara (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manasollasa) an encyclopedic work in the style of Arthashastra. There is doubtless more in other ancient texts in various Indian languages which i am as yet not aware of.
The best description of the use of a war elephant occurs in the Mahabharata in the battle between King Bhagadatta (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagadatta) seated on his favourite war elephant Supratika (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supratika) and the Pandava army; first with Bhima and then with Arjuna. When mounted on Supratika, Bhagadatta was said to be invincible and proves it on the 12th day of the kurukshetra war when he single-handedly defeats the Pandava army and almost killing Bhima, the Pandava warrior who is the most skilled in elephant warfare with knowledge of their vital points and how to attack them. Arjuna then comes in to save the day and slays both Supratika and Bhagadatta. The is is one of the best passages in the Mahabharata on pure valour in warfare and worth reading in entirety (from here) - https://sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07024.htm
This article overreads into the meaning of mast and matta . Mast just means overstimulated/excited, and in the context of an elephant would be the equivalent of using the word "spooked" but with a humorous ting to it. Indian epics like the Mahabharat and Ramayan were not written as historical treatise but also as entertainment. The same way how Homer uses titillating speech in the Illiad or how Ferdowsi added out-of-…
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-- Mark Twain
This article overreads into the meaning of mast and matta . Mast just means overstimulated/excited, and in the context of an elephant would be the equivalent of using the word "spooked" but with a humorous ting to it. Indian epics like the Mahabharat and Ramayan were not written as historical treatise but also as entertainment. The same way how Homer uses titillating speech in the Illiad or how Ferdowsi added out-of-…
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Moreover, caste discrimination is not just limited to brahmins, though they get most of the flak. Caste discrimination is also done by lower castes. It is turtles all the way.
This article overreads into the meaning of mast and matta . Mast just means overstimulated/excited, and in the context of an elephant would be the equivalent of using the word "spooked" but with a humorous ting to it. Indian epics like the Mahabharat and Ramayan were not written as historical treatise but also as entertainment. The same way how Homer uses titillating speech in the Illiad or how Ferdowsi added out-of-…
I would call it "poetic license" (within bounds) rather than entertainment. The Indian Epics are Itihasas which literally means "so it was" and thus it was history mythologized via poetry.
> When Sanskrit texts get translated into a modern language, it tends to be in Hindi or Thai as a result.
Any links/data you can share on this?
> In English, NYU had the Clay Library but Gombrich passed away, and at Harvard, Narayana Murty (Infosys founder and Rishi Sunak's father in law) is funding the Murty Library, but both are barely scraping the top of the barrel.
There are lots more publishers of Sanskrit texts translated into English; Eg. Motilal Banarasidass, Mushiram Manoharlal, Gita Press, Chaukhamba Sanskrit Series, Kaivalyadhama (Hatha Yoga), Lonavla Yoga Institute, Harvard, Princeton, Oxford etc.
Penguin and Oxford popular series also have some good translations for the "common man".
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Didn't Dumbo get drunk in the eponymous movie? You don't get more pop than that.
85 year old movies are not exactly the cutting edge of pop culture.
We called this phenomenon the "rerun".
I would place the poster of the comment that I am replying as a 38+, so deep into Dumbo rerun territory but, perhaps I am wrong and it was a 21yo zoomer growing up in a compound.