"I got to visit the ruins of the Mārtaṇḍa Temple on the Mattan Karewa, built by Emperor Lalitāditya, many times. Built of stone, it is characterized by the simplicity of its conception: it is rectangular in plan, consisting of a maṇḍapa and a shrine. Two other shrines flank the maṇḍapa. It is enclosed by a vast courtyard by a peristyle wall with 84 secondary shrines in it. The columns of the peristyle are fluted. Each of the 84 niches originally contained an image of a form of Sūrya. The number 84, as 21×4, appears to have been derived from the numerical association of 21 with the sun. It must have looked like a jeweled treasure on the plateau over Anantnag."

"A culture is like a lens through which people construct their world."

"There is nothing as uplifting and inspiring as the Upanishads."

"Since language is linear, whereas the unfolding of the universe takes place in a multitude of dimensions, language is limited in its ability to describe reality."

"The idea of consciousness requires not only an awareness of things, but also the awareness that one is aware."

"If social media can bring the sense of freedom, it can also bind people into delusional cults."

"If chess is about decisive victory by vanquishing the enemy by taking the fight to the place where the king is located, weiqi is about consolidation of territory."

"One is not a single self, although there is some common thread holding together disparate incarnations."

"The clash of civilizations is nothing but a clash of different myths."

"The dance of the peacock attracts not only the peahen but also the human."

"Europe has resurrected its pagan gods."

"If the heart sorrows over physical loss, the spirit rejoices over hope of understanding."

"Modern life alienates us from Nature, even our own."

"Ritual is intimately connected with the mask, either in the wearing that hides the true face, or in the adoption of a public face."

"History is scraps of evidence joined by the glue of imagination."

"When the mind grasps the universe, the senses retreat."

"The body is like the wife to the spirit. The two must cohabit to create new forms, but their pleasures rarely coincide."

"Gods have many faces."

"Man is a mimic animal, happiest acting a part, needing a mask to tell the truth."

"People embrace false magical theories in the hope something good will come out of them. In the most extreme of these, good comes out of them only at the end of this life, in paradise."

"I have so much of desire that desire itself is my fulfillment."

"The world is a game of information and paradox."

"What is the chance that one can roll up the sky like a hide?"

"The best paradise is the paradise we are exiled from."

"Indian Anglosphere indifference to #KashmiriPandit genocide & expulsion is a shameful episode of recent history. Look at the Yazidis; their genocide and sex-slavery is not rationalized. The Indian Anglosphere lives in a cocoon of self-hate, self-deception and brazen mendacity."

"Beauty takes us to a space that is ineffable, a place of secrets."

"The essence of the Vedas is a narrative on who the experiencing self is. Ordinary science informs us of the relationships between objects and also their transformations. But the Vedas say that this ordinary science leaves out the self who observes these objects."

"Men and women in their mutual attraction are driven to the very emptiness they are trying to avoid."

"Like other social media platforms, Wikipedia has evolved into an echo chamber where the user is presented with only one type of content instead of being shown a balanced narrative. This disinformation is powerful since the articles are written in an academic style and users do not see other sources that disagree with the article.... Some editors of Wikipedia are failed academics with demonic energy who wish to conquer anonymously what they were unable to do in their normal careers. And spending much of their working life editing Wikipedia articles and by the use of multiple anonymous handles they have obtained administrative status which entitles them to block opposing views. The anonymous persona of the editors and the low stakes have made Wikipedia politics much more vicious than real politics."

"Arthur W. Ryder, Kalidasa: Translations of Shakuntala and Other Writings (Everyman's Library, 1920 [1912])"

"A blossom yet unsmelt, A tender shoot unpinched, A gem uncut, Untasted, fresh-fermented honey-wine, The fruit of proper actions Still intact— A beauty without fault or flaw."

"Did the great Creator first draw her in a masterpiece, And then touch life into his art? Or did he make her in his mind alone, Drawing on beauty’s every part? No—considering her singular perfection And her maker’s true omnipotence, I suppose her some quite unique creation In femininity’s treasure house."

"A thought is as vivid as an act, to a lover."

"We have watered the trees that blossom in the summer-time. Now let's sprinkle those whose flowering-time is past. That will be a better deed, because we shall not be working for a reward."

"Though many different paths, O Lord, May lead us to some great reward, They gather and are merged in thee Like floods of Ganges in the sea."

"O thou who didst create this All, Who dost preserve it, lest it fall, Who wilt destroy it and its ways— To thee, O triune Lord, be praise."

"God Shiva and his mountain bride, Like word and meaning unified, The world's great parents, I beseech To join fit meaning to my speech."

"O my good fortune, please subdue the anguish of your Soul. Nobody is destined only to happiness or to pain. The wheel of life takes one up and down by turn."

"There in the fane a beauteous creature stands, The first best work of the Creator's hands; Whose slender limbs inadequately bear A full orbed bosom, and a weight of care; Whose teeth like pearls, whose lips like Bimbas show, And fawn-like eyes still tremble as they glow."

"If a professor thinks what matters most Is to have gained an academic post Where he can earn a livelihood, and then Neglect research, let controversy rest, He's but a petty tradesman at the best, Selling retail the work of other men."

"न रत्नमन्विष्यति मृग्यते हि तत्"

"I advance an opinion that we have few specimens either in classical or modern poetry of more genuine tenderness or delicate feeling."

"I cannot easily find a product of human mind more pleasant than this [Shakuntala] ... a real blossom of the Orient, and the first, most beautiful of its kind! Something like that, of course, appears once every two thousand years."

"In the whole world of Greek antiquity there is no poetical representation of beautiful love which approaches even afar."

"Wouldst thou the young year’s blossoms, and the fruits of its decline, And all by which the soul is charmed, enraptured, feasted, fed; Wouldst thou the Earth and Heaven itself in one sole name combine? I name thee, O Shakuntala! and all at once is said."

"The first time I came upon this inexhaustible work, it aroused such enthusiasm in me and so held me that I could not stop studying it. I even felt impelled to make the impossible attempt to bring it in some form to the German stage. These efforts were fruitless but they made me so thoroughly acquainted with this most valuable work, it represented such an epoch in my life, I so absorbed it, that for thirty years I did not look at either the English or the German version. It is only now that I understand the enormous impression that work made on me at an earlier age."

"Goethe seems to have taken from Kalidasa the idea of a prologue for Faust."

"Kalidasa, the immortal poet and playwright, is a peerless genius whose works have won world-wide fame. The matchless qualities of his work have been lavishly praised both by the ancient Indian critics and modern scholars. ... In modern times the translations of Kalidasa's works in numerous Indian and foreign languages have spread his fame all over the world and now he ranks among the few topmost poets and playwrights of the world."

"Where find a soul that does not thrill In Kalidasa’s verse to meet The smooth, inevitable lines Like blossom-clusters, honey-sweet?"

"W. J. Johnson, The Recognition of Sakuntala; Sakuntala in the Mahabharata (New York: Oxford UP, 2001)"