bharata-muni
author of nATyashAstra, who explained bhAvas and rasas.
udayana
logician, shored up the vaidika dharma against the enticements of bauddhas.
rAmAnanda
social reformer, founder of a fair monastic order, guru of kabIr.
tenAli rAma
tenAli rAma-kRShNa, clever jester at the court of kRSHNadEvarAya.
परशुराम-तीर्थः
He had started the nitya pujas in Srirangam, even before Gopanarya conquered Srirangam. He was originally from Kashmir valley, iirc. Sishya of sankarshana tirtha. As a sign of respect for his efforts to restart nitya pujas in the temple, Parashurama Tirtha was allowed to have his Moola Brindavana on the banks of Chandra Pushkarini in the inner precincts of Srirangam temple by Srivaishnava archakas and acharyas.
Brahmendra Swami
the Guru of Shahu, of Bajirao, of Chimaji, of the Angres and thousands of the rank and file. The Swami had practiced severe austerities in his early life and developed wonderful Yogic powers, as of going into samadhic trance for a full month every year and living buried underground during that period, traveled far and wide, like Ramdas. He inspired the marATha-s to curb the siddis.
nAgesha-bhaTTa
who achieved great heights in vyAkaraNa (occasionally disagreeing with patanjali) despite a hunchback handicap.
naTTi venkaTa shAstrin
the stammering savant, an excellent teacher and rAma-bhakta, organizing annual feasts with donations, who relied on dAna, a repository of brAhmaNya and akAnxA. [P17]
kaDAmbi mInAxI
a great mantravAdinI [MT], kaula-sAdhikA, scholar of pallava history who was ostracized for her occult practices and died young (W).
AshutoSh mukharjI
(W) prolific scholar in mathematics (MT1), 5-time VC of Univ of Calcutta, made arrangements for postgraduate teaching and research in Bengali, Hindi, Pali and Sanskrit, recognized work of shrInivAsa rAmanujan, who never crossed the seas in respect for his monther’s wishes.
bhaktivEkdAnta-svAmI
prabhupada, who brought gauDIya bhakti-vEdAnta to the hippies.
Sridhar Venkatesh Ketkar
compiler of a great Marathi encyclopedia (IF, W), a critic of the abrahamisms, a capable defender of sanAtana-dharma and bhrAhmaNa-s.
BKS IyengAr
IyengAr, who took yOga-Asanas abroad, free thinking shishya of kRShNamAchArya, who shook off disease to gain health.
Balashastri Jambhekar
(1812-1846), had mastered several subjects like physics, chemistry, astronomy, botany, geology, geography, history, mathematics, psychology; grasped nearly one dozen languages like Sanskrit, Hindi, Bengali, Kannada, Gujarati, Telagu, English, Greek, Latin, French and Persian; in his early 20s; published several school books on calculus, geometry & geography, started paper Digdarshan which carried articles on physics, chemistry, psychology, palaeogeography, wrote a 6 volume series “Jyotissastra”, dissuaded “superstition”. [TW]
paNDita viShNu pAluskar
great singer, who semi-blinded in childhood by fire crackers, learned music at the doctor’s advice, gathered funds through his touring, went on to spread the knowledge of music through his gandharva-mahA-vidyAlaya-s, organized conferences, increased respectability of the gandharva-vidyA, spread rAma-bhakti [YT].
madana-mohana-mAlavIya-paNDita
who worked hard on the brAhmaNa mission to conserve the hindu Arya ideals, collected funds from a variety of sources (mahArAja-s to lesser wedding costs), made the benAras hindu University a reality. - Realizing that hindu numbers will matter a lot in the new age - especially when challenges are coming from Abe’s cults, he once toured the country urging various traditional hindu maTha-s to open up and grant dIxa-s to observant sat-shUdra-s - In Mysore’s parakAla maTha he spoke in elegant and fluid sanskrit and quoted a lot of pramANa-s.
Devanahalli Venkataramanayya Gundappa
(1887-1975) - a journalist, poet, sensitive rasika of many art-forms and people, philosopher, institution builder, social commentator, social worker, and activist. Consulted with major divAn-s of mysUru state - including vishveshvarayya. Misled initially to favor dumbocracy, realized his mistake only later.
Pandit Narendra Dev Shastri
a Sanskrit scholar originally from Lahore, student of raghu-vIra, aided the thought-consolidation balinese hinduism. - “come to Bali by chance and that, to his surprise, he had discovered that the Balinese were Hindus like himself, even though they had for-gotten most of what Hinduism was about, a result of being kept in ignorance of religious matters by their priests. Thus he decided to bring the Balinese back in to the fold of Hinduism, for fear that if they persisted along their natural inclination,which is animism, they would become an easy prey to proselytizing, not so much by Muslims but by Christians—and worse, communists’.” (note 24 in PTS14) - author of 1. Dasa Sila Agama Bali, 2. Weda Parikrama, 3. Inti Sari Agama Hindu, 4. Sedjarah Agama Hindu, 5. Dharmopadesha (Pengaran Siwa-Budda) etc.
cha-mu-kRShNa-shAstrI
the founder of saMskRta-bhAratI.
Premgopal goswami
of navadvipa/agartala, who continues to visit bAngladesha and inspire hindus despite being hacked there.
CV rAman-परिवारः
CV rAman, chadrashekharaH-subrahmaNyaH, V shAntA oncologist.
Bhubaneswar Sadhu
Sri Sri Bhubaneswar Sadhu Thakur, the Bishnupriya Manipuri Vaishnavite saint. He sang paens about the glory of Sri Krishna and is said to be have been told by Hari himself to settle in Nabadwip. He would then go on to establish the Sri Radha Govinda Ji mandir (aka Gobindobari).