INVC NEWS
Bengaluru,
Former diplomat, Rajya Sabha MP and author Pavan K. Varma, and celebrated author Ashwin Sanghi won big at the Atta Galatta – Bengaluru Literature Festival Book Prize 2018.
Published under Westland, Pavan K. Varma won the Best Non-Fiction Prize for Adi Shankaracharya: Hinduism’s Greatest Thinker, and Ashwin Sanghi won the Popular Choice Category for the latest book in his Bharat Series – Keepers of the Kalachakra.
Bangalore Literature Festival – 2018 and city-based bookstore Atta Galatta announced the annual awards on Tuesday, 23rd October. The final jury was headed by well-known writers C.S. Lakshmi (Ambai) for the Fiction Category, and Josy Joseph for the Non-Fiction Category.
Since its release, the extensively researched Adi Shankaracharya: Hinduism’s Greatest Thinker has received great reviews by readers and media alike.
By seamlessly weaving history, science, theology, mythology, politics and philosophy, Ashwin Sanghi’s latest book has won the hearts of every literature enthusiast around the country.
The prize was established two years ago by the Bangalore Literature Festival, in collaboration with Atta Galatta, a city-based bookstore and art-literature space.
The objective of the Bangalore Literature Festival is to put together a literary experience that brings writers – both established and aspiring, readers, publishers, students and young professionals from across the country to engage in thoughtful discourse on literature and happenings around the world.
About Adi Shankaracharya: Hinduism’s Greatest Thinker by Pavan K. Varma:
Jagad Guru Adi Shankaracharya (788–820 CE) was born in Kerala and died in Kedarnath, traversing the length of India in his search for the ultimate truth. In a short life of thirty-two years, Shankaracharya not only revived Hinduism, but also created the organisational structure for its perpetuation through the mathas he established in Sringeri, Dwaraka, Puri and Joshimatha.
Written by noted writer-diplomat Pavan K. Varma, Adi Shankaracharya: Hinduism’s Greatest Thinker chronicles the journey of a seer who gave Hinduism a definite form, and also propounded the Advaita philosophy. Most importantly, Adi Shankara’s sheer audacity and thought in establishing significant scientific principles, which even modern science endorsed centuries later, is magnificently documented by the author.
Highly readable, and including a select anthology of Shankaracharya’s seminal writing, this book is a must-read for people across the ideological spectrum. The reason being that it reminds readers for the first time ever what truly is the remarkable philosophical underpinning of Hinduism, making it one of the most vibrant religions in the world.
