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Pandit Rajmani Tigunait
Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, PhD, is a modern-day master and living link in the unbroken Himalayan Tradition. He is the successor to Sri Swami Rama of the Himalayas, and the spiritual head of the Himalayan Institute. As the author of numerous books, including his autobiography Touched by Fire: The Ongoing Journey of a Spiritual Seeker, Pandit Tigunait offers practical guidance on applying yogic and tantric wisdom to modern life. For over 50 years he has touched innumerable lives around the world as a teacher, humanitarian, and visionary spiritual leader. You can view more of his teachings online at the Himalayan Institute Wisdom Library. Pandit Tigunait holds two doctorates: one in Sanskrit from the University of Allahabad in India, and another in Oriental Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. Family tradition gave Pandit Tigunait access to a vast range of spiritual wisdom preserved in both the written and oral traditions. Before meeting his master, Pandit Tigunait studied Sanskrit, the language of the ancient scriptures of India, as well as the languages of the Buddhist, Jaina, and Zoroastrian traditions. In 1976, Swami Rama ordained Pandit Tigunait into the 5,000-year-old lineage of the Himalayan Masters.
Phillip B. Wagoner
PHILLIP B. WAGONER is Professor of Art History and Archaeology at Wesleyan University, Connecticut, where he has taught since 1987. His research has encompassed architectural history, cultural history, numismatics, and Telugu historiographical writing. His books include Tidings of the King: A Translation and Ethnohistorical Analysis of the Rayavacakamu (Honolulu, 1993); Power, Memory, Architecture: Contested Sites on India’s Deccan Plateau, 1300-1600 (with Richard Eaton, Delhi, 2014); and the co-edited volume Palimpsests: Buildings, Sites, Time (Turnhout, 2017). SURENDRA KUMAR is a photographer based in Hampi, Karnataka, specialising in topographic panoramas. His images have been published in Discovering the Deccan: A Panoramic Journey Through Historical Landscapes & Monuments (Mumbai 2011); Temple Architecture and Art of the Early Chalukyas (New Delhi 2014); and several of the Deccan Heritage Foundation guidebooks, most recently Buddhist Rock-Cut Monasteries of the Western Ghats (Mumbai 2017).
Premchand
Born Dhanpat Rai Shrivastava on 31 July 1880 in Lamhi village near Varanasi, India, Munshi Premchand began his writing career in 1901. His first short novel, Asrar e Ma’abid (Secrets of God’s Abode), written in Urdu was published in a weekly between 8 October 1903 to February 1905. He wrote on a variety of topics including prostitution, poverty, dowry, child widowhood, and feudal system, using his works as a vehicle for arousing public awareness. He was the first Hindi author whose works featured social realism. Premchand has penned down hundreds of short stories, more than a dozen novels, plays, and several critical essays. His most celebrated works include Vardaan (1912), Seva Sadan (1918), Premashram (1922), Rangbhoomi (1925), Nirmala (1927), Pratigya (1927), Gaban (1931), Karmabhoomi (1932), Godaan (1936). Premchand breathed his last on 8 October 1936. One of the most influential writers of Indian literature, his works continue to remain popular and are translated in various foreign languages across the world.