Madonna creating waves in Benare Sanskrit circles

[Sreenivas Paruchuri]

Greetings!

A month or so ago, there was a thread on Madonna's Om Shunti, and it was
discussed if her latest album 'd eventually help with more student
enrollments at Sanskrit studies Centres of 'western' universities :).

If you read Telugu, pl. point your browsers at the on-Line Telugu
daily: aandhrabhUmi, which carries an article on Madonna's selection
of some Sanskrit Sloka-s from Sankaracharya's _yOgatArAvaLi_ for her
latest album: Ray of Light, and Benares Sanskrit Scholors' comments on
the same. Acc. to this article Achaarya Vighnesh Sastry didn't even spare
the prime minister: AB Vajpayee, for his false pronunciation of
Sanskrit :-).

        www.deccan.com/bhoomi/special.html#(none)

Right below the afore mentioned article there is another news item that
'd be of interest to Sanskritists. It mentions that baaNabhaTTa's (of
harsha's court) place of origin is questioned by one Prof. Manavendra
Bhattacharya, who in his recently published book, concluded that baaNa is
from today's Assam, and not, as assumed, from Maharashtra.

Regards,                                --Sreenivas