हरिः, ॐ! स्वागतम्!
Intro
Mattūru (aka Mattur) is a unique village near Shivamogga, Karnataka on the banks of Tungā. It is notable mainly for being a rare place where one may find a pristine agrahāra still brimming with Sanskrit, Vedic and Vedantic study and practice. It is extremely hard to find such a concentrated mileu involving devout shrauta and smarta ritualists and scholars of many of the traditional branches of vedic knowledge (advaita vedānta, jyotiṣa, shikṣā, kāvya, kalpa) who encompass all the extant āshrama-s (brahmacharya, gṛhastha and sannyāsa).
Uniqueness
To illustrate how rare this village is, consider the following:
Living the vedic life
When was the last time you saw the the sacred shrauta fires for which the veda-s were compiled in the form we see today? Can you think of another place on earth where you would find three practicing agnihotrin-s and many more former agnihotrin-s and somayAjin-s? And even sannyāsin-s? If you wanted to do a vedic iṣṭi, would you easily find skilled Rtvik-s to fill the roles of hotṛ, adhvaryu, agnīdhra and udgātṛ in your surroundings? Do scores of devout brāhmaṇa-s in your surroundings stay awake in the middle of the night during a lunar eclipse to take a bath in a very cold pristine river and do their japa-s?
Impeccable command over the lore
Do learned vaidika-s from other regions invite your neighbors for conferences where tough shāstra questions are considered? Do learned practicing brāhmaṇa-s in your neighborhood teach veda-s, shāstra-s and kāvya-s in Sanskrit? Are they able to explain and present tough concepts clearly and concisely to the amazement of savvy skeptical outsiders from the city? Have they compiled and published original books?
- मत्तूरु-श्रौत-ग्रन्था मुक्तम् अत्रोपलभ्यन्ते ।
Hapiness and the arts
Do you see kids happily play on the street even as they bear shikha-s and wearing dhoti-s? As you walk around your neighborhood, as you make your way around loitering desi cows, can you listen to the chriping of birds, the chanting of the veda-s, the Carnatic classical music, practice of the gamaka art form {YT} and high pitched challenge of the shrauta ritualist?
Pics, Videos and Media
- Some albums - GP1
- A YT playlist