M K Sudarshan

My name is M.K. Sudarshan. Besides my professional identity as a Chartered Accountant and as corporate professional in a career that spanned the last 35+ years, I am today an Author and blogger. More background information and materials on both the books and including relevant links that can be accessed on Youtube and on my own website unknownsrivaishnava.wordpress.com .

I have published two books:

1. "The Unsual Essays of an Unknown Sri Vaishnava" (Mainspring Books) the new and updated 3rd edition of which was published in the USA in November 2021. (Search on title of book on Amazon and/or Goodreads)

2. "The Nondescript God: Abstraction or Paragon" -- published (Blue Rose One) in India very recently in April 2022. (Search on title of book on Amazon and/or Goodreads).

Both books deal with Sri Vaishnavism. The books' main themes are the origins, history, philosophy, theology, language, literature, hermeneutics of Sri Vaishnavism and its engagement with the larger social and political changes in the country.

No one in any part of our vast and diverse country can truly understand its ancient culture without knowledge of Sanskrit. Unfortunately, ever since India became colonized by the British, for over 300 years now, the language of the culture of our nation has been banished into near oblivion. At least five modern generations of Indians in the last 100 or 150 years have got totally disconnected from Sanskrit language. Consequently they have lost deep-rooted, meaningful contact with their cultural moorings.

Many millions are those Indians today -- both in India and in the global Indian diaspora -- who are educated in the modern, secular professions and are predominantly English-speaking. These millions find themselves cut off from the cultural riches of India since they are not familiar with the ancient literature that was mostly written in Sanskrit and its vernacular, Tamizh in Tamilnadu.

Young English-speaking Sri Vaishnavas find it very daunting to learn afresh a language such as Sanskrit,Tamizh or Manipravalam and make a beginning towards delving into the rich treasures of Sri Vaishnava literature. The existing medium of dissemination of such literature is firmly in the hands of the religious orthodoxy and establishment. They conduct the propagation of Sri Vaishnavism and its lofty literature only through the medium of Sanskrit and again through a very pedagogic and at times archaic Tamizh to communicate commentary, expositions and exegesis. This style of communication is a bit off-putting for young Sri Vaishnavas the world over who want to engage with and understand their ancient cultural past in the language, idiom and parlance of modern-day English. The non-availability of such books in English today greatly handicaps them.

The genre to which my two books belong is one that seeks to help such young Sri Vaishnavas today to overcome the language barrier, and cope with their handicap. My books seek to transmute (not merely translate) the ancient Sanskrit and Tamizh literature into modern English that they can easily read, understand and internalize ....