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Pandit R.A. Sastri was born in the village of Aryanayakipuram in
Tirunelveli District, in the year 1866. This is one of the beautiful villages
on the left bank of the river Tamraparni. The green paddy fields in the
middle of which the village stands like an island will charm anybody. The
lands irrigated by the Tamaraparni are known to fetch the highest prices in
Madras State. The river itself normally carries crystal clear water and
with its fine sandy bed will entice anybody to bathe in its cool waters.
In the monsoon, that is, in the months of July and August, a bath in the
river with the Western Ghats in the background and their tops shrouded by
dark rain-bearing clouds and the strong breeze from the West with the
attendant drizzle for which Tirunelveli is famous, braces both the mind and
body of the bather. Naturally nobody in the village, old or young, misses a
morning bath in the beautiful river. In summer, of course, the evenings on
the river bank are very pleasant. Boys and children gather to have their
game on the dry sand. And the day's work and play get rounded off by a
pleasant both in the river.
It was in this beautiful village that Pandit R. A. Sastri was born and
his early life in such rural surroundings made his habits simple, his body
robust, his heart attuned to Nature and his spirit adventurous and
spacious. In those days the schooling was only getting by heart Sanskrit Slokas
which the local Pandit taught to the boys of the village who gathered on
the pial of some big house. In due course, Sastri mastered all that his
pial teacher could teach. His thirst for increasing his knowledge,
especially of Sanskrit, was great and he felt his pial teacher could not
take him far. His parents did not like his mischievous pranks and so one
day he chose to run away from home to distant Mysore, the beautiful city
about which he had heard. While at Mysore, he continued his studies in Sanskrit
and after a while having made substantial advance in literature and
attained proficiency in the Sastras, left for Madras.
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