Telegu and Kannada begin their literary records.
Malayalam literature developed later. Scholars
of Dravidian linguistics important for reference
include M. B. Emeneau and T. Burrow. There are
many scholars of Dravidian literatures; George
Hart (Tamil), Velcheru Narayana Rao (Telegu),
and A. K. Ramanujan (Tamil and Kannada) are
important translators and scholars in this area.
Further reading: Robert L. Hardgrave, The Dravid-
ian Movement (Bombay: Popular Prakashan, 1965);
Stanford B. Steever, The Dravidian Languages (London:
Routledge, 2004).
Drona
Drona (Bucket) is a Brahmin who played an
important role in the Mahabharata epic. His
unusual name derives from the fact that he was
conceived in a bucket from the semen of his
father, the RISHI Bharadvaja, who had been excited
when the nymph Ghritaci accidentally showed
herself to him naked. Drona was a descendant of
Angiras, an ancient rishi, and the grandson of BRI-
HASPATI, a god. Drona’s GURU was Agnivesha, son of
the famous rishi AGASTYA.
Drona taught martial techniques and military
science to both the PANDAVAS and the KAURAVAS,
but he joined the latter in the great war between
the two groups. After their great uncle, BHISHMA’s ,
death, he became their commander. This was
considered unusual, as he was a Brahmin and
not a warrior by birth. In the battle Drona killed
Drupada, the father of the Pandavas’ wife, DRAU-
PADI. In turn he was killed by Drishtadyumna,
Drupada’s son and brother to Draupadi.
Further reading: J. A. B. van Buitenen, trans. and
ed., The Mahabharata, 3 vols. (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1973–78); E. Washburn Hopkins and
E. Washburn. Epic Mythology (Delhi: Motilal Banarsi-
dass, 1986); D. A. Sadarjoshi, Acharya Drona: A Human
Drama from the Mahabharat (Calcutta: Alpha-Beta,
1963).
Duce, Ivy O. (1895–1981) founder of Sufism
Reoriented
Ivy O. Duce was an American proponent and
leader of Sufism. She spread the universalist
teachings of MEHER BABA.
Ivy Duce was born Ivy Judd and raised in the
Episcopal Church. She served in the American Red
Cross during World War I and after the war mar-
ried and became a mother. During the 1930s she
became interested in astrology. Around 1940, she
became fascinated with the chart of Rabia Martin
(aka Ada Ginsberg, 1871–1947) and decided to
meet her. It turned out that Martin was the succes-
sor in America of the Indian Sufi teacher Hazrat
Inayat Khan (1882–1927), who had offered an
Islamic mysticism largely devoid of the peculiari-
ties of Islamic thought. Duce became a follower of
Martin’s Sufi movement and eventually succeeded
her as the leader in 1947.
In 1948, Duce met the Indian teacher MEHER
BABA, of whom she had already developed a
positive opinion from conversations with Martin.
Over the next several years she adopted his per-
spectives, and he worked out a plan to redirect
the Sufi movement she headed. Thus in 1952,
Duce founded Sufism Reoriented, which was
seen as the creation of Meher Baba. From this
point on Duce viewed Sufism not as a form of
Islam but as what she termed Universal Truth.
She considered anyone who had reached God
realization a Sufi. Meher Baba named her spiri-
tual director or murshida of the organization,
identified her as a seventh-plane master, and
promised that her successors would be of an
equally high status. He also promised that Sufism
Reoriented would be a pure channel for God for
the next 700 years (until his next incarnation as
an AVATA R).
Duce was the only person in the West whom
Meher Baba ever appointed as a spiritual teacher.
Though head of a relatively small organization,
she was widely recognized by the loosely orga-
nized movement that grew up around Meher
Baba. Duce served for almost three decades.K 138 Drona