Panikkar was one of the most colourful personalities, quzzical, combative, suggesting the cardinal statesmen of France, and equal to Machiavelli in his knowledge of diplomacy. He was a controversial figure and loved controversy. He started his schooling in affluent circumstances but he made progress at a snail’s pace, tasting failure and at one time thinking of suicide. But after some hardening in Madras he joined Christ Church, Oxford, and secured a First in History. By then, he was an author, then an examiner for the civil service.
July-August 1977, volume 2, No 4