BANGALORE: It was the moment devotees waited for one long year. The Sun God bathed the Shivalingam before fading on the auspicious day of Makara Sankranti, which marks the beginning of six-month long Uttarayana, according to Hindu calendar.
On Saturday, thousands of devotees thronged the centuries-old Gavi Gangadhareshwara temple at Guttahalli to witness this annual spectacle.
As the clock struck 5pm, chief priest Somasundara Dixit chanted slokas and explained the importance of the event when the Sun rays slowly made their way into the temple. At 5.25pm, after touching the Nandi idol's horns, the rays bathed the Shivalingam even as the devotees chanted "Shambo Mahadeva", praising Lord Shiva, the God of destruction.
At about 5.35pm, the rays slowly made their way out and the devotees moved into serpentine queues to enter the temple and have darshan of the deity.
"See there. The Sun rays are touching the swamy," Shivanna, an elderly person from Srinagar cajoled his three-year-old grandson Ajay, who was watching the giant screen installed in the temple with folded hands. "I have been a regular visitor here for a decade," he recalled.
P R Ramesh, former city mayor, was also one among the devotees. "I have come with family members to seek blessings," he replied even as he was greeted by well-wishers.
"We have been witnessing this event for the past three years. It has considerably changed," said another devotee Rajesh as he accompanied his friend Armugam to join the queue to have a darshan of the Shivalingam after the event. Many young couples with children and newly married couples thronged the temple to take blessings of the Lord.
DIGITAL DARSHAN
"We expected 7 to 8 thousand people for this event. For the past four years, we have been using television facility to help all the devotees have a glimpse of the event. This time we arranged two large screens and eight LCD TVs for the benefit of the general public. Because of this facility, the number of people visiting the temple has increased considerably," N Venkoba Rao Sindhey, secretary of the Shree Gavi Gangadhareshwara Swamy Pallakki Utsava Samithi, told STOI.
The organizers also distributed `yellu-bella' (sesame and jaggery) among the devotees who attended the event.
UNIQUE STRUCTURE
Sri Gavi Gangadhareshwara Temple was built in such a way that on Makara Sankranti, the Sun's rays penetrate through Nandi's horns, while lighting up the Shivalingam. The unique phenomenon can be witnessed only for a particular period between 5pm and 6pm on this day. The ancient temple was cut out of monolithic rock, believed to be in the 9th century. The main deity is Shivalingam along with a Nandi idol. The temple also houses a rare idol of Agni, the lord of fire.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Tunisians Overthrow 23 years of dictatorship : Veterans Today
When you go through the different pages of the history of Tunisia you’ll simply find yourself going through a process of successive takeover of the country by multiple rules that started with the Phoenicians in 814 BC passing through the Romans then the Byzantines in the 6th century, and Arabs in the 8th century. Under the Ottoman Empire, Tunisia was known as “Regency of Tunis”. It passed under French protectorate in 1881.
8kg of coins dating from the 8th to the 12th century
VINH PHUC — A local man recently found a pot containing 8kg of coins dating from the 8th to the 12th century while building a house in Van Hoi Commune in the northern province of Vinh Phuc's Tam Duong District, according to experts from the provincial museum asked to identify the discovery.
Each coin was 2.4cm in diameter, had a square central hole and Chinese characters on each side.
Each coin was 2.4cm in diameter, had a square central hole and Chinese characters on each side.
The Hindu : Arts / History & Culture : A bas-relief gone dry at Mamallapuram
The Hindu : Arts / History & Culture : A bas-relief gone dry at MamallapuramOn December 6 and 7, 2010, Mamallapuram, 50 km from Chennai, famed for its Pallava period rock-cut sculptures, recorded 20 cm of rain. It was the kind of rainfall that could have brought to life one of the famous bas-relief panels there, adjacent to the popular Arjuna's Penance bas-relief: Krishna lifting Govardhana hill to protect the cowherds, their wives, children, cows and bulls from a deluge caused by the wrath of Indra.
The pounding rain would have created a dramatic cascade down the rock and all around the bas-relief of Krishna and the community of cowherds just as the Pallava sculptors of the 7th century C.E. intended, says S. Balusami, Associate Professor of Tamil at the Madras Christian College, Tambaram.
The Pallava sculptors had conjured up the Mamallapuram rock as Govardhana hill and created a splendid row of sculptures depicting the life of cowherds and a majestic Krishna nonchalantly lifting the hill with his left hand.
Art historian C. Sivaramamurti, in his short book, Mahabalipuram, first published by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in 1952, asserts that: “This representation of the Govardhana scene is probably the best in India, even the one at Ellora coming nowhere near this.”
But, Dr. Balusami says, the Vijayanagara rulers of the 14th/15th century C.E. built a pillared mantapa in front of this bas-relief, killing forever the cascade effect. In fact, with the pillared mantapa in front, the sculptures are no longer an open-air bas-relief, which is now merely called the Krishna Mantapa. In a sense it amounts to vandalism. Says Sivaramamurti: “Vandalism has not caused much damage, except for the later Vaishnavite mark incised on the forehead of the couchant bull and the erection of the modern pillared hall which destroys the view of the original façade.”
Dr. Balusami, a scholar on Mamallapuram sculptures, has found tell-tale evidence of 26 furrows cut on the rock above the line of bas-relief sculptures to channel the rain water and create a picture of verisimilitude.
Pallava artisans had also excavated terraced steps and narrow channels on the sloping rock above for water to gush down the “Govardhanagiri.” But the Vijayanagara chieftains cut a trench high up on rock and raised a one-foot high wall to drain the water on either side of the bas-relief.
In defence of his argument, Dr. Balusamy points out that the central cleft in the adjacent sculptures of Arjuna's Penance represents the Ganga coursing down the Himalayas. He quotes from A.H. Longhurst's Pallava Architecture, part II, Intermediate or Mamalla Period, published by the ASI, to support his argument. Mr. Longhurst says: “If the visitor will take the trouble of climbing to the top of the rock…he will find a number of rock-cut channels or footings immediately above the cleft [in Arjuna's Penance], showing that a brick or masonry cistern was once built on this spot… It would appear that on certain festival occasions, this cistern was filled and the water allowed to flow down the cleft in the form of a cascade into the tank below, simulating the descent of a mountain torrent… There can be little doubt that the whole scene is a symbolical representation of the Ganges flowing down the Himalayas.”
“DYNAMIC, LIFE-LIKE”
Dr. Balusami has proposed that the central theme of the “dynamic, life-like” sculptures in the bas-relief of Krishna lifting Govardhanagiri is “safety” or “protection.” Everybody is feeling safe because Krishna has protected them from the deluge. A cowherd has a child on his shoulders and his wife holds the hand of another child while she carries on her head pots of milk and curd; a royal lady is looking up in amazement at Krishna holding aloft the hill; tall Balarama has his hand around an elderly cowherd, in a gesture of protection; a cowherd plays the flute and cows sway their heads to the tune; his wife is feeding their infant; another cowherd is milking a cow, which is licking her calf; nearby a bull and a cow are walking close to each other; a woman is carrying pots in a rope-sling; and a young couple, hands held together, is dancing with gay abandon. Everywhere there is relief that the danger has passed.
All these events, Dr. Balusami proposes, have a remarkable similarity to the descriptions in the poems of Mullai Thinai in Tamil Sangam literature, datable between third century B.C.E. and third century C.E.
The pounding rain would have created a dramatic cascade down the rock and all around the bas-relief of Krishna and the community of cowherds just as the Pallava sculptors of the 7th century C.E. intended, says S. Balusami, Associate Professor of Tamil at the Madras Christian College, Tambaram.
The Pallava sculptors had conjured up the Mamallapuram rock as Govardhana hill and created a splendid row of sculptures depicting the life of cowherds and a majestic Krishna nonchalantly lifting the hill with his left hand.
Art historian C. Sivaramamurti, in his short book, Mahabalipuram, first published by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in 1952, asserts that: “This representation of the Govardhana scene is probably the best in India, even the one at Ellora coming nowhere near this.”
But, Dr. Balusami says, the Vijayanagara rulers of the 14th/15th century C.E. built a pillared mantapa in front of this bas-relief, killing forever the cascade effect. In fact, with the pillared mantapa in front, the sculptures are no longer an open-air bas-relief, which is now merely called the Krishna Mantapa. In a sense it amounts to vandalism. Says Sivaramamurti: “Vandalism has not caused much damage, except for the later Vaishnavite mark incised on the forehead of the couchant bull and the erection of the modern pillared hall which destroys the view of the original façade.”
Dr. Balusami, a scholar on Mamallapuram sculptures, has found tell-tale evidence of 26 furrows cut on the rock above the line of bas-relief sculptures to channel the rain water and create a picture of verisimilitude.
Pallava artisans had also excavated terraced steps and narrow channels on the sloping rock above for water to gush down the “Govardhanagiri.” But the Vijayanagara chieftains cut a trench high up on rock and raised a one-foot high wall to drain the water on either side of the bas-relief.
In defence of his argument, Dr. Balusamy points out that the central cleft in the adjacent sculptures of Arjuna's Penance represents the Ganga coursing down the Himalayas. He quotes from A.H. Longhurst's Pallava Architecture, part II, Intermediate or Mamalla Period, published by the ASI, to support his argument. Mr. Longhurst says: “If the visitor will take the trouble of climbing to the top of the rock…he will find a number of rock-cut channels or footings immediately above the cleft [in Arjuna's Penance], showing that a brick or masonry cistern was once built on this spot… It would appear that on certain festival occasions, this cistern was filled and the water allowed to flow down the cleft in the form of a cascade into the tank below, simulating the descent of a mountain torrent… There can be little doubt that the whole scene is a symbolical representation of the Ganges flowing down the Himalayas.”
“DYNAMIC, LIFE-LIKE”
Dr. Balusami has proposed that the central theme of the “dynamic, life-like” sculptures in the bas-relief of Krishna lifting Govardhanagiri is “safety” or “protection.” Everybody is feeling safe because Krishna has protected them from the deluge. A cowherd has a child on his shoulders and his wife holds the hand of another child while she carries on her head pots of milk and curd; a royal lady is looking up in amazement at Krishna holding aloft the hill; tall Balarama has his hand around an elderly cowherd, in a gesture of protection; a cowherd plays the flute and cows sway their heads to the tune; his wife is feeding their infant; another cowherd is milking a cow, which is licking her calf; nearby a bull and a cow are walking close to each other; a woman is carrying pots in a rope-sling; and a young couple, hands held together, is dancing with gay abandon. Everywhere there is relief that the danger has passed.
All these events, Dr. Balusami proposes, have a remarkable similarity to the descriptions in the poems of Mullai Thinai in Tamil Sangam literature, datable between third century B.C.E. and third century C.E.
Confucius Back in China - New America Media
BEIJING--Confucius has returned, at least to Tiananmen Square. According to the World Journal, a statue of the 5th century BC sage philosopher has just been erected there. The article notes the statue reflects the government's determination to see China's cultural legacy returned to its former glory.
Once vilified by Mao Zedong as the wellspring of China's past and future ills, in recent years there has been, alongside China's dramatic economic rise, a resurgent interest in Confucian thought and teaching, including his "Analects," a collection of sayings attributed to the itinerant scholar.
Confucian Institutes have been opened in countries around the world, with Beijing's backing, while traditional Confucian festivals and rituals, long moribund within China, have experienced something of a renaissance. A film version depicting the life of Confucius and starring internationally renown actor Chow Yun-fat is also enjoying ardent support from authorities in Beijing.
Standing some 30 feet tall, the bronze statue was completed on January 12th, and sits just in front of the National Museum, its eyes fixed on the distant horizon and on the portrait of Mao Zedong, which hangs atop the entrance to the Forbidden City, the two poised in an unlikely relationship as paragons of the party's ideological and cultural foundations, providing some serious food for thought.
Once vilified by Mao Zedong as the wellspring of China's past and future ills, in recent years there has been, alongside China's dramatic economic rise, a resurgent interest in Confucian thought and teaching, including his "Analects," a collection of sayings attributed to the itinerant scholar.
Confucian Institutes have been opened in countries around the world, with Beijing's backing, while traditional Confucian festivals and rituals, long moribund within China, have experienced something of a renaissance. A film version depicting the life of Confucius and starring internationally renown actor Chow Yun-fat is also enjoying ardent support from authorities in Beijing.
Standing some 30 feet tall, the bronze statue was completed on January 12th, and sits just in front of the National Museum, its eyes fixed on the distant horizon and on the portrait of Mao Zedong, which hangs atop the entrance to the Forbidden City, the two poised in an unlikely relationship as paragons of the party's ideological and cultural foundations, providing some serious food for thought.
Japan Airlines and AA announce joint business benefits for trans-Pacific consumers - {Travel Daily News}
Japan Airlines and AA announce joint business benefits for trans-Pacific consumers - {Travel Daily News}Japan Airlines and American Airlines announced they have decided to commence their joint business from April 1, 2011, based on the expected start of revenue-sharing on applicable trans-Pacific flights. The airlines, after receiving regulatory approvals from the Japanese Government and the U.S. Department of Transportation, are using a phased approach to bring more travel choices and greater benefits to consumers as quickly as possible and to maximize the value for stakeholders.
Customers can expect to benefit from better flight schedules, expanded codesharing, more coordinated services, and greater access to a wider variety of fares. Japan Airlines will also co-locate in American's Terminal 3 at Chicago O'Hare International Airport effective March 27, when Japan Airlines' summer schedule begins. Additional consumer benefits over the coming months are expected as the cooperation level deepens between the two airlines.
In addition, to bring benefits to consumers sooner, Japan Airlines and American are announcing a jointly-formulated commemorative trans-Pacific economy-class airfare for sale in Japan from today for travel between Feb. 1 and March 31, 2011. Historically, routings involving both airlines were typically only available at much higher fare levels
Customers can expect to benefit from better flight schedules, expanded codesharing, more coordinated services, and greater access to a wider variety of fares. Japan Airlines will also co-locate in American's Terminal 3 at Chicago O'Hare International Airport effective March 27, when Japan Airlines' summer schedule begins. Additional consumer benefits over the coming months are expected as the cooperation level deepens between the two airlines.
In addition, to bring benefits to consumers sooner, Japan Airlines and American are announcing a jointly-formulated commemorative trans-Pacific economy-class airfare for sale in Japan from today for travel between Feb. 1 and March 31, 2011. Historically, routings involving both airlines were typically only available at much higher fare levels
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