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Sirsi Marikamba Temple
Sirsi Marikamba Temple is a Hindu temple dedicated to Marikamba Devi a form of the goddess Durga, located in Sirsi, Karnataka, It is also known as Marigudi, It was built in 1688, Sirsi Shri Marikamba Devi is "elder sister" of all Marikamba Devi's in Karnataka. Features The temple's façade, a 19th-century addition, is painted blue. After one enters through the façade, there is courtyard in the middle, which has cloisters surrounding it. The cloisters are filled with images of deities from the Hindu epics. The changes made inside the temple have hidden any evidence of older structures. The sanctum sanctorum has the central image of a fierce form of the goddess Durga, multi-armed (eight shoulders), riding a tiger and killing a demon. It is believed that the image was retrieved from a pond on the road to Hanagal. The temple has very special paintings of murals in Kaavi art, an art form which was popular in the coastal Konkan region of Karnataka. In this art form, now extinct ...
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Hinduism
Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global population, known as Hindus. The word ''Hindu'' is an exonym, and while Hinduism has been called the oldest religion in the world, many practitioners refer to their religion as '' Sanātana Dharma'' ( sa, सनातन धर्म, lit='the Eternal Dharma'), a modern usage, which refers to the idea that its origins lie beyond human history, as revealed in the Hindu texts. Another endonym is ''Vaidika dharma'', the dharma related to the Vedas. Hinduism is a diverse system of thought marked by a range of philosophies and shared concepts, rituals, cosmological systems, pilgrimage sites, and shared textual sources that discuss theology, metaphysics, mythology, Vedic yajna, yoga, agamic rituals, and temple building, among other to ...
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Cloister
A cloister (from Latin ''claustrum'', "enclosure") is a covered walk, open gallery, or open arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cathedral or church, commonly against a warm southern flank, usually indicates that it is (or once was) part of a monastic foundation, "forming a continuous and solid architectural barrier... that effectively separates the world of the monks from that of the serfs and workmen, whose lives and works went forward outside and around the cloister." Cloistered (or ''claustral'') life is also another name for the monastic life of a monk or nun. The English term ''enclosure'' is used in contemporary Catholic church law translations to mean cloistered, and some form of the Latin parent word "claustrum" is frequently used as a metonymic name for ''monastery'' in languages such as German. History of the cloister Historically, the early medieval cloister had several antecedents: the ...
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Rathayatra
Ratha Yatra (), or Chariot festival, is any public procession in a chariot. The term particularly refers to the annual Ratha Yatra in Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal and other East Indian states, particularly the Odia festival that involve a public procession with a chariot with deities Jagannath (Vishnu avatar), Balabhadra (his brother), Subhadra (his sister) and Sudarshana Chakra (his weapon) on a ratha, a wooden deula-shaped chariot. Ratha Yatra processions have been historically common in Vishnu-related (Jagannath, Rama, Krishna) traditions in Hinduism across India, in Shiva-related traditions, saints and goddesses in Nepal, with Tirthankaras in Jainism, as well as tribal folk religions found in the eastern states of India. Notable Ratha Yatras in India include the Ratha Yatra of Puri, the Dhamrai Ratha Yatra and the Ratha Yatra of Mahesh. Ratha Yatra of Guptipara and Santipur Hindu communities outside India, such as in Singapore, celebrate Ratha Yatra such as those ...
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Dalits
Dalit (from sa, दलित, dalita meaning "broken/scattered"), also previously known as untouchable, is the lowest stratum of the castes in India. Dalits were excluded from the four-fold varna system of Hinduism and were seen as forming a fifth varna, also known by the name of ''Panchama''. Dalits now profess various religious beliefs, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Christianity, Islam. Scheduled Castes is the official term for Dalits as per the Constitution of India. History The term ''Dalit'' is a self-applied concept for those called the "untouchables" and others that were outside of the traditional Hindu caste hierarchy. Economist and reformer B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said that untouchability came into Indian society around 400 CE, due to the struggle for supremacy between Buddhism and Brahmanism (an ancient term for Brahmanical Hinduism). Some Hindu priests befriended untouchables and were demoted to low-caste ranks. Eknath, another excommunicated Br ...
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Untouchability
Untouchability is a form of social institution that legitimises and enforces practices that are discriminatory, humiliating, exclusionary and exploitative against people belonging to certain social groups. Although comparable forms of discrimination are found all over the world, untouchability involving the caste system is largely unique to South Asia. The term is most commonly associated with treatment of the Dalit communities in the Indian subcontinent who were considered "polluting". The term has also been used to refer to other groups, including the ''Burakumin'' of Japan, the Baekjeong of Korea, and the Ragyabpa of Tibet, as well as the Romani people and Cagot in Europe, and the Al-Akhdam in Yemen Traditionally, the groups characterized as untouchable were those whose occupations and habits of life involved ritually "polluting" activities, such as fishermen, manual scavengers, sweepers and washermen. According to the religious Hindu text, untouchables were not consider ...
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Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti-colonial nationalist politics in the twentieth-century in ways that neither indigenous nor westernized Indian nationalists could." and political ethicist Quote: "Gandhi staked his reputation as an original political thinker on this specific issue. Hitherto, violence had been used in the name of political rights, such as in street riots, regicide, or armed revolutions. Gandhi believes there is a better way of securing political rights, that of nonviolence, and that this new way marks an advance in political ethics." who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British rule, and to later inspire movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. The honorific ''Mahātmā'' (Sanskrit ...
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Animal Sacrifice In Hinduism
The practice of Hindu animal sacrifice is mostly associated with Shaktism, and in currents of folk Hinduism strongly rooted in local popular or tribal traditions, however animal sacrifices were part of the ancient Vedic religion in India, and are mentioned in scriptures such as the Yajurveda. The practice declined during the formation of Hinduism as Hindu scriptures like the Puranas and the Bhagvad Gita forbid animal sacrifice. Terminology A Sanskrit term used for animal sacrifice is ''bali'', in origin meaning "tribute, offering or oblation" generically ("vegetable oblations .. andanimal oblations,"). Bali among other things "refers to the blood of an animal" and is sometimes known as Jhatka Bali among Hindus. The Kalika Purana distinguishes ''bali'' (sacrifice), ''mahabali'' (great sacrifice), for the ritual killing of goats, elephant, respectively, though the reference to humans in Shakti theology is symbolic and done in effigy in modern times. For instance, Sir John W ...
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Bhakti Movement
The Bhakti movement was a significant religious movement in medieval Hinduism that sought to bring religious reforms to all strata of society by adopting the method of devotion to achieve salvation. Originating in Tamilakam during 6th century CE, it gained prominence through the poems and teachings of the Vaishnava Alvars and Shaiva Nayanars before spreading northwards. It swept over east and north India from the 15th century onwards, reaching its zenith between the 15th and 17th century CE. The Bhakti movement regionally developed around different gods and goddesses, and some sub-sects were Shaivism (Shiva), Vaishnavism (Vishnu), Shaktism (Shakti goddesses), and Smartism.Wendy Doniger (2009)"Bhakti" ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' Bhakti movement preached using the local languages so that the message reached the masses. The movement was inspired by many poet-saints, who championed a wide range of philosophical positions ranging from theistic dualism of Dvaita to absolute moni ...
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Kanakadasa
Kanaka Dasa (1509–1609) was a Haridasa saint and philosopher, popularly called Daasashreshta Kanakadasa (ದಾಸಶ್ರೇಷ್ಠ ಕನಕದಾಸ). He was a renowned composer of Carnatic music, poet, reformer and musician. He is known for his keertanas and ugabhoga, and his compositions in the Kannada language for Carnatic music. Like other Haridasas, he used simple Kannada and native metrical forms for his compositions. Life Kanaka Dasa was born into a Kannada Kuruba (shepherd) Hindu family in Baada village, near Bankapura in Karnataka, and was a warrior at Bankapura fort. He was taught by Srinivasacharya. As a child, he became an expert in ''tarka'', ''vyakaran'', and ''mimamsa''. Based on one of his compositions, it is interpreted that he was seriously injured in a battle and was miraculously saved. After this incident, he gave up his profession as a warrior and devoted himself to composing music, writing literature and explaining philosophy to people. His ear ...
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Vishvakarmas
The Vishwakarma community, also known as the Vishwabrahmin although having no general connection to the Brahmins, they use the term 'Brahmin' at the end of their community name. Vishwakarma are a social group of India, sometimes described as a caste. The community comprises five sub-groups carpenters, blacksmiths, bronze smiths, goldsmiths and stonemasons claim to be descendants of Vishvakarma, the builder and architect of heavenly realm, a Hindu deity. Origin myths The community claims to be descended from the god Vishvakarma, who is considered by Hindus to be the divine architect or engineer of the universe. He had five children — Manu, Maya, Tvastar, Shilpi and Visvajna — and these are believed by the Vishwakarma community to have been the forebears of their five sub-groups, being respectively the gotras (clans) of blacksmiths, carpenters, bell metalworkers (metal casters), stonemasons and goldsmiths. It is not known whether these five subgroups historically pra ...
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Konkan
The Konkan ( kok, कोंकण) or Kokan () is a stretch of land by the western coast of India, running from Damaon in the north to Karwar in the south; with the Arabian Sea to the west and the Deccan plateau in the east. The hinterland east of the coast has numerous river valleys and riverine islands among the hilly slopes leading up into the tablelands of the Deccan. The region has been recognised by name, since at least the time of Strabo in the third century C.E., and was a thriving mercantile port with Arab tradesmen from the 10th century. The best-known islands of Konkan are Ilhas de Goa, the site of the Goa state's capital at Panjim, and the seven islands of Bombay, on which lies the capital of the State of Maharashtra. Definition Historically, the limits of Konkan have been flexible, and it has been known by additional names like "Aparanta" and "Gomanchal", the latter being defined as the coastal area between the Daman Ganga River in the north and the Gangava ...
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