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Thanjavur Chariot Festival
Thanjavur Chariot festival (தஞ்சாவூர் தேர்த்திருவிழா) :ta:தஞ்சைப் பெரிய கோயில் தேரோட்டம் is a historical event associated with the Big Temple, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India. Background In 2015, the chariot festival was held in the Big Temple, after a gap of more than one hundred years. Since then every year the festival is held in Thanjavur. During the 18th and 19th centuries festival was held. According to a document in 1776 C.E., 20,200 pulled the chariot during the festival in Thanjavur. Serfoji during the chariot festival held 1813 C.E., have brought out 27,394 persons from various taluks such as Thiruvaiyaru (1900), Papanasam (2800), Kumbakonam (3494), Mayuram (3484), Thiruvarur (2920), Mannargudi (4200), Kilvelur (4500), Nannilam (3200), including 900 persons from Thiruvaiyaru for carrying out the vahanas for the festival.எஸ்.பாபாஜி ராஜா பான ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Madhuca Longifolia
''Madhuca longifolia'' is an Indian tropical tree found largely in the central, southern, north Indian plains and forests, Nepal, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. It is commonly known as madhūka, , mahuwa, Butter Tree, mahua, mahwa, , Iluppai or vippa chettu. It is a fast-growing tree that grows to approximately 20 meters in height, possesses evergreen or semi-evergreen foliage, and belongs to the family Sapotaceae. It is adaptable to arid environments, being a prominent tree in tropical mixed deciduous forests in India in the states of Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Gujarat, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. Uses It is cultivated in warm and humid regions for its oleaginous seeds (producing between 20 and 200 kg of seeds annually per tree, depending on maturity), flowers and wood. The fat (solid at ambient temperature) is used for the care of the skin, to manufacture soap or detergents, and as a vegetable butter. It ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mount Kailash
Mount Kailash (also Kailasa; ''Kangrinboqê'' or ''Gang Rinpoche''; Standard Tibetan, Tibetan: གངས་རིན་པོ་ཆེ; ; sa, कैलास, ), is a mountain in the Ngari Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region of China. It has an altitude of . It lies in the Gangdise Shan, Kailash Range (Gangdisê Mountains) of the Transhimalaya, in the western part of the Tibetan Plateau. Mount Kailash is less than 100 km towards the north from the western trijunction of the borders of China, India, and Nepal. Mount Kailash is located close to Lake Manasarovar and Lake Rakshastal. The sources of four major Asian rivers lie close to this mountain and the two lakes. These rivers are the Indus River, Indus, the Sutlej, the Brahmaputra River, Brahmaputra, and the Karnali River, Karnali (a tributary of the Ganges). Mount Kailash is considered sacred in four religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Bon. Etymology The mountain is known as “'” (; var. ' ) in Sanskrit. The nam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yali (mythology)
Yali ( ta, யாளி, IAST: Yāḷi), also called Vyala, is a Hindu mythological creature, portrayed with the head and the body of a lion, the trunk and the tusks of an elephant, and sometimes bearing equine features. The creature is represented in many South Indian temples, often sculpted onto the pillars. There also exist variations of the creature, with it possessing the appendages of other beasts. It has sometimes been described as a ''leogryph'' (part-lion and part-griffin), with some bird-like features, with the trunk referred to as a proboscis. Iconography Descriptions of, and references to, yalis are ancient, but they became prominent in South Indian sculptures in the 16th century. Yalis were described to be more powerful than the lion, the tiger, or the elephant. In its iconography, the yali has a cat-like graceful body, but the head of a lion with the tusks of an elephant (gaja), and the tail of a serpent. Sometimes, they have been shown standing on the back of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bhikshatana
Bhikshatana ( sa, भिक्षाटन; ; literally, "wandering about for alms, mendicancy") or Bhikshatana-murti () is an aspect of the Hindu god Shiva as the "Supreme mendicant" or the "Supreme Beggar". Bhikshtana is depicted as a nude four-armed man adorned with ornaments who holds a begging bowl in his hand and is followed by demonic attendants. Bhikshatana is considered a gentler form of Shiva's fierce aspect Bhairava and a gentle phase between Bhairava's two gruesome forms, one of which decapitates one head of the four headed god Brahma and the other of which kills the god Vishnu's gatekeeper. Bhikshatana is the form of Bhairava that Shiva assumes to atone for his sin of severing Brahma's fifth head. He wanders the universe in the form of a naked Kapali mendicant, begging for alms with Brahma's kapala (skullcup) as his begging bowl, until his sin is expiated upon reaching the holy city of Varanasi. Another legend describes Bhikshtana's visit to the Deodar (Pine) Fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Virabhadra
Virabhadra (), also rendered Veerabhadra, Veerabathira, and Veerabathiran, is a fierce form of the Hindu god Shiva. He is created by the wrath of Shiva, when the deity hurls a lock of his matted hair upon the ground, upon hearing of the self-immolation of his consort, Sati, at the Daksha yajna.the Horse-sacrifice of the Prajapati Daksha translated by Kisari Mohan Ganguli (1883–1896), Book 12: Santi Parva: Mokshadharma Parva: Section CCLXXXIV. p. 315 Mahadeva created from his mouth a terrible Being whose very sight could make one's hair stand on its end. The blazing flames th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manikkavacakar
Manikkavacakar, or Maanikkavaasagar ''(Tamil: மாணிக்கவாசகர், "One whose words are like gems")'', was a 9th-century Tamil saint and poet who wrote ''Tiruvasakam'', a book of Shaiva hymns. Speculated to have been a minister to the Pandya king Varagunavarman II (c. 862 CE–885 CE) (also called ''Arimarthana Pandiyan''), he lived in Madurai. He is revered as one of the Nalvar (''"group of four"'' in Tamil), a set of four prominent Tamil saints alongside Appar, Sundarar and Sambandar. The other three contributed to the first seven volumes (Tevaram) of the twelve-volume Saivite work Tirumurai, the key devotional text of Shaiva Siddhanta. Manikkavacakar's ''Tiruvasakam'' and Thirukkovaiyar form the eighth. These eight volumes are considered to be the ''Tamil Vedas'' by the Shaivites, and the four saints are revered as ''Samaya Kuravar'' (''religious preceptors'') His works are celebrated for their poetic expression of the anguish of being separated from Go ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sundarar
Sundarar (Tamil: சுந்தரர்), also referred to as Chuntarar, Chuntaramurtti, Nampi Aruran or Tampiran Tolan, was an eighth-century poet-saint of Tamil Shaiva Siddhanta tradition of Hinduism. He is among the Tevaram trio, and one of the most prominent Nayanars, the Shaiva bhakti (devotional) poets of Tamil Nadu. His hymns form the seventh volume of the ''Tirumurai'', the twelve-volume compendium of Shaiva Siddhanta. His songs are considered the most musical in ''Tirumurai'' in Tamil language. His life and his hymns in the Tevaram are broadly grouped in four stages. First, his cancelled arranged marriage through the intervention of Shiva in the form of a mad petitioner and his conversion into a Shaiva bhakt. Second, his double marriage to temple dancers Paravai and Cankali with their stay together in Tiruvarur. Third, his blindness and then return of his sight. Finally, his reflections on wealth and material goods. Names Sundarar is referred to by many names. Sunda ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Appar
Appar, also referred to as ( ta, திருநாவுக்கரசர்) or Navukkarasar, was a seventh-century Tamil Śaiva poet-saint. Born in a peasant Śaiva family, raised as an orphan by his sister, he lived about 80 years and is generally placed sometime between 570 and 650 CE.Zvelebil 1974, p. 95 Appar composed 4,900 devotional hymns to the god Shiva, out of which 313 have survived and are now canonized as the 4th to 6th volumes of ''Tirumurai''. One of the most prominent of the sixty-three revered Nayanars, he was an older contemporary of Thirugnana Sambandar. His images are found and revered in Tamil Shiva temples. His characteristic iconography in temples show him carrying a farmer's small hoe – a gardening tool and weed puller. Names Appar is also known as Tirunāvukkarasar (''lit.'' "King of the Tongue, Lord of Language"). His birth-name was Marulneekkiyar, and was renamed to Tharumasenar while he studied and later served as the head of a Jain monastery. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sambandar
Sambandar (Tamil: சம்பந்தர்), also referred to as Tirugnana Sambandar (lit. ''Holy Sage Sambandar''), Tirujnanasambanda, Campantar or Jñāṉacampantar, was a Shaiva poet-saint of Tamil Nadu who lived sometime in the 7th century CE. He was a child prodigy who lived just 16 years. According to the Tamil Shaiva tradition, he composed an of 16,000 hymns in complex meters, of which 383 (384) hymns with 4,181 stanzas have survived. These narrate an intense loving devotion (''bhakti'') to the Hindu god Shiva. The surviving compositions of Sambandar are preserved in the first three volumes of the ''Tirumurai'', and provide a part of the philosophical foundation of Shaiva Siddhanta. He is one of the most prominent of the sixty-three Nayanars, Tamil Shaiva bhakti saints who lived between the sixth and the tenth centuries CE. He was a contemporary of Appar, another Shaiva poet-saint.''Encyclopaedia of Jainism, Volume 1, page 5468'' Life Information about Sambandar c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agastya
Agastya ( kn, ಅಗಸ್ತ್ಯ, ta, அகத்தியர், sa, अगस्त्य, te, అగస్త్యుడు, ml, അഗസ്ത്യൻ, hi, अगस्त्य) was a revered Indian sage of Hinduism. In the Indian tradition, he is a noted recluse and an influential scholar in diverse languages of the Indian subcontinent. He and his wife Lopamudra are the celebrated authors of hymns 1.165 to 1.191 in the Sanskrit text ''Rigveda'' and other Vedic literature. Agastya is considered to be the father of Siddha medicine. Agastya appears in numerous itihasas and Puranas including the major ''Ramayana'' and ''Mahabharata''. He is one of the seven most revered rishis (the Saptarishi) in the Vedic texts, and is revered as one of the Tamil Siddhar in the Shaivism tradition, who invented an early grammar of the Old Tamil language, Agattiyam, playing a pioneering role in the development of Tampraparniyan medicine and spirituality at Saiva centres in pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dvarapala
A Dvarapala or Dvarapalaka (Sanskrit, "door guard"; IAST: ' ) is a door or gate guardian often portrayed as a warrior or fearsome giant, usually armed with a weapon - the most common being the ''gada'' (mace). The dvarapala statue is a widespread architectural element throughout Hindu, Buddhist and Jaina cultures, as well as in areas influenced by them like Java. Names In most Southeast Asian languages (including Thai, Burmese, Vietnamese, Khmer and Javanese), these protective figures are referred to as ''dvarapala''. Sanskrit ''dvāra'' means "gate" or "door", and ''pāla'' means "guard" or "protector". The related name in Indonesian and Malaysia is ''dwarapala''. Equivalent door guardians in northern Asian languages are ''Kongōrikishi'' or ''Niō'' in Japanese, ''Heng Ha Er Jiang'' in Chinese, and ''Narayeongeumgang'' in Korean. Origin and forms Dvarapalas as an architectural feature have their origin in tutelary deities, like Yaksha and warrior figures, such as A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
