How ancient of Indian history,
Did you know that ancient of Indian history, the only cave sculpture of a boat is at the Kanheri Caves in Mumbai ancient Indian? “It is located on an island called Salsheti, which is now connected to the mainland. ancient of Indian history The sculpture dates back to the 2nd Century AD and represents a shipwreck with two men praying to the god Padmapani, the first-ever indication of maritime voyage through sculpture,” narrated D Hemachandra Rao while speaking on Indian Antiquity – Boats and Ships in Sculptures, as part of Tamil Heritage Trust’s monthly talk at the Arkay Convention Centre.Though his passion for the topic was ignited at a young age, ancient Indian Rao practiced as an architect until 2001. After that, he dived into the subject of ancient ships, boats, and lighthouses, initially chronicling the history of bridges and canals in the city. As misleading information pushed him to find more, he spent many years poring over books at the Tamil Nadu Archives, finally embarking on a tour across India with Vincent D’Souza. The two stopped at temples, historical sites, and lighthouses along the western and eastern coast, searching for heritage in lesser-known villages and temples ancient Indian.
With a compilation of personal photographs and historical facts, Rao weaved in rich anecdotes from his travels, exhibiting postcards from every location as an effort to personally document his journey, “This is not my original work and I have merely tried to compile and verify the various sources of information.” Fondly known as the Lighthouse Man, he is also the founder of the city’s first Maritime Heritage Museum, a collection of dhow models, anchors, coins, ship lanterns, postcards, and stamps, that is set up in his home.
Rao began his talk with memories of the journey and then took his audience through the chronological order of excavated sites, rock art, caves, temples, seals, numismatics, and sculptures, emphasizing on the significance of the depiction of maritime voyages in Indian sculpture as an indication of our maritime prowess. In frescoes at the Ajanta Cave, one can see four types of sailboats or ships, while the stupas of Sanchi and Amaravati present relief panels on the gateway, each symbolic of the cultural and religious significance of their time.
ancient of Indian history Five temples in Tamil Nadu depict boats through sculptures, predominantly on the walls and pillars. At the Thirubhuvanai temple near Puducherry, a panel on the outer wall of the Sri Vardharaja Perumal temple depicts a boat with a raised and upturned prow, a raised stern which is seen higher than the prow. The famous river crossing scene from The Ramayana also makes an appearance in the temple of Pullamangai, like carvings of Rama, Sita, Lakshmana, and their boatman Guha crossing the Ganges form a part of the panels that run around the temple. However, the panel is damaged, and Rao brought his talk to the topic of vandalism and the lack of maintenance, “In many places, there are poor conditions surrounding these sculptures, usually through a lack of awareness. In many cases, I have had to resort to line diagram illustrations, a method used to document and project what the original artwork could have looked like.”
This talk was the 127th in the monthly lecture series by the Tamil Heritage Trust, a 10-year-old organization that promotes and documents the different aspects of heritage through workshops, study tours, and seminars. Their upcoming Pechu Kutcheri will be a two-day event about Pandya heritage. Speaking to Badri Seshadri of the Trust, Rao concluded, “Often, experts or enthusiasts present lectures on history, temple architecture, religion and iconography in heritage. We feel it is important
to introduce lesser-known topics to people so that it builds interest and awareness among the youth
India Braces for Ruling on Ancient Hindu-Muslim Dispute
Ayodhya Ram Mandir, India—This ancient city has long been the center of a struggle for the soul of India.Ayodhya Babri masjid After a nearly 70-year-long legal battle, the Supreme Court of India is about to decide who gets control of a small patch of land here, in a case that pits Hindus against Muslims—and could reshape the world’s largest democracy.
“I have been waiting for the day,” said Hajari Lal, a 61-year-old Hindu activist who arrived here 27 years ago in a movement to build a temple on a site where a mosque stood for hundreds of years.
Mr. Lal said he joined the mass of demonstrators who tore down the mosque on that day in 1992. Inspired, he decided to stay until the hoped-for temple rose.
The Supreme Court is expected to announce a ruling Saturday concerning the site where the mosque stood, prompting the government to expand the robust presence of local police and soldiers in the city.
Hindu litigants insist the site is the exact birthplace of the deity Ram.
Temple pillars have been carved and sculpted at the Vishwa Hindu Parishad workshop, over a mile away from the disputed site, since 1990.
Muslims here are deeply anxious. They worry about being targeted by violence in the aftermath of the ruling. Large numbers of Hindu activists are expected to arrive in the coming days.
They also see the case as a test of whether the judiciary will join a rising wave of Hindu nationalism.
“It’s not a question of one mosque. It’s about how the country is to be governed,” said Zafaryab Jilani, the main lawyer for Muslim litigants.
The litigation started in 1950 and has been debated in India’s highest court for the past nine years. The court has even granted legal standing to the deity Ram, authorizing one of the litigants to stand in for him.
Muslim litigants seek a ruling that removes the statue of Ram now enshrined on the site and allows the mosque to be rebuilt. They fear a contrary decision could embolden Hindu nationalists to pursue similar cases with thousands of other mosques around the country that they insist are also built over temples.
Such are the political and social currents at work in a nation that within a few years will be the world’s most populous country.
Hindu nationalists want a ruling that entrenches special recognition of the culture and interests of India’s Hindu majority.
Zafaryab Jilani, the main lawyer for Muslim litigants, at his office in Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh.
Opponents say officially treating India as a Hindu society would break the country’s tradition of encouraging and protecting the rights of all religions. “The constitution says that every religion will be given equal treatment before the law,” Mr. Jilani said.
Hindus make up about 80% of Indians, while Muslims make up about 14%. Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Christians and Zoroastrians make up most of the rest.
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi has entered his second term with assertions of Hindu nationalism that the core supporters of his Bharatiya Janata Party have long pursued. Since a May BJP electoral landslide, the government has stripped autonomy from India’s only Muslim-majority state, Jammu and Kashmir; advocated denying citizenship to some Muslim immigrants in the state of Assam; and moved to make Muslims conform to personal and family civil laws they have been exempted from and many deeply oppose.
Yet nothing ranks higher on the Hindu-nationalist wish list than seeing a temple built on the spot where they believe, based on scant historic evidence, the god Ram was born.
Two years ago, Mr. Modi appointed a firebrand Hindu priest to head Ayodhya’s state, Uttar Pradesh. The new chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, has poured money into revitalizing Hindu sites and presided over the lighting of a world-record 600,000 oil lamps during a pilgrimage in Ayodhya last month. The state is promoting a shopping, entertainment and hotel complex to be built not far from the site, with an 820-foot statue of Ram.
Hindu pilgrims taking a holy dip in the Sarayu River flowing by Ayodhya and near the disputed site on Tuesday.
Violence has erupted around the temple dispute, often instigated by Hindu activists who travel to the site. In 1992, tens of thousands of Hindu activists marched from hundreds of miles away and destroyed the mosque, known as the Babri Masjid.
Mr. Modi’s tenure as chief minister of the nearby Indian state of Gujarat was marred by a 2002 incident in which almost 60 Hindus traveling home to Gujarat from Ayodhya were killed when the train they were on caught fire. That sparked rioting in Gujarat that left more than a 1,000 dead, most of them Muslims.
Critics blamed Mr. Modi for not doing more to prevent and stop the violence. Mr. Modi has said he wasn’t to blame. Two investigations into the fire’s cause came to opposing conclusions as to whether it was deliberately set.
Local newspapers report some of the city’s roughly 100,000 permanent residents, of which fewer than 10,000 are Muslim, are stocking up on food in case there is trouble.
“[The] Muslim community is scared right now. It’s because we are in minority and we have to suffer whatever happens to us,” said Hafiz Ishtiyaqe Ahmad, a 32-year-old Muslim teacher and shopkeeper who lives in a Muslim neighborhood close to the disputed site. “That’s what happened in 1992 when the mosques were destroyed, our houses were put on fire.”
Hindu pilgrims in Ayodhya on Tuesday.
Mr. Modi and other leaders on both sides have urged their communities to accept the court’s ruling without celebration or public protest.
As always at this time of year, millions of Hindus course through the city every week to visit Hindu holy sites and attend festivals, ceremonies and pilgrimages.
They wait in long queues—chanting, “Hail Lord Ram!”—to pay homage for just a few seconds to the idol of a baby Ram that was smuggled into the mosque one night in 1949, setting the court battle in motion.
Satyendra Das, the 80-year-old government-appointed head priest of the makeshift temple at the disputed site since 1992, offers sweets and food to the idol each day. Then, these days, he sits in his tiny room in front of the television news, an image of Ram at his back, waiting for the ruling to be announced.
“Ayodhya has gone through many changes over the millennia. Many things came up and many things went down,” he said. “I knew that this dispute will take a long time to be resolved because it’s been going on since 1528. Now, there is some hope of a solution.”
Satyendra Das has been the government-appointed head priest of the makeshift Ram temple at the disputed site since 1992.
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