Pandharpur, west of Solapur in Maharashtra, is one of the major pilgrimage sites. Vithoba or Vithala or Panduranga is worshipped in Pandharpur. Vithoba is a form of Krishna. His consort is Rukmini. Pandharpur Vari is the yatra of Varkaris the followers of saints of Maharashtra, notably, Jnaneesvar and Tukaram. Every year, they reach Pandharpur on the Ekadashi of the Ashadha month carrying Palkhis. The main Palkhis start from Alandi and Dehu and meet in Pune. Palkhis of several other saints also join the pilgrimage. They reach Pandharpur on the Ashadha Shukla 10th. The Varis have been a continuous tradition for several centuries and had united the masses.

Source: Immortal India Volume 1 by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.

One of the most enduring motifs throughout Indian art has been Shiva and Parvati playing a game of dice. The Puranic tradition insists that the entire world is created as a result of this divine play between Shiva and Parvati, representing Purusha and Prakriti, with each move of the players mirroring different states of the world, potential or realised. The dice game between Shiva & Parvati is depicted in many sculptures especially in Western India. Traditionally, Shiva loses but there are a few rare reliefs where Shiva wins by cheating. On such occasions, Parvati lifts her hand and expresses vismaya or amazement. Vismaya is an important part of Shiva–Parvati games.

In the picture – Sculpture at Ellora. Parvati defeats Shiva at gambling. She asks with Her hand in the quizzical mode as to why He is cheating. He asks for one more chance by raising His right index finger.

This is very vividly captured in this Deepavali Special Edition of Kalki, a Tamil magazine in the year 1965.

Source: Hindu Festivals and Sacred Days, Ramakrishna Math

https://www.sahapedia.org/towards-cultural-history-indian-board-games-backgammon-chaupar-and-chaturanga

Picture Credit: https://indianexpress.com/article/religion/yours-faithfully-when-goddess-parvati-defeated-lord-shiva-at-dice-on-mount-kailash-4896859/

Kalki, 1965

For much of the Buddhist world, Vesak, also called Buddha Day, Visakha Puja, or Wesak, is the most important day of the year. The name Vesak is derived from the name of the month in the Indian calendar, today called Vaisakha. The holiday falls on a full moon and can take place anytime from late April through early June on the Gregorian calendar, with Buddhist countries celebrating on different days. Vesak is also called Buddha Purnima (“full moon celebration”) or Buddha Jayanti. By the 1950s, many Asian countries celebrated International Vesak Day, and in 1999 the United Nations recognized it as an international holiday.

The picture is from Ajanta Caves.

Picture Credit: S. R. Ramanujam

The tribals of Jharkhand worship their sacred groves which are known as ‘sarnas.’ Such a grove must have at least five sal trees, which are held to be sacred. It is in these groves that the tribes of Chotanagpur venerate their God and spirits. The Sarhul festival is celebrated when the sal tree starts flowering, usually in the first fortnight of the month of chaitra, coinciding with the beginning of the new year in these regions. It is usually a three-day event. However, some groups worship it for a month-long period till the time jyeshtha (or jeth) arrives. Etymologically, ‘sar’ refers to sal tree while ‘hul’ is a collective beginning.

Worship of sacred groves is an all India phenomenon and is very pronounced in Kerala, coastal Karnataka and Coorg.

Source: Hinduism and Nature, Nanditha Krishna
Outlook India

Picture Credit: Gurpreet Singh, Wikimedia Commons

Raj Jat is the “Royal Procession” of the goddess Nanda Devi through the mountains of Uttarakhand. It is over a duration of 19 days and is conducted every 12 years (though not always). Goddess Nanda Devi leaves her home at Nauti near Karnaprayag and travels through Roopkund to her in law’s home at Hom Kund at a height of 5200 mts. A sheep leads the procession and rests beside the Goddess’s palanquin during the intervening campsites.

Interestingly, Mahalaya, which marks the commencement of Durga Puja, is interpreted as the great journey in Bengal. It is the journey of the Devi from Himalayas to Her father’s house. In Bengal and other eastern parts of India, Durga Puja is celebrated as the homecoming of Maa Durga and Her children to Her maternal house, “maika.”

Source: Nanda Raj Jat: Mahakumbha of Uttaranchal. Rakesh K Maikhuri et al.

Picture Credit: vaibs_14oct flickr.com

Mawsynaram is also in Meghalaya and is close to Cheerapunjee. Mawsynaram records were not as reliable as Cheerapunjee, but the available records suggest that the mean annual rainfall in Mawsynaram is 1141 cm. This is a little higher than Cheerapunjee’s.

Both these places lie on the southern slopes of Khasi hills, at the end of a deep valley running from south to north. The monsoon winds blow from the south and are trapped within the valley and eventually strike these two places at the end of the valley. That is what causes immense rain in these two places.

Source: The Monsoons, P.K.Das

Picture Credit: The Atlantic

Daksha was the Son of Brahma. His daughter Sati was married to Shiva, Rudra. Daksha was performing a great yagna lasting many many years. Daksha felt offended as Rudra did not pay respects to him during the yagna. Since then Rudra and Daksha were not in good terms. Daksha continued the Yagna. As the Yagna was nearing culmination, several Devas were headed there. Sati heard about this and wished to go to her father’s house. She told Rudra that the rightful place for a daughter then is to be at her father’s place. Rudra advised her against going citing that Daksha would not respect her. Sati did not pay heed and went to the Yagna without Rudra.

As predicted by Rudra, she was humiliated at the Yagna. Unable to bear this, she gave up her life in the Yagna. Rudra became ferocious on hearing this news. He took the form of Veerabhadra. His head touched the skies. His three eyes resembled three suns. He wore a garland of skulls. He reduced the place of Yagna to ashes. He then beheaded Daksha.

He picked up the body of Sati and started Tandava, the dance of destruction. Frightened by the Tandava the Devas pleaded to Vishnu to stop the destruction. Vishnu cut off the body of Sati into several parts with his Sudarshana Chakra so that Rudra would eventually stop the Tandava. The body parts of Sati fell into 51 sacred tirthas all over India which are called Shakti Peeths.

The site of Yagna is in Kankhal close to Haridwar in Uttarakhand. The picture is of the Daksheshwara temple in Kankhal.

Picture Credit: SR Ramanujam

The Khandoba temple in Jejuri near Pune celebrates the Bhandara festival. Officially it is the Somavati Amavasya festival, the new moon that coincides with a Monday. It doesn’t have a fixed date in any calendar and can happen twice or thrice in a year. Khandoba, a manifestation of Shiva, is the deity in Jejuri. On the day of the Bhandara celebration, Khandoba and his consort Mhalsa are taken to the river for a bath and then brought back in a procession. Immense quantities of turmeric mixed with coconut powder are thrown all around, turning everything yellow. The festival is a daylong affair.

Jejuri is also believed to be the location where Shivaji met his father, Shahaji, after a decade during which his father was busy with southern exploits.

Turmeric is also the medium of celebration of Holi in Kerala by Konkani migrants. The festival, which is otherwise not celebrated by natives of Kerala, is called ManjalKuli.

Source: Temples and Legends of Maharastra, M.S Mate

Picture Credit: Zee News

British rule in India was marked by series of famines & plagues. In 1897, a plague raged through Pune region. In the name of firm administration soldiers committed many excesses. Pune already was a hotbed of revolt under the influence of Lokmanya Tilak. The Chapekar brothers, Damodar & Balakrishna assassinated William Rand, the plague commissioner and his assistant on Ganeshkind Road as they attended a program to celebrate Queen Victoria’s jubilee. The British clamped down. The Chapekar brothers were betrayed by some friends, arrested and hanged. Tilak was tried and sent to prison for incitement. But the incident inspired the first generation of revolutionaries.

The Wikimedia image shows the Chapekar memorial in Pune.

Sangha is the monastic order of Buddha. “Sangham Sharnam Gatchami,” ( I take refuge in the Sangha), is a basic Buddhist chant. Sangha is one among the Triratnas (Three Jewels) of Buddhism, the other two being Buddha and Dhamma.

Mahabharata and Panini use the term Sangha to describe a republic. The rules of the monastic order of Buddha were modelled on the rules of the republics in his time. The Mahaparinibbana­suttanta, a Buddhist text, mentions that the rules for conducting the Buddhist sangha were based in principle on those commonly found in political sanghas or ganas.

Prof Jayaswal says, “The birth of the religious brotherhood of Buddha from the constitutional womb of an Indian republic is of interest to the world.” The key organizational virtue of Sangha was the full participation (like in a republic) of all the monks in the ritual and disciplinary acts of their group.

Source: KP Jayaswal, “Hindu Polity”;
C Rajendran, “Democratic Principles in the Polity of Ancient India”, SVU Oriental Journal, Golden Jubilee Volume.
Steve Muhlberger, “Democracy in Ancient India”

Picture Credit: Wikimedia Commons, “The Buddha preaches the Vessantara Jataka to the Sangha and his Family, Chedi Traiphop Traimongkhon Temple, Hatyai”

On the lines of the Tolstoy Ashram of South Africa, Gandhi started his first Indian ashram at Kochrab in 1915. He took in a Dalit family in the ashram. This led to drying up of funds. He was then quietly supported by the industrialist Ambalal Sarabhai. Ironically, Gandhi would lead a workers agitation in Sarabhai’s mills but they remained friends. They moved their ashram to the banks of Sabarmati in Ahmedabad after two years on account of plague outbreak. This ashram became his home for many years.

In the 1930s he shifted to Sevagram near Wardha in Maharashtra. Sevagram was a model of village industries that Gandhi championed. Bajaj was intent on fighting imported clothes made from Indian raw material and collaborated with Gandhi. He even went to jail in the Quit India agitation of 1942.

Source: Livemint, “The Gandhi You Know, and the One you Don’t.”

Picture: The Wikimedia image shows Gandhi’s residence at Sevagram.

The Utsava murti, the representation of the deity is placed in a makhar. The makhar is a swing of elaborate woodwork or silver which is decorated with coloured papers, mirrors, intricate beadwork, embriodery and colourful flowers. The objective is to create a peaceful or joyous environment for the deities, resembling the swing of a child.

Source: When Devi Comes home. Bibek Debroy and Anuradha Goyal.

Picture Credit: Soul Travelling

Gurudwara Nankana Sahib was built around 1600 CE and renovated under Maharaja Randhir Singh in 1819-20. It is about 90 kms west of Lahore in Pakistan.

Source: Sikh Shrines in India, G.S.Randhir

Picture Credit: Wikimedia Commons

By the time Ravana was killed, Lanka had been devastated. Vibhishana sought a blessing from Rama to build a new capital on the western coast and chose Kelaniya, near Colombo. A Buddhist temple is at the site of Vibhishana’s palace and houses the only temple to Vibhishana in the world. There are deities of Vibhishana in temples near Rameswaram but those are not solely dedicated to him. The coronation of Vibishnana by Lakshmana is also represented in a sculpture in Kelaniya.

Source
Footsteps of Rama, Vikrant Pande and Neelesh Kulkarni.
Ramayana in Lanka

Picture Credit
https //kelaniyatemple.lk/

Shyamji Verma, a Kutchi from Gujarat was a Sanskrit scholar who joined Oxford in the 1880s. He also completed law, returned to India to become dewan of three princely states and then went back to London and made a fortune with stock trading. With his money, he established India House for students.

Vinayak Savarkar arrived in 1906 to study law and converted it into a hotbed of revolutionaries. Many great personalities like Gandhi ji and Lenin are said to have visited India House to meet rebel students.