The erstwhile grand capital of the Chola Kingdom, Thanjavur is an important trade and cultural hub of Tamil Nadu. With the river Kaveri flowing through the heart of it, surrounded by lush green paddy fields, doted by many temples, Thanjavur has so much to offer!
The most prominent, iconic identity of Thanjavur is the grand Brihadeeshwara Temple. This temple was constructed by Raja Raja Chola, the most illustrious among the Chola Dynasty. The temple, which is a magnificent and beautiful granite structure, is dedicated to Lord Shiva, as Brihadeeshwarar.
Here I go, with the pictorial description of the temple, the grandness of which, cannot be justified with any mere words!
The entrance tower – Gopuram of the temple, basked in the sunThe gigantic guard – Dwarapalaka, showing us the way to the Lord, or is he signifying the greatness of the One inside, by raising his arm?!Yazhi, a mythical creature, sculpted on one of the pillarsSilhouette of the grand templeThe metal flag mastThe beautifully carved stone spout, that guides the ritualistic ablution offerings – Abisheka, from the inner sanctumEntering into the holy sanctumA majestic view of the grand tower, over the sanctumThe granite tower over the sanctum, in all its splendor!One of the several stone carvings, that narrate an epic, in their own language!A smaller shrine within the complexNandi, the guard and mount of the Lord, observes in silence!Udaiyar Sri Raja Raja..as found on a stone edict, within the templeA detailed plan of the temple, placed within the premises
The grandness of the temple can be realized, only by paying a visit and respect to the vision and labor of the several hands, that made this wonder, stand the test of time, over a millennium, and going strong!
More about Thanjavur, coming up in the following post.
Continuing from my previous post – Vacation Chronicles ~ 1, here I go with my second post. Without any explanation, by the end of this post, you would know why ‘The stones are alive!’
Standing at the threshold of the mighty and impressive Chennakeshava Devasthana*, I wonder, Do I bow to the Lord Or the spirit of the sculptors? Then, I feel His charm And I bow to the Lord, who dwells in and as the soul of the sculptor, And of the stone!
The following pictures were taken at the ChennaKeshava Temple complex at Belur, Karnataka. ChennaKeshava expands to ‘Chennagi Iruva Keshava’ which means the Handsome Keshava, in Kannada. His temple is beautiful, but His charm is matchless!
Finally, we got time for our long pending, long family vacation/pilgrimage! And honestly I just cannot write about our week long vacation in a post, or even a series of posts! So I go with a summary of my experiences, thoughts, observations and happenings…
Raya Gopura – Melkote, Karnataka
Journey is a destination too… The journey through the dense forests of Sathyamangalam, along the course of the river Kaveri, next to the impressive Bhavani Sagar Dam, over the twisting roads of Mettupalayam, over the rough terrains of Ooty, kissing the bright Morning Glory creepers from the hilly terrains, over the bridges, through the tunnels, overlooking the tea estates, over the narrow roads adjacent to Pykara Lake, on the steep slopes overlooking the scary Frog Hill View Point, though the evergreen forests of Mudumalai, occasional sightings of a variety of monkeys and buffaloes, a rare sighting of an elephant, through the downsloping roads of Bandipur, through the broad regal roads of Mysore, through the sugarcane fields to Melkote, over the rough roads to Belur, on the dusty roads to Halebidu…oh wait! These are just the bus journey routes. Many times in life we forget that, real happiness is not a destination, but found all around through the journey!
Window to the world… It is the window which shows us the world, as we sit comfortably in our home, or a cosy bus/train. It is the window which makes one enjoy the sightings, like those which were mentioned above, to admire the beauty of nature and sing the praise of the Lord. One disturbing thing was that people tend to take (dis)advantage of these beautiful windows and the more beautiful vistas outside. And I honestly wish that every bus/train (with openable windows) have a Pleading/Warning in bold letters which says…“Windows are NOT DUSTBINS!”
Fragrance of a river… Believe me this river has a fragrance, an emotional connect to everyone related to the place though which it meanders, and is considered holier than the Ganga – the Kaveri. The fragrance, the warmth, the peace, the connect could be felt while cruising along its banks through Sathyamangalam, over the bridges at Mysore, over its canals at Mandya, along its banks at Srirangapatna, over the lush green sugarcane fields, the coconut groves, and my praise and admiration for this river can never stop!
Chennakeshava Temple – Belur, Karnataka
Love affair with a city… Ask me, ‘which is your favourite place?’ and my instant reply would be Mysore! One of the cleanest, greenest, less-congested, regal cities of India. The palaces, wide and clean roads, almost-nil traffic jams, greenery, crispy and mouthwatering dishes, well connectivity, humble and simple people, non-existent water woes, absence of crimes, cheaper lifestyle, and on and on. The list to fall in love with Mysore can be extended to one’s will!
One just can’t stop me from singing the praises for the places that I visited. Such was the mesmerization, enchantment that were present here. So continuing my chronicle in the next 2 posts too…
Life is short…a very popular quote, used and misused quite often. This pleasant monday morning, I saw someone on the television quoting that ‘life is short’ and a sudden thought…which life is short? Is it the materialistic life? or life of our fame? or life of the soul? or life of what we leave behind? or life of something that we’re yet to realize?
The materialistic life is measured in terms of ‘human’ years, and that is quite unpredictable. The span of this life could be long or short, and that depends on how one perceives it.
The life of the fame that we’ve acquired, reminds me of how Shakespeare quotes.. “His sceptre shows the force of temporal power” in The Merchant of Venice.
Speaking of the soul, or the life of soul, how can one actually determine of the age of a soul? Or can the soul even have a ‘life’? Life is a term which could be defined as something which has a definite beginning and a definite end. Soul begins at where it ends and ends at where it begins. The soul belongs to the infinite cosmos and it contained within it. The unmeasurable cosmos, in fact belongs to the soul and is contained within the soul too! Seems confusing right?!
C.S.Lewis said, “You do not have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body” If we consider ourself as the body, life could be short, indeed. But if we realise that we’re the soul, there is the answer!
This was a post pending for long, and finally I’ve got time to post. An office colleague who is also a good friend got married few days back, at her hometown Kumbakonam. Few guys of us not just attended the wedding, but also had a good time roaming about at Kumbakonam.
A town known for temples and festivals, it also had some of the warmest people i’ve ever met. The town, its streets, temple, people, their hospitality, wedding, food, ponds, fun, etc, etc could be elaborated over a series of lengthy posts! So rich was our experience in a short stay of two days. And here goes my short picture chronicle on our Kumbakonam trip…
Sarangapani Temple undergoing renovation. We had a pleasant time praying to the handsome Sarangapani, with the temple not much crowded while we visited on the Saturday morning.The famed Mahamaham pond, right at the heart of Kumbakonam, getting decked up for the Mahamaham festival to be held next year.Porthamarai pond behind the Sarangapani Temple. The temple seen here behind this pond is AdhiKumbeshwarar Temple. Kumbakonam is a town with so many temples, that when you exit from a temple, you enter into another!Another enchanting view of the Porthamarai pond.Nageshwarar Temple. Another hub of peace and serenity.The elephant of AdhiKumbeshwarar Temple, who was dancing with joy and was only happy to bless us too!A bright and colourful view of the Kumbakonam skyline at twilight. Can you spot a lone star twinkling?The A/C bus stop here. Chennai needs some of these very badly!Hey, that’s me at the friend’s wedding!
As stated earlier, it’d take a series of lengthy posts to talk about the rich and awesome experiences we had at Kumbakonam. And these pictures talk about few of them!
As I was typing my previous post on women, a sudden thought led to the creation of this post too. I wanted to publish on three of my favourite fictional women from movies. (Please don’t ponder or question on ‘why three’? For some odd reason I love the number three, and making a short list in three’s 😀 ) And here I go…
Shanichari – Rudaali
This movie depicts the life of a Rudaali – profession mourner, played by Dimple Kapadia. I watched this movie on a women’s day, telecast on Doordarshan, few years back. (I still remember, my annual exams were a week apart, and I was going to watch an ‘old and boring’ movie) The movie is a slow moving one, but deeply touching. Shanichari (character portrayed by Dimple) faces a lot of trouble in her life – she loses her husband, falls in debt, her son deserts her, but nothing can dampen her spirit. She wonders throughout the movie, how can someone(referring to the profession mourners) mourn for some unknown and unrelated person, until an incident changes her life. Shanichari from the movie Rudaali is still one of my favourite fictional character.
Madhura – Sringaram
This movie portrays the life of devadasis, set in the pre-independence era. The character Madhura (played by Aditi Rao Hydari) is a bold, young, beautiful, talented devadasi. She loves and craves for a life of freedom, which is denied to her, given her profession and status in the society. All the riches that she possess doesn’t bring any meaning to her life. When she couldn’t take it anymore, she moves away from the clutches of the society, to lead a life that she wishes. The story unfolds as a flashback story heard by Madhura’s daughter, Varshini (also played by Aditi Rao Hydari) Madhura is one character gracefully portrayed, that i’d love watching her again and again.
Elsa – Frozen
Queen Elsa is a bit more popular, that she needs not much of an introduction. She is my favourite Disney character after Mickey Mouse. Elsa didn’t need a charming dude to make her life beautiful, she had to fight evil and demons within herself, there were things she had to Let it Go, she had powers that were amazing but fearsome too, and these make her a queen, and not a princess! And ‘Let it Go’ could be listened to a thousand times, yet bring out the emotions, powerful every time ~ (The song of judgement)
A common thread that connects the story of these women is that, they wanted a life where they could be themselves, not hiding anything of theirs, just because the society didn’t accept or approve of the facts! They never let fate take over, and fought back to lead a life of their own.
And I got to watch Interstellar yesterday. Your timeline would be filled with the reviews, opinions, what was understood, what wasn’t understood, what needs to be understood, what he thought, what she did, this, that about that movie. Yes, it was almost worth all these hype. And I don’t want to add more to this overdosage of information.
Im not that much of a movie buff. I wouldn’t have written much about movies too in my blog. Anyway I’m a closeted Nolan fan (very few of my friends knew it, and now you)
Along the movie I couldn’t stop myself from comparing it with some other ones, though I did enjoy it. And I didn’t feel it was as confusing as expected (I’m waiting to lay my hands on that idiot who said Interstellar is going to be 10 times more complex than Inception..Grrrr) Should be because I concentrated well.
As said earlier, some movies that I got reminded were Space Odessey, Contact, Inception, Total Recall, Zathura, Gravity, Avatar. Still Interstellar made a mark of its own and will stay as an amazing movie. But Inception will always be a more awesome movie for me because…
The last 1 second of Inception increased my awe and respect for it, by a huge exponent! The last 1 minute of Interstellar decreased my awe for it, by a few rounds!
Words & Lines 