This day also has a reference in the Hindu epic of Mahabharata, according to which Bhishma had declared his intention to leave his body today. He kept lying on a bed of arrows till this day and then left his body on Makar Sankranti.
In the Holy Scriptures it is believed that Surya Bhagwan visits the house of his son Shani on this day. Despite some differences between each other, lord Surya makes it a point to meet his son on sankaranti. Thus, symbolising a special bond between a father and his son.
Sankranti is a Hindu festival celebrated in various cultures in almost all parts India & Nepal.
This Harvest festival has different names in different states but the essence of this festival is same accross the country. Respect the #Farmer,
Farm Animals & the Farm Harvest.
The word 'Sankranti' literally means 'movement'. Hence, the festival precisely denotes the movement of the Sun into Makar zodiac. On the day of Makar Sankranti festival, the duration of the day and that of the night is equal making it one of the oldest solstice festivals.
On this day a Shobha Yatra (graceful procession) is carried out. People greet each other with joy, taking sugarcane & dry coconut.
Farmers of Chamarajanagar celebrate by jumping over fires along with their decorated bulls.
Lohri is an extremely popular festival celebrated by the Punjabi people. Traditionally associated with the harvest of the rabi crop, people celebrate Lohri with feasting, exchange of gifts, and songs and dance around bonfires. Women perform 'kikli'.
Uzhavar in Tamil means the farmer and Thirunal mean the festival. Pongal is popularly known as Uzhavar Thirunal acknowledged as a way to thank and honor livelihood of farmers. It's a 4 day festival
1)Bhogi
2)Pongal
3)Mattu Pongal 4) Kaanum
Women cook Pongal, a sweet dish made from rice from the first harvest, as an offering to the Sun God.
Members of the Gangireddulu nomadic tribe sing songs along with Haridasus visiting each home.
People take a dip in the holy Ganges to purify themselves on this day.
Later, mouth watering sweets & aroma of fresh harvest rice is served.
Santhal women perform a dace.
It is the last day of the Hindu month of Poush and marks the beginning of Magha.
The holy occasion is marked by ceremonial bathing in the sacred rivers or streams. In each and every house of Jammu and Kashmir Havan or Yagnas are performed. This indicates the driving away of the evil spirits and welcoming of the good ones.
Gujaratis believe Uttarayan marks the day when winter begins to turn into summer. It is the sign for farmers that the sun is back and that harvest season is approaching which is called Mahasankranti.
In Odisha, any festival is first to be celebrated at Puri in Jagannath Temple. Makar Sankranti is observed as Uttarayana Yatra of Lord Jagannath with lots of love, devotion and infinite faith, people offer a special kind of newly harvested rice.
Nepali Hindus celebrate this festival by taking ritual dip in holy river confluences, most notably in Devghat, Chitwan. People worship Lord Vishnu during the month by offering him pujas and reading the sacred Bhagwad Gita, also known as The Song of the Gods.
Traditionally, it was believed that winter brought in a lot of germs and caused illness and flu. Thus, a huge number of people would turn up during Makar Sankranti & in the following months to bask in the morning sun, hoping to get rid of bacteria & also fly kites in the process.
Bhishma has boon from his father. He can choose the time of his death according to his wish. After lying on the bed of arrows for 23 days, he chose Makar Sankranti to leave his mortal self. That is why there is a belief that those who die during this period will have no rebirth.
The Lord Krishna and Sankranti
Makar Sankranti or Bhogi also has a tale from the antics of Lord Krishna. Apparently, on the Bhogi day, Lord Krishna asked his cow herd friends to worship the Govardhan Mountain instead of Lord Indra. Lord Indra felt deeply insulted..
Lord Indra's anger sent heavy clouds to cause thunder, lightning, rain and floods. In order to protect the farmers and their cattle, Lord Krishna lifted the Govardan Mountain on his last finger and stopped the havoc.
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She became the first Indian woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic religious congregation, giving her life to social work.
Kalpana Chawla:
She became the first Indian woman in space. The first time Kalpana Chawla went into space on a space shuttle was in 1997 as a mission specialist and a primary robotic arm operator.
Justice M. Fathima Beevi:
In 1989, Justice M. Fathima Beevi became the first female judge who was appointed to the Supreme Court of India.
This temple is also called as Raja Rajesvaram temple or Brihadeeswarar Temple or Gangaikonda Cholapuram Temple.
There are around 107 paragraphs written here. The king himself gave instructions on how to carve the inscriptions.
This is the only temple in the whole of India, wherein the king himself has left behind a very large number of inscriptions on the temple's construction, the daily rituals to be performed for the Linga, the details of the offerings such as jewellery, flowers, textiles.etc
I am sure, you know about Mangal pandey, Bhagat singh and their great heroic sacrifice. But most of us doesn't even have heard about the Maruthu Pandiyar brothers, the rulers of Sivaganga kingdom.
On Oct 24,1801,they were publicly hanged to death at Tirupputhur fort by British.
On October 24, 1801, along with maruthu brothers, their sons, their young grandsons, fellow rebels, commanders and servants, were publicly hanged to death at the Tirupputhur fort of southern #TamilNadu. supposedly from palmyra trees around the fort.
With those mass executions, the British East India Company and its allies successfully put an end to a fierce rebellion by the Southern kingdoms of India – a revolt that is little remembered, and barely finds mention in history textbooks. Not even #NCERTS
Everyone knows about "The Rani of Jhansi, Lakshmibai". But only few of us know about the Kittur Chennamma, the Queen of Kittur.
She was one of the first Indian rulers to lead an armed rebellion against the British in 1824, for implementing the Doctrine of Lapse.
She was born in 1778, 56 years before the 1857 revolt led by Rani Lakshmi Bai, thus becoming, one of the first women freedom fighters to have fought against the British rule in India.
She belonged to the #Lingayat community and received training in horse riding, sword fighting and archery from a young age. She was well known throughout her village for her bravery. She was married to the king of Kittur.
This large rectangular, water-filled structure may look like a small reservoir, but in fact, it is an ancient dock which is the oldest in the world. Yes, the World’s Oldest Dock is at #Lothal#Gujarat
Lothal is 85km from Ahmedabad. It is one of the Indus valley civilization site
Lothal is believed to be at least 5,000 yrs old & was the only port-town of the Indus Valley Civilization. Lothal’s dock connected the city to the Sabarmati river which was an important trade route between Harappan cities in Sindh (now in Pakistan) & the peninsula of Saurashtra..
At that time, the surrounding Kutch desert of was a part of the Arabian Sea.
The dock is roughly 200 meters long and about 35 meters wide. During high tides, the dock would have filled with seawater allowing ships and boats to move in an out of the dockyard...
Back in the 19th cent, British separated Eastern India from the westn India by an impenetrable belt of trees mostly made up of thorny plants. British formed a man-made barrier, all the way from Layyah in Punjab (now in Pakistan) to Burhanpur, on the banks of Narmada, 1000km long.
Why do you think #British had planted these trees accross 1000's of kms. ??
These plants were planted by the British in the 1840s to strengthen the Inland #customs Line, so that the British can exploit one of the most basic ingredients of every Indian food—salt.
This1000+ km strech of thorny plantation is called the Great Hedge of India.