The Pauranika description of Ayodhya nagara. It was first described by Narada muni to Skanda, who in turn describes it to Agastya muni.
The below Shlokas describe Ayodhya on the banks of the Sarayu river as a magnificent city on par with Indra's abode Amaravati. (1)
Ayodhya is described as a city full of elephants, horses, chariots & foot soldiers. It tops all cities in its richness & prosperity. It has numerous broad roads & great rampart walls & golden arched gateways resembling mountain ridges & peaks. (An artist's impression) (2)
Ayodhya's squares & crossroads are well planned and neatly maintained. There are many storeyed palaces with numerous artistic alterations & modifications in the walls. It is rendered splendid by many tanks with excellent water abounding in full blown lotuses. (3)
Ayodhya is said to be well adorned with shrines of deities possessing divine splendour and is always resounded with the sounds of the chanting of the Vedas which can be heard everywhere. (4)
The below Shlokas describe the various gardens of Ayodhya & its various flowering plants & trees. Among the trees mentioned are Saala(vatica robusta), coconut, palmyras, jackfruit, gooseberry, mango tress, wood apple, Ashoka tree.
Among flowers mentioned are mallika, bakula..(5)
...Paatali, naagapushpa, champaka, karaveera, karnikara, ketaki. Some of the other fruit bearing trees mentioned are nimbha(margosa), jambira, kadali(banana), matulinga(pomegranate). The city is always abound with the fragrance of sandalwood. (6)
Below Shlokas describe the citizens of Ayodhya. It has many kinds of citizens of high accomplishments such as princes having qualities of Devas, women of great beauty who are on par with Apsaras, eminent poets of great excellence, Brahmanas equal to Bṛhaspati in intelligence.(7)
.. And merchants and other citizens who are like the Kalpa vriksha.
The quality of horses in Ayodhya are on par with the Uchchaihshravas & the elephants comparable to Airavata, guarding all the directions of the city. Hence Ayodhya is compared to Indra's capital, Amaravati. (8)
It was here that kings of Suryavamsha with Ikshvaaku as the foremost one, were born. All of them were devoted to protection people. The city is built on the banks of the river Sarayu whose waters are meritorious. Its banks are echoed with humming of bees & chirping of birds. (9)
The Sarayu is a sparklingly clear and beautiful river with Manasa lake as its source. It is full of holy water. The touch of this river is as excellent as that of Ganga.
Such is the description of Ayodhya nagara as mentioned in the Ayodhya Mahatmya in the Skandapuranam.
/end
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Undoubtedly. His legendary work, the Samarangana Sutradhara has no parallel for its time. In this particular chapter in the Samarangana called Yantra-vidhanam, he describes the method of building pretty advanced mechanical devices like Golakabhramana, Jalayantra & many other.
Bhoja talks about a number of advanced mechanical devices which he calls as "Yantras"
He defines a Yantra as " The device by which the mahabhutas like earth,water,fire,air & ether are controlled. When the free & natural activities of these mahabhutas...cont...
..,the primary elements are made to act in a particular manner by means of some device, it is an Yantra"
A THREAD on the principles of Hindu iconography & iconometry. In order to fully be able to appreciate our ancient art,one must have a rudimentary knowledge of the various terminologies & methodologies employed by ancient artisans & builders. We'll dwell on that in this thread (1)
Before we proceed any further, I'd like you to have a look at the below THREAD on the ancient Hindu system of measurement. A lot of terminologies from there will be used here too. Get yourself acquainted with the different units of Hindu measurement (2)
The ancient Temple builders i.e. the Sthapatis, have consulted various Shastras in order to execute all their wondrous workmanship. The Shastras are many, yet there is much commonality than differences in them. (3)
The Hindu disease of one sided tolerance towards turushka danavas is nothing new. Great freedom fighter & founder of Bharatiya vidhya bhavan KM Munshi writes in the foreword of the book titled " The struggle for empire" which details the turushka invasion of Bharat in detail (1)
He writes "Indian kings, steeped in their tradition of tolerance, could
scarcely envisage the danger to which their policies towards Isl@m
exposed them. In spite of what was happening in North India, Indian
kings permitted foreigners to settle freely in their kingdoms..cont.. (2)
... and granted them free exercise of their religious practices. Even before
the Turkic invasion, some sects of isl@m had drifted into the country
and their religious and proselytising activities had not been interfered with...cont... (3)
"Although at that time there were very many temples of idols around the lake, when the Khwaja saw them, he said: If God and His Prophet so will, it will not be long before I raze to the ground these idol temples... (1)
... It is said that among those temples there was one temple to reverence which the Raja & all the infidels used to come. When khwaja settled there, every day his servants bought a cow, brought it there & slaughtered it & ate it... (2)
P.M. Currie, the author of the book "The Shrine and Cult of Muʻīn Al-Dīn Chishtī of Ajmer" notes:
There is evidence, more reliable than the tradition recorded in the Siyar al-Aqtab, to suggest that this was the case in Ajmer. Sculpted stones, apparently from a Hindu temple..(3)
A piece of advice for all Hindu men. Get into the culture of strength training. If you are thin & skinny, look at ways to add more mass. If you are overweight & obese, burn that fat away. In both cases the best way to achieve this is by adding muscle mass via weight training.
Weight training when complimented by rudimentary training in some kind martial arts will go a long way in self improvement. You'll find yourself to be a lot stronger, agile with good reflexes & reaction times. Focus on compound & explosive movements to build that power & speed.
Of course all this isn't going to turn you into some action hero figure where you'll be able to beat the crap out of a dozen people at a time.
But what it'll give you is a lot of self confidence. Tonnes of it. Will leave you with a fighting chance in tricky real life situations.
Along with Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, most abused & overused Sanskrit verse is:
"Ekam sad viprah bahudha vadanti"
Sitaram Goel in his book "Defense of Hindu Society" explores the psyche of "Hindus" using this verse out of context & the immense harm they have brought on themselves