Namaste friends🙏 Had the good fortune of having a darshana at one of the most iconic temples of Bharat last week, the ancient Pallava era Kailasanatha Temple at Kanchi.

This is a thread on the temple's history, architecture & sculptures. There is so much to share. Do read. 🕉️





Firstly, brief history of the temple. It was built during the 8th century by Pallava emperor Rajasimha. The temple also goes by the name Rajasimheshwara. This temple served as the architectural blueprint for the Chalukyas & later Rashtrakutas for their temples at Vatapi & Ellora.

A detailed THREAD on the history, architecture & sculpture of the Hoysala built Chennakeshava Temple at Somanathapura, Karnataka.

This is going to be a long one & it took me a while to piece all the information together. Do continue reading till the end. Lets's start 🕉️ (1)

The Keshava temple was constructed by Somanatha Dandanayaka on receiving funds from reigning King Narasimha III. This temple was consecrated in 1238 CE & is considered the last major temple building activity undertaken by the Hoysalas. (2)

A Thread on the history, architecture, paintings and sculpture at The Veerabhadra swamy temple in Lepakshi, Andhra. The temple represents the awe inspiring architectural brilliance of the Vijayanagara Empire. (1)



Hanumalinga shrine is located at the southwest corner of the pradaksina path that surrounds the garbhagrha & antarala (vestibule) of the Veerabhadra shrine. The entrance to this shrine is situated in the southwest corner of the pradaksina wall. (57)

Da Vinci was undoubtedly a great innovator. But 500 years before him was Paramara Bhoja. He authored the Samarangana Sutradhara, a multi disciplinary text, where he describes building advanced warfare machines including mechanized soliders! This is 500 years before Da Vinci! (1)

https://twitter.com/AKASHBH95801446/status/1528407739411886085

Bhoja's legendary work, the Samarangana Sutradhara has no parallel for its time. In this particular chapter called Yantra vidhanam, he describes the method of building advanced mechanical devices like Golakabhramana, Jalayantra & many others. (2)

THREAD. Chief reasons for the decline of Buddhism in India listed out by historian scholar PV Kane.

1) People realised the dangers of buddhist teachings of constantly being preached on how the world is a place of suffering & giving up on all desires etc

(1) 2) Hindu concept of 4 Ashrama system gave men a real purpose in life. Inculcated discipline in them, unlike Buddhist philosophy that threatened the very stability & continuance of human society that gradually led to loss of physical & mental vitality, idleness & race suicide
(2)

After turushka invader muhammad khalji destroyed nalanda & vikramashila, his hordes set eye in tibet. On the way back, his men were ambushed by Vallabhadeva's army. Vallabhadeva was the then ruler of Assam. In the battle many turushkas were killed. An inscription records this. For the next century and a half, turushkas kept trying to push into Assam & failed. Some were mortally wounded & their armies destroyed. Resistance to turushkas by Hindu assamese is a great inspirational story.

Today is the Punyatithi of Shri Tyagaraja. This is my Mother singing one of his compositions for the occasion. The song is called "Marugelara O Raghava" in the raaga Jayantashree, which Shri Tyagaraja originally composed in praise of Shri Rama. Check it out. 🎶 Shri Tyagaraja sings in praise of Rama in Telugu.

LYRICS: marugelara o raghava marugela caracara rupa paratpara surya sudhakra locana anni nivanucu natarangamuna dinnaga vedaki telisi kontinayya ninne gani madi nennajala norula nannu brovavayya tyagarajanuta

Brihatsamhita says Surya must be sculptured with 2 hands each holding a Kamala.His head is surrounded by a Kantimandala(halo).He wears a crown called Karandamukuta.He also wears a pair of Kundalas(earrings)made of ruby & Haara(necklace)made of pearls along with Katibandha(girdle) Surya should also be depicted wearing an Yajnopavita. He should be depicted standing on a Padma peetha(Lotus pedestal) which should be show drawn by a Ratha consisting of 7 horses. The Ratha of Surya is called Makaradwaja. This chariot has only one wheel.

Hello folks 👋 New song. I often get asked why I play only Metal. So for a change an Indian movie song 😁.

The song is called Pudhu Vellai Mazhai from the movie Roja. I like this song cuz it has a classical feel to it.

Next part of the song in the next tweet.

Do listen 🎸🎶 I believe this song was remade in Hindi & Telugu(?) also. And it was sung by SP Balasubhramanyam I believe.

I really like the Tamil version. Part II. Anupallavi part. Part 3 in next tweet.

The Padartha dharma sangraha of Prashastapada is one of the most important works on Physics to emerge out of ancient Bharat. The text greatly deals with the nature of matter, recognising its atomic character & the role of atoms. The concepts discussed in the text include those which came to be later classified as classical/newtonian mechanics. Prashastapada talks about concepts like Vega(momentum), Sanyoga vibhaga(displacement), Digvishista Karyarambhakatva (Vectors), Gamana(curvilinear motion)..

This partially completed monolithic Pallava rock cut temple from Mahabalipuram presents a very good visual representation of how ancient Sthapatis went about carving out material from a monolithic rock. Valayankuttai Ratha was being built during the reign of Parameshvaravarma. If the Sthapatis had managed to complete the above Temple, it would have looked similar to the Temple below. This is the Arjuna Ratha from the same Pancha Ratha Temple complex. The Upapeetha(base) & Adisthana(plinth) remained incomplete in the previous Ratha.

Datta Jayanti good wishes everyone.

The upadesha that Dattatreya gives to King Alarka should be read by all. It is all recorded in the Markandeya Puranam.

Bibek Debroy has written a nice essay on this topic. Have a look.

openthemagazine.com/columns/the-mi… Vishnudharmottara purana tells us that Dattatreya must be depicted just like Valmiki. One more iconographic text, Rupamandanam identifies Dattatreya under another name. He is called Hari-Hara Pitamaha. Ajayameru museum houses a fine sculpture of this form indianculture.gov.in/ajmer-museum-h…

After nearly 5 years of lifting heavy weights & eating healthy vegetarian food. Same dress, same place. How I went about the transformation. twitter.com/i/events/12688…

Depiction of the Brahmanda. Anusanga paada of the Brahmanda Purana gives the most eloborate explanation of each one of the Lokas seen above. Adhyaya 15 to 24 to be precise.

Will in detail write when time permits.

The doorway of a classical Nagara style temple is probably the highest expression of art achieved in Bharat. Each and every element of the doorway including the threshold is intricately decorated. The doorway is comprised of numerous elements. Lets have a look at each element (1) This part of the doorway is called the Lalatabimba. A miniature form of the deity present inside the Garbagriha is depicted here. (2)

There is not one good reason for a Hindu man to be consuming alcohol. Not one. I can write a lengthy thread on how it is condemned in the Shastras, on how in ancient & medieval times the society had a very low opinion on the ones consuming it. So when one sees men here proudly sharing their drinks stack or whatever they call it, one cannot help but not think highly of such behaviour.

Indian men in the 1930's. One of them in the picture(striking the front double bicep pose) is Bishnu Charan Ghosh. He was brother of Paramahamsa Yogananda. He was a practitioner of Hatayoga. In 1930 he authored a book called Muscle control where he details various exercises. Simple instructions given in the book which are applicable even today.

1)Avoid over exertion
2)Perform the exercise in correct form.
3)Good ventilation & breathing techniques
4)Healthy eating.
5)Proper sleep of atleast 7 hours.

Tamilians know how to honour their military heros. An example from history. When Hoysala king Ballala deva was forced to leave his capital Dwarasamudra in Karnataka following the sultanate invasion in the 1300's, he made Tiruvannamalai in TN his capital. (1)

#VeeraVannakam Ballala Deva fortified Tiruvannamalai & would use it as a base for many years to fight invaders. Even though he was a Kannadiga, he is revered by Tamils even today as "Veera" Vallala. So much that one of the Gopurams at Tiruvannamalai Temple is named after him. #VeerVanakkam

A short THREAD describing the horrors of the Goan inquisition. The tyrant responsible for this, francis xavier was praised by the prime minister of our country today.

Description of the prison cells where the inquisition was conducted (1) Hindus; women, men & children alike were confined in the most horrid of conditions. An act like murthi puja attracted these punishments.

Sharing a few excerpts from Sitaram Goel's book, Francis Xavier : The man & his mission.

"Xavier lived up to this tradition of the Church on the Coromandel Coast. He discovered that, though baptised in 1534, the Parava fisherman could hardly be called...

https://twitter.com/narendramodi/status/1466705337885630469

..Christians in practice. Some of the still made their living by making images of Hindu deities. All of them were worshipping these “evil  spirits”. According to the History ofChristianity in India published by the United Theological Seminary,  Bangalore, in  1982...

Haven't stepped foot into a public gym since the pandemic began. Brought home some basic equipment to workout last may. Since then started tracking out every single workout. After a year & a half, feel am much stronger than ever before. Tracking exercises is as imp as calories. Key to getting stronger is a concept known as progressive overload. Graph shows my progression on the bench press since last may.Had pressed 100 kgs in the gym before the pandemic.The lockdowns resulted in a little loss of strength. 2nd dose vaccine screwed my strength completely