Photo Quiz No:1

Recognize the place where we can find this beautiful pillar of this rare animal amalgamation. 

A treat to this generation biologist, we can find features of many animals in this hybrid animal sculpted many centuries ago.

Here is the animal feature,

• Lion head and teeth. 
• Goat horn
• Elephant trunk and tusks
• Webbed feet/leg, something of a frog or some other lizard 
• Cow/Pig's ear
• Long Cow's tail or even a serpent tail (Not seen in the Photo)

So many features in a single animal structure. Guess where it can be found. Also what is the name of this mythological creature?

There are prize included:

First prize : My sincere thanks, Second Prize: Again my thanks, Third Prize: The same thanks :).

An article about this place will be posted soon. Till then guess and please comment.

Trip to Thanjavur Brahadeeshwarar Temple aka Big Temple.

There is a couplet in Tamil, which goes like this

“Oh Lord! Does these two eyes enough to see the beauty of yours?”

This is the same feeling I had when I visited the 1000 years old Thanjavur Big Temple. Thanjavur, an ancient city much older than the state’s capital Chennai or even the nation’s capital Delhi was the stronghold of the Chola Empire. Raja Raja Chola was the Chola King who built this Temple in the honor of Lord Shiva. Believed to be started in 1003 CE, it was completed in 1010 CE, thus it celebrated its millennium celebration in a grand manner in 2010.

            Built wholly by Granite which were brought from far off place as it was not available locally, this grand temple has a pyramidal Gopuram or Tower that had many sculptures of dancing apsaras and many deities. While this central structure was built by the Cholas, the latter kings too had an impact over the temple complex as they too contributed on their part to build and maintain this complex. Thus, there are several other smaller temple structures surrounding the main temple each with their special deities build by the Nayaks and Maratha kings.

            There are three entrances or gopurams to this temple. The first one is the most recent one built by the Maratha king in 16^th century to protect the temple from invaders. There are also fortified walls built by him. The second one commemorates the victory of the king Raja Raja Chola’s army over the neighboring kingdom of Kerala and so it is called Keralantaka Gopuram. The third is the most ancient and was built along with the Grand temple inside. All the three gopurams are breaths takingly enormous with the last two having large number of beautiful sculptures that are very welcoming.  

            Inside, there is a large open space for the magnificent view of the temple. There is a Nandi statue (a holy cow) in front of the temple which was craved from a single stone. It is said that the non-availability of granite in the surrounding area resulted in the procurement of granite from far off places. Thus, these granites were transported via boats on river Cauvery and huge elephants were employed to drag them to the construction site. There is a still an ongoing debate of how these huge tons of granite were lifted to such heights (the central temple tower is 216 ft or 66 m high). But there is an understanding that the Cholas might have taken the same path of Egyptians who build the pyramids, i.e. a large sloping mound of earth were created to drag the sculpted granite to each heights of the tower slowly increasing the mound size. On completion the mound was taken down. It is said that the mound might have been 1km long for the elephants to drag the granite in correct balance. Thus, these granites might have reached such heights; also a notable point is that these granites stones are kept together by a method called “locking method” where these stones are interlocked with each other, just like a Jigsaw Puzzle, to sustain the whole structure's weight in an equal balance and to last long. These interlocked stones would have fused together in this 1000 years.   

            The wise king has also made arrangements for the future generations to know the contributions of each and every person involved in the construction of this complex by inscribing the names of those involves. There are hundreds of them inscribed in ancient Tamil language. And there are beautiful paintings and murals of several persons adorning the walls that surround the temple. This includes paintings drawn during the king’s time to the recent one under the Maratha king in 16^th century. Also, in those days this temple was a large business place for the people who lived there, selling from flowers to butter etc, for the poojas that took place in the temple.

            These temple maintained now by the Archeological Survey of India is in an excellent condition. It has sustained countless monsoons and four reported earthquakes in its 1000 years. There is no ticket to enter the temple, but everyone should leave there footwear at the second gate at the counter provided. There is also no religious restriction and everyone can visit this complex. But be sure to respect the sanctity of the temple and wear suitable clothes and act accordingly. 


             It was said to us that the temple looks more beautiful under the moon light and the facade lighting at evening. But we were not able to see it as we had other plans and had to leave. But we will be back soon. 

No wonder this place rightly deserves to be a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

 A beauty to behold and pinnacle of Cholas or Ancient Tamils architectural grandeur, this temple cannot be missed in one’s lifetime.  

It will be interesting to know that there is a myth that the Maratha King Serfoji II built an underground passage from this temple to Fort Manora which is 65km away.It has never been found though. I have discussed about it in my first post about Fort Manora here

One of  the magnificent entrance to the Big temple

Keralantaka Gopuram

It is said that the temple was two tiered i.e it had an upper floor  and it might have collapsed, this picture does evoke the doubt as it clearly shows an outline of an upper floor 

An intricately sculpted horse, highly adorned. It is so intricate that you can even see the stripes or coils of the coir that is binding to to the horse's face 

Another one of the marvelous piece. This is a staircase to the Subramanya temple. It seems that the elephant is being subdued by the humans.

Front view of the grand temple complex. The height of the tower is 66 meters 

Ancient Tamil Inscription preserved in an excellent condition. There are several names of person who were involved in the construction of the temple and also there are several names of persons who danced here during festivities. 

A smaller version of the grand temple dedicated to Lord  Subramanya. Nevertheless adoringly beautiful. And when viewed from this point both the tower looks the same height and looks like merged with each other.  

One of the many painting, drawn during the Maratha and Nayak  kingdom. Here we see Lord Subramanya seated on a beautiful peacock, with two person fanning him on both side. There are several Siva Linga around those place.

Another magnificent painting of a person attacking giant snakes. That person maybe a Nayak King.  Thank goodness there aren't any huge snakes of those size anymore.

Do you know? The real name of this temple kept by the Chola King is Peruvudaiyar Kovil (பெருவுடையார் கோவில்) , later due to the conquest of various North Indian Kings here, the name was sanskritized to Brahadeeshwarar Kovil, here 'Kovil' means 'Temple' in tamil

Pictorial Quotes - No.2 02/04/2012

Pictorial Quotes - No.1 02/03/2012

Man Vs Wild: Comic Strip

Mans wrath on nature,  my series of comic strip. CS:1, 01-22-12

Scientists warn about Global Cooling

Warning: This is a satire article and so the following article must be read keeping in mind that it poses all the opposites of what is happening really. This article aims to create awareness of GLOBAL WARMING through creating a spoof. There’s nothing really global cooling taking place, on the contrary global warming is persisting.

Washington: A core group of Scientist who are working at the UN’s environmental engineering group has raised concern about the level of decrease in earth’s CO₂ level and the impending global cooling. They observed that the earth’s temperature is steadily decreasing, due to the heavy release of Oxygen into the atmosphere. They have predicted that there will be ice bergs/ sheet formation until the Tropic of Cancer in the northern hemisphere and up to the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern hemisphere in 2020 if the increasing O₂ rate continues as of now.

            They called for the immediate intervention by the world leaders in tackling the problem which may lead to the extinction of life on earth. “The main reason is extensive advancement/ encroachment of human living areas by the forests and Wild animals. Also the absorbing of the CO₂ from the atmosphere by major industries to produce their products and the release of O₂ as the byproduct” said P. Re versa, a member of the committee. He cited example of a man in living near Nevada Desert, “that poor man was living in a just 10 room posh bungalow, having only mediocre facilities like Wi-Fi internet connection, plasma TV and a BMW car. In an overnight, he found his house encroached with full of green trees, and wild animals such as a full grown Hippopotamus. He had no choice but to leave that place and shift. He at some point of time tried to reclaim his area, only to be chased out again by those merciless animals”

            Mr. K.R. Wallace, head of the group said “Government should encourage logging, also the level of CO₂ absorbed by the industries are continuously increasing putting a strain on our fragile environment”. He accused the developed nations for being biased and selfish at absorbing High amount of CO₂ to develop their economy and in turn forcing the developing nation to cut their absorption's in various environmental crisis meet. “Logging is the only way, if the trees encroach on our area then where will we go? Also there is that photosynthesis in plants which absorbs CO₂ from air to produce its energy and release pure O₂ as the final product. It should be stopped” he said. “As far as the wild animals are concerned they should be hunted down until they are proven that they are “threatened” or “vulnerable to extinction”. After that the species will be considered for preservation and artificial breeding methods to increase its number again to be hunted. This cycle will continue” Mr. Wallace said.

            Mr. and Mrs. Clause, a resident of New York are very worried about the findings. “If it goes this way, we will be forced to live in an igloo in summer and battle polar bears” Mr. Clause lamented. Mr. Clause’s family is a nuclear family, and his mother stays/dumped in an old age home and their twin children’s are at a crèche where they will grow until 18 and after that live an independent life. But being a good son and father, he doesn’t forget to visit them on Mother’s day and Children’s day respectively. Mrs. Clause is battling anorexia, and is advised by doctors to eat pizzas, burgers and high cholesterol food and stay glued to the TV. 

Warning: This is a satire article