Skatt grävdes fram i majsfält

Swedish to English translation

Approximately four inches below plow depth found treasure. Photo: Mats Holmertz
Tax unearthed in corn field

Oland 2009-06-25 | Updated 2009-06-25

It is almost 50 years ago they found a silver treasure in Öland. Now did it with a vengeance.

Marie Jonsson's parents Ingrid and Ingvar Jonsson, who owns the land, have found great bargains earlier on their land. Sweden's largest deposit of iron substance found in the early 1970s, and a few years later, they found a treasure of gold nearby.

A great moment in the archaeologists' lives. Jan-Henrik Fallgren, left, has worked with Öland digs in 20 years. Unfortunately, he was out of town that day Mats Blohm discovered the great treasure that was going on.
FACTS

Silver treasures found on Öland

* In Kastlösa found at the end of the 1800s, a treasure containing 1100 silver coins.

* 1960 was found the next fiscal - in Triberg.

* The discovery of the spoon City contained 1,000 silver coins and some broken jewelry.

The second largest silver treasure thus far been found on Oland is spread out on the coffee table in the garden of the spoon City. Silver coins from the Viking and early medieval, from England and Germany and a unique discovery in Sweden: a coin from India.
Marie Jonsson leases the farm with her husband Magnus. In early May, she was out of corn fields and would see if the corn sprouted as it should. She poked a bit of earth, and suddenly appears on the coin.
- I did not think much about it then, I put it well in the pocket and took it home.
But the fields around the farm was already known to the archaeologists, and they were already out and searched the old bargain places.
When archaeologists Jan-Henrik Fallgren and Mats Blohm showed up at the farm a month after Marie Jonsson's findings, she showed them the coin. They put in? Time to look, and a few days later, Mats Blohm strongly rash on the detector. He put down the shovel and could lift up a decayed container. The earth was full of coins. When he told his colleagues about the experience he described it as the heart jumping like a little happy bunny.
- I picked it up gently, and then temporarily covered over with earth in? Gene. I appreciated that there might be 350 coins, he says.
But when the last Tuesday counted the total find, they came up in one? 000 coins, and some cleverly-produced jewelry.
- This shows that here lived a rich and powerful man, probably a chieftain or petty kings, someone who could afford to stick with skilled craftsmen, says Jan-Henrik Fallgren.
- We found a belt buckle in the vicinity, it indicates that the treasure was buried on the farm, perhaps in the house, says Mats Blohm.
Now waiting for a big reward for Marie Jonsson.
- It depends on market value, but similar findings on Gotland has the finder several hundred thousand dollars, says county Antiquities Kjell-Hakan Arnell.

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Trendy 90s Archaeological Theory Lives On In India : Aardvarchaeology

Trendy 90s Archaeological Theory Lives On In India

Category: Archaeology
Posted on: October 7, 2010 9:37 AM, by Martin R

The Indian Express reports that according to Dr. Gautam Sengupta, director general of the Archaeological Survey of India, "it is time for us to rethink our own ideas and concepts of archaeological analysis in order to combat the worldwide crisis in the discipline". Disturbing words from a very powerful archaeologist! What's going on!?

Though woefully ignorant of Indian archaeology, I have a reasonable grasp of Western European and US archaeology, and I believe I have a pretty good idea of what's going on in Scandinavia. And I have seen no sign of any worldwide crisis. Particularly not one that might be effectively mitigated by practitioners "rethinking their ideas and concepts of analysis". What has Dr. Sengupta discovered?

The Indian Express quotes from a speech given yesterday by Sengupta at a graduation ceremony at the Deccan College in Pune. But though we are told that there is a problem, we do not learn specifically what the problem is, only a little about what Sengupta believes should be done to solve it.

"...archeology needs to reinvent itself. This is just the beginning and there is still a long way to go. This is the beginning to a more critical, interpretive, self-reflexive and holistic archaeology which wishes to understand the various dimensions of human behaviour in the past and the present."

Critical, interpretive, self-reflexive and holistic. This, Dear Reader, is a clutch of outdated buzzwords from UK theoretical archaeology. The words are badges that used to identify the theoretically hip in about 1997, when Ian Hodder used them to market a new kind of fieldwork methodology that turned out not to be so new after all.

So, unless there was a lot more to Dr. Sengupta's speech, I would like to take this opportunity to reassure any worried recent archaeology graduates of the Deccan College. There is no worldwide crisis in archaeology. The discipline does not need to reinvent itself. This is not the beginning and there is not a longer way to go than there was before. You need not strive for a more critical, interpretive, self-reflexive or holistic archaeology, as this has been tried and did not lead anywhere. As for understanding the various dimensions of human behaviour in the past and the present, that is just business as usual. Surely most of the graduates listening to the director general's speech were completely aware of this.

YouTube - ‪P. Sainath on the Jan Lokpal Bill‬‏

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www.outlookindia.com | The Worth Of Eternal Repose

www.outlookindia.com | The Worth Of Eternal Repose

Society Magazine | Jul 18, 2011 The Padmanabhaswamy temple complex kerala: heritage The Worth Of Eternal Repose The Padmanabhaswamy temple is suddenly the richest in the world. Who will have a say on its untold treasures? Minu Ittyipe Keep The Shine On July 1, 1949: Princely states Travancore and Cochin merge to form a precursor to the state of Kerala. Since 1947, Padmanabhaswamy temple has been run by a trust controlled by royal family descendants December 2009: Retired IPS officer Sundararajan files petition questioning the royal family’s rights on the shrine; demands that the temple be handed over to the government Jan 31, 2011: Kerala High Court directs government to form a trust to take control of the temple, its assets and management May 2, 2011: The royal family objects. Supreme Court stays HC order, appoints a seven-member panel to do an audit of the temple’s treasures June 27, 2011: Stocktaking begins, five underground vaults yield treasure worth an estimated Rs 1 lakh crore July 4, 2011: Attempts to open sixth and last vault, Chamber B, believed to contain the most valuable items, fail. *** The quiet in the ancient precincts of the Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple is unperturbed even as a media storm brews on the outside. The fabulous wealth within its vaults or the large posse of policemen present do not deter the white mundu- or sari-clad devotees from their religious duties—they go about their prayers calmly, oblivious of the clatter of TV crews. But the treasures that are tumbling out of the six kallaras (vaults) can unnerve even the hardiest of spiritual men. One person who saw the treasure of the ante-chamber of Vault A could not stop shivering even at the end of the day. There are bagfuls of diamonds and rubies, there are ancient gold rice trinkets and crowns, there are gold statues of Mahavishnu, there’s an 18-feet-long gold chain, a thousand other gold chains, ropes made of pure gold, staffs, golden coconut shells. There are hundreds of kilos of raasi (Kerala’s first indigenous gold coin), coins from the Napoleon era belonging to the early 19th century, Venetian gold coins called ducats from the 17th-18th century. As someone said, there seems to be more riches stuffed in the temple vaults than even stories from the Arabian Nights could conjure. Whose treasures are these? Why were they stacked up in the temple’s vaults? “The sacks of diamonds, rubies and emeralds were probably purchased by the kings or were given as gifts by traders visiting these parts from all over the world,” says archaeologist S. Hemachandran. He says in those days precious metals and jewellery were stored in copper vessels but perhaps because of the corroding nature of copper, sacks were used to hold the gems. Shreekumar Varma, novelist and grandson of the last queen of Travancore, Sethu Lakshmi Bayi, says, “It was always known that there was much accumulated wealth in the temple but no one knew how much. There was a ritual practised formerly that before the coronation of a king, the gold would be brought out and the king would immerse himself completely in the gold and become ‘ponnuthampuran’ (golden chief) and only then would he be considered fit to be king. This ritual was put to an end by Raja Moolam Thirunal” (who reigned from 1885-1924). So far, there have been wild estimates of the value of the treasure, ranging from Rs 1,00,000 crore to even 10 times that (see box). The temple has six vaults, A-F, of which five have been opened so far. When the first vault was opened, it was found to be practically empty. On a hunch, the members opened an ante-chamber inside, and out tumbled sacks of diamonds and rubies, tonnes of gold. Some sources say there may be more ante-chambers within the vaults. A Supreme Court-appointed seven-member panel is now tasked with the arduous exercise of inventorying the temple’s treasures. It all began with a petition by former ips officer T.P. Sundararajan who had moved the courts to have an inventory done of the temple treasures. He now says he is happy with the net result though the methods adopted in inventorying could have been better. “The inventory taken on the basis of weight is substantially correct though not fully accurate. But I am satisfied that the treasure is being put back into the vaults and sealed,” he says. What made Sundararajan, an IB officer during Indira Gandhi’s rule, go to the courts with his demand? Sundararajan gave up the ips when his father became blind and came to live in their ancestral home, a stone’s throw from the west nada (door) of the Padmanabhaswamy temple. He would take his father daily to the temple, and soon he too became an ardent devotee. Today, the septuagenarian spends close to eight hours in the temple, starting his day at 2.30 am. Sundararajan, like many in Thiruvananthapuram, was always aware of its treasures. Much of the ancient offerings and donations to the temple are maintained in the matilakam records (written on cadjan or palm leaves) of the temple which date back to the 14th century. Many of those records are now said to be lost while some are preserved in government archives. Sundararajan was afraid the temple trust under the control of Sree Uthradom Thirunal Marthanda Varma, younger brother of the last ruler of Travancore, did not have the wherewithal to protect the temple treasures. After Independence, all the major temples under the control and management of the erstwhile princely states came under the control of the Travancore and Cochin devaswom boards. But, under a special covenant, the administration of Padmanabhaswamy temple continued to be with the last ruler of Travancore, Sree Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma. The Travancore Cochin Hindu Religious Institutions Act, 1950, says “the administration of Sree Padmanabhaswamy and Sree Pandaravaya properties and all other properties and funds of the said temple are vested in trust with the ruler of Travancore”. In 1971, the privy purse was abolished which took away the term ruler. Balarama Varma passed away in 1991. In 1993, a constitution bench ruled that any treaties, covenants, assurances entered into by the rulers of the erstwhile princely states and the government of India were void. “The question of the legitimacy of the royal family as the controlling trustees of the temple under Sree Uthradom Thirunal Marthanda Varma, present head of the Travancore royal family, came into play,” says Anand Padmanabhan, counsel for Sundararajan. In 2009, Sundararajan appealed to the high court and later the SC for an inventory of the temple to be duly prepared. In May this year, the apex court appointed a seven-member panel to prepare the inventory and on June 27 the first of the vaults was opened. As the complex process of evaluating the wealth carries on, the question on everyone’s mind is: who does the treasure belong to? “It’s very significant that the vaults were locked for over a hundred years and all the wealth preserved because, unlike the kingdoms of the north, the lifestyles of the Travancore kings were simple, without any ostentation,” says Shreekumar Varma. “The kings were Padmanabhadasas...I feel the wealth belongs to the royal family. It has been administering the temple for so long without any problems...the family is devoted to the god.” “Unlike the kingdoms of the north, Travancore’s kings led simple lives, which is perhaps why the treasures survived.” There are all sorts of views on this; the conservative one veers towards favouring the status quo. Historian M.G. Sashibhushan, who has been following the Travancore royal family for many years, says, “The Padmanabhaswamy temple is the life and breath of the royal family. The treasure should remain with the temple and the royal family be allowed to administer the temple’s affairs.” But if it belongs to the royals, won’t they have to pay wealth tax? “Charitable institutions are exempt from wealth tax,” says chartered accountant Goda Varma Raja. “Technically, the wealth belongs to the deity. The royal family will never touch even a bit of it.” Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy has also been quick to say the treasures will not be removed from the temple. But finally it’s the court that will decide who the treasure belongs to. Right now, the top priority for the government is to safeguard the riches. “There is a three-tier security system in place—the outside perimeter, the inner perimeter and electronic surveillance. We are factoring in all types of exigencies and have formed a quick response team too,” says additional dgp Venugopal K. Nair, who is in charge of temple security. The next step in this fascinating story is the opening of the sixth and final vault—the mysterious kallara B. What lies inside it? The last vault has become controversial because the underground chamber is said to lie directly below the deity and it is considered the most sacred of all the vaults. The city of Thiruvananthapuram is rife with rumours that if the doors to the vault are opened, a terrible curse will befall the city, and those who open the vault will perish. Some recall the old folklore that there are deadly snakes inside ready to attack anybody who tries to get in. Another story goes that the door of this vault opens into a secret passage that runs underground, a tunnel large enough for two people to walk through, right up to Kanyakumari. When the Supreme Court panel tried to open this vault last week, they found an iron door that did not yield to any key. A gas-cutter may now have to be used to open this door. But this method is deemed inappropriate because it will disturb the sanctity of the temple and the authorities are not willing to allow this to happen. The panel members are sure to try to open the vault again very soon. Will it yield even more riches, will it unleash a plague, what is in store for Lord Padmanabha’s city? Click here to see the article in its standard web format

Amma Telanganama Akali Kekala Gaanama (Gaddar) Telangana

Yourfamily.com - finding ancestors and lost relatives

1969 Telangana movement rare video 3

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar - Interview by Shashi Tharoor

First city of modern India

First city of modern India

S. MUTHIAH

MADRAS that is Chennai, the Queen of the Coromandel, is a comparatively new city, less than 400 years old. During its first 150 years, however, it was the Gateway of India. Today, the first city of modern India is India’s fourth largest and the Gateway to the South.

Over the centuries Nestorian merchants and Arab navigators, Greek philosophers and Roman centurions, ‘Portugee’ hidalgos and Dutch burghers, English East Indiaman and French musketeers, even Danish sailors and German scholars descended on Coromandel’s ancient shores in search of diamonds and pearls, ivory and sandalwood, cordage and sails and, above all, the finest cottons in the world.

These were the riches of a great hinterland where for centuries ancient kingdoms had risen and fallen and risen again. To the South lay the maritime Pandya and Chola kingdoms, possessors of an amazing artistic legacy. To the West were the Pallavas, who had absorbed the skills of the Chalukyas and the Hoysalas and sculpted veritable open air museums. To the North were the last vestiges of Vijayanagar and the southernmost outposts of the Mughals. Their nayaks and nawabs added the final touches to the endless wealth of art, craft and skill that thrived in Coromandel’s hinterland.

To Coromandel’s shores, following the trade routes first navigated by the Arabs, then centuries later by the Portuguese and Dutch, the British came in the early 17th century. Seeking a permanent trading settlement and investment in a textile-producing area, Andrew Cogan, the chief agent of the East India Company at Machilipatnam, sent his Factor at Armagon near Nellore, Francis Day, scouting for a place where the Company, established on the first day of 1600, could find ‘cloath better cheape’.

That he’d found it was what Day reported in July 1639, explaining too the land grant that his dubash Beri Thimappa had negotiated. England on that July day was richer by a strip of ‘no man’s sand’ three miles long, one mile wide at its broadest, protected by the surf-wracked waters of the Bay of Bengal on its east, an estuary in the south and a river to its west. All it needed was a thorn hedge to its north to protect it.

This would be England’s main settlement on India’s east coast, Cogan determined, and within a year he had established a factory, in effect a stockade enclosing a warehouse and a few homes. On 23 April 1640, St. George’s Day, they grandiosely called it Fort St. George, the heart of what they named Madraspatnam after the neighbouring fishing villages that the Madra (Madeiros) family of San Thomé owned. To its north, along the bank of the west river, Thimappa settled weavers and dyers, bleachers and washers he had brought in from the land of the Telugus and they named their settlement Chennapatnam after the father of the Nayak whose largesse to the East India Company had given them a new home and the security of assured business.

Around the two towns, the Madras that is Chennai grew, taking in declining ancient settlements with histories more than 2000 years old. The Company’s Governor and his Council in Madras were, from the 1640s till 1772, in charge of all English East India Company settlements from Surat to Bantam in Java. It was no wonder, therefore, that the foundations of modern India were laid in Madras, which during this Age of Trade truly became the Gateway to India.

The rest of India may have long forgotten the contribution Madras has made over the years to the development of ‘modern India’. Sadly, however, even its own citizens rarely remember their city’s contribution to that India, and Madras remains not only a forgotten city but also a ‘City of Neglect’.

In Fort St. George we have the genesis of many a facility that subsequently grew into a nation-wide system. It was here that Streynsham Master and William Langhorne and ‘Pirate’ Pitt who gave England two prime ministers, codified rules and regulations for the new settlement and introduced record-keeping – one strand that grew into red tape, and the other into archives. It was here, in the Church of St. Mary’s in the Fort – the first church built by the British in India – that the country’s first orphanage and western-style school were established; today, they have both grown and are thriving. St. George’s School set the pattern for education, private as well as state-sponsored. Also, St. Mary’s established a library that was to evolve into the present library system. And the banking facilities first established here went through various avatars before becoming the State Bank of India.

It was in this Fort that Governor Elihu Yale set up the first western-style hospital in India, primitive though it was. Outside its walls, he inaugurated the first municipal corporation in the country. The Survey School started here was to grow into Guindy Engineering College, the oldest technical training institution outside of Europe. And it was here that the Indo-Saracenic architectural form was first introduced in the country.

Until Calcutta became the Company’s headquarters in the late 18th century, Madras cast the seeds for much that has influenced India’s present. It was here that Job Charnock was equipped for the mission that culminated in the founding of Calcutta; Stringer Lawrence lay the foundation of the Indian Army in Fort St. David and Fort St. George, Cuddalore and Madras with the Madras Regiment; Clive and that army played their part at Plassey; the first revolts against the British were in Madurai and Vellore by those from that army, and there was much more as the years rolled by.

There were no dreams of empire among these hardy traders, each intent on turning a quicker penny for himself rather than the Company and looking forward to going back ‘Home’ and settling down to the life of a ‘Nabob’. The dreams of empire were initially those of Jean Francois Dupleix, who governed French Pondicherry, and his ‘Begum’ Jeanne. When he seized Fort St. George in 1746, it was to allow him a free hand to play the great game of protection that would help France bring local rulers to tribute-paying heel. When Fort St. George was rendered to the East India Company in 1749, the English demonstrated they had learnt their French lessons well. Over the next two decades, they ended the French dream and sowed the seeds of the Raj, having first prepared the ground during an Age of Expansionism that operated through the use of mercenaries.

With the French no longer a power in India by the 1760s, and the Mughals in decline, the English became the dominant influence. With the Company’s new army ensuring peace, the English moved out of forts to build homes and the symbols of the Establishment. In Madras, throughout the 18th century, such building took the form of the Regency, the Georgian and the Gothic – army engineers building in the styles they remembered from ‘home’ and the books of Roman and Greek architecture they pored over.

Their large airy public buildings, uniformly lime-washed a white that gleamed in the sun, were in striking contrast to the palaces and forts of the local princely orders. The homes of the new zamindari – prosperous British merchants and traders – followed the same architectural style, but surrounding themselves as they did with gardens around the houses and tree-rich ‘parks’ beyond, they made Madras famous for its ‘garden houses’. Expansive living and extensive entertaining became the lifestyle of Madras in its second age – a sign of architectural things to come.

As forgotten today as Cogan, Day and Thimappa, not only in India but in Madras as well, is Chepauk Palace, built under the protective guns of Fort St. George as the home of the Nawabs of the Carnatic. Today, Indo-Saracenic is described as architectural form most favoured by the British, developed to depict their regal public face, and the princely order aped it to convey a similar impression. The high noon of this form of architecture was Lutyens’ and Baker’s New Delhi, though they fought shy of the term used to describe Mant’s and Chisholm’s, Irwin’s and Jacob’s masterpieces. Few remember that its beginnings were in the palace the first Nawab of the Carnatic, Mohamed Ali of Wallajah, wanted built in the Fort and then agreed to on a site across the river from its glacis.

He also accepted the services of Company engineer, later Company contractor, Paul Benfield to design and build the first British vision of a Hindu and Muslim architectural amalgam. The man responsible for the walls of the Fort and the town walls was an honest engineer who built to last, but he was also a shrewd exploiter of opportunity. And when the Nawab could not pay his bills, he continued to lead the hungry pack that had lent prodigiously to fuel Mohamed Ali’s extravagances.

In the end, the scandal of the Carnatic Debts became one of the most heated debates in the House of Parliament before settlement was reached: the British government would settle on the debtor’s behalf what it considered the legitimate claims of the creditors – and even those ran into millions of pounds (in the 18th century). In turn, it would accept the Carnatic – the Coromandel and its hinterland from Kanniyakumari to the southern districts of Orissa – from the Nawab whose accession they had backed and for which they had fought the French in the Carnatic wars. The empire had begun.

With the fall of the Company and the dawn of the Age of Empire after 1857, the Queen of the Coromandel began to enjoy its finest hour, developing as a spacious and gracious city where commerce was not rushed and seemed civilized, and art and culture and the good life flourished. Late 19th century Madras was to contribute much to the India of today, while the 50 years till World War II were to change the city’s own skyline.

It was men of the Madras Army like Colin Mackenzie, William Lambton and Francis Buchanan who were responsible for the opening up of India and discovering its wealth. Mackenzie’s land surveys and his Indological obsession, Lambton’s Great Trigonometrical Survey from Cape Comorin to Nagpur and which George Everest extended to the high Himalaya, and Dr Buchanan’s findings of the immense wealth the land offered – all led to the creation of the Survey of India, the Archaeological Survey of India, the Zoological Survey of India and the Botanical Survey of India.

Charles Trevelyan’s role in establishing the Indian Civil Service and his dialogues with brother-in-law Macaulay laid the foundations for the systems of education and jurisprudence that we are wedded to today. Thomas Munro’s sustained advocacy for greater powers to Indians and much more are not just part of the record but form an integral part of everyday life in India. And in southern India, the opening up of land in its western reaches by men from Madras enabled the development of today’s giant plantations that for a century were the driving economic force in this part of the country. These were some of the pioneering steps taken by men of the Madras Presidency.

In more recent times there have been other landmarks. The call for the formation of Congress was first given in Madras, as was the call for satyagraha made during Gandhiji’s visit to the city. It was here that prohibition was first introduced. It was in Fort St. George that the Justice Party, the first non-Congress government in any part of India, took office. Later, when C.N. Annadurai led the DMK into the legislature in Fort St. George, it was the first time in independent India that a regional party had come into power. It was in Madras that we first heard the call for greater states’ rights, which hopefully will one day lead to a reappraisal of the Constitution and a more equitable and federal form of central government. Here too was developed the country’s first and biggest industrial estate. And no city in India has a bigger festive music season – or an older one – than Madras.

To serve British soldier and administrator, planter and trader and the investors and investments that kept growing, garden houses for the new settlers, some of the handsomest buildings for the houses of commerce, and palatial public buildings meant to awe with their Indo-Saracenic imperialist aspect were developed by architects and engineers like Robert Chisholm, Henry Irwin, John Goldingham and Norman Pogson, men who also pioneered a college of art, revival of old building methods, the training of engineers and the study of the stars.

The faded splendour of several of the buildings they raised still survives today – the garden houses and palaces of the Raj such as the Senate House, Presidency College, Guindy Engineering, the High Court and the Law College, the General Post Office and the Bank of Madras, the Museum and the Connemara Library, the Art Gallery and the Town Hall.

Perhaps the most significant part of the city, in contrast to other over-crowded areas, is George Town, the Indian settlement that was shifted from its original location north of the Fort to a planned, gridironed square of criss-crossing streets further north. What The City is to London, unprepossessive George Town is to Madras. Both the wholesale trade and the city’s private wealth have thrived here from the middle of the 18th century. Both the Indians and the British working here made the Madras to the south of it what it was before World War II, a city of spaciousness and grace, a bastion of conservativeness and courtliness, a commercial centre where the pace of wealth generation allowed for the leisure to enjoy the good life.

World War II changed all that. As the Japanese war machine rolled over East and Southeast Asia, the Allies were left with only two ports in Asia to serve their counter-offensive – Colombo and Madras. It was not merely the soldiers from Britain, North America and Africa and other parts of India who changed Madras. The ‘war effort’ transformed Madras turning it into a bustling industrial city instead of a quiet trading post that was also a charming laid-back capital. The demands of the war effort attracted thousands of job seekers from the hinterland of the Coromandel, making Madras a ‘million’ city before the end of the war, more than doubling its population in that fateful decade.

Post independence and Jawaharlal Nehru’s vision of an industrialized India, the great trading houses of the Coromandel, which had semi-industrialized during the war, decided to become major industrial conglomerates. Newcomers joined the wartime immigrant population, adding to congestion and creating hovels and tenements. Then, with independence and time, the Presidency disintegrated into various linguistic states. Madras state became Tamil Nadu, but Madras remained its capital. The Queen of the Coromandel was, however, on its way to becoming a metropolis.

Maybe as befitting a metropolis, there is a little less graciousness and a little more rough-and-readiness. But where else in the country is faith greater and more obvious? Or where can you find a year-long cultural season that peaks in December-March with over 2000 concerts, at its climax offering four a day at around a dozen venues for 15 days? Indeed, faith and culture and an unsurpassed variety of southern cuisine, much of it vegetarian, enable Madras to remain closer to a heritage that was ancient when Madras was born. That is the greatest charm of Madras that is Chennai, even as consumerism and ‘westernization’ take hold.

Indeed, the expressions of faith in Madras are not confined to the garb of pilgrims, the sectarian marks of the faithful or the sacred designs drawn daily in front of houses, big and small. It is most evident in the number of places of worship that abound in the city. Truly a city of a thousand shrines, there is scarcely a street in Madras that does not have its pavement shrine or a towering symbol of someone’s faith. Ancient temples, many over ten centuries old, churches built by the Portuguese, the British and the Armenians, mosques where Sunnis and Shias have worshipped for centuries, even Jewish and Chinese cemeteries are all part of the fabric of Madras. Here people show a greater measure of mutual respect for each other’s faith, while religion has developed side by side with a rich tradition of religious art and architecture.

In fact, this art and architecture and the crafts of the ages are what combined to inspire men like Benfield and Chisholm, Irwin and Pogson. What they created may, in terms of the Coromandel’s historic past, be comparatively new, but without the skills of artisans who worked with lime and mortar, mud and rock, wood and metal, there would not be the buildings and the skyline that made the fort-centred town Day, Cogan and Thimappa founded, the Queen of the Coromandel. Its contribution to the India of today may be forgotten, its memorials to heritage may be under threat, but it remains a city of faith and culture where hope of a still better tomorrow is born afresh every time the sun rises and bathes the Coromandel in hues of fire and gold.

Delhi Scotches Indian Whisky Makers' Plans - India Real Time - WSJ

Delhi Scotches Indian Whisky Makers' Plans - India Real Time - WSJ

India Accepts Its Whisky Is Not Scotch

http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2011/07/04/india-accepts-its-whisky-is-not-scotch

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Nation & World | 5,200 year-old Ancient Egyptian drawing unearthed | Seattle Times Newspaper

Nation & World | 5,200 year-old Ancient Egyptian drawing unearthed | Seattle Times Newspaper

Egypt's Antiquities Authority says archaeologists have unearthed a 5,200-year-old rock drawing depicting a royal festival during Ancient Egypt's earliest dynasty.

news.outlookindia.com | Quota for Telangana Residents in H'bad Police: CCPA

news.outlookindia.com | Quota for Telangana Residents in H'bad Police: CCPA

The Neverending Nightmare of Amanda Knox | Rolling Stone Culture

The Neverending Nightmare of Amanda Knox | Rolling Stone Culture

Parai

The ‘பறை ’ used by ஆண்டாள் !

The பாவை நோன்பு is associated with the beating of the பறை by the girls.

If we probe what this 'parai' was, we would be surprised to know that many types of 'parai' were used in those days, depending on the appearance, occasion and the need.

Going through the instances of 'parai' as found in Sangam literature, we are able to identify the parai that AndaaL had used.


To begin with let us see the meaning of Parai.
PaRai has three meanings in Tamil lexicon.
"பறை பறை வசனத்தோடு
பறக்கும் புள் -இறகு முப் -பேர் "
says ChoodamaNi Nigandu.


PaRai means
(1) the drum called paRai.
(2) 'word' and (3) 'bird's wing'.


pRaidhal has its origins in this word and
it means to announce or declare or convey something.

This paRai as an instrument to convey something was very much part of life of ancient Tamils.

12 different types of பறை are found in புற நானுறு .
The types are dependent upon the occasion the parai is used and also its appearance and the quality of sound.

They are as follows.


(1) அரிப்பரை :- The sound of this is that of rubbing something on some soft surface (aritthal).
It is comparable to the sound of the rub of the bird's wing on the plants of the field when it flies off the field
This appears in texts as a comparison with some soft sound, say, the sound of ornaments rubbing with each other.


(2) அனந்தன் பறை :- This has a dull sound but not an auspicious one.
This paRAi is usually beaten by haunted women
who beat this parai after smearing the blood of the dead fallen in the battle field,
on their hair!!
Vultures get attracted to this paRai and reach the battle field.


(3) ஆகுளிபறை

and
(4) சிறு பறை :- Both these are small in size, can be easily held in hand and used along with singing.

Mostly the singers (paaNar) in olden days
carry this paRai along with 'yAzh' (a kind of light veena that can be hung on the shoulder.)
Both Yaazh and this paRai are used simultaneously or separately while singing.
From different texts of yore,
it is known that this parai is usually beaten in early hours
before sun rise in praise of the king or God.


(5) சல்லிப்பறை :- This is also known as 'perum paRai', a big drum –
used at the time of processions and for making announcements.


(6) சாக்காட்டுப்பறை :- This is used only at the time of death.
Is also known as saavu-p-paRai.


(7) செருப்பறை :- This is beaten when the king goes out to the battle field.
This PaRai is carried by drum-beaters
in front of the elephants that go to the war-front.


(8) போர்ப்பறை :- This is also beaten at times of war.
This is to announce that the king had started for the battlefield to snatch victory.


(9) நெய்தல் பறை :- This is similar to Saa-k-kaattu-p-paRai, beaten at the time of death.
This paRai was used by the people of Neidhal -
those living on the sea shore.


(10) தடாரிப்பறை :- This is the common drum used by many in the ancient land of Tamils.
This is also known as 'kiNai-p-paRai' or
'pambai-p-paRai' or
'உடுக்கை '.
This is the drum held by Shiva during his cosmic dance.
The image of Nataraja holds this.

(11) ஒரு கண் பறை . This means the one-eyed drum!
This is a big-sized drum, with an eye that resembles the foot of an elephant.
This was used in wars and for making announcements.


(12) மணப்பறை :- This is the drum used in marriages.




Apart from the above,
each of the 5 land forms of the Tamils had
their own characteristic parai, yaazh (hand held veena) and paN (song)



Those in hill tracts (kurinji) used 'தொண்டகப்பறை '
(this is in places ending with the word 'kudi', like sirukudi, kunna-k-kudi etc)


Those in desert areas (paalai) used 'துடிப்பறை '



Those in forest tracts (mullai) used 'ஏறுகோட்பறை '


( places end with 'paadi', chEri' and 'paLLi', like vaazhappaadi, aayar paadi etc.)

Those in plains (marudham) used 'மணப்பறை
' and 'கிணைப்பறை '
(places end with 'voor', like putthur, maNavoor etc.)


Those in sea shores (neidhal) used 'மீன்கோட்பறை '
(places ending with 'pattinam' and 'paakkam'.
Chenna-p-pattinam – former name of Chennai – belongs to this area.)




From these information, some idea of the kind of parai
that AndaaL has mentioned in her Thiruppavai can be inferred.



At 9 places, the word paRai has been mentioned by ஆண்டாள்

1. பறை தருவான் ,
2. பாடிப்பறை கொண்டு ,
3. போர்றப்பறை தரும் ,
4. அறை பறை ,
5. பறை தருகியாகில்
6. சாலப்பெரும் பறை ,
7. உன்றன்னை பாடி பறைகொண்டு ,
8. நீ தாராய் பறை
9. இற்றை பறை கொள்வான்


Let us now see what parai was carried by
the aayar girls and AndaaL during their month-long vratham.

The parai used for singing the praise of god in early hours of the day (before sunrise)
was 'aguLi-p-pari' or 'siru parai'.
It was a small and easy to hold drum.
It is possible to assume that this would have been the choice of
young AndaaL and her friends.




There is another way to think if that Andaal had used the parai
that was characteristic of her land, namely Villiputthur.
(putthoor in the name indicates that the place of AndaaL was in marudham or plains).


The parai of her land was, 'kiNai-p-parai' or 'udukkai' or 'tadaari-p-pari'
which was meant for worship of Shiva and
AndaaL would not have used that for the worship of Thirumaal.

There is yet another one, "mana-p-paRai" for Marudham lands.
But that was used only during marriages.
So that is also ruled out.


The easy to be held parai
which goes well with singing the praise of God in the early hours of morning
is the "aguLi-p-paRai"
also known as "siru paRai"
It is therefore proper to assume that AndaaL used Siru parai.




But here again a doubt comes.
At one place AndaaL mentions 'saala-p-perum parai'.
Is this the parai she used?
It can not be.
Because from the meaning of 'saala-p-perum parai'.
it is known that it is the big parai (perum parai)
the Salli-p-parai, which is used in processions.
AndaaL has mentioned 'Saala-p-perum parai' in "MaalE maNi vaNNa" paasuram.
She also mentions about the recital of 'பல்லாண்டு ' to the beating
of the saala-p-perum parai!
This is indicative of a procession, 'புறப்பாடு '
with all accompanying recitals and auspicious music.
In all probability it is about the கருட சேவை she witnessed on that day,
that is most likely to be the day of வைகுண்ட ஏகாதசி.

http://jayasreesaranathan.blogspot.com/2008/01/secrets-in-thiruppavai-secret-1vaikunta.html

In the present context, we know that AndaaL used Siru parai,
AndaaL has also given a clue about what exact message is conveyed by her parai.
We all know that it is about the 'பேறு ' or 'kataaksham' or 'blessings' or 'servitude' etc
But the mention of அறை பறை (paasuram 16)
which has specific application in Tamil lexicon,
reveals the exact message given by Narayana that
AndaaL along with the aayar girls had been spreading by beating the paRai!
It will be discussed in the next post.

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