Today is "deepaawali" aka "diwaali", the #Hindu festival of lights. 🪔
Technically, today is the first of the 3-day festival, especially in South India. The middle day (tomorrow) is often considered the festival day. That's the day people (merchants more so) pray to "lakshmi", the goddess of wealth.
It is customary for people to deck up homes with lights, and maybe also light fireworks, during the festival.
Today's #GoodMorning post is not a #Painting but this 10th century Buff Sandstone Relief of a 'Goddess Admiring Herself in a Mirror'.
This sensuous #Goddess has Her right arm raised to secure a lock of hair, the left hand holding a mirror
This item which once adorned a #Hindu Temple in #MadhyaPradesh#India belonged to the Doris Wiener (#Art smuggler) collection which was sold by Christie's
India cuts periodic table and evolution from school textbooks - “There is a movement away from rational thinking, against the enlightenment and Western ideas” in India, adds Sucheta Mahajan, a historian at Jawaharlal Nehru University who collaborates with Mukherjee on studies of RSS influence on school texts. Evolution conflicts with creation stories, adds Mukherjee. History is the main target, but “science is one of the victims”, she adds. #india#education#indianaffairs#science#fundamentalism#hindu#hinduism#hindutva#hinduextremists#rsshttps://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-01770-y
Hanuman to the Rescue! Taken near the Hanuman Temple just off Monestary Market near Civil Lines, New Delhi. You often see these little guys hanging in shops and from car mirrors.
This area is right under a flyover and it is amazingly quiet considering is is right up against a highway. More photos of an unexpected surprise to follow soon!
This is the legendary Devprayag - one of the 5 Prayags - called Panch (5) Prayags (confluences) of devbhoomi Uttarakhand, India. The two differently coloured rivers are Alaknanda and Bhagirathi, which join together to give birth to River Ganga (it's not called Ganges!). This is where the lifeline of North India and Hindus takes birth, at the holy site of Devprayag.
Captured by me on Pixel 7 Pro. #uttarakhand#india#hindu#ganga#river#gangariver#devprayag#holy#sanatandharma#nature#scenic
Riding a Blue Ram, he is looking out for the Sun or the Moon which he will devour to replace his head which was cut off by the #Hindu God #Vishnu for eating His food and thus causing #SolarEclipse2024 & Lunar eclipse some other time.
A few more India photos from our last trip. This is the Ganesha Mandir just off of Connaught Place. I love the colours of the temple and how they contrast with the concrete.
Holi festival celebrated by Hindus around the world – in pictures
'Holi is the Hindu festival of colours and is celebrated to mark the start of spring in India, Nepal, other South Asian countries and across the diaspora. Celebrants rejoice by throwing coloured powders at one another on the street.'
Does this look like fun, or does this look like fun?
After posting publicly on #SocialMedia since 2007, today I reached a milestone: a rando on the internet asserted that I was a #Dalit (i.e. “an untouchable” of the #Hindu#caste system).
Today in Labor History December 25, 1927: B. R. Ambedkar and his followers burned copies of the Manusmriti to protest its treatment of Dalit people (formerly known as untouchables). Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar was an Indian jurist, economist and social reformer who fought discrimination against Dalits. He later renounced Hinduism and inspired the Dalit Buddhist movement. The Manusmṛiti or Laws of Manu, is thought to be the first Hindu legal text and constitution.
I took this at Kumari Ghar, last year. It is in Durbar Square in Kathmandu. Kumari Ghar is the palace of the living goddess Kumari. Kumaris are drawn from the Newar community, the original inhabitants of the Kathmandu Valley. The way it was explained to me, the goddess would once come down to earth to advise the ruler of Nepal, but during one of her visits, she noticed that he was lusting after her. After refusing to return for a while, she started returning to Earth in the form of a prepubescent girl. Once the girl reaches puberty, the goddess leaves the body and then she is just a person. The community then needs to find the next Kumari.
I was in the courtyard for an audience with the Kumari, where I was told to remain silent, keep my hands in a prayer shape out of respect, and not take any photos. An older woman came to the window, yelled something down, and then the Kumari came to the window.