Vishwakarma's Smarter Cities

 


- Parul Pandya Dhar, Economic Times, 25 Sep 2022

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kashmir birthplace of Shaivism, a major Hindu tradition

Kashmir has often been presented globally as some sort of Indian military occupation over Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). A brief history would help in understanding this conflict better. The state of J&K was primarily a Hindu state until the 14th century. Few modern Indians are aware that Kashmir is the birthplace of Shaivism – one of the major traditions in Hinduism that reveres Lord Shiva. The tutelary deity of classical Kashmir was Sharada, a manifestation of Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of wisdom, whose prayers refer to her as “Kashmira-pura-vasini” (she who resides in Kashmir). Because of such civilisational connections from pre-Islamic Kashmir, the place holds a significant religious value for Hindus. Fast forwarding to 1947, during the Partition of India, Kashmir’s king Hari Singh decided to bide his time in deciding the fate of the state of J&K. During this uncertainty, the newly-formed Islamic Republic of Pakistan-backed militants invaded Kash...
Read more

Prambanan Hindu temples in Java, Indonesia

Image
Indonesia is made up of over 17,000 islands of which 7,000 are inhabited. Java is one of the larger islands with several volcanic peaks. These are considered sacred because the volcanic ash makes the land fertile. The mountains collect river water that irrigate the fields. Around Mount Merapi, we find great temples built here between the 8th and 9th century by the local Shailendra and Sanjay kings. They built the Prambanan Hindu temple. We know they are tantric because an aerial view reveals that they are built on radially symmetrical square-shaped mandalas with four doorways.  The Hindu site of Prambanan is designed like a court. There is a central court. The peripheral part is made of hundreds of small temples, arranged in four rows. These tiny temples house minor gods from around the universe, and the countryside, which pay obeisance to the central court. In the central court, we find a temple to Shiva. In this temple are also images of Ganesh, Durga, and Agastya, Shiva’s favour...
Read more