Holi: Color in the air

Holi is also called the Spring Festival - as it marks the arrival of spring[1], the season of hope and joy. 

The gloom of the winter goes away 
as Holi [2] promises of bright ..

earth-spring-equinox-from-spacepicture: LiveScience
21st March 2013

Perhaps 'Flame of the forest'  (Butea monosperma) 
are the tree who announce this change so vociferously 
in Indian sky onto their canopy cover 
and the rest of the flora follows..!!

pic courtesy: http://animikha.wordpress.com/

 This change in the air, perceived by plants, 
expressed through colors so vibrant 
that human too followed to isolate beautiful colors 
from Butea and sprinkle it all around  
to their human-fellows with the drum beat and songs!!

pic courtesy: http://www.gardenworld.in/cfd30327e_butea.html

With the first full moon of spring time, India lights its bonfires and pours on color..

Women praying at the bonfire on the eve of Holi festival

 pic courtesy: The Hindu, Photo: Mohammed. Yousuf

 Originally, powdered colors thrown were made from medicinal herbs to prevent viral colds during the changing of the seasons. Today, the color is a symbol, and participants at the festival smeared powder on one another, threw it in the air,

Indian myth and mythology 
is full of this 'color spirit in the air'  
and lot are the folklore of vivid characters  
still remembered all across it's huge boundaries.

Following are some human 
imaginative-expression immortalized 
by painters of different times .. 
 through color and brush; 
which are still live in the memories of Indians;

Dream

  National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi
 Painter: M.A.R.Chughtai (1899-1975)

Hiraman Tota

  National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi
Painter: M.A.R.Chughtai (1899-1975)

Holi

  National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi
 Painter: M.A.R.Chughtai (1899-1975)

Laila

  National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi
 Painter: M.A.R.Chughtai (1899-1975)

Omar Khayyam

  National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi
 Painter: M.A.R.Chughtai (1899-1975)

Radhika

  National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi
 Painter: M.A.R.Chughtai (1899-1975)

Son of Warrior

 National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi


 Painter: M.A.R.Chughtai (1899-1975)

A Prayer in Spring 

by Robert Frost

OH, give us pleasure in the flowers today;

And give us not to think so far away

As the uncertain harvest; keep us here

All simply in the springing of the year.

Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,

Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;

And make us happy in the happy bees,

The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.

And make us happy in the darting bird

That suddenly above the bees is heard,

The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,

And off a blossom in mid air stands still.

For this is love and nothing else is love,

To which it is reserved for God above

To sanctify to what far ends he will,

But which it only needs that we fulfill.

****

# paintings thankfully shared from: indiapicks.com

Lotus Temple: Tabernacle of unity

Blessed is the spot, and the house, and the place, and the city, and the heart, and the mountain, and the refuge, and the cave, and the valley, and the land, and the sea, and the island, and the meadow where mention of God hath been made, and His praise glorified.

Entering into the tabernacle of Thy unity ..

O my friends !
Have ye forgotten that true and radiant morn, when in those hallowed and blessed surroundings ye were all gathered in My presence beneath the shade of the tree of life, which is planted in the all-glorious paradise ? Awe-struck ye listened as I gave utterance to ..

# all above quotes thankfully shared from Baha'i writings.

Indian marriages: exploring the psyche of rituals

Observing the rituals performed in traditional Indian marriages states clearly that age-old long past (3500 years at least) traditions of Vedic Civilization is perfectly followed up, where the 'nature' comes as primary worshiping object, including the sacred fire, which was a major deity and theme of the Vedic era [1] .

From the dawn of human civilization in Indian subcontinent, the Vedic Period, whose collected wisdom remained unwritten for three thousand years since 1500 BC.
If Incan [2] and  Mayan [3] civilizations are correlated with the Vedic civilization, we find much common points concerned with the nature and human attitude towards it, as our today's concept of 'Back to Basics', which is the need of the hour for us all equally.

These cultures are long past, thousands of 
years back in time with their strong sociology and tech, somehow suggests the possibility of some 'Common Axis' among these grand civilizations of the past [4] [5] . 

Like many other known past, this too came to exist not and new civilization (Aryan) and religion (Buddhism) sprouted on it's ruins.

But..yes..it's interesting to see those long forgotten past with their words, deities, rituals being observed by masses, just as if 'something' inspired them to do so, despite their 'present' of 2013,which is so different and so far away from 1500 BC.

The simple and logical explanation could be made for this flow of human mass that this also follows the Haeckel's Biogenetic Law (Theory of Recapitulation), i.e. Ontogeny repeats Phylogeny. (With different formulations, such ideas have been applied and extended to several fields and areas, including the origin of language, biology, cognition and mental activities, anthropology, education theory and developmental psychology.) 

Agni is the most sacred deity of the Vedic period. He occupies a prominent place only next to Indra. Two hundred hymns of the Rig-veda are devoted to him [6].

Gods are different phenomena of nature-fire, wind, sun, earth, moon etc. Natural phenomena personified as gods, were endowed with powers.

Why did Vedic seers call the phenomena of nature as gods?

The epithet देव (Dev) was originally applicable to sky, sun, moon, dawn, fire, lightning etc. and afterwards extended to earth, storm, rain, and even to the night. Yaska calls every object of worship or praise, a देवता (Devta).

Vedic books containing poetry, history, geography, archaeology, anthropology, anthropomorphism, palaeontology, genesis of the deities, science, phonetics, science of language, ethnology, mythology, theogony, jurisprudence, religion, vedanta, philosophy of people and places therein..

Famous Indologist F. Max Muller has said about: "You will find yourselves everywhere in India between an immense past and an immense future, with opportunities such as the old world could but seldom, if ever, offer you". 


#Pictures of this blog-post are under strict copyright laws.
#Thanks to Aniket Pandey for his consent to photograph his marriage event and use some pictures for this blog-post.
 #Some more links of the same author about Vedic phenomenon being observed are:[7] [8] [9] .

Architecture with endemic flavour: Ambikapur palace

The newly built Railway Station building 
of our town 'Ambikapur' (India) 
has taken it's architectural inspiration from an age-old 'Raghunath Palace' building of 
this princely state 
known as 'Surguja' 
of then British colonial era, 
which is cool as if taking you on a tour of 
past forgotten periods of history ..

The platform of Ambikapur (India) Railway Station in an early morning glow
This railway station became operational on 3rd June 2006

Front view of Ambikapur Railway Station

Side view of the Railway Station building

Old kingly palace of  'Ambikapur' State (popularly known as 'Surguja' State)

Side view of the 'Ambikapur' palace popularly called as 'Raghunath Palace'

Visitors to the Ambikapur palace through the main entrance