रुबाई - Rubaai: culture

Showing posts with label culture. Show all posts

Kingly experience at ChokhiDhani, Jaipur

A Rajasthani Village themed restaurant

A de'light'ful experience: The village is decorated with plenty of lamps placed everywhere including in and around the house, on the bridge, and open places.

View from the watchtower. The place is spread around in not less than 10 acres.

Various kind of typical folk dance performances keeps on going around: Dance, Puppetry. Drawing Mehandi on hand is an attraction for tourists apart from other paintings and art form.

Food is served in traditional style. Normally group of about 20 people seated in a rectangular fashion and bonfire at the center fuelled with pure ghee.

Typical thali served initially. More and more food items keep on coming too fast. Food made in lots of ghee.

And you can take a photo with Rajasthani headgear.

Some celebration

A dance display at Rourkela on Mahashivratri, Near Laxmi Narayan Temple (Rourkela). I tried to get some info, however, what I got is not enough and reliable. Will update in future. After visiting Laxmi Narayan temple, I was on the way to Vedvyaas, I saw this procession. An unplanned photoshoot, thanks to these unknown participants.

Rang De tu Mohe "Mehuwa"

Madhuca longifolia is an Indian tropical tree found largely in the central and north Indian plains and forests. It is commonly known as mahua, mahwa.It is a fast-growing tree that grows to approximately 20 meters in height, possesses evergreen or semi-evergreen foliage. It is adapted to arid environments, being a prominent tree in tropical mixed deciduous forests in India.

The tree is considered a boon by the tribals who are forest dwellers and keenly conserve this tree. It produces between 20 and 200 kg of seeds annually per tree, depending on maturity. Most of the leaves fall from February to April, and during that time, the musky-scented flowers appear. The surrounding looks serene due to the yellowish dried leaves and the brown branch colors. The whole place turns green once the spring starts somewhere in the month of April. The transition from the shading the leaves to the new green leaves is spectacular to watch due the color change.

Flowers hang in close bunches of a dozen or so from the end of the gnarled, grey branchlets. It is at night that the tree blooms and at dawn each short-lived flower fall to the ground. A couple of months after the flowering period the fruit opens. They are fleshy, green berries, quite large and containing from one to four shiny, brown seeds.

The delicious and nutritive flowers are used to produce an alcoholic drink in tropical India. Flowers are fermented to produce the alcoholic drink mahuwa, a country liquor. The main ingredients used for making it are chhowa gud (granular molasses) and dried mahuwa flowers. The liquor produced from the flowers is largely colourless, with a whitish tinge and not very strong. The taste is reminiscent of sake with a distinctive smell of mahua flowers. It is inexpensive and the production is largely done in home stills.

Tribals of Bastar in Chhattisgarh and peoples of Orissa, Santhals of Santhal Paraganas (Jharkhand), Koya tribals of North-East Andhra Pradesh and tribals of North Maharashtra consider the tree and the mahuwa drink as part of their cultural heritage. Mahuwa is an essential drink for tribal men and women during celebrations. It is considered holy by many tribal communities because of its medical usefulness.

Info and some images from: Wikipedia and flowers of India

Terracotta Exhibition

Terra - Cotta - meaning baked earth- is a famous art form to create not only sculptures, but for vessels (flowers vase, cooking utensils, cups), building materials (pipes, bricks), and interestingly jewelry.

Bright coloring schemes are used to paint the big vases.

Curvy handles with a contrasting color scheme - Golden vs Magenta. Its a typical color scheme followed in Odisha.

An artist painting the big vases. Most of the stalls by the artists coming from the southern tribal districts of Odisha, mainly Bargarh and Keonjhar.

The work is very complex and needs quite a great amount of concentration. I talked to some of them about the art, everyone was proud of the work they do, they were proud to be the part of the tradition there villages carry.

Terracotta art can produce some unusual forms if used creatively. A coconut on a copper-like vase exhibited at one of shop.

Terracotta Jewelry exhibited - better design, better quality at very less price as compared to the online shops

Clay required is collected from the village lakes. Two types of clay are used in equal proportion: Red and Black. Red is pure clay while black is sandlike.

After sculpting, the item is baked in fire.

After curing, paints are applied. Product is finished with a layer of glaze.

To create a texture, acrylic colors are used for lining.

A closer look - such textures created are often covers the large area of the vase

Bright color schemes certainly making wonders and tempts to buy such captivating vases to decorate the home

Young generation enjoying the skill and art involved in creating such graceful form

Raja Rani Temple, Bhubaneshwar

RajaRani temple from Bhubaneshwar is perhaps the most beautiful temple to visit. The ancient architecture, peaceful atmosphere and absence of worshipers (since there is no god idol inside the temple) are some of the reasons for a must have visit.

Currently the temple is looked after by ASI and has categorized it as 'ticketed protected monuments of Odisha'. A five rupee ticket allows you to explore the temple for one whole day. Interestingly, the ticket is applicable for entry at one more ticketed place from Bhubaneshwar: Udayagiri and Khandgiri caves. It is possible to cover two historical places in one day, morning and evening dedicated to temple and during day time the two buddhist caves - Udaygiri and Khandgiri. Photography charges are included in the ticket.

The first impression from the name of temple suggests, the idol might be a pair. In fact there is no idol inside the temple and thus no puja is offered in the temple.The temple was constructed of dull red and yellow sandstone locally called "Rajarani".

The temple is believed to have been known originally as Indreswara. It is locally known as a "love temple" because of the erotic carvings of women and couples in the temple.

Historical Details about the temple. Display boards by ASI.

Various historians place the original construction date between the 11th and 12th centuries, and have placed it roughly belonging to the same period as the Jagannath Temple at Puri. The architecture of other temples in central India is believed to have originated with this temple, the notable ones being the Khajuraho temples and Totesvara Mahadeo temple in Kadawa.

Rajarani Temple is built in the pnahcratha style on a raised platform with two structures: a central shrine called the vimana (sanctum) with a bada (curvilinear spire) over its roof rising to a height of 18 m (59 ft), and a viewing hall called jagamohana with a pyramidal roof.

The highlight of the temple is the fine sculptures of dikpalas or guardians of the eight directions carved around the shrine. Starting from East we encounter successively-

Indra (lord of the East) holding a thunderbolt and an elephant goad, with the elephant below; the potbellied and

Agni (southeast), god of fire, with the Ram;

Yama (South) holding a staff and a noose, with his vehicle the buffalo;

Nirriti (southwest), the god of misery, holds a severed head and a sword above a prostrate figure;

Varuna (West) holding a noose in his left hand, his vehicle is makara or the crocodile;

Vayu (northwest) holding a banner and his vehicle is deer;

Kubera (North) placed above seven jars of gems, he has a horse and

Isana (northeast) shown with an erect phallus by the side of an emaciated figure.

The Department of Tourism of the Government of Odisha organises a Rajarani music festival at the temple every year from January. The temple focuses on classical music, and all three styles of classical music – Hindustani,Carnatic and Odissi – are given equal importance. Musicians from different parts of the country perform during the three-day festival. The festival was started in 2003 with the help of the Bhubaneswar Music Circle (BMC)

Temple is a favorite among photographers. Morning time is excellent to shoot the amber-colored beauty due to the light direction and angle. Temple is surrounded by bungalows. Thus choosing n angle to avoid them from appearing in the frame is tricky. Ultra-wide angle lens perhaps be better than kit lens at minimum focal length.

Early in the morning the temple premises is used by the locals to have morning walk or light exercise. Visitors come bit late, somewhere around and after 10 AM.