2016

Archaeological Survey of Ramesvaram Island -1

Ramesvaram the holy of the holiest places of the Indian sub continent is having the vital key to understand the cultural directory of the ancient India. The tiny island holds many feature and customs practiced in all these thousands of years by the entire community irrespective of their caste and creed. For perceptive approach and to assimilate various facets of this culture it is essential to probe into the backdrop of the factors that molded this Island as the great bridge of spirituality in all these millenniums. In fact our journey will unearth not only the archaeological remains but the mannerism out of which our culture was warped.

The Matrix

The atomic theory of Science holds good for the philosophy of the origin of the universe. Indian logic also accepts that the world is made of same substance in different chemical combinations and distinguishes five basic rudimentary elements as base for all substances of different quality. Vedas indicate that life and substances were originated in water which the Geologists name as Glacier period.

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Rameshwaram, The Anchor of Indian Renaissance – 8

by
Shri. Narendra Joshi

Pilgrimage was almost mandatory in the sadhana of almost all sages. We have examples of some sages who went barefoot all over the land more than once in their lives. Pilgrimage was a way of learning life and culture of this vast land having unity in diversity, of meeting other like-minded people, sharing and at times debating with them on Vedanta. Quoting Swami Vivekananda, (Sages of India, vol 3 CW: Colombo to Almora)

‘This is a peculiarity which we have to understand — that our religion preached an Impersonal Personal God. It preaches any amount of impersonal laws plus any amount of personality, but the very fountain-head of our religion is in the Shrutis, the Vedas, which are perfectly impersonal; the persons all come in the Smritis and Puranas — the great Avataras, Incarnations of God, Prophets, and so forth. And this ought also to be observed that except our religion every other religion in the world depends upon the life or lives of some personal founder or founders.’

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Parasurama’s Episode and Sanctity of of Thirthams at Rameshwaram

by
T.Sathyamurthy
Director REACH Foundation

Parasurama is understood to be the sixth Avatara of Vishnu and placed as second incarnation in Tretayuga just before Rama. In accordance with some of the Samhitas, he is the sixteenth incarnation of Vishnu among his 24 forms. It is the only Avatara in which Vishnu prolonged his physical presence on earth for more than one Yuga. His Personality and his association with Rama, Krishna and Balarama is a unique characterisation ever described in the Itihasa and Puranas. Unlike the earlier avataras, this was a full Avatara extending to atleast two yugas and considered as the Chiranjivi (immortal) blessing the human race. Having born to Jamadagni Rishi one of the Sapta Rishies and Renuka, he inherited the quality of steadfastness and valour to the full level and became the disciple of Siva and said to have learned the art of warfare from him. Siva even parted with his unique weapon Parasu.

In the civilization of mankind, Parasurama incarnation signifies many facets of changes and have archaeological, ethnical, cultural, social and spiritual recorded evidences. Being placed as in between the earlier rulers of Asura dynasty (Mahabali) and the perfect man of righteousness (Rama) he bridges many gaps. It is not very clear from scriptures whether in the earlier Avataras Vishnu ever became mortal in all respects with positive energy like steadfastness and obeying the commands in Vedas as strictly as Parasurama did it. In fact his actions provide sufficient conjectural materials to trace the evolution of the Pan Indian culture and find him as the Saviour of weakest of the period. He bridges the gap between the elites and common man, brahminical and native worship, teacher and taught sophisticated warfare and tribal attack, Siva and Vishnu and witnesses the events in the history of mankind.

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Renovation of Traditional Water Bodies (TWB) – Brahma in the Island of Rameshwaram

by
Vivekananda Kendra - nardep

Background: Research into mythological texts enabled us to identify the lost and damaged traditional water bodies – Teerthams. The survey maps and interaction with the locals helped in restoring and renovating the Teerthams without damaging environmental/societal norms or antiquity. Renovated Teerthams has been handed over to “Teertha mitras”, a community group after bringing back to its original glory. We have identified 64 traditional water bodies (Teerthams) in and around Rameswaram Island. Twenty traditional water bodies outside the temple revived and renovated. So far, 8.5 million litres of water storage created to recharge ground water. Twenty thousand villagers and about one lakh tourists are benefitted. This process has enabled to revive Kudimaramathu system for protecting traditional water bodies. In future, it will become a tourist and pilgrim destination generating employment opportunities for the local stakeholders. This note gives an account of renovation efforts of Brahma (Kunda) Teertham relating to location, mythological values, on revival of traditional water bodies for posterity. Location: Brahma teertham is at Mangad Village of Ramesharam Island. This newly renovated Teertha has brackish water (salt water). However, in the coming couple of years it will become potable water at least for a period of 6-8 months in a year.

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Rameshwaram, The Anchor of Indian Renaissance – 10

by
Shri. Narendra Joshi

In the words of Sri Aurobindo, “An Indian temple to whatever godhead it may be built is in its inmost reality an altar raised to the divine Self, a house of the cosmic Spirit, an appeal and aspiration to the Infinite.”

Temple had pervaded not only religious life of the citizens but also their secular life and their spiritual aspirations. Indian temples had magnificent architecture with abundant sculptures, well documented parts and their significances. In the words of Sri Aurobindo, “Indian architecture especially demands this kind of inner study and this spiritual self-identification with its deepest meaning and will not otherwise reveal itself to us. The secular buildings of ancient India, her palaces and places of assembly and civic edifices have not outlived the ravage of time; what remains to us is mostly something of the great mountain and cave temples, something too of the temples of her ancient cities of the plains, and for the rest we have the fanes and shrines of her later times, whether situated in temple cities and places of pilgrimage like Srirangam and Rameshwaram or in her great once regal towns like Madura, when the temple was the centre of life. It is then the most hieratic side of a hieratic art that remains to us. These sacred buildings are the signs, the architectural self expression of an ancient spiritual and religious culture. Ignore the spiritual suggestion, the religious significance, the meaning of the symbols and indications, look only with the rational and secular aesthetic mind, and it is vain to expect that we shall get to any true and discerning appreciation of this art. (The Foundations of Indian Culture)

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Green Rameswaram – Smart Micro Grid

by
Dr.Ramaratnam, Basil Energetics

The importance and benefits of DC appliances have been clearly brought out in the past articles. Energy efficiency is a low hanging fruit and this has to be deployed in a big way and both state and central governments have to give a major thrust for this along with encouragement of renewable energy in a big way. The idea can be successfully exploited inn roof top solar systems and other forms of green energy such as Micro Wind, PICO Hydel and Bio mass/gas generation systems. Depending on the local availability of resources many of these forms of renewable energy can be brought together using a smart micro grid system for individual buildings. The following graphics explains this concept in a pictorial manner.

In the above schematic different forms of renewable energy sources are coupled together in a smart micro grid. iGrid takes inputs from several of them like Solar Panels, Rooftop Micro Wind, PICO Hydel, Biogas generation system and the electricity grid.

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Hand in Hand India

by
Two Sensitization meetings of the members of Self Help Groups organized with the main objective of source segregation.

SHG Volunteers Awareness programme at J.J Nagar on 02.12.2016 wherein 35 members par

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Nakshatra Vanam

by
S.Karthik,
C.P.R. Environmental Education Centre

Mimusops elengi is spread all over South India and in the Andaman Islands. It is a medium-sized evergreen tree with a regular globular, spreading crown and attains a height of 10 m. to 16 m. It is native to India and grows in all regions with a tropical climate, except in water-logged areas.

The flowers are Pleasant smelling and full of nectar. A lotion prepared from the flowers is used to clear wounds and ulcers. A secretion of the bark helps in shrinking of the tissues, controls bleeding and cures excessive secretion of mucous from the bladder and urethra. It is also used to treat fevers and also as a mouthwash to protect gums and teeth. A paste of roots mixed with vinegar is applied to swellings on the face and a paste made with water is applied to pustule eruptions of the skin (Dastur, 1962). Regular chewing of tender fruits strengthens the teeth. The seeds are used in the preparation of eye drops and to treat bowel disorders. The oil extracted from the seed is applied to swellings of the joints (Shanmugham, 1989).

Maghizham (Bakula) is sacred to Hindus, Buddhists and Jains. In Hindu tradition, it is sacred to Lord Shiva. It is one of the many sacred trees mentioned in the Hindu religious texts, according to which the bakula (Mimusops elengi) is sacred to Lord Trimurthi (Bidwood, 1986: Gupta, 1971: Tiwari, 1989).

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