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Odisha Part 2 - Puri: The Experience of Jagannath

The temple of Jagannath at Puri is one of the four most important temples across India. Sometimes called the Char Dham – Badrinath in the north, Rameswaram in the South, Dwarka in the west, and Puri in the east – these temples mark four corners of our country, and each of these temples has a connection to Adi Shankara. He is said to have travelled to each of them, thus marking a sacred geography of India, long before the country actually existed. Among these 4 temples, 3 are dedicated to Lord Vishnu, while only Rameswaram is dedicated to Lord Shiva, though the lingam there is said to have been installed by Rama. Further, Shankara set up Mutts at 3 of these sites (or very close to these sites, like at Badrinath, where the mutt is at Joshimutt), while the mutt in the south is at Sringeri in Karnataka, quite a distance away from Rameswaram. Coming back to the topic, I have visited Rameswaram most often, Badrinath during my childhood, and Dwaraka a few times, but Puri had stayed out of re...
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Faces in the Crowd - Temple vendor at Nashik

One of my resolutions this year is to post as often as I can. And to make it a bit easier for myself, I have decided to use some of the photos I have clicked, but never used. And some of these photos are of complete strangers - people I saw and clicked on my travels, but people I know little about. Hence the title, Faces in the Crowd.... And here is the first one.....





We saw her outside the Kala Ram Temple at Nashik, selling offerings for the deity. There was a time when I used to love the sugar offerings she sells - we used to call them 'batasha', but try as I might, I was unable to find the English word for them.  Anyway, I clicked a quick photo of her wares, and she called out to me "Mazha photu nahi kaadnar kaa? " (Won't you click my photograph too?) and so I did... and she posed too, pursing up her lips in a smile which grew much wider when I showed her the photo on the camera screen. 
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Comments

  1. chitraJanuary 6, 2013 at 6:03 PM

    Happy New Year!!. I also wish to post as often as possible I am not sure so didn't make any resolution

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anuradha ShankarJanuary 7, 2013 at 8:30 AM

      Thanks Chitra. wish you too a wonderful year ahead! I dont usually make resolutions either, but I lagged behind so much on posting in 2012 that I felt drastic steps were needed to bring myself up to scratch!!! now lets see how long I manage to keep this up!

      Delete
  2. Vishal RathodJanuary 7, 2013 at 7:07 PM

    Great Resolution , nice start , click click click ....

    ReplyDelete

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