Dhokra

 

 

Dhokra is a traditional handicraft of Odisha (Orissa) a state in the eastern side of India. This is a typical tribal craft in bronze with its mesh like features giving it a distinctive beauty. The tribal families of Sadeibareni, a village near Dhenkanal town produces this very unusual craft. There are many types of handicrafts in the state of Odisha and generally these people are very artistic. The Sun temple at Konark is a standing testimony to this.

The BELL METAL or DHOKRA is one of the earliest known methods of metal casting. This craft dates back to pre-historic time of Harrappa and Mohenjodaro period of Indus Civilization. The beauty of this art is that it is still done by hand without any advancement of technology!

Dhokra metal casting is perhaps the only living tradition of metal image making in Eastern India. The technique has managed to survive many centuries and change of dynasties owing to its modesty of application in everyday lives.

 

The Dhokra castings of figurines and different animals with their antique look, fits in with interior decor. Dhokra is an alloy of brass, nickel and zinc that gives an antique effect of the castings.

Earlier craftsmen used to create only traditional ritualistic items and decorative pieces but now with new designs inputs, there has been a lot of product diversification, resulting in numerous innovative utility items like door handles, lamp shades, hangers, boxes and caskets of different shapes and sizes. More than 10,000 unique old tradition and new design products are available right now and it is continuously increasing.

Mamallapuram

Mamallapuram or recently called as Mahabalipuram is near Chennai, formerly Madras (names are pretty frequently changed I guess!). This place is one of the UNESCO's World Heritage sites.  There are five temples in Mahabalipuram all of them are monoliths. 

Believed to be built 2000 years ago (7^th century), many monuments are lying unfinished here even today! The main attraction here are the Rock cut cave temples called mandapas, monolithic shrines – rathas, sculptured relief rock panels and the famous shore temple. These structures were built by three successive Pallava kings who developed the Dravidian style of temple architecture within a span of a hundred years. 

I visited this picture in January this here and some of the pictures of Mamallapuram are published here:

Ten photographs

I regularly share my photographs in a Dutch web site - World of Photography – www.woophy.com

In this post I am posting Top ten pictures I like the most in no particular order from this site. I have also given the name of the photographer and each picture is linked to its original place in the site.Here they are:

 

The first one was taken by Lucija Mujanovic from Bosnia. 

 

The second one was taken by Kambrosis Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The third picture was taken by SteveFitz, Christchurch, New Zealand.

The fourth picture was taken by  Tigreramon, Tokyo, Japan.

The following one was taken by  İlker Güneysu, Balikesir, Turkey.

The next picture is from India taken by  Deevus, Tauranga, New Zealand 

 Laura C, of Solna, Sweden took the following picture.

Paul Leger, of Bordeaux, France is the photographer of the following picture.

The next one is from Phillipines - eslwinshot San Carlos, Philippines.

 The final one is from Morocco. The photographer is Jacques Splint
from The Netherlands. 

H O O K A H

 

 

A hookah also known as a waterpipe is a single or multi-stemmed instrument for smoking flavoured tobacco in which the smoke is passed through a water basin (often glass based) before inhalation. The Origin of the hookah is traced to India and Persia. In the earlier days Indians used to call this as “huqqa” which later on became ‘Hookah’. According to some authors it was Abul-Fath Gilani a Persian physician at the Indian court of the Mughal emperor Akbar, who “first passed the smoke of tobacco through a small bowl of water to purify and cool the smoke and thus invented the hubble-bubble or hookah.” 

 

Smoking the hookah gained popularity outside of its native region, in India and the Middle East, and is gained popularity in North America, South America, Europe, Australia and South Africa. They believed that passing the smoke of the tobacco through water ‘purifies’ the smoke! Subsequently the moguls added flavors to the water and when the smoke is passed through the flavored water the smoke also became flavored! Smoking hookah was very common among mogul culture.

Of late smoking hookah is catching on among youngsters and many Hookah cafes and bars have sprung up in the Indian metros. There is a general belief that smoking hookah is less harmful to health compared to cigarette smoking.  Recent studies comparing the ill effects of cigarette smoking and hookah smoking say that smoking hookah in no way better than cigarette smoking.

The tobacco is no less toxic in a hookah pipe, and the water in the hookah does not filter out the toxic ingredients in the tobacco smoke. Hookah smokers may actually inhale more tobacco smoke than cigarette smokers do because of the large volume of smoke they inhale in one smoking session, which can last as long as 60 minutes

While research about hookah smoking is still emerging, evidence shows that it poses many dangers:

• Hookah smoke contains high levels of toxic compounds, including tar, carbon monoxide, heavy metals and cancer-causing chemicals (carcinogens). In fact, hookah smokers are exposed to more carbon monoxide and smoke than are cigarette smokers.
• As with cigarette smoking, hookah smoking is linked to lung and oral cancers, heart disease and other serious illnesses.
• Hookah smoking delivers about the same amount of nicotine as cigarette smoking does, possibly leading to tobacco dependence.
• Hookah smoke poses dangers associated with secondhand smoke.
• Hookah smoking by pregnant women can result in low birth weight babies.
• Hookah pipes used in hookah bars and cafes may not be cleaned properly, risking the spread of infectious diseases.

According to CDC (Centers for Disease control and Prevention), while many hookah smokers may consider this practice less harmful than smoking cigarettes, hookah smoking carries many of the same health risks as cigarettes. Hookah smoking is NOT a safe alternative to smoking cigarettes.

There are lot of myths about Hookah smoking - like,

Myth #1: “Smoking water pipe tobacco is good for you because it has fruit in it”

Myth #2: “It makes me feel relaxed”

Myth #3: “At least, I’m not smoking cigarettes”

Myth #4: “The water filters the smoke and takes out all harmful chemicals”

Myth #5: “I’m not smoking the entire time, I’m sharing it with my friends”

Unfortunately, believing these myths has only added to the appeal of hookah smoking as a trendy popular social activity. As with any decision we make concerning our health, it is important to be informed of the risks and benefits to our body.

Junagarh Fort

Junagarh Fort – One of the very well preserved Forts of India. Even after 423 years after it was built it looks very elegant and wonderful. Inside the fort there are many Palaces built by different rulers over the centuries. The walls have carved stones, marbles, paintings and inlaid semiprecious stones. 

 

This fort is different from other forts of Rajastan in two aspects. First it is not on hill top - like most of the forts in Rajastan and the other is that till date this fort is not conquered by any one! The Junagarh Fort has defied all the attacks except for a brief stint by Kamaran who captured the fort but was unable to retain his victory more than 24 hours! 

This magnificent fort was originally known as Chintamani Fort. It was renamed as “Junagarh Fort” or “Old Fort” in the early 20th century. The Junagarh Fort is a legacy of Raja Rai Singhji, who was the sixth ruler of Bikaner, from 1571 AD to 1612 AD. He was a contemporary of Emperor Akbar and held a very high rank in the court. 

As a trusted military commander of Akbar, Raja Rai Singhji was granted fields of Gujarat and Burhanpur. He was a well travelled person and imbibed the art and architectural forms of the various lands that he went to. The influence of all these is clearly visible in the Junagarh Fort, made of red sandstone.

 

The Anup Mahal is one of the most impressive rooms in the fort complex. The ornately lacquered walls are covered in red and gold with colored glass inlay. White plaster pillars are decorated in delicate patterns and covered with gold leaf. In a land where water is rare, the Badal Mahal or Cloud Palace's walls are painted with a fresco of rain clouds.

 

The palaces, constructed in red sandstone and marble, make a picturesque ensemble of courtyards, balconies, kiosks and windows dotted all over the structure. The premises also house a museum which has a rich collection of artifacts. The fort is surrounded by a high wall and deep moats. There are 37 bastions guarding the fort with only two gates as the entrance pathway to the fort.

Defenitely, Junagarh Fort is a must see destination in Rajasthan!

Delhi City’s tallest beauty!

During eighth century A.D. Turkish, Arabian and Mangolian cultures started invading into the main cultural stream of India. When these foreign cultural people started living in India during medieval period, they employed local Hindu masons for constructing their architectural marvels i.e. mosques, tombs, maqbaras, madarasas, forts & fortresses. It is because of this reason that we see the mixture of various cultural influences in these architectural works of medieval India. Thus a new Indianised style of semi-circular domes, mehrabs (conical minars which were earlier being used for temple niche of the Buddhists or Hindu deities) came into existence.

One good example of such medieval Indo Islamic architecture is Qutub minar at Delhi.

Qutub Minar.
 

(Qutub= Name of the mogul ruler who built it; Minar=Tower)

 

An exquisite example of Indo-Islamic Afghan architecture, the construction of which was started by Qutab-uddin Aibak and was completed later by his successor Iltutmish.

Qutb-Minar in red and buff standstone is the highest tower in India. It has a diameter of 14.32 m at the base and about 2.75 m on the top with a height of 72.5 m. There are 379 steps in this to reach the top. Nowadays tourists are not allowed to climb to the top thanks to modern day security!

The walls of Qutub minar are decorated by the verses of Qur’an. Besides Qur’an numerous inscriptions in Arabic and Nagari characters in different places of the minar reveal the history of Qutb. All the storeys are surrounded by a projected balcony encircling the minar and supported by stone brackets, which are decorated with honey-comb design, more conspicuously in the first storey.

This is a tower of victory, a monument that signify the might of Islam, or a tower for keeping a check for defence.

UNESCO has declared this as a World Heritage Site. Qutub minar over the years has been hit by ravages of nature like lightning and earthquake but still stands tall after minor repairs by subsequent rulers. 

 

 

The Iron Pillar in the courtyard bears an inscription in Sanskrit in Brahmi script of fourth century AD, according to which the pillar was set up as a Vishnudhvaja (standard of god Vishnu) on the hill known as Vishnupada in memory of a mighty king named Chandra. A deep socket on the top of the ornate capital indicates that probably an image of Garuda was fixed into it. Some of the motifs viz., the wheel, tassel etc., are reminiscent of Hindu designs.

Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque, to the north-east of minar was built by Qutbu'd-Din Aibak in AD 1198. It is the earliest extant mosque built by the Delhi Sultans. It consists of a rectangular courtyard enclosed by cloisters, erected with the carved columns and architectural members of 27 Hindu and Jaina temples which were demolished by Qutbu'd-Din Aibak as recorded in his inscription on the main eastern entrance. (Ref: Archaeological Survey of India.)