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BOROBUDUR - a true Wonder

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One of the benefits of living in an industrial suburb of a small town in Indonesia was the opportunity we got to visit some very exotic sites , scattered around Central Java. One of them was BOROBUDUR. The data about Borobudur : A World Heritage Site . The Largest Buddhist Stupa in the world. " The Temple With No Inside" . Built between 740 and 852 AD ( the precise years  as given by Britannica)    during the reign of King Samaratungga of  Shailendra Dynasty. Seismic activity ( or a war or cultural shift) caused  total  abandonment in around 950 AD ; swallowed by jungle and forgotten till 1814 when Stanford Raffles rediscovered the humongous rubble. Painstaking, continuous restoration by various nationalities .... Opened for pilgrimage and tourism in 1973. The monument is built like a stone ( lava-rock) cladding over a natural hill ( hence, "no Inside") in Central Java, not very far from the holy volcano Merapi. It is 9 tiered,(six of th...
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An Alt-Reality called Srirangam

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  Everything about Srirangam Ranganathaswami Temple is MEGA . It reflects even in the word usages : everything  is prefixed by "Periya" (= Big/Mega)  : The temple is Periya Kovil, the God is Periya Perumal , the Devi is Periya Piratti , the music is Periya Melam, the cooking of neivedyam is Periya Avasaram, the sweets offered is Periya Paniyaram, the holy bath is Periya Tirumanjanam .......periya list .  The Island town formed by the bifurcation of River Kaveri into two streams ( Kaveri and Kollidam)  is not merely a geographical feature , but , to people of Faith , a spiritual space that is not of this world , A Sacred Realm , the Rangam,  ruled by that Enchanter Supreme : Ranganatha  (Arangan, in Tamil)  The  Vaishnavas of Southern India  fiercely uphold that the Temple of  Ranganathaswami at Srirangam  is a phenomenon  that exists between The Two Treasured Realms  (UbhayaVibhutis) of the Primordial Purusha , ...
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Belagola beyond Bahubali

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  There are things in life which seem part of  humdrum growing up years , but someday , suddenly, you come to realise what a wonder that thing is . And then , you  want to go grab it once again .   Its about Bahubali , the  colossal Gommateshwara of Sravanabelagola . Yes, been there , seen him. But in such a distant past that there is no sharp memory of anything , no recollection of the impressions he made on the mind . No photos . I cannot claim that my familiarity with this Icon comes from having met  and admired him in person , it is most certainly due to seeing pictures of him intermittently down the years  : in books , brochures, newspaper reports and later, on TV and The Net .  The personal connect , sorely missing .   One-day-excursions they were , in early 1960s . The excitement of seeing  the giant's torso bobbing into view even  from a good 7 kilometers away.....  the climb up the warm , shallow steps cut in...
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A Jaunt in Chettinad

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  For a place that does not exist on a Map , Chettinad has done quite nicely for itself , earning widespread fame for its Cuisine , Sarees and Palatial mansions. The region of Sivagangai Seemai was the Marava Kingdom of Pandyas in older times and part of Ramnad Kingdom in Colonial times . The folk lore is full of heroes of the soil , Velu Nachiar , Maruthu brothers  etc. But as Chettinad today, it  is all about the mercantile stalwarts , the Chettiyars , who migrated Eastward in the 19th century , seeking fortune . They  wielded considerable clout in Burma , Malaya, Malacca etc . Awesome to learn that seed money for a lot of British and Chinese enterprises in Far East during late 19th and early 20th centuries, came from those enterprising Chettiyars.  Fat ledgerbooks with meticulous entries , receipts, bank notes , legal papers from those times can be seen in the Chettiyar Heritage Museum. Not to forget the  heavy , fire proof iron Safes that once held thei...
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The "Ajanta-Ellora" circuit, at last.

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"Ajanta-Ellora" . That's  the common parlance . Like Ellora is Ajanta's surname.  Like they are conjoined twins who can only exist together ! So enmeshed are the names  that in an Art Mela ,a set of  prints, showing the famous Padmapani, was labeled "Ajanta Ellora Prints" ! When the two World Heritage Sites are a good 100kms apart and Ellora has nothing to do with the painted Padmapani .  Anyway , the 100 kms divide notwithstanding, no  visitor ( other than a researcher perhaps) really visits just one of them . That would almost be a sacrilege or cause for great regret.   Their historical "togetherness" can be explained away by the fact that both are rock cut wonders of great antiquity ,  cut into cliffs faces , preserving the best of ancient Indian art and aesthetics. And both are in  Aurangabad District of Maharashtra. While Ajanta Caves are Buddhist in theme,  Ellora has Buddhist, Jain and Hindu relics.  The older caves are ...
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Azerbaijan - a quick dip

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The Why   Why Azerbaijan ?  Bukhara and Samarkand  had been in The Bucket for a long time ; surfed the Net for a group tour that included these two pins.  Found one,  a tried & tested travel company , but alas , the Uzbek tour was labeled "Sold Out".  Scroll down . "Amazing Azerbaijan - 4N-5D "appears.  Whats really amazing is , Azerbaijan was Terra Incognita to ignoranta-me then.  'Why  would people want to travel to this ex-Stalinist pocket of  Central Asia - and where the heck is it actually? Near Mongolia ?".... No idea . Except that F1 Car racing is  ritualistically  flagged off here . And that the name routinely pops up at the Olympic parades...... But the itinerary casts The Bait : Petroglyphs and Mud Volcanos !  Decided .  _______ The Tour   Packaged group tours are convenient for lazy travelers . One just has to sacrifice the  small luxury of  having like-minded company .  When traveli...
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