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Diya (lamp)
A diya, diyo, deya, deeya, dia, divaa, deepa, deepam, deep, deepak or saaki () is an oil lamp made from clay or mud with a cotton wick dipped in oil or ghee. These lamps are commonly used in the Indian subcontinent and they hold sacred prominence in Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, and Jain prayers as well as religious rituals, ceremonies and festivals including Diwali. Traditional use Diyas are symbolically lit during prayers, rituals, and ceremonies; they are permanent fixtures in homes and temples. The warm, bright glow emitted from a diya is considered auspicious, regarded to represent enlightenment, prosperity, knowledge and wisdom. Diyas represent the triumph of light over dark, good over evil with the most notable example of this being on the day of Diwali. Diwali is celebrated every year to celebrate the triumph of good over evil as told in the Hindu epic, the Ramayana. Diwali marks the day Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana returned home to Ayodhya after 14 years in exile, after the def ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diwali Diyas
Diwali (), also called Deepavali (IAST: ''Dīpāvalī'') or Deepawali (IAST: ''Dīpāwalī''), is the Hindu festival of lights, with variations celebrated in other Indian religions such as Jainism and Sikhism. It symbolises the spiritual victory of ''Dharma'' over ''Adharma'', light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance.Jean Mead, ''How and why Do Hindus Celebrate Divali?'', Diwali is celebrated during the Hindu calendar, Hindu lunisolar months of Ashvin (month), Ashvin (according to the Hindu calendar#amanta, amanta tradition) and Kartika (month), Kārtikabetween around mid-September and mid-November.''The New Oxford Dictionary of English'' (1998) – p. 540 "Diwali /dɪwɑːli/ (also Diwali) noun a Hindu festival with lights...". The celebrations generally last five or six days. Diwali is connected to various religious events, deities and personalities, such as being the day Rama returned to his Kosala, kingdom in Ayodhya (Ramayana), Ayodhya with h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ravana
According to the Mahakavya, Hindu epic, ''Ramayana'', Ravana was a kingJustin W. Henry, ''Ravana's Kingdom: The Ramayana and Sri Lankan History from Below'', Oxford University Press, p.3 of the island of Lanka, in which he is the chief antagonist and is considered to be a Rakshasa (demon). In the ''Ramayana'', Ravana is described as the eldest son of sage Vishrava and Kaikesi, Kaikasi. He abducted Rama's wife, Sita, and took her to his kingdom of Lanka, where he held her in the Ashok Vatika, Ashoka Vatika. Rama, with the support of vanara King Sugriva and his army of vanaras, launched a rescue operation for Sita against Ravana in Lanka. Ravana was subsequently slain, and Rama rescued his beloved wife Sita. Ravana was well-versed in the six shastras and the four Vedas, including the Shiva Tandava Stotra. Ravana is also considered to be the most revered devotee of Shiva. Images of Ravana are often seen associated with Shiva at temples. He also appears in the Buddhist Mahayana t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Karnataka
Karnataka ( ) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed as Mysore State on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, States Reorganisation Act, and renamed ''Karnataka'' in 1973. The state is bordered by the Lakshadweep Sea to the west, Goa to the northwest, Maharashtra to the north, Telangana to the northeast, Andhra Pradesh to the east, Tamil Nadu to the southeast, and Kerala to the southwest. With 61,130,704 inhabitants at the 2011 census, Karnataka is the List of states and union territories of India by population, eighth-largest state by population, comprising 31 List of districts in India, districts. With 15,257,000 residents, the state capital Bengaluru is the largest city of Karnataka. The economy of Karnataka is among the most productive in the country with a gross state domestic product (GSDP) of and a per capita GSDP of for the financial year 2023– ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Telangana
Telangana is a States and union territories of India, state in India situated in the Southern India, south-central part of the Indian subcontinent on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, eleventh largest state by area and the List of states and union territories of India by population, twelfth most populated state in India, according to the 2011 Census of India, 2011 census. On 2 June 2014, the area was separated from the northwestern part of United Andhra Pradesh as the newly formed States and union territories of India, state of Telangana, with Hyderabad as its capital. Telugu language, Telugu, one of the classical languages of India, is the most widely spoken and the primary official language of Telangana state, whereas Urdu is recognised as the second official language. Additionally, several tribal languages such as Gondi, Kolami, Koya and Lambadi are spoken in different regions of the Telangana state. The economy of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh (ISO 15919, ISO: , , AP) is a States and union territories of India, state on the East Coast of India, east coast of southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, seventh-largest state and the List of states and union territories of India by population, tenth-most populous in the country. Telugu language, Telugu is the most widely spoken language in the state, as well as its official language. Amaravati is the state capital, while the largest city is Visakhapatnam. Andhra Pradesh shares borders with Odisha to the northeast, Chhattisgarh to the north, Karnataka to the southwest, Tamil Nadu to the south, Telangana to northwest and the Bay of Bengal to the east. It has the Coastline of Andhra Pradesh, third-longest coastline in India at about . Archaeological evidence indicates that Andhra Pradesh has been continuously inhabited for over 247,000 years, from early archaic Hominini, hominins to Neolithic settlements. The earliest r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kerala
Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Kingdom of Cochin, Cochin, Malabar District, Malabar, South Canara, and Travancore. Spread over , Kerala is the 14th List of states and union territories of India by area, smallest Indian state by area. It is bordered by Karnataka to the north and northeast, Tamil Nadu to the east and south, and the Laccadive Sea, Lakshadweep Sea to the west. With 33 million inhabitants as per the 2011 Census of India, 2011 census, Kerala is the List of states of India by population, 13th-largest Indian state by population. It is divided into 14 List of districts of Kerala, districts with the capital being Thiruvananthapuram. Malayalam is the most widely spoken language and is also the official language of the state. The Chera dynasty was the f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tamils
The Tamils ( ), also known by their endonym Tamilar, are a Dravidian peoples, Dravidian ethnic group who natively speak the Tamil language and trace their ancestry mainly to the southern part of the Indian subcontinent. The Tamil language is one of the longest-surviving classical languages, with over two thousand years of Tamil literature, written history, dating back to the Sangam period (between 300 BCE and 300 CE). Tamils constitute about 5.7% of the Indian population and form the majority in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry. They also form significant proportions of the populations in Sri Lankan Tamils, Sri Lanka (15.3%), Tamil Malaysians, Malaysia (7%) and Indian Singaporeans, Singapore (5%). Tamils have migrated world-wide since the 19th century CE and a significant population exists in South Africa, Mauritius, Fiji, as well as other regions such as the Southeast Asia, Middle East, Caribbean and parts ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hindu
Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for people living in the Indian subcontinent. It is assumed that the term ''"Hindu"'' traces back to Avestan scripture Vendidad which refers to land of seven rivers as Hapta Hendu which itself is a cognate to Sanskrit term ''Sapta Sindhuḥ''. (The term ''Sapta Sindhuḥ'' is mentioned in Rig Veda and refers to a North western Indian region of seven rivers and to India as a whole.) The Greek cognates of the same terms are "''Indus''" (for the river) and "''India''" (for the land of the river). Likewise the Hebrew cognate ''hōd-dū'' refers to India mentioned in Hebrew BibleEsther 1:1. The term "''Hindu''" also implied a geographic, ethnic or cultural identifier for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Karthikai Deepam
Karthika Deepam () is a Hindu festival of lights. It is mainly observed mainly by Tamils in India, Sri Lanka and other regions with significant Tamil diaspora. The festival is celebrated on the first full moon day of the month of Kartika coinciding with Kṛttikā nakshatra, falling on the Gregorian months of November or December. Though it corresponds to the Kartik Purnima, it falls on a different day due to the correction of equinoxes in the Tamil calendar. The festival is associated with Shaivism, is celebrated to commemorate the origin of Kartikeya, the Hindu god of war, and Shiva's manifestation as Jyotirlinga. In Kerala, it is celebrated as Thrikarthika, in honour of goddess Parvati. History One of the earliest references to the festival is found in the Tamil anthology ''Akanaṉūṟu'', dating back to the Sangam period (200 BCE to 300 CE). The festival is referred in songs of poetess Avvaiyar. The festival is also referred in the Sangam literature as ''Peruvi� ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Skanda Purana
The ''Skanda Purana'' ( IAST: Skanda Purāṇa) is the largest '' Mukhyapurāṇa'', a genre of eighteen Hindu religious texts. The text contains over 81,000 verses, and is of Shaivite literature, titled after Skanda, a son of Shiva and Parvati (who is also known as Murugan in Tamil literature). While the text is named after Skanda, he does not feature either more or less prominently in this text than in other Shiva-related Puranas. The text has been an important historical record and influence on the Hindu traditions and rituals related to the war-god Skanda. The earliest text titled ''Skanda Purana'' likely existed by the 8th century CE, but the ''Skanda Purana'' that has survived into the modern era exists in many versions. It is considered as a living text, which has been widely edited, over many centuries, creating numerous variants. The common elements in the variant editions encyclopedically cover cosmogony, mythology, genealogy, dharma, festivals, gemology, temples ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Padma Purana
The ''Padma Purana'' (, or ) is one of the eighteen Puranas#Mahapuranas, Major Puranas, a genre of texts in Hinduism. It is an encyclopedic text, named after the lotus in which creator god Brahma appeared, and includes large sections dedicated to Vishnu, as well as significant sections on Shiva and Shakti. The manuscripts of Padma Purana have survived into the modern era in numerous versions, of which two are major and significantly different, one traced to eastern and the other to western regions of India. It is one of the voluminous text, claiming to have 55,000 verses, with the actual surviving manuscripts showing about 50,000. The style of composition and textual arrangement suggest that it is likely a compilation of different parts written in different era by different authors. The text includes sections on cosmology, mythology, genealogy, geography, rivers and seasons, temples and pilgrimage to numerous sites in India – notably to the Brahma Temple, Pushkar, Brahma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sanskrit Literature
Sanskrit literature is a broad term for all literature composed in Sanskrit. This includes texts composed in the earliest attested descendant of the Proto-Indo-Aryan language known as Vedic Sanskrit, texts in Classical Sanskrit as well as some mixed and non-standard forms of Sanskrit. Literature in the older language begins during the Vedic period with the composition of the Ṛg·veda between about 1500 and 1000 BCE, followed by other Vedic works right up to the time of the grammarian Pāṇini around 6th or 4th century BCE (after which Classical Sanskrit texts gradually became the norm). Vedic Sanskrit is the language of the extensive liturgical works of the Vedic religion, while Classical Sanskrit is the language of many of the prominent texts associated with the major Indian religions, especially Hinduism and the Hindu texts, but also Buddhism, and Jainism. Some Sanskrit Buddhist texts are also composed in a version of Sanskrit often called Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
