Food tastes much better when you eat it in the right ambiance. Kashmir cotton tablecloth give you just that refreshing feel on the dining table. These exclusively handcrafted table linen raise your spirits and provide you with a better eating experience. These tablecloths lighten up otherwise dark furniture, the elegance and style needed to give a room character.
If you are looking for the finest embroidery work on pure cotton fabric, this is the one meant for you. Made by craftsmen from Kashmir, these home FurnitureDecoration Items come in handloom woven off white 100% cotton fabric with beautiful traditional ‘sozuni’ embroidery in colorful floral patterns. Spread it out for dining when you have your near and dear ones or your most valued guests at home. Everyone in the table will cherish the experience for a long time to come. Capture the magic of orient with richly styled exquisitely embroidered furnishings in exclusive colors, which show off your furniture and impart a sense of luxury.
India, a country with natural and cultural richness has a timeless heritage. Though moving with the world today, India still holds that mystic charm and that charm breathes in every art and craft coming from the hands of remote artists of her tribes and villages. The rich and beautiful Indian culture started its journey long back with the journey of humanity on this land. It reflects their art of living, basic attitude towards life, talents and creativity. People from every walk of life, from the enormous estates to the remote and petit villages, everyone has continuously contributed to the heritage and richness of Indian culture.
Art its countless existing style date back to the ancient time, it was influenced by the desire for expression of how they interpreted their surroundings. Also what the women folk painted on the walls for ritual purposes or simply to decorate them, became art later. From the caves of the primitive folks, to the walls of the remote villages followed by the courts of the kings and now to the modern style, Indian culture has seen many faces of art in its journey since antiquity. In this field of Indian culture the Mughals contributed in abundance by promoting and patronizing the miniature artists. The British influence too contributed in the heritage of Indian art and culture by mingling the style of the two countries. What resulted was a pleasant blend that left its beautiful mark in the history of Indian culture.
Indian dyeing techniques are world famous and have endured and developed through the centuries. A popular style of Gujarat is the bandhani which is made by a traditional resist dyeing technique of tie and dye. Bandhani is produced in shocking colours; inspiration for combinations is drawn from nature, so red and yellow from the mango, or purple and green from the aubergine are interspersed with irregular dots, squares or triangles that result from tie and dye process. Dyeing selectively waxed cloth- originally a javanese technique produces some of the finest batik in the world, and this is used for clothes and soft furnishings. All the artisans involved in the dyeing and painting of cloth flourished untill the end of the nineteenth century when synthetic madder and indigo, which were more lasting than their natural counterparts, were discovered in Europe and machines that mass produced fabric were introduced into India. Before this beautiful handmade fabrics had been used regularly to furnish palaces and royal tents and Indian kings and princes exchanged gifts of exquisite cloth to honour each other.
In the villages of Rajasthan the array of painted homes gives the whole village the appearance of an elaborate art gallery: peacocks dance on walls, gods and goddesses frolic and flowers bloom in the bountiful vigour of spring. Shekhawati is especially celebrated for its havelis painted with powerful elephants, graceful horses and palanquins cerrying beautiful damsels.
The warli tribe of Maharashtra decorate their huts with stark white images on matt terracotta walls. Representations of trees, birds and people going about their daily task crowd the canvas in a naive geometric style. Warli Paintings are now available as small wall hangings, plaques or even on trays and table linen, and trible art has caught the fancy of people doing up their homes in India's middle class, urban sector.
In the south wall paintings are drawn on plaster, a technique evident in the region's many temples. The various tribes of the north-east paint pictures on their walls for different reasons. The Monpas follow Buddhism and draw Buddhist images on wooden panels. The Santhals use wall paintings purely as decoration; the Saoras draw a pantheon of gods, celestial beings and ghosts to flatter them and keep them happy. Madhubani in Bihar is famous for its naive frescoes of people, animals, birds and trees in compelling pinks and yellows. In Orissa, Lord Jagannath, a local form of the god Krishna- takes pride of place in wall paintings.
Amongst the many tribal art traditions of India, Warli Art stands out for its fine lines, texture, and scenes from the Indian countryside. The Warli painters are from Maharashtra, in western India. Their white line paintings with simple, direct figures have a close link to the cave paintings of their ancestors. For example, there are paintings in Ajanta and Ellora from many centuries ago.
For the Warli painters who execute these masterpieces, daily life still involves the rigors of subsistence farming in the foothills of the Sahyadri range in the district of Thane. Working in the fields with the village in the background, their art is a reflection of the simple beauty of their agrarian lives.
Each tribe or community in India has a special deity whom they hold dear. Though they believe in polytheistic religion, one god or goddess usually holds pride of place as the protector of the community. For the Warlis, the main goddess is Palghat, who oversees the bounty of nature. She is responsible for fertility of mankind as well and therefore invoked at the time of marriage. Given their agrarian lifestyle, and spiritual beliefs, Warli paintings depict scenes from their everyday worlds. Scenes from nature, farming activities, and jungle lore are a source of inspiration for these tribal painters. Each painting has exquisite details of the trees, animals, and people of the countryside.
Some of the most dramatic of these linear rice paste paintings are actually inside the huts of the Warlis. They dwell in square windowless huts made of wood, straw and mud. These dull and dreary brown huts are brightened up by the contrast of exquisite white line paintings.
Today, Warli painters continue to pursue their traditional artwork, despite their exposure to modern, urbanized lifestyles. Their humble and reserved outlook allows them to focus on their beautiful paintings, while also drawing on the benefits of new income opportunities that have opened up to them due to the expanding Indian economy.
The most important teaching of the Buddha is the four noble truths. This was the first sermon that the Buddha preached after his enlightenment. The first noble truth is that life is frustrating and painful. Sometimes it is downright miserable! Look around and see other people also in the most appalling conditions: children starving, terrorism, hatred, wars, intolerance, people being tortured. Pain and suffering are all pervasive.
The second noble truth is that suffering has a cause. We suffer because we are constantly struggling to survive and prove our existence. The harder we struggle to establish ourselves and our relationships, the more painful our experience becomes.
The third noble truth is that the cause of suffering can be ended. Our effort to prove ourselves and solidify our relationships is unnecessary. Buddha teaches us to be simple, straight-forward people. We do this by abandoning our expectations about how we think things should be.
The fourth noble truth concerns the path to end this suffering. The way is through meditation. Meditation, here, means mindfulness and awareness. Being mindful of all the things that we torture ourselves with, we can end the suffering. Out of our mindfulness we develop an awareness of the way things really are.
Accounts of Hanuman’s birth and parentage in the Ramayana, Skanda Purana, Bhavishyottara Purana, Brahmananda Purana and some other texts are almost identical. The myth in the Brahmananda Purana begins with Anjana’s father Kesari, a demon.
The childless Kesari underwent rigorous penance for a son. Pleased by
it Shiva appeared and asked him to name anything he wanted. Kesari
asked him to grant him a son who was unparalleled on warfront and in
might, wisdom and steadfastness. Shiva showed his inability for
Providence had not allowed him a son. He, however, granted him a
daughter who would bear a mighty son. In due course his wife bore a
girl with exceptional beauty. Kesari named her Anjana. When fully
grown, she was married to a mighty monkey, also named Kesari. For quite
long they had no child. One day, Dharma, god of Righteousness,
disguised as a low-born woman adept in astrology, came to their place.
She told Anjana that if she performed penance for seven thousand years
on mount Venkatachala, she would have a mighty son. She underwent seven
thousand years long penance. Afterwards she bore a son with no one like
him in valor, wisdom and might.
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Hanuman, the redeemer, is hence more widely
worshipped and has a larger number of shrines dedicated to him than
even Rama, his master. Hanuman’s power to redeem is not a mere
theological conceptualisation or a believer’s hypothesis, his life, as
it reveals in different sources, is its example. In Rama-katha – story
of Rama’s life, which is broadly also the story of Hanuman’s life, this
emissary and servant of Rama often rises above his master at least in
the face of a crisis. God Hanuman Sculptures at Amazon.com:-
Some other texts also allude to Anjana’s journey to Venkatachala for a
son but on the advice of sage Matanga, not Dharma. Sage Matanga saw
Anjana engaged in rigorous austerities at mount Kishkindha. He asked
her the object of her penance. A sad Anjana revealed her heart and
entreated the holy saint to tell how she would get a son. Sage Matanga
advised her to go to Venkatachala. There she should first worship
Venkateshvara and then take a holy dip at the sacred Akashaganga and
drink a handful of its water. So purified she should stand and pray the
wind-god who would bless her with a son invincible against men, gods
and demons. Anjana did as advised. When she was engaged in rigorous
penance, the wind-god appeared. She asked him for a son as mighty as
him. The wind-god thereupon assured her that he himself would be born
to her as her son. Thus, Anjana’s son was born by wind-god and was
himself the wind-god. Hanuman is hence lauded as both Maruti and
Maruti-nandana.
Goddess Durga represents a united front of all Divine forces against the negative forces of evil and wickedness. The gods in heaven decided to create an all-powerful being to kill the demon king Mahishasur who was ready to attack them.
At that very moment a stream of lightning dazzled forth from the mouths of Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh and it turned into a beautiful, magnificent woman with ten hands. Then all the gods furnished her with their special weapons. The image of Durga, the Eternal Mother destroying the demon, Mahishasur is symbolic of the final confrontation of the spiritual urge of man with his baser passions.
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As per our great epic Mahabharat, Pandavas after wandering in the forest for 12 years, hung their weapons on a Shami tree before entering the court of king Virat to spend the last one year in disguise. After the completion of that year on Vijayadashmi the day of Dassera they brought down the weapons from the Shami tree and declared their true identity. Since that day the exchange of Shami leaves on Dassera day became symbols of good, will and victory.
This festival has immense mythological significance. As per Ramayan, Ram did "chandi-puja and invoked the blessings of Durga to kill Ravana, the ten-headed king of Lanka who had abducted Seeta and had charmed life. Durga divulged the secret to Ram how he could kill Ravana. Then after vanquishing him, Ram with Seeta and Laxman returned victorious to his kingdom of Ayodhya on Diwali day.
Kautsa, the young son of Devdatt, insisted on his guru Varatantu to accept "gurudakshina", after finishing his education. After lots of persistence his Guru, finally asked for 14 crore gold coins, one crore for each of the 14 sciences he taught Kautsa. Kautsa went to king Raghuraj, who was known for his genorisity and was an ancestor of Rama. But just at that time he had emptied all his coffers on the Brahmins, after performing the Vishvajit sacrifice. So, the king went to Lord Indra and asked for the gold coins. Indra summoned Kuber, the god of wealth. Indra told Kuber, "Make a rain of gold coins fall on the "shanu" and "apati" trees round Raghuraja's city of Ayodhya." The rain of coins began to fall. The king Raghu gave all the coins to Kautsa, who gave 14 crores gold coins to his guru. The remaining coins were lavishly distributed to the people of Ayodhya city. This happened on the day of Dussehra. In remembrance of this event the custom is kept of looting the leaves of the "apati" trees and people present each other these leaves as "sone" (gold).
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