stories of Ramayana at Hazara Rama Devastana

Further to the post dedicated to the sculptures of Sharavan Kumar at Hazara Rama Devastana, I revisited the pictures again and felt like sharing pictures of two more walls there. Being a temple dedicated to Sri Rama, the builders decorated the temple with sculptures depicting stories from the epic Ramayana.

The middle image in the bottom row is the scene of king Dasharatha giving the divine payasam to his three queens Kausalya, Kaikeyi and Sumitra. The divine payasam was a product of a Yagna for progeny. After the rituals a bowl of payasam was gifted by the gods to Dasharatha who in turn distributed among his queens. We all know that later four sons were born- Rama, Bharata, Lakshmana & Shatrugna.

The bottom row leftmost image should be of Dasharatha, the four princes and Guru Vasishta, the princes teacher. The rightmost image must be the scene of Dasharatha performing the Yagna.

Moving up to the middle row, the three images are from Aranyakhand, the part of Ramayana where Rama is in exile for fourteen years. The leftmost image is the scene of Bharatha meeting Rama,  Sita & Lakshmana in the forest. The middle image shows Lakshmana leading the way for Rama & Sita in a forest path. The rightmost is the scene of Lakshmana defending Rama & Sita from Shurpanakhi the Rakshasa woman who was infatuated by Rama's charm.

On to the top row where the mages are smaller. The middle one seems like Rama meeting Hanuman, or Sugreeva. The rightmost seems like Vali & Tara.

In this picture, the bottom left image is the scene of Rama breaking Shiva's bow Pinaka while trying to string it. This incident happens at Sita's home. Anyone seeking to marry Sita had to string Pinaka was her father king Janaka's condition. So Rama while trying to string the bow breaks it which proved his strength and marries Sita.

The bottom-middle image seems like sage Vishwamitra asking Dasharatha to send Rama & Lakshmana along with him to protect his Yagna from Rakshasa attacks. Dasharatha unwillingly agrees fearing Vishwamitra's anger. Despite being young and inexperienced, Rama & Lakshmana fight bravely and successfully protect Vishwamitra's Yagna ceremony. The bottom-right image is the scene of the battle between the princes & rakshasas.

In the middle row, it's a couple of rakshasa soldiers. Unsure of the characters of the archery duel. On the right it seems like Rama, Sita & Lakshmana.

The top row are scenes from the Ashoka garden in Ravana's Lanka. In the left is the scene of Hanuman meeting Sita while in captivity at Ashoka Garden. The middle and right images are the scenes of Hanuman fighting rakshasa soldiers and destroying a huge part of Ravana's palace garden.

So much for this week.

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Rickshaw Run Autos

This is a 9yo memory of seeing two gaily painted autorickshaws at Sabala Heritage Home, Vijayapura on Aug 18th 2017. Pushpa and I were traveling from Dharwad to Hyderabad, on the way we had stopped to see two historical monuments of Vijayapura. We had entered the historical city from the southern side and stopped to see the huge cannon named Landa Kasab Tope. Then we headed to the northern edge of the town to see the canon on Aldi Buruj. Unfortunately the tower was not tourist friendly, there was no way to climb the tower without the help of ladders. Also it was almost dusk, darkness was setting in. I moved up to a slightly elevated ground and got a glimpse of the canon which is quite long. We were tired and just wanted to find a lodge for the night. I guess we found a place just outside the city limits, a lodge situated inside a farm called Sabala Heritage Home.

We liked the heritage home's ambiance instantly. The hosts, lady owner and her colleagues, were friendly. Our first floor rooms had a view of neighboring fields, the only sounds we heard were insects. We had had lemon-grass tea and freshened up. The dining was on the ground floor. Menu was jolada rotti oota which included salad and sweets. Food prepared by village ladies was home food, no other word or phrase to describe it. There were a few other guests and their presence was hardly felt. We hit the sack early and woke up early to start the journey towards Hyderabad.

We chatted with the owner and found that she had good knowledge about plants. She grew vegetables, fruits, herbs, flowers and other crops. One of the herbs was a five in one spice. When we sniffed at the crushed leaf we got aromas of clove, pepper, cinnamon.. can't remember the other two. After the pleasant chat we said our byes and headed to the parking area where found two gaily painted autorickshaws. A group of young western foreigners were on a tour of India. Journeys would be slow but they weren't in a hurry, I guess.

On this flaming rickshaw was poster with website address rickshawrun.com which redirected to The Adventurist. Until now I never knew that touring in rickshaws was a craze among western tourists, particularly in Rajasthan. Do check out the website, it's big phenomena at another level.

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