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Newasa - Encountering an unique form of Vishnu, and Sant Jnaneshwar

The year was 1290 . A crowd had gathered around a clearing, where broken down pillars marked the presence of an ancient temple, now long gone. A young boy, just 14 years old, leaned against one of those pillars, deep in thought. Then, he began speaking, and the crowd fell silent, listening to his every word. He spoke without any notes, translating the Bhagavat Gita, from Sanskrit, which only the pundits knew, to the language everyone in the village knew and spoke – a variety of Prakrit which developed into the Marathi language. Even as he spoke, one of the men in the audience realized how momentous this event was, and how important this composition would be. He began writing down the words the young boy spoke, and this composition was named by its author and composer, the Bhavartha Deepika – the enlightening meaning (of the Bhagavat Gita). Now, the ancient, holy text, was no longer restricted to the pundits, but accessible to all, understood easily by them, composed as it was, in their...
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Navaratri Day 10: Winding up

Dusshera or Vijayadasami - either way, the tenth day of Navaratri is one of celebration. This year, I have been less than enthusiastic about the festival, but surrounded as I am by the celebration in all its many hues, I have still managed to post (almost) every day! Wondering how to wind up my posts, I came across this sight, which inspired me to write....





"What is so special about this?" You may ask. These are just blown up Chhota Bheem balloons sold almost at every street corner. What struck me was that we saw these wherever we went - outside the Fine Arts Society, where we went to see the Bommai Kolu; outside the Bengali Durga Puja at Chembur Naka; at the Ramleela Mela at Gandhi Maidan, and even outside our very own Chheda Nagar Temple!!! 



Chhota Bheem has nothing to do with the festival, and yet, he seems to be omnipresent across the celebrations, irrespective of region or language! 


The impromptu stalls that turn up outside festival venues go a long way in making our celebrations what they are... And once again, I feel happy to live in a place where I get to see all this variety, and notice bits like this which make me smile!

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Location: Chembur, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Comments

  1. divsiOctober 8, 2014 at 6:59 PM

    these are pictures of the Gandhi Maidan right? What fanfare during Navratri! The ram leela and the Ravan dehan :)
    I am finding so many chembur-ites Today in blogosphere! What Coincidence :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anuradha ShankarOctober 9, 2014 at 12:14 PM

      Yes, they are from Gandhi Maidan, Divsi! Are you from Chembur too? Its interesting how the blogsphere throws interesting stuff at us!

      Delete
  2. divsiOctober 10, 2014 at 7:47 PM

    Yes! I stay very near Gandhi Maidan:)

    ReplyDelete

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