Ravi S. Iyer: Spiritual

Readers may want to view my recent post on another blog: Thankful to Romila Thapar for her History of Early India book even if my view of such history is different; List of my posts triggered by browse-reading of her book,  https://ravisiyermisc.blogspot.com/2022/09/thankful-to-romila-thapar-for-her.html . 

Mahakali Caves | 2000 years old Ancient Monument | Mumbai, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRhPq6fAjb8 , 9 min. 32 secs., published on 14th June 2022 by ME and MOU. The voiceover seems to be in Bengali which I do not understand. But the video has good visuals of the Caves and so I have shared it. Also the video was published only around 3 months back and so the video footage may be of this year - 2022. This ancient site is of interest to me because I have spent so many years working in SEEPZ (btw 1984 to 2002), and have also lived for a few years in the early 1990s, very close to Mahakali Caves. I recall visiting these caves in early 1990s, which is around thirty years back! At that time, I do not recall seeing any information board there but the video above shows what seems to be an old Archaeologial Survey of India (ASI) board at around 9 seconds. I think I may have not spotted the board in my visit. Further, the site was not clean. I also do recall seeing some sculptures there. I t...

As I have finished the posts related to Puttaparthi area history, I now plan to read up and then put up posts on history of Mumbai and surrounding areas including Dombivli which is on the outskirts of Mumbai. While I have lived close to twenty years now in Puttaparthi, most of the first forty years of my life were in Mumbai and Dombivli. I was born in Malad, Mumbai, and have lived in Malad, Dadar, Bandra (East) and Andheri (East) suburbs of Mumbai, and in Dombivli. I have worked for most of my work life in Mumbai (1984 to 2002) in SEEPZ, Andheri (East). So I am very interested to know about the history of Mumbai and surrounding areas going back two millennia (like my posts on Puttaparthi and surrounding areas history which goes back two millennia). I had a casual look at the wiki page of History of Mumbai, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Mumbai , and found it to be very interesting! In this post, I felt I should share something about a 440 year old St. John the Baptist ch...

Last updated on 12th Dec. 2022 This post follows up on my recent post: Chronological list of (kingdom/empire) rulers of Penukonda area (and so Puttaparthi for most part) from 1121 CE (Western Chalukya dynasty days) based on Wikipedia, https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2022/09/chronological-list-of-rulers-of.html . From what I could gather from wikipedia about dynastic rulers of Puttaparthi area prior to 1121 CE (Western Chalukya dynasty days), I have got a somewhat confused picture. The period a dynasty ruled over Puttaparthi area is especially grey. But I wanted to capture even this confused picture for my own notes, and I thought it may be of interest to some readers and so decided to put it up as this public post. Note that I have used ? (question mark) to indicate confusion/doubt in the list given below. Also I have used a particular year or period associated with a map. So there are gaps in the chronology. 1) 250 BCE?, Maurya empire , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurya_Empire . T...

Last updated on 2nd Oct. 2022 After putting up my post on a chronological list of (empire/kingdom level) rulers of Penukonda over past 8 to 9 centuries, I got the impression that some readers may not know, and may be interested in knowing, about the 14th century Jain temples in Penukonda. First some words about them from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penukonda : Because of its ancient Jain history and presence of many temples it is one of the most revered places for Jains. In the Tamil Jain tradition, this is counted as one of the four Jain centers of learning (Vidystahana) i.e. a Bhattaraka matha which are Delhi, Kolhapur, Jina Kanchi and Penukonda.[4] The famous Pache Parsvanath Swamy Temple, with idol of Parsvanath containing a single green coloured stone (Pacha) is located here.[5][6] According to the inscription on the image, it was consecrated in A.D. 1359, by a disciple of Mula Sangh Nandisangha's Balatkara Gana, Saraswathi Gachha, Kondakundanvaya's Priyarajaguru Mandal...

Last updated on 24th Dec. 2022 Note: Readers may want to view my related post: Some info. about (kingdom/empire) rulers of Puttaparthi area from 250 BCE (Mauryan empire?) till 1121 CE (Western Chalukya empire) based on Wikipedia:,  https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2022/09/some-info-about-kingdomempire-rulers-of.html . [On PC desktop, to open pic in larger resolution (if available), right-click on pic followed by open link (NOT image) in new tab/window. In new tab/window you may have to click on pic to zoom in.] Above pic: Stacked bar chart history timeline of Penukonda (and Puttaparthi) Area Rulers from 1000 AD to 2000 AD (2nd millennium AD) Above pic shows spreadsheet cells and stacked bar chart history timeline of Penukonda (and Puttaparthi) Area Rulers from 1000 AD to 2000 AD (2nd millennium AD) Google Sheet associated with above chart (force copy option):  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xIUj7OKYDhc76MUQbErd6V4Lj4ZWDYDKvcFIwksXOd4/copy . Above pic: S...

One aspect of Google Maps is that increasing or decreasing zoom brings in or removes labels. As a novice Google Maps user, I could not figure out how to have some labels which appear on increased zoom size, on the map when zoom size is decreased. This issue crops up when zooming in/out Puttaparthi and surrounding areas. In particular, when viewing the map of Puttaparthi and surrounding towns like Kothacheruvu and Bukkapatnam, zooming into Puttaparthi area to get more details and labels, results in Bukkapatnam going out of screen on my 21 inch TFT monitor. So I thought of making a small Google Map modified fragment having all key towns/villages around Puttaparthi, and added labels to it. Bukkapatnam Lake being a big water body gets also conveyed well in this pic. This becomes a useful pic for me to refer to when needed. I thought this might be of some interest to some readers too. As Google permissions allow usage of these maps for non-commercial use, I thought of sharing the map pic in...

This post follows up on my post of a few days back: When did Hindu temples start getting built? Which is the oldest functional Hindu temple? , https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2022/09/when-did-hindu-temples-start-getting.html . Like I mentioned in the above post, this question is also a sensitive question with a variety of conflicting answers from different sources. Eventually I decided to put up a limited post raising the question and sharing responses mainly from wikipedia. The ancient Hindu sages and teachers were called Rishis.  From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rishi : Rishi (Sanskrit: ऋषि, romanized: ṛṣi) is a term for an accomplished and enlightened person. They find mentions in various Hindu Vedic texts. Rishis are believed to have composed hymns of the Vedas. Post-Vedic tradition of Hinduism regards the rishis as "great yogis" or "sages" who after intense meditation (tapas) realized the supreme truth and eternal knowledge, which they composed into hymns.[1...