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That is a question that arose in my mind when I saw a tweet some days ago. The tweet was a screen shot of a translation of a popular Tallapaka Annamacharya Kirtana “Manujudai Putti” posted by a fellow tweeple. Since it is a song that I had heard from my childhood, from the album of M.S.Subbulakshmi I thought, am I missing the line “ andamaina Sri Venkatadrisu sevinci ”. I had the book with me for long, but had done only a cursory browsing as I have been using the translations only as a reference. Whenever I heard a song, had a doubt over the lines that I can’t understand I refer to translations. I do that with two books I have, one a Tamil translation of Tyagaraja’s and another for Swati Tirunal compositions. I hardly ever referred to the Annamayya translation volume ‘God on the Hill: Temple Poems from Tirupati’ by Velcheru Narayan Rao and David Shulman. One reason perhaps is that the book had only a handful of the popular songs.   To get back to those lines in Manujudai Putti:- ...

  “It has been designed to allow the first rays of sun to fall on the image of Surya, the Sun god, at the time of the equinoxes. Though partially ruined, the temple retains much of its earlier glory. Standing high on a plinth overlooking a deep tank, the Sun temple displays an amazing profusion of magnificently carved gods and goddesses, flowers and leaves, birds and animals, on both its interior and exterior.” It is a very famous temple. Much photographed, documented and for the students of Hindu temples, archaeology, heritage, Dr. Kirit Mankodi’s work on Modhera is well known. Yet, what was I trying to do, rushing there early morning to get the pictures of the temple in the morning light, when the first rays of sun bathed the temple in the glowing orange light. I am not going to write anything new, nor are my photographs going to be published. Yet for an unskilled amateur the enthusiasm to photograph monuments in the morning light has been an obsession. More so, when it is a sun ...

Vatapatrasayi January 10, 2021 – it is the 26 th day of the Tamil month of Margazhi. For all those who follow Margazhi and Andal’s Thiruppavai, today is the day of the pasuram “Maale Manivanna”. While reciting the pasuram this morning, I realized that there has been a long pending book post from my side. What is in it that, today’s pasuram reminded me of the pending book post. It is how Krishna is addressed in this particular pasuram. Andal throughout the 30-verses addresses Vishnu/Krishna by various names, Narayana, Kanna, Govinda, Thirumal and all … in this verse she begins by calling him Manivanna, gem hued lord, and finally ends with a prayer, asking for a grant from “aalinilayai arulelo”, the one who slept on the banyan leaf. Soon after I opened facebook and I found my friend Meenakshi had drawn a beautiful kolam for today’s pasuram, representing the baby on the banyan leaf, and she had also begun her explanation of the pasuram with Andal asking the one who floats on the banyan l...

  KANHERI City of Caves “There were palace like buildings, images, houses, pillars, and water-cisterns. It was a city carved in rock that could hold seven thousand people” – Don Joao de Castro Kanheri – Location and origin   Kanheri (19°13’ N; 72°55’ E), the Kanhasela, Krishnagiri, Kanhagiri of ancient inscriptions, is located north of Mumbai. Kanheri is located in the island of Salsette and 6 miles from Thana. The caves are excavated in volcanic breccia, the hills rising at places to 1550’ above mean sea level. Kanheri is credited with the largest number of cave excavations in a single hill. To the west is the Borivili railway station and across the creek is the Arabian Sea.  Kanheri, large group of caves (109 not counting the new discoveries) located north of Mumbai excavated out of volcanic rock formation breccia, at a height of 1550’ above sea level. One of the oldest and largest numbers of cave excavations in a single hill. Located on the old trade route, start...