Surprising, but true: Dark circles and puffiness around eyes

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The Womens Blogger Directory: Work at home blogs

The Womens Blogger Directory: Work at home blogs

India's Meenakshi Temple, Madurai

India’s Meenakshi Sundareswara Temple in Madurai, Tamilnadu, India.

Just recently, this temple won the coveted place of honor as one of the Seven Wonders of India for its architectural importance. This famous temple of Dravidian architecture has 12 towers or gopurams with exquisite sculpture and painting. This 7th century temple (or earlier?) mentioned in ancient Tamil literature was destroyed by the infamous Muslim invader Malik Kafur in 1310 and rebuilt later by Madurai’s great ruler Thirumalai Nayak during the period 1623 to 1659. The credit for the Vasantha Mantapa in the temple complex goes to him.

Dedicated to Lord Shiva in the form of Sundareswarar or the Beautiful Lord and his consort Meenakshi or Goddess Parvathi, this temple in Madurai, Tamilnadu is claimed to be 2500 years old.

Goddess Parvathi as the child of the ruler of Madurai ruled this city ruled the kingdom after growing into a brave and beautiful princess Lord Shiva then came down to earth and married her, but Parvathi’s brother Lord Vishnu was angry and felt slighted, but was pacified by other gods to attend the marriage. This marriage and the brother’s pacification are celebrated as Azhagar Thiruvizha. The divine marriage of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati as well as the Vasanthosthavam or the Spring Festival are celebrated here in April every year.

A Porthamarai Kulam or the Golden Lotus Pond inside this temple is a holy site; the lotus growing here has a golden color. The area around this tank was the meeting place of the Tamil Sangam or the Academy of Tamils scholars. Literary works are judged at this pond where scholastic works when placed on its waters float and do not sink. It is believed that as per God’s wish, no marine life grows here.

The Thousand Pillar Hall (Aayiram Kaal Mandapam) contains nearly 1000 carved pillars (985 to be exact) symbolizing the great Dravidian sculpture. Some of these pillars astonishingly produce different melodious musical notes when struck.

The figures of the deities on the tower are repaired, reprinted and ritually reconsecrated every 12 years.
The temple consecration (Kumbabishekam) is taking place on Wednesday, April 8, 2009.

Source: Google

Images: GoogleWikipedia

Images:

Interesting facts about sloth bear.

An endangered mammal species, this is usually found in the lowland and grassland regions of the Indian forests. This hairy animal known as melursus urisnus or the Lip bear has a large lip and long back and untidy hair and has a white or yellow chest mark that is shaped like U, V or Y and a grey face. It face is interestingly without hair. It can even close its nostrils as a protective measure from dust and insects.

Fallen fragrant flower from the mahua plant is its chief food in the hot summer, which is why it is also known as the honey bear. Other preferred foods are birds’ eggs, fruits and insects, and even putrefying fish when extremely hungry. Though its gait is unsteady, the sloth bear climbs trees easily. It even climbs the date palm trees to drink the toddy.

This is a nocturnal animal that sleeps during the day in shallow caves, but does not hibernate. Two to three cubs are born at a time; the gestation period is eight months. The mother usually carries its cubs on its back on its nocturnal food-hunting and while climbing.

This is quite a rare animal and hence the Sloth Bear Foundation is taking steps to protect and preserve this endangered species and their habitats from poaching.

Source: The Hindu, March 10, 2009
Images: Google

Our Amazing Earth

Amazing Earth

Our earth is more than 4.5 billion years old, but recent studies suggest that it is still older. More than two million cubic miles of fresh water is assessed to be stored in the earth. We all now know that the earth is the only planet that can hold water in liquid form on the surface. Concentrated ozone molecules are present in the ozone layer, which is more than 50 km in thickness, but we are causing damage to this protective layer by global warming. The bulge of the earth earlier noted by the experts as decreasing is now noticed to be increasing resulting in the slowdown of its rotation. Our Earth is now known to have another moon by name “3753 Cruithne" . Though there are more than 5 to 30 million different species on the earth, only about two million of them have been identified so far. Early astronauts had seen our eEarth from the space and called it the Blue Planet Remember Yuri Gagarin’s words? “The earth is so beautiful. Seeing ithe Earth for the first time, I could not help but love and cherish her.’

No doubt the earth is lovely, but it also contains wild volcanoes as well as devastating earthquakes. Extremes of climate are all too familiar to all of us. Deep oceans and tall peaks make our Earth a truly amazing planet.

Source: A weekly from Chennai

Image: Google

Amazing Facts About a Planet.

It is believed that our planet is more than 4.5 billion years old and recent evidence actually shows that earth was formed much earlier and that our planet stores more than two million cubic miles of fresh water. Earth is the only planet on which water can exist in liquid form on the surface. The ozone molecules and the average thickness of the layer is believed to be 50 km. We know that our planet rotates but is more flexible than we might imagine as it bulges at the midsection creating a pumpkin shape. The bulge was lessening for centuries but now it is said to be growing and in turn the rotation is slowing down which would lengthen the days. Earth has one moon but ‘3753 Cruithne’ which is 5 km across is sometimes called Earth’s second moon. It is estimated that there are some 5 to 30 million different species on earth and about 2 million species have actually been identified and described. When astronauts first went into the space, they looked back at the earth with human eyes for the first time and called it as a Blue Planet. Yuri Gagarin, who was the first man to travel into space, said that she is so beautiful and I could not help but love and cherish her.
We live on a planet of extremes. It is not only a beautiful sphere but it is a wild planet with deadly volcanoes and killer earthquakes. The windiest/coldest/driest and hottest places, the deepest places in the ocean and tallest peaks. Are we not living in an amazing planet?