1.
Pala Empire
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The Pala Empire was an imperial power during the Late Classical period on the Indian subcontinent, which originated in the region of Bengal. It is named after its ruling dynasty, whose rulers bore names ending with the suffix of Pala and they were followers of the Mahayana and Tantric schools of Buddhism. The empire was founded with the election of Gopala as the emperor of Gauda in 750 CE, the Pala stronghold was located in Bengal and Bihar, which included the major cities of Vikrampura, Pataliputra, Gauda, Monghyr, Somapura, Ramvati, Tamralipta and Jaggadala. The Palas were astute diplomats and military conquerors and their army was noted for its vast war elephant cavalry. Their navy performed both mercantile and defensive roles in the Bay of Bengal, the Palas were important promoters of classical Indian philosophy, literature, painting and sculpture. They built grand temples and monasteries, including the Somapura Mahavihara, the Proto-Bengali language developed under Pala rule. The empire enjoyed relations with the Srivijaya Empire, the Tibetan Empire, islam first appeared in Bengal during Pala rule, as a result of increased trade between Bengal and the Middle East. Abbasid coinage found in Pala archaeological sites, as well as records of Arab historians, point to flourishing mercantile, the House of Wisdom in Baghdad absorbed the mathematical and astronomical achievements of Indian civilisation during this period. The empire reached its peak under Emperors Dharmapala and Devapala, the Palas also exerted a strong cultural influence under Atisa in Tibet, as well as in Southeast Asia. Pala control of North India was ultimately ephemeral, as they struggled with the Gurjara-Pratiharas, after a short lived decline, Emperor Mahipala I defended imperial bastions in Bengal and Bihar against South Indian Chola invasions. Emperor Ramapala was the last strong Pala ruler, who gained control of Kamarupa, the empire was considerably weakened by the 11th century, with many areas engulfed in rebellion. The resurgent Hindu Sena dynasty dethroned the Pala Empire in the 12th century, the Pala period is considered one of the golden eras of Bengali history. The Palas brought stability and prosperity to Bengal after centuries of war between warring divisions. They advanced the achievements of previous Bengali civilisations and created outstanding works of art and they laid the basis for the Bengali language, including its first literary work, the Charyapada. The Pala legacy is reflected in Tibetan Buddhism. According to the Khalimpur copper plate inscription, the first Pala king Gopala was the son of a warrior named Vapyata, the Ramacharitam attests that Varendra was the fatherland of the Palas. The ethnic origins of the dynasty are unknown, although the later claim that Gopala was a Kshatriya belonging to the legendary solar dynasty. The Ballala-Carita states that the Palas were Kshatriyas, a claim reiterated by Taranatha in his History of Buddhism in India as well as Ghanaram Chakrabarty in his Dharmamangala, the Ramacharitam also attests the fifteenth Pala emperor, Ramapala, as a Kshatriya
2.
Lakshmi
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Lakshmi is the Hindu goddess of wealth, fortune and prosperity. She is the wife and shakti of Vishnu, a god in Hinduism. Lakshmi is also an important deity in Jainism and found in Jain temples, Lakshmi was also a goddess of abundance and fortune for Buddhists, and was represented on the oldest surviving stupas and cave temples of Buddhism. In Buddhist sects of Tibet, Nepal and southeast Asia, goddess Vasudhara mirrors the characteristics, Lakshmi is also called Sri or Thirumagal because she is endowed with six auspicious and divine qualities, or gunas, and is the divine strength of Vishnu. In Hindu religion, she was born from the churning of the primordial ocean, when Vishnu descended on the Earth as the avatars Rama and Krishna, Lakshmi descended as his respective consort Sita and Rukmini. In the ancient scriptures of India, all women are declared to be embodiments of Lakshmi, the marriage and relationship between Lakshmi and Vishnu as wife and husband is the paradigm for rituals and ceremonies for the bride and groom in Hindu weddings. Lakshmi is considered another aspect of the supreme goddess principle in the Shaktism tradition of Hinduism. She typically stands or sits like a yogin on a pedestal and holds lotus in her hand. Her iconography shows her with four hands, which represent the four goals of life considered important to the Hindu way of life, dharma, kāma, artha. Archaeological discoveries and ancient coins suggest the recognition and reverence for Lakshmi by the 1st millennium BCE, Lakshmis iconography and statues have also been found in Hindu temples throughout southeast Asia, estimated to be from the second half of the 1st millennium CE. The festivals of Diwali and Sharad Purnima are celebrated in her honor, Lakshmi is one of many Hindu deities whose meaning and significance evolved in ancient Sanskrit texts. Lakshmi is mentioned once in Rigveda, but the context suggests that the word does not mean goddess of wealth and fortune, the good are welcomed, while the bad urged to leave. In some chapters of Atharva Veda, Lakshmi connotes the good, later, Lakshmi is referred to as the goddess of fortune, identified with Sri and regarded as wife of Viṣṇu. For example, in Shatapatha Brahmana, variously estimated to be composed between 800 BCE and 300 BCE, Sri is part of one of many theories, in ancient India, about the creation of universe. In Book 9 of Shatapatha Brahmana, Sri emerges from Prajapati, after his meditation on creation of life. Sri is described as beautiful, resplendent and trembling woman at her birth with immense energy, the gods were bewitched, desire her and immediately become covetous of her. The gods approach Prajapati and request permission to kill her and then take her powers, Prajapati refuses, tells the gods that males should not kill females and that they can seek her gifts without violence. The hymns of Shatapatha Brahmana thus describe Sri as a goddess born with and personifying a diverse range of talents, in the Epics of Hinduism, such as in Mahabharata, Lakshmi personifies wealth, riches, beauty, happiness, loveliness, grace, charm and splendour
3.
Vishnu
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Vishnu is one of the principal deities of Hinduism, and the Supreme Being in its Vaishnavism tradition. Along with Brahma and Shiva, Vishnu forms a Hindu trinity, however and his avatars most notably include Krishna in the Mahabharata and Rama in the Ramayana. He is also known as Narayana, Jagannath, Vasudeva, Vithoba and he is one of the five equivalent deities worshipped in Panchayatana puja of the Smarta Tradition of Hinduism. In Hindu inconography, Vishnu is usually depicted as having a dark, or pale blue complexion and having four arms. He holds a padma in his left hand, Kaumodaki gada in his lower right hand, Panchajanya shankha in his upper left hand. A traditional depiction is Lord Vishnu reclining on the coils of Ananta, accompanied by his consort devi Lakshmi, yaska, the mid 1st-millennium BCE Vedanga scholar, in his Nirukta, defines Vishnu as viṣṇur viṣvater vā vyaśnoter vā, one who enters everywhere. He also writes, atha yad viṣito bhavati tad viṣnurbhavati, that which is free from fetters, the medieval Indian scholar Medhātithi suggested that the word Vishnu has etymological roots in viś, meaning to pervade, thereby connoting that Vishnu is one who is everything and inside everything. Vishnu is a Vedic deity, but not a prominent one when compared to Indra, Agni, just 5 out of 1028 hymns of the Rigveda, a 2nd millennium BCE Hindu text, are dedicated to Vishnu, and he finds minor mention in the other hymns. Though a minor mention and with overlapping attributes in the Vedas, he has important characteristics in various hymns of Rig Veda and he is also described in the Vedic literature as the one who supports heaven and earth. In the Vedic hymns, Vishnu is invoked alongside other deities, especially Indra and his distinguishing characteristic in Vedas is his association with light. Two Rigvedic hymns in Mandala 7 refer to Vishnu, in section 7.99 of the Rgveda, Vishnu is addressed as the god who separates heaven and earth, a characteristic he shares with Indra. In the Vedic texts, the deity or god referred to as Vishnu is Surya or Savitr, in hymn 7.99 of Rigveda, Indra-Vishnu are equivalent and produce the sun, with the verses asserting that this sun is the source of all energy and light for all. In other hymns of the Rigveda, Vishnu is a friend of Indra. In the Yajurveda, Taittiriya Aranyaka, Narayana sukta, Narayana is mentioned as the supreme being, the first verse of Narayana Suktam mentions the words paramam padam, which literally mean highest post and may be understood as the supreme abode for all souls. This is also known as Param Dhama, Paramapadam or Vaikuntha, Rig Veda 1.22.20 a also mentions the same paramam padam. In the Atharvaveda, the mythology of a boar who raises goddess earth from the depths of cosmic ocean appears, in post-Vedic mythology, this legend becomes one of the basis of many cosmogonic myth called the Varaha legend, with Varaha as an avatar of Vishnu. Several hymns of the Rigveda repeat the mighty deed of Vishnu called the Trivikrama and it is an inspiration for ancient artwork in numerous Hindu temples such as at the Ellora Caves, which depict the Trivikrama legend through the Vamana avatar of Vishnu. Trivikrama refers to the three steps or three strides of Vishnu
4.
Conch
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Conch is a common name that is applied to a number of different medium to large-sized sea snails or their shells. The term generally applies to large snails whose shell has a high spire, in North America, a conch is often identified as a queen conch, found off the coast of Florida. Queen conches are valued for fish bait, and are known as seafood. The group of conchs that are referred to as true conchs are marine gastropod molluscs in the family Strombidae, specifically in the genus Strombus. For example, see Lobatus gigas, the conch, and Laevistrombus canarium. Many other species are often called conch, but are not at all closely related to the family Strombidae, including Melongena species. Species commonly referred to as conchs also include the sacred chank or more correctly shankha shell, the English word conch is attested in Middle English, coming from Latin concha, which in turn comes from Greek konchē ultimately from PIE root *konkho-, cognate with Sanskrit śaṅkha. The meat of conchs is eaten raw in salads, or cooked, as in burgers, chowders, fritters, all parts of the conch meat are edible. In The Bahamas, conch is served in fritter form, or as a raw. In the West Indies, local people eat conch in soups, stews, restaurants all over the islands serve this particular meat. In the Dominican Republic, Grenada, and Haiti, conch is commonly eaten in curries or in a spicy soup and it is locally referred to as lambi. In The Turks and Caicos Islands, the Annual Conch Festival is held in November each year, local restaurateurs compete for the best and most original conch dishes, that are then judged by international chefs. Free sampling of the dishes follows the judging, along with those festivities, other competitions, events, and music performances occur well into the evening. In Puerto Rico, conch is served as a ceviche, often called ensalada de carrucho, consisting of raw conch marinated in lime juice, olive oil, vinegar, garlic, green peppers and it is also used to fill empanadas. In East Asian cuisines, this seafood is often cut into thin slices, Conch shells can be used as wind instruments. They are prepared by cutting a hole in the spire of the shell near the apex, sometimes a mouthpiece is used, but some shell trumpets are blown without one. Many different kinds of mollusks can produce pearls, pearls from the queen conch, L. gigas, are rare and have been collectors items since Victorian times. In some gemological texts, non-nacreous gastropod pearls used to be referred to as calcareous concretions because they were porcellaneous, rather than nacreous, although non-nacreous, the surface of fine conch pearls has a unique and attractive appearance of its own
5.
Gastropod shell
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The gastropod shell is part of the body of a gastropod or snail, a kind of mollusk or mollusc. The shell is a skeleton or exoskeleton, which may serve for muscle attachment, but also for protection from predators, mechanical damage, dehydration. Some gastropods appear shell-less but may have a remnant within the mantle, some snails also possess an operculum that seals the opening of the shell, known as the aperture, which provides further protection. The study of shells is known as conchology. The biological study of gastropods, and other molluscs in general, is malacology, Shell morphology terms vary by species group. An excellent source for terminology of the shell is How to Know the Eastern Land Snails by John B. Burch now freely available at the Hathi Trust Digital Library, the gastropod shell has three major layers secreted by the mantle. The calcareous central layer, the ostracum, is made of calcium carbonate precipitated into an organic matrix known as conchiolin. The outermost layer is the periostracum which is resistant to abrasion, gastropod shell morphology is usually quite constant among individuals of a species. Controlling variables are, The rate of growth per revolution around the coiling axis, high rates give wide-mouthed forms such as the abalone, low rates give highly coiled forms such as Turritella or some of the Planorbidae. The shape of the curve, roughly equivalent to the shape of the aperture. It may be round, for instance in the shell, elongate as in the cone shell or have an irregular shape with a siphonal canal extension. The rate of translation of the curve along the axis of coiling, controlling how high-spired the resulting shell becomes. This may range from zero, a flat shell, to nearly the diameter of the aperture. Ontologic growth changes as the animal reaches adulthood, good examples are the flaring lip of the adult conch and the inward-coiled lip of the cowry. Some of these factors can be modelled mathematically and programs exist to generate extremely realistic images, early work by David Raup on the analog computer also revealed many possible combinations that were never adopted by any actual gastropod. Some shell shapes are more often in certain environments, though there are many exceptions. High-spired and highly sculptured forms become more common in water environments
6.
Hinduism
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Hinduism is a religion, or a way of life, found most notably in India and Nepal. Hinduism has been called the oldest religion in the world, and some practitioners and scholars refer to it as Sanātana Dharma, scholars regard Hinduism as a fusion or synthesis of various Indian cultures and traditions, with diverse roots and no founder. This Hindu synthesis started to develop between 500 BCE and 300 CE following the Vedic period, although Hinduism contains a broad range of philosophies, it is linked by shared concepts, recognisable rituals, cosmology, shared textual resources, and pilgrimage to sacred sites. Hindu texts are classified into Shruti and Smriti and these texts discuss theology, philosophy, mythology, Vedic yajna, Yoga, agamic rituals, and temple building, among other topics. Major scriptures include the Vedas and Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, prominent themes in Hindu beliefs include the four Puruṣārthas, the proper goals or aims of human life, namely Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha, karma, samsara, and the various Yogas. Hindu practices include such as puja and recitations, meditation, family-oriented rites of passage, annual festivals. Some Hindus leave their world and material possessions, then engage in lifelong Sannyasa to achieve Moksha. Hinduism prescribes the eternal duties, such as honesty, refraining from injuring living beings, patience, forbearance, self-restraint, Hinduism is the worlds third largest religion, with over one billion followers or 15% of the global population, known as Hindus. The majority of Hindus reside in India, Nepal, Mauritius, the Caribbean, the word Hindu is derived from the Indo-Aryan/Sanskrit word Sindhu, the Indo-Aryan name for the Indus River in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent. The term Hindu in these ancient records is a geographical term, the Arabic term al-Hind referred to the people who live across the River Indus. This Arabic term was taken from the pre-Islamic Persian term Hindū. By the 13th century, Hindustan emerged as an alternative name of India. It was only towards the end of the 18th century that European merchants and colonists began to refer to the followers of Indian religions collectively as Hindus. The term Hinduism, then spelled Hindooism, was introduced into the English language in the 18th-century to denote the religious, philosophical, because of the wide range of traditions and ideas covered by the term Hinduism, arriving at a comprehensive definition is difficult. The religion defies our desire to define and categorize it, Hinduism has been variously defined as a religion, a religious tradition, a set of religious beliefs, and a way of life. From a Western lexical standpoint, Hinduism like other faiths is appropriately referred to as a religion, in India the term dharma is preferred, which is broader than the western term religion. Hindu traditionalists prefer to call it Sanatana Dharma, the study of India and its cultures and religions, and the definition of Hinduism, has been shaped by the interests of colonialism and by Western notions of religion. Since the 1990s, those influences and its outcomes have been the topic of debate among scholars of Hinduism, Hinduism as it is commonly known can be subdivided into a number of major currents
7.
Buddhism
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Buddhism is a religion and dharma that encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs and spiritual practices largely based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. Buddhism originated in India sometime between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE, from where it spread through much of Asia, two major extant branches of Buddhism are generally recognized by scholars, Theravada and Mahayana. Buddhism is the worlds fourth-largest religion, with over 500 million followers or 7% of the global population, Buddhist schools vary on the exact nature of the path to liberation, the importance and canonicity of various teachings and scriptures, and especially their respective practices. In Theravada the ultimate goal is the attainment of the state of Nirvana, achieved by practicing the Noble Eightfold Path, thus escaping what is seen as a cycle of suffering. Theravada has a following in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. Mahayana, which includes the traditions of Pure Land, Zen, Nichiren Buddhism, Shingon, rather than Nirvana, Mahayana instead aspires to Buddhahood via the bodhisattva path, a state wherein one remains in the cycle of rebirth to help other beings reach awakening. Vajrayana, a body of teachings attributed to Indian siddhas, may be viewed as a branch or merely a part of Mahayana. Tibetan Buddhism, which preserves the Vajrayana teachings of eighth century India, is practiced in regions surrounding the Himalayas, Tibetan Buddhism aspires to Buddhahood or rainbow body. Buddhism is an Indian religion attributed to the teachings of Buddha, the details of Buddhas life are mentioned in many early Buddhist texts but are inconsistent, his social background and life details are difficult to prove, the precise dates uncertain. Some hagiographic legends state that his father was a king named Suddhodana, his mother queen Maya, and he was born in Lumbini gardens. Some of the stories about Buddha, his life, his teachings, Buddha was moved by the innate suffering of humanity. He meditated on this alone for a period of time, in various ways including asceticism, on the nature of suffering. He famously sat in meditation under a Ficus religiosa tree now called the Bodhi Tree in the town of Bodh Gaya in Gangetic plains region of South Asia. He reached enlightenment, discovering what Buddhists call the Middle Way, as an enlightened being, he attracted followers and founded a Sangha. Now, as the Buddha, he spent the rest of his teaching the Dharma he had discovered. Dukkha is a concept of Buddhism and part of its Four Noble Truths doctrine. It can be translated as incapable of satisfying, the unsatisfactory nature, the Four Truths express the basic orientation of Buddhism, we crave and cling to impermanent states and things, which is dukkha, incapable of satisfying and painful. This keeps us caught in saṃsāra, the cycle of repeated rebirth, dukkha
8.
Turbinella pyrum
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This species occurs in the Indian Ocean. The name chank for the shell of species is derived from the Indian word shankha. The old generic name was Xancus, the Dutch used to call them chianco. This species is mainly in the Indian Ocean. The shell of species is massive, with three or four prominent columellar plicae. It is usually pure white under a brown periostracum. It can sometimes be dotted with dark brown, shells of the normally left-handed western Atlantic Ocean species Busycon contrarium are sometimes sold in imitation of the rare left-handed shells of the Turbinella species. The shell has considerable significance in Hinduism and Buddhism and it is considered to be sacred and is one of the eight auspicious symbols. In these religious contexts, the shell is sometimes modified by having the tip of the cut off. Some shells used in this way are decorated with metal and semiprecious stones, like most other gastropods, the shell of this species is almost always right-handed, or dextral, in its shell-coiling, but very rarely a left-handed shell is found. The Dakshinavarti is particularly valued in terms of its religious significance. This is the orientation to that which students of malacology use when assigning handedness to a shell. The West Indian chank shell, Turbinella angulata The Religious Use of Turbinella pyrum, The Indian Chank, by Kenneth D. Rose, The Nautilus,88, 1-5,1974. Media related to Turbinella pyrum at Wikimedia Commons Photo of a shell with periostracum and operculum, A dextral and a sinistral shell of the species
9.
Indian Ocean
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The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the worlds oceanic divisions, covering 70,560,000 km2. It is bounded by Asia on the north, on the west by Africa, on the east by Australia, the Indian Ocean is known as Ratnākara, the mine of gems in ancient Sanskrit literature, and as Hind Mahāsāgar, in Hindi. The northernmost extent of the Indian Ocean is approximately 30° north in the Persian Gulf, the oceans continental shelves are narrow, averaging 200 kilometres in width. An exception is found off Australias western coast, where the width exceeds 1,000 kilometres. The average depth of the ocean is 3,890 m and its deepest point is Diamantina Deep in Diamantina Trench, at 8,047 m deep, Sunda Trench has a depth of 7, 258–7,725 m. North of 50° south latitude, 86% of the basin is covered by pelagic sediments. The remaining 14% is layered with terrigenous sediments, glacial outwash dominates the extreme southern latitudes. The major choke points include Bab el Mandeb, Strait of Hormuz, the Lombok Strait, the Strait of Malacca, the Indian Ocean is artificially connected to the Mediterranean Sea through the Suez Canal, which is accessible via the Red Sea. All of the Indian Ocean is in the Eastern Hemisphere and the centre of the Eastern Hemisphere is in this ocean, marginal seas, gulfs, bays and straits of the Indian Ocean include, The climate north of the equator is affected by a monsoon climate. Strong north-east winds blow from October until April, from May until October south, in the Arabian Sea the violent Monsoon brings rain to the Indian subcontinent. In the southern hemisphere, the winds are milder. When the monsoon winds change, cyclones sometimes strike the shores of the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean is the warmest ocean in the world. Long-term ocean temperature records show a rapid, continuous warming in the Indian Ocean, Indian Ocean warming is the largest among the tropical oceans, and about 3 times faster than the warming observed in the Pacific. Research indicates that human induced greenhouse warming, and changes in the frequency, among the few large rivers flowing into the Indian Ocean are the Zambezi, Shatt al-Arab, Indus, Godavari, Krishna, Narmada, Ganges, Brahmaputra, Jubba and Irrawaddy River. The oceans currents are controlled by the monsoon. Two large gyres, one in the northern hemisphere flowing clockwise and one south of the equator moving anticlockwise, during the winter monsoon, however, currents in the north are reversed. Deep water circulation is controlled primarily by inflows from the Atlantic Ocean, the Red Sea, north of 20° south latitude the minimum surface temperature is 22 °C, exceeding 28 °C to the east. Southward of 40° south latitude, temperatures drop quickly, surface water salinity ranges from 32 to 37 parts per 1000, the highest occurring in the Arabian Sea and in a belt between southern Africa and south-western Australia
10.
Hindu mythology
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As such, it is a subset of mainstream Indian and Nepali culture. The roots of mythology that evolved from classical Hinduism come from the times of the Vedic civilization, the four Vedas, notably the hymns of the Rigveda, contain allusions to many themes. The characters, philosophy and stories make up ancient Vedic myths are indelibly linked with Hindu beliefs. The Vedas are four in number, namely RigVeda, YajurVeda, SamaVeda, in the period of Classical Sanskrit, much material is preserved in the Sanskrit epics. Besides mythology proper, the voluminous epics also provide a range of information about ancient Nepali and Indian society, philosophy, culture, religion. The two great Hindu Epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata tell the story of two incarnations of Vishnu. These two works are known as Itihasa, the epics Mahabharata and Ramayana serve as both religious scriptures and a rich source of philosophy and morality. The most famous of these chapters is the Bhagavad Gita in the Mahabharata, in which Lord Krishna explains the concepts of duty and these stories are deeply embedded in Hindu philosophy and serve as parables and sources of devotion for Hindus. The Mahabharata is the worlds longest epic in verse, running to more than 2,000,000 lines, the epics themselves are set in different Yugas, or periods of time. The Ramayana, written by the Maharshi Valmiki, describes the life and times of Lord Rama, the Mahabharata, describing the life and times of the Pandavas, occurs in the Dvapara Yuga, a period associated with Lord Krishna. In total, there are 4 Yugas and these are the Satya or Krita Yuga, the Treta Yuga, the Dvapara Yuga, and the Kali Yuga. The avatara concept, however, belongs to the Puranic times, the Puranas deal with stories that are old and do not appear in the epics. They contain legends and stories about the origins of the world, and the lives and adventures of a variety of gods, goddesses, heroes, heroines. They contain traditions related to ancient kings, seers, incarnations of God and legends about holy places, the Bhagavata Purana is probably the most read and popular of the Puranas. It chronicles the legends of the god Vishnu and his avatars on earth, the act of creation was thought of in more than one manner. One of the oldest cosmogonic myth in the Rigveda had come into existence as a cosmic egg, the Purusha Sukta narrates that all things were made out of the mangled limbs of Purusha, a magnified non-natural man, who was sacrificed by the gods. In the Puranas, Vishnu, in the shape of a boar, plunged into the cosmic waters, the Shatapatha Brahmana says that in the beginning, Prajapati, the first creator or father of all, was alone in the world. He differentiated himself into two beings, husband and wife, the wife, regarding union with her producer as incest, fled from his embraces assuming various animal disguises
11.
Emblem
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An emblem is an abstract or representational pictorial image that represents a concept, like a moral truth, or an allegory, or a person, like a king or saint. Although the words emblem and symbol are used interchangeably, an emblem is a pattern that is used to represent an idea or an individual. An emblem crystallizes in concrete, visual terms some abstraction, a deity, an emblem may be worn or otherwise used as an identifying badge or patch. For example, in America, police officers badges refer to their personal metal emblem whereas their woven emblems on uniforms identify members of a particular unit. A real or metal shell, the emblem of St. James the Apostle, sewn onto the hat or clothes. In the Middle Ages, many saints were given emblems, which served to them in paintings and other images, St. Catherine had a wheel, or a sword, St. Anthony Abbot, a pig. These are also called attributes, especially when carried by or close to the saint in art. Kings and other grand persons increasingly adopted personal devices or emblems that were distinct from their family heraldry. The most famous include Louis XIV of Frances sun, the salamander of Francis I of France, the boar of Richard III of England, pisanello produced many of the earliest and finest of these. A symbol, on the hand, substitutes one thing for another, in a more concrete fashion, The Christian cross is a symbol of the Crucifixion. The Red Cross is one of three representing the International Red Cross. A red cross on a background is the emblem of humanitarian spirit. The crescent shape is a symbol of the moon, it is an emblem of Islam, the skull and crossbones is a symbol identifying a poison. The skull is an emblem of the nature of human life. A totem is specifically an animal emblem that expresses the spirit of a clan, heraldry knows its emblems as charges. The lion passant serves as the emblem of England, the lion rampant as the emblem of Scotland, an icon consists of an image, that has become standardized by convention. A logo is an impersonal, secular icon, usually of a corporate entity, since the 15th century the terms of emblem and emblematura belong to the termini technici of architecture. They mean an iconic painted, drawn, or sculptural representation of a concept affixed to houses, Emblem in this sense refers to a didactic or moralizing combination of picture and text intended to draw the reader into a self-reflective examination of his or her own life
12.
Trumpet
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A trumpet is a musical instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group contains the instruments with the highest register in the brass family, trumpets are used in art music styles, for instance in orchestras, concert bands, and jazz ensembles, as well as in popular music. They are played by blowing air through almost-closed lips, producing a sound that starts a standing wave vibration in the air column inside the instrument. Since the late 15th century they have primarily been constructed of brass tubing, there are many distinct types of trumpet, with the most common being pitched in B♭, having a tubing length of about 1.48 m. Early trumpets did not provide means to change the length of tubing, most trumpets have valves of the piston type, while some have the rotary type. The use of rotary-valved trumpets is more common in orchestral settings, each valve, when engaged, increases the length of tubing, lowering the pitch of the instrument. A musician who plays the trumpet is called a trumpet player or trumpeter, the earliest trumpets date back to 1500 BC and earlier. The bronze and silver trumpets from Tutankhamuns grave in Egypt, bronze lurs from Scandinavia, trumpets from the Oxus civilization of Central Asia have decorated swellings in the middle, yet are made out of one sheet of metal, which is considered a technical wonder. The Shofar, made from a ram horn and the Hatzotzeroth and they were played in Solomons Temple around 3000 years ago. They were said to be used to blow down the walls of Jericho and they are still used on certain religious days. The Salpinx was a straight trumpet 62 inches long, made of bone or bronze, Salpinx contests were a part of the original Olympic Games. The Moche people of ancient Peru depicted trumpets in their art going back to AD300, the earliest trumpets were signaling instruments used for military or religious purposes, rather than music in the modern sense, and the modern bugle continues this signaling tradition. Improvements to instrument design and metal making in the late Middle Ages, the natural trumpets of this era consisted of a single coiled tube without valves and therefore could only produce the notes of a single overtone series. Changing keys required the player to change crooks of the instrument, the development of the upper, clarino register by specialist trumpeters—notably Cesare Bendinelli—would lend itself well to the Baroque era, also known as the Golden Age of the natural trumpet. During this period, a vast body of music was written for virtuoso trumpeters, the art was revived in the mid-20th century and natural trumpet playing is again a thriving art around the world. The melody-dominated homophony of the classical and romantic periods relegated the trumpet to a role by most major composers owing to the limitations of the natural trumpet. Berlioz wrote in 1844, Notwithstanding the real loftiness and distinguished nature of its quality of tone, there are few instruments that have been more degraded. The attempt to give the trumpet more chromatic freedom in its range saw the development of the keyed trumpet, the symphonies of Mozart, Beethoven, and as late as Brahms, were still played on natural trumpets
13.
Hindu art
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Hindu art encompasses the artistic traditions and styles culturally connected to Hinduism. Hinduism, with its 1 billion followers, it makes up about 15% of the world’s population, there are 64 traditional arts that are followed that start with the classics of music and range all the way to the application and adornment of jewellery. Singing Instrumental music Learning music in Hindu culture was a task before the 20th century because of a necessary birth into a gharana. After the early 1920s integration of anyone wanting to learn classical Hindustani music could, an average ensemble normally includes a harmonium, flute, veena, sitar, swaramandala, and a tabla. Since instrumental music is an art it must follow strict guidelines that come from the treatise Natya Shastra. Dancing Painting Indian variety - the different types of paintings are proud for Indian culture which reflects beauty, tradition. At one point both men and women wore dhotis but around the 14th century that changed and women’s fashion became more intricate thus creating the sari, the drapery involved distinguishes the wearer’s taste, occupation, and social status. The fabrics chosen range from cotton and synthetic fabrics all the way to silk, the fabric chosen depends on what occasion the wearer is going to use the item of clothing for. The draping of the comes in four different families, Marvari, Dravidian, Tribal. The family that the wearer chooses depends on the personal taste. The way an item of clothing is draped tells a lot about the such as expression of creativity, progression of fashion. Since drama is an art it also follows the Natya Shastra guidelines. Vadya — art of playing on musical instruments, viseshakacchedya — art of painting the face and body with colored unguents and cosmetics. Tandula-kusuma-bali-vikara — art of preparing offerings from rice and flowers, pushpastarana — art of making a covering of flowers for a bed. Dasana-vasananga-raga — art of applying preparations for cleansing the teeth, cloths, mani-bhumika-karma — art of making the jewel garlands. Sayya-racana — art of covering the bed, udaka-vadya — art of playing on music in water. Udaka-ghata — art of splashing water on ground, citra-yoga — art of practically applying an admixture of colors. Malya-grathana-vikalpa — art of designing a preparation of wreaths or garlands, sekharapida-yojana — art of practically setting the coronet on the head
14.
Seal of Kerala
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The State emblem of Kerala used by Government of Kerala, to represent the state in all its official correspondences. The emblem portrays two elephants guarding the state and national insignias, the official Kerala emblem is a derivative version of the Royal coat of arms of the Kingdom of Travancore. The state emblem symbolizes two elephants guarding the imperial Sree Padmanabhas Shanku in its imperial crest, the crest is garlanded with a wreath over which Indias national emblem-Sarnath Lion Capital is found, as common to most Indian states. Beneath the sheath, its inscribed as Brihad-Aranyaka in— Sanskrit inscribed in Devanagari script, the current emblem of Kerala was adopted in 1960 when Pattom A. Thanu Pillais government came to power after removal of communist government by Indian Central Government. Presently, ‘Satyameva Jayate’ is written below the two saluting elephants, after the words ‘Government of Kerala’, apart from this, the committee has also suggested increasing the size of the fonts for writing Government of Kerala in both Malayalam and English. The government had asked all departments to incorporate the changes when they use the symbol in future, the earliest references of a national emblem in Kerala can be traced to times of Imperial Cheras who ruled much of the modern Kerala until 1102 AD. The first line of Chera dynasty was derived from Tamil dynasties belong to Sangam Era, references to the bow and arrow were given in many early inscriptions as well as rock edicts and more commonly in few copper plate grants issued by the Chera Emperors. As the second line Cheras were more adherent to Lord Vishnu, the emblem of Conch, the Malabar region comprised primarily two major kingdoms. The first and oldest among them was Kolathunadu, ruled by powerful Mooshika dynasty, the first large empire to be formed in post Chera period under the suzerainty of Nair Kings, the Zamorins of Calicut. The Zamorins was the first state to use of a formal state emblem. The legend says, that during partition of Kerala, the last Chera Emperor did not give any land to his most trusted Nair lieutenant. Due to the feel of guilt, the emperor gave his sword and his favourite prayer conch which was broken, to his general. The general established the state of Kozhikode and created an empire for himself, as a token of his respect to the Chera Emperor, the Zamorins adopted the logo of 2 swords crossed each other, with a broken conch in middle and a lighted lamp above it. Soon this became the emblem of Malabar until 1766 AD. The Portuguese, after issues with Zamorin, soon made Fort Kochi as its capital, the original logo, though designed in Kochi to represent the new state, was formally unveiled in 1510 after transferring the capital to Portuguese Goa State. The Dutch under Dutch East India Company, soon came to Kochi, with this Kochi came under Dutch protection. The Dutch Cochin shared the emblem of Dutch East India Company as its formal state emblem, the emblem was just a monogram carrying VOC, an abbreviation of Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie. The remains of the emblem of Dutch Cochin, can be still seen on top of VOC Gate in Fort Kochi
15.
Princely state
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A princely state, also called native state or Indian state, was a nominally sovereign monarchy under a local or regional ruler in a subsidiary alliance with a greater power. At the time of the British withdrawal,565 princely states were recognised in the Indian subcontinent, apart from thousands of zamindaris. Rulers of salute states entitled to a gun salute of eleven guns and above received from the British the style of Highness, while the Nizam of Hyderabad had the unique style of Exalted Highness. At the other end of the scale, the principality of Lawa covered an area of 49 km2, or smaller than Bermuda. Some two hundred of the states had an area of less than 25 km2. The era of the princely states effectively ended with Indian independence in 1947, by 1950, almost all of the principalities had acceded to either India or Pakistan – thirteen to Pakistan and the rest to India. During this time, the princely states were merged into unions, each of which was headed by a former ruling prince with the title of Rajpramukh. In 1956, the position of Rajpramukh was abolished and the federations dissolved, the Indian Government formally derecognised the princely families in 1971, followed by the Government of Pakistan in 1972. The widespread expansion of Islam during this time brought many principalities into tributary relations with Islamic sultanates, notably the Delhi Sultanate, in the south, however, the Hindu Vijayanagara Empire remained dominant until the mid-17th century, among its tributaries was the future Mysore Kingdom. The Turco-Mongol Mughal Empire brought a majority of the existing Indian kingdoms and principalities under its suzerainty by the 17th century, beginning with its foundation in the early 16th century. The advent of Sikhism resulted in the creation of the Sikh Empire in the north by the early 18th century, at the same time, the Marathas carved out their own states to form the Maratha Empire. Through the 18th century, former Mughal governors formed their own independent states, India under the British Raj consisted of two types of territory, British India and the Native states or Princely states. In general the term British India had been used also to refer to the regions under the rule of the East India Company in India from 1774 to 1858, the term has also been used to refer to the British in India. More prestigious Hindu rulers often used the title Raja, Raje or a variant such as Rana, Rao, also in this class were several Thakurs or Thakores and a few particular titles, such as Sardar, Mankari, Deshmukh, Sar Desai, Raja Inamdar, Saranjamdar. The most prestigious Hindu rulers usually had the prefix maha in their titles, as in Maharaja, Maharana, Maharao, etc. The states of Travancore and Cochin had queens regnant styled Maharani, generally the female forms applied only to sisters, spouses and widows, there were also compound titles, such as rajadhiraj, Raj-i-rajgan, often relics from an elaborate system of hierarchical titles under the Mughal emperors. For example, the addition of the adjective Bahadur raised the status of the one level. Furthermore, most dynasties used a variety of titles, such as Varma in South India
16.
Travancore
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The Kingdom of Travancore (/ˈtrævəŋkɔər/, Malayalam, തിരുവിതാംകൂർ Thiruvithamkoor, was an Indian kingdom from 1729 until 1949. It was ruled by the Travancore Royal Family from Padmanabhapuram, the official flag of the state was red with a dextrally-coiled silver conch shell at its center. In the early 19th century, the became a princely state of the British Empire. When the region was part of the Chera empire, it was known as Thiruvazhumkode. It was contracted to Thiruvankode, and anglicised by the English to Travancore. In course of time, the Ay kingdom, part of the Chera empire, which ruled the Thiruvazhumkode area, became independent, the Aayis controlled the land from present day Kollam district in the north, through Thiruvananthapuram district, all in Kerala, to the Kanyakumari district. There were two capitals, the one at Kollam and a subsidiary one at Thrippapur. The kingdom was also called Venad. Kings of Venad had, at times, travelled from Kollam and built residential palaces in Thiruvithamcode. By the time of King Marthanda Varma, the half of the kingdom had become dominant. During his reign, it absorbed the north and Thiruvithamcode or Travancore became the official name, Travancore was located at the extreme southern tip of the Indian subcontinent. Geographically, Travancore was divided into three distinct regions, the eastern highlands, the central midlands, and the western lowlands. Venad was a state at the tip of the Indian Subcontinent. Till the end of the 11th century AD, it was a principality in the Ay Kingdom. The Ays were the earliest ruling dynasty in southern Kerala, who, at their zenith and their capital during the first Sangam age was in Aykudi and later, towards the end of the 8th century AD, was at Quilon. Though a series of attacks by the resurgent Pandyas between the 7th and 8th centuries caused the decline of the Ays, the dynasty was powerful till the beginning of the 10th century, when the Ay power diminished, Venad became the southernmost principality of the Second Chera Kingdom. An invasion of the Cholas into Venad caused the destruction of Kollam in 1096, however, the Chera capital, Mahodayapuram, also fell in the subsequent Chola attack, which compelled the Chera king, Rama varma Kulasekara, to shift his capital to Kollam. Thus the end of the Second Chera dynasty in the 12th century marks the independence of Venad, the history of Travancore began with Marthanda Varma, who inherited the kingdom of Venad, and expanded it into Travancore during his reign
17.
Kingdom of Cochin
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Kingdom of Cochin was a late medieval Hindu kingdom and later princely state on the Malabar Coast, South India. Once controlling much of the territory between Ponnani and Thottappally, the Cochin kingdom shrank to its minimal extent as a result of invasions by the Zamorin of Calicut. When Portuguese armadas arrived in India, Cochin was in vassalage to Zamorin and was looking for an opportunity to break away, Cochin became a long-time Portuguese protectorate providing assistance against native overlords. After the Portuguese, the Dutch East India Company followed by the English East India Company, even today, the full official designation of the Raja of Cochin is “Perumpadappu Gangadhara Veera Kerala Thrikkovil Adhikarikal”. The Kingdom of Cochin, originally known as Perumpadappu Swarupam, was under the rule of the Later Cheras in the Middle Ages, after the fall of the Mahodayapuram Cheras in the 12th century, along with numerous other provinces Perumpadappu Swarupam became a free political entity. However, it was only after the arrival of Portuguese colonizers on the Malabar Coast did the Perumpadappu Swarupam acquire any political importance, Perumpadappu rulers had family relationships with the Nambudiri rulers of Edappally. After the transfer of Kochi and Vypin from Edappally rulers to the Perumpadappu rulers, ma Huan, the Muslim voyager and translator who accompanied Admiral Zheng He on three of his seven expeditions to the Western Oceans, describes the king of Cochin as being a Buddhist. There is no extant written evidence about the emergence of the Kingdom of Cochin or of the Cochin Royal Family, all that is recorded are folk tales and stories, and a somewhat blurred historical picture about the origins of the ruling dynasty. The surviving manuscripts, such as Keralolpathi, Keralamahatmyam, and Perumpadapu Grandavari, are collections of myths and legends that are less than reliable as conventional historical sources. There is a legend that the last Perumal who ruled the Chera dynasty divided his kingdom between his nephews and his sons, converted to Islam and traveled to Mecca on a hajj. The Keralolpathi recounts the narrative in the following fashion, The last. He left for Mecca by ship with some Muslims who arrived at Kodungallur port, before leaving for Mecca, he divided his kingdom between his nephews and sons. The Perumpadapu Grandavari contains an account of the dynastic origins. Cheraman Perumal divided the land in half,17 amsa north of Neelaeswaram and 17 amsa south, totaling 34 amsa, thirty-four kingdoms between Kanyakumari and Gokarna were given to the thampuran who was the daughter of the last niece of Cheraman Perumal. Keralolpathi recorded the division of his kingdom in 345 AD, Perumpadapu Grandavari in 385 AD, historians, including Robin Jeffry, Faucett and Samuel Mateer, are of the opinion that as with all other Kings of Malabar, the Cochin Raja was also of Nair origin. Cochin kingdom ruled over a vast area in central Kerala before the Portuguese arrival and their state stretched up to Ponnani and Pukkaitha in the north, Anamalais in the east, and Cochin and Porakkad in the south, with capital at Perumpadappu on the northern border. Later, Calicut conquered large parts of Perumpadappu Kingdom, and made them a tributary state, Cochin was the scene of the first European settlement in India. In the year 1500, the Portuguese Admiral Pedro Álvares Cabral landed at Cochin after being repelled from Calicut, the king of Cochin welcomed the Portuguese and a treaty of friendship was signed
18.
Ashtamangala
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The Ashtamangala are a sacred suite of Eight Auspicious Signs endemic to a number of Indian religions such as Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism. The symbols or symbolic attributes are yidam and teaching tools, not only do these attributes, these energetic signatures, point to qualities of enlightened mindstream, but they are the investiture that ornaments these enlightened qualities. Many cultural enumerations and variations of the Ashtamangala are extant, groupings of eight auspicious symbols were originally used in India at ceremonies such as an investiture or coronation of a king. An early grouping of symbols included, throne, swastika, handprint, hooked knot, vase of jewels, water libation flask, pair of fishes, lidded bowl. In Buddhism, these eight symbols of good fortune represent the offerings made by the gods to Shakyamuni Buddha immediately after he gained enlightenment, Tibetan Buddhists make use of a particular set of eight auspicious symbols, ashtamangala, in household and public art. The conch shell is thought to have been the original horn-trumpet, the Indian god Vishnu is also described as having a conch shell as one of his main emblems, his shell bore the name Panchajanya meaning having control over the five classes of beings. In Hinduism, the conch is an attribute of Vishnu along with the Sudarshana Chakra, vaishnavism holds that Gautama Buddha is an avatar of Vishnu. The endless knot denotes the auspicious mark represented by a curled noose emblematic of love and it is a symbol of the ultimate unity of everything. This knot, net or web metaphor also conveys the Buddhist teaching of interpenetration, the two goldfish symbolise the auspiciousness of all sentient beings in a state of fearlessness without danger of drowning in saṃsāra. The two golden fishes are linked with the Ganges and Yamuna nadi, prana and carp, The two fishes originally represented the two sacred rivers of India - the Ganges and Yamuna. These rivers are associated with the lunar and solar channels, which originate in the nostrils and they have religious significance in Hindu, Jain and Buddhist traditions but also in Christianity. In Buddhism, the fish symbolize happiness as they have freedom of movement in the water. Often drawn in the form of carp, which are regarded in the Orient as sacred on account of their elegant beauty, size, the lotus flower, represent the primordial purity of body, speech, and mind, floating above the muddy waters of attachment and desire. The lotus symbolizes purity and renunciation, although the lotus has its roots in the mud at the bottom of a pond, its flower lies immaculate above the water. The Buddhist lotus bloom has 4,8,16,24,32,64,100, the same figures can refer to the bodys internal lotuses, that is to say, its energy centres. The jewelled parasol, which is similar in function to the baldachin or canopy, represents the protection of beings from harmful forces. It represents the canopy or firmament of the sky and therefore the expansiveness and unfolding of space and it represents the expansiveness, unfolding and protective quality of the sahasrara, all take refuge in the dharma under the auspiciousness of the parasol. The treasure vase represents health, longevity, wealth, prosperity, wisdom, the treasure vase, or pot, symbolizes the Buddhas infinite quality of teaching the dharma, no matter how many teachings he shared, the treasure never lessened
19.
Ayurveda
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Ayurveda, or Ayurveda medicine, is a system of medicine with historical roots in the Indian subcontinent. Globalized and modernized practices derived from Ayurveda traditions are a type of complementary or alternative medicine, in the Western world, Ayurveda therapies and practices have been integrated in general wellness applications and as well in some cases in medical use. The main classical Ayurveda texts begin with accounts of the transmission of knowledge from the Gods to sages. In Sushruta Samhita, Sushruta wrote that Dhanvantari, Hindu god of Ayurveda, incarnated himself as a king of Varanasi and taught medicine to a group of physicians, Ayurveda therapies have varied and evolved over more than two millennia. Therapies are typically based on complex compounds, minerals and metal substances. Ancient Ayurveda texts also taught surgical techniques, including rhinoplasty, kidney stone extractions, sutures, other researchers consider it a protoscience, or trans-science system instead. Close to 21% of Ayurveda U. S. and Indian-manufactured patent medicines sold through the Internet were found to contain levels of heavy metals, specifically lead, mercury. The public health implications of such metallic contaminants in India are unknown, some scholars assert that Ayurveda originated in prehistoric times, and that some of the concepts of Ayurveda have existed from the time of the Indus Valley Civilization or even earlier. Humoral balance is emphasized, and suppressing natural urges is considered unhealthy, Ayurveda names three elemental substances, the doshas, and states that a balance of the doshas results in health, while imbalance results in disease. Ayurveda has eight components, which are derived from classical Sanskrit literature. Ayurveda practitioners had developed various medicinal preparations and surgical procedures by the medieval period, the earliest classical Sanskrit works on Ayurveda describe medical science as being divided into eight components. This characterization of the art, the medicine that has eight components, is first found in the Sanskrit epic the Mahābhārata. The central theoretical ideas of Ayurveda developed in the mid-first millennium BCE, balance is emphasized, and suppressing natural urges is considered unhealthy and claimed to lead to illness. For example, to suppress sneezing is said to give rise to shoulder pain. However, people are also cautioned to stay within the limits of reasonable balance, for example, emphasis is placed on moderation of food intake, sleep, and sexual intercourse. Ayurveda names seven basic tissues, which are plasma, blood, muscles, fat, bone, marrow, like the medicine of classical antiquity, Ayurveda has historically divided bodily substances into five classical elements eliminates toxic elements from the body. Panchakarma includes Vamana, Virechana, Basti, Nasya and Raktamokshana and it is preceded by Poorvakarma as a preparatory step, and is followed by Paschatkarma and Peyadikarma. Based on the World Health Assembly resolution on traditional medicine, the WHO has established a traditional medicine strategy, the first previous global strategy was published in 2002 and dealt especially with herbal medicines
20.
Western world
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The Western world or the West is a term usually referring to different nations, depending on the context, most often including at least part of Europe. There are many accepted definitions about what they all have in common, the Western world is also known as the Occident. The concept of the Western part of the earth has its roots in Greco-Roman civilization in Europe, before the Cold War era, the traditional Western viewpoint identified Western Civilization with the Western Christian countries and culture. Its political usage was changed by the antagonism during the Cold War in the mid-to-late 20th Century. The term originally had a literal geographic meaning, Western culture was influenced by many older great civilizations of the ancient Near East, such as Phoenicia, Minoan Crete, Sumer, Babylonia, and also Ancient Egypt. It originated in the Mediterranean basin and its vicinity, Greece, over time, their associated empires grew first to the east and west to include the rest of Mediterranean and Black Sea coastal areas, conquering and absorbing. Later, they expanded to the north of the Mediterranean Sea to include Western, Central, numerous times, this expansion was accompanied by Christian missionaries, who attempted to proselytize Christianity. There is debate among some as to whether Latin America is in a category of its own, specifically, Western culture may imply, a Biblical Christian cultural influence in spiritual thinking, customs and either ethic or moral traditions, around the Post-Classical Era and after. European cultural influences concerning artistic, musical, folkloric, ethic and oral traditions, the concept of Western culture is generally linked to the classical definition of the Western world. In this definition, Western culture is the set of literary, scientific, political, artistic, much of this set of traditions and knowledge is collected in the Western canon. The term has come to apply to countries whose history is marked by European immigration or settlement, such as the Americas, and Oceania. The geopolitical divisions in Europe that created a concept of East and West originated in the Roman Empire, Roman Catholic Western and Central Europe, as such, maintained a distinct identity particularly as it began to redevelop during the Renaissance. Even following the Protestant Reformation, Protestant Europe continued to see itself as more tied to Roman Catholic Europe than other parts of the civilized world. Use of the term West as a cultural and geopolitical term developed over the course of the Age of Exploration as Europe spread its culture to other parts of the world. Additionally, closer contacts between the West and Asia and other parts of the world in recent times have continued to cloud the use, herodotus considered the Persian Wars of the early 5th century BC a conflict of Europa versus Asia. The terms West and East were not used by any Greek author to describe that conflict, the Great Schism and the Fourth Crusade confirmed this deviation. The Renaissance in the West emerged partly from currents within the Roman Empire, Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew from a city-state founded on the Italian Peninsula about the 9th century BC to a massive empire straddling the Mediterranean Sea. In its 12-century existence, Roman civilization shifted from a monarchy, to a republic, nonetheless, despite its great legacy, a number of factors led to the eventual decline of the Roman Empire
21.
Sea snail
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Sea snail is a common name for snails that normally live in saltwater, in other words marine gastropods. The taxonomic class Gastropoda also includes snails that live in habitats, such as land snails. Many species of sea snails are edible and exploited as food sources by humans, sea snails are marine gastropods with shells. Those marine gastropods with no shells, or only internal shells, are known by other common names, including sea slug, sea hare, nudibranch. The diversity within sea snails is enormous, many very different clades of gastropods are either dominated by, or consist exclusively of, sea snails. Because of this variability, generalization about the feeding, reproduction, habitat. Instead, individual clades, families, genera, or species must be assessed, the shells of most species of sea snails are spirally coiled. Some, though, have shells, and these are often referred to by the common name of limpets. In one unusual family, the shell of the snail has two hinged plates closely resembling those of a bivalve, this family is sometimes called the bivalved gastropods. Their shells are found in a variety of shapes and sizes and those of living species of sea snails range in size from Syrinx aruanus, the largest living shelled gastropod species at 91 cm, to minute species whose shells are less than 1 mm at adult size. Because the shells of sea snails are strong and durable in many cases, sea snails are a very large group of animals and a very diverse one. Most snails that live in saltwater respire using a gill or gills, a few species, though, have a lung, are intertidal and these air-breathing species include false limpets in the family Siphonariidae and another group of false limpets in the family Trimusculidae. Many, but not all sea snails have an operculum, a number of species of sea snails are used by humans for food, including abalone, conch, limpets, whelks and periwinkles including Littorina littorea. The shells of sea snails are found by humans as seashells commonly wash up on beaches. Because the shells of sea snails are attractive and durable, they have been used by humans to make necklaces. The shells of a few species of sea snails within the Vetigastropoda have a thick layer of nacre and have been used as a source of mother of pearl. Historically, the industry relied on these species for a number of years. The shells of sea snails are used for protection by many kinds of hermit crabs, a hermit crab carries the shell by grasping the central columella of the shell using claspers on the tip of its abdomen
22.
Turbinellidae
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Turbinellidae are a family of sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the clade Neogastropoda. Species in this family are found worldwide, mostly in shallow waters. Adams & A. Adams & A. Adams,1864, synonym of Tudivasum Rosenberg & Petit,1987 Costello, M. J. Emblow, european register of marine species, a check-list of the marine species in Europe and a bibliography of guides to their identification. Muséum national dHistoire Naturelle, Paris, France
23.
Porcelain
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Porcelain /ˈpɔːrsəlᵻn, ˈpɔːrslᵻn/ is a ceramic material made by heating materials, generally including kaolin, in a kiln to temperatures between 1,200 and 1,400 °C. Porcelain was first developed in China around 2,000 years ago, then spread to other East Asian countries, and finally Europe. It combines well with both glazes and paint, and can be modelled very well, allowing a range of decorative treatments in tablewares, vessels. It also has uses in technology and industry. The European name, porcelain in English, come from the old Italian porcellana because of its resemblance to the translucent surface of the shell, Porcelain is also referred to as china or fine china in some English-speaking countries, as it was first seen in imports from China. Porcelain has been described as being completely vitrified, hard, impermeable, white or artificially coloured, translucent, however, the term porcelain lacks a universal definition and has been applied in a very unsystematic fashion to substances of diverse kinds which have only certain surface-qualities in common. Terms such as porcellaneous or near-porcelain may be used in such cases, a high proportion of modern porcelain is made of the variant bone china. Kaolin is the material from which porcelain is made, even though clay minerals might account for only a small proportion of the whole. The word paste is an old term for both the unfired and fired material, a more common terminology these days for the unfired material is body, for example, when buying materials a potter might order an amount of porcelain body from a vendor. The composition of porcelain is highly variable, but the mineral kaolinite is often a raw material. Other raw materials can include feldspar, ball clay, glass, bone ash, steatite, quartz, petuntse, the clays used are often described as being long or short, depending on their plasticity. Long clays are cohesive and have high plasticity, short clays are cohesive and have lower plasticity. Clays used for porcelain are generally of lower plasticity and are shorter than many other pottery clays and they wet very quickly, meaning that small changes in the content of water can produce large changes in workability. Thus, the range of content within which these clays can be worked is very narrow. The following section provides information on the methods used to form, decorate, finish, glaze. Many types of glaze, such as the iron-containing glaze used on the wares of Longquan, were designed specifically for their striking effects on porcelain. Porcelain wares may be decorated under the glaze using pigments that include cobalt and copper or over the glaze using coloured enamels. Like many earlier wares, modern porcelains are often biscuit-fired at around 1,000 °C, coated with glaze, another early method is once-fired where the glaze is applied to the unfired body and the two fired together in a single operation
24.
Siphon (mollusc)
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A siphon is an anatomical structure which is part of the body of aquatic molluscs in three classes, Gastropoda, Bivalvia and Cephalopoda. Siphons in molluscs are tube-like structures in water flows. The water flow is used for one or more such as locomotion, feeding, respiration. The siphon is part of the mantle of the mollusc, a single siphon occurs in some gastropods. In those bivalves which have siphons, the siphons are paired, in cephalopods, there is a single siphon or funnel which is known as a hyponome. This siphon is a soft fleshy tube-like structure equipped with chemoreceptors which smell or taste the water, marine gastropods that have a siphon are either predators or scavengers. Although in gastropods the siphon functions perfectly well as a tube, it is not in fact a hollow organ, it is simply a flap of the mantle that is rolled into the shape of a tube. In many marine gastropods where the siphon is particularly long, the structure of the shell has been modified in order to house and this shell modification is known as the siphonal canal. For a gastropod shell has an exceptionally long siphonal canal. The Aplysia gill and siphon withdrawal reflex is a reflex which is found in sea hares of the genus Aplysia. Freshwater apple snails in the genera Pomacea and Pila have an extensible siphon made from a flap of the mantle cavity. They use this siphon in order to breathe air while they are submerged in water which has a low oxygen content so they effectively use their gill. Apple snails use the siphon in a way that is reminiscent of a human swimmer using a snorkel, except that the apple snails siphon can be retracted completely, for these freshwater snails, the siphon is an anti-predator adaptation. The shells of freshwater snails have simple round apertures, there is no special notch for the siphon. Those bivalves that have siphons, have two of them, not all bivalves have siphons however, those that live on or above the substrate, as is the case in scallops, oysters, etc. do not need them. Only those bivalves that burrow in sediment, and live buried in the sediment, the function of these siphons is to reach up to the surface of the sediment, so that the animal is able to respire, feed, and excrete, and also to reproduce. The deeper a bivalve species lives in the sediment, the longer its siphons are, bivalves which have extremely long siphons, like the Geoducks pictured here, live very deeply buried, and are hard to dig up when clamming. Many bivalves that have siphons can withdraw completely into the shell when needed
25.
Spire (mollusc)
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A spire is a part of the coiled shell of molluscs. The spire consists of all of the whorls except for the body whorl, each spire whorl represents a rotation of 360°. A spire is part of the shell of a snail, a mollusc, a gastropod shell, and also the whorls of the shell in ammonites. In textbook illustrations of shells, the tradition is to show the majority of shells with the spire uppermost on the page. The spire, when it is not damaged or eroded, includes the protoconch, and most of the subsequent teleoconch whorls, thus the spire in most gastropods is pointed, the tip being known as the apex. The word spire is used, in an analogy to a spire or rock spire. The spire angle is the angle, as seen from the apex and it is an angle formed by imaginary lines tangent to the spire. Some gastropod shells have very high spires, some have low spires, in a few gastropod families the shells are not helical in their coiling, but instead are planispiral, flat-coiled. In these shells, the spire does not have a raised point, Gastropod shells that are not spirally coiled have no columella. In some species as high-spired shells become adult the soft parts of the animal cease to occupy the upper parts of the cavity of the shell. The space thus vacated is sometimes filled with shell, as in Magilus, or it is partitioned off, as in Vermetus, Euomphalus, Turritella. The empty apex in these shells is very thin. In some species it breaks away, leaving the shell truncated or decollated, decollated shells usually have the whorls of the spire closely wound and not increasing much in diameter. A typical example is the decollate snail, the form of the shell of a gastropod is usually regular in coiling, and is normally a cone curved into a spiral, and descending in a screw-like manner from the apex or initial whorl to the aperture. The shell grows in a geometrical progression in its normal pattern. Thus we have the simple depressed cone of Patella, all aperture, see also, Gastropod shell#Shape of the shell Turbinoform or Turbinate, having a broadly conical spire and a convex base, as in Turbo, turban-shaped. Turriform, with a many-whorled, slender spire, as in Turritella, in others the volutions proceed in the opposite direction with such regularity as to be eminently characteristic of some species and genera. However, in genera, it is found that species normally dextral will exceptionally produce sinistrally coiled shells
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Shiva
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Shiva is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the supreme God within Shaivism, one of the three most influential denominations in contemporary Hinduism, Shiva is the transformer within the Trimurti, the Hindu trinity that includes Brahma and Vishnu. In Shaivism tradition, Shiva is the Supreme being who creates, protects, in the goddess tradition of Hinduism called Shaktism, the goddess is described as supreme, yet Shiva is revered along with Vishnu and Brahma. A goddess is stated to be the energy and creative power of each and he is one of the five equivalent deities in Panchayatana puja of the Smarta tradition of Hinduism. At the highest level, Shiva is regarded as formless, limitless, transcendent and unchanging absolute Brahman, Shiva has many benevolent and fearsome depictions. In benevolent aspects, he is depicted as an omniscient Yogi who lives a life on Mount Kailash as well as a householder with wife Parvati. In his fierce aspects, he is depicted slaying demons. Shiva is also known as Adiyogi Shiva, regarded as the god of yoga, meditation. Shiva is usually worshipped in the form of Lingam. Shiva is a deity, revered widely by Hindus, in India, Nepal. The Sanskrit word Śiva means, states Monier Williams, auspicious, propitious, gracious, benign, kind, benevolent, the roots of Śiva in folk etymology is śī which means in whom all things lie, pervasiveness and va which means embodiment of grace. The word Shiva is used as an adjective in the Rig Veda, as an epithet for several Rigvedic deities, the term Shiva also connotes liberation, final emancipation and the auspicious one, this adjective sense of usage is addressed to many deities in Vedic layers of literature. The term evolved from the Vedic Rudra-Shiva to the noun Shiva in the Epics, Sharma presents another etymology with the Sanskrit root śarv-, which means to injure or to kill, interprets the name to connote one who can kill the forces of darkness. The Sanskrit word śaiva means relating to the god Shiva, and it is used as an adjective to characterize certain beliefs and practices, such as Shaivism. Some authors associate the name with the Tamil word śivappu meaning red, noting that Shiva is linked to the Sun, the Vishnu sahasranama interprets Shiva to have multiple meanings, The Pure One, and the One who is not affected by three Guṇas of Prakṛti. Shiva is known by names such Viswanathan, Mahadeva, Mahesha, Maheshvara, Shankara, Shambhu, Rudra, Hara, Trilochana, Devendra, Neelakanta, Subhankara, Trilokinatha. The highest reverence for Shiva in Shaivism is reflected in his epithets Mahādeva, Maheśvara, Sahasranama are medieval Indian texts that list a thousand names derived from aspects and epithets of a deity. There are at least eight different versions of the Shiva Sahasranama, the version appearing in Book 13 of the Mahabharata provides one such list
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Aperture (mollusc)
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The aperture is an opening in certain kinds of mollusc shells, it is the main opening of the shell, where the head-foot part of the body of the animal emerges for locomotion, feeding, etc. The term aperture is used for the opening in gastropod shells, scaphopod shells. The word is not used to describe bivalve shells, where an opening between the two shell valves in the closed position is usually called a gape. Scaphopod shells are tubular, and thus they have two openings, a main anterior aperture and a smaller posterior aperture, in some prosobranch gastropods, the aperture of the shell can be closed, and even completely sealed, with a sort of door or operculum. The aperture of many snail shells is more or less round, rounded and this shape usually corresponds roughly to the cross-section of the body whorl of the shell. The aperture of a snail shell can have other forms, semicircular. In some gastropods, the aperture is narrowed by protruding plaits, the growth of the shell is provided for by non-continuous addition of minute layers to the aperture margin from the mantle border, the principal agent in the secretion of the shell. The margin of the aperture is sometimes continuous or entire, or becomes continuous in the adult, very frequently it is interrupted, the siphonal notch is situated at the top. The columellar wall with the lip, the wall next to the columella. The siphonal canal is situated at its base, the palatal wall, the outer free wall of the final whorl of the shell. The aperture is descending or deflected, when it does not follow the spiral of the shell, sometimes it departs from contact with the preceding whorl. Consequently, there is no siphonal canal but simply an opening for respiration and these teeth may be outer lip teeth, columellar teeth or parietal teeth. Folds or plicae are named by their position in the aperture, as follows
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Columella (gastropod)
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The columella or pillar is a central anatomical feature of a coiled snail shell, a gastropod shell. The columella is often clearly visible as a structure when the shell is broken, sliced in half vertically. The columella runs from the apex of the shell to the midpoint of the undersurface of the shell, or the tip of the siphonal canal in those shells which have a siphonal canal. If a snail shell is visualized as a cone of shelly material which is wrapped around a central axis, in the case of shells that have an umbilicus, the columella is a hollow structure. The columella of some groups of shells can have a number of plications or folds. These folds can be wide or narrow, prominent or subtle and these features of the columella are often useful in identifying the family, genus, or species of the gastropod. The surface of the columella is called the columellar wall, the columellar callus is a smooth, calcareous thickening, secreted by the mantle, extending over the columellar area. The columellar lip, the part of the columella, is the lower part of the inner lip and is situated near the axis of coiling. A columellar tooth is a projection on the inner lip of a columella in the direction of the aperture. The soft parts of the body of the gastropod are held in place in the shell by the columellar muscles. These muscles are attached strongly to the columella itself not just far up in the apex of the shell but also by a long and narrow attachment over the length of a full whorl along the columella. The columellar muscle passes underneath the mantle, greatly thickening the body wall, the columellar muscles are contracted when the animal needs to withdraw the foot, head, and other soft parts into the shell for protection from drying out, and from predators. During these contractions the operculum and shell are approximated, and the animal is withdrawn within the latter, the columellar muscles are equally used to bring the soft body out of the shell. During protraction and retraction, the twists, shortens or elongates. In very large such as the Queen Conch, Eustrombus gigas, once the columellar muscles are cut with a knife. Conch fishermen in the Caribbean Sea break a hole in the spire of the shell, cut the columellar muscles. Often the fishermen dump the empty back into the sea again. Columella listed in a glossary Another glossary A scholarly article on columellar muscles and columellar folds photo of cross section through shells
29.
Gautama Buddha
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Gautama Buddha, also known as Siddhārtha Gautama, Shakyamuni Buddha, or simply the Buddha, after the title of Buddha, was an ascetic and sage, on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. He is believed to have lived and taught mostly in the part of ancient India sometime between the sixth and fourth centuries BCE. Gautama taught a Middle Way between sensual indulgence and the severe asceticism found in the śramaṇa movement common in his region and he later taught throughout other regions of eastern India such as Magadha and Kosala. Gautama is the figure in Buddhism. He is recognized by Buddhists as a teacher who attained full Buddhahood. Accounts of his life, discourses, and monastic rules are believed by Buddhists to have been summarized after his death, various collections of teachings attributed to him were passed down by oral tradition and first committed to writing about 400 years later. Scholars are hesitant to make unqualified claims about the facts of the Buddhas life. Apart from the Vedic Brahmins, the Buddhas lifetime coincided with the flourishing of influential schools of thought like Ājīvika, Cārvāka, Jainism. Brahmajala Sutta records sixty-two such schools of thought, thus, Buddha was just one of the many śramaṇa philosophers of that time. The times of Gautamas birth and death are uncertain, most historians in the early 20th century dated his lifetime as circa 563 BCE to 483 BCE. These alternative chronologies, however, have not yet accepted by all historians. It was either a republic, or an oligarchy, and his father was an elected chieftain. He obtained his enlightenment in Bodh Gaya, gave his first sermon in Sarnath, no written records about Gautama were found from his lifetime or some centuries thereafter. One Edict of Asoka, who reigned from circa 269 BCE to 232 BCE, another one of his edicts mentions the titles of several Dhamma texts, establishing the existence of a written Buddhist tradition at least by the time of the Maurya era. These texts may be the precursor of the Pāli Canon and they are written in the Gāndhārī language using the Kharosthi script on twenty-seven birch bark manuscripts and date from the first century BCE to the third century CE. The sources for the life of Siddhārtha Gautama are a variety of different and these include the Buddhacarita, Lalitavistara Sūtra, Mahāvastu, and the Nidānakathā. Of these, the Buddhacarita is the earliest full biography, a poem written by the poet Aśvaghoṣa in the first century CE. The Lalitavistara Sūtra is the next oldest biography, a Mahāyāna/Sarvāstivāda biography dating to the 3rd century CE, the Mahāvastu from the Mahāsāṃghika Lokottaravāda tradition is another major biography, composed incrementally until perhaps the 4th century CE
30.
Varaha Purana
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The Varaha Purana is a Sanskrit text from the Puranas genre of literature in Hinduism. It belongs to the Vaishnavism literature corpus praising Narayana, but includes chapters dedicated to praising and centered on Shiva, the text exists in many versions, with major sections lost to history. The text has been estimated to have been first completed between 10th to 12th-century, and continuously revised thereafter, the surviving manuscripts of this text are notable, like Linga Purana, because they do not cover the required Panchalakshana expected in a Purana. The Varaha Purana includes mythology, particularly of the Varaha incarnation of Vishnu rescuing the earth at the time of a great flood, the text also includes mythology of goddesses and Shiva, and a discussion of Karma and Dharma called Dharmasamhita. The century in which Varaha Purana was composed is unknown, wilson suggested 12th-century, during the period of Ramanuja influence. Most scholars concur that this is a relatively late Purana, the text is named after the Varaha avatar of Vishnu, wherein he rescues goddess earth. The text exists in versions, with significant variations. The Padma Purana categorizes Varaha Purana as a Sattva Purana, scholars consider the Sattva-Rajas-Tamas classification as entirely fanciful and there is nothing in this text that actually justifies this classification. The printed editions of this work, depending on the version, has 217 or 218 adhyāyas, the critical edition published has 215 chapters. The Hindu tradition and other Puranas claim that this text had 24,000 verses, however, according to the Narada Purana, this text has two parts, purvabhaga and uttarabhaga. According to Rajendra Hazra, the extant text has four sections, differing in interlocutors. These sections were composed in different time periods, by different authors. In the first section, Suta is the narrator and Varaha, in the second section, Suta narrates what was told by Prithvi to Sanatkumara about the dialogue between Varaha and herself. In the third section, Suta describes the conversation between the king Janamejaya and the sage Vaishampayana and this section is also known as the Dharma Samhita. In the final section, Suta narrates the conversation between Brahma and Sanatkumara, bhagavata Purana Vishnu Purana Shiva Purana Markandeya Purana Gregory Bailey. Dimmitt, Cornelia, van Buitenen, J. A. B, classical Hindu Mythology, A Reader in the Sanskrit Puranas. Purāṇa Perennis, Reciprocity and Transformation in Hindu and Jaina Texts, albany, New York, State University of New York. Epic and Puranic Bibliography Annoted and with Indexes, Part I, A - R, Part II, S - Z, the Strides of Vishnu, Hindu Culture in Historical Perspective, Hindu Culture in Historical Perspective
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Skanda Purana
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The Skanda Purana is the largest Mahāpurāṇa, a genre of eighteen Hindu religious texts. The text contains over 81,000 verses, and is part of Shaivite literature, titled after Skanda, a son of Shiva and Parvati, who is also known as Kartikeya and Murugan. While the text is named after Skanda, he does not feature either more or less prominently in this text than in other Shiva-related Puranas, the text has been an important historical record and influence on the Hindu traditions related to war-god Skanda. The earliest text titled Skanda Purana likely existed by the 6th-century CE and it is considered by scholars, in a historic sense, as among the shiftiest, living texts which was widely edited, over many centuries, creating numerous variants. This Mahāpurāṇa, like others, is attributed to the sage Vyasa, haraprasad Shastri and Cecil Bendall, in about 1898, discovered an old palm-leaf manuscript of Skanda Purana in a Kathmandu library in Nepal, written in Gupta script. They dated the manuscript to 7th century CE, on paleographic grounds and this suggests that the original text existed before this time. Hans Bakker states that the text specifies holy places and details about the 4th and 5th-century Citraratha of Andhra Pradesh, the oldest versions of the Skandapurana texts have been discovered in the Himalayan region of South Asia such as Nepal, and the northeastern states of India such as Assam. The critical editions of the text, for scholarly studied, rely on the Nepalese manuscripts, additional texts style themselves as khandas of Skandapurana, but these came into existed after the 12th-century. It is unclear if their root texts did belong to the Skandapurana, there are a number of texts and manuscripts that bear the title Skanda Purana. Some of these texts, except for the title, have little in common with the well known Skandapurana traced to the 1st-millennium CE, the original text has accrued several additions, resulting in several different versions. It is, therefore, very difficult to establish a date of composition for the Skanda Purana. Stylistically, the Skanda Purana is related to the Mahabharata, the two texts employ similar stock phrases and compounds that are not found in the Ramayana. Some of the mentioned in the present version of the Skanda Purana is undoubtedly post-Gupta period. This indicates that several additions were made to the text over the centuries. The Kashi Khanda, for example, acquired its present form around the mid-13th century CE, the latest part of the text might have been composed in as late as 15th century CE. The whole corpus of texts which are considered as part of the Skanda Purana is grouped in two ways, according to one tradition, these are grouped in six saṁhitās, each of which consists of several khaṇḍas. According to another tradition, these are grouped in seven khaṇḍas, the chapters are Mahatmyas, or travel guides for pilgrimage tourists. A manuscript of a commentary on the Sūta Saṁhitā by Madhavācārya is also available and these texts discuss cosmogony, theology, philosophical questions on virtues and vice, questions such as what is evil, the origin of evil, how to deal with and cure evil
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Puja (Hinduism)
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Pūjā or Poojan is a prayer ritual performed by Hindus to host, honour and worship one or more deities, or to spiritually celebrate an event. Sometimes spelt phonetically as pooja or poojah, it may honour or celebrate the presence of special guest, the word pūjā comes from Sanskrit, and means reverence, honour, homage, adoration, and worship. Puja rituals are held by Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs. In Hinduism, puja is done on a variety of occasions, frequency and settings. It may include daily puja done in the home, to temple ceremonies and annual festivals, to few lifetime events such as birth of a baby or a wedding. The two main areas where puja is performed are in the home and at temples to mark certain stages of life, events or some such as Durga Puja. Puja is not mandatory, it may be a daily affair for some Hindus, periodic ritual for some. In some temples, various pujas may be performed daily at various times of the day, in other temples, Puja varies according to the school of Hinduism. Puja may vary by region, occasion, deity honored, in formal Nigama ceremonies, a fire may be lit in honour of deity Agni, without an idol or image present. In contrast, in Agama ceremonies, an idol or image of deity is present, in both ceremonies, a diya or incense stick may be lit while a prayer is chanted or hymn is sung. Puja is typically performed by a Hindu worshipper alone, though sometimes in presence of a priest who is well versed in procedure, both Nigama and Agama puja are practiced in Hinduism in India. In Hinduism of Bali Indonesia, Agama puja is most prevalent both inside homes and in temples, Puja is sometimes called Sembahyang in Indonesia. Puja is an ancient culture or way of life, with unclear origins, joshi claims the word puja was first used in vedic times when Sūtra were composed, to describe prayers and worship before yajna or homa – fire deity, Agni. Charpentier suggests the origin of the word Puja may lie in the Dravidian languages, two possible Tamil roots have been suggested, Poosai to smear with something and Poochei to do with flowers. According to scholars, one of the earliest mentions of pūjā is in the Grihya Sutras and these Sutras, dated to be about 500 BC, use the term puja to describe the hospitality to honor priests who were invited to one’s home to lead rituals for departed ancestors. As Hindu philosophy expanded and diversified, with such as the bhakti movement. As with vedic times, the concept of puja remained the same. The Puranic corpus of literature, dating from about 6th century CE, deity puja thus melds Vedic rites with devotion to deity in its ritual form
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Apex (mollusc)
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In anatomy, an apex is part of the shell of a mollusk. The apex is the tip of the shell of a gastropod, scaphopod. The apex is used in end-blown conches, the word apex is most often used to mean the tip of the spire of the shell of a gastropod. The apex is the first-formed, and therefore the oldest, part of the shell, to be more precise, the apex would usually be where the tip of the embryonic shell or protoconch is situated, if that is still present in the adult shell. The apex of tusk shells is the small, open end. In orthocone cephalopods, the end of the shell is called the apex. The first chamber of the apex is called the protoconch. The apex of a valve of a shell is the area around what is most commonly the umbo or beak. In some species the shell or prodissoconch may be present at the apex of each of the two valves
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Aarti
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Aarti also spelled arti, arati, arathi, aarthi is a Hindu religious ritual of worship, a part of puja, in which light from wicks soaked in ghee or camphor is offered to one or more deities. Aartis also refer to the songs sung in praise of the deity, Aarti is derived from the Sanskrit word ārātrika, which means something that removes rātrī, darkness. Another word from which Aarti is thought to be derived is the Sanskrit word Aaraartikyam, a Marathi language reference says it is also known as Mahaneeranjana Aarti is said to have descended from the Vedic concept of fire rituals, or homa. The incense represents a state of mind, and one’s intelligence is offered through the adherence to rules of timing. Thus, one’s entire existence and all facets of material creation are symbolically offered to the Lord via the aarti ceremony, the word may also refer to the traditional Hindu devotional song that is sung during the ritual. Aarti can be simple to extravagant, but always involves flame or light and it is sometimes performed one to five times daily, and usually at the end of a puja or bhajan session. It is performed during almost all Hindu ceremonies and occasions and it involves the circulating of an Aarti plate or Aarti lamp around a person or deity and is generally accompanied by the congregation singing songs in praise of that deva or person. In doing so, the plate or lamp is supposed to acquire the power of the deity, the priest circulates the plate or lamp to all those present. They cup their hands over the flame and then raise their palms to their forehead – the purificatory blessing. The aarti plate is made of metal, usually silver. On it must repose a lamp made of kneaded flour, mud or metal, one or more cotton wicks are put into the oil and then lighted, or camphor is burnt instead. The plate may also contain flowers, incense and akshata, in some temples, a plate is not used and the priest holds the ghee lamp in his hand when offering it to the Deities. The purpose of performing aarti is the waving of lighted wicks before the deities in a spirit of humility and gratitude, Aarti can be an expression of many things including love, benevolence, gratitude, prayers, or desires depending on the object it is done to/ for. For example, it can be a form of respect when performed to elders, prayers when performed to deities, emotions and prayers are often silent while doing Aarti, but this is determined by the person carrying out the ritual or the holiday involved. Its also believed that goodwill and luck can be taken through symbolic hand movements over the flame, when aarti is performed, the performer faces the deity of God and concentrates on the form of God by looking into the eyes of the deity to get immersed. The flame of the aarti illuminates the various parts of the deity so that the performer and onlookers may better see, Aarti is waved in circular fashion, in clockwise manner around the deity. After every circle, when Aarti has reached the bottom, the waves it backwards while remaining in the bottom. The idea here is that aarti represents our daily activities, which revolves around God, looking at God while performing aarti reminds the performer to keep God at the center of all activities and reinforces the understanding that routine worldly activities are secondary in importance
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Tantra
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Tantra is the esoteric traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism that co-developed most likely about the middle of 1st millennium CE. The term tantra, in the Indian traditions, also means any systematic broadly applicable text, theory, system, method, instrument, in Hinduism, the tantra tradition is most often associated with its goddess tradition called Shaktism, followed by Shaivism and Vaishnavism. In Buddhism, the Vajrayana tradition is known for its extensive tantra ideas, Tantric Hindu and Buddhist traditions have influenced other religious traditions such as Jainism, Sikhism, the Tibetan Bön tradition, Daoism, and the Japanese Shintō tradition. Tantra as genre of literature in Hinduism have been influential to its arts, icons, Hindu puja, temples and iconography are tantric in nature. The Hindu texts that describe these topics are called Tantras, Āgamas or Samhitās, in Buddhism, its tantra-genre literature has influenced the artworks in Tibet, historic cave temples of India, and imagery in southeast Asia. Tantra literally means loom, warp, weave, the connotation of the word tantra to mean an esoteric practice or religious ritualism is a colonial era European invention. The term is based on the metaphor of weaving, states Ron Barrett and it implies interweaving of traditions and teachings as threads into a text, technique or practice. The word appears in the hymns of the Rigveda such as in 10.71 and it is found in many other Vedic era texts, such as in section 10.7.42 of the Atharvaveda and many Brahmanas. In these and post-Vedic texts, the meaning of Tantra is that which is principal or essential part, main point, model, framework. The term “Tantra” after about 500 BCE, in Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism is a bibliographic category, the same Buddhist texts are sometimes referred to as tantra or sutra, for example, Vairocabhisambodhi-tantra is also referred to as Vairocabhisambodhi-sutra. The various contextual meaning of the word Tantra varies with the Indian text, the earliest definitions and expositions on Tantra come from the ancient texts of Panini, Patanjali and the literature of the language-focussed, ritual-oriented Mimamsa school of Hindu philosophy. The word tantra, states Patanjali, means principal, main, Patanjali also offers a semantic definition of Tantra, stating that it is structural rules, standard procedures, centralized guide or knowledge in any field that applies to many elements. The ancient Mimamsa school of Hinduism uses the term tantra extensively, for example, When an action or a thing, once complete, becomes beneficial in several matters to one person, or to many people, that is known as Tantra. For example, a lamp placed amidst many priests, in contrast, that which benefits by its repetition is called Āvāpa, such as massaging with oil. Medieval texts present their own definitions of Tantra, in modern era scholarship, Tantra has been studied as an esoteric practice and ritualistic religion, sometimes referred to as Tantrism. There is wide gap between what Tantra means to its followers, and what Tantra has been represented or perceived as since colonial era writers began commenting on Tantra, many definitions of Tantra have been proposed ever since, and there is no universally accepted definition of Tantra. André Padoux in his review of Tantra definitions offers two, then rejects both, another definition, more common among observers and non-practitioners, is some set of mechanistic rituals, omitting entirely the ideological side. According to David N. Lorenzen, two different kinds of definitions of Tantra exist, a definition and a broad definition
36.
Greece
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Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, historically also known as Hellas, is a country in southeastern Europe, with a population of approximately 11 million as of 2015. Athens is the capital and largest city, followed by Thessaloniki. Greece is strategically located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, situated on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the northeast. Greece consists of nine regions, Macedonia, Central Greece, the Peloponnese, Thessaly, Epirus, the Aegean Islands, Thrace, Crete. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of the mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, the Cretan Sea and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the longest coastline on the Mediterranean Basin and the 11th longest coastline in the world at 13,676 km in length, featuring a vast number of islands, eighty percent of Greece is mountainous, with Mount Olympus being the highest peak at 2,918 metres. From the eighth century BC, the Greeks were organised into various independent city-states, known as polis, which spanned the entire Mediterranean region and the Black Sea. Greece was annexed by Rome in the second century BC, becoming a part of the Roman Empire and its successor. The Greek Orthodox Church also shaped modern Greek identity and transmitted Greek traditions to the wider Orthodox World, falling under Ottoman dominion in the mid-15th century, the modern nation state of Greece emerged in 1830 following a war of independence. Greeces rich historical legacy is reflected by its 18 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, among the most in Europe, Greece is a democratic and developed country with an advanced high-income economy, a high quality of life, and a very high standard of living. A founding member of the United Nations, Greece was the member to join the European Communities and has been part of the Eurozone since 2001. Greeces unique cultural heritage, large industry, prominent shipping sector. It is the largest economy in the Balkans, where it is an important regional investor, the names for the nation of Greece and the Greek people differ from the names used in other languages, locations and cultures. The earliest evidence of the presence of human ancestors in the southern Balkans, dated to 270,000 BC, is to be found in the Petralona cave, all three stages of the stone age are represented in Greece, for example in the Franchthi Cave. Neolithic settlements in Greece, dating from the 7th millennium BC, are the oldest in Europe by several centuries and these civilizations possessed writing, the Minoans writing in an undeciphered script known as Linear A, and the Mycenaeans in Linear B, an early form of Greek. The Mycenaeans gradually absorbed the Minoans, but collapsed violently around 1200 BC and this ushered in a period known as the Greek Dark Ages, from which written records are absent. The end of the Dark Ages is traditionally dated to 776 BC, the Iliad and the Odyssey, the foundational texts of Western literature, are believed to have been composed by Homer in the 7th or 8th centuries BC. With the end of the Dark Ages, there emerged various kingdoms and city-states across the Greek peninsula, in 508 BC, Cleisthenes instituted the worlds first democratic system of government in Athens
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Pearl
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A pearl is a hard object produced within the soft tissue of a living shelled mollusk or another animal, such as a conulariid. Just like the shell of a clam, a pearl is composed of calcium carbonate. in minute crystalline form, the ideal pearl is perfectly round and smooth, but many other shapes, known as baroque pearls, can occur. The finest quality natural pearls have been valued as gemstones. Because of this, pearl has become a metaphor for something rare, fine, the most valuable pearls occur spontaneously in the wild, but are extremely rare. These wild pearls are referred to as natural pearls, cultured or farmed pearls from pearl oysters and freshwater mussels make up the majority of those currently sold. Imitation pearls are widely sold in inexpensive jewelry, but the quality of their iridescence is usually very poor and is easily distinguished from that of genuine pearls. Pearls have been harvested and cultivated primarily for use in jewelry and they have also been crushed and used in cosmetics, medicines and paint formulations. Whether wild or cultured, gem-quality pearls are almost always nacreous and iridescent, however, almost all species of shelled mollusks are capable of producing pearls of lesser shine or less spherical shape. The English word pearl comes from the French perle, originally from the Latin perna meaning leg, nacreous pearls, the best-known and most commercially significant, are primarily produced by two groups of molluskan bivalves or clams. A nacreous pearl is made from layers of nacre, by the same living process as is used in the secretion of the mother of pearl which lines the shell, natural pearls, formed without human intervention, are very rare. Cultured pearls are formed in pearl farms, using human intervention as well as natural processes, saltwater pearls can grow in several species of marine pearl oysters in the family Pteriidae. Freshwater pearls grow within certain species of mussels in the order Unionida. The unique luster of pearls depends upon the reflection, refraction, the thinner and more numerous the layers in the pearl, the finer the luster. The iridescence that pearls display is caused by the overlapping of successive layers, in addition, pearls can be dyed yellow, green, blue, brown, pink, purple, or black. The very best pearls have a metallic mirror-like luster, because pearls are made primarily of calcium carbonate, they can be dissolved in vinegar. Calcium carbonate is susceptible to even a weak acid solution because the crystals of calcium carbonate react with the acid in the vinegar to form calcium acetate. Freshwater and saltwater pearls may sometimes look quite similar, but they come from different sources, Freshwater pearls form in various species of freshwater mussels, family Unionidae, which live in lakes, rivers, ponds and other bodies of fresh water. These freshwater pearl mussels occur not only in hotter climates, most freshwater cultured pearls sold today come from China
38.
Tamarind
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Tamarind is a leguminous tree in the family Fabaceae indigenous to tropical Africa. The genus Tamarindus is a taxon, having only a single species. The tamarind tree produces edible, pod-like fruit which is used extensively in cuisines around the world, other uses include traditional medicine and metal polish. The wood can be used for woodworking, because of the tamarinds many uses, cultivation has spread around the world in tropical and subtropical zones. It grows wild in Africa in locales as diverse as Sudan, Cameroon, Nigeria, in Arabia, it is found growing wild in Oman, especially Dhofar, where it grows on the sea-facing slopes of mountains. It reached South Asia likely through human transportation and cultivation several years prior to the Common Era. It is widely distributed throughout the belt, from Africa to South Asia, northern Australia. Today, India is the largest producer of tamarind, the consumption of tamarind is widespread due to its central role in the cuisines of the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and the Americas, particularly Mexico. The tamarind is a long-lived, medium-growth shrub, which attains a maximum height of 12 to 18 metres. The crown has an irregular, vase-shaped outline of dense foliage, the tree grows well in full sun in clay, loam, sandy, and acidic soil types, with a high resistance to drought and aerosol salt. The evergreen leaves are arranged and pinnately compound. The leaflets are green, elliptical ovular, pinnately veined. The branches droop from a single, central trunk as the tree matures and is often pruned in agriculture to optimize tree density, at night, the leaflets close up. The tamarind does flower, though inconspicuously, with red and yellow elongated flowers, flowers are 2.5 cm wide, five-petalled, borne in small racemes, and yellow with orange or red streaks. Buds are pink as the four sepals are pink and are lost when the flower blooms, the fruit is an indehiscent legume, sometimes called a pod,12 to 15 cm in length, with a hard, brown shell. The fruit has a fleshy, juicy, acidulous pulp and it is mature when the flesh is coloured brown or reddish brown. The tamarinds of Asia have longer pods containing six to 12 seeds, whereas African, the seeds are somewhat flattened, and glossy brown. The tamarind is best described as sweet and sour in taste, and is high in acid, sugar, B vitamins
39.
Asafoetida
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Asafoetida /æsəˈfɛtᵻdə/ is the dried latex exuded from the rhizome or tap root of several species of Ferula, a perennial herb that grows 1 to 1.5 m tall. The species is native to the deserts of Iran and mountains of Afghanistan and is cultivated in nearby India. As its name suggests, asafoetida has a smell, but in cooked dishes. It is also known as devils dung, asant, food of the gods, jowani badian, stinking gum, hing, hengu, ingu, kayam, the plant is in the same genus as the now extinct silphium. This spice is used as an aid, in food as a condiment. It typically works as an enhancer and, used along with turmeric, is a standard component of Indian cuisine, particularly in lentil curries such as dal. It is sometimes used to harmonize sweet, sour, salty, Asafoetida, onion, and garlic are forbidden in yogic texts, and places them alongside meat and alcohol in terms of producing tamas or lethargy. The spice is added to the food at the time of tempering, sometimes dried and ground asafoetida can be mixed with salt and eaten with raw salad. The mixture is sold in sealed plastic containers, however, its odour and flavour become much milder and much less pungent upon heating in oil or ghee. Sometimes, it is fried along with sautéed onion and garlic, Asafoetida is considered a digestive in that it reduces flatulence. It is, however, one of the five pungent vegetables generally avoided by Buddhist vegetarians, antiflatulent, In the Jammu region of India, asafoetida is used as a medicine for flatulence and constipation by 60% of locals. A digestion aid, In Thailand and India, it is used to aid digestion and is smeared on the abdomen in an alcohol or water known as mahahing. St Martin was treated by American army surgeon William Beaumont, who subsequently used St Martin as the subject of a series of experiments in gastric physiology. When St Martins wounds had healed, there remained an open fistula into his stomach that enabled Beaumont to insert various types of food directly into St Martins stomach, fighting influenza, Asafoetida was used in 1918 to fight the Spanish influenza pandemic. In the United States, it was placed into pouches called acifidity bags that were provided by drug stores to be hung around the neck to try to prevent catching the disease, assa-foetida may serve as promising lead compounds for new drug development against influenza A viral infection. Remedy for asthma and bronchitis, It is also said to be helpful in cases of asthma, a folk tradition remedy for childrens colds, it is mixed into a pungent-smelling paste and hung in a bag around the afflicted childs neck. A contraceptive/abortifacient, Asafoetida has also reported to have contraceptive/abortifacient activity. It is related to the ancient Ferula species silphium, antiepileptic, Asafoetida oleo-gum-resin has been reported to be antiepileptic in classical Unani, as well as ethnobotanical literature
40.
Ammonium chloride
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Ammonium chloride is an inorganic compound with the formula NH4Cl and a white crystalline salt that is highly soluble in water. Solutions of ammonium chloride are mildly acidic, sal ammoniac is a name of the natural, mineralogical form of ammonium chloride. The mineral is formed on burning coal dumps from condensation of coal-derived gases. It is also found some types of volcanic vents. It is mainly used as fertilizer and an agent in some types of liquorice. It is the product from the reaction of acid and ammonia. The crystals deposit directly from the state and tend to be short-lived. Ammonium chloride appears to sublime upon heating but actually decomposes into ammonia, some of ammonium chlorides reactions with other chemicals are endothermic like its reaction with barium hydroxide and its dissolving in water. The main application of ammonium chloride is as a source in fertilizers such as chloroammonium phosphate. The main crops are rice and wheat in Asia, Ammonium chloride was used in pyrotechnics in the 18th century but was superseded by safer and less hygroscopic chemicals. Its purpose was to provide a donor to enhance the green. It had a use to provide white smoke, but its ready double decomposition reaction with potassium chlorate producing the highly unstable ammonium chlorate made its use very suspect. Ammonium chloride is used as a flux in preparing metals to be tin coated, galvanized or soldered and it works as a flux by cleaning the surface of workpieces by reacting with the metal oxides at the surface to form a volatile metal chloride. For that purpose, it is sold in blocks at hardware stores for use in cleaning the tip of a soldering iron, Ammonium chloride is used as an expectorant in cough medicine. Its expectorant action is caused by action on the bronchial mucosa, which causes the production of excess respiratory tract fluid. Ammonium salts are an irritant to the mucosa and may induce nausea. In several countries, ammonium chloride, under the name sal ammoniac or colloquially salmiakki is used as food additive under the E number E510 and it is a feed supplement for cattle and an ingredient in nutritive media for yeasts and many microorganisms. Ammonium chloride is used to spice up dark sweets called salty liquorice, in baking to give cookies a very crisp texture, in India and Pakistan, it is called Noshader and is used to improve the crispness of snacks such as samosas and jalebi
41.
Black pepper
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Black pepper is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. When dried, the fruit is known as a peppercorn, when fresh and fully mature, it is approximately 5 millimetres in diameter, dark red, and, like all drupes, contains a single seed. Peppercorns, and the ground pepper derived from them, may be described simply as pepper, or more precisely as black pepper, green pepper, black pepper is native to south India and is extensively cultivated there and elsewhere in tropical regions. Currently, Vietnam is the worlds largest producer and exporter of pepper, dried ground pepper has been used since antiquity for both its flavour and as a traditional medicine. Black pepper is the worlds most traded spice and it is one of the most common spices added to cuisines around the world. The spiciness of black pepper is due to the chemical piperine, black pepper is ubiquitous in the modern world as a seasoning and is often paired with salt. The word pepper has its roots in the Tamil word for long pepper, todays pepper derives from the Old English pipor. and from Latin which was the source of Romanian piper, Italian pepe, Dutch peper, German Pfeffer, French poivre, and other similar forms. In the 16th century, pepper started referring to the unrelated New World chili pepper as well, Pepper was used in a figurative sense to mean spirit or energy at least as far back as the 1840s, in the early 20th century, this was shortened to pep. Black pepper is produced from the still-green, unripe drupes of the pepper plant. The drupes are cooked briefly in hot water, both to them and to prepare them for drying, the heat ruptures cell walls in the pepper. The drupes are dried in the sun or by machine for several days, during which the pepper around the seed shrinks and darkens into a thin, once dried, the spice is called black peppercorn. On some estates, the berries are separated from the stem by hand, once the peppercorns are dried, pepper spirit and oil can be extracted from the berries by crushing them. Pepper spirit is used in medicinal and beauty products. Pepper oil is used as an ayurvedic massage oil and used in certain beauty. White pepper consists solely of the seed of the pepper plant and this is usually accomplished by a process known as retting, where fully ripe red pepper berries are soaked in water for about a week, during which the flesh of the pepper softens and decomposes. Rubbing then removes what remains of the fruit, and the seed is dried. Sometimes alternative processes are used for removing the outer pepper from the seed, ground white pepper is used in Chinese and Thai cuisine, but also in salads, cream sauces, light-coloured sauces, and mashed potatoes. White pepper has a different flavour from black pepper, it lacks certain compounds present in the layer of the drupe
42.
Caraway
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Caraway, also known as meridian fennel, and Persian cumin, is a biennial plant in the family Apiaceae, native to western Asia, Europe, and North Africa. The plant is similar in appearance to other members of the family, with finely divided, feathery leaves with thread-like divisions. The main flower stem is 40–60 cm tall, with white or pink flowers in umbels. Caraway fruits are crescent-shaped achenes, around 2 mm long, with five pale ridges, the etymology of caraway is complex and poorly understood. English use of the term dates back to at least 1440. The fruits, usually used whole, have a pungent, anise-like flavor and aroma that comes from essential oils, mostly carvone, limonene, caraway is used as a spice in breads, especially rye bread. Caraway is also used in desserts, liquors, casseroles, and it is also found in European cuisine. For example, it is used in caraway seed cake, the roots may be cooked as a vegetable like parsnips or carrots. Additionally, the leaves are consumed as herbs, either raw, dried, or cooked. In Serbia, caraway is commonly sprinkled over home-made salty scones and it is also used to add flavor to cheeses such as bondost, pultost, havarti and Tilsit cheese. Scandinavian Akvavit, including Icelandic Brennivin, and several liqueurs are made with caraway, in Middle Eastern cuisine, caraway pudding, called Meghli, is a popular dessert during Ramadan. It is typically made and served in the Levant area in winter, caraway is also added to flavor harissa, a Tunisian chili pepper paste. In Aleppian, Syrian cuisine it is used to make the sweet scones named keleacha, caraway fruit oil is also used as a fragrance component in soaps, lotions, and perfumes. Caraway is also used as a breath freshener, and it has a tradition of use in folk medicine. Caraway is distributed throughout all of Europe except the Mediterranean region. All other European species of Carum generally have smaller fruits, some grow on rocks in the mountains, chiefly in the Balkans, Italian Alps and Apennines. However the only one that is cultivated is Carum Carvi, its fruits being used in ways in cooking and its essential oils in the preparation of certain medicines. The plant prefers warm, sunny locations and well-drained soil rich in organic matter, in warmer regions, it is planted in the winter as an annual
43.
Ginger
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Ginger is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or simply ginger, is widely used as a spice or a folk medicine. It is a perennial which grows annual stems about a meter tall bearing narrow green leaves. Ginger is in the family Zingiberaceae, to also belong turmeric, cardamom. Ginger originated in the tropical rainforest in Southern Asia, although ginger no longer grows wild, it is thought to have originated on the Indian subcontinent because the ginger plants grown in India show the largest amount of genetic variation. Ginger was exported to Europe via India in the first century AD as a result of the spice trade and was used extensively by the Romans. The distantly related dicots in the genus Asarum are commonly called wild ginger because of their similar taste. But this may be Sanskrit folk etymology, and the word may be from an ancient Dravidian name that produced the Tamil and Malayalam name for the spice, inchi-ver. The word probably was readopted in Middle English from Old French gingibre, ginger produces clusters of white and pink flower buds that bloom into yellow flowers. Because of its appeal and the adaptation of the plant to warm climates. It is a perennial plant with annual leafy stems, about a meter tall. Traditionally, the rhizome is gathered when the stalk withers, it is scalded, or washed and scraped, to kill it. The fragrant perisperm of the Zingiberaceae is used as sweetmeats by Bantu, ginger produces a hot, fragrant kitchen spice. Young ginger rhizomes are juicy and fleshy with a mild taste. They are often pickled in vinegar or sherry as a snack or cooked as an ingredient in many dishes and they can be steeped in boiling water to make ginger tisane, to which honey is often added, sliced orange or lemon fruit may be added. Ginger can be made into candy, or ginger wine, which has been made commercially since 1740, mature ginger rhizomes are fibrous and nearly dry. Fresh ginger can be substituted for ground ginger at a ratio of six to one, although the flavors of fresh, powdered dry ginger root is typically used as a flavoring for recipes such as gingerbread, cookies, crackers and cakes, ginger ale, and ginger beer. Candied ginger, or crystallized ginger, is the root cooked in sugar until soft, fresh ginger may be peeled before eating. For longer-term storage, the ginger can be placed in a plastic bag, in Indian cuisine, ginger is a key ingredient, especially in thicker gravies, as well as in many other dishes, both vegetarian and meat-based
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