Kannauj
Kannauj, is a city, administrative headquarters and a municipal board or Nagar Palika Parishad in Kannauj district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The city's name is a modern form of the classical name Kanyakubja, it was known as Mahodaya during the time of Gurjara-Pratihara Emperor Mihira Bhoja, around the 9th century. Kannauj is an ancient city, it is said that Kanyakubja Brahmins of whom Shandilya is held to have constituted one of the three prominent families from Kannauj. During Classical India, it served as the center of imperial Indian dynasties; the earliest was under Maukhari dynasty, Emperor Harsha of the Vardhana dynasty. Between the 7th and 11th century, Kannauj became the center of the Tripartite struggle, that lasted for more than two centuries between the Pala Empire, Rashtrakuta Empire, Gurjara-Pratihara Empire; the city came under the Gahadavala dynasty, under the rule of Govindachandra, the city reached "unprecedented glory". However, the "glory of Imperial Kannauj" ended with conquests of the Delhi Sultanate.
Kannauj famous for distilling of scents is known as India’s perfume capital and is famous for its traditional Kannauj Perfume, a government protected entity, Kannauj itself has more than 200 perfume distilleries and is a market center for tobacco and rose water. It has given its name to a distinct dialect of the Hindustani known as Kanauji, which has two different codes or registers. Archaeological discoveries show that Kannauj was inhabited by the Painted Grey Ware and Northern Black Polished Ware cultures, ca. 1200-600 ca. 700-200 BCE, respectively. Under the name of Kanyakubja, it is mentioned as a well-known town in the Hindu Epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, by the grammarian Patanjali; the early Buddhist literature mentions Kannauj as Kannakujja, refers to its location on the trade route from Mathura to Varanasi and Rajgir. Kannauj may have been known to the Greco-Roman civilization under the name of Kanagora or Kanogiza, which appears in Geography by Ptolemy, but this identification is not confirmed.
It was visited by the Chinese Buddhist travellers Faxian and Xuanzang in the fifth and seventh centuries CE, respectively. Kannauj formed part of the Gupta Empire. During the decline of the Gupta Empire in the 6th century, the Maukhari dynasty of Kannauj - who had served as vassal rulers under the Guptas - took advantage of the weakening of central authority, broke away and established control over large areas of northern India. Under the Maukharis, Kannauj continued to grow in prosperity, it became the greatest city of Northern India under Emperor Harsha of the Vardhana dynasty, who conquered it and made it his capital. Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang visited India during the reign of Harsha, described Kannauj as a large, prosperous city with many Buddhist monasteries. Harsha died with no heir, resulting in a power vacuum until Maharaja Yashovarman seized power as the ruler of Kannauj. Kannauj became a focal point for the three powerful dynasties, namely the Gurjara Pratiharas and Rashtrakutas, between the 8th and 10th centuries.
The conflict between the three dynasties has been referred to as the Tripartite struggle by many historians. There were initial struggles but the Gurjara Pratiharas succeeded in retaining the city; the Gurjara-Pratiharas ruled Avanti, bounded to the South by the Rashtrakuta Empire, the Pala Empire to the East. The Tripartite struggle began with the defeat of Indrayudh at the hands of Gurjara-Pratihara ruler Vatsaraja; the Pala ruler Dharampala was keen to establish his authority at Kannauj, giving rise to a struggle between Vatsaraja and Dharampala. Dharampala was however defeated. Taking advantage of the chaos, the Rastrakuta ruler Dhruva surged northwards, defeated Vatsaraja, took Kannauj for himself, completing the furthest northern expansion by a South Indian ruler; when the Rashtrakuta ruler advanced back to the south, Dharampala was left in control of Kannauj for some time. The struggle between the two northern dynasties continued: the Pala Chakrayudh was defeated by the Pratihara Nagabhata II, Kannauj was again occupied by the Gurjara Pratiharas.
Dharampala tried to take control of Kannauj but was defeated badly at Moongher by the Gurjara Pratiharas. However, Nagabhata II was in turn soon defeated by the Rashtrakuta Govinda III, who had initiated a second northern surge. An inscription states that Chakrayudh and Dharampala invited Govinda III to war against the Gurjara Pratiharas, but Dharampala and Chakrayudh both submitted to the Govinda III, in order to win his sympathy. After this defeat, Pratihara power degenerated for some time. After the death of Dharampala, Nagabhata II regained hold over Kannuaj and made it the capital of the Gurjara Pratihara Empire. During this period, the Rashtrakutas were facing some internal conflicts, so they, as well as the Palas, did not contest this, thus Gurjara Pratiharas became the greatest power in Northern India after occupying Kannauj. Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni captured Kanauj in 1018. Chandradeva founded the Gahadvala dynasty with its capital at Kanauj around 1090, his grandson Govindachandra "raised Kanauj to unprecedented glory."
Muhammad Ghori advanced against the city, in the Battle of Chandwar of 1193, killed Jayachandra. Alberuni has referred to "Kanoj" as the key geographical point to explain marching distances to other Indian cities; the "glory of Imperial Kanauj" ended with Iltutmish's conquest. Sher Shah Suri defeated Humayun at the battle of Kannauj on 17 May 1540. During early English rule in India, the city was s
Emerald
Emerald is a gemstone and a variety of the mineral beryl colored green by trace amounts of chromium and sometimes vanadium. Beryl has a hardness of 7.5–8 on the Mohs scale. Most emeralds are included, so their toughness is classified as poor. Emerald is a cyclosilicate; the word "emerald" is derived, from Vulgar Latin: esmaralda/esmaraldus, a variant of Latin smaragdus, which originated in Ancient Greek: σμάραγδος. Emeralds, like all colored gemstones, are graded using four basic parameters–the four Cs of connoisseurship: color, clarity and carat weight. In the grading of colored gemstones, color is by far the most important criterion. However, in the grading of emeralds, clarity is considered a close second. A fine emerald must possess not only a pure verdant green hue as described below, but a high degree of transparency to be considered a top gem. In the 1960s, the American jewelry industry changed the definition of emerald to include the green vanadium-bearing beryl; as a result, vanadium emeralds purchased as emeralds in the United States are not recognized as such in the UK and Europe.
In America, the distinction between traditional emeralds and the new vanadium kind is reflected in the use of terms such as "Colombian emerald". In gemology, color is divided into three components: hue and tone. Emeralds occur in hues ranging from yellow-green to blue-green, with the primary hue being green. Yellow and blue are the normal secondary hues found in emeralds. Only gems that are medium to dark in tone are considered emeralds; the finest emeralds are 75% tone on a scale where 0% tone is colorless and 100% is opaque black. In addition, a fine emerald will be saturated and have a hue, bright. Gray is the normal saturation mask found in emeralds. Emeralds tend to surface breaking fissures. Unlike diamonds, where the loupe standard, i.e. 10× magnification, is used to grade clarity, emeralds are graded by eye. Thus, if an emerald has no visible inclusions to the eye it is considered flawless. Stones that lack surface breaking fissures are rare and therefore all emeralds are treated to enhance the apparent clarity.
The inclusions and fissures within an emerald are sometime described as jardin, because of their mossy appearance. Imperfections can be used to identify a particular stone. Eye-clean stones of a vivid primary green hue, with no more than 15% of any secondary hue or combination of a medium-dark tone, command the highest prices; the relative non-uniformity motivates the cutting of emeralds in cabochon form, rather than faceted shapes. Faceted emeralds are most given an oval cut, or the signature emerald cut, a rectangular cut with facets around the top edge. Most emeralds are oiled as part of the post-lapidary process, in order to fill in surface-reaching cracks so that clarity and stability are improved. Cedar oil, having a similar refractive index, is used in this adopted practice. Other liquids, including synthetic oils and polymers with refractive indexes close to that of emeralds, such as Opticon, are used; these treatments are applied in a vacuum chamber under mild heat, to open the pores of the stone and allow the fracture-filling agent to be absorbed more effectively.
The U. S. Federal Trade Commission requires the disclosure of this treatment when an oil treated emerald is sold; the use of oil is traditional and accepted by the gem trade, although oil treated emeralds are worth much less than un-treated emeralds of similar quality. Other treatments, for example the use of green-tinted oil, are not acceptable in the trade. Gems are graded on a four-step scale; these categories reflect levels of enhancement, not clarity. A gem graded. Laboratories apply these criteria differently; some gemologists consider the mere presence of oil or polymers to constitute enhancement. Others may ignore traces of oil if the presence of the material does not improve the look of the gemstone. Emeralds in antiquity were mined in Egypt at locations on Mount Smaragdus since 1500 BCE, India, Austria since at least the 14th century CE; the Egyptian mines were exploited on an industrial scale by the Roman and Byzantine Empires, by Islamic conquerors. Mining ceased with the discovery of the Colombian deposits.
Colombia is by far the world's largest producer of emeralds, constituting 50–95% of the world production, with the number depending on the year and grade. Emerald production in Colombia has increased drastically in the last decade, increasing by 78% from 2000 to 2010; the three main emerald mining areas in Colombia are Muzo and Chivor. Rare "trapiche" emeralds are found in Colombia, distinguished by ray-like spokes of dark impurities. Zambia is the world's second biggest producer, with its Kafubu River area deposits about 45 km southwest of Kitwe responsible for 20% of the world's production of gem-quality stones in 2004. In the first half of 2011, the Kagem Mines produced 3.74 tons of emeralds. Emeralds are found all over the world in countries such as Afghanistan, Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, Egypt, France, India, Kazakhstan, Mozambique, Nigeria, Pakistan
Arabic
Arabic is a Central Semitic language that first emerged in Iron Age northwestern Arabia and is now the lingua franca of the Arab world. It is named after the Arabs, a term used to describe peoples living in the area bounded by Mesopotamia in the east and the Anti-Lebanon mountains in the west, in northwestern Arabia, in the Sinai Peninsula. Arabic is classified as a macrolanguage comprising 30 modern varieties, including its standard form, Modern Standard Arabic, derived from Classical Arabic; as the modern written language, Modern Standard Arabic is taught in schools and universities, is used to varying degrees in workplaces and the media. The two formal varieties are grouped together as Literary Arabic, the official language of 26 states, the liturgical language of the religion of Islam, since the Quran and Hadith were written in Arabic. Modern Standard Arabic follows the grammatical standards of Classical Arabic, uses much of the same vocabulary. However, it has discarded some grammatical constructions and vocabulary that no longer have any counterpart in the spoken varieties, has adopted certain new constructions and vocabulary from the spoken varieties.
Much of the new vocabulary is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the post-classical era in modern times. Due to its grounding in Classical Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic is removed over a millennium from everyday speech, construed as a multitude of dialects of this language; these dialects and Modern Standard Arabic are described by some scholars as not mutually comprehensible. The former are acquired in families, while the latter is taught in formal education settings. However, there have been studies reporting some degree of comprehension of stories told in the standard variety among preschool-aged children; the relation between Modern Standard Arabic and these dialects is sometimes compared to that of Latin and vernaculars in medieval and early modern Europe. This view though does not take into account the widespread use of Modern Standard Arabic as a medium of audiovisual communication in today's mass media—a function Latin has never performed. During the Middle Ages, Literary Arabic was a major vehicle of culture in Europe in science and philosophy.
As a result, many European languages have borrowed many words from it. Arabic influence in vocabulary, is seen in European languages Spanish and to a lesser extent Portuguese, Catalan, owing to both the proximity of Christian European and Muslim Arab civilizations and 800 years of Arabic culture and language in the Iberian Peninsula, referred to in Arabic as al-Andalus. Sicilian has about 500 Arabic words as result of Sicily being progressively conquered by Arabs from North Africa, from the mid-9th to mid-10th centuries. Many of these words relate to related activities; the Balkan languages, including Greek and Bulgarian, have acquired a significant number of Arabic words through contact with Ottoman Turkish. Arabic has influenced many languages around the globe throughout its history; some of the most influenced languages are Persian, Spanish, Kashmiri, Bosnian, Bengali, Malay, Indonesian, Punjabi, Assamese, Sindhi and Hausa, some languages in parts of Africa. Conversely, Arabic has borrowed words from other languages, including Greek and Persian in medieval times, contemporary European languages such as English and French in modern times.
Classical Arabic is the liturgical language of 1.8 billion Muslims, Modern Standard Arabic is one of six official languages of the United Nations. All varieties of Arabic combined are spoken by as many as 422 million speakers in the Arab world, making it the fifth most spoken language in the world. Arabic is written with the Arabic alphabet, an abjad script and is written from right to left, although the spoken varieties are sometimes written in ASCII Latin from left to right with no standardized orthography. Arabic is a Central Semitic language related to the Northwest Semitic languages, the Ancient South Arabian languages, various other Semitic languages of Arabia such as Dadanitic; the Semitic languages changed a great deal between Proto-Semitic and the establishment of the Central Semitic languages in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include: The conversion of the suffix-conjugated stative formation into a past tense; the conversion of the prefix-conjugated preterite-tense formation into a present tense.
The elimination of other prefix-conjugated mood/aspect forms in favor of new moods formed by endings attached to the prefix-conjugation forms. The development of an internal passive. There are several features which Classical Arabic, the modern Arabic varieties, as well as the Safaitic and Hismaic inscriptions share which are unattested in any other Central Semitic language variety, including the Dadanitic and Taymanitic languages of the northern Hejaz; these features are evidence of common descent from Proto-Arabic. The following features can be reconstructed with confidence for Proto-Arabic: negative particles m *mā.
Maghreb
The Maghreb known as Northwest Africa or Northern Africa, Greater Arab Maghreb, Arab Maghreb or Greater Maghreb, or by some sources the Berber world and Berbery, is a major region of North Africa that consists of the countries Algeria, Tunisia and Mauritania. It additionally includes the disputed territories of Western Sahara and the cities of Melilla and Ceuta; as of 2018, the region has a population of over 100 million people. In historical English and European literature, the region was known as the Barbary Coast or the Barbary States, derived from the native Berbers. Sometimes it was referred to as the Land of the Atlas, derived from the Atlas Mountains. In current Berber language media and literature, the region is part of; the region is defined as much or most of northern Africa, including a large portion of Africa's Sahara Desert, excluding Egypt, part of Mashriq. The traditional definition of the region that restricted it to the Atlas Mountains and the coastal plains of Morocco, Algeria and Libya was expanded by the inclusion of Mauritania and of the disputed territory of Western Sahara.
During the era of Al-Andalus in the Iberian Peninsula, the Maghreb's inhabitants, the Muslim Berbers or Maghrebis, were known by Europeans as "Moors", or as "Afariqah". Morocco transliterates into Arabic as "al-Maghreb". Before the establishment of modern nation states in the region during the 20th century, Maghreb most referred to a smaller area, between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlas Mountains in the south, it also included the territory of eastern Libya, but not modern Mauritania. As as the late 19th century, Maghreb was used to refer to the Western Mediterranean region of coastal North Africa in general, to Algeria and Tunisia, in particular; the region was somewhat unified as an independent political entity during the rule of the Berber kingdom of Numidia, followed by the Roman Empire's rule or influence. That was followed by the brief invasion of the Germanic Vandals, the brief re-establishment of a weak Roman rule by the Byzantine Empire, the rule of the Islamic Caliphates under the Umayyad Caliphate, the Abbasid Caliphate and the Fatimid Caliphate.
The most enduring rule was that of the local Berber empires of the Almoravid dynasty, Almohad Caliphate, Hammadid dynasty, Zirid dynasty, Marinid dynasty, Zayyanid dynasty, Wattasid dynasty - from the 8th to 13th centuries. The Ottoman Empire for a period controlled parts of the region. Mauritania, Tunisia and Libya established the Arab Maghreb Union in 1989 to promote cooperation and economic integration in a common market, it was envisioned by Muammar Gaddafi as a superstate. The union included Western Sahara implicitly under Morocco's membership, putting Morocco's long cold war with Algeria to a rest. However, this progress was short-lived, the union is now dormant. Tensions between Algeria and Morocco over Western Sahara re-emerged, reinforced by the unsolved border dispute between the two countries; these two main conflicts have hindered progress on the union's joint goals and made it inactive as a whole. However, the instability in the region and growing cross-border security threats revived the calls for regional cooperation, with foreign ministers of the Arab Maghreb Union declaring a need for coordinated security policy in May 2015 at the 33rd session of the follow-up committee meeting, which revived hope of some form of cooperation.
In classical antiquity, the Maghreb or portions of the region were known by various toponyms, including Barbary, Mauretania, Libya and the Land of the Atlas. The toponym maghrib is a geographical term that the Muslim Arabs gave to the region extending from Alexandria in the east to the Atlantic Ocean in the west. Etymologically it means both the place where the sun sets, it is composed of the prefix m−, which makes a noun out of the verb root, غرب. Muslim historians and geographers divided the region into three areas: al-Maghrib al-Adna, which included the lands extending from Alexandria to Tarabulus in the west, they disagreed, over the start of the eastern boundary. Some authors extend it as far as the sea of Kulzum and thus include Egypt and the country of Barca in the Maghrib. Ibn Khaldun does not accept this definition because, he says, the inhabitants of the Maghreb do not consider Egypt and Barca as forming part of Maghrib; the latter commences only at the province of Tripoli and includes the districts of which the country of the Berbers was composed in former times.
Maghribi writers repeated the definition of Ibn Khaldun, with a few variations in details. As of 2017 the term Maghrib is still used in opposition to Mashriq in a sense near to that which it had in medieval times, it denotes only Morocco when the full al-Maghrib al-Aksa is abbreviated. Certain politicians seek a political union of the North African countries, which they call al-Maghrib al-Kabir or al-Maghrib al-Arabi. Berber-language speakers now call this region Tamazɣa or Tama
Chaturanga
Chaturanga, or catur for short, is an ancient Indian strategy game, theorized to be the common ancestor of the board games chess, sittuyin, makruk and janggi. Chaturanga developed in the Gupta Empire, India around the 6th century AD. In the 7th century, it was adopted as chatrang in Sassanid Persia, which in turn was the form of chess brought to late-medieval Europe; the exact rules of chaturanga are unknown. Chess historians suppose. In particular, there is uncertainty as to the moves of the Gaja. Sanskrit caturaṅga is a bahuvrihi compound, meaning "having four limbs or parts" and in epic poetry meaning "army"; the name comes from a battle formation mentioned in the Indian epic Mahabharata, referring to four divisions of an army, namely elephantry, chariotry and infantry. An ancient battle formation, akshauhini, is like the setup of chaturanga. Chaturanga was played on an 8×8 uncheckered board, called ashtāpada, the name of a game; the board sometimes had special markings. These marks were drawn on the board only by tradition.
Chess historian H. J. R. Murray conjectured that the ashtāpada was used for some old race-type dice game similar to chowka bhara, in which the marks had meaning. An early reference to an ancient Indian board game is sometimes attributed to Subandhu in his Vasavadatta, dated between the 5th and 7th centuries AD: The time of the rains played its game with frogs for pieces yellow and green in colour, as if mottled by lac, leapt up on the black field squares; the colours are not those of the two camps, but mean that the frogs have two colours and green. Banabhatta's Harsha Charitha contains the earliest reference to the name chaturanga: Under this monarch, only the bees quarrelled to collect the dew. While there is little doubt that ashtâpada is the gameboard of 8×8 squares, the double meaning of chaturanga, as the four-folded army, may be controversial. There is a probability; the game was first introduced to the West in Thomas Hyde's De ludis orientalibus libri duo, published in 1694. Subsequently, translations of Sanskrit accounts of the game were published by Sir William Jones.
In Arabic, most of the terminology of chess is derived directly from chaturanga: Modern chess itself is called shatranj in Arabic, the bishop is called the elephant. The initial position is as shown. White moves first; the objective in chaturanga, the same as modern chess, is to checkmate the opponent's Raja. Raja: moves one step in any direction, the same as the king in chess. There is no castling in chaturanga. Mantri. Ratha: moves the same as a rook in chess- whereby the rook moves horizontally or vertically, through any number of unoccupied squares. Gaja: three different moves are described in ancient literature: Two squares in any diagonal direction, jumping over the first square, as the alfil in shatranj; this is a fairy chess piece, a -leaper. The same move is used for the boat in a four-player version of chaturangam; the elephant in xiangqi has the same move, but without jumping. One step forward or one step in any diagonal direction; the same move is used for the khon in makruk and the sin in sittuyin, as well as for the silver general in shogi.
The move was described c. 1030 by Biruni in his book India. Two squares in any orthogonal direction, jumping over the first square. A piece with such a move is called a dabbābah in some chess variants; the move was described by the Arabic chess master al-Adli c. 840 in his chess work. The German historian Johannes Kohtz suggests, that this was the earliest move of the Ratha. Ashva: moves the same as a knight in chess. Padàti or Bhata. Al-Adli mentions two further differences: Stalemate was a win for a stalemated player; this rule appeared again in some medieval chess variants in England c. 1600. According to some sources, there was no stalemate; the player, first to bare the opponent's king wins. In shatranj this is a win, but only if the opponent cannot bare the player's king on his next turn. Chess in early literature Liubo – An ancient Chinese board game played by two players Origins of chess Davidson, Henry. A Short History of Chess. McKay. ISBN 0-679-14550-8. Falkener, Edward. Games Ancient and Oriental and How to Play Them.
Dover Publications Inc. ISBN 0-486-20739-0. Hooper, David; the Oxford Companion to Chess. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-280049-3. Murray, H. J. R.. A History of Chess. ISBN 0-936317-01-9. Parlett, David; the Oxford History of Board Games. ISBN 0-19-212998-8. Pritchard, D. B.. The En
Radha
Radha called Radhika and Radhe, is a Hindu goddess popular in Hinduism in the Vaishnavism tradition. She was said to be the head of the milkmaids, she is the lover of the Supreme personality of Godhead Lord Krishna in the medieval era texts. She is a supreme goddess in her own right, she is called Jagat Janani. She appeared as queen of milkmaids and queen of Vrindavan-Barsana, she taught selfless surrender to the Godhead Shri Krishna. She is considered the supreme goddess in Vaishnavism. Rasik Saints have mentioned Her as a descension of Supreme Goddess, Source of Infinite Lakshmi, original form of Yogmaya and Allhadini Shakti, main Power of Godhead Shri Krishna, she and her consort Krishna are collectively known as Radha Krishna, the combined form of feminine as well as the masculine realities of God. Lord Krishna underwent various kinds of "leelas" with Her. Radha is worshipped in some regions of India by Gaudiya Vaishnavas, Vaishnavas in West Bengal, Bangladesh Manipur, Odisha. Elsewhere, she is revered in the Nimbarka Sampradaya and movements linked to Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
Srimati Radharani ji is considered a metaphor for soul, her longing for Lord Krishna theologically seen as a symbolism for the longing for spirituality and the divine. She has inspired numerous literary works, her Rasa lila dance with Krishna has inspired many types of performance arts till this day, her festival is Radhastami. The Sanskrit term Rādhā means "prosperity, success", it is a common name founded in various contexts in the ancient and medieval texts of India. Of these the most celebrated is the name of the gopi, the beloved of Krishna. Both Radha and Krishna are the main characters of Gita Govinda of Jayadeva. Radha in this context is considered the avatar of Lakshmi, just like Krishna is considered an avatar of Vishnu. In Hit Harivansh and Swami Haridas Literature, Radha is considered as the main form of deity. Here, Radha is not another form of supreme god Shri Krishn Himself. In Devi Bhagvat and Brahma Vaibtra Purana, Radha is mentioned as the source of infinite Laxmi and mother of infinite souls.
Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj elaborately described the virtue of Radha and has given a brief description of Shri Radha in his lectures and Kirtans. He has said, "She is the Supreme Goddess and is worshipped by everyone including Godhead Shri Krishna himself and that's why she is called Radha; the term is related to Rādha, which means "kindness, any gift but the gift of affection, wealth". The word appears in the Vedic literature as well as the Epics, but is elusive and not as a major deity. In some Vedic contexts, states Sukumar Sen, it could mean "beloved, desired woman" based on an Avestan cognate. However, Barbara Stoller and other scholars disagree with the Avestan interpretation, they state that the better interpretation of Radha in these ancient texts is "someone or something that fulfills a need". Starting with the Bhakti movement and with Jayadeva's composition, her profile as a goddess and constant companion of Krishna became dominant in Krishna-related Vaishnavism. Rādhikā refers to an endearing form of Gopi Radha.
Radha is an important goddess in the Vaishnavism tradition of Hinduism. She is a goddess whose traits, manifestations and roles vary with region. Since the earliest times, she has been associated with one of the most popular Hindu gods, the cowherd Krishna. In the early Indian literature, her mentions are illusive and not as common as other major goddesses of Hinduism, but during the Bhakti movement era she became popular among Krishna devotees whose strength is her love. According to Jaya Chemburkar, there are at least two significant and different aspects of Radha in the literature associated with her, such as Sriradhika namasahasram. One aspect is she is a milkmaid, another as a female deity similar to those found in the Hindu goddess traditions, she appears in Hindu arts as ardhanari with Krishna, an iconography where half of the image is Radha and the other half is Krishna. This is found in sculpture such as those discovered in Maharashtra, in texts such as Shiva Purana and Brahmavaivarta Purana.
In these texts, this ardhanari is sometimes referred to as Ardharadhavenudhara murti, it symbolizes the complete union and inseparability of Radha and Krishna. Radha's depictions vary from being an married woman who becomes an adulterous lover of Krishna in a secondary role, to being dual divinity equal to Krishna in Jayadeva's Gita Govinda, to being supreme object of devotional love for both Krishna and devotees in Rupa Gosvami's tradition. In some Hindu sub-traditions, Radha is conceptualized as a goddess who breaks social norms by leaving her marriage, entering into a relationship with Krishna to pursue her love. According to Heidi Pauwels, it is a "hotly debated issue" whether Radha was married or had an affair with Krishna while she remained married. Several Hindu texts allude to these circumstances. According to David Kinsley, a professor of Religious Studies known for his studies on Hindu goddesses, the Radha-Krishna love story is a metaphor for divine-human relationship, where Radha is the human devotee or soul, frustrated with the past, obligations to social expectations and the ideas she inherited, who longs for real meaning, the true love, the divine.
This metaphoric Radha finds new liberation in learning more about Krishna, bonding in devotion and with passion. The po
Krishna
Krishna is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of the god Vishnu and as the supreme God in his own right, he is the god of compassion and love in Hinduism, is one of the most popular and revered among Indian divinities. Krishna's birthday is celebrated every year by Hindus on Janmashtami according to the lunisolar Hindu calendar, which falls in late August or early September of the Gregorian calendar; the anecdotes and narratives of Krishna's life are titled as Krishna Leela. He is a central character in the Mahabharata, the Bhagavata Purana and the Bhagavad Gita, is mentioned in many Hindu philosophical and mythological texts, they portray him in various perspectives: a god-child, a prankster, a model lover, a divine hero, as the universal supreme being. His iconography reflects these legends, shows him in different stages of his life, such as an infant eating butter, a young boy playing a flute, a young man with Radha or surrounded by women devotees, or a friendly charioteer giving counsel to Arjuna.
The synonyms of Krishna have been traced to 1st millennium BCE literature. In some sub-traditions, Krishna is worshipped as Svayam Bhagavan, this is sometimes referred to as Krishnaism; these sub-traditions arose in the context of the medieval era Bhakti movement. Krishna-related literature has inspired numerous performance arts such as Bharatnatyam, Kuchipudi and Manipuri dance, he is a pan-Hindu god, but is revered in some locations such as Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh, the Jagannatha aspect in Odisha, Mayapur in West Bengal and Junagadh in Gujarat, in the form of Vithoba in Pandharpur, Nathdwara in Rajasthan, Guruvayur in Kerala. Since the 1960s, the worship of Krishna has spread to the Western world and to Africa due to the work of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness; the name "Krishna" originates from the Sanskrit word Kṛṣṇa, an adjective meaning "black", "dark", or "dark blue". The waning moon is called Krishna Paksha, relating to the adjective meaning "darkening"; the name is interpreted sometimes as "all-attractive".
As a name of Vishnu, Krishna is listed as the 57th name in the Vishnu Sahasranama. Based on his name, Krishna is depicted in idols as black- or blue-skinned. Krishna is known by various other names and titles that reflect his many associations and attributes. Among the most common names are Mohan "enchanter"; some names for Krishna hold regional importance. Krishna is with some common features, his iconography depicts him with black, dark, or blue skin, like Vishnu. However and medieval reliefs and stone-based arts depict him in the natural color of the material out of which he is formed, both in India and in southeast Asia. In some texts, his skin is poetically described as the color of Jambul. Krishna is depicted wearing a peacock-feather wreath or crown, playing the bansuri. In this form, he is shown standing with one leg bent in front of the other in the Tribhanga posture, he is sometimes accompanied by a calf, which symbolise the divine herdsman Govinda. Alternatively, he is shown as a romantic and seductive man with the gopis making music or playing pranks.
In other icons, he is a part of battlefield scenes of the epic Mahabharata. He is shown as a charioteer, notably when he is addressing the Pandava prince Arjuna character, symbolically reflecting the events that led to the Bhagavad Gita – a scripture of Hinduism. In these popular depictions, Krishna appears in the front as the charioteer, either as a counsel listening to Arjuna, or as the driver of the chariot while Arjuna aims his arrows in the battlefield of Kurukshetra. Alternate icons of Krishna show him as a baby, a toddler crawling on his hands and knees, a dancing child, or an innocent-looking child playfully stealing or consuming butter, holding Laddu in his hand or as a cosmic infant sucking his toe while floating on a banyan leaf during the Pralaya observed by sage Markandeya. Regional variations in the iconography of Krishna are seen in his different forms, such as Jaganatha in Odisha, Vithoba in Maharashtra, Shrinathji in Rajasthan and Guruvayoorappan in Kerala. Guidelines for the preparation of Krishna icons in design and architecture are described in medieval-era Sanskrit texts on Hindu temple arts such as Vaikhanasa agama, Vishnu dharmottara, Brihat samhita, Agni Purana.
Early medieval-era Tamil texts contain guidelines for sculpting Krishna and Rukmini. Several statues made according to these guidelines are in the collections of the Government Museum, Chennai; the earliest text containing detailed descriptions of Krishna as a personality is the epic Mahabharata, which depicts Krishna as an incarnation of Vishnu. Krishna is central to many of the main stories of the epic; the eighteen chapters of the sixth book of the epic that constitute the Bhagavad Gita contain the advice of Krishna to Arjuna on the battlefield. The Harivamsa, a appendix to the Mahabharata contains a detailed version of Krishna's childhood and youth; the Chandogya Upanishad, estimated to have been composed sometime between the 8th and 6th centuries BCE, has been another source of speculation regarding Krishna in ancient India. The
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