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Showing posts from March 11, 2009


Nadi Sri Subramaniya Swamy Temple in Fiji Islands

This is a Guest Post by Dr R Sri Ravindra Rajah - writing about his visit to Nadi Sri Subramaniya Swamy Temple in Fiji Islands . Very recently I visited Fiji Island for the first time and went to Nadi Sri Subramaniya Swamy temple. This temple which is the biggest Hindu Temple and only Shaiva temple in Pacific Islands built according Agamic traditions by Indian builders. It was opened by the late Sivasubramuniya Swami of Hawaii in 1994. This temple had its second Kumbabhishekam in June 2006. Thaipoosam is the biggest festival at this temple is celebrated for ten days with flag hoisting ceremony. Devotees from all over Fiji and other Pacific Islands come to the temple. This temple is run by Sangam - The India Sanmarga Ikya Sangam, which also runs number of primary and secondary schools all over Fiji for over 100 years. Recently it had started Sangam Institute of Technology. One of the features of the temple is that both old and new traditions of conducting poojas ar

Ancient inscriptions on the outer wall of Tirumala Venkateswara Temple to be digitized

The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) is planning to gold plate the outer walls of the sanctum sanctorum of Tirumala Tirupati Balaji Temple . When the outer wall is covered with gold sheets, it will also cover up ancient inscriptions found on the wall. To save the centuries old inscriptions, TTD and Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) are planning to preserve the inscriptions and digitize it and upload on a website. The inscriptions mainly narrate the socio-economic, political and religious situation that had existed during a particular period and is of great help to historians. There are also plans to maintain a replica of the temple with inscriptions at the Tirumala museum. A.D. Rangarajan writes in the Hindu Sadhu Subrahmanya Sastry, the TTD’s former epigraphist-cum-archaeologist, copied 1,150 of the inscriptions in 1922 employing the ‘eye copy’ technique. These included 640 inscriptions in the area that will be covered up. But the ASI’s Mysore-based epig