www.hindu.com SRINAGAR, INDIA, September 16, 2006: Mahant Deependra Giri has resigned from the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB). His resignation was the result of claims by the media that an artificial Siva Lingam was produced in the cave this year. The media also referred to a letter that indicated that the SASB had purchased dry ice. In response, the shrine…
www.hindu.com RAMESWARAM, INDIA, September 24, 2006: More than 739 copper kalasams were reported missing from the ancient Ramanatha Swamy temple here on Saturday, while one of the temple officials was placed under suspension in this connection. Temple Executive Officer Mahadevan said, 739 of the 1008 kalasams were reported missing from the temple. The missing kalasams were taken out from the…
Rajiv Malik, HPI Senior Indian Correspondent NEW DELHI, INDIA, September 20, 2006: “Sometime back Indonesia suffered earthquakes in which many of their temples had fallen. This included a huge Sivalaya, 100 feet in height, which had 240 temples belonging to its family. In Jakarta, you can see at a central location in the city, the huge statue which depicts Lord…
kkayan@hotmail.com SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, September 24, 2006: Sri Venkateswara Temple, Helensburg, Australia, about 50kms south of Sydney has been celebrating Ganesha Visarjana since 1991. This year the festival, celebrated on September 3, brought over 4,000 people from near and far (“near” by Australian standards is a radius of 500kms). In Sydney, the observance was started in 1996 by a small group…
www.hinduismtoday.com KAUAI, HAWAII, September 25, 2006: Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami, publisher of Hinduism Today, gave the September 15th plenary session address on “Religion and Media” to the World Religions After 9/11 world Congress at the Palais des congres, Montreal, Canada. The Hawaii-based Satguru’s highly illustrated Keynote presentation is now available as an on-line movie at URL above. It was well received…
www.ibnlive.com JAIPUR, INDIA, September 24, 2006: The Jain practice of Santhara or fasting with the intent of dying has been challenged in the Rajasthan High Court. A petitioner has equated the practice with suicide and mercy killing, setting off a debate on the age-old religious practice. “When people on hunger strike are booked by the police, why under the shelter…
www.hindu.com MYSORE, INDIA, September 24, 2006: Dasara festivities began in this historic city on Saturday, with the lighting of the traditional lamp and a special puja to Goddess Chamumdeshwari, the main Deity, atop Chamundi hills. Continuing the traditional link, Mr. Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wodeyar, of the Mysore royal family, began the festivities by performing a puja inside the palace. The entire…
paras_ramoutar@yahoo.com PORT OF SPAIN, TRINIDAD, September 23, 2006: “The Hindu Thought Contribution to World Thought and Culture” is the theme for the twentieth edition of the annual Divali Nagar, set for October 12 – 20, 2006. Richard Ramlakhansingh, manager, said in an interview that “Divali Nagar is the gravitational centre in Trinidad for the annual celebration of Divali Festival of…
www.ascribe.org ROCHESTER, N.Y., September 19, 2006: Scientists are using modern imaging technologies to digitally restore a 700-year-old palm-leaf manuscript. The project led by P.R. Mukund and Roger Easton, professors at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), will digitally preserve the original Hindu writings known as the Sarvamoola granthas attributed to scholar Shri Madvacharya (1238-1317). The collection of 36 works contains commentaries…
www.business-standard.com MUMBAI, INDIA, September 24, 2006: The rising number of Muslim terrorist strikes has not dampened the festive spirit for Navaratri in Mumbai, Durga Puja in Kolkata and Ramleela in New Delhi. However, efforts to buy anti-terror insurance for these public celebrations are turning into a futile exercise. General insurers are wary of underwriting terror risk insurance for such events…