About Me

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I am collecting Indian Heritage and culture related vintage postcards, paintings, prints etc. and exhibited them at several locations across India in various events and also sharing them with school and college children by giving presentations to them on Indian Heritage and Culture with my collections and also documenting puppetry etc. intangible performances.

Thursday 27 June 2013

The Brihadeeswarar Temple of Thanjavur

This is Thanjavur Brihadeeswarar Temple vintage postcard in my collection. 

This Thanjavur Brihadeeswarar Temple vintage postcard used in the year 1910 in France.



















The Brahadeewarar temple, called the Big Temple, is dedicated to Lord Siva. It was built by the great Chola King Raja Raja 1 (985 -1012 A.D). it is an outstanding exmple of Chola architecture. 

The Brihadeeswara temple is one of the few great Indian monuments listed in UNESCO's World Heritage list of historical sites and monuments.

The 64. 8 Mt. tall vimanam (tower over the sanctum sanctorum) is testimony to the engineering skill of the Cholas. In keeping with the size of the temple, it has gigantic “Mahalingam” in the shrine, measuring 4 meters in height. A monolithic Nandhi chiseled out of a single rock, measures 5. 94 meters in length, 2.51 metres in breadth and 3.66 meters in height. it is the second largest Nandhi in India. The Nandhi or bull is the vehicle of Lord Siva. Beautiful Chola fresco paintings adorn the inner walls of the Temple. One of the outstanding temples in South India, the Brahadeeshwarar temple is the  Chola dynast’s finest contribution to Dravidian temple architecture. What makes the construction so unique is the variation from the usual temple building style of having a tall gopuram and smaller vimanam. At the Big Temple the vimanam asoars high while the gopuram is smaller. The 64. 8m tall, 14 tier pyramid shaped vimanam raised from a square base is topped by a huge monolithic cupola carved from an 81.3 tonne block of granite. It was raised with the aid of a 6 km long inclined plane. 

The Brihadeeswarar temple is the major center of tourist attraction at Thanjavur. This temple is one of India's most prized architectural sites.The 'Vimana' - or the temple tower - is 216 ft (66 m) high and is among the tallest of its kind in the world. Thanjavur is the ancient capital of the Chola kings. King Rajaraja Chola constructed the Brihadeeswara Temple in 10th century AD and the architect Sama Varma designed it. Thanjavur was the center of learning during 10th to 14th century AD.


The Brihadisvarar temple in Thanjavur, the most important among the hundreds of temples built by the Chola emperors, has reached a milestone: a thousand years of existence. 

More information about Brihadeeswarar Temple is available in wikipedia.org website http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanjavur

On 26th September,2010 Tamilnadu State Postal Department issued Postal Stamp issued a postage stamp featuring The Brihadeeswarar temple of Thanjavur to commemmorate the 1000th Year Celebrations of this Great Temple. An Indian monuments listed in UNESCO’s World Heritage list of historical sites and monuments.

On that day Post Master General, Central Region (TN), Tiruchirapalli has issued a set of 3 picture postcards to commemorate millennium celebrations of the Brihadeeswarar temple at Thanjavur. Set of three cards is priced at Rs. 15 (Rs. 5 each). An advertisement for the forthcoming INDIPEX 2011 Exhibition with logo is also placed on all three cards.

In my collection i have these 3 picture postcards issued by Tamilnadu Postal Department. 




















Alongwith postal stamp Government also minted 5 rupees commemmorative coin on the occasion of 1000th Year Celebrations of this Great Temple.  In my collection i have a piece of this commemorative coin also.

















This is Brihadeeswarar Temple photo from a vintage book on Indian Heritage and Culture in my collection.





This is Thanjavur Temple with Nandi special cover in my collection. This special cover issued on the occasion of TANAPEX'78 (Philateic exhibition) on 6th February, 1978.





This is Thanjavur Art Plate special cover in my collection. This special cover issued on the occasion of TANAPEX'75 (Philateic exhibition) on 6th September, 1975.


 This is Goddess Saraswati Maatha statue of Brihadesswarar Temple postcard issued by Archaeological Survey of India is in my collection.




Toda Tribe Maxim Card

This is "Toda Tribal Couple" Maxim Card in my collection.

Toda Tribe are a small pastoral community lived lived on the isolated Nilgiri Plateau of Southern India. Information about Toda Tribal peole is available on wikipedia.org website. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toda_people

This "Toda Tribal Couple" Maxim card is cancelled on the photo of a Toda Tribal Couple with Toda stamp issued by Indian Postal Department on 30th May, 1981.



Dandami Maria Tribe Maxim Card

This is "A Group of Dandami Maria Tribe" Maxim Card in my collection. 

Dandami Maria is one of the tribal group of India with their unique Heritage.

This Dandami Maria postage stamp issued by Indian Postal department on 30th May, 1981.

This Dandami Maria tribe maxim card cancelled with Dandami Maria postage stamp on the photo of "Group of Dandami Maria" Tribal people.








Friday 21 June 2013

Lord Bhairab (Bhairava Swamy) Philatelic cover from Nepal

This is Lord Bhairab (Lord Bhairava Swamy) Philateic cover from Nepal issued by Nepal Philatelic Administration in the year 1971 is in my collection.



Haridwar vintage postcards

These are 5 different Haridwar vintage postcards in my collection.






















In an earlier message in January month  i am sharing another post with some other Haridwar vintage postcards in my collection. Below is the link for this earlier message of Haridwar vintage postcards in my collection.

http://indian-heritage-and-culture.blogspot.in/2013/01/haridwar-vintage-post-cards.html

Tuesday 18 June 2013

The Cow Temple Benares vintage postcard



This is The Cow Temple Benares vintage postcard in my collection.

Benares(Varanasi) is one of the India's famous Pilgrimage place to Hindus. Hindu people consider to visit Holy Varanasi(Benares) at least once in their life time. In Benareas there will be many ancient temples (Kashi Vishwanadha temple & many other nearly 500 temples across Benares) and also Sacred Bathing Ghats across the Ganges(Ganga) river in Varanasi.