Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2011/01/22

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Subject: [Leica] Travels
From: jayanand at gmail.com (Jayanand Govindaraj)
Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2011 19:29:27 +0530

Three from the state of Gujarat in Western India.

The first is photo of the great temple of Somnath, the moon god, besides the
Arabian Sea in western India. The temple is historically and religiously
very significant - it was sacked and destroyed six times between 725AD and
1701AD by Muslim invaders and rulers, and rebuilt six times. The present
temple was built after independence in 1947 and is called the Seventh
Temple. The security is considerable - because of its history, it is a prime
target for Islamic terrorists, who would love to blow it up again:

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/India/_1060359-Edit.jpg.html

To emphasise the mix that is India, 70 km away from Somnath is Junagadh,
which was, prior to independence an Islamic state. It has a very
interesting but rather poorly maintained fort - here is a tourist couple
relaxing there:

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/India/_1060489-Edit.jpg.html

The last photo is of a Sun Temple in Modhera, Gujarat built in 1026. It was
sacked by Allaudin Khilji in 1296 - he was also responsible for the third
destruction of Somnath. Luckily for us, he did not destroy the temple
completely. Since Hindus will not worship a defaced idol, he just broke a
limb from every depiction of a God in the friezes and sculptures adorning
the temple, thus making it unfit for worship. The temple has the most
beautiful sculptures possible, though like all Sun Temples, a few of them
depict graphic sex which had a deep religious significance, lesbians and
group sex included! It is not a large complex, but it is like a small jewel.
It is built so that the first rays of sunlight on the May and September
equinoxes illuminate the (missing) deity in the  inner sanctum:

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/India/_1060726-Edit.jpg.html

C&C, as always, welcome

Cheers
Jayanand


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