Incredible India - Temples in Gwalior

As part of Incredible India series, this post is for various Temples in Gwalior located in historical Gwalior city of Madhya Pradesh, a central state in India.

Referring Wiki, Saas-Bahu ka mandir (Mother-in-law - Daughter-in-law's Temple), or Sahastrabahu Temple, is located to the east of Gwalior Fort. Built in 1092 by King Mahipala of the Kachchhapaghata (Kachchhwaha) dynasty, this temple is one of the greatest architectural marvels situated by Gwalior Fort. 


It was named SahastraBahu, depicting Lord Vishnu with a thousand hands. Lord Vishnu was worshiped by the wife of Kachchhapaghata's king, but when his son's wife came, she became a devotee of Lord Shiva. Thus, another temple beside Vishnu temple was built, where Lord Shiva was worshiped by the wife of the king's son. Collectively, these two temples were named 'Sas-Bahu temple', meaning the daughter-in-law and mother-in-law's temple.


Teli Ka Mandir is an ancient temple, which is located in the Gwalior Fort complex and is famous for its splendid architecture. Teli Ka Mandir is built in 11th century and considered the oldest temple of the Gwalior Fort. It is a Brahmanical sanctuary and was refurbished between 1881 and 1883, having a blend of south and north Indian architectural styles.


Sun Temple built by the Aditya Birla Trust is the second Temple dedicated to Sun in India (Konark Sun Temple being the first) and is an exact replica of the famous Konark Sun Temple, Odisha. 




As part of Incredible India series, I had earlier shared blog posts on Karnataka Road Trip, Qutub Minar, Golconda Fort, Humayun's Tomb, Temples in Delhi, Bird Watching, Gwalior Fort & Gwalior Palace Museum.

Incredible India - Karnataka RoadTrip

India has so much to offer in terms of incredible world heritage sites and it was a privilege to visit couple of them (Halebidu and Belur) recently.  

Took a roadtrip from Bangalore to Hassan via NH 48 covering 215 kilometers taking approximately 4 hours to reach Halebidu. Drive is beautiful and the road conditions excellent.

Halebidu (Reference Wikipedia) is located in Hassan District, Karnataka, India. Halebidu (which was previously called Dorasamudra or Dwarasamudra) was the regal capital of the Hoysala Empire in the 12th century. It is home to some of the best examples of Hoysala architecture. Most notable are the Hoysaleswara and Kedareswara temples, which are lord Shiva’s temples.
In Belur (Reference Wikipedia) is the Chennakeshava temple complex which contains the Chennakesava Temple (dedicated to Chennakeshava, meaning handsome Vishnu) as the centre piece, surrounded by the Kappe Chennigraya temple built by Shantaladevi, queen of kingVishnuvardhana.

It is very difficult to describe in words how poetic the stone carvings are and the perfection with which each sculpture is given life. In front of each temple, there are monolithic Nandi statues 

One can find Mahabharatha epic depicted in the scultpures, which is really amazing. It includes the one depicting Arjuna fighting with Bheeshma while Krishna is the charioteer and under the same, depiction of Bheesham lying on the bed of arrows. 

You can also see in the pictures, a sculpture of a young couple in which the head of the young woman is of a donkey, which according to our guide depicts that when in love, even a donkey headed girl looks beautiful. 

My 'Ice-breaker' speech at toastmasters club

I finally took the plunge of joining a toastmasters club. After being encouraged by couple of friend cum colleagues, David Johnson and Jayesh Mittal, I joined Portland State University's PSU toastmaster club. Intent of joining the club was multi-fold. Meet people from different walks of life, hone my communication, presentation & soft skills and improve the ability to think and speak on your feet (Table Topics).
So this week I gave my ice breaker speech. Theme of my speech was 'Stories that influenced my life". There are three stories that have a profound influence on me. Let me take this opportunity to share them with you. First story was told to me by my best & greatest teacher, my mum.

Story#1 (Old man, son & donkey)

Once upon a time there was an old man, his son and their donkey. One day they all were traveling from one place to another. While embarking on their journey, they came across few passer-bys, who passed comments that how cruel the father is to make his young son walk in this hot son. Hearing the comments, the old man made his young son sit on the back of their donkey and continued with their journey. After some distance, they came across some other passer-bys, who passed comments that how cruel the son is to make his old man walk in this hot son. Hearing the comments, the young boy got down and made his old man sit on the back of their donkey. They continued with their journey and across some more passer-bys, who passed comments that how cruel the father is to make his young son walk in this hot son. Hearing the comments, old man asked his young son to join him on the back of the donkey and they moved on. After covering some distance, they came across another set of passer-bys, who passed comments that how cruel the father-son are to make their donkey work so hard carrying them both in this hot son. Hearing the comments, father & son got down and tied the donkey's legs to a pole and started carrying the donkey on their shoulders. After covering some distance, they came across a river. While crossing the river, father's feet slipped and donkey fell into the river and drowned. So the moral of the story is "You cannot satisfy everybody. So live your life the way you would like to."

Story#2 (Adi Shankaracharya)

The second story is about the evil called 'caste system' prevalent in our society. With the changing times, its hopefully getting eliminated with every new generation. So this story dates back to the time when society was more caste based, in which upper caste people never used to allow lower caste people into their homes or place of worship. They did not even used to tolerate the lower caste people crossing their paths or even their shadows to fall on them.
Adi Shankaracharya, famous philosopher who restored the Vedic Dharma and did the reinterpretations of Hindu scriptures, especially on Upanishads or Vedanta and who had a profound influence on the growth of Hinduism, was born in an upper caste family. One day he embarked on the journey to seek God. While traveling he came across a shepherd, belonging to a lower caste. Seeing him, Adi Shankaracharya said 'move aside, move aside'. Thats when the shepherd said, "My noble lord, whom are you asking to move aside? Are you asking my body to move aside or you are asking the God within me to move aside?".Thats when Adi Shankaracharya realized that there is a God within all of us and fell down on the feet of the shepherd. The shepherd was none other than Lord Shiva, God of destroyer who had taken the form of shepherd to help enlighten Adi Shankaracharya that there is God within all of us. One should treat all human beings equally and nothing can be more divine than this.

Story#3 (Swami Vivekananda)

Swami Vivekananda was an inspiring spiritual man, who wooed the world and especially Americans when he gave an inspiring speech beginning by addressing the audience as "Sisters and Brothers of America". One day he was walking in the streets of London. From the opposite direction there was this person coming, who was formally dressed in a suite and hat. Looking at Swami Vivekananda's attire with saffron robe and turban, the person started laughing. Swami Vivekananda asked him, "My dear friend what makes you laugh?". Hearing this, the man was taken aback and said, "You know how to speak english? But you do not look like a gentleman". Thats when Swami Vivekananda said "My dear friend, in your country a tailor makes a gentleman but in my country, character makes one"
I appreciate all the feedback I got after the speech from my speech evaluator and fellow toastmasters. Feedback was very helpful for me to know where I am doing well and where not so well. Before joining toastmasters club, I was asking myself whether I need to improve my skills especially since I get to hone them in the profile I have. I anyway get to talk in public, meetings, with different groups, across time zones and with people in person or virtually. But after attending toastmasters club, I realized this is one of the best decisions I have taken and its time well invested. I am getting an opportunity to talk in front of audience with whom I do not have any business or personal strings attached and who in all their wisdom and experience, are going to give me the best feedback to improve.

Trip to India

These snaps are of our trip to India earlier this year. Snaps include places like Yanam, which is situated on the eastern coast of India, in the district of East Godavari, Andhra Pradesh. Yanam was once a French colony and is presently a part of the Union Territory of Pondicherry. One of the high points of the visit included a boat ride. Snaps of various temples in Kakinada, which is a city , northeastern Andhra Pradesh state, southern India.