The Ashwathama Temple in Pangul Galli in the city is the sole temple in south India and the second in the entire country.
There is an annual fest on the second day after Holi, which was yesterday. All devotes do a “Lotangan” and water is thrown on the devotees from all the houses.
In Pangul galli, a large number devotees performed “Lotangan puja” (“urulu seve”) at Ashwathama temple. It is believed that people do the Lotangan after their wish has been granted by the lord.
The temple in the narrow street of Pangul Galli houses the idol of the cursed mythical warrior.
On Monday, a large number of devotees made a beeline to perform the lotangan, even as onlookers kept splashing ‘gulal’ on them.
A special pooja was also performed and the temple committee distributed prasad. However, not many visit this shrine during rest of the year thanks to the curse attached to Ashwathama, who was believed to have killed the sons of the Pandavas. It is believed that seeing the idol brings bad luck.
Festival of colors HOLI is being celebrated in the city with great enthusiasm.
A major crowd puller this time was the program organised by MLA Abhay Patil on Lele Ground named Holi milan, where there were sprinklers, dry color and separate areas for men and ladies where all could enjoy.
There also was live orchestra with foot tapping songs for the crowd to go mad.
The young crowd normally seen on Deshmukh road was not seen as most of them were on Lele ground but later the Deshmukh road also saw its old glory.
At holi milan
Ladies enjoying themselves
Kids spreading the colors of love
Crowds dancing to the music and throwing colorsLive orchestra
Traditioal dancers
Bizzare secne of tearing each others clothes
kid with a pichkari and tank behind Traditional dancers
Police have made elaborated security arrangements to prevent any untoward incident during Holi and Id Milad celebrations from February 28 to March 5.
Dhulvad (colors) will be played on March 1, in Shahpur and other areas Rangpanchami will be played on March 5.
Certain restrictions have been imposed by the Police.
People have been warned against splashing colours on vehicles or strangers and complete “holika-burning” by midnight of February 28.
People have also been warned against using tar, varnish, paints, acid, etc. Police in civil uniform will also be deployed at certain main areas and video shooting will also be done.
There are Prohibitory order for the sale of liquor in the district on account of Holi and Id Milad from 6 a.m. on February 28 for 48 hours and from 6 a.m. of March 5 for 24 hours.
The market is also all ready with various kinds of Pchkari’s, guns and colors of course. Today being Saturday, there was huge rush seen for buying Live chicken in the market.
The main areas where the young crowd have loads of fun is Deshmukh road in Tilakwadi, which virtually is filled with people and then the bad part of tearing each others clothes begins which is bizarre.
Sree Ram Sene (SRS) will oppose Valentine’s Day celebrations in Belgaum this was told by SRS chief Mr.Muthalik.
At press meet here Pramod Muthalik told that SRS has already in advance requested the schools and colleges not to allow their students to celebrate Valentine’s Day. SRS has also conveyed the same to restaurants and hotels in Belgaum. He said that liquor worth Rs 6,900 crore and drugs worth Rs 2,700 crore was sold in metro cities for Valentine’s Day.
So like last year Belgaum will seem to have a low profile Valentine’s day.
Sugar has just reached Rs.42/Kg in Belgaum and is expected to rise to Rs.50 in some days and due to this sweet sugar festival of MakarSankranti is facing the hit.
Regular tilgul which were priced at Rs.40/Kg this year cost you Rs.60/kg. The more superior quality ones cost you anything from Rs.120 to Rs.150. The ones with groundnuts Rs.300 and cashew nuts Rs.500.
The over all price increase has been 50% in some cases than previous year.
The vendors are ready with the goods but they aren’t finding buyers to that extent. A local seller told this blog, “Prices have shot up and hence we also have to hike the prices and which is affecting our sales.” Makar Sankaranti marks the transition of the Sun into Capricorn on its celestial path. This is significant considering the Winter Solstice marks the beginning of the gradual increase of the duration of the day. Traditionally, this has been one of many harvest days in India.
About the festival:
Important dates : January 13 – Bhogi & January 14 – Sankranti
On bhogi day Special Bajra Bhakri and special vegetables are made here is the recipes to it.
In Maharashtra it is called ‘Tilgul’ and in Karnataka it is called ‘Yellu-Bella’.
Yellu means ’til’ or Sesame seeds and ‘Bella’ is Jaggery. A mixture of sesame seeds, jaggery, coconut and groundnuts are distributed to relatives and friends. ‘Yellu-Bella’ is normally distributed by women. There is a saying in Kannada “Yellu bella thindu olle maathadi” which means ‘Eat the mixture of sesame seeds and jaggery and speak only good’. Cattle are decorated with various colors and are made to jump over a bon-fire.
In Maharashtra on the Sankranti day people exchange multi-colored tilguls made from til (sesame seeds) and sugar and til-laddus made from til and jaggery. Gul-polis are offered for lunch. While exchanging tilguls as tokens of goodwill people greet each other saying – ‘til-gul ghya, god god bola’ meaning ‘accept these tilguls and speak sweet words’. The under-lying thought in the exchange of tilguls is to forget the past ill-feelings and hostilities and resolve to speak sweetly and remain friends. This is a special day for the women in Maharashtra when married women are invited for a get-together called ‘Haldi-Kumkum’ and given gifts (utensil, clothes, etc.), which the woman of the house purchases on that day. Typically, women wear black sarees on this occasion.
The mega show depicting the life of Sri Krishna is all getting ready and here is the making of the event. A huge stage is being built now on CPEd ground. The event is organized by Raj Media group and Goa-based Shri Vijayadurga Saunskrutik Mandal.
Mega stage in the making
About 103 local artists will get a chance to act in the play and the screening for the same began from today.
The ticket sale has begun and the show will be from 20th November to 25th November. Daily 7000 spectators can witness this extravagance show. The initial response for the tickets ahs been good and also very good response has come in from rural areas.
This is how the stage will look
The tickets have been priced from Rs.150 to 500 and are available at various locations.
Pramod Mutalik, founder of Sri Rama Sene, announced that his Srirama Sene will outfox and drive out ‘Love Jehad’ within a year. Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday October 21, he said that the Sene will achieve the objective by creating awareness among the Hindu girls.
An all India level awareness campaign against this Love Jehad will be launched. The aim behind this campaign will be to create awareness amongst the girls of the plans of Love Jehad. Already the Sene has intervened and stopped 25% of such activities, he claimed.
Karnataka High Court directed the state and Kerala to probe the “Love Jehad movement” where young non-Muslim girls are allegedly trapped into marriage and converted into Islam, the government today decided to convene a meeting of top police officials soon to discuss ways of countering it.
Yes it is that time of the year when one plans to make it to the home town to spend a couple of days with the family and celebrate Diwali the festival of lights together and enjoy family companionship. In the recent past Diwali holidays are being utilized as the best time for a family holiday somewhere away from regular life.
But for a city like Belgaum it is the people away from home town who come in to meet and spend time with their loved ones. But coming here is not easy. No air connectivity, trains are full even when we try to book 60 days in advance and the last resort the private bus operators as usual hike Fares to cash in. The same has happened this year again some private bus operators have hiked the bus fares from today till Tuesday. The normal Mumbai ticket which would cost Rs.500 is now Rs.700 and the Volvo to Rs.1000 from Rs.700. Not all operators have hiked but a few have done it. The best way is to leave a special bus with special fare, so there is no comparison you can make as the operator say this is special bus. So people trying to come in you can face a hard time. Many prefer to drive from Mumbai and Bangalore instead of paying huge fares. Anyways welcome home!
The business district of the city has been kept busy for over a week now with people shopping for clothes, groceries, decorative lamps, gifts and of course clothes. This time not many new showrooms have opened up, to mention a couple in mind would be the Allen Solley showroom on Kirloskar Road, Sanskruti- a designer saree store in Ramdev Galli and the recently opened United colors of Bennetton showroom near Civil hospital.
DiwaliLanterns of different sizes and shapes are in the market and most of them are Chinese. The original or ancient octagonal lamp made of bamboo sticks is hardly seen. With these lamps the Chinese decorative lamps are also in huge demand.
This is the best time to buy gold? Not really as the price have gone up. Today on Dhanteras 10 grams will cost you Rs.16350 and Silver would cost you Rs.284 for 10 grams. Even with this price rise the demand for gold has not gone down. Retailer told this blog people are buying gold in anticipation that it will rise to 18 thousand and we are having brisk business.
Sweets and savories the integral part of Diwali has been terribly hit by a price hike and prices of sweets have increased.
What to do this Diwali some suggestions:
Tyr and donate something to the Flood relief, we as citizens of a country should be caring of your fellow citizens. You could donate to the CM’s relief fund or other NGO’s like the Joy Bank.
Try not to use those high sound making crackers and it would be best to avoid crackers.
Most people ignore this but; try buying an original Antivirus for your computers by which you can be sure no one is stealing your information.
You could make some one’s life happier by donating to various destitute homes and orphanages like Karunalaya, Shantivrudhshram, Mahaveshwari school of blind to mention a few.
At the end have a safe and Happy Diwali! May your life be filled with colors and joy.
The Belgaum Dasara also has some magnificent history behind it. It may not be grand as the Mysore Dasara but in its own style its different and one of its kind.
The Simollanghan (crossing the border) is done at the Vidya Niketan grounds near St.Xaviers school. People from all lifestyles from young to old gather there for a yearly fair where the leaves of Aapti tree are looted on the pretext of it symbolizing Gold.
The Patil does the Puja and then the various Palkhi’s of the Gods come there like the Venkatramna temple, Maruti Temple, Jotiba temple and the Aapte tree leaves are looted and then exchanged with each other as gold.
The Camp Dasara has a different look. K T Pujari and sons started this utsav in 1901. There are 5 Devi chariots that are taken out in a procession which also end at the same grounds above. Marriama Devi of K T Pujari & sons, Muthu Mariamma from Madras BHT area, Kunti devi from fish market, Mariama from old Telugu colony. These 5 are supposed to be sisters.
See Photo album Story behind exchanging Aapti Tree leaves as“sone” (Gold)
Kautsa, the young son of Devdatt, a Brahmin, was living in the city of Paithan. After completing education from Rishi Varatantu, he insisted on his guru accepting Guru Dakshina (present).
However, Guru said, “Kautsa, to give ‘dakshina’ in return for learning wisdom is not proper Graduation of the disciple makes the guru happy, and this is the real Guru Dakshina.”
Kautsa was not satisfied. He still felt it was his duty to give his guru something. Finally, the guru said, “Alright, if you insist on giving me dakshina, so give me 140 million gold coins, 10 million for each of the 14 sciences I have taught you.”
Kautsa went to king Raghu. Raghuraja was an ancestor of Lord Rama, famous for his generosity. However, just at that time he had emptied all his coffers on the Brahmins, after performing the Vishvajit sacrifice. He asked Kautsa to give him three days’ time. Raghuraja immediately left to get the gold coins from Indra. Indra summoned Kuber, the god of wealth. Indra told Kuber, “Make a rain of gold coins fall on the “Shanu” and “Aapati” trees round Raghuraja’s city of Ayodhya.”
The rain of gold coins began to fall. King Raghu gave all the coins to Kautsa, and Kautsa hastened to offer the coins to Varatantu Rishi. Guru had asked only 140 millions, so he gave the rest back to Kautsa. Kautsa was not interested in money. In those days honor was considered more valuable than wealth. He asked the king to take the remaining gold coins back but the king refused to take them back as kings do not take back the daan (gift).
Finally, Kautsa distributed the gold coins to the people of Ayodhya on the day of Ashwin shukla dashami. In remembrance of this event, the custom is kept of looting the leaves of the “Aapati” trees, and people present each other these leaves as “sone” (gold).
Simollanghan – crossing the border – War Season
In ancient times kings used the feast of Dasara to cross the frontier and fight against their neighboring kingdoms. This border crossing is known as “simollanghan”. Thus, Dasara also marks the beginning of the war season.
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