India is land of Rishis, Seers who were not only the people with a deep bent of spirituality but also social reformers and Law givers.
There are seven great Rishis though there are many more,
These are called Saptha Rishis (Seven Rishis).
These seven for the present Kali Yuga are,
Atri, Bhrigu,Kuthsa,Vasihsta,Gauthama,Kasyapa and Angirasa.
They are represented in the Great bear Constellation.
Please read my post Rishis a Timeline.
They have given great mantras for the society and set standards of behavior , selfless in their discharging their duties with a fair sense of Justice.
To commemorate their memory Rishi Panchami is celebrated.
Rishi Panhami Celebration.
This falls on the next day after Ganesh Chaturthi every year on Panchami.
This day is devoted vrata , Vow.
Women visit river or any water storage in the afternoon, take cow dung with them, clean their teeth with medicinal herbal stick, take cold-water bath.
They arrange the idol of Saptarshi on small wooden platform in the form of seven betenuts and perform pooja.
On this day they should eat only those fruits, which grow below the earth (soil) and strictly avoid eating any eatables, which are prepared from the grains grown from the toiling of bullocks.
‘Aghada’ is one such plant, which has many medicinal uses.
This is grown in Ashadha and Shravana months.
In Bhadrapada it becomes full-fledged and its medicinal instincts are prominently noticed in the same month.
The Jains regard this a very important day.
Among them, the followers of Shwetambar cult end their Parjushan Maha Parva on this day and the others following Digambar cult, start their Maha Parva from this day.
‘Rhushabhadeva’ was the first and the most sacred Teerthankar as per the Jains.
He is known as Aadinath also. ‘Rishi Panchami’ day is observed in the name of this Aadinath. The motive of such observance between the Hindus and the Jains is the same.
The form of Vishnu represented here as Janardhana, who destroys janma (birth) brought about by avidya(ignorance) and bestows on the worshipper the awareness of his identity with the Lord.
backwater destination Paravur and 2 km from Varkala-Sivagiri Railway station. It is situated near the Arabian sea shore.It is referred to as Dakshin
Kashi (Benares of the south).
The presiding deity of this temple is Sri Janarthana Swami. The deity is found in standing position facing towards the east. His right hand is position as if he is performing “Aachamanam“.
The Deity facing East,has His right hand is raised towards his mouth and legends say that if his hand goes nearer to his mouth, the world will come to an end.
It is believed to happen at the end of the Kali Yuga.
There are more Janardhana temples in India, about 12.
Varkala Janardhana temple is the oldest, about 2000 years old.
Legend:
According to the legend, attracted by the music from Narada’s Veena, Lord Vishnu started following him and reached Satyaloka.
Seeing Lord Vishnu, Brahma prostrated before him. Lord Vishnu soon realized that he has reached Satyaloka but did not realize that Lord Brahma is prostrating before him and left back to Vaikunta.
It seemed as if Lord Brahma is falling towards the feet of Narada and all the devas laughed.
This made Brahma angry and he cursed devas to be born as humans in the earth. Devas repented their folly and begged to be forgiven. Brahma replied that the curse would be withdrawn when they do a penance to please Lord Janardana.
Devas asked where that place is where they should do the penance. Brahma told them that the place where Sage Narada’s ‘Vastra’ falls will be the sacred place.
It is Varkala where his ‘Vastra’ fell and Devas did the penance accordingly to get relieved of the curse.
According to Mahabharata, Balabhadran has visited the place for pilgrimage.
Poojas.
Performance of Tharppana here is considered important.
Four poojas are conducted in a day by the priest.
The chief priest should be from another place, not from Varkala
Sub-deities are Ganapathi, Shastha, Ananthan (Nagam) Shiva, Chandikesha, and Hanuman.
A ten-day festival with Arattu is conducted on the Malayalam month of Meenam on the day of Uthram.
Nearest Airpor/Railway Station, Bus Station.Trivandrum
The Puranas of The Hindus list the rulers of Bharatavarsha, which includes those in the Kali Yuga.
The normal Perception is that the Puranas stop with probably with the Death of Lord Krishna in the Dwapara Yuga .
And the Kalki Purana, Bhavishya Purana lists the Future Discoveries and the behaviour of people since The Mahabharata..
But while studying the Puranas in the original one comes to know that the Puranas list the Rulers ,Dynasties, the Class of people who are to Rule the Bharata Varsha.
A look.
Vishnu Purana.
The Dwapara Youga endedsha with Kheshemaka of the Lunar, Pandavas Dynasty and the Surya Dynasty with Sumitra of Ikshvaku (the successors of Lord Rama‘s Dynasty)
Yadava’s Dynasty, of Lord Krishna’s ends with Ribunjaya.
After this Kali Yuga dawns.
Ribhunjaya’s Minister would kill Ribunjaya and crown his son Prathyodana and Praydyothana’s Family shall Rule for 838 years.
After this Bharata varsha will be ruled by Sisunabhan,Kakavarnan upto Mahanandi for 362 Years.
Kshatriyas’ Rule will come to an end with Maha Nandi marrying a low-caste woman and shall beget Nanda,, later this Dynasty shall be known as the maurya Dynasty.
Nanda will kill many kshatriya Kings and will be like Parasu Rama in killing the Kshatriyas.
This Nanda. aka Maha Padma and his eight sons will exterminate all the Kshtriya Kings and rule for about one hundred years
These nine will be annihilated by Chandra Gupta, born of Mura, with the help of a Brahmin, Chanakya, aka Vishnu Gupta, Kautilya and Vatsyayan.
These rulers belong to the fourth caste.
This Dynasty shall rule for 137 yeras.
The last king Bruhathratha will be killed by his Senathipathi,General Pushyamitra ans establish Sunga Dynasty.
This Sunga Dyansty shall rile for 112 years.
Aer this Kanavas, Andhras and shall rule.
It will be followed by Foreigners ,those belonging to Vellalars Community(those in charge of maintaining the River Bed ,Canals.( they belong to the top echelon of the Fourth varna.
Indian tradition states that the intermingling of people from the North and South, separated by the Vindhya Mountains , started taking place during the time when Sage Viswamitra lived.
Sage Viswamitra banished his 56 children to the ‘Dravida‘ ,meaning South of Vindhya Mountains, as they disobeyed him.
They moved to the South, found a culturally rich civilization , married integrated the Veda and Dravidian Customs and formed the Agamas.
Sage Apasthamba compiled the Vedas for those living south of the Vindhyas , comprising the best of both the Cultures and gave the Apasthamba Sutra,.
This is practiced in the South even today.
Recent studies date this period around 4000 years earlier from now.
This roughly corresponds to the beginning of Kali Yuga of Indian calendar.
The characteristics and specific issues are elaborated in the Tholkappiyam Agathiyam, the ancient works in Tamil.
Each area had its own God’s,Profession and social Mores.
Cowherds lived in Mullai,farmers in Marutham, Hunters in Kurinji,Fishermen in Neyadal and Kallars in Palai.
There were injunctions against marrying from different geographical group.
So the Caste system is not because of the mingling from the North.
The Study at best conveys the fact that people from the North started mingling with each other , that’s all.
This does not mean that Caste has been imported to South from the North.
This confusion or deliberate misinformation is because of the Myth of Aryan Invasion of the South.
Please read my posts on Aryan Invasion Myths and On Viswamitra.
The name Viswamitra appears in all the Four Yugas, or the Time Scale of the Hindus,
it is difficult to assign a time for him.
And Viswamitra is a Nom de plume, meaning ‘friend of the Universe ‘.
The name of the Viswamitra as it appears in the Ramayana, which took place in the Treta Yuga, is Kausika.
And the Viswamitra of Dwapara Yuga can not be same as the Yugas are separated by thousands of Years.
Unless people were living for very long period of time, which, in my opinion, is possible.
More important is the concept of Time in Hinduism.
Human Migration.
Read my post on Time.
There is another anomaly in the study.
It says the intermingling of the North and South stopped about 2000 years ago.
Are there not marriages today between the people of the north and the South?
Some more doubts on Viswamitra,
“I had some confusion about Sage Vishwamitra. We hear
about Sage Vishwamitra in many places:
[1] Much before the Lord Rama came down to the earth.
(Vishwamitra was the one who build the heaven for the
ancestor of Lord Rama, Satyavrata, later called as
Trishanku).
[2] Then Vishwamitra went into penance with an enimity
with Sage Vasista. Thats when Gayathri mantra was
given to us.
[3] During the penance Menaka comes down and from them
is born the Bharatha dynasty king – Dushyant. So does
that mean while Lord Rama’s dynasty (SuryaVamsa) were
ruling in Treta Yuga, the seed for the Bharatha’s
dynasty (ChandraVamsa) was sown and set to begin in
Dwapara Yuga? in which Yugas did the Chandra Vamsa and
Surya Vamsa dynasties gain importance?…
I cannot provide you with a religious/spiritual answer, but as far as chronology
is concerned – here is my answer:
If you please refer to my ‘Royal Chronology of India’ at
(http://www.newdharma.org/India_Chron.zip) you’ll see the name Vishvamitra come
up many times (as you will also see with Vasishtha) because these are not one
person. They represent an incredible lineage of Rsis going back thousands of
years. These priests have been mentioned in our scriptures by their family
names (“last names”) and on a few occassions their first names are also
mentioned.
”
Analysis of mtDNA Suggests a Proto-Asian Origin ofIndians
MtDNA HVR1 genetic distances between caste populations and Africans, Asians, and Europeans are significantly different from zero (p<0.001) and reveal that, regardless of rank, each caste group is most closely related to Asians and is most dissimilar from Africans (Table (Table1).1). The genetic distances from major continental populations (e.g., Europeans) differ among the three caste groups, and the comparison reveals an intriguing pattern. As one moves from lower to upper castes, the distance from Asians becomes progressively larger. The distance between Europeans and lower castes is larger than the distance between Europeans and upper castes, but the distance between Europeans and middle castes is smaller than the upper caste-European distance. These trends are the same whether the Kshatriya and Vysya are included in the upper castes, the middle castes, or excluded from the analysis. This may be owing, in part, to the small sample size (n=10) of each of these castes. Among the upper castes the genetic distance between Brahmins and Europeans (0.10) is smaller than that between either the Kshatriya and Europeans (0.12) or the Vysya and Europeans (0.16). Assuming that contemporary Europeans reflect West Eurasian affinities, these data indicate that the amount of West Eurasian admixture with Indian populations may have been proportionate to caste rank.”
“India’s caste system, says a new genetic study, began about 2,000 years ago. The study adds that people from different genetic populations — from the North and the South — began to mix with each other about 4,200 years ago but that the mixing stopped about 2,000 years ago.
The study was carried out by Harvard Medical School and the CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) in Hyderabad. David Reich, a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, said that the caste system in India has been around for a long time, but that it had certainly not begun right at the very beginning.
Indians
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