Prasanna Venkatesa Perumal #temple -Gunaseelam,Near Trichy,TN #Thread

Gunaseela Mahatmyam,a chapter of Bhavishyottara Purana describes greatness of this place.

Venkatachlapathi of Tirumala Tirupati appeared b4 Gunaseela Rishi here,so Gunaseelam is known as Ten(South)Tirupati

A #story from #Thiruvilayadal puranam- one of divine leelas of Bhagwan Shiva

#threadseries #madurai

Koodal Kaandam

Story 21 - it is about how stone elephant came to life and ate sugarcane - When Raja Abhisheka Pandyan met Ellam Valla Siddhar

கல்யானைக்கு கரும்பருத்திய படலம்

Raja Abhisheka Pandiyan went ahead to meet Ellam Valla Siddhar on the premises of the temple.On seeing the arrival of Raja, people surrounding Siddhar moved back. Abhisheka Pandiyan introduced himself to Siddhar &asked about his whereabouts.Also his purpose of visit to Madurai.

Raja asked why he performed magical acts, does he expect anything from him or people of Madurai.

Siddhar laughed & replied to Raja that he was from Kasi. He had heard a lot about Madurai in Kashi.Also told that this place is a Mukti Kshetram,so he had come to stay here.

Siddhar asked Raja if he has the capability &power to give anything that he asks for. Siddhar told King that he has power to do things even if he think of it.Siddhar asked King to ask whatever he wants & it would be provided, whatever these people had asked, they were granted.

Abhisheka Pandyan was shocked to receive such a reply from Siddhar,& he decided to test the power of this Siddhar. By that time, Raja saw a person in crowd having Sugarcane.

Raja took Sugarcane from that person.

#DoYouKnow about Pallipadai (Memorial) Temple of Emperor Rajendra Chola I & his wife Veeramaadevi.

#Thread

This historically significant Chandramouleeswarar #Temple is in Brahmmadesam (Cheyyar) NearThiruvannamalai,TN

Restored by ASI.But no murthi,no worship & no festivals.

Treasure of inscriptions in walls of this temple belongs to Pallavas & Cholas period.About 77 valuable stone inscriptions are there in this temple that tells richness of the empire.Also mentions Rajendra Chola I died at Brahmadesam &it is recorded by his son Rajadhiraja Chola I

Initially this temple dedicated to Bhagwan Shiva was built in sand stone by Pallava King Vijaya Kampa Varman.Later it was converted to memorial temple in Chola period.Rajendra chola & his wife came to this place after his Ganges expedition but he suddenly he fell ill & died.

Rajendra chola I was one of the great emperor, he had powerful - mighty army ,naval force & had conquered many kingdoms in the Indian ocean.

Hope that we learn more about him & respect his memorial temple.Must Preserve and protect our temples.

All photos in this thread credit - to respective owners.
Source text - based on TamilNadu tourism blog and news article about this temple

Kolaru Pathigam-Thevaram hymn composed by ThiruGnana Sambandar- #Thread

In Tamil Kol means planets,Aru means cut- set of songs in Kolaru Pathigam addresses all Navagrahas& last 2 lines of every song with end a plea to Bhagwan Shiva to reduce/erase the ill effects of Navagrahas

கோளறு பதிகம் - This pathigam was sung by Thirugnana Sambandar at Thirumaraikadu Kshetram -Vedaranyam,Tamilnadu

Thirugnana Sambandar & Appar(Thirunavukkarasar) travelled together to various Shiva Alayam to spread shivam & bhakti among people.They both reached Thirumaraikadu.

Thirumaraikadu(Vedaranyam) -
Appar & Sambandar were asked to enter the temple through side entrance.The main door was locked by Vedas many years ago.Appar&Sambandar sang devotional hymns praising Shiva, after which the gates opened & closed.After which main door opened for all.

After darshan of Bhagwan Shiva at Thirumaraikkadu,Sambandar received a message to travel to Madurai.
During that time, Samanam was on the rise in the Pandya Kingdom.The Pandya King converted to Samanam.The Queen Mangaiyarkkarasi was a staunch Shiva devotee and was upset.

Kularchirai Nayanar ,Chief Minister of Pandya kingdom was in agony by the turn of events.Queen requested Kulachirai Nayanar to escort Thiru gnana Sambandar to Madurai.Kularchirai Nayanar met Thiru gnana Sambandar at Thirumaraikkadu & requested him to visit Madurai.

Heard about a Marathan run that is conducted as part of Maha Shivarathri celebrations -Shivalaya Oottam

Marathan run by devotees covering 12 Shiva Alayams/ Temples chanting Govinda..Gopala...

This practice is related to an legend #story of #Mahabharata

Do read this #Thread

Devotees dressed in khawi/safforn cloths,will run /walk to one Shiva Alayam to other,covering 12 Shiva Alayams in Kanyakumari district by foot & total distance is abt 88 Km.
First temple is Thirumalai Mahadevar Temple,Munchirai
During the run,they take holy dips in temple tanks.

Devotees who cover the distance by foot observe Vriddham for a week.During fasting they eat tender coconut,Nungu &Tulsi water.Those who cannot run this distance,visit all 12 temples in vehicles.
After darshan in Thirumalai temple,they go to 2nd temple Tikkurichi Mahadeva Temple.

Followed by darshan at Thirunandikarai Shiva Temple,Ponmanai Thimbilankudi Mahadevar Temple,Thiruppanri Bhagam Shiva Temple,Kalkulam Neelakanda Mahadevar Temple, Melangode Shiva Temple, Thiruvidaikodu Mahadevar Temple.Lastly to Thirunattalam Sankara Narayan Temple.

All these shiva temples,have separate sannathi for Vishnu.
Interestingly,in each of these temples,prasad is Vibuthi or bhasma & at Thirunattalam Sankara Narayan Temple the prasad is sandal paste/Chandan symbolic of unity of Shiva &Vishnu.

Legend #story 👇

Thread: Maktab/Islamic supplementary school Teacher training handbook.

My Muslim Uni professor once commented on early Muslim works relating to education as being an example of what we would today refer to as self help/training manuals for teachers. #education #IsEd #teacher

UK Muslim communities give great importance to the maktab/Islamic supplementary school system. The maktab provides an authentic, confessional religious & spiritual ed. to Muslim children. Since the 1st wave of Muslim migrants, mainly of South Asian origin, maktabs have increased

Many maktabs have managed to adapt to local needs. Work has been done on implementing and maintaining teaching/learning standards, updating curriculum and revising syllabus. However many are still playing catch up and are not lead by qualified and experienced leaders/teachers.

Furthermore, to my knowledge, structured, research driven, evidence based training courses or training manuals for those aspiring to be maktab teachers are non-existent. There seems to be an assumption that anyone can be a maktab teacher. As long as they know the content.

So a trad Darul Uloom/Islamic seminary graduate is seen as qualified to be a maktab teacher. They have extensive knowledge of Islam. But is that enough to be a maktab teacher? Should maktab SMT’s start looking into developing a QMTS qualification?

Dua is the core (or bone marrow) of worship because unlike other acts of worship, people’s hearts are always present when they want something. Wanting things, along with the process of receiving it, is one of the best ways for iman, character, and love for Allah to grow.

The Prophet ﷺ said, “Love Allah for the blessings He showers upon you.”

I believe that if you sincerely want something, you’ll wait for it. The waiting and bearing through rejection after rejection has a ton of wisdoms. It’s is a way to purify intention and gain control over your emotions.

You see-saw between wanting/seeking and sufficing without. When you fail once, you can’t always try again right away. There’s a recovery period in which you lick your wounds and regroup.

If you give up during that recovery period, then you didn’t really want it enough. It was mere whim. Delay separates whim from truth. Whim clouds the intellect. You need to get rid of it in order to think clearly.

@TalhaAhsanEsq It's a very good question, and a complicated one. For starters, the Islamic manuscript tradition is vast both in terms of timespan and geography. As Dr. Shamsy points out in his latest book, the Arabic manuscript tradition is the most vast of any language in the world.

Why are some things given more prioritisation for publication than others? Why are some aspects of the tradition more emphasised than others. There's no single cause behind it.

And there is not necessarily always a sinister motive behind the suppression of some things, but sometimes there is...

It is true that the Hanbalis and Ash'aris had a very contentious and at times acrimonious relationship for much of their history. In later centuries, a sort of truce was reached. Al-Zabidi has said similar in his sharh of Ihya about the identification of 3 groups as Ahl al-Sunna

It seems that these truce efforts also spawned a number of works seeking to mediate the Hanbali-Ash'ari dispute over the nature of Divine Speech, the most contentious of issues between the two camps. A couple of these have been recently published.

In recent years we are just seeing injustice towards Muslims all over the world whether it is the Uighur Rohingya Kashmiri Muslims In this thread I would be focusing on plight of Kashmiri Muslims as the Indian state uses a very sinister propaganda to suppress them

Kashmiri Pandits are a Hindu Group that lived alongside Kashmiri Muslims in the Kashmir valley There was an exodus of them in 1989 but the atrocities have been blown out of proportion

This Kashmiri Pandit exodus has hidden the atrocities Kashmiri Muslims have faced over many years for example Jammu Massacre which occurred during Partition of India estimated 300000 Kashmiri Muslims were killed and Jammu Muslim percentage declined significantly

Now coming to the year of exodus 1989 there has been widespread propaganda that as high as 600000 Kashmiri Pandits were expelled even international news source BBC reported 350000 Kashmiri Pandits were displaced however there are reasons to believe these numbers aren’t accurate

In the table below we can see the demographics of Kashmir Valley IR stands for Indic religions such as Hinduism and Sikhism and we can see they numbered at around 160000 in 8 years there is no way the population could have grown to 600000 or even 350000 for that matter