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Bani Thani Paintings
Bani Thani refers to the Indian miniature painting by Nihal Chand from Marwar School, Kishangarh. The painting portrays a lady of elegance and grace. The subject portrayed, Bani Thani, was a singer and poet in Kishangarh during Sawant Singh’s rule. Her portrait is often compared with that of Mona Lisa’s.
Bani Thani’s portrait was inspired by Radha, with long, arched eyebrows, lotus-like eyes, and a pointed chin.
Bani Thani, according to legends was King Sawant Singh’s mistress and she later became one of his wives. Bani Thani’s birth name was Krishnapriya. She was known as Bani Thani or ‘lady decked out’ for the exquisite manner in which she wore herself after becoming the queen. She wore layers of beautiful jewellery and makeup.
Bani Thani was employed by King Sawant’s stepmother. King Sawant was drawn to her because of her beauty and her voice. Their love bloomed due to their shared interest in poetry, singing and their devotion for Lord Krishna.
Often, King Sawant wrote her romantic poems under the pen name Nagari Das. She too wrote him poems under the name, Mrs. Rasikbihari. The artists of the court were later asked to depict their love story of the king and queen in a fashion similar to Radha and Krishna.
Under the Ashta-Nayika classification of heroines, Bani Thani comes under the Vasakkasajja Nayika type, which is an element of Sringara rasa or Romantic Love. The paintings convey the elements of passion and romance of the legend.
Bani Thani was portrayed with all the elements of Sringara rasa with exaggerated yet striking facial features. Later, the Kishangarh School of Art took the portraits of Bani Thani as a standard of portrait images.
The Floating Rocks Of Rameshwaram
The Unsolved Mystery Of Mythology:
The mystery belongs to Rameshwaram in Tamil Nadu. There is the bridge of floating stones known as (Ram Sethu), across the Pamber Island of India to Mannar Island in Sri Lanka. Usually rocks don’t float on water but in this case, there is a long bridge of stones of about 30 Km long and 3Km wide bridge is floating between India and Sri Lanka. There is a strong belief in Hindu mythology that the bridge was constructed by Vanar Sena, who were under the leadership of the Lord Shri Ram. They all went to Sri Lanka by this bridge to rescue his wife Sita from Ravan.
There are many theories introduced to solve this mystery. But no one can come to a solid result for this floating stone bridge.
The Floating Rocks:
It is believed that in our mythology it is written that only that stone floats on the water on which the name of Lord Shri Ram was engraved. But scientists have their different believe so, there is a constant verbal dispute between scientists and people.
According to the people who believe in god and mythology have an opinion that the stones are floating only because of the name of Lord Shri Ram, because he is considered as the avatar of Lord Vishnu and has supernatural powers which makes him different from other humans.
And if we think from the scientists’ perspective, the story changes. There are mainly two theories believed to be applicable.
THEORY-1 (Pumice Rocks):
Actually, pumice rock is a stone, it is made from hot flowing lava from volcanoes. There is very high temperature in volcanoes of about (1600 degree C ), when the hot lava comes out of the volcano and meets cool air and cool water, the air and water get in the pores of rocks and later got freeze in the pores of the rock which makes the rocks light weighted, so it floats.
DRAWBACKS :
- The rocks found on Ram Sethu has not the same composition as of the pumice rocks.
- Also, the color of pumice rocks is white and grey generally but the rocks found on Ram Sethu has black color.
THEORY-2:
This theory is about stone having different densities, it is explained as the less dense part of the rock will touch the water surface and float on it easily because the density of the rock is smaller as compared to the water.
But this theory has also some drawbacks.
Never-Ending Discussion:
So, the topic of floating stones is a never-ending topic between scientists and the people who believe in mythologies and god.
So, keep it aside we just need to appreciate this wonder of nature and enjoy it by visiting there.
The Palace which challenged Gravity: Bara Imambara
All of us are fascinated by gravity-defying stuff, right? They just seem to urge us for a second thought about how everything could possibly have been arranged. Often there are clever tricks to achieve this illusion. But what if an entire palace is gravity-defying?
Bara Imambara: The Ancient Architecturing Marvel
This palace is an 18th-century construction situated at Lucknow, the capital of the state Uttar Pradesh of India. This was constructed when India was under the Mughal reign. Its architecture isn’t completely Mughal inspired one, rather a beautiful combo of some European elements fused with the Arabic style. It was built following a famine that struck the kingdom. The king ordered its construction to make employment available to poor farmers. Its construction was made under the guidance of the best architects and engineers at that time. It is said that the workers used to toil hard during the daytime, whereas the architects and engineers used to plan the technology and design at night, to avoid any kind of plagiarism. They wanted to keep their techniques as hard-core secrets.
How it defies gravity?
The reason why this palace is gravity-defying is that was built without using any peripheral or external support of beams or pillars. A 50 by 15 metres corridor was built by eight hollow spaces which are adjacent to the walls. Each space is different roof height. Any murmurs in this space echo up to the other end, into the balcony. It is due to such mesmerizing facts that its construction methods were kept a secret.
Not only this, many tunnels have been discovered from this palace which connects it to places like Delhi, Faizabad, and Allahabad. But, those have been now blocked for tourists as there was news of many explorers who went missing in an attempt to discover all the tunnels paths.
Also, its entrance isn’t a common entrance, but rather a maze, or labyrinth type construction. Hence it is advised to the tourists to always take a reliable guide with them. Getting lost in the halls is actually quite common here!
This ancient marvel is today known worldwide as the biggest structure without well-defined supports and without using metal or wood in its entire construction. It still attracts a lot of admirers and tourists each year to explore its secrets and wonders, and how its making is still a mystery today, in this modern world fuelled by the latest tech.
