Chandresh Pandey is a sculptor based in Jaipur chose idol of Bhagwan Ram, Mata Sita and Laxman were selected for the Ayodhya Ram Mandir. The idols are 51 inches in height and are made from black stone.
The details were shared by Champat Rai, the General Secretary of Ayodhya Ram Mandir Trust who also added that the idols were very attractive to behold.
भगवान श्री रामलला की जो मूर्ति बनी है, वह पाँच वर्ष के बालक का स्वरूप है। मूर्ति 51 इंच की है, काले पत्थर की है, और बहुत ही आकर्षक बनी है। pic.twitter.com/yTRHqk0uYi
Chandresh Pandey was chosen as one of the three main sculptors of the Ram Mandir. This news was too shared by Champat Rai.
The first idol is of the Ram Lalla, which is being built using black stone by Chandresh.
The other two sculptors are responsible for creating two more sets of statues one of which is the set of 3 statues in Ram Darbar and the second statue is of Bhagwan Ram in his teenage years.
Champat Rai is the General Secretary of Ayodhya’s Ram Mandir Trust in 2020. Rai is also the International Vice President of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.
Early Life
Rai is a resident of Bijnor District in the Uttar Pradesh.
He was born in 1946 to father Rameshwar Prasad Bansal.
In early life, Champat Rai was influenced by the philosophy of RSS and had joined it since childhood.
Champat Rai was even jailed for 18 months (starting in 1975) during emergency when several non-congress politicians, media persons, and journalists, were forcefully imprisoned for having a different point of view than the then Congress Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Champat Rai, General Secretary of Ram Mandir Ayodhya
Ram Mandir Struggle
Champat Rai was one of the main litigants of the Ram Mandir legal struggle which resulted in a verdict that led to the creation of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya.
Rai on the Extreme Left Extending Ram Mandir Pran Pratistha Pujan Invite to PM Modi
Rai was among the few people who went to extend an invite to PM Modi for the Pran Pratishtha Pujan of the Ram Mandir.
He also clarified the issue of who was building Ram Lalla’s new idol. He shared that the idol was being built in black stone by Chandresh Pandey, a sculptor from Jaipur.
#NOTE: A Pran Pratistha Pujan is the process of consecrating a deity in a temple. It is believed that after the puja, the deity resides in the temple as a living God and not just as an idol. It is different than Bhumi Pujan which is done before the construction of a temple, house or place of business.
In the second battle of Anandpur fought between Sikhs and the Mughals, Aurangzeb’s generals Wazir Khan and Zaberdast Khan executed two children of Gobind Singh, the Tenth Sikh Guru. His son Ajit Singh was 17 years old (born 1687)and Jujhar Singh (born 1691) was 13 years old at their execution.
Battle of Anandpur
The battle of Anandpur was fought between Sikhs and Mughals who wanted to arrest the rise of Sikhs. Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb dispatched his three governor-generals Wazir Khan(Sirhind), Zaberdast Khan(Lahore) and Dilwaar Khan(Kashmir) along with the governor of Peshawar to seize Anandpur forts.
The siege took place between May – December 1704.
Their positions were:
Anandpur – Guru Gobind Singh
Fatehgarh – Uday Singh
Holgarh – Mokham Singh
Keshgarh – Ajit Singh
Lohgarh – Jujhar Singh
Each fort consisted of 500 men approximately.
Mughal Treachery
The Mughals and their allied, the Hill Rajas swore oath on Quran and cows that if they surrender, they would be unharmed.
Running out of rations and provisions, the Sikh Guru and their men decided for peace but were treacherously attacked when they came out.
Islamic Customs Followed by Mughals
It was a tradition during those times to force captives to accept Islam or face death otherwise.
Do you know that Christmas is celebrated on two days across the world. Or did you know that the date of birth of Jesus was not finalized until 221 CE. Or that Christmas became a major Christian Festival only after the 9th century
1. Dec 25 was a Roman Solstice Festival
Do you know that the day of Dec 25 every year was actually a Roman Festival names ” The Day of the Sun Reborn”. This festival marked the day of Winter Solstice when the sun was considered to have reborn as from this period, the days would get gradually longer till the Summer Solstice on June 21.
The original name of the festival was “dies solis invicti nati” which translated to the Day of Birth of the Unconquered Sun.
Sometimes I have heard arguments that early Christians differentiated themselves from Romans and would not appropriate a day meant for a Roman festival as Christmas day. However, the Council of Nicaea appropriated many such dates.
2. Two Christmas Days – Jan 7 and Dec 25
Diff between Gregorian and Julian Calendar
You might be surprised to know that the world celebrated Christmas on two different days. For Eastern Orthodox Christianity the day of the Christmas is not December 25 but January 7 every year.
The reason for the 13 day shift was that of use of Calendars. Roman Catholics follow the common Gregorian Calendar while the Eastern Orthodox Church follows the Julian Calendar which is currently 13 days ahead.
3. Dec 25 was Assumed to be the Birth of Jesus by Sextus Julius Africanus
Sextus Julius Africanus
Earlier, the birth day of Jesus was never identified until 221 CE when Sextus Julius Africanus, the traveler and an early Christianity follower identified the Jesus’s birth date on Dec 25.
Sextus also had a significant influence on the famous early Christian historian, Eusebius who is famously known as the author of
Biography of Emperor Constantine
Biography of Emperor Augustus
History of the Church
On the Life of Pamphilus
Chronicle
On the Martyrs
4. Christmas Celebrations Started After 9th Century
25th December was celebrated as Christmas day since 336 AD during the reign of Roman Emperor Constantine.
Further Till the 9th Century, Christmas was not even a major Christian Festival. The traditions of gifting within families was established much later in the 18th century.
The major Christian festivals before that era were Good Friday and Easter.
5. Christians Initially Opposed the Celebration of Jesus Birth
Early Christians opposed the celebrations of any martyr’s birthday as the focus was on their death and sacrifice and not on their birth.
The Gregorian calendar was created by Pope Gregory in 1528 CE to rectify the slipping ahead of the Julian Calendar which was the standard calendar of the Roman Empire and also the Catholic Church in Rome.
It is to be noted that the Eastern Orthodox Church in Greece and Eastern Europe still follow the Julian Calendar.
Julius Caesars Julian CalendarPope Gregory’s Gregorian Calendar
Origin of the Julian Calendar
The Julian Calendar was introduced by Julius Caesar in 45 BCE, it was the standard Roman Empire Calendar and was both used by the Roman State. It was used by Roman Catholic Church till 1528 AD.
Julius Caesar found that usage of several calendars in the Roman empire introduced several inaccuracies during his campaigns during the Roman Civil War.
Roman Civil War
A new calendar was introduced on the advice of Sosigenes, an Egyptian astronomer from Alexandria. He advised Caesar to use a solar calendar with 365 days and 6 hours length.
The calendar has 30 or 31 days usually but for February, it contained 28 days and in a leap year, 29 days. Because of confusion, the calendar was not established properly till 8 CE as Sosigenes had overestimated the actual length of the year by 11 min and 14 seconds.
Julius Caesar also had an idea that his calendar slipped ahead of time and added days to 46 BCE which took the total number of days in that year to 445.
Inaccuracy of the Julian Calendar
The Julian Calendar had two inaccuracies which led to an error in calculations over time.
Julian Calendar overestimates the length of a solar year by 11 minutes.
The no of extra days for leap years is more in Julian Calendar.
Let us understand in detail.
The Julian Calendar’s estimate of a solar year was fairly accurate at 365 days and 6 hours which is an overestimation by 11 minutes. These extra 11 minutes introduces an extra day every 131 years.
This caused the Julian Calendar to race ahead of time and miss the day for critical festivals. This overestimation would make solar and winter solstice to appear on different days over the years.
By the year of 1528 CE, the Julian Calendar was around 10 days ahead of the actual solstice events.
#DO YOU KNOW?
The current Julian Calendar is 13 days ahead of Gregorian Calendar which will become 14 days by the year 2100 CE. This introduces separate Christmas days for the Roman Catholics (Dec 25) and Eastern Orthodox (January 7).
Diff between Gregorian and Julian Calendar
Why the Gregorian Calendar was Introduced?
The Gregorian Calendar was introduced by Pope Gregory in the year of 1528 CE to rectify the inaccuracies of Julian calendar which rectified the measurement of Solar Year from Julian Calendar’s 365.25 days to 365.24 days.
How the Gregorian Calendar Rectifies Julian Calendar’s Slipping Ahead?
Gregorian Calendar rectified the way in which leap years were added to the calendar. In Julian calendar, every fourth year was a leap year. However, in the case of Gregorian Calendar, the leap years were removed from those years which were divisible by 100. However, for years which were divisible by 400, the leap year would still exist.
Let me explain this with 3 examples.
The year 2024 would be a Leap Year because it is divisible by 4.
The year 2100 would not be a leap year as 2100 is divisible by 4 and 100.
The year 2400 would be a leap year because it is divisible by 4, 100 and 400.
Vajranabha, also known as Vajra Nabha or Vajranabha (वज्रनाभ्), was the great-grandson of Shri Krishna, the grandson of Pradyumna, and the son of Aniruddha. He was one of the last surviving Yadu and succeeded King Aniruddha to the throne. He was said to be very much like his great-grandfather Krishna.
As for the literary sources that mention Vajranabha, they include:
Shrimadbhagavat
Harivanshpurana
Gargsanhita
Mahabharata
Vishnupurana
Skandapurana
Arjuna placed Vajranabha, the son of Krishna’s grandson Aniruddha, in charge of those Yadavas who had survived the internecine warfare that followed the destruction of Dwarka.
Gopal Bhar (also spelled as Bhand, Bhanr and Bhad) is the famous character in a series of folk tales which show him as the witty court official of the Nadia Zamindar Maharaja Krishna Chandra Roy.
His full name was Gopal Chandra Pramanik Ghumi.
Though his stories seem much similar to Tenali Rama and Birbal, yet the existence of such a court official could
Historical Records of Gopal Bhar
There has been no historical records of Gopal Bhar in the books and magazines that I read so far for the contemporary period.
The Role of Zamindars in Bengal (1707-1772), February 1973, Shirin Akhtar, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
The Calcutta Review: 1872, The Territorial Aristocracy of Bengal – The Nadia Raj
Though there has been several mentions for Maharaja Krishnna Chandra Ray, yet there seems to be no mention of Gopal Bhar.
Krishna Chandra Ray was the maharaja or zamindar of Nadia Zamindari (now Krishnanagar, Nadia District, W.B.) from 1728 – 1782 (see page 67-68). The raja was known for his resistance against the Mughal Rule and expansion of his ancestral Nadia zamindari through purchase of lands or by the use of force.
Area Under Control
Maharaja Krishna Chandra Ray’s area under control included 84 parganas and the area extended to 3151 square miles (approx. 8161 sq. km.) which is similar in size to the current day Indian State of Goa.. The boundaries of his realm was bounded in the north by Murshiadabad, the coastline of the Bay of Bengal by the south, Dhulpura in the east and by the Bhagirathi River on the west.
I have sourced the above information from the book “The Territorial Aristocracy of Bengal: The Nadia Raj“, which was referenced by the Role of the Zamindars in Bengal (1707-1772), report by Shirin Akhtar, Department of Philosophy, The University of London.
Krishna Chandra Ray in The Battle of Plassey
Krishna Chandra Ray is believed to be a part of the group which led to the defeat of Siraj ud Daulah, the Nawab of Bengal in the battle of Plassey (also known as Palashi). The group consisted of the following members:
Jagat Seth
Mir Jafar
Omichand
Rai Durlabh
The battle of Plassey (Palashi) is considered as a key battle that led to the establishment of British Raj in India.
Krishna Chandra Ray in Popular Culture
Maharaja Krishna Chandra Ray is the same king in the Gopal Bhar Stories, a popular folk tale series where Gopal Bhar is a witty official in the court of King Krishna Chandra Ray.
Though historicity of the stories could be disputed in the same regard as Akbar-Birbal. The only original story of the nature is known to be of Tenali Rama who actually was a court official in the court of Emperor Krishnadevaraya of the Vijayanagar Empire.
Sony Aath’s Gopal Bhar
The stories were further popularized with Sony Aath’s animated show “Gopal Bhar”.
Gopal Bhar Movie by Amal Sur Starring Santosh Dutta
The movie Gopal Bhar released on 17 April 1980 was a Bangla movie starred by Santosh Dutta, Robi Ghosh, Tarun Kumar, Asit Baran and others. The movie was directed by Amal Sur.
Santosh Dutta who played the role of Gopal Bhar was also a criminal lawyer and had a delicate balance between his acting and criminal cases often staying late in the night to study his cases before court appearance.
