Delhi is the capitol of India. It has 9 million inhabitants and it
is the third biggest Indian city. Delhi has two parts - New Delhi,
which was the capital of Muslim kings and New Delhi, which was built
by British.
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New Delhi is considered
to be a place where Indraprastha (a capitol of Pandavas) was located
5000 years ago. It is very old city and Indraprastha was about 3
km south from New Delhi. |
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The Yamuna river used to
flow here at that time, but now the riverbed is more to the south.
Foreign invaders many times attacked Delhi. It was the capitol of
Muslim Mogul rulers. British moved their capitol from Calcutta in
1931. |
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Red fort (Lal-qila)
This immense fort was built by Sah Jahan. Aurangzeb was ruling
here.
At Dasasvamedha-ghat, king Yudhisthir is said to perform asvamedha-yajna
(the horse sacrifice) after the battle on Kuruksetra.
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Purana-qila or „Old
fort” is one of the oldest monuments in Delhi. In 16-th century
it was rebuilt by emperor Humyun and Afghan king Ser Sah Suri. |
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Indraprastha, Purana-qila.
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Laksmi-Narayan Temple
It was built by Raj Baldeo Birla in 1938. It is very popular temple
in whole Delhi.
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While traveling India one
can see many similar sights and Delhi is not an exception. |
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ISKCON temple was finished in 1996.
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In the temple there are nice dioramas (sculptures with paintings)
illustrating basic points from Vedic philosophy.
This form of explaining Vedic philosophy was preferred by Bhaktisiddhanta
Sarasvati and Srila Prabhupada continued in this tradition.
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One of the nicest diorama exhibitions is in Detroit, sponsored
by Prabhupada's disciple Ambarish das (descendant of famous Henry
Ford).
In India there are plenty of cheap skillful artists and dioramas
are not so expensive. This is one of the reasons why the diorama
in Delhi is so nice.
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Temple at night. |
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Deities in
the temple are Sri Sri Radha Partha-sarathi. "Partha"
is "the son of Pritha" or Arjuna and "Partha-sarathi"
is the name of Krishna who agreed to became Arjuna's chariot driver
during the battle of Kruruksetra. Some gaudiya-vaishnavas consider
combination of Radharani (Krishna's consort from Vrindavana) and
Krishna as a king in Dvaraka (Partha-sarathi) to be improper (rasa-bhasa)... |
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Radharani never leaves Vrindavan and Krishna's consorts in Dvaraka
are His queens like Rukmini. Combination of Ruknimi and Dvarakadish
is undoubtedly proper, but Radha Partha-sarathi is a subject to
different opinions among gaudiya-vaishnavas.
Similar case happened in America. Devotees wanted Deities to
be named Radha Dvaraka-ishvara (Krishna as the Lord of Dvaraka).
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Sita, Rama, Lakshman, Hanuman |
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Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai.
Srila Prabhupada on the left, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati on the
right.
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Siva and Parvati in another
temple in Delhi. |
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Hanuman. |
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Near Delhi one could see a simple arrangement for production
of gour. Gour is a raw sugar made from sugar cane.
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Grounded sugar cane is cooked
down into golden hue gour. |
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Gour is healthier then refined sugar, but it doesn't last that
long. That is why it is often transported to sugar refinery for
further processing.
It is better to cook gour in a little water before eating.
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Motor-riksha is a cheaper
version of Indian taxi. Even cheaper is bicycle-riksha and sometimes
one can see even running riksha-vallas on the street of Delhi. |
