Vishnu

Halebeedu rock cut temples are the architectural marvels of india. Each inch of space is carved with passion and perfection. To quote my Dad - If we have money - We can build 100 Pyramids, 100 great Walls and a dozen Taj Mahals but no one can replicate Belur in any part of the world as there is no Vishnu Vardhan to imagine it and no Jakkanna to carve it Jakkanna was the sculpture who carved it and i bet everyone knows about Michael Angelo while no one knows about Jakkanaa.[ Infact SS Rajamouli is called as Jakkanna in Telugu ] Vishnu Vardhan's wife Shantala Devi was a beautiful woman and a great dancer and many of the dancing sculptures in Halebeedu and Belur are modelled on her. So my Dad thought - if a girl is born is born - i will name her Shantala and if a boy is born I will name him Vishnu Vardhan Vishnu Vardhan's original name was Bitti Deva. He was a jain King. Ramanujacharya of VishistaAdvaitha fame, perhaps the most influential hindu guru after Sankara was touring India preaching his Vaishnava Bhakti tradition He converted BittiDeva into Sanathan Dharma and gave him the name Vishnu Vardhan [Blessing of Lord Vishnu] Ramanuja is for Sanathan Dharma what Thomas Acquinas is for Christianity He gave intellectual basis for Bhakti Tradition and popularised Vishnu or Vaishanava bhakti tradition. He brought back vigour and intellect to Sanatan Dharma and brought back Hinduism in most parts of South India which were under huge influence of Jainism and Buddhism. India was a great place at that time with thriving traditions of Saivism, Vaishnavism, Jainism and Buddhism. Srirangam temple, Tirupati Tirumala temples are all based on Ramanujacharya teachings Inspired by Ramanujcharya - Vishnu Vardhan built great temples of Halebeedu and Belur on Lord Vishnu and his Ten Avatars. Vishnu Vardhan capital was DwaraSamudra and Halebeedu temple which is in ruins today was original Dwarasamudra. It is more bigger and greater temple than well preserved Belur temple. 200 years after these great temples were built Allauddin Khilji came to power and changed everything - he sent Malik Kafur [Naib] to conquer south India in 1310. Malik Kafur [he was hindu who was castrated and converted to islam and sold as slave to Khilji.He is supposed to a lover of Khilji) .TO quote medieval historian Zainuddin Bharani - In those four or five years when the Sultan was losing his memory and his senses, he had fallen deeply and madly in love with the Malik Naib. He had entrusted the responsibility of the government and the control of the servants to this useless, ungrateful, ingratiate, sodomite] Kafur destroyed South India - Pandyas, Kakatiyas, HOysalas and Yadavas. He destroyed Hindu temples and ravaged South India. While he was destroying DwaraSamudra the local people covered Belur temple in Sand and hence he couldn't destroy it. Hence it survives to this day. And the more marvelous Dwarasamudra is lost for ever. Hence it is called as halebeedu [Old ruin] today Now tell me - Why do Hindus dont read about Ramanuja while every Christian reads Thomas Aquinas and defends Christianity based on his writings. His logic is taught in every university logic course. In fact i read Acquinas to learn logic. WHere are Ramanuja books in English or other languages ? The only person I know who can talk about Ramanuja is Kaza Venkat Father. Why are Indians not taught about Vishnu Vardhan or Belur while Shajahan and Tajmahal is given so much importance that many people in the world know only about India because of Taj Mahal. India has 100s of architectural wonders like Taj. But just as we reduced Indian freedom to one man Gandhi and made him Dad of Nation. We have reduced all our culture architecture to Taj Mahal and all our history to folklore of Mughal kings And we have totally forgotten our great philosophers. As an Indian i think everyone should see Belur in their life time and it is so unfortunate that Govt or tourism hardly gives any importance to it and they are not even maintianed properly.
from Dark Ritual http://ift.tt/2gozVNr