'Royal' wedding in Maheshwar: Holkar scion's marriage to Godrej family girl draws attention

The era of princely states ended long ago, 68 years to be precise.

But many of them continue to be referred as 'royals' and any event in these families draw attention of the masses.

In Central India, descendants of many states including Gwalior [Scindia] and Indore [Holkar] still have clout.

Even, the self-styled 'royals' of other states like Rewa, Dewas are visible in public space.

The scions of some small states have earned more fame because of their involvement in politics.

An example is Raghogarh [Digvijaya Singh] that was a small principality, while many other big states [like Bhopal] have lost their clout because they failed to enter either business or politics and frittered away their legacy.

Recently, the Holkar dynasty was again in news as a scion of the former rulers of the erstwhile state, 'Prince' Yashwant Rao Holkar III was to get married with Nayarika [of Godrej family]. The wedding took place in Maheshwar, an ancient temple town, which was capital of Holkar state.

All the rituals were performed elaborately. There was media attention, as expected. All the events drew coverage in local channels and newspapers.

The marriage was a mix of tradition and modernity.

Villagers from the Holkar's native village were also invited.

Also, in Nazarbagh premises, the reception was held.

The Holkar family met everyone and interacted with other 'royals' as well as the rural folk who had attended the marriage.

Politicians, businessmen, socialites and a large number of people from outside the country, also came for the marriage.

Maheshwar was the capital of Ahilya Bai Holkar, the famous woman ruler of the dynasty.

All the rituals and 'puja' were held as per the family's age-old traditions.

After the marriage, the couple--Yashwant Rao and Nayarika, sought blessings of everybody.

They went for boat ride in the river. For days, it remained front page news for newspapers in Madhya Pradesh. See more photos of the marriage below.

Bohra Muslims' procession on Id Milad-un-Nabi in Madhya Pradesh

On the occasion of Id Miladun Nabi, Muslims across India take out processions.

The unique aspects of local culture are visible in each region.

The Dawoodi Bohra Muslims also take our similar processions in states where they have strong population.

These regions include Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

The sect follows its own calendar and hence they celebrate festivals one or two days ahead of the day when the other Muslims hold celebrations.

These are photographs of the Id Milad-un-Nabi procession taken out by the Bohras in Bhopal. There are scouts, the dummers, the buggees, kids riding camels and horses, in the spectacle. The photographs are taken by Shaan Bahadur for DainikBhaskar.com

Jainism in India: When thousands of Jains gather to celebrate Panchkalyanak Gajrath festival

Jainism is an ancient religion and though it is an Indic religion, not many people are aware about Jain rituals and festivals.

One of the reasons is that Jains are a small minority, which is scattered across the country. In areas where Jains form a substantial population, the festivals and rituals are celebrated at a large scale.

These include Gujarat, Rajasthan, Malwa and Bundelkhand regions of Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and some parts of Maharashtra.

The Bundelkhand region of UP also has sizable Jain concentration, especially, Lalitpur, Jhansi and nearby small towns.

Panchkalyanak Gajrath Mahotsava

The 'Panch-kalyanak' parva is organised when a new Jinalaya [Jain place of worship, commonly termed Jain temple] is built or when the new idols are consecrated in an existing temple.

Thousands come from far and wide to attend the event. The rituals are quite fascinating and long.

Also, the immense wealth of the community is also on display during these programmes. People spend huge money to become 'Indra' and 'Indrani' [to enact lives of Tirathankaras as per Jain mythology, texts].

In MP, the Panchkalyanak is always associated with Gajrath--chariots pulled by elephants. 

Also, there are such festivals like 'Janm-Kalyanak' to commemorate the births of Tirthankars.

Jains believe that there are 24 Tirthankaras, the first being Adinath and the last being Vardhaman Mahavir.

In these 'parva', the birth and other events of the life of the Tirthankara, are enacted by the devotees.

There are songs and dance apart from religious rites. The monks [Jain munis] deliver lectures and discourses too.

Jainism is as ancient a religion as Buddhism because Lord Mahavir was a near-contemporary of Lord Buddha. There were three great teachers of the era--Siddhartha Gautam [Buddha], Mahavira and Makkali Gosala. Gosala's religion, Ajivika, died nearly 600 years ago.

As far as Buddhism and Jainism are concerned, Jains insist that the religion is much older.
The Jains say that their last Tirthankar, Mahavir, was Buddha's contemporary. And, the earlier Tirthankars lived thousands of years ago.

In fact, the Jain texts suggest that India got its name, Bharat, from the first Jain Tirthankar Rishabhdev's son.

Rishabh is also called Adinath.
Jainism didn't spread much outside India.

After Adi Sankara led revival of Hinduism, both Jainism and Buddhism retreated.

While Buddhism disappeared and gained some ground in 20th century, Jainism survived.

It wasn't much visible but remain alive in certain regions as an esoteric religion, making itself more compatible and as part of Hinduism.

The Gajrath rituals are elaborate and interesting. If you haven't seen them, you have missed a part of unique Indian culture.

*A report on Panchkalyanak Gajrath Mahotsava in Chanderi, MP. Read
*A report about similar event organised in Saharanpur, UP. Read
*A video link about Panchkalyanak-Gajrath in Jharkhand. SEE

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Seeing a sallekhana: Jain woman's fast to death in Madhya Pradesh

Muslims hold protest marches against Hindu Mahasabha leader but do these demonstrations serve purpose?

Tens of thousands of Muslims took to the streets in Indore to protest self-styled Hindu Mahsabha leader Kamlesh Tiwari's controversial statement.

Earlier, in Bhopal, a massive protest took place at Iqbal Maidan.

Besides, in towns like Raisen, Betul, Harda, similar protests have been held.

Initially, the protests took place in UP. Later, the protests began in other cities across India. Mahasabha has dissociated itself from Tiwari now. [Also, Tiwari has been arrested. He is the same person who had announced a reward on Owaisi's head]

It is a democratic right to hold protest and demonstrations. But what's the point when Tiwari was already arrested. Of course, it is one's right to take out processions, if you feel hurt.

Now coming to the issue of why these protests hurt Muslims. In Indore, during the demonstration, there was disorder, ruckus and some youths resorted to damaging vehicles. This was duly condemned by Muslim groups.

However, a section of media, painted a negative picture of Muslims. Though incidents in which right-wing groups brandish swords on 'Shaurya Diwas' don't lead to panic, image of Muslims on streets, prompted them to come up with extremely critical coverage.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         
This gives the impression that Muslims come out on the streets only on emotive issues. 
If Muslims were really hurt, shouldn't they have used legal option, like filing FIRs against Tiwari.

In case, police didn't register the case, the FIRs could have been filed through courts.

This is done by filing private complaints, so that it would have taught him a lesson to avoid provocation. But these protests are taken as show of strength by other communities and the purpose is also not served.

People like Tiwari get more attention because of these huge protests. One wondered, if similar protests, will be held on issues like promise of reservation to Muslims in UP or implementation of Sachar panel recommendations?

Dalit group's campaign to press for rebuilding Babri Masjid in Ayodhya even as Muslims' hopes fade

Now, it has been 23 years, since Babri Masjid was demolished in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992.

In the past, Muslim groups held demonstrations and protests on the anniversary of the mosque's demolition.

But over the years, there has been a decline in such protests. Except in a few cities like Delhi and Hyderabad, there are no major rallies.

Interestingly, while a large section of Muslims have now reconciled to the status quo and don't have any hope about reconstruction of mosque on the site, Dalit groups have been running the campaign in Uttar Pradesh (UP).

In this photo above, the graffiti on the wall says, 'Ab Dalito.n ki majburi hai, Babri masjid zaroori hai'. The organisation is Babri Masjid Nav-Nirman Sena which has district level chiefs in Uttar Pradesh.

Dr Bhai Tej Singh, who heads Ambedkar Samaj Party, has been a moving force behind the Babri Masjid Navnirman Sena, which was cretaed a few years ago.

The Sena president Dr Jagbir Singh affirmed that his organisation would continue to raise voice and participate in the struggle for building Babri Masjid, and will extend full cooperation to the Muslim brethren in this movement.

On December 6, 1992, Babri Masjid was razed in Ayodhya.

The then, PM, PV Narasimha Rao, had come on TV, and promised that the mosque would be built again at the same spot.

However, it was a lie. He lied to crores of Indians in his message to nation.

Muslims have trust in law and expected that mosque would be reconstructed, but it couldn't happen. With passing years, the hope too faded that this would ever happen.