Makar Sankranti

Makar Sankranti is a Hindu festival celebrated in almost all parts of India, Nepal and Bangladesh in many cultural forms. It is a harvest festival that falls on the Magh month of the Nepali calendar (Hindu Solar Calendar).

Makar Sankranti marks the transition of the sun into the zodiacal sign of Makara (Capricorn) on its celestial path. The day is also believed to mark the arrival of spring in India and the Magh month in Nepal and is a traditional event. Makara Sankranthi is a solar event making it one of the few Hindu festivals which fall on the same date in the Nepali calendar every year: 14 January, with some exceptions when the festival is celebrated on 15 January.

Date and significance

Makar Sankranti is observed at the beginning of the Capricorn period under the sidereal zodiac, either 14 or 15 January, and signifies the arrival of the summer season.

Makar Sankranti and the Winter Solstice

Many Indians conflate this festival with the Winter Solstice, and believe that the sun ends its southward journey (Sanskrit: Dakshinayana) at the Tropic of Capricorn, and starts moving northward (Sanskrit: Uttarayaana) towards the Tropic of Cancer, in the Nepalese Hindu month of Poush] on this day in mid-January.

Sankranti

Sankranti (Sanskrit: संक्रान्ति saṁkrānti) means transmigration of the Sun from one Rāshi (constellation of the zodiac in Indian astronomy) to the next. Hence, there are 12 Sankrantis in a year. Each Sankranti is marked as the beginning of a month in the sidereal solar calendars followed in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana,Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Odisha, Punjab, Gujarat. On the other hand, in the sidereal solar Bengali calendar and Assamese calendar, a Sankranti is marked as the end of each month and the day following as the beginning of a new month.

Important Sankrantis

Devotional Songs

Devotional Songs is a studio album by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Party released in 1992.

Track listing

External links

Grooveshark streaming version of "Devotional Songs".

Gayatri Mantra

The Gāyatrī Mantra is a highly revered mantra from the Vedas. Like all Vedic mantras, the Gayatri mantra is considered not to have an author, and like all other Vedic mantras, is believed to have been revealed to Brahmarshi Vishvamitra. It is a verse from a sukta of the Rigveda (Mandala 3.62.10). Gāyatrī is the name of the Vedic meter in which the verse is composed. As the verse can be interpreted to invoke Savitr, it is also called the Sāvitrī mantra. Its recitation is traditionally preceded by oṃ and the formula bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ, known as the mahāvyāhṛti, or "great (mystical) utterance".

The Gayatri mantra is repeated and cited very widely in Vedic literature and praised in several well-known classical Hindu texts such as the Manusmṛti ("there is nothing greater than the Savitri (Gayatri) Mantra.", Manu II, 83), the Harivamsa, and the Bhagavad Gita. The mantra is an important part of the upanayana ceremony for young males in Hinduism, and has long been recited by dvija men as part of their daily rituals. Modern Hindu reform movements spread the practice of the mantra to include women and all castes and its use is now very widespread.

Bhakthi TV

Bhakthi TV is the first 24-hour satellite devotional TV channel in Telugu which caters to people of all religions.

It is a sister channel of NTV. It was launched on 30 August 2007, the same day that NTV was officially launched.

It is south India's first Telugu devotional channel. Its programming includes fiction and nonfiction programs. It broadcasts daily devotional news, weekly special programs, devotional programs, and special programs relating to major festivals specific to the Telugu language-speaking community and the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Bhakthi TV focuses on devotion, spirituality, religion and moral values.

N. D. Tiwari launched Bhakthi TV, KCR launched the Bhakthi TV website and T. Subbarami Reddy launched the Bhakthi TV theme.

References

External links

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