Glass painting

My designed ads for spykar jeans contest

Below are the links for the 4 ads:

http://brandpotion.com/bring-it-on/prints/478

http://brandpotion.com/bring-it-on/prints/480

http://brandpotion.com/bring-it-on/prints/479

http://brandpotion.com/bring-it-on/prints/521

My Trip to Palitana

Me & Ashish started out on December 24, took a bus to Ahemdabad as our train tickets didn’t get confirmed. We reached there next day morning at 9:00 am. There were seven of our friends Meghana, Nimesh, Neha, Rakesh, Rohit, Jinal and Shweta who were joining us from Mumbai, we all met at Ahemdabad. We had booked a Toofan (a 13-seater vehicle) for visiting following temples, which were around Palitana for next three days:

1. Aglod (Nearly 151cms, high, white-colored idol of Bhagawan Vaupujyaswami.)
2. Koba (White-colored idol of Bhagawan Mahavir Swami)
3. Mahudi (53 cms high, white-colored idol of Bhagawan Padmaprabh)
4. Mehsana (Nearly 365 cms. high, white-colored idol of Bhagawan Simandhar Swami)
5. Patan (Nearly 120 cms. high and white-coloured idol of Bhagawan Panchasara Parshwanath)
6. Shankheshwar (Nearly 182 cms. high, white-colored idol of Bhagawan Shankheshvar Parshanath)

On 26th afternoon we reached Ayodhyapuram, which is at a distance of 48 kms from Palitana. It has a huge stone idol of Bhagwan Adinath, measuring 23 feet in height. You just feel like getting mesmerized by seeing the idol. It has been carved out from a solid piece of marble rock brought all the way from Rajasthan in one piece, weighing about 250 tons. There is a story behind how this temple has been buildup it goes like this… some saints on their way to Palitana they happen to pass by the place where today’s Ayodhyapuram Tirth stands. Suddenly they saw that a long serpent while crossing the road came under a speedy car. They came near the serpent and saw that the middle part of the serpent’s body was terribly crumpled. With care and caution they took it aside and started reciting Navkar Mahamantra. It went on for ten to fifteen minutes. During this period the serpent left this world. At that time they got divine indication from Shatrunjay Giriraj, which was the reason behind building up this place.

After darshan as we where about to start for Palitana, we noticed the back tire of our vehicle has got punctured. Now the task is to change the tire. Rohit, Rakesh and the driver Ravi started it and then joined the other 3 drivers from the other buses halted at the temple. The teamwork helped and we resumed our journey in 30 minutes. We thanked God and also the bus drivers who helped us.

Ashish decided to do a ‘ tivihaar’, i.e. not to eat anything after sunset, just 1 or 2 glasses of water until next day till he climbs up Shetrunjaya hill and comes down. Many of Jains, do follow the same routine in their day-to-day life, they don’t eat or drink before and after sunset.

We reached Palitana at around 9:30 pm, went to a Seth Keshavji Nayak Dharamshala and slept. Next morning by 4.30am we started our yatra to Shetrunjaya to meet Adinath dada. On our way to Taleti (bottom of Shetrunjaya hill) I was been told that, a huge number of devotees come there, as they consider it to be the most sacred. No one is allowed to sleep overnight including the priest, because the temple city has been built as an abode for the Gods. The code for the climbers is stringent; food should neither be eaten nor carried on the way. The descent must begin before it is evening, for no soul can remain atop the sacred mountain during the night.

We reached Taleti and offered our prayer. To reach the peak there are over 3500 steps. It was all dark, cold, there were numerous stars shinning in the sky atop of the hill, which was just the source of light. On our way there are many small and large temples, Chaumukh temple is one of the most important temples, with its four-faced deity of Adinath. The climb was very strenuous as the steps where steep but we reached the peak in 1 hour 30 minutes, considered to be average speed. On reaching the peak one comes to the shrine of Angarsha, the Muslim saint. In the Muslim age, a Muslim King erected it for protection of the tirth. The door of the main temple was not yet open. We sat outside; there were around 100 people along with us waiting. The door got open and we along with other rushed inside to get a darshan of Bhagwan Adinath.

At the top of the hill, it is like heaven and the view is divine. There are over 800 temples on the peak, which are divided into 9 tuks. The mountain is associated with Rishabhdev, the first tirthankar, also known as Adinath. It is believed that 20 tirthankars attained nirvan here. There were two kinds of puja practiced: Kesar (sandalwood) and Pakshal (bathing god with holy water) that one can offer. We bathed god Adinath with holy water. For Jains touching God with their hands is of great significant that people bid in money for performing the first puja.

We visited all 9 tuks. A tuk is like a main temple surrounded by small temples. We were so much exhausted till we reached the bottom; we drank 2 glasses of sugarcane juice, ate watermelon and then cashed our coupons for snacks at a bhojnalaya. It was around 12:30, we ate lunch and went back to dharamshala, slept for a while. In the evening took hot water bath and went out for some shopping and visited the Jain museum. There we saw cloth paintings, manuscripts, palm leaf books, book covers, ivory sculpture and paintings on ivory and figurines. It was all-amazing.

On December 29, we went to Kadambagiri (200 cms. high, white-colored idol of Bhagawan Adishvar), which is also a tirth like Palitana. We return to Ahemdabad, our train tickets didn’t got confirmed. We took a bus till Mumbai and then cab till Pune.

I am a Hindu, married to a Jain, for me initially when we decided to visit Palitana was like we were going to any other place but it turned out to be very different, it was a god experience! I am grateful to Ashish for this experience and also to Nimesh Shah for organizing and planning it.

HAND PAINTED BOX

 

WATER-COLOUR-PAINTINGS

Warli-Painting

Warli paintings is a traditonal painting which shows a normal work day in the life of the Warli tribals. It originated in Indian state Maharashtra. This type of painting uses minimal color as none was drawn to attract attention.

Paper-Quiling

Paper Quilling is also known as paper filigree, is a traditional art of creating design by shaping and rolling thin stripes of paper.

I have displayed some of my Quiling work below.