Peeping into the Arabian Sea, nestling between Alibag and Murud, the popular tourist spots of Mumbaikars, is a world much unknown to the most of Maharashtra – Korlai.

Korlai is a 2 faced village, both by its geography and its soul. Both sides of the village are straddled by the sea, with the marathi fisher-folks on one side, and the indo-portuguese speaking villagers on the other side.

Standing prominent on the rocky headland side of the village is the 16th century Korlai fort, built by the Portuguese. Accounts, though hazy, says that it was originally ‘Castle Curlew’, built by Felipe Mascarenhas who was the 26th Viceroy of Portuguese India. When it was functional, the fort was protected on the inland side by a ditch, and accessible only by a drawbridge.

One of the interesting pieces of work inside the Korlai fort is the St Mathew’s church built circa 1630. Though now it is an abandoned, idling edifice, its features still give out the strategies and thoughts gone behind its construction.
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Tags: alibag, arabian sea, beach, castle curlew, church, felipe mascarenhas, fish, fort, korlai, korlai fort, maharashtra, marathi, murud, portugal, portuguese, portuguese india, pune, revdanda, sea, st mathews church, village

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The ancient (5~10^th cent. AD) rock-cut caves of Ellora were oblivious to the outside world for several centuries - until they were redisovered in the early 19th century. In these caves are the goddesses, frozen in time, assuming their ultimate postures in the form of sculptures …

Cave 29. Parvati.
The brahminical caves of Ellora are Siva-centric and hence figures of his consort, Parvati, are seen in various forms. When she is with Siva, she appears homely and bashful. As an independent goddess, she is seen slaying the demons.

The female figures of Ellora – with small faces, firm and full breasts, narrow waist, wide hips and long thighs – are a treat for the eye and the senses. These sculptures follow certain guidelines for body proportions (iconometry). The iconometric texts suggest that the outer corners of the eyes, the breasts and hips should be slightly exaggerated than the actual measurement. The close set breasts should press each other tightly that even a lotus fibre could not pass through them. The vulva should be shaped like the leaf of the sacred fig tree. Most of the female figures, use diaphanous (thin and transparent) drapery which reveals all their charms, the beauty of every curve, even of the genitals.

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Tags: ajanta, aurangabad, bhanga, breasts, caves, charanandri, drapery, dwibhanga, elephanta, ellora, female, fertlity, fig tree, ganga, genitals, goddess, hinduism, iconometry, jain, jainism, kakde, kurma, literature, madhya, maharashtra, makara, manhood, nagpur, navel, ornaments, parvati, pose, rock-cut caves, sculpture, sculptures, shiva, siddhayika, siva, thesis, thighs, tiara, tribhanga, verul leni, vihara, vulva, woman, womanhood, world heritage site, yamuna

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Chaityas are buddhist prayer halls that house a stupa. The word chaitya has its roots in sanskrit chita ~ meaning a pyre or a pile of ashes. The ancient rock-cut buddhist caves of Ajanta were built during the 2^nd century BC ~ 6^th century AD. All these caves and sculptures are carved out of the rocky hills of Ajanta. They start carving from top of the hill and reach the bottom, and hence do not make use of scaffolds for support.

In the next four chaitya images, you can see how buddhism evolved during the period, from the early hinayana style to the mahayana style of buddhism. Out of the 30 caves of ajanta, 9, 10, 19, 26 and 29 are chaitya grihas and the remaining caves are viharas, carved out of a horse-shoe shaped rock-cliff valley.

Ajanta Cave 10. Thought to be the oldest chaitya hall at Ajanta (2^nd century BC). During the early hinayana period, stupa is the centrepiece and no idols are revered.

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Tags: ajanta, ajanta caves, ajintha, architecture, aurangabad, bedsa, bedse, bedse caves, buddha, buddhism, buddhist caves, caves, chaitya, chaitya griha, chita, hinayana, iconography, karla, karla caves, karle, maharashtra, mahayana, painting, prayer hall, pune, pyre, rock-cut caves, sculptures, stupa, theravada, travel

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It is lemony, and it is a migrant. Migration could be one of its strategy to deal with adverse seasonal changes, like the tropical rainfall. It also exhibits seasonal dimorphism: dark yellow colors(form crocale) in wet summer season and pale yellow colors (form pomane) in dry winter season. It is one of the mechanisms by which insects cop up with adverse seasonal changes. It could be either to adjust body temperature and metabolic rate or as a means for better camouflage.
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Tags: body temperature, butterfly, camouflage, catopsilia, catopsilia pomona, common emigrant, crocale, dimorphism, emigrant, fabricius, lemon emigrant, lepidoptera, lonar, maharashtra, metabolic rate, migrant, migration, pieridae, pomona, rienks, seasonal changes, temperature, western ghats

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The jungle babblers are called seven sisters as they are gregarious (social, group forming) in nature and always appear in groups of around 7 birds (6~10). They also display sentinel (guard) behaviour which usually involves one or two members from the babbler group keeping watch, up in the branches, while the rest of the group search for food in the safety of the bushes.  If there is any threat, the guard on the upper branch squeals out, which is passed down to the other members, and they all fly away.

Jungle babblers can be easily identified from a distance by the chit chat and playful squeaky noise they make. Watch out next time, they are almost everywhere in India.

Species: Turdoides striatus somervillei
English: Jungle Babbler; Hindi: Saat bhai; Malayalam: Poothankeeri, Kariyilappada
Location: Lonar, Buldhana, Maharashtra
Date: 21 Feb 2011

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Tags: babbler, behaviour, birds, jungle babbler, lonar, maharashtra, sentinel, seven sisters, turdoides striatus, turdoides striatus somervillei

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