title: John Laurens

text: Laurens returned from France in time to see the French fleet arrive and to join Washington in Virginia at the Siege of Yorktown. He was given command of a battalion of light infantry on October 1, 1781, when its commander was killed. Laurens, under the command of Colonel Alexander Hamilton, led the battalion in the storming of Redoubt No. 10.


title: John Laurens

text: British troops surrendered on October 17, 1781, and Washington appointed Laurens as the American commissioner for drafting formal terms of the British surrender. Louis-Marie, Vicomte de Noailles, a relative of Lafayette's wife, was chosen by Rochambeau to represent the interests of France. At Moore House on October 18, 1781, Laurens and the French commissioner negotiated terms with two British representatives, and the articles of capitulation were signed by General Cornwallis the following day.


title: John Laurens

text: Laurens returned to South Carolina, where he continued to serve in the Continental Army under General Nathanael Greene until his death. As head of Greene's "intelligence department", stationed on the outskirts of the city near Wappoo Creek, Laurens created and operated a network of spies who tracked British operations in and around Charleston, and was given responsibility for guarding Greene's lines of secret communication with the British-occupied city.


title: John Laurens

text: On August 27, 1782, at the age of 27, Laurens was shot from his saddle during the Battle of the Combahee River, as one of the last casualties of the Revolutionary War. Laurens died in what General Greene described sadly as "a paltry little skirmish" with a foraging party, only a few weeks before the British finally withdrew from Charleston.


title: John Laurens

text: Laurens had been confined to bed at Wappoo Creek with a raging fever for several days, possibly due to malaria. When he learned that the British were sending a large force out of Charleston to gather supplies, he left his sickbed, "wrote a hurried note to Gen. Greene, and, in disregard of his orders and the important duties with which he had been charged – a practice which the loose discipline of the American forces rendered not unusual – put off for the scene of action."


title: John Laurens

text: On August 26, Laurens reported to General Mordecai Gist near the Combahee River. Gist had learned that 300 British troops under Major William Brereton had already captured a ferry and crossed the river, in search of rice to feed their garrison. Gist sent a detachment with orders to attack the British before sunrise the next morning. Laurens was given orders, at his own request, to take a small force further downriver to man a redoubt at Chehaw Point, where they could fire on the British as they retreated.


title: John Laurens

text: Laurens and his troops stopped for the night at a plantation house near the Combahee River. Laurens got little or no sleep, instead "spending the evening in a delightful company of ladies... [and] turned from this happy scene only two hours before he was to march down the river". With his command, Laurens left the plantation at about 3 o'clock on the morning of August 27.


title: John Laurens

text: Leading a force of fifty Delaware infantrymen, and an artillery captain with a howitzer, Laurens rode toward Chehaw Point. However, the British had anticipated their maneuvers; before Laurens could reach the redoubt, 140 British soldiers had prepared an ambush along the road, concealed in tall grass about one mile from his destination.


title: John Laurens

text: When the enemy rose to fire, Laurens ordered an immediate charge, despite the British having superior numbers and the stronger position. Gist was only two miles away, and quickly approaching with reinforcements. According to William McKennan, a captain under Laurens's command, Laurens appeared "anxious to attack the enemy previous to the main body coming up," gambling that his troops, "although few in numbers, [would be] sufficient to enable him to gain a laurel for his brow" before the end of the fighting. McKennan's opinion was that Laurens "wanted to do all himself, and have all the honor."


title: John Laurens

text: As Laurens led the charge, the British immediately opened fire, and Laurens fell from his horse fatally wounded. Gist's larger force arrived in time to cover a retreat, but was unable to prevent costly losses, including three American dead.


title: John Laurens

text: After Laurens's death, Colonel Tadeusz Kościuszko, who had been a friend of Laurens, came from North Carolina to take his place in the final weeks of battle near Charleston, also taking over Laurens's intelligence network in the area.


title: John Laurens

text: Laurens was buried near the site of the battle, at William Stock's plantation where he had spent the evening before his death. After Henry Laurens returned from imprisonment in London, he had his son's remains moved and reinterred on his own property, the Mepkin Plantation.


title: John Laurens

text: The Laurens family sold their plantation in the 19th century, and in 1936 it was purchased by publisher Henry Luce and his wife Clare Boothe Luce. In 1949, the Luces donated a large part of the former plantation, including an extensive landscape garden, to the Trappists for use as a monastery. As Mepkin Abbey and the Mepkin Abbey Botanical Garden, located near Moncks Corner, South Carolina, the site is open to the public, including the Laurens family graveyard on the monastery grounds.


title: John Laurens

text: On October 26, 1776, Laurens married Martha Manning in London. Her father, one of Henry Laurens's business agents, was a mentor and family friend whose home Laurens had frequently visited during his years in London. Laurens wrote to an uncle, "Pity has obliged me to marry", an unplanned marriage being necessary to preserve his honor, the reputation of the six-month pregnant Martha, and the legitimacy of their child.


title: John Laurens

text: Laurens and his new wife moved from London to a home in Chelsea, but Laurens was zealous in his patriotism and unwilling to remain in England, believing that honor and duty required him to fight in the American Revolution. In December 1776, he sailed for Charleston. His pregnant wife, unable to risk a months-long journey by sea during wartime, stayed behind with her family in London.


title: John Laurens

text: Laurens's only child, their daughter Frances Eleanor Laurens (1777–1860), was born and baptized on February 18, 1777. Laurens' father-in-law wrote to him that the infant had "undergone much pain, & misery by a swelling in her hip, & thigh, I believe from a hurt by the carelessness of the nurse". Fanny was not expected to live, but by July 1777, she had recovered from a successful surgery to her hip. At the age of eight, after the loss of both parents, Fanny was brought to Charleston in May 1785, and was raised there by John Laurens's sister Martha Laurens Ramsay and her husband. Against the wishes of the Ramsays, Fanny eloped in 1795 with Francis Henderson, a Scottish merchant. Later in life, she was married to James Cunnington, and died in South Carolina at the age of 83.


title: John Laurens

text: Laurens had one grandson, Francis Henderson Jr. (1797–1847), a South Carolina lawyer who died young after struggling with alcoholism, and who did not marry or have children.


title: John Laurens

text: As a young man in Geneva, from ages 16 to 19, Laurens "never had difficulty attracting women and men", while reserving "his primary emotional commitments for other men." According to Laurens's biographer Gregory D. Massey, this period "marked the beginning of a pattern; he continually centered his life around homosocial attachments to other men." Homosociality, in sociology, refers to same-sex relationships that are not of a romantic or sexual nature, such as friendship, mentorship, and male bonding.


title: John Laurens

text: Shortly after his marriage, while in Washington's camp, Laurens met and became extremely close friends with Alexander Hamilton. They exchanged many letters during the several years when different assignments and Laurens's capture by the British kept them apart; for example, when the terms of Laurens's parole prevented him from being present at Hamilton's wedding to Elizabeth Schuyler in December 1780, even though Hamilton had invited him. While emotional language was not uncommon in romantic friendships among those of the same gender in this historical period, Hamilton biographer James Thomas Flexner stated that the intensely expressive language contained in the Hamilton-Laurens letters "raises questions concerning homosexuality" that "cannot be categorically answered".


title: John Laurens

text: Stating that "one must tread gingerly in approaching this matter," Hamilton biographer Ron Chernow wrote that it is impossible to say "with any certainty" that Laurens and Hamilton were lovers, noting that such an affair would have required the exercise of "extraordinary precautions" because sodomy was a capital offense throughout the colonies at the time. Chernow concluded that based on available evidence, "At the very least, we can say that Hamilton developed something like an adolescent crush on his friend." According to Chernow, "Hamilton did not form friendships easily and never again revealed his interior life to another man as he had to Laurens", and after Laurens's death, "Hamilton shut off some compartment of his emotions and never reopened it."


title: John Laurens

text: In contrast to Hamilton's effusive letters, surviving letters from Laurens to Hamilton were notably less frequent and less passionately worded, although some letters written by Laurens have been lost or may have been destroyed.


title: John Laurens

text: Massey has dismissed speculations on John Laurens's supposed homosexuality and on a Laurens-Hamilton relationship as unsubstantiated, concluding, "Their relationship was platonic, a bond formed by their devotion to the Revolution and mutual ambition for fame." Years later, Massey regretted that the tone of his assertion had been decisive rather than equivocal, conceding that the matter "can not be definitively resolved."


title: John Laurens

text: John Laurens was the subject of two short educational films, both released in 1972 by Learning Corporation of America. Based on Laurens' correspondence with his father, the first film dramatized the young man's decision to leave England, and the second outlined his battles in the Continental Army and his death. Michael Douglas played the leading role of Laurens.


title: John Laurens

text: Laurens was featured in an episode of the 1984 "George Washington" miniseries, portrayed by Kevin Conroy.


title: John Laurens

text: Laurens was depicted heroically as a supporting character in the 2015 musical "Hamilton". Anthony Ramos originated the role of Laurens in the off-Broadway and Broadway casts, including the 2020 film of the stage production.


title: John Laurens

text: In 1834, Hamilton's son and biographer John Church Hamilton named his youngest son Laurens Hamilton, a name that continued to recur over several generations in that branch of the Hamilton family.


title: John Laurens

text: Nathanael Greene, in general orders announcing the death of Laurens, wrote "The army has lost a brave officer and the public a worthy citizen."


title: John Laurens

text: Three years after Laurens's death, George Washington responded to a question about Laurens's character by stating that "no man possessed more of the "amor patria" [love of country]. In a word, he had not a fault, that I ever could discover, unless intrepidity bordering upon rashness could come under that denomination; and to this he was excited by the purest motives."


title: John Laurens

text: According to Gregory D. Massey, a history professor at Freed–Hardeman University and author of a Laurens biography:


title: Hindu temple

text: A Hindu temple, or "mandir" or "koil" in Indian languages, is a house, seat and body of divinity for Hindus. It is a structure designed to bring human beings and gods together through worship, sacrifice, and devotion. The symbolism and structure of a Hindu temple are rooted in Vedic traditions, deploying circles and squares. It also represents recursion and the representation of the equivalence of the macrocosm and the microcosm by astronomical numbers, and by "specific alignments related to the geography of the place and the presumed linkages of the deity and the patron". A temple incorporates all elements of the Hindu cosmos — presenting the good, the evil and the human, as well as the elements of the Hindu sense of cyclic time and the essence of life — symbolically presenting dharma, artha, kama, moksa, and karma.


title: Hindu temple

text: The spiritual principles symbolically represented in Hindu temples are given in the ancient Sanskrit texts of India (for example, the Vedas and Upanishads), while their structural rules are described in various ancient Sanskrit treatises on architecture (Bṛhat Saṃhitā, Vāstu Śāstras). The layout, the motifs, the plan and the building process recite ancient rituals, geometric symbolisms, and reflect beliefs and values innate within various schools of Hinduism. A Hindu temple is a spiritual destination for many Hindus, as well as landmarks around which ancient arts, community celebrations and economy have flourished.


title: Hindu temple

text: Hindu temples come in many styles, are situated in diverse locations, deploy different construction methods and are adapted to different deities and regional beliefs, yet almost all of them share certain core ideas, symbolism and themes. They are found in South Asia, particularly India and Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, in Southeast Asian countries such as Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Island of Indonesia, and countries such as Canada, Fiji, France, Guyana, Kenya, Mauritius, the Netherlands, South Africa, Suriname, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, the United Kingdom, the United States, and other countries with a significant Hindu population. The current state and outer appearance of Hindu temples reflect arts, materials and designs as they evolved over two millennia; they also reflect the effect of conflicts between Hinduism and Islam since the 12th century. The Swaminarayanan Akshardham in Robbinsville, New Jersey between the New York and Philadelphia metropolitan areas, was inaugurated in 2014 as one of the world's largest Hindu temples.


title: Hindu temple

text: A Hindu temple reflects a synthesis of arts, the ideals of dharma, beliefs, values and the way of life cherished under Hinduism. It is a link between man, deities, and the Universal "Puruṣa" in a sacred space. It represents the triple-knowledge (trayi-vidya) of the Vedic vision by mapping the relationships between the cosmos (brahmaṇḍa) and the cell (pinda) by a unique plan based on astronomical numbers. Subhash Kak sees the temple form and its iconography to be a natural expansion of Vedic ideology related to recursion, change and equivalence.


title: Hindu temple

text: Susan Lewandowski states that the underlying principle in a Hindu temple is the belief that all things are one, that everything is connected. The pilgrim is welcomed through 64-grid or 81-grid mathematically structured spaces, a network of art, pillars with carvings and statues that display and celebrate the four important and necessary principles of human life – the pursuit of "artha" (prosperity, wealth), of "kama" (pleasure, sex), of "dharma" (virtues, ethical life) and of "moksha" (release, self-knowledge). At the centre of the temple, typically below and sometimes above or next to the deity, is mere hollow space with no decoration, symbolically representing "Purusa", the Supreme Principle, the sacred Universal, one without form, which is present everywhere, connects everything, and is the essence of everyone. A Hindu temple is meant to encourage reflection, facilitate purification of one's mind, and trigger the process of inner realization within the devotee. The specific process is left to the devotee's school of belief. The primary deity of different Hindu temples varies to reflect this spiritual spectrum.


title: Hindu temple

text: In Hindu tradition, there is no dividing line between the secular and the lonely sacred. In the same spirit, Hindu temples are not just sacred spaces; they are also secular spaces. Their meaning and purpose have extended beyond spiritual life to social rituals and daily life, offering thus a social meaning. Some temples have served as a venue to mark festivals, to celebrate arts through dance and music, to get married or commemorate marriages, the birth of a child, other significant life events or the death of a loved one. In political and economic life, Hindu temples have served as a venue for succession within dynasties and landmarks around which economic activity thrived.


title: Hindu temple

text: Almost all Hindu temples take two forms: a house or a palace. A house-themed temple is a simple shelter which serves as a deity's home. The temple is a place where the devotee visits, just like he or she would visit a friend or relative. The use of moveable and immoveable images is mentioned by Pāṇini. In Bhakti school of Hinduism, temples are venues for puja, which is a hospitality ritual, where the deity is honored, and where devotee calls upon, attends to and connects with the deity. In other schools of Hinduism, the person may simply perform jap, or meditation, or yoga, or introspection in his or her temple. Palace-themed temples often incorporate more elaborate and monumental architecture.


title: Hindu temple

text: The appropriate site for a temple, suggest ancient Sanskrit texts, is near water and gardens, where lotus and flowers bloom, where swans, ducks and other birds are heard, where animals rest without fear of injury or harm. These harmonious places were recommended in these texts with the explanation that such are the places where gods play, and thus the best site for Hindu temples.


title: Hindu temple

text: While major Hindu temples are recommended at sangams (confluence of rivers), river banks, lakes and seashore, "Brhat Samhita" and "Puranas" suggest temples may also be built where a natural source of water is not present. Here too, they recommend that a pond be built preferably in front or to the left of the temple with water gardens. If water is neither present naturally nor by design, water is symbolically present at the consecration of temple or the deity. Temples may also be built, suggests "Visnudharmottara" in Part III of Chapter 93, inside caves and carved stones, on hill tops affording peaceful views, mountain slopes overlooking beautiful valleys, inside forests and hermitages, next to gardens, or at the head of a town street.


title: Hindu temple

text: Ancient builders of Hindu temples created manuals of architecture, called "Vastu-Sastra" (literally "science" of dwelling; "vas-tu" is a composite Sanskrit word; "vas" means "reside", "tu" means "you"); these contain Vastu-Vidya (literally, knowledge of dwelling) and "Sastra" meaning system or knowledge in Sanskrit. There exist many Vastu-Sastras on the art of building temples, such as one by Thakkura Pheru, describing where and how temples should be built. By the 6th century CE, Sanskrit manuals for in India. Vastu-Sastra manuals included chapters on home construction, town planning, and how efficient villages, towns and kingdoms integrated temples, water bodies and gardens within them to achieve harmony with nature. While it is unclear, states Barnett, as to whether these temple and town planning texts were theoretical studies and if or when they were properly implemented in practice, the manuals suggest that town planning and Hindu temples were conceived as ideals of art and integral part of Hindu social and spiritual life.


title: Hindu temple

text: The "Silpa Prakasa" of Odisha, authored by Ramacandra Bhattaraka Kaulacara in the 9th or 10th centuries CE, is another Sanskrit treatise on Temple Architecture. Silpa Prakasa describes the geometric principles in every aspect of the temple and symbolism such as 16 emotions of human beings carved as 16 types of female figures. These styles were perfected in Hindu temples prevalent in eastern states of India. Other ancient texts found expand these architectural principles, suggesting that different parts of India developed, invented and added their own interpretations. For example, in "Saurastra" tradition of temple building found in western states of India, the feminine form, expressions and emotions are depicted in 32 types of "Nataka-stri" compared to 16 types described in "Silpa Prakasa". Silpa Prakasa provides brief introduction to 12 types of Hindu temples. Other texts, such as "Pancaratra Prasada Prasadhana" compiled by Daniel Smith and Silpa Ratnakara compiled by Narmada Sankara provide a more extensive list of Hindu temple types.


title: Hindu temple

text: Ancient Sanskrit manuals for temple construction discovered in Rajasthan, in northwestern region of India, include Sutradhara Mandana's "Prasadamandana" (literally, manual for planning and building a temple). "Manasara", a text of South Indian origin, estimated to be in circulation by the 7th century CE, is a guidebook on South Indian temple design and construction. "Isanasivagurudeva paddhati" is another Sanskrit text from the 9th century describing the art of temple building in India in south and central India. In north India, "Brihat-samhita" by Varāhamihira is the widely cited ancient Sanskrit manual from 6th century describing the design and construction of "Nagara" style of Hindu temples.


title: Hindu temple

text: A Hindu temple design follows a geometrical design called "vastu-purusha-mandala". The name is a composite Sanskrit word with three of the most important components of the plan. "Mandala" means circle, "Purusha" is universal essence at the core of Hindu tradition, while "Vastu" means the dwelling structure. The Vastu-purusha-mandala is a yantra, a design laying out a Hindu temple in a symmetrical, self-repeating structure derived from central beliefs, myths, cardinality and mathematical principles.


title: Hindu temple

text: The four cardinal directions help create the axis of a Hindu temple, around which is formed a perfect square in the space available. The circle of the mandala circumscribes the square. The square is considered divine for its perfection and as a symbolic product of knowledge and human thought, while the circle is considered earthly, human and observed in everyday life (moon, sun, horizon, water drop, rainbow). Each supports the other. The square is divided into perfect 64 (or in some cases 81) sub-squares called padas. Each pada is conceptually assigned to a symbolic element, sometimes in the form of a deity. The central square(s) of the 64- or 81-grid is dedicated to Brahman (not to be confused with brahmin, the scholarly and priestly class in India), and are called "Brahma padas".


title: Hindu temple

text: The 49-grid design is called "Sthandila" and is of great importance in creative expressions of Hindu temples in South India, particularly in "Prakaras". The symmetric Vastu-purusa-mandala grids are sometimes combined to form a temple superstructure with two or more attached squares. The temples face sunrise, and the entrance for the devotee is typically this east side. The mandala pada facing sunrise is dedicated to Surya, the sun-god. The "Surya pada" is flanked by the padas of Satya, the deity of Truth, on one side and Indra, the king of the demigods, on other. The east and north faces of most temples feature a mix of gods and demigods; while the west and south feature demons and demigods related to the underworld. This "vastu-purusha-mandala" plan and symbolism is systematically seen in ancient Hindu temples on the Indian subcontinent as well as those in southeast Asia, with regional creativity and variations.


title: Hindu temple

text: Beneath the mandala's central square(s) is the space for the all-pervasive, all-connecting Universal Spirit, the highest reality, the "purusha". This space is sometimes known as the "garbha-griya" (literally, “womb house”) – a small, perfect square, windowless, enclosed space without ornamentation that represents universal essence. In or near this space is typically a cult image — which, though many Indians may refer to casually as an idol, is more formally known as a "murti," or the main worshippable deity, who varies with each temple. Often this "murti" gives the temple a local name, such as a Visnu temple, Krishna temple, Rama temple, Narayana temple, Siva temple, Lakshmi temple, Ganesha temple, Durga temple, Hanuman temple, Surya temple, etc. It is this garbha-griya which devotees seek for "darsana" (literally, a sight of knowledge, or vision).


title: Hindu temple

text: Above the "vastu-purusha-mandala" is a superstructure with a dome called "Shikhara" in north India, and "Vimana" in south India, that stretches towards the sky. Sometimes, in makeshift temples, the dome may be replaced with symbolic bamboo with few leaves at the top. The vertical dimension's cupola or dome is designed as a pyramid, a cone or other mountain-like shape, once again using the principle of concentric circles and squares. Scholars suggest that this shape is inspired by the cosmic mountain of Meru or Himalayan Kailasa, the abode of the gods, according to Vedic mythology.


title: Hindu temple

text: In larger temples, the central space typically is surrounded by an ambulatory for the devotee to walk around and ritually circumambulate the Purusa, the universal essence. Often this space is visually decorated with carvings, paintings or images meant to inspire the devotee. In some temples, these images may be stories from Hindu Epics; in others, they may be Vedic tales about right and wrong or virtues and vice; in yet others, they may be "murtis" of locally worshipped deities. The pillars, walls and ceilings typically also have highly ornate carvings or images of the four just and necessary pursuits of life – kama, artha, dharma and moksa. This walk around is called "pradakshina".


title: Hindu temple

text: Large temples also have pillared halls, called "mandapa" — one of which, on the east side, serves as the waiting room for pilgrims and devotees. The "mandapa" may be a separate structure in older temples, but in newer temples this space is integrated into the temple superstructure. Mega-temple sites have a main temple surrounded by smaller temples and shrines, but these are still arranged by principles of symmetry, grids and mathematical precision. An important principle found in the layout of Hindu temples is mirroring and repeating fractal-like design structure, each unique yet also repeating the central common principle, one which Susan Lewandowski refers to as "an organism of repeating cells".


title: Hindu temple

text: The ancient texts on Hindu temple design, the "Vāstu-puruṣa-mandala" and "Vastu Śāstras", do not limit themselves to the design of a Hindu temple. They describe the temple as a holistic part of its community, and lay out various principles and a diversity of alternate designs for home, village and city layout along with the temple, gardens, water bodies and nature.


title: Hindu temple

text: A predominant number of Hindu temples exhibit the perfect-square grid principle. However, there are some exceptions. For example, the Telika Mandir in Gwalior, built in the 8th century CE, is not a square but a rectangle in 2:3 proportion. Further, the temple explores a number of structures and shrines in 1:1, 1:2, 1:3, 2:5, 3:5 and 4:5 ratios. These ratios are exact, suggesting that the architect intended to use these harmonic ratios, and the rectangle pattern was not a mistake, nor an arbitrary approximation. Other examples of non-square harmonic ratios are found at the Naresar temple site of Madhya Pradesh and at the Nakti-Mata temple near Jaipur, Rajasthan. Michael Meister suggests that these exceptions mean that the ancient Sanskrit manuals for temple building were guidelines, and Hinduism permitted its artisans flexibility in expression and aesthetic independence.


title: Hindu temple

text: A Hindu temple is a symbolic reconstruction of the universe and the universal principles that enable everything in it to function. The temples reflect Hindu philosophy and its diverse views on the cosmos and on truth.


title: Hindu temple

text: Hinduism has no traditional ecclesiastical order, no centralized religious authorities, no governing body, no prophet nor any binding holy book save the Vedas; Hindus can choose to be polytheistic, pantheistic, monistic, or atheistic. Within this diffuse and open structure, spirituality in Hindu philosophy is an individual experience, and referred to as "kṣaitrajña" (Sanskrit: क्षैत्रज्ञ)). It defines spiritual practice as one's journey towards "moksha", awareness of self, the discovery of higher truths, true nature of reality, and a consciousness that is liberated and content. A Hindu temple reflects these core beliefs. The central core of almost all Hindu temples is not a large communal space; the temple is designed for the individual, a couple or a family – a small, private space to allow visitors to experience "darsana".


title: Hindu temple

text: "Darsana" is itself a symbolic word. In ancient Hindu scripts, "darsana" is the name of six methods or alternate viewpoints of understanding truth. These are "Nyaya, Vaisesika, Sankhya, Yoga, Mimamsa" and "Vedanta" – which flowered into individual schools of Hinduism, each of which is considered a valid, alternate path to understanding truth and achieving self-realization in the Hindu way of life.


title: Hindu temple

text: From names to forms, from images to stories carved into the walls of a temple, symbolism is everywhere in a Hindu temple. Life principles such as the pursuit of joy, connection and emotional pleasure (kama) are fused into mystical, erotic and architectural forms in Hindu temples. These motifs and principles of human life are part of the sacred texts of the Hindus, such as its Upanishads; the temples express these same principles in a different form, through art and spaces. For example, "Brihadaranyaka Upanisad" (4.3.21) recites:


title: Hindu temple

text: The architecture of Hindu temples is also symbolic. The whole structure fuses the daily life and its surroundings with the divine concepts, through a structure that is open yet raised on a terrace, transitioning from the secular towards the sacred, inviting the visitor inwards and upwards towards the "Brahma pada," the temple's central core, a symbolic space marked by its spire ("shikhara, vimana"). The ancient temples had grand, intricately carved entrances but no doors, and they lacked a boundary wall. In most cultures, suggests Edmund Leach, a boundary and gateway separates the secular and the sacred, and this gateway door is grand. In Hindu tradition, this is discarded in favor of an open and diffusive architecture, where the secular world was not separated from the sacred, but transitioned and flowed into the sacred. The Hindu temple has structural walls, which were patterned usually within the 64-grid, or other geometric layouts. Yet the layout was open on all sides, except for the core space with a single opening for darsana. The temple space is laid out in a series of courts ("mandapas"). The outermost regions may incorporate the negative and suffering side of life with the symbolism of evil, "asuras" and "rakshashas"; but in small temples this layer is dispensed with. When present, this outer region diffuse into the next inner layer that bridges as human space, followed by another inner "Devika padas" space and symbolic arts incorporating the positive and joyful side of life about the good and the gods. This divine space then concentrically diffuses inwards and lifts the guest to the core of the temple, where resides the main "murti", as well as the space for the "Purusa," and ideas held to be most sacred principles in Hindu tradition. The symbolism in the arts and temples of Hinduism, suggests Edmund Leach, is similar to those in Christianity and other major religions of the world.


title: Hindu temple

text: Indian texts call the craftsmen and builders of temples as ‘‘Silpin’’ (Sanskrit: शिल्पिन्), derived from ‘‘Silpa’’. One of earliest mentions of Sanskrit word Silpa is in Atharvaveda, from about 1000 BCE, which scholars have translated as any work of art. Other scholars suggest that the word Silpa has no direct one word translation in English, nor does the word ‘‘Silpin’’. Silpa, explains Stella Kramrisch, is a multicolored word and incorporates art, skill, craft, ingenuity, imagination, form, expression and inventiveness of any art or craft. Similarly a Shilpin, notes Kramrisch, is a complex Sanskrit word, describing any person who embodies art, science, culture, skill, rhythm and employs creative principles to produce any divine form of expression. Silpins who built Hindu temples, as well as the art works and sculpture within them, were considered by the ancient Sanskrit texts to deploy arts whose number are unlimited, Kala (techniques) that were 64 in number, and Vidya (science) that were of 32 types.


title: Hindu temple

text: The Hindu manuals of temple construction describe the education, characteristics of good artists and architects. The general education of a Hindu Shilpin in ancient India included Lekha or Lipi (alphabet, reading and writing), Rupa (drawing and geometry), Ganana (arithmetic). These were imparted from age 5 to 12. The advanced students would continue in higher stages of Shilpa Sastra studies till the age of 25. Apart from specialist technical competence, the manuals suggest that best Silpins for building a Hindu temple are those who know the essence of Vedas and Agamas, consider themselves as students, keep well verse with principles of traditional sciences and mathematics, painting and geography. Further they are kind, free from jealousy, righteous, have their sense under control, of happy disposition, and ardent in everything they do.


title: Hindu temple

text: According to Silparatna, a Hindu temple project would start with a Yajamana (patron), and include a Sthapaka (guru, spiritual guide and architect-priest), a Sthapati (architect) who would design the building, a Sutragrahin (surveyor), and many Vardhakins (workers, masons, painters, plasterers, overseers) and Taksakas (sculptors). While the temple is under construction, all those working on the temple were revered and considered sacerdotal by the patron as well as others witnessing the construction. Further, it was a tradition that all tools and materials used in temple building and all creative work had the sanction of a sacrament. For example, if a carpenter or sculptor needed to fell a tree or cut a rock from a hill, he would propitiate the tree or rock with prayers, seeking forgiveness for cutting it from its surroundings, and explaining his intent and purpose. The axe used to cut the tree would be anointed with butter to minimize the hurt to the tree. Even in modern times, in some parts of India such as Odisha, Visvakarma Puja is a ritual festival every year where the craftsmen and artists worship their arts, tools and materials.


title: Hindu temple

text: Hindu temples served as nuclei of important social, economic, artistic and intellectual functions in ancient and medieval India. Burton Stein states that South Indian temples managed regional development function, such as irrigation projects, land reclamation, post-disaster relief and recovery. These activities were paid for by the donations (melvarum) they collected from devotees. According to James Heitzman, these donations came from a wide spectrum of the Indian society, ranging from kings, queens, officials in the kingdom to merchants, priests and shepherds. Temples also managed lands endowed to it by its devotees upon their death. They would provide employment to the poorest. Some temples had large treasury, with gold and silver coins, and these temples served as banks.


title: Hindu temple

text: Hindu temples over time became wealthy from grants and donations from royal patrons as well as private individuals. Major temples became employers and patrons of economic activity. They sponsored land reclamation and infrastructure improvements, states Michell, including building facilities such as water tanks, irrigation canals and new roads. A very detailed early record from 1101 lists over 600 employees (excluding the priests) of the Brihadisvara Temple, Thanjavur, still one of the largest temples in Tamil Nadu. Most worked part-time and received the use of temple farmland as reward. For those thus employed by the temple, according to Michell, "some gratuitous services were usually considered obligatory, such as dragging the temple chariots on festival occasions and helping when a large building project was undertaken". Temples also acted as refuge during times of political unrest and danger.


title: Hindu temple

text: In contemporary times, the process of building a Hindu temple by emigrants and diasporas from South Asia has also served as a process of building a community, a social venue to network, reduce prejudice and seek civil rights together.


title: Hindu temple

text: John Guy and Jorrit Britschgi state Hindu temples served as centers where ancient manuscripts were routinely used for learning and where the texts were copied when they wore out. In South India, temples and associated "mutts" served custodial functions, and a large number of manuscripts on Hindu philosophy, poetry, grammar and other subjects were written, multiplied and preserved inside the temples. Archaeological and epigraphical evidence indicates existence of libraries called "Sarasvati-bhandara", dated possibly to early 12th-century and employing librarians, attached to Hindu temples.


title: Hindu temple

text: Palm-leaf manuscripts called lontar in dedicated stone libraries have been discovered by archaeologists at Hindu temples in Bali Indonesia and in 10th century Cambodian temples such as Angkor Wat and Banteay Srei.


title: Hindu temple

text: Inscriptions from the 4th century CE suggest the existence of schools around Hindu temples, called "Ghatikas" or "Mathas", where the Vedas were studied. In south India, 9th century Vedic schools attached to Hindu temples were called "Calai" or "Salai", and these provided free boarding and lodging to students and scholars. The temples linked to Bhakti movement in the early 2nd millennium, were dominated by non-Brahmins. These assumed many educational functions, including the exposition, recitation and public discourses of Sanskrit and Vedic texts. Some temple schools offered wide range of studies, ranging from Hindu scriptures to Buddhist texts, grammar, philosophy, martial arts, music and painting. By the 8th century, Hindu temples also served as the social venue for tests, debates, team competition and Vedic recitals called "Anyonyam".


title: Hindu temple

text: According to Kenneth G. Zysk – a professor specializing in Indology and ancient medicine, Hindu "mathas" and temples had by the 10th-century attached medical care along with their religious and educational roles. This is evidenced by various inscriptions found in Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and elsewhere. An inscription dated to about 930 CE states the provision of a physician to two "matha" to care for the sick and destitute. Another inscription dated to 1069 at a Vishnu temple in Tamil Nadu describes a hospital attached to the temple, listing the nurses, physicians, medicines and beds for patients. Similarly, a stone inscription in Andhra Pradesh dated to about 1262 mentions the provision of a "prasutishala" (maternity house), "vaidya" (physician), an "arogyashala" (health house) and a "viprasattra" (hospice, kitchen) with the religious center where people from all social backgrounds could be fed and cared for. According to Zysk, both Buddhist monasteries and Hindu religious centers provided facilities to care for the sick and needy in the 1st millennium, but with the destruction of Buddhist centers after the 12th century, the Hindu religious institutions assumed these social responsibilities. According to George Michell, Hindu temples in South India were active charity centers and they provided free meal for wayfarers, pilgrims and devotees, as well as boarding facilities for students and hospitals for the sick.


title: Hindu temple

text: The 15th and 16th century Hindu temples at Hampi featured storage spaces (temple granary, "kottara"), water tanks and kitchens. Many major pilgrimage sites have featured "dharmashalas" since early times. These were attached to Hindu temples, particularly in South India, providing a bed and meal to pilgrims. They relied on any voluntary donation the visitor may leave and to land grants from local rulers. Some temples have operated their kitchens on a daily basis to serve the visitor and the needy, while others during major community gatherings or festivals. Examples include the major kitchens run by Hindu temples in Udupi (Karnataka), Puri (Odisha) and Tirupati (Andhra Pradesh). The tradition of sharing food in smaller temple is typically called "prasada".


title: Hindu temple

text: Hindu temples are found in diverse locations each incorporating different methods of construction and styles:


title: Hindu temple

text: In arid western parts of India, such as Rajasthan and Gujarat, Hindu communities built large walk-in wells that served as the only source of water in dry months but also served as social meeting places and carried religious significance. These monuments went down into the earth towards subterranean water, up to seven storeys, and were part of a temple complex. These vav (literally, stepwells) had intricate art reliefs on the walls, with numerous "murtis" and images of Hindu deities, water spirits and erotic symbolism. The step wells were named after Hindu deities; for example, Mata Bhavani's Stepwell, Ankol Mata Vav, Sikotari Vav and others. The temple ranged from being small single pada (cell) structure to large nearby complexes. These stepwells and their temple compounds have been variously dated from late 1st millennium BCE through 11th century CE. Of these, Rani ki vav, with hundreds of art reliefs including many of Vishnu deity avatars, has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage site.


title: Hindu temple

text: The Indian rock-cut architecture evolved in Maharashtran temple style in the 1st millennium CE. The temples are carved from a single piece of rock as a complete temple or carved in a cave to look like the interior of a temple. Ellora Temple is an example of the former, while The Elephanta Caves are representative of the latter style. The Elephanta Caves consist of two groups of caves—the first is a large group of five Hindu caves and the second is a smaller group of two Buddhist caves. The Hindu caves contain rock-cut stone sculptures, representing the Shaiva Hindu sect, dedicated to the god Shiva.


title: Hindu temple

text: A typical, ancient Hindu temple has a profusion of arts – from paintings to sculpture, from symbolic icons to engravings, from thoughtful layout of space to fusion of mathematical principles with Hindu sense of time and cardinality.


title: Hindu temple

text: Ancient Sanskrit texts classify "murtis" and images in a number of ways. For example, one method of classification is the dimensionality of completion:


title: Hindu temple

text: A Hindu temple may or may not include a "murti" or images, but larger temples usually do. Personal Hindu temples at home or a hermitage may have a pada for yoga or meditation, but be devoid of anthropomorphic representations of god. Nature or others arts may surround him or her. To a Hindu yogin, states Gopinath Rao, one who has realised the Self and the Universal Principle within himself, there is no need for any temple or divine image for worship. However, for those who have yet to reach this height of realization, various symbolic manifestations through images, "murtis" and icons as well as mental modes of worship are offered as one of the spiritual paths in the Hindu way of life. Some ancient Hindu scriptures like the Jabaladarshana Upanishad appear to endorse this idea


title: Hindu temple

text: However, devotees aspiring to a personal relationship with the Supreme Lord, whom they worship variously as Krishna or Shiva, for example, tend to reverse such hierarchical views of self-realization, holding that the personal form of the deity, as the source of the Brahma-jyoti, or the light into which impersonalists, according to their ideals, propose to merge themselves and their individual identities, will benevolently accept worship through an "arca vigraha," an authorized form constructed not according to imagination but in pursuit of scriptural directives.


title: Hindu temple

text: A number of ancient Indian texts suggest the prevalence of "murtis", temples and shrines in Indian subcontinent for thousands of years. For example, the temples of the Koshala kingdom are mentioned in the Valmiki Ramayana (various recent scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text range from the 7th to 4th centuries BCE, with later stages extending up to the 3rd century CE) The 5th century BCE text, "Astadhyayi", mentions male deity "arcas" or "murtis" of Agni, Indra, Varuna, Rudra, Mrda, Pusa, Surya, and Soma being worshipped, as well as the worship of arcas of female goddesses such as Indrani, Varunani, Usa, Bhavani, Prthivi and Vrsakapayi. The 2nd century BCE "Mahabhasya" of Patanjali extensively describes temples of "Dhanapati" (deity of wealth and finance, Kubera), as well as temples of Rama and Kesava, wherein the worship included dance, music and extensive rituals. The "Mahabhasya" also describes the rituals for Krsna, Visnu and Siva. An image recovered from Mathura in north India has been dated to the 2nd century BCE. Kautilya's Arthashastra from 4th century BCE describes a city of temples, each enshrining various Vedic and Puranic deities. All three of these sources have common names, describe common rituals, symbolism and significance possibly suggesting that the idea of "murtis", temples and shrines passed from one generation to next, in ancient India, at least from the 4th century BCE. The oldest temples, suggest scholars, were built of brick and wood. Stone became the preferred material of construction later.


title: Hindu temple

text: Early Jain and Buddhist literature, along with Kautilya's Arthashastra, describe structures, embellishments and designs of these temples – all with motifs and deities currently prevalent in Hinduism. Bas-reliefs and "murtis" have been found from 2nd to 3rd century, but none of the temple structures have survived. Scholars theorize that those ancient temples of India, later referred to as Hindu temples, were modeled after domestic structure – a house or a palace. Beyond shrines, nature was revered, in forms such as trees, rivers, and stupas, before the time of Buddha and Vardhamana Mahavira. As Jainism and Buddhism branched off from the religious tradition later to be called Hinduism, the ideas, designs and plans of ancient Vedic and Upanishad era shrines were adopted and evolved, likely from the competitive development of temples and arts in Jainism and Buddhism. Ancient reliefs found so far, states Michael Meister, suggest five basic shrine designs and combinations thereof in 1st millennium BCE:


title: Hindu temple

text: From the 1st century BCE through 3rd century CE, the evidence and details about ancient temples increases. The ancient literature refers to these temples as "Pasada" (or Prasada), "stana", "mahasthana", "devalaya", "devagrha", "devakula", "devakulika", "ayatana" and "harmya". The entrance of the temple is referred to as "dvarakosthaka" in these ancient texts notes Meister, the temple hall is described as "sabha" or "ayagasabha", pillars were called "kumbhaka", while "vedika" referred to the structures at the boundary of a temple.


title: Hindu temple

text: With the start of Gupta dynasty in the 4th century, Hindu temples flourished in innovation, design, scope, form, use of stone and new materials as well as symbolic synthesis of culture and dharmic principles with artistic expression. It is this period that is credited with the ideas of garbhagrha for "Purusa", mandapa for sheltering the devotees and rituals in progress, as well as symbolic motifs relating to dharma, karma, kama, artha and moksha. Temple superstructures were built from stone, brick and wide range of materials. Entrance ways, walls and pillars were intricately carved, while parts of temple were decorated with gold, silver and jewels. Visnu, Siva and other deities were placed in Hindu temples, while Buddhists and Jains built their own temples, often side by side with Hindus.


title: Hindu temple

text: The 4th through 6th century marked the flowering of "Vidharbha" style, whose accomplishments survive in central India as Ajanta caves, Pavnar, Mandhal and Mahesvar. In the Malaprabha river basin, South India, this period is credited with some of the earliest stone temples of the region: the Badami Chalukya temples are dated to the 5th century by some scholars, and the 6th by some others.


title: Hindu temple

text: Over 6th and 7th centuries, temple designs were further refined during Maurya dynasty, evidence of which survives today at Ellora and in the Elephanta cave temples.


title: Hindu temple

text: It is the 5th through 7th century CE when outer design and appearances of Hindu temples in north India and south India began to widely diverge. Nevertheless, the forms, theme, symbolism and central ideas in the grid design remained same, before and after, pan-India as innovations were adopted to give distinctly different visual expressions.


title: Hindu temple

text: The Western Chalukya architecture of the 11th- & 12th-century Tungabhadra region of modern central Karnataka includes many temples. Step-wells are consist of a shaft dug to the water table, with steps descending to the water; while they were built for secular purposes, some are also decorated as temples, or serve as a temple tank.


title: Hindu temple

text: During the 5th to 11th century, Hindu temples flourished outside Indian subcontinent, such as in Cambodia, Viet Nam, Malaysia and Indonesia. In Cambodia, Khmer architecture favoured the Temple mountain style famously used in Angkor Wat, with a prang spire over the sanctum cell. Indonesian candi developed regional forms. In what is modern south and central Viet Nam, Champa architecture built brick temples.


title: Hindu temple

text: Many Hindu temples have been destroyed, some, after rebuilding, several times. Deliberate temple destruction usually had religious motives. Richard Eaton has listed 80 campaigns of Hindu temple site destruction stretching over centuries, particularly from the 12th through the 18th century. Others temples have served as non-Hindu places of worship, either after conversion or simultaneously with Hindu use.


title: Hindu temple

text: In the 12th-16th century, during Muslim conquests in the Indian subcontinent and South Asia, Hindu temples, along with the temples of Buddhists and Jains, intermittently became targets of armies from Persian, Central Asian, and Indian sultanates. Imagined by these foreign zealots to be mere idols, sacred Forms of various deities were broken, spires and pillars were torn down, and temples were looted of their treasury. Some temples were converted into mosques, or parts used to build mosques. There exist both Indian and Muslim traditions of religious toleration. Muslim rulers led campaigns of temple destruction and forbade repairs to damaged temples, following the Muslim traditions. The Delhi Sultanate destroyed a large number of temples; Sikandar the Iconoclast, Sultan of Kashmir, was also known for his intolerance.


title: Hindu temple

text: The 16th- and 19th-century Goa Inquisition destroyed hundreds of Hindu temples. All Hindu temples in Portuguese colonies in India were destroyed, according to a 1569 letter in the Portuguese royal archives. Religious conflict and desecrations of places of worship continued during the British colonial era.


title: Hindu temple

text: Historian Sita Ram Goel's book "What happened to Hindu Temples" lists over 2000 sites where temples have been destroyed and mosques have been built over them. Some historians suggest that around 30,000 temples were destroyed by Islamic rulers between 1200 and 1800 CE.


title: Hindu temple

text: Destruction of Hindu temple sites was comparatively less in the southern parts of India, such as in Tamil Nadu. Cave-style Hindu temples that were carved inside a rock, hidden and rediscovered centuries later, such as the Kailasha Temple, have also preferentially survived. Many are now UNESCO world heritage sites.


title: Hindu temple

text: In India, the Place of Worship (Special Provisions) Act was enacted in 1991 which prohibited the conversion of any religious site from the religion to which it was dedicated on 15 August 1947.


title: Hindu temple

text: The customs and etiquette varies across India. Devotees in major temples may bring in symbolic offerings for the puja. This includes fruits, flowers, sweets and other symbols of the bounty of the natural world. Temples in India are usually surrounded with small shops selling these offerings.


title: Hindu temple

text: When inside the temple, devotees keep both hands folded (namaste mudra). The inner sanctuary, where the murtis reside, is known as the "garbhagriha". It symbolizes the birthplace of the universe, the meeting place of the gods and mankind, and the threshold between the transcendental and the phenomenal worlds. It is in this inner shrine that devotees seek a darsana of, where they offer prayers. Devotees may or may not be able to personally present their offerings at the feet of the deity. In most large Indian temples, only the pujaris (priest) are allowed to enter into the main sanctum.


title: Hindu temple

text: Temple management staff typically announce the hours of operation, including timings for special pujas. These timings and nature of special puja vary from temple to temple. Additionally, there may be specially allotted times for devotees to perform circumambulations (or pradakshina) around the temple.


title: Hindu temple

text: Visitors and worshipers to large Hindu temples may be required to deposit their shoes and other footwear before entering. Where this is expected, the temples provide an area and help staff to store footwear. Dress codes vary. It is customary in temples in Kerala, for men to remove shirts and to cover pants and shorts with a traditional cloth known as a "Vasthiram". In Java and Bali (Indonesia), before one enters the most sacred parts of a Hindu temple, shirts are required as well as Sarong around one's waist. At many other locations, this formality is unnecessary.


title: Hindu temple

text: North Indian temples are referred to as Nagara style of temple architecture. They have "sanctum sanctorum" where the deity is present, open on one side from where the devotee obtains "darśana". There may or may not be many more surrounding corridors, halls, etc. However, there will be space for devotees to go around the temple in clockwise fashion circumambulation. In North Indian temples, the tallest towers are built over the "sanctum sanctorum" in which the deity is installed.


title: Hindu temple

text: The north India Nagara style of temple designs often deploy fractal-theme, where smaller parts of the temple are themselves images or geometric re-arrangement of the large temple, a concept that later inspired French and Russian architecture such as the matryoshka principle. One difference is the scope and cardinality, where Hindu temple structures deploy this principle in every dimension with garbhgriya as the primary locus, and each pada as well as zones serving as additional centers of loci. This makes a Nagara Hindu temple architecture symbolically a perennial expression of movement and time, of centrifugal growth fused with the idea of unity in everything.


title: Hindu temple

text: In West Bengal, the Bengali terra cotta temple architecture is found. Due to lack of suitable stone in the alluvial soil locally available, the temple makers had to resort to other materials instead of stone. This gave rise to using terracotta as a medium for temple construction. Terracotta exteriors with rich carvings are a unique feature of Bengali temples. The town of Vishnupur in West Bengal is renowned for this type of architecture. There is also a popular style of building known as Navaratna (nine-towered) or Pancharatna (five-towered). An example of Navaratna style is the Dakshineswar Kali Temple.


title: Hindu temple

text: Odisha temple architecture is known as Kalinga architecture, classifies the spire into three parts, the "Bāḍa" (lower limb), the "Ganḍi" (body) and the "Cuḷa/Mastaka" (head). Each part is decorated in a different manner. Kalinga architecture is a style which flourished in Kalinga, the name for kingdom that included ancient Odisha. It includes three styles: "Rekha Deula", "Pidha Deula" and "Khakhara Deula". The former two are associated with Vishnu, Surya and Shiva temples while the third is mainly associated with Chamunda and Durga temples. The "Rekha Deula" and "Khakhara Deula" houses the "sanctum sanctorum" while the "Pidha Deula" style includes space for outer dancing and offering halls.


title: Hindu temple

text: The temple architecture of Goa is quite unique. As Portuguese colonial hegemony increased, Goan Hindu temples became the rallying point to local resistance. Many these temples are not more than 500 years old, and are a unique blend of original Goan temple architecture, Dravidian, Nagar and Hemadpanthi temple styles with some British and Portuguese architectural influences. Goan temples were built using sedimentary rocks, wood, limestone and clay tiles, and copper sheets were used for the roofs. These temples were decorated with mural art called as "Kavi kala" or "ocher art". The interiors have murals and wood carvings depicting scenes from the Hindu mythology.


title: Hindu temple

text: South Indian temples have a large gopuram, a monumental tower, usually ornate, at the entrance of the temple. This forms a prominent feature of Koils, Hindu temples of the Dravidian style. They are topped by the "kalasam", a bulbous stone finial. They function as gateways through the walls that surround the temple complex. The gopuram's origins can be traced back to early structures of the Tamil kings Pallavas; and by the twelfth century, under the Pandya rulers, these gateways became a dominant feature of a temple's outer appearance, eventually overshadowing the inner sanctuary which became obscured from view by the gopuram's colossal size. It also dominated the inner sanctum in amount of ornamentation. Often a shrine has more than one gopuram. They also appear in architecture outside India, especially Khmer architecture, as at Angkor Wat. A koil may have multiple gopurams, typically constructed into multiple walls in tiers around the main shrine. The temple's walls are typically square with the outer most wall having gopuras. The sanctum sanctorum and its towering roof (the central deity's shrine) are also called the "vimanam". The inner sanctum has restricted access with only priests allowed beyond a certain point.


title: Hindu temple

text: Temples in Kerala have a different architectural style (keeping the same essence of Vastu), especially due to climatic differences Kerala have with other parts of India with larger rainfall. The temple roof is mostly tiled and is sloped and the walls are often square, the innermost shrine being entirely enclosed in another four walls to which only the pujari (priest) enters. The walls are decorated with either mural paintings or rock sculptures which many times are emphasised on Dwarapalakas.


title: Hindu temple

text: Temple construction reached its peak during rule of Pallavas. They built various temples around Kancheepuram, and Narasimhavarman II built the Thirukadalmallai and Shore Temple in Mamallapuram, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Pandyas rule created temples such as the Koodal azhagar temple and Meenakshi Amman Temple at Madurai and Srivilliputhur Andal Temple at Srivilliputhur. The Cholas were prolific temple builders right from the times of the first medieval king Vijayalaya Chola. The Chola temples include Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple at Srirangam, the Brihadeeshwarar temple at Tanjore, Brihadeeshwarar temple at Gangaikonda Cholapuram and the Airavatesvarar Temple of Darasuram which are among the UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The Nayaks of Madurai reconstructed some of the well-known temples in Tamil Nadu such as the Meenakshi Temple.


title: Hindu temple

text: Pashupatinath temple is one of the important temples of Hindu religion which is situated in Kathmandu, Nepal. It is built in a pagoda style and is surrounded by hundreds of temples and buildings built by kings. The temples top is made from pure gold.


title: Hindu temple

text: Angkor Wat was built as a Hindu temple by King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century in Yasodharapura (Khmer, present-day Angkor), the capital of the Khmer Empire, as his state temple and eventual mausoleum. Breaking from the Shaiva tradition of previous kings, Angkor Wat was instead dedicated to Vishnu. The Spire in Khmer Hindu temple is called Giri (mountain) and symbolizes the residence of gods just like Meru does in Bali Hindu mythology and Ku (Guha) does in Burmese Hindu mythology.


title: Hindu temple

text: Angkor Wat is just one of numerous Hindu temples in Cambodia, most of them in ruins. Hundreds of Hindu temples are scattered from Siem Reap to Sambor Prei Kuk in central Cambodian region.


title: Hindu temple

text: Ancient Hindu temples in Indonesia are called "Candi" (read: "chandi"). Prior to the rise of Islam, between the 5th to 15th century Dharmic faiths (Hinduism and Buddhism) were the majority in Indonesian archipelago, especially in Java and Sumatra. As the result numerous Hindu temples, locally known as "candi", constructed and dominated the landscape of Java. According to local beliefs, Java valley had thousands of Hindu temples which co-existed with Buddhist temples, most of which were buried in massive eruption of Mount Merapi in 1006 CE.


title: Hindu temple

text: Between 1100 and 1500 additional Hindu temples were built, but abandoned by Hindus and Buddhists as Islam spread in Java circa 15th to 16th century.


title: Hindu temple

text: In last 200 years, some of these have been rediscovered mostly by farmers while preparing their lands for crops. Most of these ancient temples were rediscovered and reconstructed between 19th to 20th century, and treated as the important archaeological findings and also as tourist attraction, but not as the house of worship. Hindu temples of ancient Java bear resemblances with temples of South Indian style. The largest of these is the 9th century Javanese Hindu temple, Prambanan in Yogyakarta, now a UNESCO world heritage site. It was designed as three concentric squares and has 224 temples. The inner square contains 16 temples dedicated to major Hindu deities, of which Shiva temple is the largest. The temple has extensive wall reliefs and carvings illustrating the stories from the Hindu epic Ramayana.


title: Hindu temple

text: In Bali, the Hindu temple is known as "Pura", which is designed as an open-air worship place in a walled compound. The compound walls have a series of intricately decorated gates without doors for the devotee to enter. The design, plan and layout of the holy pura follows a square layout.


title: Hindu temple

text: Majority of Hindu temples in Java were dedicated to Shiva, who Javanese Hindus considered as the God who commands the energy to destroy, recombine and recreate the cycle of life. Small temples were often dedicated to Shiva and his family (wife Durga, son Ganesha). Larger temple complexes include temples for Vishnu and Brahma, but the most majestic, sophisticated and central temple was dedicated to Shiva. The 732 CE Canggal inscription found in Southern Central Java, written in Indonesian Sanskrit script, eulogizes Shiva, calling him God par-excellence.


title: Hindu temple

text: There are a number of Hindu temple clusters built by the Champa Kingdoms along the coast of Vietnam, with some on UNESCO world heritage site list. Examples include Mỹ Sơn – a cluster of 70 temples with earliest dated to be from the 4th century CE and dedicated to Siva, while others are dedicated to Hindu deities Krishna, Vishnu and others. These temples, internally and with respect to each other, are also built on the Hindu perfect square grid concept. Other sites in Vietnam with Hindu temples include Phan Rang with the Cham temple Po Klong Garai.


title: Hindu temple

text: Thailand has many notable Hindu temples including: the Sri Mariammam temple in Bangkok, the Devasathan, the Erawan Shrine, Prasat Muang Tam, Sdok Kok Thom and Phanom Rung. Most of the newer Hindu temples are of South Indian origin and were built by Tamil migrant communities. However, Thailand has many historic indigenous Hindu temples such as Phanom Rung. Although most indigenous Hindu temples are ruins, a few such as Devasathan in Bangkok are actively used.


title: Hindu temple

text: Many members of the diaspora from the Indian subcontinent have established Hindu temples outside India as a means of preserving and celebrating cultural and spiritual heritage abroad. Describing the hundreds of temples that can be found throughout the United States, scholar Gail M. Harley observes, "The temples serve as central locations where Hindus can come together to worship during holy festivals and socialize with other Hindus. Temples in America reflect the colorful kaleidoscopic aspects contained in Hinduism while unifying people who are disbursed throughout the American landscape." Numerous temples in North America and Europe have gained particular prominence and acclaim, many of which were built by the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha. The Ganesh temple of Hindu Temple Society of North America, in Flushing, Queens, New York City, is the oldest Hindu temple in the Western Hemisphere, and its canteen feeds 4,000 people a week, with as many as 10,000 during the Diwali (Deepavali) festival.


title: Hindu temple

text: The Archaeological Survey of India has control of most ancient temples of archaeological importance in India. In India, day-to-day activities of a temple is managed by a temple board committee that administers its finances, management, and events. Since independence, the autonomy of individual Hindu religious denominations to manage their own affairs with respect to temples of their own denomination has been severely eroded and the state governments have taken control of major Hindu temples in some countries; however, in others, such as the United States, private temple management autonomy has been preserved.


title: Hindu temple

text: In Sanskrit, the liturgical language of Hinduism, the word "mandira" means "house" (). Ancient Sanskrit texts use many words for temple, such as "matha, vayuna, kirti, kesapaksha, devavasatha, vihara, suravasa, surakula, devatayatana, amaragara, devakula, devagrha, devabhavana, devakulika", and "niketana". Regionally, they are also known as "prasada", "vimana", "kshetra", "gudi", "ambalam", "punyakshetram", "deval", "deula", "devasthanam", "kovil", "candi", "pura", and "wat".


title: Hindu temple

text: Some lands, including Varanasi, Puri, Kanchipuram, Dwarka, Amarnath, Kedarnath, Somnath, Mathura and Rameswara, are considered holy in Hinduism. They are called "kṣétra" (Sanskrit: क्षेत्र). A kṣétra has many temples, including one or more major ones. These temples and its location attracts pilgrimage called tirtha (or tirthayatra).


title: Pugsley Addams

text: Pugsley Addams is a member of the fictional Addams Family, created by American cartoonist Charles Addams.


title: Pugsley Addams

text: Pugsley is depicted as a devious, young, brilliant boy in Charles Addams's original cartoons. He is often shown releasing sailboats in the park with other children, except his boats were more macabre in nature.


title: Pugsley Addams

text: Pugsley is the oldest child of Morticia and Gomez Addams. He is a young boy (his age is given as eight years old in the pilot episode but is changed to 10 years old in the second episode) who is almost always seen wearing a striped T-shirt and shorts. Originally unnamed (as were all of the family members), the character who was apparently the prototype for Pugsley first appeared in the Charles Addams cartoons in "The New Yorker" during the 1930s. In this first incarnation, he was portrayed as a deviant child with a vicious nature, shown committing deplorable acts with his sister. In all incarnations, he is overweight. In the original series, Pugsley is 4'7" tall and weighs 112 pounds. In the television series, Pugsley usually eats over five pieces of cake at birthday parties.


title: Pugsley Addams

text: When the characters were given names for the television series, he was originally going to be called "Pubert" (a derivation of the word puberty, possibly a reflection of his age) but it was rejected as it sounded too sexual, and the name Pugsley was chosen instead. (The name Pubert was later used when Gomez and Morticia have a third child in the film "Addams Family Values".) The Lurch Files' Addams Family Tree lists Pugsley's middle name as Pubert, probably as an homage to Charles Addams' original suggestion.


title: Pugsley Addams

text: In the American television series, Pugsley is played by child actor Ken Weatherwax. This incarnation of the character is more jovial and inventive; he displays outlandish engineering skills, including the invention of a disintegrator gun, an anti-gravity gun, and other devices. He and Gomez created a computer named Whizzo and a robot named Smiley (played by Robby the Robot). Pugsley and his younger sister Wednesday often play together, rarely exhibiting signs of sibling rivalry; they share an interest in spiders, dynamite, guillotines, and other dangerous "toys."


title: Pugsley Addams

text: In an early episode, "Morticia and the Psychiatrist", the rest of the family is concerned that Pugsley is engaging in behavior they consider "odd": wearing a Boy Scout uniform, playing with a puppy, etc. When sent to a psychiatrist, Pugsley tells of boyhood incidents involving hangings, machine guns, and grenades, with no clue that others might find these accounts unusual.


title: Pugsley Addams

text: In most incarnations of the character, Pugsley had an unusual hobby of stealing road signs, which he used to adorn the walls and door of his bedroom. This may have evolved from an original Addams cartoon in which, rather than road signs, he would steal and decorate his room with cautionary signs, such as high voltage and shallow water signs, thus leading others into danger. He also has a pet octopus named Aristotle.


title: Pugsley Addams

text: In the 1970s, there was an animated series about the family, in which Pugsley was voiced by an actress Jodie Foster. Foster voiced that same character in an episode of "The New Scooby-Doo Movies". In the second animated series, Pugsley was voiced by Jeannie Elias.


title: Pugsley Addams

text: In the 1977 TV movie, Ken Weatherwax played a grown-up Pugsley, who has become a witch-doctor. In the interval between the original TV series and this movie, his parents have had two more children, who look just like the original Pugsley and Wednesday. He is known as Pericles Addams in Spanish-speaking countries and in Brazil (Portuguese) as "Feioso" (Ugly).


title: Pugsley Addams

text: In the 1998 series "The New Addams Family", Pugsley is played by Vancouver native Brody Smith in a very similar portrayal to the 1960s incarnation, although he is stated to be younger than Wednesday.


title: Pugsley Addams

text: Isaac Ordonez portrays Pugsley in Netflix series "Wednesday". Unlike most portrayals, he is younger than Wednesday, and his hair is now black instead of blonde.


title: Pugsley Addams

text: In the film "The Addams Family" and its sequel, "Addams Family Values", Pugsley is played by Jimmy Workman. He acts as an unwitting accomplice to his older sister, Wednesday, who makes attempts to inflict lethal harm upon him - although he has returned the favor on occasion.


title: Pugsley Addams

text: In "The Addams Family", Pugsley and Wednesday open a lemonade stand, but their drinks are toxic, and cause Lurch to spit flames when he tries it.


title: Pugsley Addams

text: In "Addams Family Values", Wednesday and Pugsley are sent to Camp Chippewa, a summer camp, where they are forced to participate in a Thanksgiving-themed play entitled "A Turkey Called Brotherhood". Pugsley is cast as a dancing turkey, and leads the children in a chorus of "Eat Me"; He is later seen assisting Wednesday in overthrowing the camp counselors and setting fire to the grounds.


title: Pugsley Addams

text: In the film "Addams Family Reunion", Pugsley (now played by Jerry Messing) behaves (for the most part) similarly to his previous two film incarnations. At the Addams Family's family reunion he falls for a young girl named Gina (played by Haylie Duff). According to Pugsley, his name means "stomach pump" in Bulgarian.


title: Pugsley Addams

text: In the Broadway musical "The Addams Family", Pugsley is played by Adam Riegler as the younger sibling, around eleven years old, seven years younger than 18-year-old Wednesday (played by Krysta Rodriguez).


title: Pugsley Addams

text: In the national tour (2011-2012), Pugsley was played by Patrick D. Kennedy (u.s. Jason Testa). Ethan Wexler replaced Jason Testa in March 2012.


title: Pugsley Addams

text: Finn Wolfhard voices Pugsley in the 2019 animated movie. Javon "Wanna" Walton replaces Wolfhard as the voice of Pugsley in the 2021 sequel, which was released on October 1, 2021.


title: Max Ernst

text: Max Ernst (2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German (naturalised American in 1948 and French in 1958) painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and Surrealism in Europe. He had no formal artistic training, but his experimental attitude toward the making of art resulted in his invention of frottage—a technique that uses pencil rubbings of textured objects and relief surfaces to create images—and grattage, an analogous technique in which paint is scraped across canvas to reveal the imprints of the objects placed beneath. Ernst is noted for his unconventional drawing methods as well as for creating novels and pamphlets using the method of collages. He served as a soldier for four years during World War I, and this experience left him shocked, traumatised and critical of the modern world. During World War II he was designated an "undesirable foreigner" while living in France. He died in Paris on 1 April 1976.


title: Max Ernst

text: Max Ernst was born in Brühl, near Cologne, the third of nine children of a middle-class Catholic family. His father Philipp was a teacher of the deaf and an amateur painter, a devout Christian and a strict disciplinarian. He inspired in Max a penchant for defying authority, while his interest in painting and sketching in nature influenced Max to take up painting. In 1909, Ernst enrolled in the University of Bonn to read philosophy, art history, literature, psychology and psychiatry. He visited asylums and became fascinated with the art work of the mentally ill patients; he also started painting that year, producing sketches in the garden of the Brühl castle, and portraits of his sister and himself. In 1911, Ernst befriended August Macke and joined his "Die Rheinischen Expressionisten" group of artists, deciding to become an artist.


title: Max Ernst

text: In 1912, he visited the Sonderbund exhibition in Cologne, where works by Pablo Picasso and post-Impressionists such as Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin profoundly influenced him. His work was exhibited that year together with that of the Das Junge Rheinland group, at Galerie Feldman in Cologne, and then in several group exhibitions in 1913. In his paintings of this period, Ernst adopted an ironic style that juxtaposed grotesque elements alongside Cubist and Expressionist motifs.


title: Max Ernst

text: In 1914, Ernst met Hans Arp in Cologne. The two became friends and their relationship lasted for fifty years. After Ernst completed his studies in the summer, his life was interrupted by World War I. Ernst was drafted and served both on the Western and the Eastern Fronts. The effect of the war on Ernst was devastating; in his autobiography, he wrote of his time in the army thus: "On the first of August 1914 M[ax].E[rnst]. died. He was resurrected on the eleventh of November 1918". For a brief period on the Western Front, Ernst was assigned to chart maps, which allowed him to continue painting. Several German Expressionist painters died in action during the war, among them August Macke and Franz Marc.


title: Max Ernst

text: In 1918, Ernst was demobilised and returned to Cologne. He soon married art history student Luise Straus, of Jewish ancestry, whom he had met in 1914. In 1919, Ernst visited Paul Klee in Munich and studied paintings by Giorgio de Chirico. The same year, inspired by de Chirico and mail-order catalogues, teaching-aide manuals and similar sources, he produced his first collages (notably "Fiat modes", a portfolio of lithographs), a technique which would dominate his artistic pursuits. Also in 1919, Ernst, social activist Johannes Theodor Baargeld and several colleagues founded the Cologne Dada group. In 1919–20, Ernst and Baargeld published various short-lived magazines such as "Der Strom", "die Schammade" and organised Dada exhibitions.


title: Max Ernst

text: Ernst and Luise's son Ulrich 'Jimmy' Ernst was born on 24 June 1920; he also became a painter. Ernst's marriage to Luise was short-lived. In 1921, he met Paul Éluard, who became a lifelong friend. Éluard bought two of Ernst's paintings ("Celebes" and "Oedipus Rex") and selected six collages to illustrate his poetry collection "Répétitions". A year later the two collaborated on "Les malheurs des immortels" and then with André Breton, whom Ernst met in 1921, on the magazine "Littérature". In 1922, unable to secure the necessary papers, Ernst entered France illegally and settled into a ménage à trois with Éluard and his wife Gala in Paris suburb Saint-Brice, leaving behind his wife and son. During his first two years in Paris, Ernst took various odd jobs to make a living and continued to paint. In 1923, the Éluards moved to a new home in Eaubonne, near Paris, where Ernst painted numerous murals. The same year his works were exhibited at "Salon des Indépendants".


title: Max Ernst

text: Although apparently accepting the ménage à trois, Éluard eventually became more concerned about the affair. In 1924, he abruptly left, first for Monaco and then for Saigon. He soon asked his wife and Max Ernst to join him; both had to sell paintings to finance the trip. Ernst went to Düsseldorf and sold a large number of his works to a long-time friend, Johanna Ey, owner of gallery "Das Junge Rheinland". After a brief time together in Saigon, the trio decided that Gala would remain with Paul. The Éluards returned to Eaubonne in early September, while Ernst followed them some months later, after exploring more of South-East Asia. He returned to Paris in late 1924 and soon signed a contract with Jacques Viot that allowed him to paint full-time. In 1925, Ernst established a studio at 22, rue Tourlaque.


title: Max Ernst

text: In 1925, Ernst invented a graphic art technique called frottage (see Surrealist techniques), which uses pencil rubbings of objects as a source of images. He also created the 'grattage' technique, in which paint is scraped across canvas to reveal the imprints of the objects placed beneath. He used this technique in his famous painting "Forest and Dove" (as shown at the Tate Modern). The next year he collaborated with Joan Miró on designs for Sergei Diaghilev. With Miró's help, Ernst developed grattage, in which he trowelled pigment from his canvases. He also explored with the technique of decalcomania, which involves pressing paint between two surfaces. Ernst was also active, along with fellow Surrealists, at the Atelier 17.


title: Max Ernst

text: Ernst developed a fascination with birds that was prevalent in his work. His alter ego in paintings, which he called Loplop, was a bird. He suggested that this alter-ego was an extension of himself stemming from an early confusion of birds and humans. He said that one night when he was young, he woke up and found that his beloved bird had died; a few minutes later, his father announced that his sister was born. Loplop often appeared in collages of other artists' work, such as "Loplop presents André Breton". Ernst drew a great deal of controversy with his 1926 painting "The Virgin Chastises the infant Jesus before Three Witnesses: André Breton, Paul Éluard, and the Painter". In 1927, Ernst married and it is thought his relationship with her may have inspired the erotic subject matter of "The Kiss" and other works of that year. Ernst appeared in the 1930 film "L'Âge d'Or", directed by the Surrealist Luis Buñuel. Ernst began to sculpt in 1934 and spent time with Alberto Giacometti. In 1938, the American heiress and artistic patron Peggy Guggenheim acquired a number of Max Ernst's works, which she displayed in her new gallery in London. Ernst and Peggy Guggenheim were married from 1942 to 1946.


title: Max Ernst

text: In September 1939, the outbreak of World War II caused Ernst to be interned as an "undesirable foreigner" in Camp des Milles, near Aix-en-Provence, along with fellow Surrealist, Hans Bellmer, who had recently emigrated to Paris. He had been living with his lover and fellow Surrealist painter, Leonora Carrington who, not knowing whether he would return, saw no option but to sell their house to repay their debts and leave for Spain. Thanks to the intercession of Paul Éluard and other friends, including the journalist Varian Fry, he was released a few weeks later. Soon after the German occupation of France, he was arrested again, this time by the Gestapo but managed to escape and flee to America with the help of Peggy Guggenheim, a member of a wealthy American art collecting family, and Fry. Ernst and Peggy Guggenheim arrived in the United States in 1941 and were married at the end of the year. Along with other artists and friends (Marcel Duchamp and Marc Chagall) who had fled from the war and lived in New York City, Ernst helped inspire the development of Abstract expressionism.


title: Max Ernst

text: His marriage to Guggenheim did not last and in Beverly Hills, California in October 1946, in a double ceremony with Man Ray and Juliet P. Browner, he married American Surrealist painter Dorothea Tanning The couple made their home in Sedona, Arizona from 1946 to 1953, where the high desert landscapes inspired them and recalled Ernst's earlier imagery. Despite the fact that Sedona was remote and populated by fewer than 400 ranchers, orchard workers, merchants and small Native American communities, their presence helped begin what would become an American artists' colony. Among the monumental red rocks, Ernst built a small cottage with his own hands on Brewer Road and he and Tanning hosted intellectuals and European artists such as Henri Cartier-Bresson and Yves Tanguy. Sedona proved an inspiration for the artists and for Ernst, who compiled his book "Beyond Painting" and completed his sculptural masterpiece "Capricorn" while living in Sedona. As a result of the book and its publicity, Ernst began to achieve financial success. From the 1950s he lived mainly in France. In 1954 he was awarded the Grand Prize for painting at the Venice Biennale. He died at the age of 84 on 1 April 1976 in Paris and was interred at Père Lachaise Cemetery.


title: Max Ernst

text: Ernst's son Jimmy Ernst, a well-known German/American abstract expressionist painter, who lived on the south shore of Long Island, died in 1984. His memoirs, "A Not-So-Still Life", were published shortly before his death. Max Ernst's grandson Eric and his granddaughter Amy are both artists and writers.


title: Max Ernst

text: Max Ernst's life and career are examined in Peter Schamoni's 1991 documentary "Max Ernst". Dedicated to the art historian Werner Spies, it was assembled from interviews with Ernst, stills of his paintings and sculptures, and the memoirs of his wife Dorothea Tanning and son Jimmy. The 101-minute German film was released on DVD with English subtitles by Image Entertainment.


title: Max Ernst

text: The Max Ernst Museum opened in 2005 in his home town Brühl, Germany. It is housed in a late-classicist 1844 building integrated with a modern glass pavilion. The historic ballroom was once a popular social venue visited by Ernst in his youth. The collection spans 70 years of his career including paintings, drawings, frottages, collages, nearly the entire lithographic works, over 70 bronze sculptures. and more than 700 documents and photographs by Man Ray, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Lee Miller, and others. The core of the collection dates back to 1969 with works donated to the City of Brühl by the artist. Thirty-six paintings, gifts from the artist to his fourth wife Dorothea Tanning, are on permanent loan from the Kreissparkasse Köln. Some noteworthy works include the sculptures "The King playing with the Queen" (1944) and "Teaching Staff for a School of Murderers" (1967). The museum also host temporary exhibitions by other artist.


title: Max Ernst

text: The Menil Collection, in Houston, Texas houses a significant collection of surrealist art including well over 100 pieces by Max Ernst. Notable paintings include "In Praise of Freedom" (1926), "Loplop Presents Loplop" (1930), "Day and Night" (1941–1942), "Surrealism and Painting" (1942), "Euclid" (1945), "A Swarm of Bees in the Palais de Justice" (1960), "The Marriage of Heaven and Earth" (1964). Ernst's work in the Menil Collection is typically exhibited a few pieces at a time along with other surrealist art in the collection on a rotating basis.


title: Palm wine

text: Palm wine, known by several local names, is an alcoholic beverage created from the sap of various species of palm tree such as the palmyra, date palms, and coconut palms. It is known by various names in different regions and is common in various parts of Africa, the Caribbean, South America, South Asia, Southeast Asia and Micronesia.


title: Palm wine

text: Palm wine production by smallholders and individual farmers may promote conservation as palm trees become a source of regular household income that may economically be worth more than the value of timber sold.


title: Palm wine

text: The sap is extracted and collected by a tapper. Typically the sap is collected from the cut flower of the palm tree. A container is fastened to the flower stump to collect the sap. The white liquid that initially collects tends to be very sweet and non-alcoholic before it is fermented. An alternative method is the felling of the entire tree. Where this is practised, a fire is sometimes lit at the cut end to facilitate the collection of sap.


title: Palm wine

text: Palm sap begins fermenting immediately after collection, due to natural yeasts in the air (often spurred by residual yeast left in the collecting container). Within two hours, fermentation yields an aromatic wine of up to 4% alcohol content, mildly intoxicating and sweet. The wine may be allowed to ferment longer, up to a day, to yield a stronger, more sour and acidic taste, which some people prefer. Longer fermentation produces vinegar instead of stronger wine.


title: Palm wine

text: Palm wine may be distilled to create a stronger drink, which goes by different names depending on the region (e.g., "arrack", "palm feni (liquor)", "", "village gin", "charayam", and "country whiskey").


title: Palm wine

text: Throughout Nigeria, this is commonly called palm wine. In some parts of Cameroon, it is known as "Emu" or "Matango". In parts of southern Ghana, distilled palm wine is called "akpeteshi" or "burukutu". In Togo and Benin, it is called "sodabe", while in Tunisia it is called "lagmi". In coastal parts of Kenya, it is known as "mnazi". In India it is called "toddy". In Ivory Coast, it is called "koutoukou".


title: Palm wine

text: In the Philippines, the most common distilled palm liquor is "lambanog" which is made from aged "tubâ". It has very high alcohol by volume, at 40 to 45% abv (80 to 90 proof).


title: Palm wine

text: In Africa, the sap used to create palm wine is most often taken from wild datepalms such as the silver date palm ("Phoenix sylvestris"), the palmyra, and the jaggery palm ("Caryota urens"), or from oil palm such as the African Oil Palm ("Elaeis guineense") or from "Raffia palms", "kithul" palms, or "nipa" palms. In part of central and western Democratic Republic of the Congo, palm wine is called "malafu".


title: Palm wine

text: Palm wine plays an important role in many ceremonies in many tribes and nations of Nigeria such as among the Igbo and Yoruba peoples, and elsewhere in Central and Western Africa. Guests at weddings, birth celebrations, funerals and gatherings to observe important festivals and holidays are served generous quantities. Palm wine is often infused with medicinal herbs to remedy a wide variety of physical complaints. As a token of respect to deceased ancestors, many drinking sessions begin with a small amount of palm wine spilled on the ground ("Kulosa malafu" in Kikongo ya Leta). Palm wine is enjoyed by men and women, although women usually drink it in less public venues.


title: Palm wine

text: In parts of southeastern Nigeria, namely Igboland, palm wine is locally referred to as "mmanya ocha" (literally, "white drink"), with "ngwo" and "nkwu" variants. It plays a very important role in traditional Igbo settings. In Urualla, for instance, and other "ideator" towns, it is the drink of choice for traditional weddings. A young man who is going for the first introduction at his in-laws’ house is required to bring palm wine with him. There are varying gallons of palm wine required, depending on the customs of the different regions in Igboland. This culture can be observed in a similar fashion in the neighboring north-western regions of Cameroon. (North West Region).


title: Palm wine

text: There are four types of palm wine in the central and southern Democratic Republic of the Congo. From the oil palm comes "ngasi", "dibondo" comes from the raffia palm, "cocoti" from the coconut palm, and "mahusu" from a short palm which grows in the savannah areas of western Bandundu and Kasai provinces.


title: Palm wine

text: In South Asian countries such as Bangladesh, India, and Sri Lanka, coconut palms and Palmyra palms such as the "Arecaceae" and "Borassus" are preferred. It is mainly produced from the lala palm ("Hyphaene coriacea") by cutting the stem and collecting the sap. In some areas of India, palm wine is evaporated to produce the unrefined sugar called jaggery.


title: Palm wine

text: In parts of India, the unfermented sap is called "neera" ( in Tamil Nadu) and is refrigerated, stored and distributed by semi-government agencies. A little lime (calcium hydroxide) is added to the sap to prevent it from fermenting. "Neera", similar to fruit-juice products, is relatively rich in potassium.


title: Palm wine

text: In India, palm wine or toddy is served as either "neera" or (a sweet, non-alcoholic beverage derived from fresh sap) or (a sour beverage made from fermented sap, but not as strong as wine). Palm sap contains natural yeasts, which perform the fermentation of glucose to alcohol, as well as acetobacter, which subsequently converts the alcohol to acetic acid (vinegar). Optimal consumption time is one day after tapping when the vinegar content is minimal; beyond this time, it becomes increasingly sour. Some palm wine drinkers prefer their beverage more sour than usual, but fermenting for too long will result in vinegar rather than wine. Refrigeration extends beverage life, as do a variety of spices, which also contribute flavor.


title: Palm wine

text: In India, palm wine is usually available at toddy shops (known as in Malayalam, in Tamil, in Tulu, in Telugu, in Kannada). In Tamil Nadu, this beverage is currently banned, though the legality fluctuates with politics. In the absence of legal toddy, moonshine distillers of arrack often sell methanol-contaminated alcohol, which can have lethal consequences. To discourage this practice, authorities have pushed for inexpensive "Indian Made Foreign Liquor" (IMFL).


title: Palm wine

text: In states of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh (India), toddy is a popular drink in rural parts that is frequently consumed at the end of the day after work.


title: Palm wine

text: There are two main types of toddy () in states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, namely (from Toddy Palmyra trees) and (from silver date palms). is very sweet and less intoxicating, whereas is stronger (sweet in the morning, becoming sour to bitter-sour in the evening) and is highly intoxicating. People enjoy right at the trees where it is brought down. They drink out of leaves by holding them to their mouths while the Goud pours the from the (kallu pot). There are different types of toddy according to the season: , , . .


title: Palm wine

text: In the Indian state of Kerala, toddy is used in leavening (as a substitute for yeast) a local form of hopper called the . Toddy is mixed with rice dough and left overnight to aid in fermentation and expansion of the dough causing the dough to rise overnight, making the bread soft when prepared.


title: Palm wine

text: In Kerala, toddy is sold under a license issued by the excise department and it is an industry having more than 50,000 employees with a welfare board under the labor department. It is also used in the preparation of a soft variety of Sanna, which is famous in the parts of Karnataka and Goa in India.


title: Palm wine

text: "Tuak", which can refer to both palm wine and rice wine, is imbibed in Sumatra, Sulawesi, Kalimantan and Bali of Indonesia and parts of Malaysia such as Sabah and Sarawak in East Malaysia. The beverage is a popular drink among the Kadazan-Dusun, Ibans and the Dayaks during the Gawai and Kaamatan festivals, weddings, hosting of guests and other special occasions. The Batak people of North Sumatra also consume palm wine, with the palm sap is mixed with raru bark to make Tuak. The brew is served at stalls along with snacks. The same word is used for other drinks in Indonesia, for example, those made using fermented rice.


title: Palm wine

text: Mexican "tuba" made from coconut sap is common in western Mexico, especially in the states of Colima, Jalisco, Michoacán, and Guerrero. Coconuts are not native to the Americas. They were introduced to Mexico from the Philippines via the Manila Galleons to Acapulco, along with "tuba" manufacturing. Mexican "tuba" is made in the same way as Filipino "tubâ". The traditional sap collectors are known as "tuberos" (which also means "plumber" in both Mexico and the Philippines). It became so popular that in 1619, Captain Sebastian de Piñeda wrote to King Philip III of Spain complaining of the Filipino ""Indio"" settlers in Nueva España who were causing significant loss of profits to Iberian alcohol exporters due to "tuba".


title: Palm wine

text: Mexican "tuba" is also commonly sold as "tuba fresca", a non-alcoholic version made from fresh coconut sap. It is traditionally sold by street vendors in large bottle gourds mixed with coconut milk, ice, and sugar. It is usually topped with peanuts and diced fruit.


title: Palm wine

text: Palm wines are widely consumed in the Philippines and are part of the traditional palm vinegar industry. They are gathered mostly from coconuts, nipa palms, or kaong palms. Palm wines fermented for a few days to a few weeks are generally referred to as tubâ. There are two notable traditional derivations of tubâ with higher alcohol contents. The first are distilled liquor, generally known as "lambanog" (coconut) and "laksoy" (nipa palm). They are milky white to clear in colour. The second is the "bahalina" which is typically deep brown-orange in colour due to the use of bark extracts from the mangrove "Ceriops tagal".


title: Palm wine

text: Other types of palm wines indigenous to the islands include subtypes of tubâ like "tuhak" or "tubâ sa hidikup" which is made from kaong palm sap, and "tunggang" which is made from fishtail palm sap.


title: Palm wine

text: On the island of Leyte in the central Philippines, the red "tubâ" is aged with the tanbark for up to six months to two years, until it gets dark red and tapping its glass container gives off a deep hollow sound. This type of "tubâ" is called "bahal" (for "tubâ" aged this way for up to six months) and "bahalina" (for "tubâ" aged thus for up to a year or more).


title: Palm wine

text: Production of palm wine may have contributed to the endangered status of the Chilean wine palm ("Jubaea chilensis").


title: Palm wine

text: In Tuvalu, the process of making toddy can clearly be seen with tapped palm trees that line Funafuti International Airport.


title: Palm wine

text: In Kiribati, it is called Karewe and freshly tapped sap from coconut spathe is used as a refreshing drink and the fermented sap is used as an alcoholic beverage. Karewe is boiled to reduce into a thick light brown liquid, called "kamwaimwai", used as sweetener and spread.


title: Palm wine

text: Some small pollinating mammals consume large amounts of fermented palm nectar as part of their diet, especially the southeast Asian pen-tailed treeshrew. The inflorescences of the bertam palm contain populations of yeast which ferment the nectar in the flowers to up to 3.8% alcohol (average: 0.6%). The treeshrews metabolise the alcohol very efficiently and do not appear to become drunk from the fermented nectar.


title: Palm wine

text: Megabats have been known to drink from containers of harvested palm sap and then urinate into the containers, leading to the transmission of the Nipah virus.


title: Palm wine

text: The tapping and consumption of palm wine are recurrent motifs in the Chinua Achebe novel "Things Fall Apart", and in the Amos Tutuola novel "The Palm-Wine Drinkard". It is also mentioned in the 2006 movie "Blood Diamond".