Few centuries ago Visakhapatnam is one of the villages of kalinga kingdom. Visakhapatnam consists sea on onside and hills & forests on 3 sides. You may wonder, if it is a village then by its name Visakhapatnam is known as city. As Visakhapatnam is in Andhra state so the regional language is telugu , so patnam is a telugu word which means city.
The villages which are nearer to the seas are been called cities by assisters of those villages. For example Bimipatnam, Kalingapatnam, Machlipatnam, Nizaampatnam etc. All these are villages at kalinga kingdom. All these villages are nearer to sea. Even Visakhapatnam is also nearer to sea. Therefore, Visakhapatnam is known as city.
From when Visakhapatnam is there? How the name Visakhapatnam came? There are many stories as an answer for these questions. In 5th century the king name visakhavarm who belong to kalinga dynasty used to rule Visakhapatnam. People say that the name Visakhapatnam with came due to the king Visakhavarm.
In earlier, there used to be more loss for the businessmen by pirates and Cyclones. Then business men who related to Visakhapatnam have visited draksharama bheemeshwari in 1068 year as he got his business ship and material safely then he made it write about his visit on a stone by sculpture. By that stone we got known that by the 11 century Visakhapatnam is there. That means from 1500 years itself Visakhapatnam is available in our history.
The first foreigner who came to Visakhapatnam is from Dutch country. First they have established their company in bheemili and then they came to Visakhapatnam in 1630. They even found that Visakhapatnam is also related to shipping industry. In 1750 the population rate of Visakhapatnam is 3000. By this we can imagine that in 1630 there may be less population. On west side of Visakhapatnam there are salt streams and on southside the beautiful yarada hills. There is a cannal which joins yarada hills and salt streams. Now the place where harbor is situated, there few centuries ago, salt streams used to be. At the border of the salt streams there are huts in which fishermen used to live. At that time Visakhapatnam is limited till kota street only and houses are been constructed congested as now also. There is lot of open space at middle of the Visakhapatnam. People used to use this place for exhibitions and for festival celebrations.
The Dutch people who entered Visakhapatnam have first estimated the layout of Visakhapatnam. They laid the road from south to north at the center of the Visakhapatnam. They even laid another road from beach to saint Aloysius School on east to west. Visakhapatnam used to be inside this road. The place which is at center was given to markets and for some people to live, some place left for using for exhibitions and festival celebrations.
At the out cuts of the Visakhapatnam, The Dutch people have build 3 buildings for their company. With few modifications two of them are still exist now also. One of the buildings is now government Queen Mary’s High school and the other building is district register office. The third building is of education department of Vishakhapatnam. But now this third building does not exist as it replaced by some other building related to business.
Though we may not know the history of Visakhapatnam of 15th century. But kalinga kingdom history is available for us. In Bc , India has been divided into Aunga-Vanga- Klinga – Kashmir kingdoms. In that kalinga kingdom contains Visakhapatnam.
Kalinga Kingdom
In the empire of Magadha, Kalinga is a state. The Magadha Empire went from Nandaraju to Maurya’s at BC. In 4rth century, the ruler name Chandragupta Maurya dynasty in those days. A Greek ambassador Megasthenes came to India. He travelled all over India and he gathered lot of information about Indian culture and people life style in India. Then he wrote a book called Indica which is completely about Indian culture and Indian people life style.
Megasthenes has written about kalinga state and people in that kingdom are clever. They live on their profession that is why the kingdom is developing. The king who is ruling kalinga state is very powerful king. He has a lot of 1000 army people, 60,000 security people and 700 elephants. This is the information at the time of Chandragupta Maurya.
When the Ashoka has become Maurya king, then he tried to occupy kalinga state.But could not defeat the kalinga king. A huge war has taken place. In both the kingdoms number of people died and more number of people has been injured. Then the king Ashoka understood, due to these wars there will be a lot of loss. Then he understood and found a away to peace. Finally he left his kingdom and he adopted Buddhism which is the other name of peace and non violence.
Ashoka has constructed Buddha statues in which we can find the art of the sculptures of Andhra. The Buddhism has started later at Salihundam, Vamsadhara at the bank of Annavaram, and Ramatheertham .
After the Maurya Empire from 225 BC to 200AD century a king name Satavahana used to rule Andhra. At the end of Satavahana ruling that is in 2nd century, at that time Acharya Nagarjuna has established a university on hill which is nearer to the Krishna River. So it is named as Nagarjuna Viharam. So it is now known as Nagarjuna hill. The world famous Ajanta caves in which painting about their culture are been included and Amaravati statues are at the time of satavahana ruling.
After satavahana, Andhra state has been divided into small kingdoms. The other bank of Krishna River is related to pallavas, the centre place of Krishna, Godavari is related to Ikshvaku. The place between Godavari in Andhra and Mahanadi in Orissa is ruled by kalinga kings.
11th century to 15th century
The Andhra is ruled by many kings at the time period between 11 to 16 century. All those kings and their related things and gifts details are in simhachalam devasthanam committee records. In the year 1078 kalinga state is under the rule of the kings Ganga dynasty. These kings have built many temples at that time. Our history tells us that Someshwara temple in Mukha linga, Srikurmam, Simhachalam and more temples in north Andhra, Puri and Bhubaneswar in Orissa are built by the kings of Ganga dynasty. A stone at the Simhachalam has been sculptured in which the 1021-1099 included that Visakhapatnam name as Kulothuga chola patnam.
The king Ananthavarma chodaganga has been awarded as three kalinga adhipathi. So by this we can know that at the time kalinga dynasty has been divided into three parts. The famous temple konark in puri has been built by a last king Narasimha raju of Ganga dynasty in 1238 – 1264 in Orissa.
The Ganga dynasty kings have rules upto 14th century. In 14th century Andhra has been ruled by reddy kings. They have defeated kalinga kingdom upto simhadri. The king kondaveeti raju kumaragiri has offer gifts to simhardri nadha in 1386 therefore, he made sculptured about this on the stone. The place around the temple made fertile by kings from different dynasties. .
In 1420 year, the Ganga dynasty kings have came into power by defeating reddies. The king of Ganga dynasty and their people have offered a lot of gifts to temples and they made simhachalam as for religion development.
In 1428 hampi vijayanagar rulers have defeated Andhra state till simhadri. With in less time, Ganga dynasty people have come to power to rule Andhra state. But in 1434 – 1435 due to the revolutions in their kingdom. The last king bhanu4 has resigned his position and finally Ganga dynasty has been stopped.
In Ganga dynasty there are many important hurdles taken place. They has made north Andhra as a company. They have changed their capital from Mukhalinga to Katak.
The places like simhachalam, bhogapuram, yalamanchili, vaddadi, are the main places at their time.
Competition in sports include routine competitions like 100 m race, sack race, spoon and marble race, marathon , musical race, in-out game, blind hit, tug of war for the married women etc. Besides these games, other local sports are also held. Some of these sports are described below:
- Climbing banana stem: every leaves are cut away from a banana stem and oils and other lubricants are applied to that banana stem. Prize money is kept at the top of that banana stem. Only male compete in this event. The competitors wear only shorts or trousers. Oils are applied to their whole body. The competitors try to reach the top of the stem one by one. The one who manages to reach the top and take away the prize money is declared the winner.
- Pot race: It’s a track event in which competitors’ race while keeping an earthen pot filled with water on their head. The competitors’ should reach the finishing line at the earliest time without spilling the water or breaking the pots. Generally this game is meant for the women.
- Yubi lakpi: Yubi lakpi which translated means coconut snatching is somewhat similar to the game of climbing banana stem. Only male participate in this game wearing shorts. A coconut fruit is made slippery by applying oil. It is kept at the centre of the field. Oil is also applied to the bodies of all the competitors who would then compete among themselves to successfully carry the coconut to the finishing line. It is fun to watch each participant trying to get hold of the coconut while evading the other participants.
- Arithmetic race: it tests the physical ability and the intelligence of the students. The participants race to the other end of the field where desks and benches are kept. A paper containing the arithmetic problems are placed at each desk. The participants have to solve it correctly and race back to the starting point. The one who successfully solves the problems and also reaches the line first is declared winner. Usually this event is divided into three categories. The first category is for the children studying from class I to class III. In the second category, students from class IV to class VI compete. The third is for the students studying in class VII to class IX
- Balloon bursting: A game which interests the children is the balloon bursting game. A balloon is tied at the ankle of each participant. The participant would try to burst the balloon of the other competitors while saving his own balloon. only legs can be used to burst other competitors balloon.
- Housework competition: in this event, one male and one female would make one team. Each team is provided with a few firewood, rice, lentils, a pot, a bucket and other necessary food items. At the start of the game, the male participant would run with the bucket and fetch water from the nearby water source. He would then give it to his partner who would then start the preparation for cooking. The male partner would help with the preparation and cooking to ensure that his team finishes first at the earliest time possible. Another variety of this game is that the male participants would be provided with a needle each and made to stand in line at one end. His female partner would race from the other end with a thread and pass the thread through the eye of the needle and race back to the starting end.
Apart from these games there are many interesting games held at each locality and everyone looks forward to these annual competitions. Every individual from old to young enjoy these sports by participating themselves or cheering the participants. Every year, the organizer works hard to make it a successful event for it fosters a spirit of teamwork and competitiveness while having fun.
In lunar religious and Indian national calendar, which is, also known as ‘Shak’ the month of Chaitra is the beginning of New Year. This is the period when mango leaves adorn the houses. The weather is beautiful and full of romance in the air. Flowers blossom all around.
I live in the state of Karnataka for the time being where they celebrate Ugadi or Yugadi on the first day of New Year. This day, celebrated, all over our country with different ways and different names but the basic feelings are the same. This festival is celebrated allover India with different names. For instance, in Maharashtra this is, known as Gudi Padwa and Sindhi community call it Cheti Chand. In Orissa, they celebrate the festival, which is very famous on the hills of Tara Tarini shrine for the whole month of Chaitra that begins on 23March this year.
Ugadi is, celebrated all across the state on the first day of New Year with lots of fun and cheerful ways. A ritual that is central to the festival is the preparation of a combination of Neem leaves and jaggery. It symbolizes Yugadi name has been, derived from Yuga and Aadi that stands for beginning of a new age. This is, also believed that Lord Brahma started the creation of the universe on this particular day. Most importantly, the famous Indian mathematician Bhaskaracharya’s calculations are also the clear indications that the Ugadi day was the beginning of the new day, new month and New Year.
This is spring and this also marks the beginning of a new life to plants and trees, which were so sad and had no leaves buds or flowers until now. Incidentally, this is, considered the first season of the year therefore this day, the first of the month becomes more meaningful. Ugadi is an auspicious day that marks the beginning of new ventures. People go out and shop for new dresses, new appliances and new home gadgets; they wait for months together for this day to do their shopping.
Ugadi is also, considered as an auspicious time to venture in to new projects. Literary and cultural programs are, held on this day, also recognition of poets, artists and authors through awarding them with respect and honor is, done on this day. In Andhra Pradesh, the cultural programs consisting of poems recitals are, held on this day.
The day starts with cleaning houses and decorating with different Rangoli ways and using mango leaves, a prayer for wishing well to all loved ones and a prosperous New Year for whole of the year. This is followed by traditional dishes especially the rice preparation with raw mango pieces. People go visit different temples and offer their prayers to Lord. The Elders of the family recite the Panchang Shravana and predict the future of the year for younger members of the family.
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Overall, the festival is, celebrated with lots of celebrations, traditional systems and hope for a wonderful New Year for self and family members. Younger generation visits and makes outings to different places and enjoys the festival in their own ways.
Indian weddings are famous all over the world. The amount of money we spend on clothes, food, wine, invitation cards, decorations, venues and on the various ceremonies involved makes them most talked about globally.
In India, it all starts when the groom and the bride agrees to tie a knot with each other. The groom and the bride agrees to tie a knot by exchanging rings with each other in the ceremony called the Ring Ceremony. This ceremony is usually accompanied by a tea party or a dinner. In India a gap of 3-6 month is kept in between the ring ceremony and the wedding. Within this time frame both the families prepare themselves for the wedding.
The preparation involves:
- Selecting and fixing the menu for the wedding dinner.
- Booking the venue/s for the wedding party.
- Getting the invitation cards printed.
- Mailing and inviting guests.
- Arranging a place for the guests to stay.
- Arranging clothes, photographers, jewelry, gifts, wine etc
On the arrival of the wedding day, groom reaches at the brides place for the wedding function. He reaches at the decided venue in a group of his friends and relatives which is called the Baraat. Dhol, fireworks, dances etc are some of the highlights of the Baraat. The guests or the relatives who accompanies the groom are the Baraatis. On the arrival of the Baraat, starts a ceremony called Milni. In this ceremony the relatives of the bride and the relatives of the groom both meet each other by exchanging gifts and blessings. Jai Mala, is the next ceremony. In this ceremony the bride puts a flower garland around the neck of her groom and vice versa. Followed by Jai Mala, starts the lavish dinner. A good food and a good wine not only leaves a good impression on the guests but it also makes the entire wedding a memorable one. These days North Indian, South Indian, Chinese, and the Continental cuisines are quite common in the Indian wedding. Followed by the dinner starts the ceremony named Phere which takes 2-3 hours and is performed by a Pandit. The last ceremony is the Vidai. In this ceremony, bride takes a leave from her parents.
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