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26-565: The Uttara Kanda of the Hindu epic Ramayana records: the ten-headed, twenty-armed mighty King Ravana defeated and looted Alaka – the city of his half-brother and god of wealth Kubera , situated near Mount Kailash . After the victory, Ravana was returning to Lanka in the Pushpaka Vimana (the flying chariot stolen from Kubera), when he spotted a beautiful place. However, the chariot could not fly over it. Ravana met Shiva's vahana ,

52-438: A bun. In an upper arm, Shiva holds a trishula (trident) and his lower right arm makes the abhayamudra (fear-not gesture). The couple may be seated on a lotus pedestal or rest their feet on it. In some cases, Parvati is seated on Shiva's left lap. Sometimes, he may touch her chin lovingly. The mountain may be pictured variously as a simple piles of rocks or even as a simple platform to an elaborate multi-tiered structure. In

78-562: A classical epic. Each poem is composed in a metre that is fitting to the subject matter, such as a description of the seasons, a geographical form of nature such as a mountain, and cities. In the relatively secluded world of modern Sanskrit literature, mahakavya s continue to be produced. Some of these have been awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award for Sanskrit . In the introduction to Ṣoḍaśī: An Anthology of Contemporary Sanskrit Poets (1992), Radhavallabh Tripathi writes: On

104-505: A hollowed space beneath a stylised mountain form that represents the divine abode of Shiva, Mount Kailasha. Shiva and Parvati are shown seated in the central part of the mountain accompanied by Shiva's ganas , animals, and other attendants. While Parvati is leaning towards Shiva, a female attendant to her right seems to be running away in fright. A sculpture at the Albert Hall Museum, Jaipur , made of buff sandstone, represents

130-442: A large sword, alluding to the divine sword granted by Shiva. Other weapons include a shield, a bow, an arrow and a thunderbolt. Ravana may be crouching or kneeling. The Kailasha Temple of Ellora has a huge relief depicting the legend of Ravananugraha. It is located under the southern porch of the temple mandapa . The relief has human-sized figures and detailed carving to capture three dimensions effectively. The relief shows Ravana in

156-463: A sixth one is also added. In the mahākāvya genre, more emphasis was laid on description than on narration. Daṇḍin 's Kāvyādarśa lists the traditional characteristics of a mahākāvya as: About this list, Ingalls observes: These are not random suggestions but specific requirements. Every complete mahākāvya that has come down to us from the time of Kalidasa contains the whole list, which, if one considers it carefully, will be seen to contain

182-471: A structure within which a Hindu wedding is performed. The bride and groom encircle a holy fire lit by the officiating priest in the center of the mandapa . When a temple has more than one mandapa , they are given different names. In Burmese , the term mandat ( မဏ္ဍပ် ), which has etymological origins in Pali maṇḍapa , is an open platform or pavilion from which people spray water to passers-by during

208-417: A terrified Parvati embraced Shiva. However, the omniscient Shiva already knew that Ravana was behind the menace, and pressed the mountain into place with his big toe, trapping Ravana beneath it. Ravana gave a loud cry in pain. Advised by his ministers, Ravana sang hymns in praise of Shiva for a thousand years. Finally, Shiva not only forgave Ravana, but also granted him an invincible sword. Since Ravana cried, he

234-615: Is generally attached to the central tower of a temple and lied longitudinally to one of each main direction. In Tamil , this platform is the Aayiram Kaal Mandapam – a distinctly thousand pillared hall close to the vimana of the Koil which forms a distinct part of the site plan of classical Dravidian architecture . In Thai , it is called a mondop ( มณฑป ). It features often in Thai temple art and architecture , either in

260-479: Is generally depicted ten-headed; however, he may be depicted with fewer heads or just a single head. A donkey's head may be also depicted as his tenth head. His expression may show frustration or pain. Ravana is pictured as multi-armed; however, the number of arms is not fixed and extends up to twenty arms. Generally, his rear or upper arms hold up the mountain, while the lower ones may rest on ground or his knee for support, or may carry weapons in them. He sometimes holds

286-538: Is one of the earliest Sanskrit poets with surviving Kāvya literature. His Buddhacarita ( Acts of the Buddha ) calls itself a mahākāvya and was influential enough to be translated into both Tibetan and Chinese. Another kāvya by Aśvaghoṣa is the Saundarananda , which focuses on the conversion of Nanda , Buddha's half-brother. Tradition identifies five works as model mahākāvya : To this list, sometimes

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312-647: The Kumarasambhava and the Kiratarjuniya . The genre evolved from earlier epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana . Despite the length of mahākāvya s (15-30 cantos , a total of about 1500-3000 verses), they are still much shorter than the Ramayana (500 cantos, 24000 verses) and the Mahabharata (about 100000 verses). The Buddhist poet and philosopher Aśvaghoṣa ( c.  80 – c. 150 CE )

338-494: The Indian independence movement , or K.N. Ezhuthachan 's Keralodayah on the history of Kerala ), or biographies of historical characters (such as S.B. Varnekar 's Shrishivarajyodayam on Shivaji , M. S. Aney 's Sritilakayasornavah on Bal Gangadhar Tilak , or P. C. Devassia 's Kristubhagavatam on Jesus Christ ). Some others like the Śrībhārgavarāghaviyam (2002) composed by Jagadguru Rāmabhadrācārya continue to have

364-561: The Buddhist festival Thingyan . In Javanese , the mandapa is known as a pendhapa ( ꦥꦼꦤ꧀ꦝꦥ ). Unusually, Indonesian pendopos are built mostly for Muslim communities. Many mosques follow the pendopo design, with a layered roof. In Khmer , Mandapa is pronounced to be Mondup ( មណ្ឌប ), means pavilion. Khmer people often refer it as a small shrine with high crown-shaped like tower, decorated with exquisite ornaments in various styles. In Khmer temples during Angkor era, A Mandapa

390-464: The basic repertory of Sanskrit poetry. Contained in it are the essential elements of nature, love, society, and war which a poet should be able to describe. The great kāvya tested a poet by his power of rendering content, which is a better test at least than the Persian diwan, which tested a poet by his skill at rhyme. It is composed of a varying number of short poems or cantos, that tells the story of

416-578: The bull attendant Nandi (Nandisha, Nandikeshvara) at the place, and asked the reason behind his chariot's inability to pass over the place. Nandi informed Ravana that Shiva and Parvati resided on the mountain, and that no one was allowed to pass. Ravana mocked Shiva and Nandi. Enraged by the insult to his master, Nandi cursed Ravana that monkeys would destroy him. In turn, Ravana decided to uproot Kailash, infuriated by Nandi's curse, and his inability to proceed further. He put all his twenty arms under Kailash, and started lifting it. As Kailash began to shake,

442-423: The condition that wherever the linga was placed on earth, it would stay there for eternity. Aided by Shiva's son Ganesha , the gods devised a plan and tricked Ravana to hand the linga to Ganesha, who immediately placed it on the ground. Temples at Gokarna was the spot where the atma linga was placed. Shiva and Parvati are depicted seated on Mount Kailash in the upper portion of the portrayal, while Ravana, lifting

468-404: The couple's two sons – the elephant headed god of wisdom Ganesha and Kartikeya , the god of war; Shiva's vahana – the bull Nandi and Parvati's lion. In some cases, animals and attendants run away, frightened by the trembling mountain. In some cases, the inhabitants attack Ravana with arms and boulders. Ravana is depicted as a strongly built man lifting the mountain with all his might. Ravana

494-475: The latter depiction, various levels show Kailash's various inhabitants including divinities, attendants, sages and animals, while Shiva and Parvati are perched on the top of the mountain. Even otherwise, male attendants of Shiva and female ones of Parvati as well as Shiva's dwarfish follower gana s may be depicted surrounding the divine couple on Kailash. Other flying divinities may also be pictured with them, praising Shiva and Parvati. Noteworthy portrayals include

520-544: The legend with a depiction of Ravana trying to lift the Kailasha mountain, while Shiva and Parvati sit on it. Hindu epic Mahākāvya (lit. great kāvya, court epic), also known as sargabandha , is a genre of Indian epic poetry in Classical Sanskrit . The genre is characterised by ornate and elaborate descriptions of phenomena such as scenery, love , and battles . Typical examples of mahākāvya are

546-404: The mount is portrayed in the lower register. In the upper register, the central figures are the four-armed Shiva and to his left hand side, Parvati, who clings to her husband with her two arms flung around him. Shiva is calm, comforting his terrified consort, embracing her with one or two arms. Shiva wears a jata-mukuta (a headdress formed of piled, matted hair), while Parvati's hair is arranged in

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572-580: The other hand, the number of authors who appear to be very enthusiastic about writing in Sanskrit during these days is not negligible. […] In a thesis dealing with Sanskrit mahākāvya s written in a single decade, 1961–1970, the researcher [Dr. Ramji Upadhyaya] has noted 52 Sanskrit mahākāvya s (epic poems) produced in that very decade. Some modern mahākāvya s do not aim to satisfy all the traditional criteria, and take as their subject historical matter (such as Rewa Prasad Dwivedi 's Svatantrya Sambhavam on

598-430: The sanctuary and the temple entrance, on the same axis. In a large temple other mandapas may be placed to the sides, or detached within the temple compound. In the Hindu temple the mandapa is a porch-like structure through the ( gopuram ) (ornate gateway) and leading to the temple. It is used for religious dancing and music and is part of the basic temple compound. The prayer hall was generally built in front of

624-456: The subject of the traditional epics. Mandapa A mandapa or mantapa ( Sanskrit : मण्डप , romanized :  maṇḍapa ) is a pillared hall or pavilion for public rituals in Indian architecture , especially featured in Hindu temple architecture and Jain temple architecture . Mandapas are described as "open" or "closed" depending on whether they have walls. In temples, one or more mandapas very often lie between

650-441: The temple's sanctum sanctorum ( garbhagriha ). A large temple would have many mandapa . If a temple has more than one mandapa , each one is allocated for a different function and given a name to reflect its use. For example, a mandapa dedicated to divine marriage is referred to as a kalyana mandapa . Often the hall was pillared and the pillars adorned with intricate carvings . In contemporary terms, it also represents

676-585: Was given the name "Ravana" – one who cried. In the Tevaram , a Tamil Shaiva work, Ravana cut off one of his heads and built a veena from it. He used his tendons for the strings and began singing praises of Shiva. The song was the Shiva Tandava Stotram . The pleased Shiva bestowed a powerful linga , the Atmalinga (lingam of the soul), his symbol, to be worshipped by Ravana at Lanka, but with

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