The Sundara Kanda, the fifth book in the Ramayana, focuses mainly on the adventures of Sri Hanuman, and the story is as follows: Hanuman meets Rama during the latter's 14-year exile in the forest. With his brother Lakshmana, Rama is searching for his wife Sita, who had been abducted by Ravana. Their search brings them to the vicinity of the mountain Rishyamukha, where Sugriva, along with his followers and friends, are in hiding from his elder brother Vali, with whom he had quarrelled over a mistake.

Ramavataram, popularly referred to as Kamba Ramayanam is a Tamil epic written by the poet Kamban during the 12th century. Based on Valmiki's Ramayana, the original epic Ramayana in Sanskrit, the story describes the life of King Rama of Ayodhya. However, Ramavatharam is different from the Sanksrit original in many aspects - both in spiritual concepts and in the specifics of the story line.

Excerpts from the Garuda Purana, a dialogue between Lord Visnu and Garuda, His transcendental carrier. While describing the significance of various consecrations (samskaras), Lord Vishnu told Shiva that the union of man's sperm and woman's ovum results into the birth of a child. This union along with the whole process of the foetus getting transformed into a baby is a lengthy affair during which it imbibes numerous impurities. Samskaras (consecrations) purify one from all these impurities.

Despite the casual tossing away of Puranic accounts by Indologists prejudiced by western historicism, the fact remains that these texts provide a remarkably detailed account of dynasties of rulers, along with a picture of social conditions that need to be included in any marshalling of facts relating to ancient India.

The Culture of Orissa, Jagannath Culture, is based on the non-sectarian ideology that welcomes every religious and non-religious believer to its fold to receive the blessings of Lord Jagannath. Salbeg, though Muslim by birth, is the brightest star of the Orissan sky who enlightened the Orissan society by his devotional bhajanas, jananas and chaupadis. In this 21st Century, he is still being reckoned as one of the brightest literary figures of Orissa.

The ten incarnations of the Adi Sakti or the divine primeval force are known as Dasa Mahavidya. Tara Mahavidya is placed second in the order. The Daksa-yajna legend conceived in the Mahabharata is of major importance in regard to the origin of Dasa-Mahavidya. According to the versions of Matsya and Padma Purana, Sati, one of the daughters of Daksa, happened to be the spouse of Lord Sadasiva.

The Brahmin said, 'O son! Describe in detail about hell.' Sumati said, 'O father! Yamadutas carry and lynch those people who eat inedible things, who deceive and dishonour their friends, who indulge in illicit relationships, who desert their wife, and who destroy public properties like gardens, water sources, etc. Yamadutas tie the hands and legs of such people and throw them into the fire. On their way to hell, such people are bitten by crows, storks, wolves, vultures, etc.

Airavata is the white elephant who carries Lord Indra. According to the Ramayana, Airavata's mother was Iravati, the daughter of Kadru and granddaughter of Kasyapa. According to the Matangalila, Airavata was born when Lord Brahma sang sacred hymns over the halves of the egg shell from which Garuda hatched. He was followed at birth by seven more male and eight female elephants.

President Obama greets the Hindu community on the auspicious occassion of Diwali.

The king's coronation, mundane ceremony, royal wedding, first ploughing ceremony etc. were among the important events at which the Thai Brahman priests officiated. The Ploughing Ceremony, the first of the traditional agrarian festivals, is basically of Brahman origin. The Royal Brahman astrologers set the auspicious day and time for the Ploughing Ceremony held in the sixth lunar month, usually mid-May.

Our ancient literature was essentially pan-Indian in character. As such, all Indian languages descend from only two sources: the Indo-Aryan and the Dravidian. Obviously, both Oriya and Assamese share their common origin from the Indo-Aryan stream. Further, as Dr. Grierson argues, Oriya, Bengali and Assamese are the three languages that have emerged from one common source: the Magadhan element, called Magadhi Apabhramsa. As Grierson asserts:

I worship Lord Hari, whose feet are endowed with the 19 great opulences of, on the left foot, the halfmoon, water-pot, triangle, bow, sky, cow's hoofprint, fish, conch, and on the right foot, the eight-pointed star, svastika, wheel, parasol, barleycorn, elephant-goad, flag, thunderbolt, jambu fruit, urdhva-rekha, and lotus.

The expression "Mahari" is a derivative of two Oriya words, 'Mahan' and 'Nari', meaning 'divine damsels'. They were a professional group, a class of sevayats of Lord Jagannath. The Mahari's consisted of different categories of sevikas, being assigned different sevas as follows:

Describing how a brahmin should earn his livelihood, Lord Brahma said to Narad: "Alms, which a brahmin gets without making any demand for it is called Vritta. 'Unchhavritti' is even better than Vritti, and it means collecting food grains which are scattered in places like fields, granaries, the market-place, etc.

Hamsa (or hansa) is the Sanskrit term for a transcendentally situated swan or goose. Considered by scholars to be either the Mute Swan (Cygnus olor) or the Bar-headed Goose (Anser indicus), the Hamsa is best known and loved as the vahana (sacred carrier) of Lord Brahma and the Goddess Saraswati.

There are a number of other Brahmins in current day Tulu nadu, distinguished by their own different spoken languages and forms of worship. They migrated in later centuries by land and sea. These include Chitpavana, Karadi, Konkanastha and Sarasvatha Brahmins. Marathi Brahmins, Chitpavana and Karadi Brahmins, who are Advaita followers, migrated to Tulu nadu from Ratnagiri and Karad in Maharashtra.

Prithvi is one of several Sanskrit names for the Earth Mother, more commonly known as Mother Bhumi Devi. Prithvi is the personification of the Earth, and is therefore also known as Prithivi Tattwa, the essence of the element earth. Prithvi is also called Dhra, Dharti, or Dhrithri, meaning 'that which holds everything'.

Scholars generally agree that before the advent of Zarathushtra, the religion of the devas was current in Iran. For want of a better term, some have called the pre-Zoroastrian religion Persian paganism. But here we argue that to do so is to obscure its connections with the Vedic religion.

The ancient Tulu nadu extended from Gokarna in the north, all along coastal Karnataka down to Kasargod in the south. This included both coastal Uttara Kannada district as well as all of Dakshina Kannada district. Over many centuries, the principal language of Tulu nadu was Tulu, which today is spoken only south of the River Kalyanpur in Udupi and in the Dakshina Kannada districts of Karnataka. This is the heartland of Tulu nadu today.

In the following passage, excerpted from the book, "The Caste System of the Hindus", by Rajah Comm (Varanasi, 1963), we find an interesting description of how the line of brahmans was regenerated in Bengal around 940 or 990 A.D.