Voices can levitate stones At the Qamar Ali Dargah in Shivapur, 16 km from Pune, an amazing feat can be accomplished when a certain number of devotees chant together. In the courtyard of this dargah are two huge boulders – one can be raised almost...
The most powerful chant in the world Dr. Harvard Steingeil, an American scientist, collected Mantras, hymns, and invocations from all over the world and tested them in his physiology lab. The Gayatri Mantra produced 110,000 sound waves in a second, the highest among all. This...
Rig Vedic drink madhumadya back in India Made from Madhu (honey), herbs, water, vegetable seasoning, madhumadya (honey-alcohol) the world’s oldest fermented drink. The recipe for this is found in the Rig Veda. Today, the patent for this drink belongs to a Lithuanian company. Historical records...
Dance without any musical instruments Hikkat, a dance from Kashmir, is performed without any musical instruments. The dancers talk of their relationships within the family as they move. Hikkat is a modified version of the games the boys and girls played as children. The dancers...
First words on a gramophone record According to a pamphlet published by HMY history of gramophone recording, when Thom Edison invented the record, he wanted the voice of an eminent person to be on the first one. He wrote to Max Mueller, the German scholar,...
Indian classical music in space The Voyager 1 spacecraft created history by zooming into interstellar space after leaving the solar system in early September 2013. Making the journey on Voyager 1 is a 12-inch gold-plated copper record/compact disc with the sounds of the Earth on...
Crystal lingams of Ranbireshwar temple The Ranbireshwar temple in Jammu, in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, built-in 1883, is one of the largest Shiva temples in North India. It is famous for its crystal lingams and a 76-meter-high tower. Dating back to 1883, this...
Important Jain pilgrimage site Every 12 years, a ‘mahamastakaa bhisheka’ – a ritual offering of milk, honey, and flowers with a mahapuja at the vast forehead of Gomteswara Sravanabelgola’s statue – brings thousands of Jains and pilgrims of other faiths to the 17.7-meter-high monolithic statue....
Mecca Masjid, Hyderabad The Mecca Masjid, 200 yards southwest of Charminar, is among the largest mosques in the world. It can accommodate up to 10,000 worshippers at a time in its magnificent halls. The Mecca Masjid is so-called because the bricks used to construct the...
Charminar, Hyderabad’s global icon The well-known landmark mosque, the Charminar, has become a global icon of Hyderabad, listed among the most recognised structures in India. In the literal sense, the word Charminar means “four minarets” or towers. Each of these four minarets is 56 meters...
