Masi Dwadasi Mannathar purappadu 2023

John Flamsteed [1646 – 1719]  was an English astronomer and the first Astronomer Royal.  Of the many achievements, would standout the preparation of a 3,000-star catalogue, Catalogus Britannicus, and a star atlas called Atlas Coelestis, both published posthumously. He also made the first recorded observations of Uranus, although he mistakenly catalogued it as a star, and he laid the foundation stone for the Royal Greenwich Observatory. On 4 March 1675 Flamsteed was appointed by royal warrant "The King's Astronomical Observator" – the first English Astronomer Royal, with an allowance of £100 a year. The warrant stated his task as "rectifying the Tables of the motions of the Heavens, and the places of the fixed stars, so as to find out the so much desired Longitude of places for Perfecteing the Art of Navigation". 

Flamsteed accurately calculated the solar eclipses of 1666 and 1668. He was responsible for several of the earliest recorded sightings of the planet Uranus, which he mistook for a star and catalogued as '34 Tauri'. The first of these was in Dec 1690, which remains the earliest known sighting of Uranus by an astronomer. 

In March 1943, about 4,075 Jews living in Bulgarian-occupied eastern Greek Macedonia and Western Thrace were deported to Treblinka extermination camp and murdered. In an operation coordinated by Bulgaria and Germany, almost all Jews in Bulgarian-occupied Greece were rounded up on the early morning of 4 March 1943, held in camps in Bulgaria, and reached Treblinka by the end of the month. The death rate of 97 percent of the Jews living in the area in 1943 was one of the highest in Europe. 

The ancient Greek-speaking Romaniote Jewish communities of Thrace and Macedonia were almost erased by their forced resettlement in Constantinople in 1455 by Sultan Mehmet II.  At the end of the fifteenth century, the sultan allowed Judeo-Spanish-speaking Sephardic Jews who had been expelled from Spain to resettle the area; they were joined by later Ashkenazi migrants but the Sephardim remained dominant.  The area was conquered by Bulgaria during the Balkan Wars, but its western part was ceded to Greece afterwards.  The Greek part was occupied by Bulgaria during World War I. Greece regained it, including the Bulgarian eastern part, per the 1919 Treaty of Neuilly. It provided for a mandatory population exchange that tilted the region's demography in favor of Greeks.

The Jews were then sent in open railway cars to the camps in Gorna Dzhumaya and Dupnica, guarded by police or soldiers.  At Sidirokastro and Simitli they were transferred to different railway cars as the Bulgarian railway had a narrower gauge than the Greek one.  The conditions were so harsh that many Jews fell ill and a few died, while pregnant women had to give birth in the open cars. Their misery was exacerbated by mistreatment by the Bulgarian guards.  The 1,500 Jews from Komotini and Xanthi arrived at Dupnica  and sadly were exterminated ! ~ the World knows the truth but the perpetrators of  the worst crime on humanity assumed their role as soft, kind-hearted, clement religious people ! because they wrote the history !! 

Similar things have happened in India too – recent being the killing of Kashmiri Pundits. Bringing religion in to politics and attempts to derail Hindu community is not exactly new.  Way back in 1923, a movie was produced by Thomas Gavan Duffy – showing India and its culture in negative light – it was Catholic propaganda against what they considered as Pagan culture - written by the Irish lay-priest Thomas Gavan Duffy together with Bruce Gordon as a fund raiser for the Paris Foreign Mission Society in Pondicherry.  The plot tells of a reprobate called Ram who is converted to Catholicism by the exemplary conduct of the local priest  during an epidemic.  Much of conversions happened using miseries of people especially during pandemics ! 

No post on movie or history  but some remote connection to this great day  4^th Mar 2023 – ‘Masi Dwadasi’ at Thiruvallikkeni – the day of Thirukkalyanam of Srimannathar and Sri Vedavalli thayar. 

The last couple of years were one of misery for the globe as threatened by Corona virus Covid 19.   We fall the merciful feet of Lord Ranganatha. Today is a special day – Masi Shukla paksha dwadasi – the divine celestial marriage of Lord Ranganathar and Sri Vedavalli thayar.   

இம்மைக்கு  ஏழேழ் பிறவிக்கும்  பற்றாவான் *

நம்மையுடையவன்  நாராயணன் நம்பி*

செம்மையுடைய திருக்கையால் தாள்பற்றி*

அம்மி மிதிக்கக் கனாக்கண்டேன்  தோழீ நான்*  

In Nachiyar Thiromozhi, Andal elaborates Her dream marriage with the Paramapurusha, describing the rituals associated with the marriages.  She speaks of that Great Sriman Narayana, the One who owns us all, the One complete with all Kalyana Gunams; the One to whom we all should get attached not in this life but in all our births; Andal dreams of Her Divine Marriage with the Lord. ~ and that comes true on Panguni Uthiram day.  

Here are some photos taken during Sri Ranganathar periya mada veethi purappadu with Srimannathar adorning the beautiful sigathadai crown. .  இன்று மாசி மத சுக்ல பக்ஷ  துவாதசி  - இன்றைய நாளில் ஸ்ரீவேதவல்லி தாயார் ஸ்ரீமந்நாதர் திருக்கல்யாணம்.   திருவல்லிக்கேணியில் ' இன்றைய புறப்பாட்டின்'  - சில படங்கள் இங்கே.

 

~adiyen Srinivasa dhasan (Mamandur Veeravalli  Srinivasan Sampathkumar)
4.3.2023
 

PS :  In earlier days, puranic and religious stories were being filmed.  Andal Thirukkalyanam was a Tamil film released in  1937 by Saradha Films, directed by R Prakash. 

 

Raghupati Surya Prakash Rao (R.S. Prakash), son of the renowned travelling cinema exhibitor and builder of the first permanent cinema hall in Madras, Raghupati Venkaiah Naidu, was sent by his father to London to learn filmmaking. Travelling thence to Germany he got an opportunity to view the early cinemas, returned with  a 35 mm camera and set up ,   the Star of the East studio in Madras. His first picture was  mythological 'Bhishma Pratighna' (1921), produced by his father. The overtly Catholic propaganda film 'The Catechist of Kil-Arni' (1923) is also believed to have been directed by him in collaboration with an Irish priest Thomas Gavin Duffy, for a missionary organization in Pondicherry.  He did many films including -  ‘Gajendra Moksham’, ‘Bhakta Nandan’, ‘Samudra Madanam’   ‘Dashavatar’,   ‘Draupadi Vastrapaharanam’ – and in 1937 -  ‘Andal Thirukalyanam’