BUDDHISM – This religion was found by a prince Siddhartha Gautam who later got famous as Buddha. He was also known as ‘Sakyamuni’. Buddha offered teachings and taught Four Noble Truths which ultimately leads to the way to achieve Enlightenment or called ‘Nirvana’ by the Buddhists.
The Buddhists followers and believers built shrines renowned as ‘STUPAS’ at those places where Buddha lived, visited or preached. The famous one are at Sanchi and Sarnath. In Bihar, a place called Bodh Gaya has a Peepal tree also known as Bodhi tree. Near that a small shrine is built by the emperor Ashoka.
The ‘CHAITYAS’are the places or can be properly termed as the temples where the people pray together;
In MAHARASHTRA—there are ‘chaityas’ with water cisterns or ‘podhis’ to store rainwater.
Maharashtra also has renowned Ajanta and Ellora caves in its Ajanta and Verul leni villages which have paintings depicting the life of Buddha.
In LADAKH – Buddhism is the merged belief of many other rituals. Here, the Buddhist monasteries orGompas are store houses of icons or murals;
In ASSAM – The Hayagrina-Madhab temple in Hajo is visited by the Buddhists.
Among the so many statues, shrines and temples of Lord Buddha most of them are in Asia especially in China, Korea and Japan. The LESHAN BUDDHA in Sichuan, China is the world’s tallest statue.
In ARUNACHAL PRADESH— ASIA’S second largest Buddhist monasteries is present known as Twang Gompas. This monastery has homes for monks and other useful sanctums.
This was just a brief account about natural deities and Buddhism. Next at your door is the information about Hinduism…
HINDUISM – It is another ancient religion found thousand of years ago. It is widely practiced in India and Nepal. With of pace of time Hinduism is expanded all over in different number of sectors and sub-groups and that too with varying beliefs. Though most of the Hindus believe that there are many gods like-Shiva, Ganesha, Brahma, Vishnu, Lakshmi so many more, there are few other with contradictory believes…..
The revered and the devotion given by the devotees to their idol is in different obeisance. For some, meditation is the complete form of worship in which the person not only feels relaxed but there is a feeling of a strong bond between the soul and the almighty. Other form of worship includes: chanting, reading holy-books like Ramayana and Bhagwadgita and even performing sacrifices to the god.
In Jammu & Kashmir – the festival of ‘Mahashivratri’ is celebrated lavishly and with a great zeal. It is festival of lord Shiva and goddess Parvathi.
In Himachal Pradesh – there are many temples of Hinduism with an old history. There is an ancient Hindu temple with a boiling hot spring well called ‘Manikaran’. The water is so hot that even rice, pulses and vegetables can be cooked.
In Haryana – birth of early Hinduism took place. The Vedic hymns and manuscripts were formulated here.
In Uttranchal – where kumaon has a 900 years old ‘katarmal’ sun temple, garhwal is a platform for lots of Hindu mythologies.
The very renowned Badrinath & Kedarnath temples of Hindu culture are the icons of Uttranchal. Badrinath is dedicated to lord Vishnu and situated between the Nar and Narayan mountain ranges. This temple was built by Adi Shankracharya in the 8th century; Kedarnath is devoted to lord Shiva situated at the sources of river Mandakini.
In Uttar Pradesh – Kashi and vishwanath temples in Varanasi are famous.
In Rajasthan – in pushkar there is said to be the only temple of Lord Brahma which is very pious and especially visited by the devotees.
The ‘karni Mata’ temple in Bikaner is the centre of attraction of tourists because of the rats being worshipped.
In West Bengal – temples of goddess Durga are prevalent who is worshipped here whole soul by the people. Annually a grand Durga ‘puja’ celebration is held here.
In Orissa – in Konark the spectacular ‘sun temple’ is in the shape of a chariot and is very renowned. It is very massive and richly carved with 24 intricately worked wheels and 7 horses. The horses are believed to symbolize the week days and the wheels represents the hours.
In Puri-there is a beautiful Jagannath temple. There are idols of Lord Krishna, Balbhadra and Subhadra which are taken out for an annual ‘Rath Yatra’ in massive chariots. Thousands of people from all over India attend this grand procession.
In Assam – the Hayagrina-Madhab in Hajo is also visited by Hindus like Buddhists;
A temple complex in the Bamuni hills of Tezpur was built in 9th century.
In Arunachal Pradesh – lord Vishnu is worshiped here and for so temples of lord Vishnu can be seen.
In Manipur – lord Krishna and Radha are their idols. Their temples are not the only attraction here but also the dance performance by the local people to reveal their devotion for lord Krishna and Radha before the ‘Ras Lila’. The music on ‘Mridanga’-a traditional drum is an integral part of this devotional performance.
In Tripura – among the approximately 51 ‘Shakti’ temples of India, one of the most famous ‘Tripura Sundari’ temple is in Udaipur.
At the bank of river Gomti, among the hundreds of sculptures, temples, rivers and carvings, there is a 3ft high head of lord Shiva. It is an amazing piece of art created with devotion.
In Andhra Pradesh – there is a ‘Ramappa’ temple built in 1163. This temple has around 1000 intricately carved pillars and the main beauty is the 6ft tall ‘Nandibull’ status carved out of a single rock. Nandibull is said to be one of the favorite devoted members of lord Shiva.
In Karnataka — in Halebidu and Bedur low, intricate star-shaped temples are built dedicated to lord Vishnu;
Hampi acts as a world heritage site with many beautiful temples.
In 6th and 12th centuries temples were built with a style that was the merged of northern and southern style temples. During that pace of time in Pattadakal a complex of around 10 temples was built. They were the perfect piece of art depicted as a world heritage site. The ‘Virupaksha ‘temple there is very beautiful.
The ancient and everlasting statue of 18-armed ‘Nat raja’ devoted to lord Shiva can be seen among the four carved cave temples in Badami. Another cave temple is devoted to lord Vishnu.
In Tamil Nadu – there are remarkable groups of rock-cut mountains and carved temples in Mahabalipuram. They were created in 7th and 8th centuries and now in the list as world heritage site. In Madurai -there are number of magnificent temples with the whimsical beauty. The very ‘Meenakshi’ temple is the beauty spot of this place.
Whatever information I’ve tried to impart you is very little. Otherwise, this religion is deeply elaborate and distributed all over the country.
