Durga Puja is a ten-day Hindu festival that honours the goddess Durga's victory over the buffalo demon Mahishasura

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Durga Puja is a ten-day Hindu festival that honours the goddess Durga's victory over the buffalo demon Mahishasura

the gist

Durga Puja is a ten-day Hindu festival honouring the goddess Durga and her victory over the demon Mahishasura. It is celebrated in the Indian month of Ashvin, roughly September to October, and the final five days are the most prominent. Families and communities build temporary structures called pandals, perform religious recitations, cultural performances and processions, and share feasts. The festival's public celebrations run from Mahalaya to Vijayadashami and end with immersion of the images in water. The festival is distinct from Navaratri, even though both honour Durga and are held at the same time.

so what

Durga Puja is one of the biggest festivals in eastern India, Bangladesh and Nepal, and in 2021 Durga Puja in Kolkata was inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Its rituals reflect the Shakta tradition, which places the divine feminine at the centre of cosmic order.

fun fact

In 2021 UNESCO inscribed the Durga Puja of Kolkata on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Hampi was once one of the world's largest cities, until its Vijayanagara capital was destroyed in 1565

the gist

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.

how it works

The city was built around a fortified core with temples, markets and water structures along the river, supplied by an extensive network of roads and waterworks. When the empire fell, the city was not rebuilt, so its stone monuments were left standing.

so what

Hampi shows how quickly a great city can vanish after a military defeat, and how a ruined capital can remain sacred. Its ruins give historians a view of medieval South Asia that few other sites can match.

fun fact

The name Hampi comes from Pampa, an old name for the Tungabhadra River.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · text CC BY-SA 4.0

Image: Wikimedia Commons

source: Wikipedia ↗

2 min

politicsshortCNA2:01

False allegations about Singapore’s hand in Indonesia’s markets and a made-up meeting

from CNA

CNA Verify has found close to 400 posts pushing falsehoods tying Singapore to Indonesia’s stock market rout and to a secret meeting that never took place. Together, they drew nearly 12 million views, and some were circulated by accounts that appeared to be working in concert, across multiple social media platforms.

Here’s how the disinformation campaign targeting Singapore was uncovered.

on YouTube: CNA ↗