Are you aware of this marvel ?

Here is bit of information that u would love to know !

1000 years old...... Deepest step well in the world - Jaipur- India
.....still in immaculate condition....... this is engineering wonder..... without modern day....instruments....


Chand Baori - The Deepest Stepwell in the World!

Chand Baori is a famous stepwell situated in the village Abhaneri near Jaipur in Indian state of Rajasthan.
The Chand Baori, a vast well with flights of steps on three sides, is a 10th century monument situated in Abhaneri. It is a fine example of the architectural excellence prevalent in the past. This impressive step well is as deep as a seven storeyed building.

The famous Harshat Mata temple situated opposite to this well shows that there must have been a religious connection with the step-well. The well is 35 m on each side with steps leading down from each side and water can be drawn from any level. It has so many steps to make it impossible for someone to retrieve a coin once it ' s been dropped in the well.

hope u liked that video....

will add some more....

plz ...add your comments and opinions

we, the human beings are causing so much harm to this nature that we are inviting our destruction.....this movie talks about that.....



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0H_pWJf5fk

Traditional water harvesting methods in India : Pinki Purkasyastha (Chandrani)

water has been harvested in India since antiquity..our ancestors were expert in the art water harvsting .its is to be noted that,

• They harvested the rain drop directly. From rooftops, they collected water and stored it in tanks built in their courtyards. From open community lands, they collected the rain and stored it in artificial wells.
  
• They harvested monsoon runoff by capturing water from swollen streams during the monsoon season and stored it various forms of water bodies.
  
• They harvested water from flooded rivers...

In India , stating from kashmir to kanyakumaki and gujrat to assam everywhere we find the existance of different types of water harvestings systems designed and maintained by following the traditional methods and techniques of different communities native to those particular areas...

Different water harvesting systems are generally known by different names in different areas of the country such as..

Eco-zone	Traditional water harvesting systems	Description	Found in
1. Trans-Himalayan Region	Zing	Tanks for collecting water from melted ice	Ladakh
2. Western Himalayas	Kul	Water channels in mountain areas	Jammu, Himachal Pradesh
	Naula	Small ponds	Uttaranchal
	Kuhl	Headwall across a ravine to divert water from a natural stream for irrigation	Himachal Pradesh
	Khatri	Chambers carved in hard rock for storing water	Himachal Pradesh
3. Eastern Himalayas	Apatani	Terraced plots connected by inlet and outlet channels	Arunachal Pradesh
4. Northeastern Hill Ranges	Zabo	Impounding runoff	Nagaland
	Cheo-oziihi	Channels from rivers	Nagaland
	Bamboo drip irrigation	Water from streams in the hills is brought to the plains via bamboo pipes for drip irrigation	Meghalaya
5. Brahmaputra Valley	Dongs	Ponds	Assam
	Dungs / jampois	Small irrigation canals linking rice fields and a stream	W. Bengal
6. Indo-Gangetic Plain	Ahar-pynes	Embanked catchment basin and channels	S. Bihar
	Bengal's inundation channels	Inundation canals	W. Bengal
	Dighis	Small square or circular reservoir fed by canals from rivers	Delhi
	Baolis	Stepwells	Delhi
7. Thar Desert	Kunds / kundis	Underground storage	W.Rajasthan
	Kuis / beris	Deep pits near tanks	W.Rajasthan
	Baoris / bers	Community wells	Rajasthan
	Jhalaras	Tank	Rajasthan, Gujarat
	Nadi	Village ponds	Jodhpur, Rajasthan
	Tankas	Underground tank	Bikaner, Rajasthan
	Khadins	Embankment across lower hill slopes	Jaisalmer, W. Rajasthan
	Vav / Vavdi / Baoli / Bavadi	Stepwells	Gujarat, Rajasthan
	Virdas	Shallow wells	Rann of Kutch, Gujarat
	Paar	Area where water has percolated, accessed by kuis	-
8. Central Highlands	Talab / Bandhis	Reservoirs	Bundelkhand, Madhya Pradesh
	Saza Kuva	Open well	Mewar, E. Rajasthan
	Johads	Earthen check dams	Alwar district, Rajasthan
	Naada / bandh	Stone check dam	Mewar, Thar desert
	Pat	Diversion bund across stream	Jhabua district, Madhya Pradesh
	Rapat	Percolation tank	Rajasthan
	Chandela tank	Tank	Rajasthan
	Bundela tank	Tank	Rajasthan
9. Eastern Highlands	Katas / Mundas / Bandhas	Earthen embankments across drainage lines	Orissa & Madhya Pradesh
10. Deccan Plateau	Cheruvu	Reservoirs to store runoff	Chitoor,Cuddapah districts of Andhra Pradesh
	Kohli tanks	Tanks	Maharashtra
	Bhandaras	Check dams	Maharashtra
	Phad	Check dams and canals	North western Maharashtra
	Kere	Series of tanks	Central Karnataka
	Ramtek Model	Intricate network of groundwater and surface waterbodies, connected through surface and underground canals	Ramtek, Maharashtra
11. Western Ghats	Surangam	Horizontal well	Kasargode, Kerala
12. Western Coastal Plains	Virdas	Shallow wells	Rann of Kutch, Gujarat
13. Eastern Ghats	Korambu	Temporary wall of brushwood, grass and mud laid across channels to raise the level of water	Kerala
14. Eastern Coastal Plains	Yeri	Tank	Tamilnadu
	Ooranis	Pond	Tamilnadu
15. The Islands	Jackwells	Bamboo pipes are used to lead water into shallow pits	Great Nicobar Island

(source-http://cpreec.org/)

so, we see that our country is so much rich in traditional knowledge related to water harvesting....

water harvesting down the ages in India-
India has a rich history of water harvesting systems-

Tanks in the Indus – Sarasvati Valley

The excavations at Harappa and Mohenjodaro reveal deep rectangular constructions that were probably the earliest tanks built in India.

3rd millennium B.C.	Dams built of stone rubble were found in Baluchistan and Kutch
3000 – 1500 B.C.	Indus - Sarasvati Civilization had several reservoirs to collect rainwater runoff. Each house had an individual well
321 – 291 B.C.	Archeological evidence for dams, lakes and irrigation systems in the time of Chandragupta Maurya’s rule
3rd Century B.C.	Kautilya’s Arthasastra mentions irrigation using water harvesting systems
1st Century B.C.	Sringaverapura near Allahabad had a sophisticated water harvesting system using the floodwaters of the Ganges
2nd Century A.D.	Grand Anicut or Kallanai built by Karikala Chola across the river Cauvery to divert water for irrigation is still functional
11th Century A.D.	King Bhoja of Bhopal built the largest artificial lake (65,000 acres) in India fed by streams and springs
12th Century A.D.	Rajatarangini by Kalhana describes a well- maintained irrigation system in Kashmir.

Most important thing associated with the traditional systems of water harvesting is their technology, pattern , and design. Those systems were built considering the ecology,rainfall pattern and the geography of the particular area. As for example-

a. In the hills and mountainous regions where there are plenty of streams, simple engineering structures were used to divert the water into channels that fed the fields. The structures became more sophisticated and much bigger when the streams turned to rivers.

b. In the arid and semi-arid regions, where the streams are more seasonal, the diversion channels first led the water to a storage structure like a tank for later use. Storage systems to collect just runoff from the watershed were also built.

c. In the flood plains, several unique systems to control and harness the floodwaters were devised.

d. In the coastal areas where there is danger of river water turning saline, several ingenious ways came up to regulate the flow of saline water.

e. In regions with good groundwater aquifers, dugwells with innovative methods to lift the water were in use. Deep wells were dug in the beds of tanks and rivers, both to serve as a source of good water when the water recedes and also to recharge the groundwater when they are fully submerged.

f. In areas where rainfall is the only option, people devised methods to literally “catch rainwater where it fell”.

so, it proves that the intellectual level of our ancestors was so high.... they knew the needs of water harvesting and fully aware of the ecology, geography, geology etc.Now following our ancestors it is our duty to conserve nature and natural water by practising water harvesting because storage of water by forming waterbodies leads to the percolation of standing water into the ground and recharging the water table.Wells in the surrounding areas have plenty of good water that increases Green cover in the sorrounding areas. these systems help in reduction of floods and runoff ....and protect life and livelihood......


Save water....save future....................

plants provide life ..love them
Each and every component of the nature are our closest relatives..keep loving them..

Vande mataram,
sujalam suphlam malayaja shitalam.
shaishya shyamalam mataram,
vandemataram...

So, according to the Indian philosophy mother of the nation or Bharat maa shows similarity with mother nature..in other words for our country perhaps mother nature is another form of Bharat maa only......

Keep loving Mother Nature ... she is the one who have created us............who is the source of energy and protector of us.............

Fishermans Prayer

As I am working on the fisherman communities of a particular wetland in my country,so this one i like very much....

Fishermans Prayer
© Sheila Simmons
Oh Lord it's hard to be humble, with my fishing pole in hand
Why I almost feel like another Bill Dance,not just an ordinary fisherman.

Forgive me when I stretch the truth, about the one that got away
Why we both know he's in the lake, waiting to be caught another day.

Calm me oh Lord when my temper flares
When my lines become tangled and I begin to swear.

Help me to look upon my fishing buddy with patience, and grace
Why just look at the big one's he's catching I'd like to punch him in the face!

Lord please help me to think up a story, to tell to that wife of mine
I told her I'd be home hours ago, I just lost track of time.

collected from http://www.poetryinnature.com/nature/poetry.asp?poem=5485

Firefly

This poem is on insects........

Firefly Faeries
© Tracy Cardinet


Luminescent lullabies, fireflies in the night,
Fill the sky with wonderment, each miniature lamplight.
Bright yellow-green, lustrous sheen, flitting to and fro,
I wonder if fireflies ever have no place to go.

Beating wings of faerie dreams, magical and rare,
Do fireflies fly with eyes wide open, in a random stare?
Elliptical, iridescent light bulbs on their backs,
I think I'd be but half amazed, if I knew all the facts.

To me, they are small sentinels, for bigger faerie folk,
Guiding lights when night puts on her dark-blue, velvet cloak.
Creatures creep, from out of shadows, when the moon is new,
Firefly faeries light the way. They know just what to do!

I would try to catch one in a jar, when just a tot,
Lightning bugs, we called 'em then. Gosh, there were a lot!
Dancing on the firmament or skimming over rocks,
Bug or faerie, they are very beautiful to watch.


Insect Poems Firefly Faeries ..collected from..http://www.poetryinnature.com/nature/poetry.asp?poem=1798

Pawas Ke Badal
Posted by : Subhash Yadav on 14-Apr-2010 Total Views : 69

kya huwa darun aatap hai
dur bahut tumhara path hai
jalta hai jisme sabkuchh
jalta aaj kan -kan hai.
ha ! jalhin jalashay
nistabhd pade hai
pyasa tumhara man hai
to kinchit bhichalit mat hona
jab tak tumme dam hai
har lena chahta prano ko
yadi bhanoo kala adamya hai
to bhi bhichalit mat hona
tum path ko apane mat khona
ghumad -ghumad kar ghir aayegi
jarur ekdin badariya
jab trip hoga man tumhara
tum per jal barasayegi
ha! pawas ke wah badariya
jarur aayegi.

collected from http://www.whereincity.com/contributions/poems/nature-poems/

The Flower-School

The Flower-School
by Rabindranath Tagore
Contributed by: Vijendran Rao
VPR@LNS62.LNS.CORNELL.EDU

(This poem is from 'The Crescent Moon' by Tagore)

"When storm-clouds rumble in the sky and
June showers come down,
The moist east wind comes marching over the heath
to blow its bagpipes amongst the bamboos.
The crowds of flowers come out of a sudden,
from nobody knows where,
and dance upon the grass in wild glee.

Mother, I really think the flowers go to school underground.
They do their lessons with doors shut,
and if they want to come out to play before it is time,
their master makes them stand in a corner.
When the rains come they have their holidays.

Branches clash together in the forest,
and the leaves rustle in the wild wind,
the thunder-clouds clap their giant hands and
the flower children rush out i dresses of
pink, yellow and white.

Do you know, mother, their home is in the sky,
where the stars are.
Haven't you seen how eager they are to get there?
Don't you know why they are in such a hurry?
Of course, I can guess to whom they raise their arms,
they have their motheer as I have my own."

The Banyan Tree
by Rabindranath Tagore
Contributed by: Vijendran Rao
VPR@LNS62.LNS.CORNELL.EDU

(This poem is from 'The Crescent Moon' by Tagore)

O you shaggy-headed banyan tree standing on the bank of the pond,
have you forgotten the little child,
like the birds that have nested in your branches and left you?

Do you not remember how he sat at the window
and wondered at the tangle of your roots that plunged underground?

The women would come to fill their jars in the pond,
and your huge black shadow would wriggle
on the water like sleep struggling to wake up.

Sunlight danced on the ripple like
restless tiny shuttles weaving golden tapestry.

Two ducks swam by the woody margin above their shadows,
and the child would sit still and think.

He longed to be the wind and blow through your rustling branches,
to be your shadow and legthen with the day on the water,
to be a bird and perch on your topmost twig,
andto float like those ducks among the weeds and shadows.

Pinki Purkayastha

Silchar,Assam,India

In the ancient spiritual traditions, man was looked upon as part of nature, linked by

the indissoluble spiritual and psychological bonds to the elements around him. This is very much marked in the Hindu tradition, the oldest living religious tradition in the world. Throughout the long history of India, Hindus have shared a fascination with, and respect for, Nature and animals.This attitude went beyond the usefulness. It had to do with reverence for all of God's creation. Our ancestors worshipped trees, rivers, birds and stones and connected to the universal principle through Shiva. As we are growing more materialistic, we are losing this connection. Our ancestors saw Nature as being a manifestation of God. There was, therefore, a gratitude towards nature.

According Dr. David Frawley, " No religion, perhaps, lays as much emphasis on environmental ethics as does Hinduism. It believes in ecological responsibility and says like Native Americans that the Earth is our mother. It champions protection of animals, which it considers also have souls, and promotes vegetarianism. It has a strong tradition of non-violence or ahimsa. It believes that God is present in all nature, in all creatures, and in every human being regardless of their faith or lack of it."( http://atributetohinduism.com/Nature_Worship.htm (2 of 18) [5/5/2001 11:20:18 AM])

Hindu philosophy has always had a humane and dignified view of the sacredness of all life, and that humans are but one link in the symbiotic chain of life and consciousness.

Western philosophy, on the other hand, treats man and nature as separate entities believing that the former has the prerogative to exploit the latter. Thomas Carlyle in Signs of the Times says, "We war with rude nature; and by our restless engines, come off victorious and loaded with spoils."

Helen Ellerbe has written: "In the West, Christianity has distanced humanity from Nature. As people came to perceive God as a singular supremacy detached from the physical world, they lost their reverence for nature. In Christian eyes, the physical world became the realm of the devil. A society that had once celebrated nature through seasonal pagan festivals began to commemorate biblical events bearing no connection to the earth. Holidays lost much of the celebratory spirit and took on a tone of penance and sorrow. Time once thought to be cyclical like the seasons, was now perceived to be linear. In their rejection of the cyclical nature of life, orthodox Christians came to focus more upon death than upon life.( source: Dark Side of Christian History - By Helen Ellerbe p.139 - 155).Hinduism has often been coined as a "environmental friendly" religion. The Vedas, the oldest hymns composed by great spiritual seers and thinkers which are the repository of Hindu wisdom, reflect the vibrancy of an encompassing world-view which looks upon all objects in the universe, living or non-living, as being pervaded by the same spiritual power. Hinduism believes in the all-encompassing sovereignty of the divine, manifesting itself in a graded scale of evolution. The human race, though at the top of the evolutionary pyramid at present, is not seen as something apart from the earth and its multitudinous life forms.

The Artha-Veda has the magnificent Hymn to the Earth (Bhumi-Sukta) which is redolent with ecological and environmental values. The Vedic Hymn to the Earth, the Prithvi Sukta in Atharva Veda, is unquestionably the oldest and the most evocative environmental invocation. In it, the Vedic seer solemnly declares the enduring filial allegiance of humankind to Mother Earth: 'Mata Bhumih Putroham Prithivyah: Earth is my mother, I am her son.' Mother Earth is celebrated for all her natural bounties and particularly for her gifts of herbs and vegetation. Her blessings are sought for prosperity in all endeavours and fulfilment of all righteous aspirations. (source: The East is green - ourplanet.com).

In the Mudaka Upanishad the divine is described as follows:

“Fire is head, his eyes are the moon and the sun;

The regions of space are his ears, his voice the revealed Veda,

The wind is his breadth, his heart is the entire universe,

The earth is his footstool,

Truly he is the inner soul of all.” (http://atributetohinduism.com/Nature_Worship.htm (3 of 18) [5/5/2001 11:20:18 AM]

In The Bhagavad Gita, sloka 20, Chapter 10, Lord Krishna says, "I am the Self seated in the heart of all creatures. I am the beginning, the middle and the very end of all beings". All beings have, therefore to be treated alike." India is a vast network of sacred places. There are seven sacred rivers, seven sacred mountains, sacred trees and plants, sacred cities. The sacrality of the land of India, gives a sense of unity to this country of so many religions, cultures, races and languages. The Mahabharata, Ramayana, Vedas, Upanishads,

Bhagavad Gita, Puranas and Smriti contain the earliest messages for preservation of environment and ecological balance. Nature, or Earth, has never been considered a hostile element to be conquered

or dominated. In fact, man is forbidden from exploiting nature. He is taught to live in harmony with nature and recognize that divinity prevails in all elements, including plants and animals.

Again the Varah Purana says, "One who plants one peepal, one neem, one bar, ten flowering plants or creepers, two pomegranates, two oranges and five mangos, does not go to hell."

The ancient Tamil scripture, Tirukural, advises in verse 324, "What is the good way? It is the path that reflects on how it may avoid killing any living creature;" and in verse 327, "Refrain from taking precious life from any living being, even to save your own life."

Dr. Karan Singh states: "In our arrogance and ignorance we have destroyed the environment of this planet. We have polluted the oceans, we have made the air unbreathable, we have desecrated nature and decimated wildlife. But the Vedantic seers knew that man was not something apart from nature, and, therefore, they constantly exhort us that, while we work for own salvation, we must also work for the welfare of all beings." (source: Essays in Hinduism - By Dr. Karan Singh p. 47)

The Rig Veda 1.6.3 states:

"Nature's beauty is an art of God. Let us feel the touch of God's invisible hands in everything beautiful. By the first touch of His hand rivers throb and ripple. When He smiles the sun shines, the moon glimmers, the stars twinkle, the flowers bloom.

By the first rays of the rising sun, the universe is stirred; the shining gold is sprinkled on the smiling buds of rose; the fragrant air is filled with sweet melodies of singing birds, the dawn is the dream of God's creative fancy."

Even the mention of mountains in India brings the word Himalaya immediately to the mind.

From the Himalayas has originated so many life-giving perennial rivers that have

sustained such a rich civilization. Of these the Ganges is the most respected one.

Shankaracharya (788-820), who propounded the Mayavad doctrine,

referred to the holy river as the goddess of divine essence, and established one of the four cardinal hermitages in the Garhwal Himalayas. Scientist J C Bose(1858-1937), also ventured into the Himalayas, as expounded in his sagely philosophical

essay Bhagirathir Utsha Sandhane, to explore how the Ganges flows down from

the "matted locks of Shiva".

Puranas, ancient works of Hindu stories, says

:"In the space of a hundred ages of the Gods, I could not describe to you the glories of Himachal; that Himachal where Siva dwells and where the Ganges falls like the tendril of a lotus from the foot of Vishnu. There are no other mountains like Himachal, for there are found Mount Kailas and Lake Manasarovar. As the dew is dried up by the morning sun, so are the sins of mankind by the sight of Himachal."

Goddess Saraswati is the embodiment of the mighty Saraswati River of the Vedas. Saraswati means "the essence of one's own self." The Sanskrit word 'sara' means essence and 'swa' means 'self'. She is the earliest goddess who is associated with a river in the Indian tradition. Nearly each and every river of the country is associated with some feelings of sacredness.Besides that India shows the tradition of Sun/Dawn/Fire/ Worship .

Vegetarianism in Hinduism

There is evidence of vegetarianism in the Vedas, Upanishads, Dharma Shastras, Yoga Sutras and most sacred texts of Hindus. These scriptures unambiguously support the meatless diet. This was observed by the ancient travelers like Megasthenes and Fa-Hsien, a Chinese Buddhist monk who, in the fifth century, traveled to India in order to obtain authentic copies of the scriptures.
"The purchaser of flesh performs himsa (violence) by his wealth; he who eats flesh does so by enjoying its taste; the killer does himsa by actually tying and killing the animal. Thus, there are three forms of killing: he who brings flesh or sends for it, he who cuts off the limbs of an animal, and he who purchases, sells or cooks flesh and eats it - all of these are to be considered meat-eaters”- Mahabharata
In the Tirukural, a Tamil scripture written over 2,000 years ago, abstaining from a diet consisting of flesh is clearly stated as a virtue.
"Greater than a thousand ghee offerings consumed in sacrificial fires is to not sacrifice and consume any living creature..." - Tirukural
Today India has the highest population of vegetarians in the world. According to reports 20% of India’s population is vegetarian.So finally we can say that, India is the country where The men submit to nature and form part of it , consider the Earth as the beautiful and sacred Goddess and also try to conserve her resources....as says the Hymn............

"O Goddess Earth, the consort of Visnu,
you whose garments are the oceans and

whose ornaments are the hills and

mountain ranges;

please forgive me as I walk on you

this day."

The Lost Glory

To Mother Nature that nurtures our lives
 

The life of serene nature lives
Through the years of beauty in wild;
Much fresh, young and colorful
As long as the humans are away.

By a chance of naughty sight
Gain access to woods of quietness;
Disturb the green valley of wonder
Leaving aside the footprints in thick.

With species of rare now bare
Vicious humans shower wickedness;
Mingled with a view of trade
Towards a march for anti-green.

Very soon, within a decade
Would appear a deserted stretch;
Once that was a carpet of nature
Recovers never again in future.

What is left to garland the land
Is only a glimpse of dry sand;
Much to hear from its tears
The reminiscence of lost glory.

Copyright ©2007 Selvaraj Chandrasekar

Collected from

http://www.contentwriter.in/articles/poems/lost-glory.htm