Human Life Cycle.

Life-cycle.

The increase in percentage of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has disturbed the seasons.           Pollution by emission of wrong and harmful gases, volcanic eruptions has reduced the                         quota of oxygen in air and water. If from bad, it comes to worse and then worst,                                           It may ultimately cause deaths by suffocation.  Vegetation on earth would wither.                                            Plant eaters would also die.

Glaciers on mountain heights would melt resulting in floods.                                                                                             There will be shortage of drinking water.

The crust of the earth at the North and South Poles would shift and move to                                                          join to form a big new continent. It would ultimately give rise to waters at sea                                                         and ocean level spreading water at low level of land on earth and creating land                                                                   on sea bed as the sea water would  flow to still lower level.

This process would kill at least half of life of people animals wild life,                                                                           other living creatures and plants and trees.

After the change has settled down, life would re-emerge and will get developed                                                                                                                     in tropical tidal zones.

Trees and plants and animals and wild life and creatures would begin to appear                                                               and cycle of life would resume.

Life first appeared on earth three billion years ago in this fashion.

Life got formed in the bottom of the seas which eventually moved to the land and air.

Life learnt how to survive in different circumstances.

There came groups of animals birds who adapted themselves to the atmosphere on earth.

The Gorillas, Chimpanzees and all other different types of monkeys learnt                                                                        gradually to walk and run on two legs like the humans which generations                                                              after generations with improvement got the name of humans on earth.

Muharram

Muharram

Karbala Iraq.60 miles south of Baghdad. A wealthiest city of Baghdad jhilla.

Karballah=karb+allah=near to God.  Mu+harrram=no fighting.  

 It is in this month when Hussain, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, was brutally massacred in Karbala alongside his family and friends in the year 680.AD.

Their martyrdom is a sad day for Shia Muslims, who hold mourning ceremonies to recall the righteous virtues for which the valiant martyrs stood and the grave calamities that they thus had to bear. The commemoration of Battle of Karbala begins on the first day of Muharram and reaches its climax on the 10th day of Muharram, the day of the battle, known as Ashurah and continues for 40 days.

Why to Mourn ? >> Mourning on Dead & Martyrs from Ahle Sunnah

Battle of Karbala was fought on October. 10, 680,  in which Husayn ibn 'Ali, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, was killed by an army of Umayyad caliph Yazid I.

For the  Shi'ite Muslims, followers of Husayn, this day became an annual holy day of public mourning.

When Yazid I succeeded his father to the caliphate (spring 680), the many partisans of Muhammad's late son-in-law 'Ali rose in the city of Kufah and invited Husayn to take refuge with them, promising to have him proclaimed caliph in Iraq.

Meanwhile, Yazid, having learned of the rebellious attitude of the Shi'ites in Kufah, sent 'Ubayd Allah, governor of Basra, to restore order. The latter did so, summoning the chiefs of the tribes and making them responsible for the conduct of their people.

Husayn nevertheless set out from Mecca with all his family, expecting to be received with enthusiasm by the citizens of Kufah; but, on his arrival at Karbala', west of the Euphrates, he was confronted by an army sent by 'Ubayd Allah and under the command of 'Umar ibn Sa'd, son of the founder of Kufah. Husayn gave battle, vainly relying on the promised aid from Kufah, and fell with almost all his family and followers.

Though it was a rash expedition, it did involve the grandson of the Prophet and thus many members of his family. Husayn's devout partisans at Kufah, who by their overtures had been the principal cause of the disaster, regarded it as a tragedy, and the facts gradually acquired a romantic and spiritual colouring.

'Umar, 'Ubayd Allah, and even Yazid came to be regarded as murderers, and their names have ever since been held accursed by Shi'ite Muslims. Shi'ites observe the 10th of Muharram as a day of public mourning; and, among Iranians especially, as well as in Karbala', passion plays are enacted, representing the misfortunes of the family of 'Ali. The tomb of the decapitated martyr Husayn at Karbala' is to them the holiest place in the world.

The Kundalini.

Kundalini.

“Without Shakti, Shiva too is a corpse.”    Shakti ke bina shiva bhi shav hai.

The realization of Shakti in one form or the other has been known since times immemorial.                                                    Poet writer Bana, who wrote his Hundred Couplets to Chandi,  Chandi-shataka and Bhavabhuti his play Malati Madhava, both of which praise the height of Shakti.

Shakti is an amalgam of Shaivism and folk mother-goddess cults. The Shaiva  cult that not Shiva himself but his shakti sexual, creative power is active is taken to the extreme, that, without Shakti, Shiva is a corpse, and simultaneously that Shakti is the creator as well as creation.

Kundalini is described as a sleeping, dormant potential force in the human organism.
It is one of the components of an esoteric description of man's 'subtle body', which consists of nadi energy channels, chakras, psychic centres, prana, subtle energy, and bindu, drops of nector.
Kundalini is described as being coiled up at the base of the spine, usually within muladhara chakra. The image given is that of a serpent coiled 3 and a half times around a smoky grey lingam. Each coil is said to represent one of the 3 guna, with the half coil signifying transcendence.
Through meditation, and various esoteric practices, such as kundalini yoga, laya-yoga, and kriya yoga, the kundalini is awakened, and can rise up through the central nadi,  sushumna, that rises up inside or alongside the spine. The progress of kundalini through the different chakras leads to different levels of awakening and mystical experience, until the kundalini finally reaches the top of the head, Sahashra chakra, producing an extremely profound mystical experience.

In yoga, great importance is ascribed to mantras, which conjure up the realities with which they are identified.                  Another important ingredient derived from yoga philosophy is that through the body run subtle canals that carry esoteric powers connected with the spinal cord, at the bottom of which Shakti is coiled around the lingam as Kundalini,  she can be made to rise through the body to the top, whereupon release from samsara takes place.

There are two nerve currents in the spinal column, Pingala and Ida, and a hollow canal Sushumna running through the spinal cord. At the lower end of the hollow canal is the "Lotus of the Kundalini".

They describe it as triangular in form in which, there is a power of the Kundalini, coiled up.                                                           When that Kundalini awakes, it tries to force a passage through this hollow canal, and as it rises step by step, as it were, layer after layer of the mind becomes open and all the different visions and wonderful powers come to the Yogi. When it reaches the brain, the Yogi is perfectly detached from the body and mind; the soul finds itself free. We know that the spinal cord is composed in a peculiar manner. If we take the figure eight horizontally, there are two parts which are connected in the middle. Suppose you add eight after eight, piled one on top of the other, that will represent the spinal cord. The left is the Ida, the right Pingala, and that hollow canal which runs through the center of the spinal cord is the Sushumna. Where the spinal cord ends in some of the fine fibre issues downwards, and the canal runs up even within that fibre, only much finer. The canal is closed at the lower end, which is situated near what is called the sacral plexus, which, according to modern physiology, is triangular in form. The different plexuses that have their centers in the spinal canal can very well stand for the different "lotus" of the Yogi

Important among the Shakta Tantras are the Kularnava Tantra Ocean of Tantrism, which gives details on the "left-handed" cult forms of ritual copulation,  the Kulachudamani, Crown Jewel of Tantrism, which embroiders on ritual; and the Sharada-tilaka Beauty Mark of the Goddess Sharada of Laksmanadeshika, 11th century, which discusses magic.

A temple was erected in honour of the mother goddess Shakti at Gangdhar, Rajasthan, in AD 423. There, magical rites of a terrifying kind were practiced, for the temple is described as "loud with the shouts of demons, crying in the thick darkness, by the playwright Bhavabhuti, about the adventures of the hero Madhava and his beloved Malati contains a scene depicting secret rites with human sacrifice and ritual cannibalism. The goddess cults eventually centered around devi Durga, the consort of Shiva, in her fiercer aspect.

The play is set in the city of Padmavati.                                                                                                                                                       The king desires that his minister's daughter Malati marry a youth called Nandana.        
Malati is in love with Madhava ever since she saw him and drew his portrait.                                                                           Madhava reciprocates, and draws a portrait of her in turn.                                                                                                                   Malati suspects her father's motives also tied with the King's plans for her.                                                                                             A side plot involves the lovers' friends Makaranda and Madayantika.                                                                                                         The latter is attacked by a tiger, and Makaranda rescues her, getting wounded in the process.                                                                 After numerous travails, all ends well, with the two couples uniting.

ANNA HAZARE.

Anna Hazare. (1937-

It is our Duty to support the cause of Anna Hazare .

The elected persons have tasted easy money. They are not willing to give away the smooth life. The people have to throw them out.  They will never go by themselves.

Kisan Bapat Baburao Hazare,  popularly known as Anna Hazare, is a social activist,  who is especially recognized for his contribution to the development of, Religan Siddhi village in Ahmednagar district, and his efforts for establishing it as a model village, for which he was awarded Padma-Shree in 1990 and Padma-Bhushana in the year 1992.

Anna Hazare had started a 'fast unto death' to exert pressure on the Government of India to enact a strong anti-corruption act as envisaged in the Lok Pal bill, a law that will establish machinery that will have the power to deal with corruption in public offices.  No one in power is interested in a Lokpal.  All is a time-pass game for them.  Singapore passed such bill many years back and now Singapore has progressed enormously.  Why India can not do it? Answer is simple.  Those in power never want it.

During his days in the Army in the 1960s as a truck driver, he spent a lot of time reading about Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi and Acharya Vinoba Bhave. He participated in the 1965-Indo-Pak war. Thereafter he retired from army service.

Anna returned to Ralegan Siddhi village in 1975, after seeking voluntary retirement from the Army and was faced with a village in the grip of drought, poverty, crimes and alcoholism. He inspired villagers to join him in building canals and bunds to hold rainwater which increased irrigation possibilities in the village.

The only family members he has are two married sisters. One lives in Mumbai and another in Sangamner in Ahmednagar district. His mother Laxmibai died in 2002.  He is a bachelor not married.

After Mahatma Gandhi, Anna is among those who have used hunger strike as a potent weapon. In 1995, Hazare's fast led to exit of two state Cabinet Ministers, labelled as corrupt by the Gandhian and the Sena-BJP government was forced to drop them.

Anna Hazare did not spare the Congress-NCP regime either and in 2003, went on hunger strike against four ministers, Sureshdada Jain, Nawab Malik, Vijaykumar Gavit and Padamsinh Patiln, alleging they indulged in massive corruption.

He also initiated a campaign for a legislation on the right to information. Anna's persistent attack on those corrupt also earned him foes. In 2009, two persons arrested for killing Congress leader Pawanraje Nimbalkar said there was a contract given out to kill him.

IT IS OUR DUTY TO SUPPORT ANNA HAZARE.   LONG LIVE ANNA.

Hill Station Mount Abu.

HIT THE HEAD & TAKE THE TREASURE.”

Mount Abu.

Arbudanchal

Arbudaranya.

Elevation 5680 feet

Home of Jain Temples.

Dilwara Temples built by Vimalsha. 11 Century.

Nakki Talao, Arbuda Devi.

Every 1000 feet elevation, Temperature drops by 1* C.

Therefore Mount Abu is cooler  by 5.7*C. than at the sea level.

Throughout the country the English Rulers developed Hill Stations.

Mount Abu was the official residence of the Resident, Political Agent,

and his staff for Western India. Many Royal family also settled there.

They lived at Mount Abu two seasons a year that is 8 months in a year.

They established  municipality to construct roads, recreation centers

clubs theatres, picnic Points and allowed settlers to settle in Mount Abu.

Prior to 1947, No entry for vehicles in municipal limit. Trucks, Bus, Cars 

stopped at the entrance of Mount Abu toll-booth.. 

The Europeans too walked down to their Kothi on foot or

on horse etc. There were camel carriages to take their family etc.

No vehicles were allowed beyond the entrance point.

All had to enter on foot or in a palanquin or a horse carriage.

Dilwara Jain Temples is a center of great attraction.

Incident.1.

One Political Agent William with his Madam one afternoon stood at

the entrance of the Dilwara temple, just to know what a temple is.

Maharaj ShantiVijayji himself came to the door to welcome the couple.

They said they wanted to have a glance. They were offered jute cloth slippers

to wear and were asked to take out their shoes by the security staff.

The Madam changed her shoes. William did not like it and he toured

the temple premises with his shoes on.

Rumors say that William had his feet paralyzed. He could not walk.

He was advised to visit the temple again. He did not believe in such things.

He prepared himself to return to England for surgery. No medicine helped.

Wiser counsel prevails. The Madam by lot of persuasion took him in a

wheel-chair to see the temple barefoot. William walked out OK on his two feet.

Incident No.2.

At Gautameshvar there was a Fountain Head of a Bull Nandi wherefrom

fresh-water poured for Visitors to wash and drink and rest there.

A marble stone was inscribed roughly meaning “Hit the Head and Take the Treasure.”

Many devotees gave their life by Hitting their Head before the bull icon and died.

No Treasure was found.

At last, it is rumored Vastu Pal Tej Pal brothers in 13^th Century visited the spot.

They were very sorry for the plight of the dead in search of the Treasure.

Vastu Pal was so annoyed that with an iron rod, he Hit the Head of the Bull.

And? Lo! Behind the Mouth of the fountain was hidden treasure of Gold

Diamonds Pearls Ruby and what not. The message was to break the head of the icon.             Many had mistakenly cut own head and had died in vain.

They spent the proceeds of the Treasure in the development of Abu.

Mt.Abu during 1935-45 was army cantonment and a colony of British Officers, the Rulers of Indian states.  Mount Abu was the seat of meetings, conference and discussing political agenda of the states.

Abu was the meeting place of religious heads of different religion.

No vehicle was allowed in city limit. Each and all abandoned their car, bus at the toll-booth.              

Horse carriage, Carts were available for movement of old people, transport of luggage and supplies. All used to move of foot.  I remember running from our kothi at Achalgachh to Addhar devi by short cut from the back of Dilwara. There were short cuts for reaching sunset point Anadra point Gau-mukh, Nakki-lake, bazaar and all such places. We had enough of supply of fresh milk and green vegetables from fields adjacent to sun-set point. We drank boiled water and used to sleep in mosquito curtains. Every week we were given a tablet of quinine with milk.

Mount Abu deserves a Visit at least once.

Bottom of Form

The Sacred Mantra-The OHM

The word Ohm has about a hundred meaning. One of them is Welcome to God.

‘Ohm’ can be repeated aloud, in whispers or silently.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       The silent repetition is most effective to still our mind and connect us to God.                                                                                                                                                                             As we repeat, if we can feel the humming vibrations of this syllable in every cell of our body.

And when we are aware that this sacred syllable also represents the Unity of God’s manifestation, the repetition helps us experience the oneness that is inherently present everywhere. The vibrations unite us with the ultimate being.

OHM is not a word but rather an intonation, which, like music, transcends the barriers of age, race, culture and even species.                                                                                                                                     OHM is made up of three letters, aa, au and ma which, when combined together, make the sound Aum or OHM.                                                                                                

OHM is believed to be the basic sound of the world and to contain all other sounds.                                                          OHM is a mantra, or prayer in itself. If repeated with the correct intonation, it can resonate throughout the body so that the sound penetrates to the center of our being, the atman or the soul.

There is harmony, peace and bliss in this simple but deeply philosophical sound.          

By vibrating the sacred syllable Ohm, the supreme combination of letters, if one thinks of the Ultimate Personality of God, he will certainly reach the highest state of "stateless" eternity.

OHM is a sacred syllable that is considered to be the greatest of all the mantras, or sacred formulae.                                                                                                                               

The syllable Ohm is composed of the three sounds a-u-m, which represent several important triads: the three worlds of earth, atmosphere, and heaven.                                            

It belongs to, Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva.                                                                                       OHM is the source of the three Vedas, Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, and Sama Veda.                                  OHM mystically embodies the essence of the entire universe.                                                               OHM is uttered at the beginning and end of all prayers, chants, and meditation and is freely used in Buddhist and Jain Sikh scriptures also.

From the 6th century, the written symbol OHM is used to mark the beginning of a text in a manuscript or an inscription.                                                                                                       OHM is discussed in a number of the Upanishads, which are the texts of philosophical speculation, and it forms the entire subject matter of one Universe.                                                 OHM is used in the practice of Yoga and is related to techniques of auditory meditation.

Different Meaning of Phrase OK

We use the term OK in every field.

I am OK.  By Using the phrase OK it is meant I am well.

‘Okay’ or spelled ‘OK,’ ‘O.K.’  denotes approval, acceptance, agreement, assent, or acknowledgment.

‘Okay’ has frequently turned up as a  yes-word in many other languages.

As an adjective, ‘okay’ means ‘adequate,’ or ‘acceptable. For example, ‘this is okay to send,’ It also conveys ‘mediocre’ often in contrast to ‘good’ for example  ‘the food was okay’. It also functions as an adverb in this sense. As an interjection, it can denote compliance ‘Okay, I will do that’, or it may imply agreement, for example  ‘Okay, that's good’. As a verb and noun it means ‘assent’. For example, ‘The boss okayed the purchase,’ and, ‘The boss gave his okay to the purchase.’ It can also be used with appropriate voice tone—such as sarcasm or a questioning tone—to show doubt or to seek confirmation, assent and approval, for example ‘Okaay?’ or ‘Is that okay?’

There is no consensus on its origin  It is believed that in the First World War the casualty figures were shown daily on a giant board in public as under:

Zero is pronounced as Oh. For example 903=nine oh three. Apply Oh below for Zero.

Date.        Casuality Status.      No.  Killed./injured.

12-12-1914      -                       0          K

13-12-1914.     -                       5          K

Zero is pronounced as Oh.  Therefore No. of Killed on 12^_12_1914 is OK ,=zero killed.

That is how term OK came into usage..

The Religion.

Religion.

GOD IS ALWAYS THERE.  BELIEVE IN HIM. HE KNOWS. HE SEES.

“He is born in vain who having attained human birth does not attempt to realize God.”

“Think of Me. Worship Me.  Give up all things of Dharma. Turn to Me as Thy only refuge.

I will Deliver Thee from all Evil.  Have no fear.”

“Whenever there is Fall-out of Dharma and Adharma prevails, then I set forth Myself                                      to destroy Adharma  and establish  Dharma.  For this I take birth as a Being every age to age.”

“There are three paths to salvation. Knowledge, Deeds or Devotion.”

Religion is Belief in Divine Power.

Religion is following Sacred Rites and Ceremony.

Religion is Obedience to God.

“Religion tells to observe and analyze everything and when it agrees with reason, and is good for one and all, then accept it and live up to it.”

“Religion means we are a Learner to build close and loving relationship to God by adhering to the principles laid down in the Guru Grinth Sahib.”

“ Religion lays down Ten Commandments as summary of Rule of Behavior that God expects of Humanity.”

“Religion testifies that there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah to perform the Prayers, to pay Zakat, to fast in Ramadan and make pilgrimage to Holy Places of Worship.”

ALL RELIGIONS POINT OUT TO HAVE FAITH IN HIM AND HE IS OUR PROTECTOR.

Easter-Pass Over.

Easter.Pass Over.

Easter.  This year Easter falls on April 08^th.2012 Sunday.

Easter, the most important holiday, commemorates Christ's resurrection on the third day following his crucifixion. So important is the resurrection to Christians that it has been said that every Christian worship service is a celebration of the resurrection.

For several hundred years, Easter was not called "Easter." Prior to the fourth century, Christians observed, Pascha, Christian Passover, in the spring of the year. Adapted from Jewish Passover, Pascha was a festival of redemption. As Jews, these early followers of Jesus celebrated both their liberation from slavery in Egypt, and their new liberation from the power of death itself.

As Christianity spread throughout the Roman world, however, the celebration became more and more a distinctly Christian one. But there also developed some disagreement about when and how the holiday should be observed. One of the principal reasons for organizing the council of Nicea in 325 CE was to set a firm date for the celebration.

Though the record is not complete, the church fathers were intent on making the holiday into something that those acquainted with the gods and goddesses of the Greco-Roman world be comfortable with. Thus the festival came to be known as "Easter," a name derived, some think, from "Eostre," the Mother Goddess of the Saxon people in Northern Europe; others suggest it was derived from an ancient word for spring "eastre." Without doubt some elements of pre-Christian religious practice have been incorporated into the Easter traditions.

Easter Sunday and Pass Over.

Both have to be followed.

Christmas comes but once a year.

After Christmas comes the Lent.

On the 8^th of April, this year, more than a billion of Christians

will celebrate the festival of Easter.

A fraction of them observe Pass Over, a week before the Easter Sunday.

The festival of Easter is fun-filled with the hunt of the Easter Egg,

Easter bunnies and Easter Sunrise service. 

Many believe that God’s endorsement of Pass Over ended with Christ’s Death.

God since then replaced it with the celebration of the Easter.

Celebration of Easter with sincerity, is rightly regarded as a

religious holiday that superseded the Old Testament Pass Over.

There is a controversy about celebrating Easter or observing Pass Over.

We are not here for anything in favour or anything against those who claim:-

Easter can not be found in Scriptures.

Easter was never instituted by God.

Easter was never sanctioned by Jesus Christ.

Easter means one week of religious prayer and plain living.

Easter means one week’s celebration and vacation at the end of a harsh winter.

It brings joy and colour in the eyes of the people to celebrate this festival.

Lent is the season of 40 day’s fasting before Easter.

Lent is more than a diet, a life involved in prayer, alms-giving and reading.

Fasting abstains from eating meat, fish, dairy items liquor wine etc.

They take a simple dry food of vegetables once a day to maintain the body.

Auspicious Time.

Auspicious Time.

Yesterday is History.

Tomorrow is Mystery.

To-day is God’s Gift.(Present).

Past holds the future,  it repeats itself in the present. History repeats,   People do not learn.              Past comes back again.  It is a burden on the present, and future.   It is hovering on our head.                             None can escape past memory.  It comes back over and again. We live in past memory.  There is no present, no future-only the past, happening again.   It appears in an enlarged improved edition. One never forgets incidents of the past. They are fresh as if they happened yesterday. Life is short and events are many.  Whether you want it or not, it follows you like a shadow. You can’t shed it.  It is interwoven in you. Shed it. 

Yesterday has gone, Today is with us. Tomorrow may not come.  We should finish our tasks today without delay. Time and Tide wait for none. The present tense belongs to us.  Whatever the past may have been, it is a glorious past.   What is gone is gone, Let bye-gone be bye-gone.  That’s all. We have to live in the present.  We have left past far behind.  Our life exists in the present.  We should make the most of it. We do not do this.  If we try, we can do it. It can be done. Not yesterday, not tomorrow, but today we have to enjoy every moment of Life.   

Today is our time. Yesterday is gone.  “Make hay when the Sun shines”.  Life is short and work is  much. Life will be colorful if you kept busy. Every hour hurts; the last one swoons.  Therefore rise above and get to work. Work is worship. Work is life. Wok is activity.   Wise ones stick to the present.   Only the fools waste the time.   Philosophers and writers write about the Past.  The wise ones think of today. Persons with  practical outlook live in  present. They do not bother what  past was. Present belongs to us.  This is the gist of life.

Raman Maharshi.

Raman Maharshi.(1879-1950)

Born to a south Indian, Brahman family, Venkataraman Aiyer, read mystical and devotional literature, particularly the lives of South Indian Shaiva saints and the life of Kabir.

He was captivated by legends of the local pilgrimage place, Mt. Arunachala, from which the god Shiva was supposed to have arisen in a spiral of fire at the creation of the world.

At the age of 17 Venkataraman had a spiritual experience from which he derived his vicara technique: he suddenly felt a great fear of death, and, lying very still, imagined his body becoming a stiff, cold corpse.

Following a traditional "not this, not that" (neti-neti) practice, he began self-inquiry, asking "Who am I?" and answering, "Not the body, because it is decaying; not the mind, because the brain will decay with the body; not the personality, nor the emotions, for these also will vanish with death."

His intense desire to know the answer brought him into a state of consciousness beyond the mind, a state of bliss of a samadhi. He immediately renounced his possessions, shaved his head, and fled from his village to Mt. Arunachala to become a hermit and one of India's youngest gurus.

He was endowed with a spiritual title Ramana Maharshi, used by Venkataraman's disciples and his preaching attracted a number of notable students. Ramana Maharshi believed that death and evil were maya, or illusion, which could be dissipated by the practice of vicara, by which the true self and the unity of all things would be discovered. For liberation from rebirth it is sufficient, he believed, to practice only vicara and bhakti (devotional surrender) either to Shiva Arunachala or to Ramana Maharshi.

Persian Literature.

Urdu Art and Stage Drama.

During the second half of the 19th century, Urdu was the main spoken and written language of the northern half of the subcontinent and understood in almost all the principal cities.

The Parsi were the pioneers in establishing a commercial theatre, that lasted from 1873 to 1935 and influenced all the other regional theatres. Though located mainly in Bombay and Calcutta, the Parsi companies toured the subcontinent with huge staffs, sets, and an army of players.

The best known playwright of this period is Agha Hashr (1876-1935), a poet-dramatist of flamboyant imagination and superb craftsmanship. Among his famous plays are Sita Banbas, from the Ramayana; Bilwa Mangal, a social play on the life of a poet, whose blind passion for a prostitute results in remorse; and Aankh ka Nasha, about the treachery of a prostitute's love, with realistic dialogue of a brothel. Many of Hashr's plays were adapted from Shakespeare: Sufaid Khun was modelled on King Lear, and Khun-e Nahaq on Hamlet.

His last play, Rustam-o-Sohrab, the tragic story of two legendary Persian heroes, Rustam and his son Sohrab, is a drama of passion and fatal irony. Theatrical companies were large-budgeted affairs. Plays opened with the actors in full makeup and costume, their hands folded and eyes closed, singing a prayer song in praise of a deity, and generally ended in a tableau.

Sometimes at curtain call the director rearranged the tableau in a split second and offered a variant. Actors were required to know singing, dancing, music, acrobatics, and fencing and to possess strong voices and good physical bearing.

In improvised auditoriums with bad acoustics and packed with more than 2,000 people, actors' voices reached the farthest spectator.

Plays began at 10 o'clock and lasted until dawn, moving from comedy to tragedy, from pathos to farce, from songs to the rattle of swords, all interspersed with moral lessons and rhyming epigrams.

The droll humour and realism of the comic interludes remain unsurpassed in contemporary Urdu drama. Important playwrights of this period were Narain Prasad Betab, Mian Zarif, and Munshi Mohammed Dil of Lucknow.

All took inspiration from Hindu mythology and Persian legends, transforming these tales into powerful dramas. Imtiaz Ali Taj  was a bridge between Agha Hashr and contemporary Pakistani playwrights. His Anarkali, the tragic love story of  Anarkali, and Crown Prince Salim unfolds the love-hate relationship of a domineering emperor and his rebellious son. Brilliant in treatment and character analysis, this play has been staged hundreds of times by amateur groups and has entered the list of Urdu classics.

In the absence of a professional company, Urdu theatre has found it difficult to strike roots.

After 1947 many Muslim actors and writers were absorbed by the Indian film industry in Bombay, and they found it difficult to adjust their great talent to amateur theatrical clubs.

All the same, plays have been staged in Karachi, Lahore, and Rawalpindi. The best productions have been those dealing with topical themes--refugee problems, new adjustments, the corrupt bureaucracy, the Kashmir issue, and other sociopolitical issues. Agha Babar in Rawalpindi produced Burra Sahib, an adaptation of Gogol's Government Inspector, setting it in Pakistan. Tere Kuce se Jub Hum Nikle by Naseer Shamshi, describes the pathetic condition of an aristocratic family in Delhi that is forced to leave home because of communal riots.

In Lal Qile se Lalukhet Tak, by Khwajah Moinuddin, the comedy arises out of the pitiable condition of the refugees who leave their well-settled existence in Delhi dreaming of prosperity, take a tedious journey, and arrive homeless in Karachi to find shelter in thatched hovels.

Ali Ahmed, an avant-garde actor-director in Karachi, presents his plays with polished stagecraft and esoteric appeal. Lahore remains the centre of amateur theatre based on the tradition of the late directors A.S. Bokhari and G.D. Sondhi, both former principals of the Government College in Lahore. In 1942 G.D. Sondhi built the Open-Air Theatre, situated on a small artificial hillock in the Lawrence Gardens and perhaps the best in all of South Asia. It has remained the centre of dramatic contests and festivals and is a favourite of visiting dancers and actors.

The actor-playwright Rafi Peer, with his knowledge of Western theatre as a result of his training in Berlin in the 1930s, has helped to develop Pakistani theatre. Professional in approach, he has produced radio and stage plays and has been a critical colleague of A.S. Bokhari and Imtiaz in the revival of amateur theatre.