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Toute aide pour une identification précise serait appréciée.
Any help for identification will be much appreciated.
The precise spherical shape, the incredibly fragile nature of the microscopically thin soap film, the beautiful colors that swirl and shimmer, or most likely, a combination of all these phenomena
To perhaps be a little more precise, maybe I should have titled it Eastern Coyote. But the strain that we have here in Newfoundland is claimed to be different from the Eastern Coyote ... larger and with perhaps some wolf DNA thrown in for good measure ... in other words, a hybrid. Who knows? The only thing I know is, I've been looking for a shot of these critters for some time now and I've finally got a half decent one. It was taken at 8:43 PM, though, and the light was failing, so there's still room for improvement. :-) I've seen them a number of times before ... some even quite close, but never had time to get a shot. I've even 'hunted' them with a call ... without much success.
The coyote is not native to Newfoundland and theories abound as to how they got here. Some even claim our Newfoundland government, in their inestimable widsom, surreptiously introduced this species to keep down the moose population. I certainly wouldn't be surprised if that were true ... after all, they did introduce the moose back in 1904 and we all know what a problem that turned out to be. Also, in 1958,they introduced the Masked Shrew hoping that it would prove to be a check on the larch sawfly, a forest pest. If they did introduce the coyote to keep down the moose population, it certainly backfired on them, though. Because it's not the moose that's suffering as a result of their presence, but rather our native Woodland Caribou. These pests are responsible for killing large numbers of them.
Most likely though they introduced themselves to this island province ... crossing over from Labrador on the pack ice which fills the Strait of Belle Isle in the wintertime. That body of water is only twelve miles wide at its shortest point, so it's not much of a stretch to see that happening.
We also have the wolf here now, too. So, it's anybody's guess how that got here. The wolf, after all, is said to be a significant predator of the coyote where their ranges overlap.
The other day something sad happened.
I know this is meant to be precise recording of my daily activities but it has taken me a couple of days to process what I really wanted to say.
For those of you who have been following this little adventure will remember that in February I mentioned that there was this little stray cat that made it's way into the factory complex I am in.
He/She was rather sickly when we first met. I decided to take on the task of occasionally giving it some food whenever I saw it.
Over the weeks that passed Bella decided that the best name to give it was Dom. It came from a number of conversations where I would often be a little despondent about the fact that I was spending sometimes my last bit of coin to buy food for the cat, and it would eat it and walk off. I would often feel a little rejected that the cat didn't stick around, even though I made, by this point, a really active decision to feed it the best I could.
The name came from the Michael Jackson's track "D.S."
The lyric "Dom Sheldon is a cold man" was kinda fitting to my feelings with the cat, that I would be the one that would feed it, yet also be the one that would have to watch it run away.
The shot above is the two little white plates I served food on, one was meat, one was dry food.
The plastic container was half for milk and the other half for water.
Over the period of this 365 there were a few shoots that I did out side and it was like the cat was a photographer in a past life… it would in the early days perch itself out of the back of one of the many trucks around here… just observing.
I would look back and see this little head fixed on every thing I was doing.
As time went on and I was going through a rather rough patch and couldn't see the beauty in any thing, I remember one of the shots I was not getting the right light, I was getting frustrated… and when I get frustrated I kinda like to curse.
I look over and see Dom, and there it was… sitting in the perfect sunlight to take the shot.
Like always I would thank the cat, and it would do it's thing by running away.
It was like that.
It was never touched by a human and just didn't know what to think of this 6"2" idiot gawking over it.
As time passed and I would sit outside drawing sketches it would come and sit around me.
Just staring at me.
It would always stay it's mandatory 3 feet away…
But, I would talk to it and ask it questions.
It must of thought I was a nutter.
Anyways, as time passed and I fed it and it kept me company in the only way it knew.
It began to teach me something.
It taught me that our expectations on how another person should return love, was just that, our own perceptions.
We are brought up by what ever means and along the way it is often ingrained that a certain "quid pro quo" deal comes with any relationship.
You do something, you have an expectation based on your perception of what you should receive in return.
When it fails, then you question why you continue with your deliverance actions, if your receiving expectations are not met.
Can I just say, that this is something I am learning to change in myself.
Because what we expect to get out of a relationship, can often be the demise of actually learning anything from the relationship.
I see a lot of people expecting quotas to be met, or they walk.
They have a glass and if it is not filled in the ways they like it, then they move on to someone or something that does make them feel that sense of completeness.
I learnt from my relationship from Dom, that if I was to do that and expect him to turn around and say "Ok dude, you are feeding me, I am now yours. You can call me your cat, we can pat a couple of times in the day, and then we can go about our daily lives… you know what… lets have a formulated routine… sound good?"
You know what?
No it doesn't.
How are you expected to see a person shine, a person grow, a person evolve if your preconceived expectations are placed on them?
Isn't it better to see them be themselves and you find the beauty in the structure that is the fact that you have a bond?
That you might get along in one way, and that allowing them to be themselves, helps you grow.
You see them shoot across the sky and you can say… you know what? I know that person, and I respect them to the utmost degree?
Society and what programs it doesn't teach you that. It is more of a "get what you need, or move on" sort of approach.
Well, little mate Dom, you have successfully taught me the other.
I may of never got to fall asleep whilst watching a movie and have you purring at the end of the bed.
But, your little trends and idiosyncrasies really made me happy.
When you would see the car pull in… you would lift your head, look over and give me a look that would say "I will be over when I have finished soaking in this direct sunlight".
That to me is respect.
That to me is understanding.
It is not an easy start, but by God, it pays off.
So anyways, back to the beginning
The other night I was sitting there like every night… and Dom was late.
It started to bother me, as I hadn't seen him for most part of the day, and that was a little strange… cause usually in the morning it really wanted breakfast.
After about an hour of waiting and writing some notes, I hear this clanking… I get up, and walk around looking for the noise.
It was Dom.
It was walking 3 steps and falling over.
It would get back up and walk 3 more steps and collapse.
I walked over to it…
I then noticed it had been struck by something. It's hind leg was dangling like a tea bag.
It looked up at me… and was crying.
I fed it, then wrapped it up.
For the first time it purred when I patted it.
It's swelling was getting worse.
I ran upstairs to call a vet… thinking that would be the normal thing to do.
By the time I had gotten back down, Dom was gone.
The clothe shaken off… Dom had disappeared into the night.
Never to be seen again.
I spose that's the life it knew. It was the way it knew how to deal with it's present situation.
I have to respect that.
So, this shot goes out to Dom. Thank you for all you taught me.
I miss you terribly…
but I loved that you always were yourself. You made me mad. You made me happy. You have made me sad.
You taught me a valuable lesson in understanding.
Thank you little cat.
I love you.
Ryan.
Public Domain Book: The history of magic : including a clear and precise exposition of its procedure, its rites and its mysteries
by Lévi, Eliphas, 1810-1875
Published 1922
Female Allergory
Early 16th century. Marble. From the Habsburg-Este Collection
This charming sculpture with a sophisticated haristyle and finely modelled features is reminiscent of a private portrait. The "Greek" nose, however, is not typical of an individual portrait and - like the highly detailled hair - is indebted to the depictions of gods and goddesses of classical antiquity.
Thus this is most likely a decorative allegory, perhaps of one of the virtues or a personification, auch as Spring or Youth. There must have been more precise indications of the meaning on the bust, which has been lost.
Simone Bianco, zugeschrieben (1480-90 - ca. 1553), tätig in Venedig
Weibliche Allegorie
Frühes 16. Jahrhundert, Marmor. Aus der Sammlung Habsburg-Este.
Das reizvolle Bildnis mit seiner raffinierten Frisur und den fein modellierten Gesichtszügen lässt an ein Privatpoträt denken. Für eine individuelle Darstellung ist jedoch die "griechische" Nase untypisch und - wie die detailverliebte Frisur - antiken Götterdarstellungen verpflichtet. Es handelt sich daher wohl eher um eine dekorative Allegorie, vielleicht um eine Tugend oder eine Personifikation wie der Frühling oder die Jugend. Genauere Hinweise zur Deutung befanden sich zweifellos auf der heute verlorenen Büste.
Austria Kunsthistorisches Museum
Federal Museum
Logo KHM
Regulatory authority (ies)/organs to the Federal Ministry for Education, Science and Culture
Founded 17 October 1891
Headquartered Castle Ring (Burgring), Vienna 1, Austria
Management Sabine Haag
www.khm.at website
Main building of the Kunsthistorisches Museum at Maria-Theresa-Square
The Kunsthistorisches Museum (KHM abbreviated) is an art museum in Vienna. It is one of the largest and most important museums in the world. It was opened in 1891 and 2012 visited of 1.351.940 million people.
The museum
The Kunsthistorisches Museum is with its opposite sister building, the Natural History Museum (Naturhistorisches Museum), the most important historicist large buildings of the Ringstrasse time. Together they stand around the Maria Theresa square, on which also the Maria Theresa monument stands. This course spans the former glacis between today's ring road and 2-line, and is forming a historical landmark that also belongs to World Heritage Site Historic Centre of Vienna.
History
Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in his Gallery
The Museum came from the collections of the Habsburgs, especially from the portrait and armor collections of Ferdinand of Tyrol, the collection of Emperor Rudolf II (most of which, however scattered) and the art collection of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm into existence. Already In 1833 asked Joseph Arneth, curator (and later director) of the Imperial Coins and Antiquities Cabinet, bringing together all the imperial collections in a single building .
Architectural History
The contract to build the museum in the city had been given in 1858 by Emperor Franz Joseph. Subsequently, many designs were submitted for the ring road zone. Plans by August Sicard von Sicardsburg and Eduard van der Null planned to build two museum buildings in the immediate aftermath of the Imperial Palace on the left and right of the Heroes' Square (Heldenplatz). The architect Ludwig Förster planned museum buildings between the Schwarzenberg Square and the City Park, Martin Ritter von Kink favored buildings at the corner Währingerstraße/ Scots ring (Schottenring), Peter Joseph, the area Bellariastraße, Moritz von Loehr the south side of the opera ring, and Ludwig Zettl the southeast side of the grain market (Getreidemarkt).
From 1867, a competition was announced for the museums, and thereby set their current position - at the request of the Emperor, the museum should not be too close to the Imperial Palace, but arise beyond the ring road. The architect Carl von Hasenauer participated in this competition and was able the at that time in Zürich operating Gottfried Semper to encourage to work together. The two museum buildings should be built here in the sense of the style of the Italian Renaissance. The plans got the benevolence of the imperial family. In April 1869, there was an audience with of Joseph Semper at the Emperor Franz Joseph and an oral contract was concluded, in July 1870 was issued the written order to Semper and Hasenauer.
Crucial for the success of Semper and Hasenauer against the projects of other architects were among others Semper's vision of a large building complex called "Imperial Forum", in which the museums would have been a part of. Not least by the death of Semper in 1879 came the Imperial Forum not as planned for execution, the two museums were built, however.
Construction of the two museums began without ceremony on 27 November 1871 instead. Semper moved to Vienna in the sequence. From the beginning, there were considerable personal differences between him and Hasenauer, who finally in 1877 took over sole construction management. 1874, the scaffolds were placed up to the attic and the first floor completed, built in 1878, the first windows installed in 1879, the Attica and the balustrade from 1880 to 1881 and built the dome and the Tabernacle. The dome is topped with a bronze statue of Pallas Athena by Johannes Benk.
The lighting and air conditioning concept with double glazing of the ceilings made the renunciation of artificial light (especially at that time, as gas light) possible, but this resulted due to seasonal variations depending on daylight to different opening times .
Kuppelhalle
Entrance (by clicking the link at the end of the side you can see all the pictures here indicated!)
Grand staircase
Hall
Empire
The Kunsthistorisches Museum was on 17 October 1891 officially opened by Emperor Franz Joseph I. Since 22 October 1891 , the museum is accessible to the public. Two years earlier, on 3 November 1889, the collection of arms, Arms and Armour today, had their doors open. On 1 January 1890 the library service resumed its operations. The merger and listing of other collections of the Highest Imperial Family from the Upper and Lower Belvedere, the Hofburg Palace and Ambras in Tyrol will need another two years.
189, the farm museum was organized in seven collections with three directorates:
Directorate of coins, medals and antiquities collection
The Egyptian Collection
The Antique Collection
The coins and medals collection
Management of the collection of weapons, art and industrial objects
Weapons collection
Collection of industrial art objects
Directorate of Art Gallery and Restaurieranstalt (Restoration Office)
Collection of watercolors, drawings, sketches, etc.
Restoration Office
Library
Very soon the room the Court Museum (Hofmuseum) for the imperial collections was offering became too narrow. To provide temporary help, an exhibition of ancient artifacts from Ephesus in the Theseus Temple was designed. However, additional space had to be rented in the Lower Belvedere.
1914, after the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne, his " Estonian Forensic Collection " passed to the administration of the Court Museum. This collection, which emerged from the art collection of the house of d' Este and world travel collection of Franz Ferdinand, was placed in the New Imperial Palace since 1908. For these stocks, the present collection of old musical instruments and the Museum of Ethnology emerged.
The First World War went by, apart from the oppressive economic situation without loss. The farm museum remained during the five years of war regularly open to the public.
Until 1919 the K.K. Art Historical Court Museum was under the authority of the Oberstkämmereramt (head chamberlain office) and belonged to the House of Habsburg-Lorraine. The officials and employees were part of the royal household.
First Republic
The transition from monarchy to republic, in the museum took place in complete tranquility. On 19 November 1918 the two imperial museums on Maria Theresa Square were placed under the state protection of the young Republic of German Austria. Threatening to the stocks of the museum were the claims raised in the following weeks and months of the "successor states" of the monarchy as well as Italy and Belgium on Austrian art collection. In fact, it came on 12th February 1919 to the violent removal of 62 paintings by armed Italian units. This "art theft" left a long time trauma among curators and art historians.
It was not until the Treaty of Saint-Germain of 10 September 1919, providing in Article 195 and 196 the settlement of rights in the cultural field by negotiations. The claims of Belgium, Czechoslovakia, and Italy again could mostly being averted in this way. Only Hungary, which presented the greatest demands by far, was met by more than ten years of negotiation in 147 cases.
On 3 April 1919 was the expropriation of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine by law and the acquisition of its property, including the "Collections of the Imperial House" , by the Republic. Of 18 June 1920 the then provisional administration of the former imperial museums and collections of Este and the secular and clergy treasury passed to the State Office of Internal Affairs and Education, since 10 November 1920, the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Education. A few days later it was renamed the Art History Court Museum in the "Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna State", 1921 "Kunsthistorisches Museum" . Of 1st January 1921 the employees of the museum staff passed to the state of the Republic.
Through the acquisition of the former imperial collections owned by the state, the museum found itself in a complete new situation. In order to meet the changed circumstances in the museum area, designed Hans Tietze in 1919 the "Vienna Museum program". It provided a close cooperation between the individual museums to focus at different houses on main collections. So dominated exchange, sales and equalizing the acquisition policy in the interwar period. Thus resulting until today still valid collection trends. Also pointing the way was the relocation of the weapons collection from 1934 in its present premises in the New Castle, where since 1916 the collection of ancient musical instruments was placed.
With the change of the imperial collections in the ownership of the Republic the reorganization of the internal organization went hand in hand, too. Thus the museum was divided in 1919 into the Egyptian and Near Eastern Collection (with the Oriental coins)
Collection of Classical Antiquities
Collection of ancient coins
Collection of modern coins and medals
Weapons collection
Collection of sculptures and crafts with the Collection of Ancient Musical Instruments
Picture Gallery
The Museum 1938-1945
Count Philipp Ludwig Wenzel Sinzendorf according to Rigaud. Clarisse 1948 by Baroness de Rothschildt "dedicated" to the memory of Baron Alphonse de Rothschildt; restituted to the Rothschilds in 1999, and in 1999 donated by Bettina Looram Rothschild, the last Austrian heiress.
With the "Anschluss" of Austria to the German Reich all Jewish art collections such as the Rothschilds were forcibly "Aryanised". Collections were either "paid" or simply distributed by the Gestapo at the museums. This resulted in a significant increase in stocks. But the KHM was not the only museum that benefited from the linearization. Systematically looted Jewish property was sold to museums, collections or in pawnshops throughout the empire.
After the war, the museum struggled to reimburse the "Aryanised" art to the owners or their heirs. They forced the Rothschild family to leave the most important part of their own collection to the museum and called this "dedications", or "donations". As a reason, was the export law stated, which does not allow owners to perform certain works of art out of the country. Similar methods were used with other former owners. Only on the basis of international diplomatic and media pressure, to a large extent from the United States, the Austrian government decided to make a change in the law (Art Restitution Act of 1998, the so-called Lex Rothschild). The art objects were the Rothschild family refunded only in the 1990s.
The Kunsthistorisches Museum operates on the basis of the federal law on the restitution of art objects from the 4th December 1998 (Federal Law Gazette I, 181 /1998) extensive provenance research. Even before this decree was carried out in-house provenance research at the initiative of the then archive director Herbert Haupt. This was submitted in 1998 by him in collaboration with Lydia Grobl a comprehensive presentation of the facts about the changes in the inventory levels of the Kunsthistorisches Museum during the Nazi era and in the years leading up to the State Treaty of 1955, an important basis for further research provenance.
The two historians Susanne Hehenberger and Monika Löscher are since 1st April 2009 as provenance researchers at the Kunsthistorisches Museum on behalf of the Commission for Provenance Research operating and they deal with the investigation period from 1933 to the recent past.
The museum today
Today the museum is as a federal museum, with 1st January 1999 released to the full legal capacity - it was thus the first of the state museums of Austria, implementing the far-reaching self-financing. It is by far the most visited museum in Austria with 1.3 million visitors (2007).
The Kunsthistorisches Museum is under the name Kunsthistorisches Museum and Museum of Ethnology and the Austrian Theatre Museum with company number 182081t since 11 June 1999 as a research institution under public law of the Federal virtue of the Federal Museums Act, Federal Law Gazette I/115/1998 and the Museum of Procedure of the Kunsthistorisches Museum and Museum of Ethnology and the Austrian Theatre Museum, 3 January 2001, BGBl II 2/ 2001, in force since 1 January 2001, registered.
In fiscal 2008, the turnover was 37.185 million EUR and total assets amounted to EUR 22.204 million. In 2008 an average of 410 workers were employed.
Management
1919-1923: Gustav Glück as the first chairman of the College of science officials
1924-1933: Hermann Julius Hermann 1924-1925 as the first chairman of the College of the scientific officers in 1925 as first director
1933: Arpad Weixlgärtner first director
1934-1938: Alfred Stix first director
1938-1945: Fritz Dworschak 1938 as acting head, from 1938 as a chief in 1941 as first director
1945-1949: August von Loehr 1945-1948 as executive director of the State Art Collections in 1949 as general director of the historical collections of the Federation
1945-1949: Alfred Stix 1945-1948 as executive director of the State Art Collections in 1949 as general director of art historical collections of the Federation
1949-1950: Hans Demel as administrative director
1950: Karl Wisoko-Meytsky as general director of art and historical collections of the Federation
1951-1952: Fritz Eichler as administrative director
1953-1954: Ernst H. Buschbeck as administrative director
1955-1966: Vincent Oberhammer 1955-1959 as administrative director, from 1959 as first director
1967: Edward Holzmair as managing director
1968-1972: Erwin Auer first director
1973-1981: Friderike Klauner first director
1982-1990: Hermann Fillitz first director
1990: George Kugler as interim first director
1990-2008: Wilfried Seipel as general director
2009-2019: Sabine Haag as general director
2019– : Eike Schmidt (art historian, designated)
Collections
To the Kunsthistorisches Museum are also belonging the collections of the New Castle, the Austrian Theatre Museum in Palais Lobkowitz, the Museum of Ethnology and the Wagenburg (wagon fortress) in an outbuilding of Schönbrunn Palace. A branch office is also Ambras in Innsbruck.
Kunsthistorisches Museum (main building)
Picture Gallery
Egyptian and Near Eastern Collection
Collection of Classical Antiquities
Vienna Chamber of Art
Numismatic Collection
Library
New Castle
Ephesus Museum
Collection of Ancient Musical Instruments
Arms and Armour
Archive
Hofburg
The imperial crown in the Treasury
Imperial Treasury of Vienna
Insignia of the Austrian Hereditary Homage
Insignia of imperial Austria
Insignia of the Holy Roman Empire
Burgundian Inheritance and the Order of the Golden Fleece
Habsburg-Lorraine Household Treasure
Ecclesiastical Treasury
Schönbrunn Palace
Imperial Carriage Museum Vienna
Armory in Ambras Castle
Ambras Castle
Collections of Ambras Castle
Major exhibits
Among the most important exhibits of the Art Gallery rank inter alia:
Jan van Eyck: Cardinal Niccolò Albergati, 1438
Martin Schongauer: Holy Family, 1475-80
Albrecht Dürer : Trinity Altar, 1509-16
Portrait Johann Kleeberger, 1526
Parmigianino: Self Portrait in Convex Mirror, 1523/24
Giuseppe Arcimboldo: Summer 1563
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio: Madonna of the Rosary 1606/ 07
Caravaggio: Madonna of the Rosary (1606-1607)
Titian: Nymph and Shepherd to 1570-75
Portrait of Jacopo de Strada, 1567/68
Raffaello Santi: Madonna of the Meadow, 1505 /06
Lorenzo Lotto: Portrait of a young man against white curtain, 1508
Peter Paul Rubens: The altar of St. Ildefonso, 1630-32
The Little Fur, about 1638
Jan Vermeer: The Art of Painting, 1665/66
Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Fight between Carnival and Lent, 1559
Kids, 1560
Tower of Babel, 1563
Christ Carrying the Cross, 1564
Gloomy Day (Early Spring), 1565
Return of the Herd (Autumn), 1565
Hunters in the Snow (Winter) 1565
Bauer and bird thief, 1568
Peasant Wedding, 1568/69
Peasant Dance, 1568/69
Paul's conversion (Conversion of St Paul), 1567
Cabinet of Curiosities:
Saliera from Benvenuto Cellini 1539-1543
Egyptian-Oriental Collection:
Mastaba of Ka Ni Nisut
Collection of Classical Antiquities:
Gemma Augustea
Treasure of Nagyszentmiklós
Gallery: Major exhibits
SEVEN MONTHS ON (5 of 19).
The village of Onna (L'Áquila (AQ), Abruzzo, Italy), seven months after the L'Áquila earthquake of April 2009 (5 of 6).
Temporary housing scheme near the destroyed street of via dei Martiri.
The notice board indicates that the housing scheme was organized and funded nationally with the support of the Italian Red Cross (Croce Rossa Italiana) and the Autonomous Province of Trento (TR) (Interestingly, Trento is far away in the southern Alps in northern Italy, part of the Region of Trentino Alto Adige.) These houses have been built since the photos of this area were taken by Google for their Street View in Google Maps. (My photo location on Flickr map is close but not necessarily precise.)
I have given further information about this earthquake, and the legal events arising from it, in the description to my accompanying image in this series, Rubble Trouble. For an interesting perspective on the post-earthquake situation in and around L'Áquila, see this photo and article.
NOTE ON PLACE NAMES.
Via dei Martiri = 'Street of Martyrs' - a sadly auspicious name for this nearby street, as it turns out. Flickr Map gives the formal Region name as *Abruzzi" here, but "Abruzzo'" is the correct rendering.
GEOLOGICAL NOTES
"The 2009 L'Áquila earthquake occurred in the region of Abruzzo, in central Italy. The main shock occurred at 3:32 local time on 6 April 2009, and was rated 5.8 on the Richter scale and 6.3 on the moment magnitude scale; its epicentre was near L'Áquila, the capital of Abruzzo, which together with surrounding villages [like Onna here] suffered most damage. There have been several thousand foreshocks and aftershocks since December 2008, more than thirty of which had a
Richter magnitude greater than 3.5. The earthquake was felt throughout central Italy; 308 people are known to have died, making this the deadliest earthquake to hit Italy since the 1980 Irpinia earthquake."
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_L%27Aquila_earthquake
According to our geological friends in this area, it is well established that there is an approximately 100-year cycle of earthquakes in the L'Áquila region, and the timing of this one fits with this cycle. Tectonically, this part of the Apennines is in a tensional regime dominated by normal block faulting, and the earthquake was generated along normal faults in and around L'Áquila.
Photo
Brian
© Darkroom Daze Creative Commons.
If you would like to use or refer to this image, please link or attribute.
ID: DSC_0215.JPG - Version 2
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a friend of mine challenged me to participate in a recipe email round robin, which i shall.
today, i made this and prepared the following recipe for the round robin:
organic carrot-pumpkin-ginger soup
i'm never very precise about amounts and measurements, by the way.
ingredients:
one small pumpkin
one bag of organic carrots
two hefty chunks of ginger
2-3 sprigs of spring onions (scallions)
garlic
onion (yellow or white)
olive oil
sea salt
a modest dash of herbs (one could use fresh or dried thyme, possibly fresh basil, and, if you go for the variation noted below, you could also use fresh cilantro)
tasty things to use as garnish and flavour accents (such as home-made rosemary croutons, or sautéed chanterelles, or small pieces taken from a slab of artisan bacon, or roasted tofu, or roasted pumpkin seeds and fresh cilantro)
water (or a combi of water and unsweetened soy milk)
how to put it together:
first, one must open a bottle of red wine and pour oneself a very small glass. this helps loosen the shoulders and awaken the palate. it's also o.k. to make a cup of coffee or tea - but it will only make you more uptight in the end.
this soup starts with a pan-roasted hokkaido pumpkin, slow cooked in a bit of olive oil: into the cast iron frying pan it goes with four cloves of coarsely chopped garlic. the pumpkin does not need to be finely chopped. the organic carrots are then chopped into smaller pieces, and i immediately add the largest pieces of carrots to the slow cooking pumpkin... one continues to sautée until the pumpkin and carrots starts to lose a bit of resiliency (the point of the sautéeing is to introduce the olive oil flavour but also to take the hard edge off of the pumpkin).
i then add water, enough to cover, and the ginger... when the pumpkin is soft, i turn off the heat and let it cool.
at this point, my multitasking mind takes me to other activities.
i transfer all of the ingredients to a large stock pot, adding the smaller pieces of carrots, as well as half a semi-finely chopped white onion, and a bit of coarse sea salt. i also add more water - adjusting the amount to personal preferences (how thick do you want to soup to be will be determined by how much water you add - if in doubt, add less water).
all of this is brought to a sustained boil for about ten minutes, after which one significantly reduces the heat and allows the soup to slow cook for another 15 to 25 minutes, depending on preferences and what other activities you are already engaged in.
the heat is then turned off, and everything is allowed to cool for about fifteen minutes.
while cooling, i add the spring onions (scallions) - which have been roughly chopped - actually, just cut into five or six pieces each.
one then adds everything into a blender or food processor. purée everything, then serve (one can also serve the dish at a later time, but one should use caution when re-heating the soup: be sure that you don't boil the soup upon re-heating it. it will lose some of its colour and a lot of its flavour).
as a final touch to this finished purée, one could add the elements mentioned above under garnish and flavour accents, and one could also add a touch of creme fraiche. should the aforementioned pumpkin seeds be added, you could then garnish the soup with a bit of austrian pumpkin oil - carefully dribbling it over the soup after it has been distributed into bowls.
and, a variation of the above calls for replacing the olive oil with a smaller amount of sesame oil, while adding thai red curry to the broth - then, just before puréeing, one could add coconut milk, while later using cilantro (coriander) and vietnamese chili sauce as a garnish.
Public Domain Book: The history of magic : including a clear and precise exposition of its procedure, its rites and its mysteries
by Lévi, Eliphas, 1810-1875
Published 1922
Heaven & Earth
1818-J-I Todds Lane, Todd Center, Hampton, VA
This location opened in 2009 and was originally located here.
Space J was originally JoAnn's Video, which opened in 1989. It became Audiophonics in the mid 1990s and Precise Auto Sounds in the mid 2000s.
Space I was originally Anthony's Cleaners, which opened in the late 1980s. It became a Wellworth Cleaners in March 1995, which was originally located here. It closed in the mid 2000s.
I had witnessed a Shikra (Accipiter badius, also known as Little Banded Goshawk) hunting a tiny White-Rumped Munia (Lonchura striata, also known as White-Rumped Mannikin) on 16-Jan-16 in Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary. It had influenced me with surprise, shock, sadness and of course awe. The emotional concoction has come out as a 16-line Tamil Venbaa verse!
This is what happened (especially for those who do not know to read Tamil): While shooting for birds in a paddy field in Vedanthangal, was surprised to see about 5 White-Rumped Munias chirping happily around me in a thorny bush about 3 to 4 feet away from me. In fact, a couple even did come close to my hand's length. I started to wonder how did they trust me so much.
Just then, all of these munias took off and flew towards western direction. Just then, a Shikra attacked it from south in an almost 90-degree tangent to their flight path. Shikra did hit one of the 5 munias that were quick enough to maneuver and change the path. Was witnessing all this that happened in a matter of second while standing in the paddy field path.
The bird that was hit fell down in the paddy field and was flapping its wet wings. The field was filled with water for growing paddy crops, which were laid out in neat rows and were strutting out of water like short grasses (about a feet tall). Instinctively, I moved and tried to enter into the damp paddy field to save the possibly wounded bird.
However, in the next second or so, the shikra did a wonderful U-turn in mid-air and swooped down on to the struggling bird, picked it in its talons and flew to another path between the fields, which was about 30 meters from the spot where I was standing. Perhaps it was catching its breath. After all, shikra is a falcon and these raptors are cheetahs amongst birds, but many times faster and more efficient! After about half a minute, the pale colored shikra took off with the dark colored prey in its talons.
A blast from the past, 1997, 7th July to be precise.
When Burton steel terminal was going strong, the daily train (6E58) was sometimes supplemented by an additional. Here a pair of rather rare Canton 'sandite' 37's shunt the loads across to the West Yard at Wetmore. 37263 & 254 are the loco's.
When was the world's first railway laid? No one is quite confident on a precise date but simple rails have been used to guide vehicles for centuries, definitely as far back as the middle ages and possibly even in ancient Greece.
What is certain is that in the early 1600s a Nottinghamshire businessman called Huntingdon Beaumont came to Northumberland and laid rails from collieries near Blyth to a shipping point on the coast.
His waggonway used horses hauling wooden waggons on wooden wheels on wooden rails, however this was not a financial success. It did though provide the spark of progression from primitive wooden rails over short distances, to a railway network which would change Britain and the world forever.
Tyneside Roads
From the mid 1600 onwards waggonways and the Tyneside coal industry became linked so closely that they were known throughout the rest of Britain as 'Tyneside Roads'. A network of lines linked collieries on both sides of the Tyne to the river.
It is no coincidence that the North East was the area where waggonways took greatest hold, because canal building was impossible due to deep valleys and steep hills. What set the rail systems of Tyneside apart from all others was its use of the flanged wheel - a key element of the modern railway as we know it.
A revelation
When the Tanfield Railway - or waggonway as it was known at the time - was built in 1725, it was a revelation. Its massive engineering was unlike anything else in its era, or even since the Roman Empire. It was a triumph of engineering over nature, a clear signal that a new industrial age was upon the world, and that railways would play a massive part.
First laid down more than a quarter of a century before the first railway officially sanctioned by government, over 75 years before the first steam locomotive and a whole 100 years earlier than the Stockton and Darlington Railway, the Tanfield Railway is the world's oldest railway. We will be the first railway to celebrate our tricentenary in 2025.
For more details on the COR Precise visit: www.corwheels.com/precise/
View our entire Lamborghini gallery at:
Public Domain Book: The history of magic : including a clear and precise exposition of its procedure, its rites and its mysteries
by Lévi, Eliphas, 1810-1875
Published 1922
Coalpit Heath is a village in South Gloucestershire, lying south of Yate and immediately beside Frampton Cotterell. Today it is largely a residential and commuter settlement, yet its appearance gives only a faint impression of the industrial landscape that shaped it. For several centuries the district was one of the important coal-mining areas of the Bristol Coalfield. The village grew around pits, shafts, spoil heaps, drainage works, miners' cottages, workshops, chapels, inns and transport routes. Its history is therefore unusually closely connected with the history of coal mining in the Bristol region.
The name Coalpit Heath itself describes the landscape from which the settlement developed. It was not an ancient village in the same sense as nearby Westerleigh or Frampton Cotterell. The area appears to have been predominantly heath, fields and scattered agricultural holdings before coal extraction transformed it. The modern village emerged gradually as mining created employment and attracted workers, while older agricultural hamlets such as Ram Hill and Henfield became increasingly incorporated into the industrial community.
The surrounding district has a much older history than the name Coalpit Heath suggests. Westerleigh was recorded in Anglo-Saxon times and appears in the Domesday survey of 1086. Frampton Cotterell was also an established medieval settlement beside the River Frome. Medieval settlement, agriculture, mills and woodland therefore existed around the future Coalpit Heath before intensive mining began. The precise beginnings of coal working in the immediate Coalpit Heath area are difficult to establish, since early mining was often small-scale and poorly documented. The wider Bristol Coalfield was being worked by the Middle Ages, and coal extraction in the Coalpit Heath district was certainly established by the seventeenth century.
A particularly valuable record survives from 5 November 1691, when a formal perambulation was made of the coal mines of Westerleigh parish. The document describes workings on the Great Vein in Coalpit Heath and gives depths and lengths of underground workings. One working was recorded as five fathoms deep and extending for a hundred yards, while another reached eight fathoms. Such measurements demonstrate that mining was already an organised and substantial activity by the end of the seventeenth century. The surviving landscape, including spoil heaps, shafts, field boundaries and old trackways, confirms that mining was widespread rather than confined to one isolated pit.
Coal was initially obtained by relatively simple methods. Where seams approached the surface, miners could exploit them through shallow pits, day-holes and adits. Bell pits were particularly characteristic of the earlier industry. A shaft was sunk to reach the coal, the coal around the bottom was extracted, and the pit was eventually abandoned when the workings became unsafe or the coal became inaccessible. Numerous small pits could therefore appear across the landscape, leaving mounds, hollows and disturbed ground behind them. Archaeological traces of these early workings have survived in fields around Coalpit Heath and were discovered in considerable numbers when later land was developed.
The industry changed fundamentally during the eighteenth century. The great problem confronting coal miners was water. Shallow pits could be drained relatively easily, whereas deeper workings rapidly became flooded. The introduction of steam-powered pumping engines transformed what was possible. Newcomen's atmospheric engine, introduced into mining during the early eighteenth century, allowed water to be pumped from deeper workings. Steam power gradually made it possible to exploit seams that had previously been beyond the reach of local miners.
Coalpit Heath entered this new phase during the eighteenth century. Engines were established at several local pits, including the workings around Ram Hill and Serridge. The coalfield became increasingly organised, with interconnected workings, pumping arrangements, drainage adits and larger shafts replacing the scattered pattern of earlier small pits.
The ownership of the mines was closely connected with the local landed interests. The Lords of the Manor of Westerleigh acquired or controlled extensive mineral rights, while mining companies and entrepreneurs undertook the actual working of the pits. The Smyth family became particularly important in the history of the Coalpit Heath mines. Sir Samuel Astry, Lord of the Manor of Westerleigh, was associated with more intensive mining from around the late seventeenth century, and later members of the Smyth family continued to have important interests in the coal industry.
Coalpit Heath was therefore never simply a collection of independent miners digging isolated holes in the ground. By the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it had become a complex industrial enterprise involving landowners, coal companies, managers, engineers, miners, hauliers, blacksmiths, timber suppliers, contractors, railway workers and merchants. The industry also generated its own institutions and social structures.
The principal coal-bearing geological structure beneath the district was the Coalpit Heath syncline, intersected by major geological faults. The Coalpit Heath Fault ran roughly north to south through the district, profoundly influencing the depth and accessibility of the coal seams. The principal seams included the High Vein, Hard Vein and Hollybush or Top Vein. Their thickness and quality varied considerably from one part of the coalfield to another. The geological structure explains why some pits prospered while others became uneconomic or encountered serious difficulties.
By the beginning of the nineteenth century the district contained numerous workings. Ram Hill, Henfield, Serridge, Churchleaze, Orchard, New Engine, Mayshill and other pits formed a network of extraction sites. Some were primarily concerned with coal production, while others became important for pumping, ventilation or transporting coal from interconnected underground workings.
Ram Hill became one of the best-preserved examples of this industrial landscape. The Ram Hill Colliery was developed in the early nineteenth century by the Coalpit Heath Colliery Company. Its shaft eventually reached roughly 580 feet, or about 177 metres, and the pit worked the High, Hard and Hollybush seams. The early workings were operated with a horse gin, in which a horse walked around a circular track to turn a winding drum. Steam power was later introduced, allowing deeper and more efficient working.
The surviving remains at Ram Hill are especially important because they show the transition between older horse-powered technology and steam-powered mining. The site retains the remains of the shaft, horse gin, engine house, boiler house, reservoir, coal-loading arrangements and the terminus of the old tramway. These features make it one of the most significant surviving examples of an early nineteenth-century colliery in the Bristol Coalfield.
Transport was the other great problem confronting the Coalpit Heath mines. Coal was valuable only if it could be moved cheaply to market. The local roads were inadequate for moving large quantities of coal, while horse-drawn carts were expensive and slow. The answer was the construction of specially designed horse railways.
The most famous of these was the Dramway. Parliamentary authority was obtained in 1828 for a horse-drawn railway connecting the Coalpit Heath collieries with the River Avon. The line was constructed during the early 1830s and was in use by 1832. Ram Hill formed its northern terminus, with branches serving other pits including New Engine at Henfield.
The Dramway was carefully engineered to exploit the natural gradient. Loaded wagons travelled downhill from the mines towards the River Avon, while horses hauled the empty wagons back uphill. Coal could thereby be carried to wharves near Keynsham and Bristol, where it could be transferred to river transport and taken onwards to Bristol, Bath and other markets.
The term “dramway” derives from the small coal wagons or drams used on the line. The route was a significant technological achievement for its time. Its surviving trackbed, cuttings, embankments and stone sleeper blocks are among the most tangible reminders of Coalpit Heath's industrial past.
The arrival of steam railways soon altered the transport system again. The Bristol and Gloucester Railway reached the district in the 1840s, and the old horse-drawn railway system was affected by the conversion of routes to steam operation and by changing railway ownership. The Coalpit Heath collieries remained connected to the railway network through branch lines and sidings, although parts of the original Dramway survived in use for considerably longer than the first generation of steam railway might suggest.
The railway brought mixed consequences. It gave local coal producers improved access to markets, yet it also allowed coal from other coalfields to enter Bristol and compete with locally produced fuel. The Bristol Coalfield therefore gained a better transport network while simultaneously losing some of the protective advantage created by its proximity to Bristol.
The 1830s and 1840s were a particularly important period in Coalpit Heath. Mining had created a sizeable population, and the settlement was becoming sufficiently large to require its own religious, educational and social institutions. Coalpit Heath's miners worked long hours, often beginning work at a very young age, and the community had a reputation for poverty, limited formal education and difficult working conditions.
Evidence from the 1841 parliamentary investigation into children's employment in mines provides an unusually vivid picture of working life. John Cook, the underground manager of the Coalpit Heath workings, described miners who had entered the industry as children. Boys worked underground and on the surface, hauling coal and performing other physically demanding tasks. Some young workers could read because of Sunday-school education, although very few could write. Families often lived from week to week, with little opportunity to save.
The same evidence illustrates the physical demands placed upon miners. Coal was hauled using girdles or belts, sometimes involving heavy loads and steep underground gradients. Adult miners could suffer nosebleeds and other physical effects from the strain. The testimony also reveals the limited wages and insecurity of employment during periods when demand for coal fell.
Mining accidents were a familiar part of community life. The Ring O' Bells public house became associated with the local mining industry and served as a venue for coroners' proceedings following deaths in the pits. The presence of miners' burial clubs and benefit societies reflects the extent to which workers had to provide collectively for sickness, injury, death and funeral expenses.
Religion played an important role in changing social conditions. Methodist preaching had become influential across the Bristol Coalfield during the eighteenth century. John Wesley, Charles Wesley and George Whitefield preached in the wider district, attracting large audiences among mining communities. Coalpit Heath and the neighbouring settlements developed strong nonconformist traditions, with Methodist and Congregational congregations providing both religious and social institutions.
The development of churches and chapels also reflected the growing population. Coalpit Heath was inconveniently situated for miners who were expected to attend the older parish churches of Westerleigh and Frampton Cotterell. Long working hours made attendance difficult, particularly for men returning from the pits.
In 1845 Coalpit Heath became an ecclesiastical parish formed from parts of Westerleigh and Frampton Cotterell. This was a major landmark in the development of the settlement. St Saviour's Church was built in 1844–45 and consecrated on 9 October 1845. It was designed by William Butterfield and was his first Anglican church commission. Butterfield subsequently became one of the most influential Victorian architects, making St Saviour's an important building far beyond the local context.
The church was built primarily to serve the growing population of Coalpit Heath and Nibley. Its Early English character, local limestone construction, Bath stone dressings and distinctive Butterfield details give it a strong architectural presence on Badminton Road. The associated vicarage was also designed by Butterfield. The church was intended as more than a place of worship: it represented the establishment of a permanent institutional centre for a rapidly growing industrial community.
The religious census of 1851 provides an intriguing glimpse of the early congregation. The church had seating for about 500 people, yet attendance could vary substantially. Winter attendance was affected by dampness and the absence of adequate heating, while summer attendance was considerably stronger. Sunday-school attendance was also significant, demonstrating the importance of religious education within the community.
Education expanded alongside religious provision. A British school was established in the neighbouring Frampton Cotterell area in 1846, while church-based education developed elsewhere. The Manor School at Coalpit Heath was opened on 1 July 1868. It was built through the patronage of the Lords of the Manor and provided education for local children. The original nineteenth-century school building survives as the Manor Hall, giving Coalpit Heath an unusually direct link with its Victorian educational history.
Nonconformist chapels formed another important part of the social landscape. Bethel Chapel was established in 1851 by people who had separated from the Wesleyan congregation. Other Methodist chapels followed, including Hebron, associated with Primitive Methodism. Zion Congregational Chapel also became an important institution in the wider Frampton Cotterell and Coalpit Heath community. During the twentieth century several congregations eventually united, reflecting the decline and consolidation of some older denominations.
Coalpit Heath's industrial character was also reflected in its public houses. The Ring O' Bells had particularly strong associations with the mining community. It functioned as a social centre, a meeting place and a venue connected with the practical administration of the mining industry. The number of inns and public houses in the combined villages was once considerably greater than it is today.
The industrial landscape reached its nineteenth-century maturity through a combination of deeper mining, steam power, improved drainage and better transport. New Engine at Henfield became an important centre of the Coalpit Heath Coal Company. It contained workshops, cottages for key employees, railway sidings and engineering facilities. The surviving engine house and horse-gin remains give an indication of the scale of the complex.
Serridge was another important mining centre. The Serridge Engine was associated with the pumping of water from the workings, while Serridge House became the home of the Hewitt family. William Hewitt served as manager and bailiff to the Lords of the Manor and played an important part in the development of St Saviour's Church. His son Henry was a farmer and deputy manager of the Coalpit Heath Coal Company.
The underground workings were closely interconnected. Pits that appear separate on the surface could be linked below ground, with shafts serving different functions for winding, ventilation and pumping. This interdependence became increasingly important as the workings deepened. Water drainage was a constant concern, and drainage tunnels or adits were driven through the surrounding countryside to carry mine water towards the River Frome.
Coalpit Heath's landscape therefore contained a second, largely invisible landscape underground. Shafts, roadways, drainage levels, ventilation connections and worked seams extended beneath fields and roads. Modern development has removed or concealed many surface features, while the underground network continues to explain why some areas were historically unsuitable for heavy construction.
Frog Lane became the final major colliery in Coalpit Heath. Two deep shafts were sunk there in the early 1850s. The winding shaft reached approximately 220 yards and the pumping shaft about 230 yards. The colliery worked the High and Hard seams, while geological difficulties prevented effective exploitation of the Hollybush seam. Production eventually reached roughly 3,500 tons of coal a month.
Frog Lane was technologically different from the earlier small pits. It was a deep, industrial colliery with substantial winding, pumping, ventilation and railway arrangements. Its workforce included hundreds of people. The colliery was closely connected underground with neighbouring workings and had its own branch railway.
By the late nineteenth century the Bristol Coalfield was reaching its greatest extent. Coalpit Heath remained an important mining community, although the industry was beginning to face increasing competition and geological limitations. A government mining return records the Coalpit Heath Colliery with 344 employees in 1894, rising to more than 400 around 1900. The workforce remained in the hundreds during the early twentieth century.
The surviving records demonstrate that the colliery was a substantial employer rather than a small local pit. In 1900 more than 400 people were associated with the Coalpit Heath Colliery, with the great majority working underground. Production included coal for gas, household use and steam.
The turn of the twentieth century brought another major railway transformation. The Great Western Railway constructed the new direct route between London and South Wales, often known locally as the Badminton or Wootton Bassett Link. The line was completed through the Coalpit Heath area in 1902. Its purpose was to shorten the route between London and South Wales by avoiding the older route through Bath and Bristol.
Construction was complicated by the extensive old mine workings beneath the district. The original proposal envisaged a much more substantial viaduct, yet the presence of underground workings made foundations difficult. The final railway was consequently constructed largely on an embankment, with only a small number of arches. The railway remains one of the most conspicuous pieces of infrastructure in the modern landscape.
Coalpit Heath railway station opened on 1 July 1903. The station served both the local population and the surrounding industrial area. Goods facilities were particularly important because the railway provided direct connections for coal and other freight. Railway cottages were constructed for employees such as signalmen and other key workers.
The station survived for nearly six decades. Passenger and goods services ended on 3 April 1961, during the period of railway rationalisation associated with the Beeching era. The disappearance of the station removed an important physical connection between Coalpit Heath and the national railway system, although the main railway line itself continued to pass through the district.
The early twentieth century was also a period when the mining community developed a stronger collective identity. Trade unionism became increasingly important. Coal mining was no longer simply a traditional local occupation; miners were part of a national industrial workforce increasingly organised around wages, working conditions and collective bargaining.
A colliery strike took place at Coalpit Heath in 1921. The strike had an unexpected cultural consequence. Several striking miners were among the founders of what became the Frampton Cotterell Male Voice Choir. The choir's origins therefore lie partly in the industrial and political life of the Coalpit Heath mining community.
The Miners' Institute opened in 1927. It was intended to improve the welfare of miners and their families and became an important community building. Its construction was financed through contributions from the miners and the colliery company. The building survived the disappearance of the mining industry and continued to function as a community venue long after the pits had closed.
The First World War had a profound effect on Coalpit Heath, as it did on mining communities throughout Britain. The war memorial at St Saviour's commemorates sixteen men who died in the First World War. A further seventeen names commemorate those who died during the Second World War. The memorial provides a permanent reminder that the village's history was not solely industrial: families whose livelihoods were connected with mining also experienced the enormous human cost of the two world wars.
Coalpit Heath entered the interwar period still dependent on coal, yet the long-term decline of the Bristol Coalfield was becoming increasingly apparent. The great expansion of coal production elsewhere in Britain, changing industrial demand, competition from other fuels and the geological limitations of the local seams all affected the district.
The Coalpit Heath Colliery continued to employ hundreds of people during the 1920s and 1930s. Employment remained substantial even as other South Gloucestershire collieries closed. By 1933 and 1937 the workforce was still around 349 people. The number declined during the difficult years surrounding the Second World War, although the colliery remained an important local employer.
Nationalisation transformed the ownership of the industry in 1947. The Coalpit Heath Colliery passed into the control of the National Coal Board. Nationalisation, however, could not reverse the geological and economic problems facing the pit.
Frog Lane Colliery finally closed in 1949. The closure is generally regarded as the end of deep coal mining at Coalpit Heath and the end of the village's traditional identity as a mining settlement. The precise reason for closure is more complicated than the often-repeated statement that the coal simply “ran out”. The remaining seams were increasingly difficult and expensive to work, while the interconnected workings created serious drainage problems. The closure of other pits and pumping facilities elsewhere in the Bristol Coalfield contributed to rising water levels. The remaining economically workable coal was insufficient to justify continuing the operation.
A date of 1963 is sometimes given for the final closure of a coal mine in the wider South Gloucestershire or Bristol area. That date relates to the later Harry Stoke drift-mine operation and should not normally be used as the closure date of Frog Lane. For Coalpit Heath itself, 1949 is the significant date: it marks the end of the deep mining industry that had created the village.
The closure changed Coalpit Heath more profoundly than almost any earlier event. A community that had been structured around the rhythm of the pits suddenly lost its principal industry. Men who had spent their working lives underground had to find employment elsewhere. Some moved away, while others travelled to jobs in Bristol, Yate and other industrial areas.
The physical mining landscape gradually disappeared. Shafts were filled or sealed, railway branches were dismantled, buildings were demolished or converted, and spoil heaps were levelled or absorbed into the countryside. Some evidence remained because the scale of the industry was too great to erase completely. Field contours, old tracks, drainage features, cottages, engine houses, railway embankments and isolated spoil heaps still reveal the former industrial landscape.
Bitterwell Lake is another surviving feature associated with the mining era. The origins of the lake are connected with the industrial landscape, and it was subsequently acquired and presented to the parish in 1930 by George Newman. It became a recreational and fishing amenity and illustrates the way former industrial land could acquire a new community purpose.
The post-war period saw Coalpit Heath gradually change from an industrial village into a residential settlement. Agriculture remained important, particularly on the surrounding farms, yet the economic centre of gravity shifted increasingly towards Bristol, Yate and the expanding employment areas of South Gloucestershire.
The transformation became especially rapid from the 1960s onwards. Housing estates were constructed on land that had previously been fields, orchards and farmland. Older cottages disappeared in places, while open spaces between the previously separate settlements were progressively filled. Coalpit Heath, Frampton Cotterell, Henfield and other neighbouring settlements became increasingly difficult to distinguish from one another physically.
The architectural character of the modern village consequently differs markedly from that of the nineteenth-century mining settlement. Earlier houses were generally constructed from local stone, with steep roofs, simple elevations and cottages arranged along established roads. Much twentieth-century housing was built in larger estates of standardised designs, creating a very different pattern of streets, closes and cul-de-sacs.
This process accelerated in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Housing development extended into former agricultural land, particularly around the edges of Coalpit Heath and Frampton Cotterell. The growth of Bristol, Filton, Yate and surrounding business areas reinforced the village's role as a commuter settlement.
The disappearance of mining did not mean the disappearance of the community's industrial identity. Interest in the mining past grew considerably during the late twentieth century. Local historians, archaeologists, residents and the South Gloucestershire Mines Research Group began documenting surviving features and collecting memories from former miners and their families.
Ram Hill became the most important surviving physical representation of the old mining industry. Its archaeological remains were recognised as nationally significant and protected as a scheduled monument. Conservation work has helped reveal the layout of the colliery and the relationship between the shaft, horse gin, engine house and Dramway.
The Dramway has similarly acquired a new life as a heritage landscape. Sections of the former horse railway survive as paths and tracks, with stone sleeper blocks still visible in places. What was once a working industrial transport system is now an important means of understanding how coal moved from the pits to the wider world.
Frog Lane is less visually dramatic because much of the colliery has disappeared, yet it remains central to the history of Coalpit Heath. The surviving buildings, former railway route and associated cottages provide clues to the scale of the final phase of mining. Oral histories collected from former workers and residents have added a human dimension that archaeological remains alone cannot provide.
Coalpit Heath also has a significant literary association. Children's author Dick King-Smith lived at Woodlands Farm in Coalpit Heath from the late 1940s into the early 1960s. He farmed there with his family, keeping cattle, pigs, poultry and other animals. His experience of rural life contributed to the animal stories for which he later became famous. Coalpit Heath and the surrounding countryside are commonly associated with the inspiration for aspects of his writing, particularly The Sheep-Pig, which was later adapted for the cinema as Babe.
The literary connection is particularly appropriate because it reflects the transformation of the district. The same landscape that had once been dominated by coal shafts and mining infrastructure had become, within a generation, a setting of farms, fields, animals and suburban homes. The industrial and agricultural identities of Coalpit Heath therefore overlapped rather than simply replacing one another.
The preservation of older buildings has also become increasingly important. St Saviour's Church remains the principal architectural monument of the nineteenth-century settlement. The old Manor School, now used as the Manor Hall, survives as a community building. Former mining cottages, workers' houses, the Ring O' Bells, the old engine-house remains at New Engine and other scattered structures preserve fragments of the industrial village.
The railway remains an equally powerful reminder of the area's transformation. The 1902 main line still crosses the landscape, although Coalpit Heath station disappeared in 1961. Railway cottages and remnants of former sidings survive in places, while the old colliery branch lines have largely become footpaths, field boundaries or otherwise inconspicuous traces.
The modern village also retains institutions whose origins lie in the mining period. The Miners' Institute continues to serve community purposes. St Saviour's continues to function as a parish church. The Manor Hall remains connected with local education and community life. The former mining landscape has become the setting for recreation, conservation, sport and housing.
The boundaries of Coalpit Heath have become less distinct as the village expanded. Historically, the area was divided between ancient parishes, particularly Westerleigh and Frampton Cotterell. The ecclesiastical parish created in 1845 was an important step towards recognising Coalpit Heath as a community in its own right. Modern administrative boundaries do not precisely correspond with the historical settlement.
In 2023 the civil parish formerly known as Westerleigh was renamed Westerleigh and Coalpit Heath. The parish now encompasses Westerleigh and Coalpit Heath as well as the associated hamlets of Mayshill, Nibley, Henfield, Ram Hill, Oakleigh Green and Kendleshire. This modern administrative arrangement reflects the importance Coalpit Heath has acquired within the wider community.
Coalpit Heath's history can therefore be understood as a sequence of overlapping landscapes rather than as a simple story of a village appearing, prospering and declining. The first landscape was agricultural and wooded, connected to the medieval communities of Westerleigh and Frampton Cotterell. The second was the landscape of early coal extraction, when shallow pits and small workings appeared across the heath and fields. The third was the industrial landscape of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, dominated by steam engines, deep shafts, drainage systems, miners' cottages and the Dramway. The fourth was the railway landscape of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when coal could be moved more efficiently and the settlement became connected to national transport networks. The fifth was the mature mining community of the early twentieth century, with its churches, chapels, schools, clubs, unions, institute and strong collective identity. The sixth was the post-1949 landscape, in which the mines disappeared and the village became increasingly residential. The present landscape is a seventh phase, combining suburban housing, surviving farms, heritage sites, railway infrastructure and fragments of the old mining environment.
The most remarkable feature of Coalpit Heath is therefore the amount of history that remains hidden beneath an apparently ordinary modern village. The roads, houses and fields conceal hundreds of years of mining activity. Old shafts lie beneath or beside later development. Former railway routes survive as paths. Spoil heaps have become subtle undulations in fields. Drainage tunnels remain underground. Historic houses that now appear purely domestic once accommodated mining managers, colliery officials or workers. The names Ram Hill, Henfield, Frog Lane, New Engine, Serridge and Churchleaze preserve the geography of an industrial world that has otherwise largely disappeared.
Coalpit Heath was created by coal, sustained by coal and ultimately transformed by the disappearance of coal. Its importance lies not merely in the number of pits that once operated there, but in the way mining affected almost every aspect of local life. It determined where people lived, how they travelled, what they earned, where they worshipped, where their children were educated, where accidents were investigated, how workers organised themselves and how the surrounding countryside was shaped.
The survival of Ram Hill and sections of the Dramway gives the modern village an unusually tangible connection with the early Industrial Revolution. St Saviour's Church preserves the architectural ambitions of the growing Victorian community. The Manor Hall preserves the educational ambitions of the nineteenth-century settlement. The Miners' Institute represents the collective culture of the twentieth-century workforce. The war memorial records the human cost paid by the community beyond the coalfield. Woodlands Farm and the association with Dick King-Smith represent the later transition towards a more rural and residential identity.
Coalpit Heath today is consequently much more than a modern suburb north-east of Bristol. It is the surviving centre of a former mining district whose history stretches from early coal working and the agricultural landscape of the medieval period through the technological revolutions of steam power and rail transport to the social and economic transformations of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The village's present character makes sense only when viewed against that long history.
The name Coalpit Heath remains the simplest summary of the story. What began as a heath where coal could be found became a major local industrial community, then a railway-connected mining village, then a post-industrial settlement. The coal pits have gone, the station has gone, most of the industrial buildings have gone, and much of the old landscape has been absorbed into modern development. The surviving archaeological remains, historic buildings, old roads, community institutions and memories nevertheless make it possible to reconstruct a remarkably detailed history of the people and industry that once occupied this part of South Gloucestershire.
Rolls-Royce’s automotive principles are precise and conclusive, directed to continuously build opulent vehicles that satisfy the souls of their eclectic class of wealthy owners. From American mattress distributors to Middle Eastern Princes to Japanese artists, the ideological beliefs, business savvy and success of each customer is as diverse as the convergence of people and cultures in New York City. For this reason, the British purveyor of finely-crafted machines from Goodwood, England, always reinvents itself and influences the planet with stately chariots such as the breathtaking Wraith Black Badge, which we recently experienced for a long weekend in my hometown of Silver Spring, MD.
When was the world's first railway laid? No one is quite confident on a precise date but simple rails have been used to guide vehicles for centuries, definitely as far back as the middle ages and possibly even in ancient Greece.
What is certain is that in the early 1600s a Nottinghamshire businessman called Huntingdon Beaumont came to Northumberland and laid rails from collieries near Blyth to a shipping point on the coast.
His waggonway used horses hauling wooden waggons on wooden wheels on wooden rails, however this was not a financial success. It did though provide the spark of progression from primitive wooden rails over short distances, to a railway network which would change Britain and the world forever.
Tyneside Roads
From the mid 1600 onwards waggonways and the Tyneside coal industry became linked so closely that they were known throughout the rest of Britain as 'Tyneside Roads'. A network of lines linked collieries on both sides of the Tyne to the river.
It is no coincidence that the North East was the area where waggonways took greatest hold, because canal building was impossible due to deep valleys and steep hills. What set the rail systems of Tyneside apart from all others was its use of the flanged wheel - a key element of the modern railway as we know it.
A revelation
When the Tanfield Railway - or waggonway as it was known at the time - was built in 1725, it was a revelation. Its massive engineering was unlike anything else in its era, or even since the Roman Empire. It was a triumph of engineering over nature, a clear signal that a new industrial age was upon the world, and that railways would play a massive part.
First laid down more than a quarter of a century before the first railway officially sanctioned by government, over 75 years before the first steam locomotive and a whole 100 years earlier than the Stockton and Darlington Railway, the Tanfield Railway is the world's oldest railway. We will be the first railway to celebrate our tricentenary in 2025.
Warangal Fort, in the present-day Indian state of Telangana, appears to have existed since at least the 13th century CE. Although precise dating of its construction and subsequent enhancements are uncertain, historians and archaeologists generally accept that an earlier brick-walled structure was replaced with stone by Ganapatideva, who died in 1262, and that his successors – Rudramadevi and Prataparudra II – added to its height and added gateways, square bastions and additional circular earthern walls prior to the latter's death in 1323. This places the construction towards the end of the Kakatiya period. There were later modifications between the 15th and 17th centuries, comprising principally the addition of barbicans to the four gates in the stone wall and the creation of gates in the outer earthern wall.
Remnants of the structure can be seen today near to the town of Warangal, which was the Kakatiya capital. The Archaeological Survey of India has listed the remains as a Monument of National Importance.
_____________________________
The 12th and the 13th centuries saw the emergence of the Kakatiyas. They were at first the feudatories of the Western Chalukyas of Kalyana, ruling over a small territory near Warangal. A ruler of this dynasty, Prola II, who ruled from A.D.1110 to 1158, extended his sway to the south and declared his independence. His successor Rudra (A.D.1158--1195) pushed the kingdom to the north up to the Godavari delta. He built a fort at Warangal to serve as a second capital and faced the invasions of the Yadavas of Devagiri. The next ruler Mahadeva extended the kingdom to the coastal area. In A.D.1199, Ganapati succeeded him. He was the greatest of the Kakatiyas and the first after the Satavahanas to bring the entire Telugu area under one rule. He put an end to the rule of the Velanati Cholas in A.D.1210. He forced the Telugu Cholas of Vikramasimhapura to accept his suzerainty. He established order in his vast dominion and encouraged trade.
As Ganapati Deva had no sons, his daughter Rudramba succeeded him in A.D.1262 and carried on the administration. Some generals, who did not like to be ruled by her, rebelled. She could, however, suppress the internal rebellions and external invasions with the help of loyal subordinates. The Cholas and the Yadavas suffered such set backs at her hands that they did not think of troubling her for the rest of her rule.
Prataparudra succeeded his grandmother Rudramba in A.D.1295 and ruled till A.D.1323. He pushed the western border of his kingdom up to Raichur. He introduced many administrative reforms. He divided the kingdom into 75 Nayakships, which was later adopted and developed by the Rayas of Vijayanagara. In his time the territory constituting Andhra Pradesh had the first experience of a Muslim invasion. In A.D.1303, the Delhi Sultan Ala-ud-din Khilji sent an army to plunder the kingdom. But Prataparudra defeated them at Upparapalli in Karimnagar district. In A.D. 1310, when another army under Malik Kafur invaded Warangal, Prataparudra yielded and agreed to pay a large tribute. In A.D.1318, when Ala-ud-din Khilji died, Prataparudra withheld the tribute. It provoked another invasion of the Muslims. In A.D.1321, Ghiaz-ud-din Tughlaq sent a large army under Ulugh Khan to conquer the Telugu country then called Tilling. He laid siege to Warangal, but owing to internal dissensions he called off the siege and returned to Delhi. Within a short period, he came back with a much bigger army. In spite of unpreparedness, Prataparudra fought bravely. For want of supplies, he surrendered to the enemy who sent him to Delhi as a prisoner, and he died on the way. Thus ended the Kakatiya rule, opening the gates of the Telugu land to anarchy and confusion yielding place to an alien ruler.
The Kakatiya period was rightly called the brightest period of the Telugu history. The entire Telugu speaking area was under the kings who spoke Telugu and encouraged Telugu. They established order throughout the strife torn land and the forts built by them played a dominant role in the defence of the realm. Anumakonda and Gandikota among the `giridurgas', Kandur and Narayanavanam among the `vanadurgas', Divi and Kolanu among the `jaladurgas', and Warangal and Dharanikota among the `sthaladurgas' were reckoned as the most famous strongholds in the Kakatiya period. The administration of the kingdom was organized with accent on the military.
Though Saivism continued to be the religion of the masses, intellectuals favoured revival of Vedic rituals. They sought to reconcile the Vaishnavites and the Saivites through the worship of Harihara. Arts and literature found patrons in the Kakatiyas and their feudatories.
WIKIPEDIA & WIKIMAPIA
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Public Domain Book: The history of magic : including a clear and precise exposition of its procedure, its rites and its mysteries
by Lévi, Eliphas, 1810-1875
Published 1922
english.news.cn/20221224/26f4757cfc8547759b3f4b8e641f0c91...
China Focus: Efforts made to build a barrier against COVID-19
BEIJING, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) -- As multiple regions in China have seen surging COVID-19 infections, local governments are taking swift and precise measures to prevent severe cases, protect people's health, and build a barrier against the epidemic.
These measures include providing timely medical treatment, meeting medicine needs, improving health services for the elderly and other key groups, promoting COVID-19 vaccination, and strengthening epidemic prevention and control in rural areas.
BOLSTERING MEDICAL RESOURCES
Medical institutions at all levels are optimizing procedures, expanding resources, increasing the medical workforce, as well as coordinating COVID-19 patient treatment and daily medical services.
In Shanghai, fever clinics in 145 secondary and higher-level hospitals have been asked to fully open to meet the needs of people for medical services.
The Huashan Hospital Affiliated with Fudan University in Shanghai has set up outdoor emergency and fever clinic pre-examination windows. In order to ease the pressure of receiving patients and expand its capacity, the hospital has reserved intestinal clinics as a backup in addition to the original fever clinics. Medical staff with experience in epidemic prevention and treatment have been encouraged to establish a reserve talent pool.
Hangzhou and other cities in east China's Zhejiang Province have opened internet hospitals in response to the high demand for diagnosis and treatment in fever clinics.
The Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, affiliated with Zhejiang University School of Medicine, launched a green channel for the rapid COVID-19 consultation on Dec. 9. Since then, a total of 72 experts from departments such as infection and respiratory medicine have provided 24-hour online services and more than 8,400 online consultations have been conducted so far.
The treatment of critical COVID-19 patients is one of the current priorities for medical institutions. The Xinhua Hospital affiliated with Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine has added intensive care beds for adults and children.
PROTECTING KEY GROUPS
The National Health Commission has asked grassroots medical institutions to set up ledgers for special groups such as the elderly living alone, pregnant women and patients with underlying health conditions, to ensure necessary medical services.
In the city of Xiangtan in central China's Hunan Province, the family doctor team of the Yuetang sub-district's community health service center provides home medical services for the elderly with underlying diseases or other vulnerable groups in need.
After China optimized the epidemic prevention and control response, the residential communities shifted their focus to guarantee medical treatment services and provide health investigation, drug delivery and other services for residents.
At the community health service center of Dapuqiao sub-district in Shanghai's Huangpu District, family doctor Wu Shuyao was seen carefully assessing the health status of residents, paying special attention to the elderly over 80 years old, patients with chronic diseases, hemodialysis patients, cancer patients and pregnant women. Wu provides them with medical guidance via telephone and video.
The Yongsheng Community in Kuancheng District, the northeastern Chinese city of Changchun, has set up a volunteer service team to meet the residents' demand for the distribution of medicines, daily necessities, and other materials.
In Pingguoyuan sub-district of Beijing's Shijingshan District, a team, consisting of five to six community workers and medical staff, provides door-to-door vaccination services for the elderly every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday afternoon.
ENHANCING HEALTH SERVICES IN RURAL AREAS
Grassroots governments are improving health services in view of the relative shortage of health resources in rural areas and the increase in population mobility and the return of migrant workers during the upcoming New Year and Spring Festival holidays.
The Linxiang municipal health commission in Hunan Province, together with local medical institutions, compiled the guidelines for epidemic prevention and health awareness manuals and distributed them to villagers. Family doctors have been creating awareness among villagers about the correct use of medicines.
The health center in Tandu Township, Linxiang, has set up a fever clinic with medical staff on duty 24 hours a day. The fever clinic has seen dozens of patients every day, with three doctors taking turns on duty. A batch of emergency medicines, including antipyretics, are also available in the fever clinic.
In the city of Jiaozhou, east China's Shandong Province, the municipal health commission has set up 536 community medical points and organized 446 medical personnel and volunteers to provide medical services to villages. There are at least two medical personnel in each village clinic and medical point offering 24-hour medical services such as consultation, medicine dispense, and patient transfer for key groups.
Ye Shanyu, an attending physician of the central health center of Jiaodong sub-district in Jiaozhou, distributed health kits to residents in Damawan Sancun Village. "Many villagers are concerned about the correct use of medicines. After my explanation, the people's concern subsided," Ye said. ■
newsus.cgtn.com/news/2022-12-24/A-tale-of-two-COVID-respo...
A tale of two COVID responses
COVID-19 has impacted both countries again in 2022. Both China and the U.S. have relaxed their COVID-19 prevention and control measures. But while the U.S. relaxed its mandates early, relying on herd immunity to take hold, China waited and didn't lift restrictions until it was clear that the now dominant Omicron variant was less lethal. The hope is to avoid the mass numbers of deaths that other countries have experienced.
With the recent lifting of measures in China, the number of infections will rise, and China will face the same challenges that other nations have seen. Here's what I've seen in both countries that have been similar:
As the number of infections increase, people are staying home. Right now in China, the streets of major cities are deserted, not unlike the streets of New York and Washington D.C. in 2020.
China is bracing for impacts to medicine and medical supplies just as supply chains in many countries were impacted by COVID spikes with the illness hitting the delivery sector hard, preventing many from working and causing holdups in the chain.
Those who can't go to work as they have before must deal with income shortages. On a micro level, many worry about making ends meet. On a macro level, national economies will face years of recovery. In 2020, the collective gross domestic product of the world fell by 3.4 percent due to the pandemic, according to the U.S. OECD.
But here is how China and the U.S. differ:
Chinese people have continuously worn masks throughout the pandemic to minimize the chance of infection. By contrast, people in many other countries stopped wearing masks and resumed pre-pandemic activities.In the United States, the CDC initially told people not to wear masks, hoping to save supplies for medical personnel, and then changing course to say that people should wear masks.
Chinese leadership have also consistently emphasized the importance of virus prevention, while former U.S. President Donald Trump spent months downplaying the seriousness of COVID-19, and even suggesting that disinfectant could treat the illness.
In the U.S. this haphazard response during a period of a more deadly variant resulted in more than one million deaths and severely impacted the healthcare system.
In 2021, there were at least 30 strikes by healthcare workers in the U.S., according to Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations. More than half a million healthcare workers quit their jobs in August 2021, the most in a single month in 20 years.
Since public services, such as the medical sector, is publicly-owned in China, there will be no strikes of medical staff that have occurred in other countries.
Due to effective measures against the pandemic over the past three years, the case fatality rate remained a low one of .31 percent over the three years of the pandemic in China. Across the globe, that rate was 1.03 percent, according to the World Health Organization.
As it faces its next challenges with an easing of restrictions China is working to mange the outbreaks and reshuffle resources to better address needs. Fever clinics have been set up, as have quarantine outpatient services for positive cases and special areas for more severe cases.
Government agencies and the pharmaceutical industry are also stepping up efforts to secure production and distribution, including sending additional personnel to factories to ensure sufficient supplies.
China's prudent policies has allowed it to save lives, and learn from the mistakes of other nations to better cope and handle what may come.
CGTN reporter Han Peng was stationed in the United States at the beginning of 2019 and returned to China in December. In this editorial, he shares his views as he compares similarities and differences in COVID-19 and the government response in both countries.
Epipogium aphyllum Sw., syn.: Satyrium epipogium L.
Ghost orchid, DE: Blattlose Widerbart
Slo.: brezlistni nadbradec
Dat.: Aug. 1. 2016
Lat.: 46.41 Long.: 13.75 (coordinates are not precise)
Code: Bot_994/2016_DSC4325
Habitat: steep mountain slope, southwest aspect, mixed Fagus sylvatica and Picea abies wood, under beeches; associated with Yellow bird's-nest (Hypopitys monotropa), Yellow coralroot (Corallorhiza trifida), Red Helleborine (Cephalanthera rubra) and Broad-leaved helleborine (Epipactis helleborine aggr), in shade, calcareous ground, on places with little or no ground vegetation, partly protected from direct rain by tree canopies, average precipitations ~3.000 mm/year, average temperature 2-4 deg C, elevation approximately 1.200 m (4.000 feet), alpine phytogeographical region.
Substratum: loose hummus soil.
Place: Trenta valley, near Vršič pass road, southwest slopes of Mt. Prisank, 2.547 m (8.357 feet), East Julian Alps, Posočje, Slovenia EC.
Comment: It is always a happy event to see this legendary rare, mysterious and highly endangered wild orchid. This is particularly so, because even if one knows exactly where and when to search for it, it doesn't appear every year. Sometimes, searching can be of no avail for several consecutive years. I've been following its occurrence at these two sites for eight years now. The best blooming occurred in 2008 and much weaker in 2011. Next years there was nothing to see. In 2015 I found 16 plants in bloom and in this year there were about the same number at the first spot and only a single plant on the second spot. However, several have just protruded the ground surface and it seems possible that some more will appear in the next days.
This achlorophyllous (having no chlorophyll), mycoheterotrophic (getting at least some part of its food from parasitism upon fungi) (not saprophytes! as frequently stated, see: Ref.:8), Euro-Asiatic plant, mostly living underground, has disappeared already from many places in Europe. O. Sebald et al. (1998) reports about a place in Baden-Württemberg, DE, which has been occasionally monitoring now for almost 80 years. Sources from 1935 talk about "thousands of blooming plants". The place was extensively studied again in 1996. Population found counted only 18 blooming plants. Drawings of the plants from 1935 show large groups of plants with up to 15 flowers per stem. In 1996 ten of 18 plants found had only a single flower and the highest number of flowers found was three - on a single plant. The main reason for this drastic decline seems to be nitrogenized soil through polluted air. Obviously no local protection means can help against polluted air.
Protected by Uredba o zavarovanih prosto živečih rastlinskih vrstah, poglavje A, Uradni list RS, št. 46/2004 (Regulation of protected wild plants, chapter A, Official Gazette of Republic Slovenia, no. 46/2004), (2004). Pravilnik o uvrstitvi ogroženih rastlinskih in živalskih vrst v rdeči seznam, Uradni list RS, št. 82/2002 (Regulation of enlisting of endangered plant and animal species onto Red List, Official Gazette of Republic Slovenia, no. 82/2002) (2002) marked by "E" representing a critically endangered species.
Ref.:
(1) M.A. Fischer, W. Adler, K. Oswald, Exkursionsflora für Österreich, Liechtenstein und Südtirol, LO Landesmuseen, Linz, Austria (2005), p 1049.
(2) B.Dolinar, Kukavičevke v Sloveniji (Orchidaceae of Slovenia) (in Slovenian), Pipinova Knjiga, (2015), p 85.
(3) A.Martinči et all., Mala Flora Slovenije, Tehnična Založba Slovenije (2007) (in Slovene), p 668.
(4) O. Sebald, S. Seybold, G. Philippi, A. Wöerz, Die Farn- und Blütenpflanzen Baden-Württembergs, Ulmer, Band 8. (1998), p 318.
(5) H. Baumann, S. Kuenkele, R.Lorenz, Orchideen Europas, Ulmer (2006), p 100.
(6) H. Kretzschmar, Die Orchideen Deutschlands und angrenzenden Lander, Quelle Meyer (2008), p 144.
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Kathakali (Malayalam: കഥകളി, kathakaḷi; Sanskrit: कथाकळिः, kathākaḷiḥ) is a stylized classical Indian dance-drama noted for the attractive make-up of characters, elaborate costumes, detailed gestures and well-defined body movements presented in tune with the anchor playback music and complementary percussion. It originated in the country's present day state of Kerala during the 17th century and has developed over the years with improved looks, refined gestures and added themes besides more ornate singing and precise drumming.
HISTORY
Popular belief is that kathakali is emerged from "Krishnanattam", the dance drama on the life and activities of Lord Krishna created by Sri Manavedan Raja, the Zamorin of Calicut (1585-1658 AD). Once Kottarakkara Thampuran, the Raja of Kottarakkara who was attracted by Krishnanattam requested the Zamorin for the loan of a troupe of performers. Due to the political rivalry between the two, Zamorin did not allow this. So Kottarakkara Thampuran created another art form called Ramanattam which was later transformed into Aattakatha. Krishnanaattam was written in Sanskrit, and Ramanattam was in Malayalam. By the end of 17th century, Attakatha was presented to the world with the title 'Kathakali'.
Kathakali also shares a lot of similarities with Krishnanattam, Koodiyattam (a classical Sanskrit drama existing in Kerala) and Ashtapadiyattam (an adaptation of 12th-century musical called Gitagovindam). It also incorporates several other elements from traditional and ritualistic art forms like Mudiyettu, Thiyyattu, Theyyam and Padayani besides a minor share of folk arts like Porattunatakam. All along, the martial art of Kalarippayattu has influenced the body language of Kathakali. The use of Malayalam, the local language (albeit as a mix of Sanskrit and Malayalam, called 'Manipravaalam'), has also helped the literature of Kathakali sound more transparent for the average audience.
As a part of modernising, propagating, promoting and popularizing Kathakali, the International Centre for Kathakali at New Delhi has taken up a continuing project since 1980 of producing new plays based on not only traditional and mythological stories, but also historical stories, European classics and Shakespeare's plays. Recently they produced Kathakali plays based on Shakespeare's Othello and Greek-Roman mythology of Psyche and Cupid.
Even though the lyrics/literature would qualify as another independent element called Sahithyam, it is considered as a component of Geetha or music, as it plays only a supplementary role to Nritham, Nrithyam and Natyam.
KATHAKALI PLAYS
Traditionally there are 101 classical Kathakali stories, though the commonly staged among them these days total less than one-third that number. Almost all of them were initially composed to last a whole night. Nowadays, there is increasing popularity for concise, or oftener select, versions of stories so as the performance lasts not more than three to four hours from evening. Thus, many stories find stage presentation in parts rather than totality. And the selection is based on criteria like choreographical beauty, thematic relevance/popularity or their melodramatic elements. Kathakali is a classical art form, but it can be appreciated also by novices—all contributed by the elegant looks of its character, their abstract movement and its synchronisation with the musical notes and rhythmic beats. And, in any case, the folk elements too continue to exist. For better appreciation, perhaps, it is still good to have an idea of the story being enacted.
The most popular stories enacted are Nalacharitham (a story from the Mahabharata), Duryodhana Vadham (focusing on the Mahabharata war after profiling the build-up to it), Kalyanasougandhikam, (the story of Bhima going to get flowers for his wife Panchali), Keechakavadham (another story of Bhima and Panchali, but this time during their stint in disguise), Kiratham (Arjuna and Lord Shiva's fight, from the Mahabharata), Karnashapatham (another story from the Mahabharata), Nizhalkuthu and Bhadrakalivijayam authored by Pannisseri Nanu Pillai. Also staged frequently include stories like Kuchelavrittam, Santanagopalam, Balivijayam, Dakshayagam, Rugminiswayamvaram, Kalakeyavadham, Kirmeeravadham, Bakavadham, Poothanamoksham, Subhadraharanam, Balivadham, Rugmangadacharitam, Ravanolbhavam, Narakasuravadham, Uttaraswayamvaram, Harishchandracharitam, Kacha-Devayani and Kamsavadham.
Recently, as part of attempts to further popularise the art, stories from other cultures and mythologies, such as those of Mary Magdalene from the Bible, Homer's Iliad, and William Shakespeare's King Lear and Julius Caesar besides Goethe's Faust too have been adapted into Kathakali scripts and on to its stage. Synopsis of 37 kathakali stories are available in kathakalinews.com.
MUSIC
The language of the songs used for Kathakali is Manipravalam. Though most of the songs are set in ragas based on the microtone-heavy Carnatic music, there is a distinct style of plain-note rendition, which is known as the Sopanam style. This typically Kerala style of rendition takes its roots from the temple songs which used to be sung (continues even now at several temples) at the time when Kathakali was born.
As with the acting style, Kathakali music also has singers from the northern and southern schools. The northern style has largely been groomed by Kerala Kalamandalam in the 20th century. Kalamandalam Neelakantan Nambisan, an overarching Kathakali musician of those times, was a product of the institute. His prominent disciples include Kalamandalam Unnikrishna Kurup, Kalamandalam Gangadharan, Kalamandalam P.G. Radhakrishnan, Rama Varrier, Madambi Subramanian Namboodiri, Tirur Nambissan, Kalamandalam Sankaran Embranthiri, Kalamandalam Hyderali, Kalamandalam Haridas, Subramanian, Kalanilayam Unnikrishnan and Kalamandalam Bhavadasan. The other prominent musicians of the north feature Kottakkal Vasu Nedungadi, Kottakkal Parameswaran Namboodiri, Kottakkal P.D. Narayanan Namboodiri, Kottakkal Narayanan, Kalamandalam Anantha NarayananKalamandalam Sreekumar Palanad Divakaran, Kalanilayam Rajendran, Kolathappilli Narayanan Namboodiri, Kalamandalam Narayanan Embranthiri, Kottakkal Madhu, Kalamandalam Babu Namboodiri, Kalamandalam Harish and Kalamandalam Vinod. In the south, some of whom are equally popular in the north these days, include Pathiyur Sankarankutty. Southerner musicians of the older generation include Cherthala Thankappa Panikker, Thakazhi Kuttan Pillai, Cherthala Kuttappa Kurup, Thanneermukkam Viswambharan and Mudakkal Gopinathan.
PERFORMANCE
Traditionally, a Kathakali performance is usually conducted at night and ends in early morning. Nowadays it isn't difficult to see performances as short as three hours or fewer. Kathakali is usually performed in front of the huge Kalivilakku (kali meaning dance; vilakku meaning lamp) with its thick wick sunk till the neck in coconut oil. Traditionally, this lamp used to provide sole light when the plays used to be performed inside temples, palaces or abodes houses of nobles and aristocrats. Enactment of a play by actors takes place to the accompaniment of music (geetha) and instruments (vadya). The percussion instruments used are chenda, maddalam (both of which underwent revolutionary changes in their aesthetics with the contributions of Kalamandalam Krishnankutty Poduval and Kalamandalam Appukutty Poduval) and, at times, edakka. In addition, the singers (the lead singer is called “ponnani” and his follower is called “singidi”) use chengila (gong made of bell metal, which can be struck with a wooden stick) and ilathalam (a pair of cymbals). The lead singer in some sense uses the Chengala to conduct the Vadyam and Geetha components, just as a conductor uses his wand in western classical music. A distinguishing characteristic of this art form is that the actors never speak but use hand gestures, expressions and rhythmic dancing instead of dialogue (but for a couple of rare characters).
ACTING
A Kathakali actor uses immense concentration, skill and physical stamina, gained from regimented training based on Kalaripayattu, the ancient martial art of Kerala, to prepare for his demanding role. The training can often last for 8–10 years, and is intensive. In Kathakali, the story is enacted purely by the movements of the hands (called mudras or hand gestures) and by facial expressions (rasas) and bodily movements. The expressions are derived from Natyashastra (the tome that deals with the science of expressions) and are classified into nine as in most Indian classical art forms. Dancers also undergo special practice sessions to learn control of their eye movements.
There are 24 basic mudras—the permutation and combination of which would add up a chunk of the hand gestures in vogue today. Each can again can be classified into 'Samaana-mudras'(one mudra symbolising two entities) or misra-mudras (both the hands are used to show these mudras). The mudras are a form of sign language used to tell the story.
The main facial expressions of a Kathakali artist are the 'navarasams' (Navarasas in anglicised form) (literal translation: Nine Tastes, but more loosely translated as nine feelings or expressions) which are Sringaram (amour), Hasyam (ridicule, humour), Bhayanakam (fear), Karunam (pathos), Roudram (anger, wrath), Veeram (valour), Beebhatsam (disgust), Adbhutam (wonder, amazement), Shantam (tranquility, peace). The link at the end of the page gives more details on Navarasas.
One of the most interesting aspects of Kathakali is its elaborate make-up code. Most often, the make-up can be classified into five basic sets namely Pachcha, Kathi, Kari, Thaadi, and Minukku. The differences between these sets lie in the predominant colours that are applied on the face. Pachcha (meaning green) has green as the dominant colour and is used to portray noble male characters who are said to have a mixture of "Satvik" (pious) and "Rajasik" (dark; Rajas = darkness) nature. Rajasik characters having an evil streak ("tamasic"= evil) -- all the same they are anti-heroes in the play (such as the demon king Ravana) -- and portrayed with streaks of red in a green-painted face. Excessively evil characters such as demons (totally tamasic) have a predominantly red make-up and a red beard. They are called Red Beard (Red Beard). Tamasic characters such as uncivilised hunters and woodsmen are represented with a predominantly black make-up base and a black beard and are called black beard (meaning black beard). Women and ascetics have lustrous, yellowish faces and this semi-realistic category forms the fifth class. In addition, there are modifications of the five basic sets described above such as Vella Thadi (white beard) used to depict Hanuman (the Monkey-God) and Pazhuppu, which is majorly used for Lord Shiva and Balabhadra.
NOTABLE TRAINING CENTRES & MASTERS
Kathakali artistes need assiduous grooming for almost a decade's time, and most masters are products of accomplished institutions that give a minimum training course of half-a-dozen years. The leading Kathakali schools (some of them started during the pre-Independent era India) are Kerala Kalamandalam (located in Cheruthuruthy near Shoranur), PSV Natya Sangham (located in Kottakal near Kozhikode), Sadanam Kathakali and Classical Arts Academy (or Gandhi Seva Sadan located in Perur near Ottappalam in Palakkad), Unnayi Varier Smaraka Kalanilayam (located in Irinjalakuda south of Thrissur), Margi in Thiruvananthapuram, Muthappan Kaliyogam at Parassinikkadavu in Kannur district and RLV School at Tripunithura off Kochi and Kalabharathi at Pakalkkuri near Kottarakkara in Kollam district, Sandarshan Kathakali Kendram in Ambalapuzha and Vellinazhi Nanu Nair Smaraka Kalakendra in Kuruvattor. Outside Kerala, Kathakali is being taught at the International Centre for Kathakali in New Delhi, Santiniketan at Visva-Bharati University in West Bengal, Kalakshetra in Chennai and Darpana Academy in Ahmedabad among others. PadmaSree Guru Chengannur Raman Pillai mostly known as 'Guru Chengannur'was running a traditional Gurukula Style approach to propagate Kathakali.
‘Guru Chengannur” is ever renowned as the Sovereign Guru of Kathakali. His precision in using symbols, gestures and steps were highest in the field of Kathakali. Guru Chegannur's kaththi vesham, especially the portrayal of Duryodhana enthralled the audience every time he performed. A master of the art, he found immense happiness and satisfaction in the success and recognition of his disciples.
Senior Kathakali exponents of today include Padma Bhushan Kalamandalam Ramankutty Nair, Padma Shri Kalamandalam Gopi, Madavoor Vasudevan Nair, Chemancheri Kunhiraman Nair, Kottakkal Krishnankutty Nair, Mankompu Sivasankara Pillai, Sadanam Krishnankutty, Nelliyode Vasudevan Namboodiri, Kalamandalam Vasu Pisharody, FACT Padmanabhan, Kottakkal Chandrasekharan, Margi Vijayakumar, Kottakkal Nandakumaran Nair, Vazhenkada Vijayan, Inchakkattu Ramachandran Pillai, Kalamandalam Kuttan, Mayyanad Kesavan Namboodiri, Mathur Govindan Kutty, Narippatta Narayanan Namboodiri, Chavara Parukutty, Thonnakkal Peethambaran, Sadanam Balakrishnan, Kalanilayam Gopalakrishnan, Chirakkara Madhavankutty, Sadanam K. Harikumaran, Thalavadi Aravindan, Kalanilayam Balakrishnan, Pariyanampatta Divakaran, Kottakkal Kesavan, Kalanilayam Gopi and Kudamaloor Muralikrishnan. The late titan actor-dancers of Kathakali's modern age (say, since the 1930s) include Pattikkamthodi Ravunni Menon, Chenganoor Raman Pillai, Chandu Panicker, Thakazhi Guru Kunchu Kurup, Padma Shri Kalamandalam Krishnan Nair, Padma Shri Vazhenkada Kunchu Nair, Kavalappara Narayanan Nair, Kurichi Kunhan Panikkar, Thekkinkattil Ramunni Nair, Padma Shri Keezhpadam Kumaran Nair, Kalamandalam Padmanabhan Nair, Mankulam Vishnu Namboodiri, Oyur Kochu Govinda Pillai, Vellinezhi Nanu Nair, Padma Shri Kavungal Chathunni Panikkar, Kudamaloor Karunakaran Nair, Kottakkal Sivaraman, Kannan Pattali, Pallippuram Gopalan Nair, Haripad Ramakrishna Pillai, Champakkulam Pachu Pillai, Chennithala Chellappan Pillai, Guru Mampuzha Madhava Panicker, and Vaikkom Karunakaran.
Kathakali is still hugely a male domain but, since the 1970s, females too have made entry into the art form on a recognisable scale. The central Kerala temple town of Tripunithura has, in fact, a ladies troupe (with members belonging to several part of the state) that performs Kathakali, by and large in Travancore.
KATHAKALI STYLES
Known as Sampradäyaṃ(Malayalam: സമ്പ്രദായം); these are leading Kathakali styles that differ from each other in subtleties like choreographic profile, position of hand gestures and stress on dance than drama and vice versa. Some of the major original kathakali styles included:
Vettathu Sampradayam
Kalladikkodan Sampradyam
Kaplingadu Sampradayam
Of late, these have narrowed down to the northern (Kalluvazhi) and southern (Thekkan) styles. It was largely developed by the legendary Pattikkamthodi Ravunni Menon (1881-1949) that is implemented in Kerala Kalamandalam (though it has also a department that teaches the southern style), Sadanam, RLV and Kottakkal. Margi has its training largely based on the Thekkan style, known for its stress on drama and part-realistic techniques. Kalanilayam, effectively, churns out students with a mix of both styles.
OTHER FORMS OD DANCE & OFFSHOOTS
Kerala Natanam is a kind of dance form, partly based on Kathakali techniques and aesthetics, developed and stylised by the late dancer Guru Gopinath in the mid-20th century. Kathakali also finds portrayal in Malayalam feature films like Vanaprastham, Parinayam, Marattam, and Rangam. Besides documentary films have also been shot on Kathakali artistes like Chenganoor Raman Pillai, Kalamandalam Krishnan Nair, Keezhpadam Kumaran Nair, Kalamandalam Ramankutty Nair, Kalamandalam Gopi and Kottakkal Sivaraman.
As for fictional literature, Kathakali finds mention in several Malayalam short stories like Karmen (by N.S. Madhavan) and novels like Keshabharam (by P.V. Sreevalsan). Even the Indo-Anglian work like Arundhati Roy's Booker prize-winning The God of Small Things has a chapter on Kathakali, while, of late, Anita Nair's novel, Mistress, is entirely wrapped in the ethos of Kathakali.
Similar musical theater is popular in Kasaragod and the coastal and Malenadu regions of Karnataka, viz. Yakshagana. Though Yakshagana resembles Kathakali in terms of its costume and makeup to an extent, Yakshagana is markedly different from Kathakali as it involves dialogues and method acting also the narration is in Kannada, wherein philosophical debates are also possible within framework of the character. As per records the art form of Yakshagana was already rooted and well established at the time of Sri Manavedan Raja. There is possibilities of its significant influence in formation of Kathakkali as the troupe of performers of "Krishnanattam" designed the basic costume of the art form already established in other parts of south India including Males playing the female roles (until more recently).
Kottayam thamburan's way of presenting kathakali was later known as Kalladikkoden sambradayam. Chathu Paniker,the introducer of Kallikkoden Sambrathayam, stayed in Kottayam for five years with Kottayam Thamburan's residence and practiced Kalladikkoden Sambrathayam. Then he returned to his home place. After a short period Chathu Paniker reached Pulapatta as instructed by Kuthiravattath nair. That was around the year ME 865. Many deciples from Kadathanadu, Kurumbra nadu, Vettathu nadu, Palakkadu and Perumpadappu studied kathakali(Kalladikkoden Sambrathayam ) By that time Chathu Paniker was an old man. Some years later he died from Pulapatta.
NOTED KATHAKALI VILLAGES & BELTS
There are certain pockets in Kerala that have given birth to many Kathakali artistes over the years. If they can be called Kathakali villages (or some of them, these days, towns), here are some of them: Vellinezhi, Kuruvattoor, Karalmanna, Cherpulassery, Kothachira, peringode, sreekrishnapuram Kongad and Ottapalam in Palakkad district, Vazhenkada in Malappuram district, Thichur or Tichoor, Guruvayur, Thiruvilwamala and Irinjalakuda in Thrissur district, Tripunithura, Edappally, Thekkan Chittoor in Ernakulam district and Kuttanad, Harippad belt in Alappuzha district besides places in and around Thiruvanathapuram in south Travancore and Payyannur in north Malabar.
AWARDS FOR KATHAKALI ARTISTS
Sangeet Natak Akademi Awardees - Kathakali (1956–2005)
Nambeesan Smaraka Awards—For artistic performances related kathakali{1992-2008}
KATHAKALI ATTAMS (ELAKI ATTAMS)
Attams or more specifically "elaki attams" are sequences of acting within a story acted out with the help of mudras without support from vocal music. The actor has the freedom to change the script to suit his own individual preferences. The actor will be supported ably by Chenda, Maddalam, and Elathalam (compulsory), Chengila (not very compulsory).
The following are only some examples. 'Kailasa Udharanam' and 'Tapas Attam' are very important attams and these are described at the end. Two of the many references are Kathakali Prakaram, pages 95 to 142 by Pannisheri Nanu Pillai and Kathakaliyile Manodharmangal by Chavara Appukuttan Pillai.
VANA VARNANA: BHIMA IN KALYANA SAUGANDHIKA
Modern man looks at the forest, indeed the birthplace of primates, with a certain wonder and a certain respect. Kathakali characters are no exception.
When Pandavas were living in the forest, one day, a flower, not seen before, wafted by the wind, comes and falls at the feet of Panchali. Exhilarated by its beauty and smell, Panchali asks Bhima to bring her more such flowers. To her pleasure Bhima is ready to go at once. But Panchali asks him what he shall do for food and drink on the way. Bhima thinks and says "Food and Drink! Oh, this side glance (look) of yours. This look of longing. This look of anticipation. The very thought fills me up. I don't need any food and drink at all. Let me go." He takes his mace and off he goes. Ulsaham (enthusiasm) is his Sdhayi Bhavam (permanent feature).
"Let me go at once in search of this flower," says Bhima. "The scented wind is blowing from the southern side. Let me go that way." After walking some distance he sees a huge mountain called Gandhamadana and three ways. He decides to take the middle one which goes over the mountain. After going further "The forest is getting thicker. Big trees, big branches in all directions. The forest looks like a huge dark vessel into which even light can not penetrate. This is my (Bhima's) way. Nothing can hinder me." So saying he pulls down many trees. Sometimes he shatters the trees with his mace. Suddenly he sees an elephant. "Oh! Elephant." He describes it. Its trunk. Sharp ears.
The itching sensation in the body. It takes some mud and throws on the body. Oh good. Then it sucks water and throws on the body. Somewhat better. Slowly it starts dosing even though alert at times. A very huge python is approaching steadily. Suddenly it catches hold of the elephant's hind leg. The elephant wakes up and tries to disengage the python. The python pulls to one side. The elephant kicks and drags to the other side. This goes on for some time. Bhima looks to the other side where a hungry lion is looking for food. It comes running and strikes the elephants head and eats part of the brain and goes off. The python completes the rest. "Oh my god, how ruthless!" says Bhima and proceeds on his way.
UDYANA VARNANA: NALA IN NALACHARITHAM SECOND DAY
Descriptions of gardens are found in most dance forms of India and abroad. These are also common in Kathakali.
Newly married Nala and Damayanthi are walking in the garden. When Nala was lovingly looking at Damayanthi a flower falls on her. Nala is overjoyed and thinks that this is a kindness nature has shown on his wife. Nala says "On seeing the arrival of their queen, the trees and climbers are showing happiness by dropping flowers on you." He tells her, "See that tree. When I used to be alone the tree used to hug the climber and seemingly laugh at my condition." Then he looks at the tree and says, "Dear Tree, look at me now. See how fortunate I am with my beautiful wife."
Both wander about. A bumblebee flies towards Damayanthi. Immediately Nala protects her face with a kerchief. He looks at the bee and then at Damayanthi. He says, "On seeing your face the bee thought it was a flower and came to drink the nectar." Nala and Damayanthi listen to the sounds coming out of the garden. Damayanti says, "It appears that the whole garden is thrilled. The flowers are blooming and smiling. Cuckoos are singing and the bees are dancing. Gentle winds are blowing and rubbing against our bodies. How beautiful the whole garden looks." Then Nala says that the sun is going down and it is time for them to go back and takes her away.
SHABDA VARNANA: HANUMAN IN KALYANA SAUGANDHIKAM
While Bhima goes in search of the flower, here Hanuman is sitting doing Tapas with mind concentrated on Sri Rama.
When he hears the terrible noises made by Bhima in the forest he feels disturbed in doing his Tapas. He thinks "What is the reason for this?" Then the sounds become bigger. "What is this?" He thinks, "The sounds are getting bigger. Such a terrible noise. Is the sea coming up thinking that the time is ripe for the great deluge (Pralaya). Birds are flying helter-skelter. Trees look shocked. Even Kali Yuga is not here. Then what is it? Are mountains quarreling with each other? No, That can't be it. Indra had cut off the wings of mountains so that they don't quarrel. Is the sea changing its position? No it can't be. The sea has promised it will not change its position again. It can't break the promise." Hanuman starts looking for clues. "I see elephants and lions running in fear of somebody. Oh a huge man is coming this way. Oh, a hero is coming. He is pulling out trees and throwing it here and there. Okay. Let him come near, We will see."
THANDEDATTAM: RAVANA IN BALI VADHAM
After his theranottam Ravana is seen sitting on a stool. He says to himself "I am enjoying a lot of happiness. What is the reason for this?" Thinks. "Yes I know it. I did Tapas to Brahma and received all necessary boons. Afterwards I won all ten directions. I also defeated my elder brother Vaishravana. Then I lifted Kailas mountain when Siva and Parvathi were having a misunderstanding. Parvathi got frightened and embraced Siva in fear. Siva was so happy he gave a divine sword called Chandrahasa. Now the whole world is afraid of me. That is why I am enjoying so much happiness." He goes and sits on the stool. He looks far away. "Who is coming from a distance. he is coming fast. Oh, it is Akamba. Okay. Let me find out what news he has for me."
ASHRAMA VARNANA: ARJUNA IN KIRATHAM
Arjuna wants to do Tapas to Lord Siva and he is looking a suitable place in the Himalayan slopes. He comes to place where there is an ashram. Arjuna looks closely at the place. "Oh. What a beautiful place this is. A small river in which a very pure water is flowing. Some hermits are taking baths in the river. Some hermits are standing in the water and doing Tapsas. Some are facing the Sun. Some are standing in between five fires." Arjuna salutes the hermits from far. He says to himself "Look at this young one of a deer. It is looking for its mother. It seems to be hungry and thirsty. Nearby a female tiger is feeding its young ones. The little deer goes towards the tigress and pushes the young tiger cubs aside and starts drinking milk from the tigress. The tigress looks lovingly at the young deer and even licks its body as if it were its own child. How beautiful. How fulfilling."
Again he looks "Here on this side a mongoose and a serpent forgetting their enmity are hugging each other. This place is really strange and made divine by saints and hermits. Let me start my Tapas somewhere nearby."
A sloka called "Shikhini Shalabha" can be selected instead of the above if time permits.
AN ATTAM BASED ON A SLOKA
Sansrit slokas are sometimes shown in mudras and it has a pleasing and exhilarating effect. Different actors use slokas as per his own taste and liking. However, the slokas are taught to students during their training period. An example is given below.
Kusumo Kusumolpatti Shrooyathena Chathushyathe
Bale thava Mukhambuje Pashya Neelolpaladwayam
Meaning a flower blooming inside another flower is not known to history. But, my dear, in your lotus like face are seen two blue Neelolpala flowers (eyes).
A CONVERSATION BASED ON A SLOKA
Sanskrit slokas can also be used to express an intent. One such example is a sloka used by Arjuna addressed to Mathali the charioteer in Kalakeya Vadham. Sloka:
Pitha: Kushalee Mama hritha Bhujaam
Naatha Sachee Vallabha:
Maatha: kim nu Pralomacha Kushalinee
Soonurjayanthasthayo
Preethim va Kushchate Thadikshnavidhow
Cheta Samutkanuthe
Sutha: tvam Radhamashu Chodaya vayam
Dharmadivam Mathala
Meaning: The husband of Indrani and the lord of gods my father - Is he in good health? His son Jayantha - Is he strictly following the commands of his father? Oh, I am impatient to see all of them.
SWARGA VARNANA: ARJUNA IN KELAKEYA VADHAM
Arjuna goes to heaven on the invitation of his father, Indra. After taking permission from Indrani he goes out to see all the places in Swarga. First he sees a building, his father's palace. It is so huge with four entrances. It is made of materials superior to gold and jewels of the world. Then he goes ahead and sees Iravatha. Here he describes it as a huge elephant with four horns. He is afraid to touch it. Then he thinks that animals in Swarga can't be cruel like in the world and so thinking he goes and touches and salutes Iravatha. He describes the churning of the white sea by gods and demons with many details and how Iravatha also came out of the white sea due to this churning.
He walks on and sees his father's (Indra's) horse. It is described as being white and its mane is sizzling like the waves of the white sea from which it came. He touches and salutes the horse also. Then he goes to see the river of the sky (or milky way). He sees many birds by this river and how the birds fly and play is shown.
Then he sees the heavenly ladies. Some are collecting flowers, and one of them comes late and asks for some flowers for making garland. The others refuse. She goes to the Kalpa Vriksha and says "please give me some flowers." Immediately a shower of flowers occurs which she collects in her clothes and goes to make garlands chiding the others. "See... I also got flowers." After this he sees the music and dance of the heavenly ladies. First it starts with the adjustments of instruments Thamburu, Mridangam, Veena. Then the actual music starts along with the striking of cymbals. Then two or three types of dances are shown. Then comes juggling of balls. It is described by a sloka thus:
Ekopi Thraya Iva Bhathi Kandukoyam
Kanthayaa: Karathala Raktharaktha:
Abhrastho Nayanamareechi Neelaneelo
Popular belief is that kathakali is emerged from "Krishnanattam", the dance drama on the life and activities of Lord Krishna created by Sri Manavedan Raja, the Zamorin of Calicut (1585-1658 AD). Once Kottarakkara Thampuran, the Raja of Kottarakkara who was attracted by Krishnanattam requested the Zamorin for the loan of a troupe of performers. Due to the political rivalry between the two, Zamorin did not allow this. So Kottarakkara Thampuran created another art form called Ramanattam which was later transformed into Aattakatha. Krishnanaattam was written in Sanskrit, and Ramanattam was in Malayalam. By the end of 17th century, Attakatha was presented to the world with the title 'Kathakali'. Kathakali also shares a lot of similarities with Krishnanattam, Koodiyattam (a classical Sanskrit drama existing in Kerala) and Ashtapadiyattam (an adaptation of 12th-century musical called Gitagovindam). It also incorporates several other elements from traditional and ritualistic art forms like Mudiyettu, Thiyyattu, Theyyam and Padayani besides a minor share of folk arts like Porattunatakam. All along, the martial art of Kalarippayattu has influenced the body language of Kathakali. The use of Malayalam, the local language (albeit as a mix of Sanskrit and Malayalam, called ), has also helped the literature of Kathakali sound more transparent for the average audience. As a part of modernising, propagating, promoting and popularizing Kathakali, the International Centre for Kathakali at New Delhi has taken up a continuing project since 1980 of producing new plays based on not only traditional and mythological stories, but also historical stories, European classics and Shakespeare's plays. Recently they produced Kathakali plays based on Shakespeare's Othello and Greek-Roman mythology of Psyche and Cupid.
Even though the lyrics/literature would qualify as another independent element called Sahithyam, it is considered as a component of Geetha or music, as it plays only a supplementary role to
Bhumau Talcharana Naghamshu Gaurgaura:
Meaning One ball looks like three balls. When it is in the hands of the juggler, it takes the redness of the hands, when it goes up it takes the blueness of the eyes, when it strikes the ground it becomes white from the whiteness of the leg nails. Once a juggled ball falls down. Then she, the juggler, somehow manages to proceed and remarks "See.. how I can do it".
At one time a garment slips from a lady's body and she adjusts the cloth showing shameful shyness (Lajja). Then the ladies go in for a Kummi dance. As Arjuna was enjoying this dance, suddenly somebody calls him. Arjuna feels scared. "Oh God, where am I?" he says and beats a hasty retreat.
TAPAS ATTAM: RAVANA IN RAVANA ULBHAVAM
[Background: Mali, Sumali and Malyavan were three brothers ruling Sri Lanka. During a war between them and Indra, Indra requested help from Lord Vishnu and as a consequence Lord Vishnu killed Mali. Sumali and Malyavan escaped to Patala. Kaikasi was the daughter of Sumali. She wandered in the forest. She belong three boys through a great sage called Vishravassu. (Vishravassu had an earlier son called Vaishravana who became the richest among all people.) The eldest boy of Kaikasi was Ravana followed by Kumbhakarna and Vibhishana.]
SCENE 1
When Ravana was a young boy (Kutti Ravana vesham), one day he was sleeping on his mothers lap in a place called madhuvanam. At that time Kaikasi sees Vaishravana flying overhead in his vimana (mythical aeroplane). She thinks “Oh, that is Vaishravana, technically a brother of my son who is sleeping on my lap. He is rich and strong. My son is so poor and weak. While thinking thus a drop of tear from her eyes drops on Ravana’s face. Ravana suddenly wakes up and sees his mother crying. When he knew the reason he could not bear it. He says he is going to do tapas to Brahma to get boons so that he will be strong and rich.
SCENE 2
(The tapas itself is shown as a part of autobiographical narration of adult ravana)
Ravana (adult Ravana, not kutti Ravana) is sitting on a stool. He thinks “Why am I so happy? How did I become so rich and strong? Oh yes. It is because of the tapas I did. What made me do the tapas? When I was a young boy, one day I was sleeping on my mother’s lap in a place called Madhuvanam. A drop of tear from her eyes falls on my face. I asked her why she was crying. She said she saw Vaishravana flying overhead in his vimana (plane). She told me Vaishravan was a brother of mine now flying in a plane. He is rich and strong. I am so poor and weak. When I heard this comparison between me and my brother, I could not bear it. I am going to do tapas to Brahma to get boons so that I will be strong and rich.
I made five different types of fires (while doing tapas gods are approached through Agni the god of fire). Then I started my tapas. I asked my brothers to stand guard and also keep the fires burning. Then I fully concentrated on tapas. Time passed but Brahma did not appear. I looked. Why is Brahma not appearing? I doubled my concentration. Time passed. Brahma is not appearing. Still not appearing? I cut one of my heads and put it in the fire. Waited, Brahma did not come. One more head rolls. Still no Brahma comes. Heads roll and roll. No Brahma. Only one head is left. First I thought of stopping my tapas. But no! Never! That will be an insult to me and my family. It is better to die than stop. Also when I die Brahma will be judged as being partial. With great determination I swung the sword at my last neck, when, lo and behold, suddenly Brahma appeared and caught my hand. I looked at him with still un-subsided, but gradually subsiding anger. Brahma asked me what boons I wanted. I asked for a boon that I should win all the worlds and have all the wealth and fame and that I should not be killed except by man. I also asked him to give boons for my brothers.
In the next scene Ravana asks Kumbhakarna and Vibhishana what boons they got. Unfortunately Kumbhakarna’s tongue got twisted while asking for boon and he got ‘sleep’ instead of becoming the ‘king of gods’. Ravana laughed it off. As for Vibhishana, he being a bhaktha of Vishnu, asked for Vishnu’s blessings and got it. Ravana laughs it off and also decides to conquer all the worlds and starts preparing his grand army for the big conquest of the worlds.
[This method of presentation with a peculiar sequence has a tremendous dramatic affect. The main actor redoes a small part of what happened to kutti Ravana vesham, and this gives a view of the high contrast between the boy and the man Ravana. Similarly the presence of Kumbhakarna and Vibhishana in the subsequent scene offers a good smile on the face of the viewer at the end of the play.]
KAILASA UDDHARANAM: RAVANA IN BALI VIJAYAM
[Background and Previous scene: After receiving the boons, and widening his kingdom in all directions, Ravana lives in Sri Lanka with great pomp and splendor. One day he sees Saint Narada approaching his palace singing songs in praise of him ‘Jaya jaya Ravana, Lanka Pathe’. Happily he receives Narada and seats him next to him. After telling Narada about the victory of his son Indrajith on Indra, Ravana tells Narada “Now there is nobody on earth or other worlds who can fight with me”. To this Narada replies “ Very true indeed, but there is one huge monkey called Bali who says he can defeat you. He even said that you are just like a blade of grass to him. Well let him say what he wants. You are unbeatable.” Then Narada says ‘let us go there and see him’. Both decide to go. But Ravana takes his famous sword called “Chandrahasam”. Then Narada asks the history of this sword. Ravana’s Attam Starts.]
Ravana says “I received this sword from Lord Siva. It happened thus. Once when I was conquering new places and expanding my empire I happened to be going across the Kailasa mountain. The plane got stuck on the mountain unable to move forward. I got down from the plane and looked at the mountain. (Looks from one end to the other first horizontally and then vertically.) So huge it was. Then I decided to lift it with my bare hand and keep it aside and move forward. I started sticking my hands under it one by one. Then I tried to lift it. It doesn’t move. I put more force and more force. It moved just a bit. I pushed harder and harder, slowly it started moving then again and again and it moved easily. Then I lifted it up with my hands and started juggling it (exaggeration evident).
“At that particular time Lord Siva was quarreling with his wife Parvathi. Why did they fight? The story is as follows. Parvathi had gone for enjoying swimming and bathing in some beautiful pond. At that time Siva opened his jata (disheveled long hair) and called Ganga for some entertainment after asking Ganapathi and Subramania to go for some errands. Somehow becoming suspicious, right at that time, Parvathi came back in a hurry with wet clothes and saw Siva with Ganga. Siva was wondering what to do and it was at that time that Ravana started lifting the Kailasa. When Kailasa started shaking Parvathi got scared and ran to Siva and hugged him. So the quarrel ended and Siva was happy. “As a reward Siva called me and gave me this famous Chandrahasa sword.”
Then Narada and Ravana leave to meet Bali. Ravana wanted to take the sword along with him, but Narada suggested that the sword is not required for teaching a lesson to Bali who is after all an unarmed monkey.
WIKIPEDIA
Public Domain Book: The history of magic : including a clear and precise exposition of its procedure, its rites and its mysteries
by Lévi, Eliphas, 1810-1875
Published 1922
Public Domain Book: The history of magic : including a clear and precise exposition of its procedure, its rites and its mysteries
by Lévi, Eliphas, 1810-1875
Published 1922
Kathakali (Malayalam: കഥകളി, kathakaḷi; Sanskrit: कथाकळिः, kathākaḷiḥ) is a stylized classical Indian dance-drama noted for the attractive make-up of characters, elaborate costumes, detailed gestures and well-defined body movements presented in tune with the anchor playback music and complementary percussion. It originated in the country's present day state of Kerala during the 17th century and has developed over the years with improved looks, refined gestures and added themes besides more ornate singing and precise drumming.
HISTORY
Popular belief is that kathakali is emerged from "Krishnanattam", the dance drama on the life and activities of Lord Krishna created by Sri Manavedan Raja, the Zamorin of Calicut (1585-1658 AD). Once Kottarakkara Thampuran, the Raja of Kottarakkara who was attracted by Krishnanattam requested the Zamorin for the loan of a troupe of performers. Due to the political rivalry between the two, Zamorin did not allow this. So Kottarakkara Thampuran created another art form called Ramanattam which was later transformed into Aattakatha. Krishnanaattam was written in Sanskrit, and Ramanattam was in Malayalam. By the end of 17th century, Attakatha was presented to the world with the title 'Kathakali'.
Kathakali also shares a lot of similarities with Krishnanattam, Koodiyattam (a classical Sanskrit drama existing in Kerala) and Ashtapadiyattam (an adaptation of 12th-century musical called Gitagovindam). It also incorporates several other elements from traditional and ritualistic art forms like Mudiyettu, Thiyyattu, Theyyam and Padayani besides a minor share of folk arts like Porattunatakam. All along, the martial art of Kalarippayattu has influenced the body language of Kathakali. The use of Malayalam, the local language (albeit as a mix of Sanskrit and Malayalam, called 'Manipravaalam'), has also helped the literature of Kathakali sound more transparent for the average audience.
As a part of modernising, propagating, promoting and popularizing Kathakali, the International Centre for Kathakali at New Delhi has taken up a continuing project since 1980 of producing new plays based on not only traditional and mythological stories, but also historical stories, European classics and Shakespeare's plays. Recently they produced Kathakali plays based on Shakespeare's Othello and Greek-Roman mythology of Psyche and Cupid.
Even though the lyrics/literature would qualify as another independent element called Sahithyam, it is considered as a component of Geetha or music, as it plays only a supplementary role to Nritham, Nrithyam and Natyam.
KATHAKALI PLAYS
Traditionally there are 101 classical Kathakali stories, though the commonly staged among them these days total less than one-third that number. Almost all of them were initially composed to last a whole night. Nowadays, there is increasing popularity for concise, or oftener select, versions of stories so as the performance lasts not more than three to four hours from evening. Thus, many stories find stage presentation in parts rather than totality. And the selection is based on criteria like choreographical beauty, thematic relevance/popularity or their melodramatic elements. Kathakali is a classical art form, but it can be appreciated also by novices—all contributed by the elegant looks of its character, their abstract movement and its synchronisation with the musical notes and rhythmic beats. And, in any case, the folk elements too continue to exist. For better appreciation, perhaps, it is still good to have an idea of the story being enacted.
The most popular stories enacted are Nalacharitham (a story from the Mahabharata), Duryodhana Vadham (focusing on the Mahabharata war after profiling the build-up to it), Kalyanasougandhikam, (the story of Bhima going to get flowers for his wife Panchali), Keechakavadham (another story of Bhima and Panchali, but this time during their stint in disguise), Kiratham (Arjuna and Lord Shiva's fight, from the Mahabharata), Karnashapatham (another story from the Mahabharata), Nizhalkuthu and Bhadrakalivijayam authored by Pannisseri Nanu Pillai. Also staged frequently include stories like Kuchelavrittam, Santanagopalam, Balivijayam, Dakshayagam, Rugminiswayamvaram, Kalakeyavadham, Kirmeeravadham, Bakavadham, Poothanamoksham, Subhadraharanam, Balivadham, Rugmangadacharitam, Ravanolbhavam, Narakasuravadham, Uttaraswayamvaram, Harishchandracharitam, Kacha-Devayani and Kamsavadham.
Recently, as part of attempts to further popularise the art, stories from other cultures and mythologies, such as those of Mary Magdalene from the Bible, Homer's Iliad, and William Shakespeare's King Lear and Julius Caesar besides Goethe's Faust too have been adapted into Kathakali scripts and on to its stage. Synopsis of 37 kathakali stories are available in kathakalinews.com.
MUSIC
The language of the songs used for Kathakali is Manipravalam. Though most of the songs are set in ragas based on the microtone-heavy Carnatic music, there is a distinct style of plain-note rendition, which is known as the Sopanam style. This typically Kerala style of rendition takes its roots from the temple songs which used to be sung (continues even now at several temples) at the time when Kathakali was born.
As with the acting style, Kathakali music also has singers from the northern and southern schools. The northern style has largely been groomed by Kerala Kalamandalam in the 20th century. Kalamandalam Neelakantan Nambisan, an overarching Kathakali musician of those times, was a product of the institute. His prominent disciples include Kalamandalam Unnikrishna Kurup, Kalamandalam Gangadharan, Kalamandalam P.G. Radhakrishnan, Rama Varrier, Madambi Subramanian Namboodiri, Tirur Nambissan, Kalamandalam Sankaran Embranthiri, Kalamandalam Hyderali, Kalamandalam Haridas, Subramanian, Kalanilayam Unnikrishnan and Kalamandalam Bhavadasan. The other prominent musicians of the north feature Kottakkal Vasu Nedungadi, Kottakkal Parameswaran Namboodiri, Kottakkal P.D. Narayanan Namboodiri, Kottakkal Narayanan, Kalamandalam Anantha NarayananKalamandalam Sreekumar Palanad Divakaran, Kalanilayam Rajendran, Kolathappilli Narayanan Namboodiri, Kalamandalam Narayanan Embranthiri, Kottakkal Madhu, Kalamandalam Babu Namboodiri, Kalamandalam Harish and Kalamandalam Vinod. In the south, some of whom are equally popular in the north these days, include Pathiyur Sankarankutty. Southerner musicians of the older generation include Cherthala Thankappa Panikker, Thakazhi Kuttan Pillai, Cherthala Kuttappa Kurup, Thanneermukkam Viswambharan and Mudakkal Gopinathan.
PERFORMANCE
Traditionally, a Kathakali performance is usually conducted at night and ends in early morning. Nowadays it isn't difficult to see performances as short as three hours or fewer. Kathakali is usually performed in front of the huge Kalivilakku (kali meaning dance; vilakku meaning lamp) with its thick wick sunk till the neck in coconut oil. Traditionally, this lamp used to provide sole light when the plays used to be performed inside temples, palaces or abodes houses of nobles and aristocrats. Enactment of a play by actors takes place to the accompaniment of music (geetha) and instruments (vadya). The percussion instruments used are chenda, maddalam (both of which underwent revolutionary changes in their aesthetics with the contributions of Kalamandalam Krishnankutty Poduval and Kalamandalam Appukutty Poduval) and, at times, edakka. In addition, the singers (the lead singer is called “ponnani” and his follower is called “singidi”) use chengila (gong made of bell metal, which can be struck with a wooden stick) and ilathalam (a pair of cymbals). The lead singer in some sense uses the Chengala to conduct the Vadyam and Geetha components, just as a conductor uses his wand in western classical music. A distinguishing characteristic of this art form is that the actors never speak but use hand gestures, expressions and rhythmic dancing instead of dialogue (but for a couple of rare characters).
ACTING
A Kathakali actor uses immense concentration, skill and physical stamina, gained from regimented training based on Kalaripayattu, the ancient martial art of Kerala, to prepare for his demanding role. The training can often last for 8–10 years, and is intensive. In Kathakali, the story is enacted purely by the movements of the hands (called mudras or hand gestures) and by facial expressions (rasas) and bodily movements. The expressions are derived from Natyashastra (the tome that deals with the science of expressions) and are classified into nine as in most Indian classical art forms. Dancers also undergo special practice sessions to learn control of their eye movements.
There are 24 basic mudras—the permutation and combination of which would add up a chunk of the hand gestures in vogue today. Each can again can be classified into 'Samaana-mudras'(one mudra symbolising two entities) or misra-mudras (both the hands are used to show these mudras). The mudras are a form of sign language used to tell the story.
The main facial expressions of a Kathakali artist are the 'navarasams' (Navarasas in anglicised form) (literal translation: Nine Tastes, but more loosely translated as nine feelings or expressions) which are Sringaram (amour), Hasyam (ridicule, humour), Bhayanakam (fear), Karunam (pathos), Roudram (anger, wrath), Veeram (valour), Beebhatsam (disgust), Adbhutam (wonder, amazement), Shantam (tranquility, peace). The link at the end of the page gives more details on Navarasas.
One of the most interesting aspects of Kathakali is its elaborate make-up code. Most often, the make-up can be classified into five basic sets namely Pachcha, Kathi, Kari, Thaadi, and Minukku. The differences between these sets lie in the predominant colours that are applied on the face. Pachcha (meaning green) has green as the dominant colour and is used to portray noble male characters who are said to have a mixture of "Satvik" (pious) and "Rajasik" (dark; Rajas = darkness) nature. Rajasik characters having an evil streak ("tamasic"= evil) -- all the same they are anti-heroes in the play (such as the demon king Ravana) -- and portrayed with streaks of red in a green-painted face. Excessively evil characters such as demons (totally tamasic) have a predominantly red make-up and a red beard. They are called Red Beard (Red Beard). Tamasic characters such as uncivilised hunters and woodsmen are represented with a predominantly black make-up base and a black beard and are called black beard (meaning black beard). Women and ascetics have lustrous, yellowish faces and this semi-realistic category forms the fifth class. In addition, there are modifications of the five basic sets described above such as Vella Thadi (white beard) used to depict Hanuman (the Monkey-God) and Pazhuppu, which is majorly used for Lord Shiva and Balabhadra.
NOTABLE TRAINING CENTRES & MASTERS
Kathakali artistes need assiduous grooming for almost a decade's time, and most masters are products of accomplished institutions that give a minimum training course of half-a-dozen years. The leading Kathakali schools (some of them started during the pre-Independent era India) are Kerala Kalamandalam (located in Cheruthuruthy near Shoranur), PSV Natya Sangham (located in Kottakal near Kozhikode), Sadanam Kathakali and Classical Arts Academy (or Gandhi Seva Sadan located in Perur near Ottappalam in Palakkad), Unnayi Varier Smaraka Kalanilayam (located in Irinjalakuda south of Thrissur), Margi in Thiruvananthapuram, Muthappan Kaliyogam at Parassinikkadavu in Kannur district and RLV School at Tripunithura off Kochi and Kalabharathi at Pakalkkuri near Kottarakkara in Kollam district, Sandarshan Kathakali Kendram in Ambalapuzha and Vellinazhi Nanu Nair Smaraka Kalakendra in Kuruvattor. Outside Kerala, Kathakali is being taught at the International Centre for Kathakali in New Delhi, Santiniketan at Visva-Bharati University in West Bengal, Kalakshetra in Chennai and Darpana Academy in Ahmedabad among others. PadmaSree Guru Chengannur Raman Pillai mostly known as 'Guru Chengannur'was running a traditional Gurukula Style approach to propagate Kathakali.
‘Guru Chengannur” is ever renowned as the Sovereign Guru of Kathakali. His precision in using symbols, gestures and steps were highest in the field of Kathakali. Guru Chegannur's kaththi vesham, especially the portrayal of Duryodhana enthralled the audience every time he performed. A master of the art, he found immense happiness and satisfaction in the success and recognition of his disciples.
Senior Kathakali exponents of today include Padma Bhushan Kalamandalam Ramankutty Nair, Padma Shri Kalamandalam Gopi, Madavoor Vasudevan Nair, Chemancheri Kunhiraman Nair, Kottakkal Krishnankutty Nair, Mankompu Sivasankara Pillai, Sadanam Krishnankutty, Nelliyode Vasudevan Namboodiri, Kalamandalam Vasu Pisharody, FACT Padmanabhan, Kottakkal Chandrasekharan, Margi Vijayakumar, Kottakkal Nandakumaran Nair, Vazhenkada Vijayan, Inchakkattu Ramachandran Pillai, Kalamandalam Kuttan, Mayyanad Kesavan Namboodiri, Mathur Govindan Kutty, Narippatta Narayanan Namboodiri, Chavara Parukutty, Thonnakkal Peethambaran, Sadanam Balakrishnan, Kalanilayam Gopalakrishnan, Chirakkara Madhavankutty, Sadanam K. Harikumaran, Thalavadi Aravindan, Kalanilayam Balakrishnan, Pariyanampatta Divakaran, Kottakkal Kesavan, Kalanilayam Gopi and Kudamaloor Muralikrishnan. The late titan actor-dancers of Kathakali's modern age (say, since the 1930s) include Pattikkamthodi Ravunni Menon, Chenganoor Raman Pillai, Chandu Panicker, Thakazhi Guru Kunchu Kurup, Padma Shri Kalamandalam Krishnan Nair, Padma Shri Vazhenkada Kunchu Nair, Kavalappara Narayanan Nair, Kurichi Kunhan Panikkar, Thekkinkattil Ramunni Nair, Padma Shri Keezhpadam Kumaran Nair, Kalamandalam Padmanabhan Nair, Mankulam Vishnu Namboodiri, Oyur Kochu Govinda Pillai, Vellinezhi Nanu Nair, Padma Shri Kavungal Chathunni Panikkar, Kudamaloor Karunakaran Nair, Kottakkal Sivaraman, Kannan Pattali, Pallippuram Gopalan Nair, Haripad Ramakrishna Pillai, Champakkulam Pachu Pillai, Chennithala Chellappan Pillai, Guru Mampuzha Madhava Panicker, and Vaikkom Karunakaran.
Kathakali is still hugely a male domain but, since the 1970s, females too have made entry into the art form on a recognisable scale. The central Kerala temple town of Tripunithura has, in fact, a ladies troupe (with members belonging to several part of the state) that performs Kathakali, by and large in Travancore.
KATHAKALI STYLES
Known as Sampradäyaṃ(Malayalam: സമ്പ്രദായം); these are leading Kathakali styles that differ from each other in subtleties like choreographic profile, position of hand gestures and stress on dance than drama and vice versa. Some of the major original kathakali styles included:
Vettathu Sampradayam
Kalladikkodan Sampradyam
Kaplingadu Sampradayam
Of late, these have narrowed down to the northern (Kalluvazhi) and southern (Thekkan) styles. It was largely developed by the legendary Pattikkamthodi Ravunni Menon (1881-1949) that is implemented in Kerala Kalamandalam (though it has also a department that teaches the southern style), Sadanam, RLV and Kottakkal. Margi has its training largely based on the Thekkan style, known for its stress on drama and part-realistic techniques. Kalanilayam, effectively, churns out students with a mix of both styles.
OTHER FORMS OD DANCE & OFFSHOOTS
Kerala Natanam is a kind of dance form, partly based on Kathakali techniques and aesthetics, developed and stylised by the late dancer Guru Gopinath in the mid-20th century. Kathakali also finds portrayal in Malayalam feature films like Vanaprastham, Parinayam, Marattam, and Rangam. Besides documentary films have also been shot on Kathakali artistes like Chenganoor Raman Pillai, Kalamandalam Krishnan Nair, Keezhpadam Kumaran Nair, Kalamandalam Ramankutty Nair, Kalamandalam Gopi and Kottakkal Sivaraman.
As for fictional literature, Kathakali finds mention in several Malayalam short stories like Karmen (by N.S. Madhavan) and novels like Keshabharam (by P.V. Sreevalsan). Even the Indo-Anglian work like Arundhati Roy's Booker prize-winning The God of Small Things has a chapter on Kathakali, while, of late, Anita Nair's novel, Mistress, is entirely wrapped in the ethos of Kathakali.
Similar musical theater is popular in Kasaragod and the coastal and Malenadu regions of Karnataka, viz. Yakshagana. Though Yakshagana resembles Kathakali in terms of its costume and makeup to an extent, Yakshagana is markedly different from Kathakali as it involves dialogues and method acting also the narration is in Kannada, wherein philosophical debates are also possible within framework of the character. As per records the art form of Yakshagana was already rooted and well established at the time of Sri Manavedan Raja. There is possibilities of its significant influence in formation of Kathakkali as the troupe of performers of "Krishnanattam" designed the basic costume of the art form already established in other parts of south India including Males playing the female roles (until more recently).
Kottayam thamburan's way of presenting kathakali was later known as Kalladikkoden sambradayam. Chathu Paniker,the introducer of Kallikkoden Sambrathayam, stayed in Kottayam for five years with Kottayam Thamburan's residence and practiced Kalladikkoden Sambrathayam. Then he returned to his home place. After a short period Chathu Paniker reached Pulapatta as instructed by Kuthiravattath nair. That was around the year ME 865. Many deciples from Kadathanadu, Kurumbra nadu, Vettathu nadu, Palakkadu and Perumpadappu studied kathakali(Kalladikkoden Sambrathayam ) By that time Chathu Paniker was an old man. Some years later he died from Pulapatta.
NOTED KATHAKALI VILLAGES & BELTS
There are certain pockets in Kerala that have given birth to many Kathakali artistes over the years. If they can be called Kathakali villages (or some of them, these days, towns), here are some of them: Vellinezhi, Kuruvattoor, Karalmanna, Cherpulassery, Kothachira, peringode, sreekrishnapuram Kongad and Ottapalam in Palakkad district, Vazhenkada in Malappuram district, Thichur or Tichoor, Guruvayur, Thiruvilwamala and Irinjalakuda in Thrissur district, Tripunithura, Edappally, Thekkan Chittoor in Ernakulam district and Kuttanad, Harippad belt in Alappuzha district besides places in and around Thiruvanathapuram in south Travancore and Payyannur in north Malabar.
AWARDS FOR KATHAKALI ARTISTS
Sangeet Natak Akademi Awardees - Kathakali (1956–2005)
Nambeesan Smaraka Awards—For artistic performances related kathakali{1992-2008}
KATHAKALI ATTAMS (ELAKI ATTAMS)
Attams or more specifically "elaki attams" are sequences of acting within a story acted out with the help of mudras without support from vocal music. The actor has the freedom to change the script to suit his own individual preferences. The actor will be supported ably by Chenda, Maddalam, and Elathalam (compulsory), Chengila (not very compulsory).
The following are only some examples. 'Kailasa Udharanam' and 'Tapas Attam' are very important attams and these are described at the end. Two of the many references are Kathakali Prakaram, pages 95 to 142 by Pannisheri Nanu Pillai and Kathakaliyile Manodharmangal by Chavara Appukuttan Pillai.
VANA VARNANA: BHIMA IN KALYANA SAUGANDHIKA
Modern man looks at the forest, indeed the birthplace of primates, with a certain wonder and a certain respect. Kathakali characters are no exception.
When Pandavas were living in the forest, one day, a flower, not seen before, wafted by the wind, comes and falls at the feet of Panchali. Exhilarated by its beauty and smell, Panchali asks Bhima to bring her more such flowers. To her pleasure Bhima is ready to go at once. But Panchali asks him what he shall do for food and drink on the way. Bhima thinks and says "Food and Drink! Oh, this side glance (look) of yours. This look of longing. This look of anticipation. The very thought fills me up. I don't need any food and drink at all. Let me go." He takes his mace and off he goes. Ulsaham (enthusiasm) is his Sdhayi Bhavam (permanent feature).
"Let me go at once in search of this flower," says Bhima. "The scented wind is blowing from the southern side. Let me go that way." After walking some distance he sees a huge mountain called Gandhamadana and three ways. He decides to take the middle one which goes over the mountain. After going further "The forest is getting thicker. Big trees, big branches in all directions. The forest looks like a huge dark vessel into which even light can not penetrate. This is my (Bhima's) way. Nothing can hinder me." So saying he pulls down many trees. Sometimes he shatters the trees with his mace. Suddenly he sees an elephant. "Oh! Elephant." He describes it. Its trunk. Sharp ears.
The itching sensation in the body. It takes some mud and throws on the body. Oh good. Then it sucks water and throws on the body. Somewhat better. Slowly it starts dosing even though alert at times. A very huge python is approaching steadily. Suddenly it catches hold of the elephant's hind leg. The elephant wakes up and tries to disengage the python. The python pulls to one side. The elephant kicks and drags to the other side. This goes on for some time. Bhima looks to the other side where a hungry lion is looking for food. It comes running and strikes the elephants head and eats part of the brain and goes off. The python completes the rest. "Oh my god, how ruthless!" says Bhima and proceeds on his way.
UDYANA VARNANA: NALA IN NALACHARITHAM SECOND DAY
Descriptions of gardens are found in most dance forms of India and abroad. These are also common in Kathakali.
Newly married Nala and Damayanthi are walking in the garden. When Nala was lovingly looking at Damayanthi a flower falls on her. Nala is overjoyed and thinks that this is a kindness nature has shown on his wife. Nala says "On seeing the arrival of their queen, the trees and climbers are showing happiness by dropping flowers on you." He tells her, "See that tree. When I used to be alone the tree used to hug the climber and seemingly laugh at my condition." Then he looks at the tree and says, "Dear Tree, look at me now. See how fortunate I am with my beautiful wife."
Both wander about. A bumblebee flies towards Damayanthi. Immediately Nala protects her face with a kerchief. He looks at the bee and then at Damayanthi. He says, "On seeing your face the bee thought it was a flower and came to drink the nectar." Nala and Damayanthi listen to the sounds coming out of the garden. Damayanti says, "It appears that the whole garden is thrilled. The flowers are blooming and smiling. Cuckoos are singing and the bees are dancing. Gentle winds are blowing and rubbing against our bodies. How beautiful the whole garden looks." Then Nala says that the sun is going down and it is time for them to go back and takes her away.
SHABDA VARNANA: HANUMAN IN KALYANA SAUGANDHIKAM
While Bhima goes in search of the flower, here Hanuman is sitting doing Tapas with mind concentrated on Sri Rama.
When he hears the terrible noises made by Bhima in the forest he feels disturbed in doing his Tapas. He thinks "What is the reason for this?" Then the sounds become bigger. "What is this?" He thinks, "The sounds are getting bigger. Such a terrible noise. Is the sea coming up thinking that the time is ripe for the great deluge (Pralaya). Birds are flying helter-skelter. Trees look shocked. Even Kali Yuga is not here. Then what is it? Are mountains quarreling with each other? No, That can't be it. Indra had cut off the wings of mountains so that they don't quarrel. Is the sea changing its position? No it can't be. The sea has promised it will not change its position again. It can't break the promise." Hanuman starts looking for clues. "I see elephants and lions running in fear of somebody. Oh a huge man is coming this way. Oh, a hero is coming. He is pulling out trees and throwing it here and there. Okay. Let him come near, We will see."
THANDEDATTAM: RAVANA IN BALI VADHAM
After his theranottam Ravana is seen sitting on a stool. He says to himself "I am enjoying a lot of happiness. What is the reason for this?" Thinks. "Yes I know it. I did Tapas to Brahma and received all necessary boons. Afterwards I won all ten directions. I also defeated my elder brother Vaishravana. Then I lifted Kailas mountain when Siva and Parvathi were having a misunderstanding. Parvathi got frightened and embraced Siva in fear. Siva was so happy he gave a divine sword called Chandrahasa. Now the whole world is afraid of me. That is why I am enjoying so much happiness." He goes and sits on the stool. He looks far away. "Who is coming from a distance. he is coming fast. Oh, it is Akamba. Okay. Let me find out what news he has for me."
ASHRAMA VARNANA: ARJUNA IN KIRATHAM
Arjuna wants to do Tapas to Lord Siva and he is looking a suitable place in the Himalayan slopes. He comes to place where there is an ashram. Arjuna looks closely at the place. "Oh. What a beautiful place this is. A small river in which a very pure water is flowing. Some hermits are taking baths in the river. Some hermits are standing in the water and doing Tapsas. Some are facing the Sun. Some are standing in between five fires." Arjuna salutes the hermits from far. He says to himself "Look at this young one of a deer. It is looking for its mother. It seems to be hungry and thirsty. Nearby a female tiger is feeding its young ones. The little deer goes towards the tigress and pushes the young tiger cubs aside and starts drinking milk from the tigress. The tigress looks lovingly at the young deer and even licks its body as if it were its own child. How beautiful. How fulfilling."
Again he looks "Here on this side a mongoose and a serpent forgetting their enmity are hugging each other. This place is really strange and made divine by saints and hermits. Let me start my Tapas somewhere nearby."
A sloka called "Shikhini Shalabha" can be selected instead of the above if time permits.
AN ATTAM BASED ON A SLOKA
Sansrit slokas are sometimes shown in mudras and it has a pleasing and exhilarating effect. Different actors use slokas as per his own taste and liking. However, the slokas are taught to students during their training period. An example is given below.
Kusumo Kusumolpatti Shrooyathena Chathushyathe
Bale thava Mukhambuje Pashya Neelolpaladwayam
Meaning a flower blooming inside another flower is not known to history. But, my dear, in your lotus like face are seen two blue Neelolpala flowers (eyes).
A CONVERSATION BASED ON A SLOKA
Sanskrit slokas can also be used to express an intent. One such example is a sloka used by Arjuna addressed to Mathali the charioteer in Kalakeya Vadham. Sloka:
Pitha: Kushalee Mama hritha Bhujaam
Naatha Sachee Vallabha:
Maatha: kim nu Pralomacha Kushalinee
Soonurjayanthasthayo
Preethim va Kushchate Thadikshnavidhow
Cheta Samutkanuthe
Sutha: tvam Radhamashu Chodaya vayam
Dharmadivam Mathala
Meaning: The husband of Indrani and the lord of gods my father - Is he in good health? His son Jayantha - Is he strictly following the commands of his father? Oh, I am impatient to see all of them.
SWARGA VARNANA: ARJUNA IN KELAKEYA VADHAM
Arjuna goes to heaven on the invitation of his father, Indra. After taking permission from Indrani he goes out to see all the places in Swarga. First he sees a building, his father's palace. It is so huge with four entrances. It is made of materials superior to gold and jewels of the world. Then he goes ahead and sees Iravatha. Here he describes it as a huge elephant with four horns. He is afraid to touch it. Then he thinks that animals in Swarga can't be cruel like in the world and so thinking he goes and touches and salutes Iravatha. He describes the churning of the white sea by gods and demons with many details and how Iravatha also came out of the white sea due to this churning.
He walks on and sees his father's (Indra's) horse. It is described as being white and its mane is sizzling like the waves of the white sea from which it came. He touches and salutes the horse also. Then he goes to see the river of the sky (or milky way). He sees many birds by this river and how the birds fly and play is shown.
Then he sees the heavenly ladies. Some are collecting flowers, and one of them comes late and asks for some flowers for making garland. The others refuse. She goes to the Kalpa Vriksha and says "please give me some flowers." Immediately a shower of flowers occurs which she collects in her clothes and goes to make garlands chiding the others. "See... I also got flowers." After this he sees the music and dance of the heavenly ladies. First it starts with the adjustments of instruments Thamburu, Mridangam, Veena. Then the actual music starts along with the striking of cymbals. Then two or three types of dances are shown. Then comes juggling of balls. It is described by a sloka thus:
Ekopi Thraya Iva Bhathi Kandukoyam
Kanthayaa: Karathala Raktharaktha:
Abhrastho Nayanamareechi Neelaneelo
Popular belief is that kathakali is emerged from "Krishnanattam", the dance drama on the life and activities of Lord Krishna created by Sri Manavedan Raja, the Zamorin of Calicut (1585-1658 AD). Once Kottarakkara Thampuran, the Raja of Kottarakkara who was attracted by Krishnanattam requested the Zamorin for the loan of a troupe of performers. Due to the political rivalry between the two, Zamorin did not allow this. So Kottarakkara Thampuran created another art form called Ramanattam which was later transformed into Aattakatha. Krishnanaattam was written in Sanskrit, and Ramanattam was in Malayalam. By the end of 17th century, Attakatha was presented to the world with the title 'Kathakali'. Kathakali also shares a lot of similarities with Krishnanattam, Koodiyattam (a classical Sanskrit drama existing in Kerala) and Ashtapadiyattam (an adaptation of 12th-century musical called Gitagovindam). It also incorporates several other elements from traditional and ritualistic art forms like Mudiyettu, Thiyyattu, Theyyam and Padayani besides a minor share of folk arts like Porattunatakam. All along, the martial art of Kalarippayattu has influenced the body language of Kathakali. The use of Malayalam, the local language (albeit as a mix of Sanskrit and Malayalam, called ), has also helped the literature of Kathakali sound more transparent for the average audience. As a part of modernising, propagating, promoting and popularizing Kathakali, the International Centre for Kathakali at New Delhi has taken up a continuing project since 1980 of producing new plays based on not only traditional and mythological stories, but also historical stories, European classics and Shakespeare's plays. Recently they produced Kathakali plays based on Shakespeare's Othello and Greek-Roman mythology of Psyche and Cupid.
Even though the lyrics/literature would qualify as another independent element called Sahithyam, it is considered as a component of Geetha or music, as it plays only a supplementary role to
Bhumau Talcharana Naghamshu Gaurgaura:
Meaning One ball looks like three balls. When it is in the hands of the juggler, it takes the redness of the hands, when it goes up it takes the blueness of the eyes, when it strikes the ground it becomes white from the whiteness of the leg nails. Once a juggled ball falls down. Then she, the juggler, somehow manages to proceed and remarks "See.. how I can do it".
At one time a garment slips from a lady's body and she adjusts the cloth showing shameful shyness (Lajja). Then the ladies go in for a Kummi dance. As Arjuna was enjoying this dance, suddenly somebody calls him. Arjuna feels scared. "Oh God, where am I?" he says and beats a hasty retreat.
TAPAS ATTAM: RAVANA IN RAVANA ULBHAVAM
[Background: Mali, Sumali and Malyavan were three brothers ruling Sri Lanka. During a war between them and Indra, Indra requested help from Lord Vishnu and as a consequence Lord Vishnu killed Mali. Sumali and Malyavan escaped to Patala. Kaikasi was the daughter of Sumali. She wandered in the forest. She belong three boys through a great sage called Vishravassu. (Vishravassu had an earlier son called Vaishravana who became the richest among all people.) The eldest boy of Kaikasi was Ravana followed by Kumbhakarna and Vibhishana.]
SCENE 1
When Ravana was a young boy (Kutti Ravana vesham), one day he was sleeping on his mothers lap in a place called madhuvanam. At that time Kaikasi sees Vaishravana flying overhead in his vimana (mythical aeroplane). She thinks “Oh, that is Vaishravana, technically a brother of my son who is sleeping on my lap. He is rich and strong. My son is so poor and weak. While thinking thus a drop of tear from her eyes drops on Ravana’s face. Ravana suddenly wakes up and sees his mother crying. When he knew the reason he could not bear it. He says he is going to do tapas to Brahma to get boons so that he will be strong and rich.
SCENE 2
(The tapas itself is shown as a part of autobiographical narration of adult ravana)
Ravana (adult Ravana, not kutti Ravana) is sitting on a stool. He thinks “Why am I so happy? How did I become so rich and strong? Oh yes. It is because of the tapas I did. What made me do the tapas? When I was a young boy, one day I was sleeping on my mother’s lap in a place called Madhuvanam. A drop of tear from her eyes falls on my face. I asked her why she was crying. She said she saw Vaishravana flying overhead in his vimana (plane). She told me Vaishravan was a brother of mine now flying in a plane. He is rich and strong. I am so poor and weak. When I heard this comparison between me and my brother, I could not bear it. I am going to do tapas to Brahma to get boons so that I will be strong and rich.
I made five different types of fires (while doing tapas gods are approached through Agni the god of fire). Then I started my tapas. I asked my brothers to stand guard and also keep the fires burning. Then I fully concentrated on tapas. Time passed but Brahma did not appear. I looked. Why is Brahma not appearing? I doubled my concentration. Time passed. Brahma is not appearing. Still not appearing? I cut one of my heads and put it in the fire. Waited, Brahma did not come. One more head rolls. Still no Brahma comes. Heads roll and roll. No Brahma. Only one head is left. First I thought of stopping my tapas. But no! Never! That will be an insult to me and my family. It is better to die than stop. Also when I die Brahma will be judged as being partial. With great determination I swung the sword at my last neck, when, lo and behold, suddenly Brahma appeared and caught my hand. I looked at him with still un-subsided, but gradually subsiding anger. Brahma asked me what boons I wanted. I asked for a boon that I should win all the worlds and have all the wealth and fame and that I should not be killed except by man. I also asked him to give boons for my brothers.
In the next scene Ravana asks Kumbhakarna and Vibhishana what boons they got. Unfortunately Kumbhakarna’s tongue got twisted while asking for boon and he got ‘sleep’ instead of becoming the ‘king of gods’. Ravana laughed it off. As for Vibhishana, he being a bhaktha of Vishnu, asked for Vishnu’s blessings and got it. Ravana laughs it off and also decides to conquer all the worlds and starts preparing his grand army for the big conquest of the worlds.
[This method of presentation with a peculiar sequence has a tremendous dramatic affect. The main actor redoes a small part of what happened to kutti Ravana vesham, and this gives a view of the high contrast between the boy and the man Ravana. Similarly the presence of Kumbhakarna and Vibhishana in the subsequent scene offers a good smile on the face of the viewer at the end of the play.]
KAILASA UDDHARANAM: RAVANA IN BALI VIJAYAM
[Background and Previous scene: After receiving the boons, and widening his kingdom in all directions, Ravana lives in Sri Lanka with great pomp and splendor. One day he sees Saint Narada approaching his palace singing songs in praise of him ‘Jaya jaya Ravana, Lanka Pathe’. Happily he receives Narada and seats him next to him. After telling Narada about the victory of his son Indrajith on Indra, Ravana tells Narada “Now there is nobody on earth or other worlds who can fight with me”. To this Narada replies “ Very true indeed, but there is one huge monkey called Bali who says he can defeat you. He even said that you are just like a blade of grass to him. Well let him say what he wants. You are unbeatable.” Then Narada says ‘let us go there and see him’. Both decide to go. But Ravana takes his famous sword called “Chandrahasam”. Then Narada asks the history of this sword. Ravana’s Attam Starts.]
Ravana says “I received this sword from Lord Siva. It happened thus. Once when I was conquering new places and expanding my empire I happened to be going across the Kailasa mountain. The plane got stuck on the mountain unable to move forward. I got down from the plane and looked at the mountain. (Looks from one end to the other first horizontally and then vertically.) So huge it was. Then I decided to lift it with my bare hand and keep it aside and move forward. I started sticking my hands under it one by one. Then I tried to lift it. It doesn’t move. I put more force and more force. It moved just a bit. I pushed harder and harder, slowly it started moving then again and again and it moved easily. Then I lifted it up with my hands and started juggling it (exaggeration evident).
“At that particular time Lord Siva was quarreling with his wife Parvathi. Why did they fight? The story is as follows. Parvathi had gone for enjoying swimming and bathing in some beautiful pond. At that time Siva opened his jata (disheveled long hair) and called Ganga for some entertainment after asking Ganapathi and Subramania to go for some errands. Somehow becoming suspicious, right at that time, Parvathi came back in a hurry with wet clothes and saw Siva with Ganga. Siva was wondering what to do and it was at that time that Ravana started lifting the Kailasa. When Kailasa started shaking Parvathi got scared and ran to Siva and hugged him. So the quarrel ended and Siva was happy. “As a reward Siva called me and gave me this famous Chandrahasa sword.”
Then Narada and Ravana leave to meet Bali. Ravana wanted to take the sword along with him, but Narada suggested that the sword is not required for teaching a lesson to Bali who is after all an unarmed monkey.
WIKIPEDIA
Union Major General George McClellan's plans for the Battle included precise, coordinated attacks on the left and right wings of General Lee's Confederate army. The Federals hoped that, with both flanks threatened, Lee would pull reinforcements from, and consequently weaken, his center. A concentrated thrust through the Southerners' middle could then split and destroy the Army of Northern Virginia. However, despite repeated orders to advance against Lee's right flank, Major General Burnside's 12,000 men were held at bay by about 450 to 500 determined Georgians perched on the bluffs overlooking the bridge. The stone for the bridge had been mined from the bluffs overlooking the creek. This left depressions in the hillside forming ready-made rifle pits to fire from in relative safety. Pictured here, the Antietam Creek quietly flows under the now peaceful Rohrbach or Burnside's Bridge.
Describing the ground and the valiant efforts of his tremendously outnumbered men, CSA Brigadier General Robert Toombs reported, "Its chief strength lay in the fact that, from the nature of the ground on the other side, the enemy were compelled to approach mainly by the road which led up the river for near 300 paces, parallel with my line of battle, and distant there from 50 to 150 feet, thus exposing his flank to a destructive fire the most of that distance.
At between 9 and 10 o'clock the enemy made his first attempt to carry the bridge by a rapid assault, and was repulsed with great slaughter, and at irregular intervals, up to about 1 o'clock, made four other attempts of the same kind, all of which were gallantly met and successfully repulsed by the Twentieth and Second Georgia...After these repeated disastrous repulses, the enemy, despairing of wresting the bridge from the grasp of its heroic defenders, and thus forcing his passage across the river at this point, turned his attention to the fords before referred to, and commenced moving fresh troops in that direction by his left flank."
Union Major General Ambrose E. Burnside would describe the battle in a similar fashion. His plan was to send a force downstream to ford the river and then, while Union soldiers stormed the Confederate front, the flanking troops would come in on their right and catch the small but well entrenched Confederate forces between the Federal hammer and anvil. "At 10 o'clock I received an order from the general commanding to make the attack. i directed Colonel Kingsbury, of the Eleventh Connecticut, to move forward with his line of skirmishers, and directed General Cox to detail General Crook's brigade to make the assault. General Rodman was directed to cross over at the ford below the bridge, and join on to the left of the command, which was to be thrown over the bridge. From General Crook's position it was found to be almost impossible to carry the bridge, and General Sturgis was ordered to make a detail from his division for that purpose. He immediately sent forward the Second Maryland (Lieutenant-Colonel Duryea) and the Sixth New Hampshire (Colonel Griffin), which regiments made several successive attacks in the most gallant style, but were driven back by the galling fire of the enemy. I then directed the batteries on the left to concentrate their fire on the woods above the bridge, and sent word to General Sturgis to detail the Fifty-first Pennsylvania (Colonel Hartranft) and the Fifty-first New York (Colonel Potter) to assault the bridge and carry it at all hazards. In the mean time Colonel Crook had brought a section of his battery to bear upon the heights just above the bridge. General Sturgis, by a judicious posting of these two regiments in rear of a spur which fronted the bridge, succeeded in protecting them from the enemy's fire until they reached the crest of the spur, at which point they commenced their charge and carried the bridge at the point of the bayonet at about 1 o'clock, the whole division following immediately."
CSA Brigadier General Robert Toombs would lament the lack of response to his request for reinforcements. He felt that, with a small force of men, he could have kept the Union soldiers from crossing downstream and held the men in blue in check. "Not being able to get any re-enforcements for the defense of these two fords, and seeing that the enemy was moving upon them to cross, thus enabling him to attack my small force in front, right flank, and rear, and my two regiments having been constantly engaged from early in the morning up to 1 o'clock with a vastly superior force of the enemy, aided by three heavy batteries, the commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Holmes, of the Second, having been killed in the action, and the only remaining field officer, Major [Skidmore] Harris, being painfully wounded, and fully one half of this regiment being killed or wounded, and the Twentieth having also suffered severely in killed and wounded, and the ammunition of both regiments being nearly exhausted, and Eubank's battery having been withdrawn to the rear nearly two hours before, I deemed it my duty, in pursuance of your original order, to withdraw my command and place it in the position designated."
Antietam Battlefield-Sharpsburg Md.
Public Domain Book: The history of magic : including a clear and precise exposition of its procedure, its rites and its mysteries
by Lévi, Eliphas, 1810-1875
Published 1922
Botrychium virginianum (L.) Sw., syn.: Osmunda virginiana L.
Rattlesnake Fern, DE: Virginische Mondraute, Virginischer Traubenfarn
Slo.: virginijska mladomesečina
Dat.: June 12. 2015
Lat.: 46.33 Long.: 13.63 (coordinates not precise)
Code: Bot_886/2015_DSC7186
Habitat: Riverine forest of river Soča, dense thicket in light mixed wood, Salix eleagnos, Picea abies dominant trees (Lamioorvalae-Salicetum eleagni s.lat. Dakskobler, Šilc & Čušin) (Ref.:4.); calcareous alluvial ground, flat terrain; humid place, in shade; partly protected from direct rain by tree canopies; elevation 430 m (1.410 feet), average precipitations ~ 3.000 mm/year, average temperature 8-10 deg C, alpine phytogeographical region.
Substratum: soil.
Place: Lower Trenta valley, left bank of river Soča near Podklanc settlement, East Julian Alps, Posočje, Slovenia EC.
Comments: Botrychium virginianum had been long time on my wish list. In spite of the fact that I was told in which wood to search, I've had no success in finding it for several years. This year it finally happened. We found a rich stand of several tens of plants in their best shape plus many young ones without fertile leaf.
Botrychium virginianum is widely distributed North American-Euro Siberian fern distributed in Europe in (mostly east part of) the Alps and the Carpathians. It is a rare to very rare, everywhere protected plant growing in montane to subalpine elevations of the Alps in Germany, Austria, Italy and Slovenia. In Switzerland it is very rarely found and marked in the state's red list as 'before extinction or already extinct' (Ref.:6.).
Botrychium virginianumis a tender, all green plant growing on secluded places, in mountain forests in narrow dark gorges and riverine woods. It is usually well hidden in deep green ground thickets (see picture 10.) No wonder, it is not easy to spot it. When mature it has two leaves. Green and sterile leaf, which is three to four times pinnate and a yellowish-green fertile leaf, which is two to three times pinnate, baring round sporangia and producing spores.
Enlisted in the Slovene Red List of rare and endangered species, marked by "R" representing a rare species.
Ref.:
(1) Personal communication with Dr. Igor Dakskobler, Institute Jovan Hadži, SAZU (Slovenia Academy of Science and Art) and Mr. Branko Dolinar.
(2) M.A.Fischer, W.Adler, K.Oswald, Exkursionsflora Österreich Liechtenstein, Südtirol, LO Landesmuseen, Linz, Austria (2005), p 233.
(3) A.Martinči et all., Mala Flora Slovenije, Tehnična Založba Slovenije (2007) (in Slovenian), p 88.
(4) I. Dakskobler, Phytosociological and floristic Analysis of Riverine Forests in the Soča Valley, Dissertationes classis Historia Naturalis IV., XLVIII-2, SAZU (2007), pp 25-138.
(5) D. Aeschimann, K. Lauber, D.M. Moser, J.P. Theurillat, Flora Alpina, Vol. 1., Haupt (2004), p 64.
(6) K. Lauber and G. Wagner, Flora Helvetica, 5. Auflage, Haupt (2012), p 48.