Spirit of India Contest

This pic has taken at the time of Vinayagar Chaturthi! He is very dedicated and painting the statue

Man painting the Vinayagar Statue

A man stands with his wet cloth draped around in an elegant manner, waiting for it to dry  as other devotees take a dip in the holy Ganges in the background.

A farmer walks during sunset

A Ghmc worker cleans road early in the morning

Fisherman's are going for their work in the early morning!!

Fisher Man's in the Sea

captured the moments of pratising 360 flip from young boy at marina beach chennai.

360flip

Dussera festival is only of the key festivals in south india in Kulasekarapattinam where the devotees pay their tribute to the almighty by decorating themselves in the form of God kali and will be in trance state.

Godly form but in reverent silence

The priest performs his daily ritual in the temple.

Daily Life

This shot was taken as a focus trap technique.  After composing the shot and waiting for the subject to come in to frame,  I was gifted with a child running across the frame looking in to my frame.  Showcasing the archaeological master piece with a subject in the frame enriches the frame.

A fine evening in Halebedu

People follow the women dressed up as goddes kaali

One out of the 1000s

Ray of spirituality

The vibrance of the colour and happiness of the cute girl makes the picture alive

Charming girl in the light

In his long travel of  spirituality  he allows The Nature to immerse in to him by contacting with nature’s part..

Devotee with divotion in fire

Kulasai Dasara is the grand festival of 300 year old Kulasai Mutharammam Temple which is located at Kulasekharapatnam in Tamil Nadu. In essence, Dasara is celebrated in the 10th day after 9-day of Navaratri festival across India. However, at Kulasai, it is celebrated as a 12-days function. It is estimated that around 2.5 Million [25Lakhs] devotees visited the temple in the 2018 celebrations.

Teams are formed from each village and are sponsored by the richest family of the village or the village head. One member from this team is chosen to don the avatar of Goddess Kali, the central god in this festival. A strict condition is that only a man can dress as Kali and has to fast for 41 days. Other members dress up like other Gods or Goddesses according to their choice. During Dasara, these devotees need to dress like the god/goddess every day and have to abstain from impure thoughts and bad habits. They need to commit to being pure in body, mind and soul.

Kulasekharapatnam is a tiny coastal town with extremely high humidity and temperature. In this climate, it’s not an easy commitment to be dressed as a god in heavy costume and with bold makeup. If this was not hard enough, they fast for 41 days and carry a pot of fire in their bare hands, wear multiple weighty false arms and a pair of metal glasses with a tiny hole limiting their vision to almost zero and are surrounded by people playing drums and loud music.
I have seen some of these avatars faint out of exhaustion, heat, the frenzy around them and dehydration.

Each team roams around many villages during Dasara and perform a ritualistic dance to earn some alms. As it is quite a lucrative way of earning money, some individuals, especially kids, also dressed in godly costumes to make some easy money.

During the last day of the festival, the celebrations peak. The avatars visit the temple and on the last leg of their journey through the temple corridor, they perform a ritualistic dance in devotion to the God. To depict the anger with which Goddess Lalithambigai destroyed Magisasuran, they enter a trance like state characterized by deafening music and violent dancing.

After they have offered their prayers, they then finally go the beach behind the temple and worship the fire that they have carried in their hands. A cleansing dip follows where they take a bath and immerse all the godly belongings which made them look like God. Local kids then have fun collecting these godly avatars to play with them or keep them as a memory.

An interesting thing however is that taking a dip in the sea with all the heavy costume is a practical problem as water makes everything seem heavier. So they just stand in the sea and spray some sea water on themselves symbolically and take off their costumes post that.

Millions of visitors come to attend this event. Sometimes an entire village arrives by buses or in trucks. They pitch their tents in open grounds for three days making it look like a mini picnic complete with cooking facilities.

Local residents are also very helpful towards these visitors. They allow them to take shelter in their homes. Some families even offer water and food to these visitors.

The final day looks like a colourful carnival where thousands of teams line up in a narrow lane marching towards the temple for hours often stretching day into night. It is life-time experience to witness the event and feel their faith & dedication.

Drummer

This is different from other Temple's over India

Landscape of beautiful temple

Agriculture

This is a picture of Nandgaon, Vrindavan during holi festival. Holi is the most colorful festival in India.

Gulal

This is a picture of Dasara festival at Kulasekarapattinam, Tamilnadu, India. The devotees paint their bodies in various avatars as an offering to the deity. after all they burn their accessories with fire at the beach. This is very famous and vibrant festival.

Avatar of Dasara festival

Green room frames

On this particular day, the men of Nandgaon come to Barsana. Their intention is to take over the temple of Shri Radhikaji. But the women of Barsana are reluctant to allow them to do so. They resist them with bamboo sticks. This is why here Holi is also popularly known as Lathmar Holi.

Holi, the festival of colors

Childrens fighting for flag in the school

This was one fine day in Chennai government school. Childrens are holding the flag with spirit of India. Like the way this shot happened

shot taken at canning during moichara festival

MOICHARA

Shot taken at dashashramedh ghat at varanasi

PEOPLE OF BENARAS

CHILDREN OF BENARAS

Benarasa people 3

This shot is taken at munshi ghat at Varanasi

Gangarati

This shot is taken at the time of Gajon festival in WestBengal

Canvas of a painter

The Statue of Unity is a colossal statue of Indian politician and independence activist Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (1875–1950), who was the first Deputy Prime Minister and Home minister of independent India. It is the world's tallest statue with a height of 182 metres. It is located on a river island facing the Sardar Sarovar Dam on river Narmada.

Statue of unity

Varanasi is a sacred and oldest city of the world located at the banks of the holy River Gange. Where, Gange aarti is performed daily in the evening by a group of priests at the Dashashwamedh ghat. Through the aarti, Agni Pooja is performed in which a commitment is made to the Lord Shiva, Mata Gange, Surya, Agni (Fire) as well as the whole universe made by the Lord Shiva.

Ganga harthi

Under the rail line over bridge crossing the river Godavari in Rajahmundry.

The Godavari River Bridge

Shot of a devotee playing a music instrument in a mandapam.

Devotee playing a music instrument in a temple's mandapam

Located in Karnataka, this magnificent shrine is dedicated to Lord Shiva. This temple boasts of the second highest statue of Lord Shiva in the world, and the sheer magnanimity of the statue will fill you with a sense of awe. This temple is built on the Kanduka Hill which is surrounded by the Arabian Sea on three sides. The main temple's entrance, also called the 'gopura' stands at 123 feet and you can witness the breathtaking view of the Shiva statue from the top of the gopura.

View of Murdeswara temple and Shivan statue from beach

Shot of a man admiring the gigantic Bahubali statue at Shravanabelagola

Admirer

This was shot at Kulasekharapatnam during during Dasara Festival when a disguised devotee blesses a girl child.

RAW Rituals

Shot of lights at Rock beach's old port, which are awaiting the darkness to light up the scene.

Awaiting Lights

Shot during Cockfight which is a game practiced in some village of India.

Fiercly Look

This phot was taken during the Dev dipavali festival in Benaras

Ritual Of Dev dipavali

This photograph was taken during the Dev Dipavali festival in Varanasi

Rangoli

Rangoli and lights

Lights and worship

Dev Dipavali

Lord Shiva

This is picture is click by Nikon at Kanpur uttarpradesh.

Fish Hunter

An elderly couple leaving dia's into the Ganga as part of the Dev Diwali tradition at Varanasi.

An elderly couple worshiping during Dev Diwali

A large crowd of devotees waiting inside the temple compound to catch the banana's thrown around as prasad by a priest during Kodungallur Bharani festival.

Devotees waiting to catch the prasad thrown at them

A devotee is ready for the Chhath puja rituals in the early morning during the first light of sunrise and one couple is busy taking selfies to make the moment memorable. In the 21st century, selfies became one of the most remarkable addictions as well as additions to our life.

21st-century festival goals

A Chhath puja devotee is waiting to worship Sun god during the first light of sunrise. The divinity of the time is enriched with the presence of the lamp and its reflection on the face of the devotee.

The first light & Chhath Puja devotee

Ganesh puja is one of the biggest celebrations in all over India. In Chennai also, it is being celebrated widely. The main attraction is the last phase of the celebration that is immersion. People enjoy a lot at marina beach while they immerse the clay or fiber idols one by one. It is very dramatic as they immerse the idol in the sea and many times the part of the idols comes back to the seashore. They have to throw it again towards the seawater. Here also one devotee is throwing the head of the idol.

Spirit of India Contest Photos