SOUTH INDIA FLOATS IN TIME ---- Wander the temple ruins of Rome, Greece, Egypt, the Maya of Mexico . Had you been here in their glory? These worn out bare stones would have been colored red, blue, brilliant greens, yellow, gold and silver flashing in the sunrise ! Men, Gods and animals, Ladies of the Courts and Soldiers would have stared down at you. You would have been humbled!

SOUTH INDIA FLOATS IN TIME---- Rising above modern cities , Hindu Temples flash and gleam, Peacocks and Elephants, Priests and Goddesses cross the ages in their glory to halt you in time .

SOUTH INDIA FLOATS IN TIME---- Due to the skills of her craftsmen in restoring the Temples to their rightful beauty . Not all of the Temple sites have or should be restored. I am not the only one who loves Hampi. India trains the hands of her young in the old ways .

SOUTH INDIA FLOATS IN TIME ---- Looking up at tier upon tier of magic in the sunlight

"SOME THINGS YOU JUST GOTTA DO FOR YOUR SOUL".

LOOKING AT MY PICTURES I REALIZED HOW SPECIAL THE RESTORED TEMPLES ARE!

The ancient farm fields of South India stay warm and ripe with food. The Gods control the fields and life in the villages. Wind, Rain & Sun The Gods amuse themselves with the Human. Protect the people from evil. The Ayyanars - the Guardians on the roads protect the villagers. Care and skill is used to craft these saviors --- Ayyanars. Towering Durga with her many arms riding a lion or is it a tiger?

Fierce warriors standing in the stirrups of raring white horses - Ayyanars with their soldiers daring evildoers to pass the shrines . Shrines blinding with the fierce colors of South India, hot reds , oranges, the gold of the sun, green, blue shrines serve food to the passers by, give peace to the weary and faint of heart. Ancient farm fields pass the seasons thru the skills of farmers and feed the villagers protected as they are by the Village Ayyanars - Guardians.

Caravansarais and Stepwells of Northern India

Its hot and dry with stunted trees and small scrubby bushes . It is the land of the Caravans, people and treasures and camels plod back and forth between the Far East and Europe. Caravansarais and Stepwells are the motels of their day. You can but pray that they are one day apart. Caravansarais are fort like with high walls surrounding an open courtyard. Stables are large, dark and cool as are the apartments awaiting exhausted travelers . Food, water , rest .

The land is harsh, the way is hard. With some jobs, you earn your money the hard way!! Load the silks and spices onto the camels , Europe is waiting! Return with gold coins and treasures , buy and sell, the eternal way of merchants.

The travelers had a goal, no one traveled for pleasure . Riding a camel in any fashion hurts your body. Bandits watched, disease joined with rats to ride along with the caravans. Travelers had a goal to reach.

The land is flat in Northern India with mountains jutting upwards. Your mind no longer sees the boring ugly scene. The drivers stop but nothing is visible. Walk forward and the ground opens !

RANI KI VAV ..... A Stepwell ! A beautiful building built below the ground reaches seven stories down to the cooling well . The walls are of carved stone. Deep galleries await the weary on many floors. Being below the ground with the water it cools the air, food, water and affords rest ! Maybe we can continue for another day. Rani ki Vav, the Queen's step well. is a richly sculpted Monument built around 1050 AD. Through disuse it silted up for centuries and was rediscovered in 1984 when a farmer was ploughing his field! It is one of the richest archaeological discoveries of North India. Thank the Divine for the imagination and creativity he has blessed the human hands with. The skill of the hands to create such beauty and to pass it down to us!!

The rural villages quietly await the world to find them and hope that they do not. The low thick walled homes, fresh clay smoothed and painted with henna designs in the South, they are painted white to reflect the sun that flashes embedded mirrors in the North. Groups of people of one clan in the villages choose one occupation and everyone, old and young take part. To weave silk, the worms are fed their favorite leaves until they spin the cocoons. These are gathered and put into boiling water, unraveled and the thread is stretched tight to dry, then woven into a raw silk sari in a natural shade of beige. Each of these stages are done by one group of people and done to perfection!

Weaving,carving stone and wood , creating jewelry and pots, passing down the skills to younger hands and maintaining calm safe place to dream away the days. Thank You Gods and Man !

Kay Bransford Ruty
kayruty@att.net

Tamil Nadu

Places visited in Tamil Nadu : While driving from Chennai to Tjanjavur many Ayyanar Horses (Village Guardians) can be seen on the road side villages

Gujarat

Places visited in Gujarat : Patan -near Ahmedabad for Rani ki Vav