title: Diamond Dogs

text: During the "Pin Ups" sessions, he told reporters that he wanted to create a musical, using various titles such as "Tragic Moments" and "Revenge, or The Best Haircut I Ever Had". His guitarist Mick Ronson recalled: "[Bowie] had all these little projects... [and] wasn't quite sure what he wanted to do." As Ronson began work on his solo album "Slaughter on 10th Avenue", David and his wife Angie decided to move out of Beckenham's Haddon Hall, because of harassment by fans. They moved initially into an apartment in Maida Vale, rented to them by actress Diana Rigg, before moving into a larger house on Oakley Street, Chelsea. According to Buckley, David Bowie's manager Tony Defries prevented this move initially, citing the house as "too extravagant". Despite RCA Records estimating Bowie's album and single sales in the UK at over two million copies combined, Defries said that sales did not provide Bowie with enough income to afford the house. In spite of Defries, Bowie bought the house and it was here the Bowies spent time with Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood of the Faces, Mick Jagger and his then-wife Bianca, and American singer and model Ava Cherry, with whom Bowie allegedly had an affair during this time.


title: Diamond Dogs

text: Along with recording "Pin Ups", Bowie participated in other musical ventures in 1973. He co-produced and played on Lulu's recording of "The Man Who Sold the World", which was released as a single in January 1974, contributed to Steeleye Span's "Now We Are Six", and formed a trio called the Astronettes, comprising Cherry, Jason Guess and Geoff MacCormack. The group recorded sessions at Olympic Studios in London but the project was ultimately shelved in January; a compilation album titled "People from Bad Homes" (later "The Astronettes Sessions") was released in 1995. Bowie reworked songs from these sessions in subsequent years. Buckley writes that the songs he recorded featured a blend of glam rock and soul, which proved to be the direction Bowie took in 1974.


title: Diamond Dogs

text: According to biographer Chris O'Leary, "Diamond Dogs" is a combination of numerous projects Bowie envisioned at the time. In November 1973, Bowie conducted an interview with writer William S. Burroughs for "Rolling Stone". Published in February 1974, the interview gave insight into Bowie's current ambitions. An admirer of Burroughs's working methods and his 1964 novel "Nova Express", Bowie revealed he had begun using Burroughs's "cut-up" technique as a way for inspiration. He spoke of a musical based on "Ziggy Stardust", saying: "Forty scenes are in it and it would be nice if the characters and actors learned the scenes and we all shuffled them around in a hat the afternoon of the performance and just performed it as the scenes come out." He also casually mentioned adapting George Orwell's 1949 novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four", a Bowie favourite, for television. He had wanted to create a theatrical production of the novel and began writing material after completing sessions for "Pin Ups". Neither of these projects came to fruition.


title: Diamond Dogs

text: The "Ziggy Stardust" musical, considered a "retrograde step" by biographer Nicholas Pegg, fell through, but Bowie salvaged two songs for "Diamond Dogs" he had written for it—"Rebel Rebel" and "Rock 'n' Roll with Me". At the end of 1973, George Orwell's widow, Sonia Orwell, denied Bowie the rights to use the novel. The rejection annoyed Bowie, who lambasted her for it in "Circus" magazine a few years later. She refused to allow any adaptation of her late husband's work for the rest of her life. No adaptations were possible until after her death in 1980. Unable to adapt the novel, Bowie decided to create his own apocalyptic scenario inspired by the works of Burroughs. Songs from this scenario included what would become the album's title track and "Future Legend".


title: Diamond Dogs

text: Buckley writes that the album was the first time Bowie used a recording studio as an instrument. With Scott's departure, Bowie produced the album himself. Keith Harwood, who had worked previously with the Rolling Stones on numerous sessions, and on Led Zeppelin's "Houses of the Holy", handled engineering duties. Pegg writes that despite Bowie and Harwood's previous collaborations on Mott the Hoople's "All the Young Dudes" and the original version of "John, I'm Only Dancing" (both 1972), "Diamond Dogs" was Harwood's first credit on a Bowie album. Bowie described being "in awe" of Harwood because of his work with the Stones. With the departure of the Spiders from Mars, Bowie handled lead guitar duties. He recalled in 1997 that he practiced every day knowing "the guitar playing had to be more than okay". This surprised "NME" critics Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray, producing what they described as a "scratchy, raucous, semi-amateurish sound that gave the album much of its characteristic flavour". Pianist Mike Garson and drummer Aynsley Dunbar returned from the "Pin Ups" sessions, Tony Newman also played drums while Herbie Flowers, who had played previously on "Space Oddity" (1969), was recruited to play bass. Alan Parker of Blue Mink played guest guitar on "1984" and "augmented" Bowie's riff on "Rebel Rebel", although he was only credited for "1984". Bowie's longtime friend Geoff MacCormack, now known as Warren Peace, sang backing vocals. "Diamond Dogs" was a milestone in Bowie's career as it reunited him with Tony Visconti, who provided string arrangements and helped mix the album at his studio in London. Visconti would go on to co-produce much of Bowie's work for the rest of the decade.


title: Diamond Dogs

text: Before the "Nineteen Eighty-Four" project was denied, Bowie worked on "1984" recording it on 19 January 1973 during the sessions for "Aladdin Sane". Initial work on "Diamond Dogs" began in late October 1973 at Trident Studios in London, where Bowie and Scott recorded "1984" in a medley with "Dodo", titled "1984/Dodo"; once they had mixed the track, this session marked the final time the two worked together. According to O'Leary, this session was also the last time Bowie worked with Ronson and Bolder. The medley had already made its public debut on the American television show "The 1980 Floor Show" recorded in London on 18–20 October 1973. A cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Growin' Up", with Ronnie Wood on lead guitar, was also recorded during this time. Recording for the album at Olympic officially began at the start of 1974. Bowie had started to work on "Rebel Rebel" during a solo session at Trident following Christmas 1973. This was Bowie's last known visit to Trident, his principal recording studio since 1968. On New Year's Day, the group recorded "Candidate" and "Take It In Right", an early version of "Can You Hear Me" from "Young Americans" (1975). Following the final sessions with the Astronettes, recording continued from 14–15 January, with the group recording "Rock 'n' Roll with Me", "Candidate", "Big Brother", "Take It In Right" and the title track. The following day, Bowie recorded "We Are the Dead", after which he contacted Visconti for mixing advice. O'Leary writes "Rebel Rebel" was finished around this time. Recording was finished at Ludolph Studios in the Netherlands, where the Stones had just finished recording "It's Only Rock 'n Roll" (1974).


title: Diamond Dogs

text: "Diamond Dogs" was Bowie's last album in the glam rock genre. Buckley writes: "In the sort of move which would come to define his career, Bowie jumped the glam-rock ship just in time, before it drifted into a blank parody of itself." The album has often been regarded as an "English proto-punk" record, according to the cultural studies academic Jon Stratton, who calls it "post-glam". The pop culture scholar Shelton Waldrep describes it as "wonderfully dark proto-punk", while the music journalist C. M. Crockford says it is "the goofy, abrasive place where punk and art-rock meet, dance a little, and depart". In the opinion of "The Guardian"s Adam Sweeting, while "the music still has one foot in the glam-rock camp", the album marks the point in Bowie's career where he "began exploring a kind of Weimar soul music with lavish theatrical packaging", featuring Broadway-style ballads such as "Big Brother" and "Sweet Thing". Pegg describes the album as having "manic alternations between power-charged garage rock and sophisticated, synthesiser-heavy apocalyptic ballads". Biographer Christopher Sandford writes that beyond the overall concept, many of the songs delve into R&B. "Pitchfork"s Barry Walters wrote that although the album is still primarily glam rock, it also contains elements of "Blaxploitation funk and soul, rock opera, European art song, and Broadway."


title: Diamond Dogs

text: The opening track, "Future Legend", is a spoken word track that depicts a world riddled by an urban apocalypse. The writings of Burroughs, especially "The Wild Boys" (1971) inspire the visions of decay. Author Peter Doggett notes that unlike the opening of "Ziggy Stardust", which announces the world will end in five years, the apocalypse of "Future Legend" could happen at any time. Bowie begins the title track by announcing, "This ain't rock'n'roll – this is "genocide"". The track introduces Bowie's newest persona, Halloween Jack, described as "a real cool cat" who "lives on top of Manhattan Chase" in the urban wasteland depicted in "Future Legend". He rules the "diamond dogs", who O'Leary describes as "packs of feral kids camped on high-rise roofs, tearing around on roller skates, terrorizing the corpse-strewn streets they live above". Although Jack is commonly identified as one of Bowie's "identities" like Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane, Doggett notes that Jack occupies "little more than a cameo role". The riff and saxophone are inspired by the Rolling Stones. Bowie's voice is also noticeably lower-pitched than his earlier records, which Ned Raggett of AllMusic believes fits the song perfectly. Biographer Marc Spitz notes that it is the same "jaded commentator's voice" Bowie had used on "Aladdin Sane".


title: Diamond Dogs

text: Multiple biographers cite the suite of "Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing (Reprise)" as the album's highlight. Pegg describes Bowie's vocal performance, which he believes to be one of his finest, as a croon. "Sweet Thing" paints pictures of decay, with sex being a "drug-like commodity" while "Candidate" contains references to Charles Manson and Muhammad Ali, with Bowie being "consumed by the fakery of his own stage creations". Cited by Pegg as Bowie's most covered track, "Rebel Rebel" is based around a distinctive guitar riff reminiscent of the Rolling Stones and was his farewell to the glam rock era. The song features guest guitar by Alan Parker who, according to Pegg, "added the three descending notes at the end of each loop of the riff". It features a character who predates 1970s punk rock and gender-bending lyrics ("You got your mother in a whirl / She's not sure if you're a boy or a girl"). Some commentators praised the song itself but felt it did not contribute to the overall theme of the album. Doggett, however, writes that the song acts as the "musical continuation" of the "Sweet Thing" suite.


title: Diamond Dogs

text: Bowie and MacCormack co-wrote "Rock 'n' Roll with Me". It was Bowie's first co-writing credit on one of his own albums. MacCormack said his contribution was minimal—he played the chord sequence on piano. A power ballad, the song explores the relationship between the audience and an actor. When asked whether fans considered him a leader, Bowie described "Rock 'n' Roll with Me" as his response, saying: "You're doing it to me, stop it!" Buckley writes the song foreshadowed the soul direction that Bowie would take on "Young Americans". The lyrics of "We Are the Dead" reflect the characters of "Nineteen Eighty-Four", Winston and Julia's, love for each other. They establish a world fraught with danger that mirrors the rest of the album. Buckley describes the lyrics as "gothic" and the music as "creepy". Although it quotes "Nineteen Eighty-Four" directly, O'Leary and James Perone argue the song owes more to the writings of Burroughs.


title: Diamond Dogs

text: The centrepiece of side two of the original LP, "1984" was the signature number for Bowie's planned adaptation of "Nineteen Eighty-Four". It has been interpreted as representing Winston Smith's imprisonment and interrogation by O'Brien. The lyrics also bear some similarities to Bowie's earlier song "All the Madmen", from "The Man Who Sold the World"—"They'll split your pretty cranium and fill it full of air." AllMusic's Donald A. Guarisco wrote: "Bowie's recording of "1984" fully realizes the song's cinematic potential with a dramatic arrangement that utilizes skittering strings and a throbbing wah-wah guitar line that effectively mirrors the song's clipped, militaristic rhythms." Originally recorded during the "Aladdin Sane" sessions, the rerecording's wah-wah guitar is reminiscent of Isaac Hayes's "Theme from "Shaft"". Guarisco and Pegg felt the song's funk and soul nature fully predicted the direction Bowie would take on "Young Americans".


title: Diamond Dogs

text: According to Pegg, the theme of "Big Brother" is "the dangerous charisma of absolute power and the facility with which societies succumb to totalitarianism's final solutions". It was a possible contender to close Bowie's adaptation of "Nineteen Eighty-Four". Featuring synthesisers and saxophones, the track builds to a climax that Buckley considers reminiscent of "The Man Who Sold the World". The track segues into "Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family", a variation on "Two Minutes Hate" from "Nineteen Eighty-Four". It is a chant in 5/4 and 6/4 time, with a distorted guitar loop. On the original LP, the word brother repeats in a "stuck-needle effect", similar to the ending of the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" (1967).


title: Diamond Dogs

text: The cover artwork depicts Bowie as a striking half-man, half-dog grotesque. He sports his Ziggy Stardust haircut and two "freak-show" dogs surround him shown against a backdrop of New York City. The artwork originated from a photo session with photographer Terry O'Neill. Bowie opted not to use any of his previous cover artwork photographers and instead requested the services of Belgian artist Guy Peellaert, whose recently published "Rock Dreams" catalogue, featuring numerous airbrushed and exploited photographs, was growing in popularity. Bowie invited Peellaert to the photoshoot where he posed as a dog and with a Great Dane brought to the session. Bowie asked Peellaert if he would like to develop a painting for the artwork, based on a storyboard idea where he appeared as a half-man, half-dog, stylistically similar to Peelleart's artwork for the Rolling Stones' "It's Only Rock 'n Roll". Peellaert agreed, basing the backdrop on a book he owned about Coney Island's Pleasure Park. The two dogs behind Bowie were based on the Island's Cavalcade Variety Show performers Alzoria Lewis (known as "the Turtle Girl") and Johanna Dickens (known as "the Bear Girl").


title: Diamond Dogs

text: The artwork was controversial as the full image on the gatefold sleeve showed the hybrid's genitalia. RCA had the genitalia airbrushed from the sleeve used for most releases. Some original uncensored copies made their way into circulation at the time of the album's release. According to the record-collector publication "Goldmine" price guides, these albums have been among the most expensive record collectibles of all time, selling for thousands of US dollars for a single copy. Other changes to the artwork included the substitution of the freak show badge "Alive" with the word "Bowie"; Bowie was credited simply as "Bowie", continuing the convention established with "Pin Ups". Rykodisc/EMI restored Peelaert's original uncensored artwork for the album's re-release in 1990. Subsequent reissues have included a rejected inner gatefold image featuring Bowie in a sombrero cordobés holding onto a ravenous dog with a copy of Walter Ross's novel "The Immortal" at his feet.


title: Diamond Dogs

text: In the UK, RCA released the lead single, "Rebel Rebel", on 15 February 1974, backed by the "Hunky Dory" track "Queen Bitch". The same day, Bowie recorded a lip synced performance of "Rebel Rebel" at Hilversum's Avro Studio 2 for the Dutch television programme "Top Pop". Broadcast two days later, it featured Bowie donning what Pegg calls his short-lived "pirate image"—an eyepatch and a spotted neckerchief. Bowie changed this costume after the performance in favour of the "swept-back parting and double-breasted suits" of the Diamond Dogs Tour. For its US release, Bowie recorded a new mix in April 1974. Dubbed the "Latin dub mix" by Doggett, this mix was released in New York in May 1974, with "Lady Grinning Soul" as the B-side. The single was a commercial success, peaking at number 5 on the UK Singles Chart and number 64 on the US "Billboard" Hot 100. It further became a glam anthem, the female equivalent of Bowie's earlier hit for Mott the Hoople, "All the Young Dudes". However, as the lead single, the song gave little indication to the rest of its parent album's dark atmosphere and themes.


title: Diamond Dogs

text: RCA issued "Diamond Dogs" on 24 May 1974 with the catalogue number APLI 0576. The album was a commercial success, peaking at number one on the UK Albums Chart and number five on the US "Billboard" Top LPs & Tape chart. A $400,000 advertising campaign featuring billboards in Times Square and Sunset Boulevard, magazine ads, subway posters declaring "The Year of the Diamond Dogs" and a television commercial, one of the first of its kind for a pop album according to Pegg, boosted its sales in the US. In Canada, it repeated its British chart-topping success, hitting number one on the "RPM 100" national albums chart in July 1974, remaining there for two weeks. RCA released the second single, "Diamond Dogs", on 14 June 1974, with a rerecorded version of Bowie's 1971 single "Holy Holy" as the B-side. It was Bowie's least-successful single since "Starman", peaking at number 21 on the UK Singles Chart and failing to chart in the US. "1984" was released as the third single in the US and Japan, but failed to chart. Reviewing the single in August 1974, "Billboard" described "1984" as Bowie's "most commercial cut ... in a long time".


title: Diamond Dogs

text: Bowie supported the album on the Diamond Dogs Tour, whose first leg lasted from 14 June to 20 July 1974. Co-designed and constructed by Chris Langhart, it featured elaborate set-pieces and cost $250,000. Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" (1927) and Robert Wiene's "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" (1920) influenced the tour's design, primarily due to Bowie's interest in German expressionism. The tour's second leg, from 2 September to 1 December 1974, has been nicknamed the Soul Tour, because of the influence of the soul music Bowie had begun recording for "Young Americans" in August. The shows were altered heavily, and no longer featured elaborate set-pieces, partly because Bowie had tired of the design and wanted to explore the new sound he was creating. Bowie dropped songs from the previous leg, while he added new ones—some from "Young Americans".


title: Diamond Dogs

text: In early September, director Alan Yentob filmed a documentary that depicts Bowie on the tour in Los Angeles, using a mixture of sequences filmed in limousines, hotels and concert footage, most of which was taken from a show there at Universal Amphitheatre on 2 September. Broadcast on BBC1 in the UK on 26 January 1975, "Cracked Actor" is notable as a primary source of footage of the Diamond Dogs Tour, and for showing Bowie's declining mental state during this period because of his growing cocaine addiction. Although "Cracked Actor" has never received an official release, Pegg calls it "arguably the finest documentary made about David Bowie". After seeing an advanced screening of the film, director Nicolas Roeg immediately contacted Bowie to discuss a role in "The Man Who Fell to Earth" (1976).


title: Diamond Dogs

text: Bowie played all of the album's songs except "We Are the Dead" on the tour, performances of which have been released on three live albums: "David Live" (1974), "Cracked Actor" (2017) and "I'm Only Dancing (The Soul Tour 74)" (2020). "Rebel Rebel" featured on almost every later Bowie tour, "Diamond Dogs" was performed for the Isolar, Outside and A Reality Tours, and "Big Brother/Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family" was resurrected in 1987 for the Glass Spider Tour, which itself was heavily influenced by the Diamond Dogs tour. The Diamond Dogs Tour has had a lasting legacy. Sandford says the tour turned Bowie from a "novelty act" into a "superstar". Spitz writes it was highly influential on future tours with large and elaborate set pieces, including Parliament-Funkadelic's Mothership Connection tour, Elvis Presley's Vegas period, the 1990s tours of U2 and Madonna, and 'N Sync, the Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears and Kanye West's 2008 Glow in the Dark Tour.


title: Diamond Dogs

text: The album received mixed reviews from music critics on release. "Disc" magazine compared the album to "the greatly underrated" "The Man Who Sold the World", believing it to contain some of Bowie's best-written songs and "without doubt the finest [LP] he's made so far", while "Rock Magazine" found it "a strong and effective album, and certainly the most impressive work Bowie's completed since "Ziggy Stardust"". Martin Kirkup of "Sounds" wrote, "where "Aladdin Sane" seemed like a series of Instamatic snapshots taken from weird angles, "Diamond Dogs" has the provoking quality of a thought-out painting that draws on all the deeper colors". "Billboard" saw a "subtler, more aesthetic Bowie" than his previous records on an album "which should reinforce his musical presence in the 70's". Peter Harvey of "Record Mirror" was disappointed regarding the absence of the Spiders and wished the lyrical themes were more upbeat, but predicted the record would make a good stage production.


title: Diamond Dogs

text: "Melody Maker"s Chris Charlesworth called the album "really good" and offered additional praise, comparing it to Phil Spector's Wall of Sound method of production and noting the similar level of excitement and praise Bowie's albums were beginning to receive as the Beatles did in the 60s. Robert Christgau was more critical in "Creem", suggesting that Bowie performs a pale imitation of Bryan Ferry's "theatrical vocalism". He also dismissed the lyrical content as "escapist pessimism concocted from a pleasure dome: eat, snort and bugger little girls, for tomorrow we shall be peoploids – but tonight how about $6.98 for this piece of plastic? Say nay." Ken Emerson of "Rolling Stone" gave the album an extremely negative review, calling it, "Bowie's worst album in six years". He criticised Bowie's choice of direction, the absence of Ronson, describing Bowie's guitar playing as "cheesy" adding "the music exerts so little appeal that it's hard to care what it's about". Despite the album's mixed reception, John Rockwell of "The New York Times" found it inoffensive and "surrealisticnihilistic".


title: Diamond Dogs

text: "Diamond Dogs" raw guitar style and visions of urban chaos, scavenging children and nihilistic lovers ("We'll buy some drugs and watch a band / Then jump in a river holding hands") have been credited with anticipating the punk revolution that would take place in the following years. According to "Rolling Stone" writer Mark Kemp, the album's "resigned nihilism inspired interesting gloom and doom from later goth and industrial acts such as Bauhaus and Nine Inch Nails". O'Leary writes that Bowie's appearance in the promotional video for "Rebel Rebel" provided inspiration on future punks' styles and attitudes. He continues that initial British punks were former fans of Bowie and Roxy Music, and "Rebel Rebel" stands as both Bowie's goodbye and tribute to them. Crockford further acknowledges the album's influence on punk, stating: "Bowie's violent, amateruishly scraping guitar playing here would be echoed in the late-70's post-punk bands and Diamond Dogs' concept of street gangs roaming London was echoed in the gleeful nihilism of the Sex Pistols." Considering Bowie's direction afterwards through the punk and disco eras, "Stylus Magazine"s Derek Miller says, ""Diamond Dogs" should be remembered not only as one of glam’s last great full-lengths but more importantly as a gap-record that somehow manages to cohesively storyboard Bowie's crude conceptual surrealism while also expanding his sound."


title: Diamond Dogs

text: Retrospective appraisals have been mixed. AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine said that, because Bowie did not completely retire the character of Ziggy Stardust, "Diamond Dogs" suffers from him being unsure how to move forward. Although he praised "Rebel Rebel", he further criticised the exclusion of Ronson and ultimately concluded "it is the first record since "Space Oddity" where Bowie's reach exceeds his grasp". Greg Kot of the "Chicago Tribune" gave the album a mixed review, calling it "an overproduced concept album inspired by Orwell's "1984"". Eduardo Rivadavia was also mixed in "Ultimate Classic Rock", questioning the presence of Ziggy, whom Bowie supposedly retired the year before. Despite the album's commercial success, Rivadavia concluded: "with decades of hindsight, "Diamond Dogs" now seems more like the gateway from the "Ziggy Stardust" era to his Thin White Duke blue-eyed soul period, and beyond".


title: Diamond Dogs

text: Nevertheless, the record has attracted positive reviews. "Pitchfork"s Barry Walters described the album as "a bummer, a bad trip, 'No Fun' – a sustained work of decadence and dread that transforms corrosion into celebration". He also believed it foreshadowed Bowie's Thin White Duke persona. For punknews.org, C. M. Crockford wrote that "Diamonds Dogs" is Bowie's "utterly most distinctive work: melodramatic, raw, challenging, and ambitious even when crammed with catchy songs". Crockford ultimately called it one of Bowie's essential releases and argued that he would "never make an album that was so obviously his own again". In a 2013 readers' poll for "Rolling Stone", "Diamond Dogs" was voted Bowie's fifth-greatest album.


title: Diamond Dogs

text: In subsequent decades, Bowie biographers have described "Diamond Dogs" as one of Bowie's greatest works. Cann writes: ""Diamond Dogs" is arguably [Bowie's] most significant album, a pivotal work and the most 'solo' album he has ever made." Although Spitz calls it "no fun", he states it was Bowie's "best-sounding, most complex record to date, and it still pulls you into its romantic and doomed world three and a half decades on". Trynka calls it "a beautiful mess", while Buckley says the album proved that Bowie could still produce work of "real quality" without Scott or the Spiders. Doggett writes it anticipated the "sonic audacity" of "Low" and ""Heroes"", while it simultaneously "capsized the vessel of classic rock". Perone argues that "Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family" predated Talking Heads' exploration of African rhythms and experimentation in the late 1970s. Pegg writes that with tracks like "We Are the Dead", "Big Brother" and the "Sweet Thing" suite, the album contains "some of the most sublime and remarkable sounds in the annals of rock music". He further states that Bowie's new voice on the record, a ""basso profundo"", particularly evident on "Sweet Thing" and "Big Brother", was a major influence on gothic rock bands in the 1980s.


title: Diamond Dogs

text: "Diamond Dogs" has appeared on several professional listings of best albums. It ranked number 995 in the second edition of Colin Larkin's book "All Time Top 1000 Albums" (2000) and number 447 in "NME"s The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Based on such rankings, the aggregate website Acclaimed Music lists "Diamond Dogs" as the 1,112th most acclaimed album of all time, the 273rd most acclaimed album from the 1970s and the 26th most acclaimed from 1974.


title: Diamond Dogs

text: RCA released "Diamond Dogs" on CD in 1985 with censored cover art. The German (for the European market) and Japanese (for the US market) masters, sourced from different tapes, are not identical. Dr. Toby Mountain at Northeastern Digital, in Southborough, Massachusetts, remastered "Diamond Dogs" from the original master tapes for Rykodisc in 1990, released with two bonus tracks and the original, uncensored, artwork. It was again remastered in 1999 by Peter Mew at Abbey Road Studios for EMI and Virgin Records, and once more released with no bonus tracks.


title: Diamond Dogs

text: In 2004, a 2-disc version was released by EMI/Virgin. The third in a series of "30th Anniversary 2CD Editions" (along with "Ziggy Stardust" and "Aladdin Sane"), this release included a remastered version of the album on the first disc. The second disc contains eight tracks, five of which had been released previously with the "Sound + Vision" box set in 1989 or as bonus tracks on the 1990–92 Rykodisc/EMI reissues. In 2016, the album was remastered for the "Who Can I Be Now? (1974–1976)" box set. It was released on CD and vinyl, and in digital formats, both as part of this compilation and separately.


title: 2015 in film

text: 2015 in film is an overview of events, including the highest-grossing films, award ceremonies, festivals, and a list of films released and notable deaths.


title: 2015 in film

text: Richard Brody of "The New Yorker" described 2015 as, "one of Hollywood's worst years" but also stated that it was also "a terrific year for movies over all". He emphasized that, "The anticipated Oscarizables have mainly ranged from the blandly enjoyable to the droningly disastrous. Partly, the problem is merely one of scheduling: most of Hollywood's inspired directors, the ones whose images have a natural musical sublimity and complexity, weren't on call this year. My list reflects the unfortunate accident of a calendar year with no release by many of the best American directors working in or out of the Hollywood system, such as Martin Scorsese, Sofia Coppola, Wes Anderson, Miranda July, Terrence Malick, James Gray, David Fincher, Steven Soderbergh, and Paul Thomas Anderson."


title: 2015 in film

text: "" grossed over $2 billion, the third film to surpass that milestone, and the third highest-grossing film of all time. "Jurassic World", "Furious 7", "", and "Minions" have each grossed over $1 billion, making them among the highest-grossing films of all time. "Spectre" and "Inside Out" grossed more than $850 million.


title: 2015 in film

text: "Minions" became the first non-Disney animated film and the third animated film overall after "Toy Story 3" (2010) and "Frozen" (2013) to gross over $1 billion, and is currently the fifth highest-grossing animated film of all time.


title: 2015 in film

text: 2015 is the first year that a single studio (Universal Pictures) released three films that each grossed over $1 billion, the first year that a single studio released two films that both grossed over $1.5 billion, and the first year that a single studio released two films that both grossed over $1 billion outside of North America.


title: Travis Pastrana

text: Travis Alan Pastrana (born October 8, 1983) is an American professional motorsports competitor and stunt performer who has won championships and X Games gold medals in several disciplines, including supercross, motocross, freestyle motocross, and rally racing. He runs a show called "Nitro Circus" and the rallycross racing series Nitro Rallycross.


title: Travis Pastrana

text: Pastrana has also driven in NASCAR, most recently competing part-time in the Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series, driving the No. 40 and the No. 45 for Niece Motorsports. He drove for two years in what is now the NASCAR Xfinity Series, running a part-time season in 2012 and a full season in 2013. He is a four-time Rally America champion and has also raced in the Global RallyCross Championship, Monster Jam, and Race of Champions.


title: Travis Pastrana

text: Pastrana was born on October 8, 1983. He is of Puerto Rican descent by his grandparents from his father's family. His uncle, Alan Pastrana, played as a quarterback from 1965 to 1968 at the University of Maryland, which Travis Pastrana also attended. On June 11, 2003, 19-year-old Pastrana was seriously injured when he crashed his Corvette into a tree in Davidsonville, Maryland.


title: Travis Pastrana

text: Pastrana has won three motocross racing championships: the 2000 AMA 125cc National championship, the 2001 125cc East Coast Supercross Championship, and the 125cc Rose Creek Invitational. Pastrana also raced in the 2000 Motocross des Nations. He moved up to the 250cc class in 2002. His stand-up style, ability to spot jump combinations and great speed through the whoops make him easy to spot on the track. The Freestyle stunt riding started at a young age. At 13 years old Pastrana was already performing stunts during motocross racing, keeping the fans enthused and, later in life, leading to his career in freestyle motocross. Pastrana has always raced and competed on Suzuki motorcycles, and until recently remained fiercely loyal to the brand. He races with Team Cernic's Suzuki. All of his motorcycles and rally cars carry the number 199. He even sponsored a Monster Jam truck called Pastrana 199 and "Nitro Circus", after the show on MTV. On October 3, 2014, Pastrana competed in the first ever Red Bull Straight Rhythm competition, riding in the Open Class on a Suzuki RM-Z 450 with a Honda CR500 engine swap. He dubbed the bike the RM-Zilla. However, Pastrana was eliminated early on in the bracket and James Stewart Jr. took the win.


title: Travis Pastrana

text: At age 14, Pastrana competed in and won the World Freestyle Motocross Championship in Las Vegas, Nevada, beginning a winning streak that lasted to 2003. After his gold medal performance at the 1999 X Games, Pastrana clinched the gold at the inaugural Gravity Games in Rhode Island.


title: Travis Pastrana

text: Robert Pastrana, Travis' father, is of Colombian descent, but born and raised in Puerto Rico. which made Travis directly eligible to represent Puerto Rico in international competition. The "Puerto Rico Motorcycle Association" provided him with a license to represent the Territory, which was accepted by the "Unión Latinoamericana de Motociclismo", the relevant sanctioning body in Latin America. His debut with the team took place on March 15, 2008. He qualified to the finals by winning the first heat, defeating Erick Vallejo of Mexico. In the finals he finished third, behind local Costa Rican racer Roberto Castro and Vallejo.


title: Travis Pastrana

text: In 2018, Pastrana took part in the Motocross of Nations event as part of Team Puerto Rico with teammates Kevin Windham and Ryan Sipes in an effort to raise money and awareness following Hurricane Maria in 2017. All three team members eventually made it to the main event, qualifying via the B-final.


title: Travis Pastrana

text: In 2003, Pastrana opened a rallying career in the Race of Champions, and began driving for the Subaru-backed Vermont SportsCar rally team in 2004. Starting in 2006, Pastrana was signed by Subaru to lead their new Subaru Rally Team USA, being paired once again with veteran co-driver Christian Edstrom. On August 5, 2006 Pastrana won the gold medal in the first rally car competition at the X Games, edging out rally legend Colin McRae by 0.53 seconds after McRae rolled his car through the last jump.


title: Travis Pastrana

text: Pastrana and Edstrom clinched the 2006 Rally America National Series overall and open class championship on October 22, 2006 during day one of the Lake Superior Performance Rally. The team finished out the 2006 series with another first-place victory at the Wild West Rally in Olympia, Washington on December 31, 2006.


title: Travis Pastrana

text: On December 16, 2006, Pastrana competed at the 2006 Race of Champions at the Stade de France in Paris. He represented the United States in the Nations' Cup by himself, after injuries forced teammate Jimmie Johnson and his replacement Scott Speed to withdraw.


title: Travis Pastrana

text: February 19, 2007 brought news that Pastrana's longtime co-driver Edstrom had announced a sabbatical to concentrate on his career and family. Although former McRae co-driver Derek Ringer competed with Pastrana for the 100 Acre Wood Rally in Salem, Missouri and Rally America, he did not announce a permanent co-driver.


title: Travis Pastrana

text: In September 2008, Pastrana took part in the "Colin McRae Forest Stages Rally", a round of the Scottish Rally Championship centred in Perth in Scotland. Derek Ringer was his co-driver and they entered in a historic Ford Escort RS1600. He was one of a number of celebrity drivers to take part in the event in memory of McRae, who died in 2007.


title: Travis Pastrana

text: On August 29, 2009, Pastrana claimed the overall victory at Ojibwe Forests Rally, his fifth of the 2009 Rally America season. The victory sealed his fourth consecutive Rally America driver's title, the most in series history.


title: Travis Pastrana

text: In 2011, Pastrana began competing in the Global RallyCross Championship. The next year, he entered a Dodge Dart at five races, but finished only one, with a win at New Hampshire. He also ran part-time with a Dodge Dart in 2013, claiming third-place finish at Las Vegas. Pastrana entered round 2 of the 2018 Americas Rallycross Championship at Austin, finishing fourth.


title: Travis Pastrana

text: In 2020, Pastrana announced plans to construct Circuit 199, a multi-purpose racing facility, in Sudlersville, Maryland. However, the project was shelved due to lawsuits filed by local conservation organizations. Later in the year, he created the Nitro Rallycross series as an expansion of the discipline's participation in the Nitro World Games. Ahead of the inaugural season in late 2021, he built a test track on a 150-acre lot he purchased near his home. He won two races, which helped him become the 2021 champion as he claimed the tiebreaker over Scott Speed.


title: Travis Pastrana

text: On December 13, 2006, Subaru Rally Team USA announced plans to enter Pastrana in certain World Rally Championship events in 2007, 2008, and 2009.


title: Travis Pastrana

text: In the 2007 season, he raced three P-WRC events in the Group N class, driving a Subaru Impreza WRX STI–based rally car. During March 9–11, 2007, Pastrana competed in his first world rally at the 21º Corona Rally México. He finished fifth in the P-WRC (Group N) class (the best in-class finish by an American in a WRC event since John Buffum finished third in the Acropolis Rally in 1988), followed by a tenth place in Rally Argentina and an eleventh in Rally GB. Pastrana described his season as having gone "horribly".


title: Travis Pastrana

text: Pastrana's 2008 season in the P-WRC was even less successful, with one retirement following a crash on stage one of Rally Argentina and one thirteenth place on the Acropolis Rally.


title: Travis Pastrana

text: Pastrana made his debut in NASCAR competition by driving in the 2011 Toyota All-Star Showdown, finishing sixth. Later in the year, he competed in NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin's Short Track Showdown at Richmond International Raceway, finishing 31st after being involved in a crash on lap two. Pastrana later formed a partnership with Michael Waltrip Racing and Gary and Blake Betchel called Pastrana-Waltrip Racing, and in 2011, ran three K&N Pro Series East starts, with his debut at Richmond in the Blue Ox 100, finishing 33rd. Pastrana's plans to compete in 2011 in the Nationwide Series were cancelled as a result of his injuries at the X-Games in July of that year; as a result, his scheduled race at Indianapolis Raceway Park was officially written off as a withdrawal.


title: Travis Pastrana

text: In 2012, he planned to run a full season in the Pro Series East and select Nationwide Series races. On April 27, 2012, Pastrana made his Nationwide Series debut, finishing 22nd at the Richmond 250. In his first seven races, driving the No. 99 Toyota Camry for RAB Racing in an association with MWR, Pastrana posted a best finish of 13th in the inaugural Indiana 250; at Richmond in September, he drove for NASCAR powerhouse Roush Fenway Racing in the No. 60 Ford Mustang. He also made one start in the Camping World Truck Series that year for ThorSport Racing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, driving their No. 98 Toyota to a 15th-place finish despite a spin early in the race.


title: Travis Pastrana

text: In November 2012, Pastrana was revealed to have arranged a full-season ride for 2013 in the Nationwide Series with Roush Fenway Racing. He drove in the team's No. 60 Ford during the 2013 season, posting four top-ten finishes with a best finish of ninth at Richmond International Raceway. The next race, Pastrana won his first career pole position at Talladega Superspeedway, with a lap speed of , but was involved in a late crash. Pastrana ended 2013 with four top tens, a pole and a 14th-place points finish, 429 points behind champion Austin Dillon.


title: Travis Pastrana

text: On November 11, 2013, Pastrana announced via Facebook that he would be leaving NASCAR at the end of the 2013 season, citing a lack of sponsorship, frustration regarding his performance and a desire to spend time with his family as the reasons for his decision; Pastrana wrote:


title: Travis Pastrana

text: However, he left open the possibility of running occasional Truck Series events, and has expressed a desire to compete in the Daytona 500. On September 23, 2015, Pastrana announced he would make his comeback to NASCAR, signing a one-race deal with NTS Motorsports to race the No. 31 Chevrolet in the Truck Series race at Las Vegas on October 3. After qualifying 17th, Pastrana finished 16th, two laps behind race winner John Wes Townley. He returned to the Truck Series in 2017, driving the No. 45 Chevrolet for Niece Motorsports at Las Vegas.


title: Travis Pastrana

text: In 2020, Pastrana returned to NASCAR for the first time in three years, competing for Niece Motorsports again. He drove their No. 40 truck in the second of two races of the doubleheader at Kansas. This was also his first Truck Series start that was not at Las Vegas. On September 17, 2020, it was announced that Pastrana would run the Las Vegas race again with Niece. This was also the first time Pastrana made more than one Truck start in a season.


title: Travis Pastrana

text: Pastrana debuted in Monster Jam on October 16, 2006, driving the "Pastrana 199" monster truck. Mainly on the United States Hot Rod Association (USHRA) circuit, the truck was owned by Live Nation/FELD Motorsports and sponsored by Pastrana. The truck was originally driven by Paul Cohen, then later driven by Chad Tingler, Courtney Jolly and Cam McQueen. McQueen, a friend of Pastrana, was invited to the 2009 World Finals for his second appearance. During the 2009 World Finals the "Pastrana 199" truck changed its name to "Nitro Circus". Pastrana himself competed in the freestyle competition of the event debuting the "Nitro Circus" truck, finishing in a three-way tie for 5th place in a field of 24 trucks. On an episode of "Nitro Circus", Pastrana attempted to backflip the "Nitro Circus"-themed monster truck. Though unsuccessful, he walked away without injury. On February 27, 2010 in Jacksonville, Florida, McQueen successfully executed a backflip in the Nitro Circus monster truck during the freestyle competition, making "Nitro Circus" the first to do so in competition. The "Nitro Circus" monster truck made its final appearance and was retired after the 2011 Monster Jam season.


title: Travis Pastrana

text: On January 1, 2010, Pastrana officially set a new world record in a ramp-to-ramp car jump. He jumped his Subaru rally car off the Pine Street Pier onto a floating barge anchored in Long Beach’s Rainbow Harbor, breaking the existing mark of and establishing a new world distance record of . To celebrate, after getting out of his car, he performed a gainer from the landing ramp into the harbor below.


title: Travis Pastrana

text: In June 2010, Pastrana entered the Prelude to the Dream charity dirt track race at Eldora Speedway in a No. 199 Subaru. After starting 15th, he finished 23rd.


title: Travis Pastrana

text: In September 2010, Pastrana set the world record for fastest ascent of Mount Washington in a car, using his Subaru WRX STi: 6 minutes, 20.47 seconds. In June 2011, David Higgins set a new record for ascent of Mount Washington in a car, at 6 minutes, 11.54 seconds, using the same model vehicle. Pastrana retook the record in July 2017, driving his Subaru WRX STi up the mountain with a time of 5 minutes, 44.72 seconds. In August 2021 Pastrana surpassed his July 2017 record by more than 16 seconds with a time of 5 min. 28.67 sec. in his 862 hp “Airslayer” 2020 Subaru WRX STI.


title: Travis Pastrana

text: In 2012, Pastrana competed in the 24 Hours of Daytona for AF Waltrip, with NASCAR driver Michael Waltrip, Michael Waltrip Racing owner Rob Kauffman, and road racing veteran Rui Águas as codrivers. After starting 38th, the team's Ferrari 458 finished 35th overall, 22nd in the GT class.


title: Travis Pastrana

text: As part of Rally America, Pastrana raced at the 2004 and 2005 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. He returned in 2018, in this case driving a Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport, claiming a class win with a 10'33.9 run.


title: Travis Pastrana

text: On September 26, 2007, Pastrana jumped out of an airplane over Arecibo, Puerto Rico, without a parachute in a carefully choreographed stunt. He met up in midair with another jumper, then latched himself into a harness to make a safe tandem landing. He "got in a lot of trouble" due to its illegality.


title: Travis Pastrana

text: On Sunday, February 8, 2009 at 10 p.m., MTV "Nitro Circus", his new television show of which he is an executive producer, premiered on MTV. A spinoff of MTV's "Jackass", the two shows shared producers, Jeff Tremaine and was partially created by "Jackass" frontman Johnny Knoxville. It features Jolene Van Vugt, Erik Roner (deceased), Streetbike Tommy, Andy Bell, Jim DeChamp, among others doing dangerous stunts. "Jackass"' Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Chris Pontius and Steve-O; BMX freestylers, T. J. Lavin and Mat Hoffman; and actor, Gary Coleman have guest starred on various episodes. "Nitro Circus" was also featured in an episode of MTV's Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory and vice versa.


title: Travis Pastrana

text: In August 2020, Pastrana organized the Pastranaland Pit Bike Championship, an 11-team event that took place in his backyard on a track designed by "Nitro Circus" mechanic Hubert Rowland. Held on August 15, riders competed on Kawasaki KLX110 pit bikes.


title: Travis Pastrana

text: Pastrana and the rest of "Nitro Circus" appeared in the music video for "Spaceship" by Puddle of Mudd.


title: Travis Pastrana

text: Pastrana paid tribute to his role model growing up, legendary daredevil/stuntman Evel Knievel, by breaking a few of his records. On July 8, 2018, in Las Vegas, Nevada, Pastrana safely cleared three record-breaking big jumps, which consisted of 52 cars, 16 buses, and a fountain respectively, for a total of 484 feet of jumps in a single night.


title: Travis Pastrana

text: The first jump over the cars was at 143 feet, the second jump over the buses was at 192 feet, and the third jump over the Caesar's Palace Fountain — a jump that Knievel himself wasn't able to land in 1967, when he crushed his pelvis and his femur — was at 149 feet, performed with more elevation. These feats were televised live on History.


title: Travis Pastrana

text: Only Pastrana's personal sponsors are listed below. Sponsorships of his cars in NASCAR, which were provided through his teams and did not always overlap with his own endorsements, are not included.


title: Travis Pastrana

text: Injuries have often taken Pastrana off the circuit for weeks or months at a time. His medical records include: a dislocated spine, he has torn his ACL, PCL, LCL, MCL and meniscus in his left knee, broken his tibia and fibula, he has had surgery on his left wrist twice, left thumb once, two surgeries on his back, one on his right elbow, nine on his left knee, six on the right knee, one shoulder surgery which left him with the only piece of metal he has in his body.


title: Travis Pastrana

text: When Pastrana was 14 years old, he was severely injured while competing in an FMX competition. He came up short, landing on the top of the front side of the landing ramp and the motorcycle decelerated from 50 mph (80 km/h) to in less than one second. The bike was stuck into the dirt ramp with the front wheel just over the top and the crankcase smashed into the dirt deep enough to support the entire motorcycle upright. He was severely injured, his spine having been separated from his pelvis. It also left him in a wheelchair for three months.


title: Travis Pastrana

text: "I was in and out of consciousness for about three days and had six blood transfusions," said Pastrana. He also added that according to doctors, only three people in the U.S. have ever lived after such an injury. It was a long and difficult recovery, though Pastrana would routinely ride wheelies in his wheelchair around the hospital and therapy areas. While in the wheelchair recovering, he vowed to continue motorcycle jumping. He was also injured in July 2011 while competing at the X Games when his motorcycle did not rotate to the landing position, crushing his ankle and causing a fracture. However, Pastrana was back in his Subaru Impreza and competing in the Rally Cross final where he overshot the corner, forcing himself into the wall; on-board footage shows his leg in plaster being slammed against the wheel well, much to his discomfort.


title: Travis Pastrana

text: At the 2005 Race of Champions, he broke his leg while performing at a motocross exhibition but competed in ROC anyway. Conversely, a broken pelvis during a BASE jumping accident in Florida, where he crash-landed into a park, forced him to miss the 2022 ROC.


title: Travis Pastrana

text: On June 4, 2011, during a live performance of "Nitro Circus", he proposed to Lyn-Z Adams Hawkins, a professional skateboarder. On October 29, 2011, Hawkins and Pastrana were married in front of several family and friends in Southern California, near the home of Hawkins. On February 26, 2013, Hawkins and Pastrana announced on their personal Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter pages that they were expecting their first child due in September 2013. Hawkins gave birth to a girl named Addy Ruth on Labor Day, September 2, 2013. On August 5, 2014, Hawkins announced in her personal page that she and Pastrana were expecting their second child due in February 2015. She gave birth to a girl named Bristol Murphy on February 9, 2015.


title: Travis Pastrana

text: In July 2004, with a couple of friends, Pastrana held a BMX contest at his house. During the contest, a contestant Colin Winkelmann injured himself while attempting one of the challenges, in which a biker would try to make a jump off over a ramp that was situated on the front of a moving car. Winkelmann dislocated his ankles, broke a wrist and an ankle, and injured his vertebrae. He suffered severe pain afterwards, had to spend a year in rehabilitation, developed a permanent limp, and was unable to continue biking. Due to these factors, Winkelmann developed depression, and died by suicide on August 9, 2005, in Greenville, North Carolina.


title: Geranium

text: Geranium is a genus of 422 species of annual, biennial, and perennial plants that are commonly known as geraniums or cranesbills. They are found throughout the temperate regions of the world and the mountains of the tropics, but mostly in the eastern part of the Mediterranean region.


title: Geranium

text: The palmately cleft leaves are broadly circular in form. The flowers have five petals and are coloured white, pink, purple or blue, often with distinctive veining. Geraniums will grow in any soil as long as it is not waterlogged. Propagation is by semiripe cuttings in summer, by seed, or by division in autumn or spring.


title: Geranium

text: Geraniums are eaten by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including brown-tail, ghost moth, and mouse moth. At least several species of "Geranium" are gynodioecious. The species "Geranium viscosissimum" (sticky geranium) is considered to be protocarnivorous.


title: Geranium

text: The genus name is derived from the Greek ("géranos") or ("geranós") 'crane'. The English name 'cranesbill' derives from the resemblance of the fruit capsule of some of the species to a crane's head and bill. The ovary portion forms the head and the prolonged stigma creates the appearance of a beak.


title: Geranium

text: The flowers are typically five-petaled and white to purple. The leaves are palmate divided into narrow, pointed segments.


title: Geranium

text: The fruit capsule consists of five cells joined to a column produced from the centre of the flower. The cells form lobes which eventually separate, each containing one seed. When the fruit is ripe, the beak-like stigma springs open and casts the seeds some distance, dispersing the seeds.


title: Geranium

text: Confusingly, "geranium" is also the common name of members of the genus "Pelargonium", which are also in the family Geraniaceae and are widely grown as horticultural bedding plants. Linnaeus originally included all the species in one genus, "Geranium", but they were later separated into two genera by Charles L’Héritier in 1789. Other former members of the genus are now classified in "Erodium", including the plants known as filarees in North America.


title: Geranium

text: The term "hardy geranium" is often applied to horticultural "Geranium"s to distinguish them from the "Pelargonium"s, which are not winter-hardy in temperate horticulture. However, not all "Geranium" species are winter-hardy (see below).


title: Geranium

text: The shape of the flowers offers one way of distinguishing between the two genera "Geranium" and "Pelargonium". "Geranium" flowers have five very similar petals, and are thus radially symmetrical (actinomorphic), whereas "Pelargonium" (and also "Erodium") flowers have two upper petals which are different from the three lower petals, so the flowers have a single plane of symmetry (zygomorphic).


title: Geranium

text: A number of geranium species are cultivated for horticultural use and for pharmaceutical products. Some of the more commonly grown species include:


title: Geranium

text: All the above species are perennials and generally winter-hardy plants, grown for their attractive flowers and foliage. They are long-lived and most have a mounding habit, with palmately lobed foliage. Some species have spreading rhizomes. They are normally grown in part shade to full sun, in well-draining but moisture retentive soils, rich in humus. Other perennial species grown for their flowers and foliage include: "Geranium argenteum", "G. eriostemon", "G. farreri", "G. nodosum", "G. procurrens", "G. pylzowianum", "G. renardii", "G. traversii", "G. tuberosum", "G. versicolor", "G. wallichianum" and "G. wlassovianum". Some of these are not winter-hardy in cold areas and are grown in specialized gardens like rock gardens. "Geranium" 'Johnson's Blue' is a hybrid between "G. himalayense" (southwestern China), with "G. pratense" (European meadow cranesbill).


title: Geranium

text: The following hybrid cultivars have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit (other cultivars are dealt with under their species name - see above):-


title: Metis (mythology)

text: Metis (; ), in ancient Greek religion and mythology, was a Oceanid nymph, one of the daughters of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys.


title: Metis (mythology)

text: Metis is notable for helping a young Zeus free his siblings from his father Cronus' belly by supplying him with a special drug. After Zeus became king, he and Metis were married, and she bore him a daughter, Athena, the goddess of wisdom. After hearing a prophecy stating that after Metis gave birth to Athena, she would have a son mightier than Zeus who would overthrow him, Zeus tricked the still pregnant Metis and swallowed her whole.


title: Metis (mythology)

text: By the era of Greek philosophy in the 5th century BC, Metis had become the first deity of wisdom and deep thought, but her name originally connoted "magical cunning" and was as easily equated with the trickster powers of Prometheus as with the "royal "metis"" of Zeus. The Stoic commentators allegorised Metis as the embodiment of "prudence", "wisdom" or "wise counsel", in which form she was inherited by the Renaissance.


title: Metis (mythology)

text: The Greek word "metis" meant a quality that combined wisdom and cunning. This quality was considered to be highly admirable, the hero Odysseus being the embodiment of it, using with Polyphemus, son of Poseidon. In the Classical era, "metis" was regarded by Athenians as one of the notable characteristics of the Athenian character.


title: Metis (mythology)

text: Metis was an Oceanid, one of the daughters of Oceanus and his sister-wife Tethys, who were 3000 in number. She was a sister of the Potamoi (river-gods), sons of Oceanus and Tethys, who also numbered 3000.


title: Metis (mythology)

text: Metis was the one who gave Zeus a potion to cause Cronus to vomit out his siblings. She became Zeus' first great spouse, Zeus is himself titled "Metieta" (), in the Homeric poems.


title: Metis (mythology)

text: Metis was both a threat to Zeus and an indispensable aid. He lay with her but immediately feared the consequences. It had been prophesied that she would bear extremely powerful children: the first, a daughter who would be wiser than her mother, and the second, a son more powerful than his father, who would eventually overthrow Zeus and become king of the cosmos in his place. In order to forestall these dire consequences, he tricked her into turning herself into a fly and promptly swallowed her. He was too late however, for Metis was already pregnant with their first and only child, Athena. Metis crafted armor, a spear, and a shield for her daughter, and raised her in Zeus' mind. Athena began to use the spear and shield her mother had made, banging them together to give her father a headache. Soon, he couldn't take his headache anymore and had Hephaestus cut his head open to let out whatever was in there. Athena emerged from Zeus's mind in full glory, wearing the armor her mother made her. Athena was made the goddess of wisdom, warfare, and crafts.


title: Metis (mythology)

text: According to a scholiast on the "Theogony", Metis had the ability of changing her shape at will. Zeus tricked her, and swallowed his pregnant wife when she transformed into a "" ("pikràn"). As Keightley notes, ("bitter") makes little or no sense in that context, and it has been variously corrected to ("muîan", meaning "fly") or ("mikràn", meaning "small thing") instead.


title: Metis (mythology)

text: According to Pseudo-Apollodorus, Metis was raped by Zeus, and changed many forms in order to escape him, after he pursued her.


title: Metis (mythology)

text: An alternative version of the same myth makes the Cyclops Brontes rather than Zeus the father of Athena before Metis is swallowed.


title: Metis (mythology)

text: Hesiod's account is followed by Acusilaus and the Orphic tradition, which enthroned Metis side by side with Eros as primal cosmogenic forces. Plato makes "Poros", or "creative ingenuity", a son of Metis.


title: Metis (mythology)

text: The similarities between Zeus swallowing Metis and Cronus swallowing his children have been noted by several scholars. This also caused some controversy in regard to reproduction myths.


title: Metis (mythology)

text: In his 1998 book "Seeing Like a State", James C. Scott used “metis” to describe the knowhow, experience and wisdom that people acquire in building expertise, as a key contributor to success in society that is not accounted for by the high modernist approach to central administration.


title: Champaran Satyagraha

text: The Champaran Satyagraha of 1917 was the first satyagraha movement led by Mahatma Gandhi in British India and is considered a historically important rebellion in the Indian independence movement. It was a farmer's uprising that took place in Champaran district of Bihar in the Indian subcontinent, during the British colonial period. The farmers were protesting against having to grow indigo with barely any payment for it.


title: Champaran Satyagraha

text: When Gandhi returned to India from South Africa in 1915 and saw peasants in Northern India oppressed by indigo planters, he tried to use the same methods that he had used in South Africa to organise mass uprisings by people to protest against injustice.


title: Champaran Satyagraha

text: Champaran Satyagraha was the first popular satyagraha movement. The Champaran Satyagraha gave direction to India's youth and freedom struggle, which was tottering between moderates who prescribed Indian participation within the British colonial system, and the extremists from Bengal who advocated the use of violent methods to topple British colonial rule in India.


title: Champaran Satyagraha

text: Under colonial-era laws, many tenant farmers were forced to grow some indigo on a portion of their land as a condition of their tenancy. This indigo was used to make dye. The Germans had invented a cheaper artificial dye so the demand for indigo fell. Some tenants paid more rent in return for being let off having to grow indigo. However, during the First World War the German dye ceased to be available and so indigo became profitable again. Thus many tenants were once again forced to grow it on a portion of their land- as was required by their lease. Naturally, this created much anger and resentment.


title: Champaran Satyagraha

text: Neel (indigo) started being grown commercially in Bihar, United Provinces and Bengal Presidency in 1750. Being a cash crop which needed high amounts of water and usually left the soil infertile, local farmers usually opposed its cultivation, instead preferring to grow daily need crops such as rice and pulses. Hence, the East India Company issued policies designed to pressure farmers to grow indigo, often by making this the condition for providing loans, and through collusion with local kings, nawabs, and landlords. The trade was lucrative and led to the fortunes of several Indian and European merchants and trading companies, including Jardine Matheson, E. Pabaney, Sassoon, Wadias and Swire.


title: Champaran Satyagraha

text: As the Indian indigo trade to China was made illegal in the early 1900s and was restricted in the United States in 1910, indigo traders began to put pressure on farmers to increase production. Many tenants alleged that Landlords had used strong-arm tactics to exact illegal cesses and to extort them in other ways.


title: Champaran Satyagraha

text: This issue had been highlighted by a number of lawyers/politicians and there had also been a Commission of Inquiry. Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi and Peer Muneesh published the condition of Champaran in their publications because of which they lost their jobs.


title: Champaran Satyagraha

text: Raj Kumar Shukla and Sant Raut, a moneylender who owned some land, persuaded Gandhi to go to Champaran and thus, the Champaran Satyagraha began. Gandhi arrived in Champaran, on 10 April 1917 and stayed at the house of Sant Raut in Amolwa village with a team of eminent lawyers: Brajkishore Prasad, Rajendra Prasad, Maulana Mazharul Haque, Anugrah Narayan Sinha, Babu Gaya Prasad Singh, Ramnavmi Prasad, and others including J. B. Kripalani.


title: Champaran Satyagraha

text: Gandhi established the first-ever basic school at Barharwa Lakhansen village, 30 km east from the district headquarters at Dhaka, East Champaran, on 13 November 1917, organising scores of his veteran supporters and fresh volunteers from the region. His handpicked team of eminent lawyers comprising Rajendra Prasad, Anugrah Narayan Sinha & Babu Brajkishore Prasad organised a detailed study and survey of the villages, accounting the atrocities and terrible episodes of suffering, including the general state of degenerate living.


title: Champaran Satyagraha

text: His main assault came as he was arrested by police on 16 April, on the charge of creating unrest and was ordered to leave the province. When asked by magistrate George Chander at Motihari district court on 18 April, to pay a security of Rs. 100, Gandhi humbly refused to be constrained by the diktat. Hundreds of thousands of people protested and rallied outside the court demanding his release, which the court unwillingly did. The case was subsequently withdrawn by the British Government.


title: Champaran Satyagraha

text: Gandhi led organised protests and strike against the landlords, who with the guidance of the British government, signed an agreement granting more compensation and control over farming for the poor farmers of the region, and cancellation of revenue hikes and collection until the famine ended. It was during this agitation, that first time Gandhi was called "Bapu" (Father) by Sant Raut and there was popularisation of "Mahatma" (Great Soul), which was given to Gandhi by Rabindranath Tagore. Gandhi himself did not like being addressed as "Mahatma", preferring to be called Bapu.


title: Champaran Satyagraha

text: Champaran movement concluded with the introduction of 'Champaran Agrarian Bill' by W. Maude, Member of Executive Council, Government of Bihar and Orissa, "consisting of almost all recommendations Gandhi Mission had made and it became the Champaran Agrarian Law (1918: Bihar and Orissa Act I)." This was for the first time that civil disobedience in India made the British adjust their "solipsistic attitude". While the British Government had crushed the Indian Rebellion of 1857, Satyagraha with its nonviolent communication confused the colonial government into believing that it would be unsuccessful. One of Gandhi's biographers, David Arnold, writes that Gandhi "confused, angered and divided the British in almost equal measure"; the British thus were "unsure whether he was, in their terms, a loyalist or a rebel." It was Gandhi's "moral superiority" that played a crucial role in the success of satyagraha and Gandhi's final mission of India's independence.


title: Champaran Satyagraha

text: Building on confidence of villagers, Gandhi began leading the clean-up of villages, building of schools and hospitals and encouraging the village leaders to undo purdah, untouchability and the suppression of women. Gandhi set up two more basic schools at Bhitiharwa with the help of Sant Raut in West Champaran and Madhuban in this district.


title: Champaran Satyagraha

text: The series of celebration began on 10 April 2017 with a National Conclave ("Rashtritya Vimarsh") where eminent Gandhian thinkers, philosophers, and scholars participated. The event was organised by Education Department and Directorate of Mass Education being the nodal office. On 13 May 2017, Indian Postal Department Issued three commemorative postage stamps and a miniature sheet on Champaran Satyagraha Centenary.


title: Champaran Satyagraha

text: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 10 April 2018 attended the concluding ceremony of the Champaran Satyagraha's centenary celebrations at Motihari in Champaran district of Bihar. PM Modi's key initiatives, including Swachh Bharat Mission attempt to re-interpret the theme of Champaran Satyagraha as Swachhagraha, thus to "re-emphasise the spirit of cleanliness – or Swachhta – which was close to Mahatma Gandhi's heart.


title: Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam

text: Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple is a Hindu temple dedicated to Ranganatha (a form of Vishnu), located in Srirangam, Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu, India. Constructed in the Hindu architectural style, the temple is glorified by Alvars in their Naalayira Divya Prabhandam and has the unique distinction of being the foremost among the 108 Divya Desams dedicated to the god Vishnu.


title: Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam

text: It is the most illustrious "Vaishnava" temples in South India rich in legend and history. The temple has played an important role in Vaishnavism history starting with the 11th-century career of Ramanuja and his predecessors Nathamuni and Yamunacharya in Srirangam. Its location, on an island between the Kollidam and Kaveri rivers, has rendered it vulnerable to flooding as well as the rampaging of invading armies which repeatedly commandeered the site for military encampment. The temple was looted and destroyed by the Delhi Sultanate armies in a broad plunder raid on various cities of the Pandyan kingdom in early 14th century. The temple was rebuilt in late 14th century, the site fortified and expanded with many more gopurams in the 16th and 17th centuries. It was one of the hubs of early Bhakti movement with a devotional singing and dance tradition, but this tradition stopped during the 14th century and was revived in a limited way much later.


title: Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam

text: The temple occupies an area of with 81 shrines, 21 towers, 39 pavilions, and many water tanks integrated into the complex making it the world's largest functioning Hindu temple. The temple town is a significant archaeological and epigraphical site, providing a historic window into the early and mid medieval South Indian society and culture. Numerous inscriptions suggest that this Hindu temple served not only as a spiritual center, but also a major economic and charitable institution that operated education and hospital facilities, ran a free kitchen, and financed regional infrastructure projects from the gifts and donations it received.


title: Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam

text: The Srirangam temple is the largest temple compound in India and one of the largest religious complexes in the world. Some of these structures have been renovated, expanded and rebuilt over the centuries as a living temple. The latest addition is the outer tower that is approximately tall, completed in 1987. Srirangam temple is often listed as one of the largest functioning Hindu temple in the world, the still larger Angkor Wat being the largest existing temple. The temple is an active Hindu house of worship and follows the Tenkalai tradition of Sri Vaishnavism. The annual 21-day festival conducted during the Tamil month of "Margali" (December–January) attracts 1 million visitors. The temple complex has been nominated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and is in UNESCO's tentative list.


title: Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam

text: The Ranganathaswamy Temple at Srirangam, also known as Periyakovil and Srirangam Tirupati, is located about north of the city of Tiruchirappalli, about southwest of Chennai. The city is connected daily to other major cities by the network of Indian Railways, Tamil Nadu bus services and the Highway 38. The site is near the Tiruchirappalli International Airport (IATA: TRZ).


title: Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam

text: The temple site is on a large island bounded by the Kaveri River and Kollidam River. It is vast and planned as a temple town with "Sapta-Prakaram" design where the sanctum, gopuram, services and living area are co-located in seven concentric enclosures. Rampart walls were added after medieval centuries that saw its invasion and destruction. The temple monuments are located inside the inner five enclosures of the complex, surrounded by living area and infrastructure in outer two enclosures. Numerous gopurams connect the "Sapta-Prakaram" enclosures allowing the pilgrims and visitors to reach the sanctum from many directions. The site includes two major temples, one for Vishnu as Ranganatha, and other to Shiva as Jambukeshvara. The island has some cave temples, older than both.


title: Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam

text: A temple at Srirangam is mentioned in Tamil literature of the Sangam era (6th century BCE to the 4th century CE), including the epic "Silapadikaram" (book 11, lines 35–40):


title: Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam

text: The temple was first built by the Chola ruler, Dharmavarma. The Kaveri river flood destroyed the temple "vimanam", and later, the early Cholas King Killivalavan rebuilt the temple complex as is present today. Beyond the ancient textual history, archaeological evidence such as inscriptions refer to this temple, but these stone inscriptions are from late 1st millennium CE. The inscriptions in the temple belong to the Chola, Pandya, Hoysala and Vijayanagara dynasties who ruled over the region. These inscriptions range in date between the 9th and 16th centuries.


title: Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam

text: During the period of invasion and plunder by the Ala ud Din Khilji's Muslim general Malik Kafur and his Delhi Sultanate forces in 1311, the Arabic texts of the period state that he raided a "golden temple" on river "Kanobari" (Kaveri), destroyed the temple and took the plunder with the golden icon of the deity to Delhi. According to Steven P. Hopkins, this is believed to be the Ranganathaswamy Temple.


title: Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam

text: The Tamil texts that followed offer various inconsistent legends on how the temple regained the Vishnu icon. According to one found in "Koil Oluku", a young girl had vowed to fast till she had seen the icon. She followed the Muslim army as it returned with the loot back to Delhi. There she sneaked into the palace and saw that the Sultan's daughter had fallen in love with the image. The young girl returned to Srirangam and told the priests about what she had seen in Delhi. The priests went with musicians to Delhi, found the icon in capriciously playful possession of the Sultan's daughter, day and night. They sang and danced before the Sultan to return the icon, and he gave it back which upset his daughter. To console the daughter, the Sultan sent in his army again to bring it back, but this time they were not successful. According to other versions, the Muslim daughter followed the icon from Delhi to Srirangam on a horse and still not seeing the idol, gave up her life before the door of the sanctum, symbolizing that love brought back the icon after the war had taken it away.


title: Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam

text: Beyond these legends, there was a more severe second invasion of South India including Srirangam between 1323 CE and 1327 CE by the armies of the Sultanate under Muhammad bin Tughluq. The sanctum's Vishnu image with its jewelry was pre-emptively removed by the Hindus before the Delhi Sultanate troops reached Srirangam by a group led by the Vaishnavite Acharaya Pillai Lokacharyar to Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu. The Goddess Ranganayaki (Lakshmi) was also taken away to another location by a separate group. The temple was defended and according to the Tamil tradition some 13,000 Sri Vaishnavas devotees of Srirangam, died in the fierce battle.


title: Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam

text: After nearly six decades when Madurai Sultanate ruled after the Pandyan rulers were ousted after the repeated Delhi Sultanate's invasions, the Vijayanagara Empire ousted the Madurai Sultanate in 1378. Thereafter, the image of Namberumal was brought back to Srirangam. Before then, for decades the deity and the priestly wardens wandered and secretly carried the temple's icon through villages of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka. They finally went to the hills of Tirumala Tirupati, where they remained until the temple was rebuilt in 1371. The icon was consecrated again according to the legends. This time, in memory of the first Sultan's daughter which tradition calls "Thulukha Nachiyar", a niche in the temple was built for her. The niche shows her as a girl sitting on a horse that carried her to Delhi. Her legend is still remembered. During contemporary processions when the icon is taken out of sanctum and then returned to it after its journey, "Thulukha Nachiyar" is dressed in Muslim garments and food offerings are made to her in the form of butter and (wheat bread).


title: Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam

text: Thereafter, under the Vijayanagara Empire, the temple site saw over 200 years of stability, repairs, first round of fortifications, and addition of mandapas. The Vishnu and Lakshmi images were reinstalled and the site became a Hindu temple again in 1371 CE under Kumara Kampana, a Vijayanagara commander and the son of Bukka I. In the last decade of the 14th century, a pillared antechamber was gifted by the Vijayanagara rulers. In the 15th century, they coated the apsidal roofs with solid gold sheets, followed by financing the addition of a series of new shrines, mandapas and gopuras to the temple, according to George Michell.


title: Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam

text: After the destruction of the Vijayanagara in late 16th century, geo-political instability returned. The site became the focus of bitter wars between the Hindu Nayakas and the Muslim Mughals in the 17th century. The Nayakas fortified the temple town and the seven "prakaras". It was taken over by Muslim Nawabs of Arcot as a lucrative source of revenues, and thereafter attracted a contest between the French and British military powers. Srirangam temple site and the neighboring city of Tiruchirappalli (Trichy) became an intense center of Christian and Muslim missionary activity during the 18th and 19th centuries. With the establishment of the Madras Presidency within the British Empire, geo-political stability returned and the Ranganathaswamy Temple site attracted interest in archeological and historical studies.


title: Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam

text: The epigraphical evidence suggests that these Hindu dynasties — Cholas, Pandyas, Hoysalas, Gajapatis, Nayaks, Vijayanagara – assisted with rebuilding, renovation and supported the traditional customs. Some mention substantial gifts to the temple. A Chola king, for example, presented the temple with a golden serpent couch. Some historians identify this king with Rajamahendra Chola. The temple has witnessed and played a key role in the early Sri Vaishnavism history, particularly the centuries that followed the major Hindu philosopher Ramanuja (1017–1137 CE), and his predecessors Nathamuni and Yamunacharya. It witnessed the debate between the Dvaita (dualistic) and Advaita (non-dualistic) sub-traditions within Vaishnavism. Centuries later, it was a key site in the debate and disagreements between the northern Tamil and southern Tamil traditions, also called as the Vadakalai and Tenkalai. The early rulers such as the Pallavas, Cholas and Pandyas supported it as a hub of the Bhakti movement with a devotional singing and dance tradition, but this tradition stopped during the 14th century and was revived in a limited way much later.


title: Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam

text: The temple and its artwork are a subject of numerous different Tamil legends covered in regional Puranic texts. "Sriranga Mahathmiyam", for example, is one of the compilation of the temple mythology about its origins. According to it, Brahma was performing austerities during the "Samudra Manthana" (churning of cosmic ocean), and Srirangam Vimanam emerged as a result. It remained in Satyaloka for ages, was brought to Ayodhya by king Ikshvaku. After Rama, an avatar of Vishnu, had killed the evil demon Ravana, he gave it to King Vibhishana who wanted to be with Rama. When Vibhishana passed through Tiruchi en route to Sri Lanka where he had become the king, the Srirangam Vimanam would not move from the island. So, he gave it to a local king called Dharmavarma, if the king consecrated the Vimanam to face the south cardinal direction eternally, blessing him and Lanka. Hence, it is that the deity (in a reclining posture) faces South, his body aligned to the east-west axis.


title: Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam

text: As per another legend, Sanaka, the four child sages, came for a "darshana" of Ranganatha in Srirangam. They were stopped by Jaya and Vijaya, the guardians of Vaikuntha. In spite of their pleadings, they were refused entry. In anger, all four of them cursed the guardians in one voice and left. The guardians approached Vishnu and told him about the curse. Ranganatha said that he would not be able to revert the curse and gave them two options: be born as demons opposing Vishnu in three births or good human beings in the following seven births. Eager to be back with the Lord, The guardians accepted being demons and are believed to have taken the form of Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakasipu; Ravana and Kumbhakarna; and Sisupala and Dantavakra. Vishnu assumed four avatars – Varaha, Narasimha, Rama, and Krishna, respectively – to kill the demons in each one of those births.


title: Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam

text: The temple is enclosed by 7 concentric enclosures with courtyards (termed "prakarams" or "mathil suvar"). Each layer has walls and gopurams, which were built or fortified in and after the 16th century. These walls total or over six miles. The temple has 17 major "gopurams" (towers, 21 total), 39 pavilions, 50 shrines, 9 sacred water pools, "Ayiram kaal mandapam" (a hall of 1000 pillars) and several small water bodies inside.


title: Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam

text: The temple is aligned to the north-south and east-west axis, on an island surrounded by the Kaveri River. The river has long been considered sacred, and called the "Daksina Ganga" or the "Ganges of the South". The outer two "prakarams" (outer courtyard) are residential and markets with shops, restaurants and flower stalls. The five inner courtyards have shrines to Vishnu and his various avatars such as Rama and Krishna. Major shrines are additionally dedicated to goddess Lakshmi and many saints of Vaishnavism. In particular, these shrines celebrate and commemorate the Tamil poet-saints and philosophers called the Alvars, as well Hindu philosophers such as Ramanuja and Manavala Mamunigal of Sri Vaishnavism tradition.


title: Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam

text: Despite the construction of various mandapas and gopuras over a span of many centuries, the architecture of the Ranganathaswamy temple is one of the better illustrations of Hindu temple planometric geometry per "agama" design texts in the Tamil tradition. According to George Michell, a professor and art historian on Indian architecture, the regulating geometry and plan of Srirangam site takes on "a ritual dimension since all the architectural components, especially the focal gopuras and the most important colonnades and mandapas, are arranged along the axes dictated by the cardinal directions". This alignment integrates the routes that devotees follow as they journey into the innermost sanctum.


title: Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam

text: The temple complex includes over 50 shrines. These are dedicated to Vishnu, Lakshmi as well as various Vaishnava scholars and poets. The shrines to Vishnu display him in his various avatars, as well as his iconography. For example, Sri Ranganathaswamy temple shrines include those of Chakkaratalvar, Narasimha, Rama, Hayagriva, and Gopala Krishna.


title: Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam

text: The Chakratalvar shrine is in the east facing on the south side of Akalanka. The sanctum is approached through a Mukamandapa (six rows of pillars) built during the Cholas and a Mahamandapa with six rows of eight pillars built during the period of Vijayanagar Empire. There is a circumambulation passage around the sanctum. The image of Chakratalvar is sculpted with Narasimha on the rear side and can be viewed from the passage around the sanctum. The Venugopala shrine, one of the most elaborately carved, is in the south-west corner of the fourth enclosure of the temple was rebuilt by Chokkanatha Nayak, according to an inscription dated 1674.


title: Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam

text: The main shrine for Ranganatha is in the innermost courtyard. The sanctum has a golden "vimanam" (crown tower over the sanctum sanctorum). It is shaped like the Tamil "omkara" (om symbol), shows anthropomorphic Paravasudeva on its gable, has an etching of Ramanuja as well on it, and is plated with gold. Inside, a edifice of Sri Ranganthar reclining on Adisesha, the coiled serpent, can be seen. Adisesha has five hoods and is coiled into three and a half rounds. Vishnu's head rests on a small cylindrical pillow and his right palm which faces upwards rests next to his head. Neither Sridevi (goddess Lakshmi) nor Bhudevi (goddess Earth) are depicted near his feet, as is found in late medieval era paintings. The sanctum does not show Brahma coming out of or connected to his navel either. However, the procession images of Sridevi, Bhudevi and Ranganathar, otherwise known as "Alagiyamanavalan" and "Namperumal" reside within the sanctum in different places to ease their "darshana" (viewing).


title: Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam

text: The sanctum can be entered through the south gateway, one the reclining Vishnu is facing. The doorway as one enters from the "mukhamandapam", also called the "Gayatri mantapa", is flanked by Jaya and Vijaya, the guardians of Vaikuntha. The sanctum chamber is round, even though the vimana above is an oval projection. The circumambulation path ("pradakshina-patha") is set in a square, to journey clockwise. This "garbha-griya" is surrounded by a raised square "Tiruvunnali", encircling pillars and another inner square. As the visitor completes the circumambulation around the resting Vishnu, one sees four additional images. On the western wall inside the core sanctum is Vighnesvara (son of Shiva and Parvati, Ganesha, Shaivism), on the northwestern corner is Yoga-Ananta (Vishnu seated in yoga asana on Sesha, Vaishnavism), on the northeastern side is Yoga-Narasimha (Narasimha seated in yoga asana, Vaishnavism), and on the eastern wall is Durga (an aspect of Parvati, Shaktism).


title: Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam

text: The exterior of the "vimana" and attached "mandapam" (hall) have intricately carved pilasters with fluted shafts, double capitals, and pendant lotus brackets. Sculptures are placed in the niches of three sides of the sanctuary walls; maidens enhance the walls in between. The elevation is punctuated with a secondary set of pilasters that support shallow eaves at different levels to cap larger and smaller recesses. The sanctuary is crowned in the traditional fashion with a hemispherical roof. The double-curved eaves of the entrance porch on the east side are concealed in a later columned hall. Dhanvantari, a great physician of the Hindu mythos is considered to be an avatar of Vishnu – there is a separate shrine of Dhanvantari within the temple.


title: Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam

text: The shrine of Ranganatha's consort, Ranganayaki (Lakshmi) is in the second precinct of the temple with 2 main idols (moola mortis) and 1 procession idol (utsava murti). During the festival processions, Ranganayaki does not visit Ranganatha, but it is he who visits her. Ranganatha visiting Ranganayaki and being with her is called as 'Saerthi' during 'Panguni Uthiram'. There are three images of Ranganayaki within the sanctum.


title: Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam

text: The Hall of 1000 pillars is a fine example of a planned theatre-like structure and opposite to it is the "Sesha Mandap". The 1000-pillared hall made of granite was constructed in the Vijayanagara period (1336–1565) on the site of the old temple. The most artistic halls that the Nayaks added to the complex is the "Sesha Mandap" on the east side of the fourth enclosure. The hall is celebrated for the leaping animals carved on to the piers at its northern end. The pillars consists of sculptures of wildly rearing horses bearing riders on their backs and trampling with their hoofs upon the heads of rampant tigers, seem only natural and congruous among such weird surroundings. The great hall is traversed by one wide aisle in the centre for the whole of its greater length, and intersected by transepts of like dimension running across at right angles. There still remain seven side aisles on each side, in which all the pillars are equally spaced out.


title: Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam

text: The "Garuda Mandapa" (hall of the legendary bird deity of Vishnu, "garuda") located on the south side of the third enclosure is another Nayak addition. Courtly portrait sculptures, reused from an earlier structure, are fixed to the piers lining the central aisle. A free-standing shrine inside the hall contains a large seated figure of Garuda; the eagle-headed god faces north towards the principal sanctum.


title: Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam

text: The "Kili mandapa" (Hall of parrot) is located next to the Ranganatha shrine, in the first enclosure of the temple. Elephant balustrades skirt the access steps that ascend to a spacious open area. This is bounded by decorated piers with rearing animals and attached colonettes in the finest 17th-century manner. Four columns in the middle define a raised dais; their shafts are embellished with undulating stalks.


title: Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam

text: There are 21 "gopurams" (tower gateways), among which the towering "Rajagopuram" (shrine of the main gateway) is the tallest temple tower in Asia. The 13-tiered "Rajagopuram" was built in 1987 by Ahobhila Matha, a historic Srivaishnava Hindu monastery. This tower dominates the landscape for miles around, while the remaining 20 gopurams were built between the 12th and early 17th centuries. The "gopurams" have pronounced projections in the middle of the long sides, generally with openings on each of the successive levels. The "Vellai gopura" (white tower) on the east side of the fourth enclosure has a steep pyramidal superstructure that reaches a height of almost . The structure of the Rajagopuram remained incomplete for over 400 years. Started during the reign of Achyuta Deva Raya of Vijayanagara Empire, the construction stopped after the fall of Vijayanagara in late 16th century and wars thereafter. The Rajagopuram (the main "gopuram") did not reach its current height of until 1987, when the 44th Jiyar (acharya, chief counsellor) of Ahobila Matha began collecting donations to complete it. The whole structure was constructed in a span of eight years. The Rajagopuram was consecrated on 25 March 1987. The length and breadth at the base of the Rajagopuram is , while the length and breadth at the top is . The 13 glistening copper " atop the tower weigh each, are high with a diameter vessel.


title: Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam

text: The Ranganathaswamy Temple town has over 800 inscriptions, of which nearly 640 are on temple walls and monuments. Many of these relate to gifts and grants by rulers or the elite, while others relate to the temple's management, scholars, dedication and general operation. The inscriptions have been a source of information about South Indian history, culture, economy and social role. These range from the late 9th century to the rule of Aditya Chola I, to the last historical ones from the 16th century. Others are from the times of Cholas, Nayakas, Pandyas, Hoysalas and the Vijayanagara era.


title: Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam

text: The historic inscriptions at the Ranganathaswamy Temple are in six major Indian languages: Tamil, Sanskrit, Kannada, Telugu, Marathi and Odia. Many of the inscriptions are in Grantha characters.


title: Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam

text: The temple has a lot of inscriptions of Kulottunga I. One interesting epigraph is a Kannada record that states that an entourage led by the "Kannada-sandhivigrahi" (foreign affairs minister) of Chalukya Tribhuvanamalla (Vikramaditya VI) made some donations to the temple. The inscription is dated in the 29th year of the reign of Kulottunga I.


title: Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam

text: The temple has inscriptions of the Suryavamshi Gajapatis of Odisha as well. In one inscription, it is mentioned that Hamvira Deva Mahapatra, son of the legendary Kapilendra Deva Gajapati, made donations to the temple after he aggressively marched upon the Vijayanagara Empire upto Tiruchirapally and then Rameswaram. This inscription is in Tamil.


title: Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam

text: Some of the mandapam and corridors of the Temple complex have frescoes, of which some have faded. These narrate Hindu legends and mythologies, or scenes relating to Vaishnava scholars.


title: Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam

text: The Ranganathaswamy Temple complex includes huge medieval era "Kottarams" or granaries. These provided food reserves and security to the temple town and supplies to its kitchen serving the needy travelers, pilgrims and local population. The temple has many other structures, participating and supporting various aspects of social life. Some mandapams and temple compounds were devoted to education, both religious and secular such as of musicians and dancers. The temple inscriptions state that its premises had an "arokyashala" (hospital) for those needing medical care. Several 11th and 12th century inscriptions describe a gift of land to support recitation of Hindu texts in the temple and for feeding Sri Vaishnavas.


title: Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam

text: The temple has twelve major water tanks. Of these, the Surya Pushkarini (sun pool) and Chandra Pushkarani (moon pool) are two of the largest that harvest most of rainwater. They have a combined capacity of two million liters of water.


title: Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam

text: The temple has wooden monuments that is regularly maintained and used for festive processions. These have intricate carvings of Hindu legends, and some are plated with silver or gold foils. The most significant of the temple chariots are the Garuda vahana, the Simha vahana, the Yanai vahana, the Kudirai vahana, the Hanumantha vahana, the Yazhi vahana, the Sesha vahana, the Annapakshi vahana, the Otrai vahana and the Prabhai vahana.


title: Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam

text: Ranganathaswamy temple is the only one out of the 108 temples that was sung in praise by all the Alvars (Poet-saints of the Bhakti movement), having a total of 247 "pasurams" (divine hymns) against its name. "Acharyas" (guru) of all schools of thought – Advaita, Vishistadvaita and Dvaita recognise the immense significance of the temple, regardless of their affiliations.


title: Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam

text: Naalayira Divya Prabhandam is a collection of 4000 hymns sung by twelve "alvars" saints spread over 300 years (from the late 6th to 9th century CE) and collected by Nathamuni (910–990 CE). "Divya Desams" refer to 108 Vishnu temples that are mentioned in Naalayira Divya Prabandham. 105 of these are located in India, 1 in Nepal, while 2 are located outside of the Earthly realms. "Divya" in Tamil language indicates premium and "Desam" indicates place or temple. Periyalvar begins the decad on Srirangam with two puranic stories according to which Krishna restored to life the son of his "guru" Sandeepani and the children of a brahmin. Thondaradippodi Alvar and Thiruppana Alvar have sung exclusively on Ranganatha. Andal attained Sri Ranganatha on completion of her "Thiruppavai" (a composition of 30 verses) in Srirangam. In total there are 247 hymns of the 4000 "Pasurams" dedicated to Ranganthar deity of this temple. Except Madhurakavi Alvar, all the other eleven Alvars have created "Mangalasasanam" (praise) about the Ranganathar in Srirangam. Out of 247, 35 are by Periyalvar, 10 by Andal, 31 by Kulasekara Alvar, 14 by Thirumalisai Alvar, 55 by Thondaradippodi Alvar, 10 by Thiruppaan Alvar, 73 by Thirumangai Alvar, one by Poigai Alvar,4 by Bhoothathalvar, two by Peyalvar and twelve by Nammalvar. Kulasekarar (Cheraman II) gave up his kingdom to his son during 798 CE and started visiting temples and singing praises about them. He visited the temple, praised the presiding deity and his works are compiled in the Naalayira Divya Prabandam.


title: Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam

text: Kambar is a 12th-century Tamil poet who composed the Kamba Ramayanam, a work inspired from the epic, Valmiki Ramayana. He is believed to have come to the temple to get the approval of his work from scholars. The Jain scholar Tirunarungundam honoured the work and it resulted in Tamil and Sanskrit scholars approving the work. The open hall where he recited his verse lies close to the Ranganayaki shrine within the temple.


title: Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam

text: Some of the religious works like "Sri Bhashyam" by Ramanuja, "Gadya Traya" (which is a compilation of three texts called the "Saranagati Gadyam", "Sriranga Gadyam" and the "Vaikunta Gadyam") by Ramanuja, "Sri Renga natha shtakam" by Adi Shankaracharya, "Renga raja Stavam" and "Guna ratna kosham" by Sri Parasar bhattar, "Renga raja Sthothram" by Kurathazhwar, are some of the works that were exclusively composed in praise of the presiding deities Lord Ranganatha and Goddess Ranganayaki of Srirangam temple.


title: Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam

text: Koil or koyil in Tamil means the house of the Master and thus refers to the temples. Srirangam is the most prominent among such temples. For many Vaishnavas the term "Koyil" exclusively refers to this temple, indicating its extreme importance for them (for saivas and all other Tamil people the term "koyil" refers to Thillai Natarajar Golden Shrine (Chidambaram Temple)). The presiding deity Ranganathar is praised in many names by his devotees, including "Nam Perumal" (our god in Tamil), "Azhagiya Manavaalan" (beautiful groom in Tamil). The deity is also known as Kasturi Ranga and Alagiya Manavalan.


title: Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam

text: The temple is considered in the Alwar traditions as one of the eight "Sywayambu Kshetras" of Vishnu where presiding deity is believed to have manifested on its own. Seven other temples in the line are Bhu Varaha Swamy temple, Tirumala Venkateswara Temple, and Vanamamalai Perumal Temple in South India and Saligrama, Naimisaranya, Pushkar and Badrinath Temple in North India.


title: Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam

text: Many of the medieval Sri Vaishanava scholars like Nathamuni, Ramanuja, Pillai Lokacharya, Vedanta Desika and Manavala Mamunigal are associated with the temple. Ramanuja was a theologian, philosopher, and scriptural exegete. He is seen by as the third and one of the most important teacher ("ācārya") of their tradition (after Nathamuni and Yamunacharya), and by Hindus in general as the leading expounder of , one of the classical interpretations of the dominant Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy. Ramanuja renounced his family life and went to Srirangam to occupy the pontificate – Srirangam became the stronghold of him and his disciples.