title: Madhyamaka

text: As Garfield and Thakchoe note, Tsongkhapa's view allows him to "preserve a robust sense of the reality of the conventional world in the context of emptiness and to provide an analysis of the relation between emptiness and conventional reality that makes clear sense of the identity of the two truths." Because conventional existence (or 'mere appearance') as an interdependent phenomenon devoid of inherent existence is not negated (khegs pa) or "rationally undermined" in his analysis, Tsongkhapa's approach was criticized by other Tibetan madhyamikas who preferred an anti-realist interpretation of madhyamaka.


title: Madhyamaka

text: Following Candrakirti, Tsongkhapa also rejected the yogacara view of mind only, and instead defended the conventional existence of external objects even though ultimately they are mere "thought constructions" (Tib. "rtog pas btags tsam") of a deluded mind. Tsongkhapa also followed Candrakirti in rejecting "svātantra" ("autonomous") reasoning, arguing that it was enough to show the unwelcome consequences ("prasaṅga") of essentialist positions.


title: Madhyamaka

text: Gelug scholarship has generally maintained and defended Tsongkhapa's positions up until the present day, even if there are lively debates considering issues of interpretation. Jamyang Sheba, Changkya Rölpé Dorjé, Gendun Chopel and the 14th Dalai Lama are some of the most influential modern figures in Gelug madhyamaka.


title: Madhyamaka

text: The Sakya school has generally held a classic prāsaṅgika position following Candrakirti closely, though with significant differences from the Gelug. Sakya scholars of Madhyamika, such as Rendawa Shyönnu Lodrö (1349–1412) and Rongtön Sheja Kunrig (1367–1450) were early critics of the "other empty" view.


title: Madhyamaka

text: Gorampa Sonam Senge (1429-1489) was an important Sakya philosopher which defended the orthodox Sakya madhyamika position, critiquing both Dolpopa and Tsongkhapa's interpretations. He is widely studied, not only in Sakya, but also in Nyingma and Kagyu institutions.


title: Madhyamaka

text: According to Cabezón, Gorampa called his version of madhyamaka "the middle way "qua" freedom from extremes" ("mtha' bral dbu ma") or "middle way "qua" freedom from proliferations" ("spros bral kyi dbu ma") and claimed that the ultimate truth was ineffable, beyond predication or concept. Cabezón states that Gorampa's interpretation of madhyamaka is "committed to a more literal reading of the Indian sources than either Dolpopa's or Tsongkhapa's, which is to say that it tends to take the Indian texts at face value." For Gorampa, emptiness is not just the absence of inherent existence, but it is the absence of the four extremes in all phenomena i.e. existence, nonexistence, both and neither (see: "catuskoti"), "without any further qualification".


title: Madhyamaka

text: In other words, conventional truths are also an object of negation, because as Gorampa states "they are not found at all when subjected to ultimate rational analysis". Hence, Gorampa's madhyamaka negates "existence" "itself" or existence without qualifications, while for Tsongkhapa, the object of negation is "inherent existence", "intrinsic existence" or "intrinsic nature".


title: Madhyamaka

text: In his "Elimination of Erroneous Views" ("Lta ba ngan sel"), Gorampa argues that madhyamaka ultimately negates "all false appearances", which means anything that appears to our mind (i.e. all conventional phenomena). Since all appearances are conceptually produced illusions, they must cease when conceptual reification is brought to an end by insight. This is the "ultimate freedom from conceptual fabrication" ("don dam spros bral"). To reach this, madhyamikas must negate "the reality of appearances." In other words, all conventional realities are fabrications and since awakening requires transcending all fabrication ("spros bral"), conventional reality must be negated. Thus, for Gorampa, all conventional knowledge is dualistic, being based on a false distinction between subject and object. Therefore, for Gorampa, madhyamaka analyzes all supposedly real phenomena and concludes through that analysis "that those things do not exist and so that so-called conventional reality is entirely nonexistent."


title: Madhyamaka

text: Unlike most orthodox Sakyas, the philosopher Sakya Chokden, a contemporary of Gorampa, also promoted a form of shentong as being complementary to rangtong. He saw shentong as useful for meditative practice, while rangtong as useful for cutting through views.


title: Madhyamaka

text: As Garfield and Thakchoe note, for Tsongkhapa, conventional truth is "a kind of truth", "a way of being real" and "a kind of existence" while for Gorampa, the conventional is "entirely false", "unreal", "a kind of nonexistence" and "truth only from the perspective of fools."


title: Madhyamaka

text: Jay L. Garfield and Sonam Thakchoe outline the different competing models of Gorampa and Tsongkhapa as follows:


title: Madhyamaka

text: [Gorampa's]: The object of negation is the conventional phenomenon itself. Let us see how that plays out in an account of the status of conventional truth. Since ultimate truth—emptiness—is an external negation, and since an external negation eliminates its object while leaving nothing behind, when we say that a person is empty, we eliminate the "person", leaving nothing else behind. To be sure, we must, as mādhyamikas, in agreement with ordinary persons, admit that the person exists "conventionally" despite not existing "ultimately". But, if emptiness eliminates the person, that conventional existence is a complete illusion: The ultimate emptiness of the person shows that the person simply does not exist. It is no more actual than Santa Claus, the protestations of ordinary people and small children to the contrary notwithstanding.


title: Madhyamaka

text: [Tsongkhapa's]: The object of negation is not the conventional phenomenon itself but instead the intrinsic nature or intrinsic existence of the conventional phenomenon. The consequences of taking the object of negation this way are very different. On this account, when we say that the person does not exist ultimately, what is eliminated by its ultimate emptiness is its intrinsic existence. No other intrinsic identity is projected in the place of that which was undermined by emptiness, even emptiness or conventional reality. But the person is not thereby eliminated. Its conventional existence is therefore, on this account, simply its existence devoid of intrinsic identity as an interdependent phenomenon. On this view, conventional reality is no illusion; it is the actual mode of existence of actual things.


title: Madhyamaka

text: According to Garfield and Thakchoe each of these "radically distinct views" on the nature of the two truths "has scriptural support, and indeed each view can be supported by citations from different passages of the same text or even slightly different contextual interpretations of the same passage."


title: Madhyamaka

text: In the Kagyu tradition, there is a broad field of opinion on the nature of emptiness, with some holding the "other empty" ("shentong") view while others holding different positions. One influential Kagyu thinker was Rangjung Dorje, 3rd Karmapa Lama. His view synthesized madhyamaka and yogacara perspectives. According to Karl Brunnholzl, regarding his position in the rangtong-shentong debate he "can be said to regard these two as not being mutually exclusive and to combine them in a creative synthesis." However, Rangjung Dorje never uses these terms in any of his works and thus any claims to him being a promoter of shentong or otherwise is a later interpretation.


title: Madhyamaka

text: Several Kagyu figures disagree with the view that shentong is a form of madhyamaka. According to Brunnholzl, Mikyö Dorje, 8th Karmapa Lama (1507–1554) and Second Pawo Rinpoche Tsugla Trengwa see the term "shentong madhyamaka" as a misnomer, for them the yogacara of Asanga and Vasubandhu and the system of Nagarjuna are "two clearly distinguished systems". They also refute the idea that there is "a permanent, intrinsically existing Buddha nature".


title: Madhyamaka

text: Mikyö Dorje also argues that the language of other emptiness does not appear in any of the sutras or the treatises of the Indian masters. He attacks the view of Dolpopa as being against the sutras of ultimate meaning which state that all phenomena are emptiness as well as being against the treatises of the Indian masters. Mikyö Dorje rejects both perspectives of rangtong and shentong as true descriptions of ultimate reality, which he sees as being "the utter peace of all discursiveness regarding being empty and not being empty".


title: Madhyamaka

text: One of the most influential Kagyu philosophers in recent times was Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Taye (1813–1899) who advocated a system of shentong madhyamaka and held that primordial wisdom was "never empty of its own nature and it is there all the time".


title: Madhyamaka

text: The modern Kagyu teacher Khenpo Tsultrim (1934–), in his "Progressive Stages of Meditation on Emptiness", presents five stages of meditation, which he relates to five tenet systems. He holds the "Shentong Madhyamaka" as the highest view, above prasangika. He sees this as a meditation on "Paramarthasatya" ("Absolute Reality"), "Buddhajnana", which is beyond concepts, and described by terms as "truly existing." This approach helps "to overcome certain residual subtle concepts," and "the habit – fostered on the earlier stages of the path – of negating whatever experience arises in his/her mind." It destroys false concepts, as does prasangika, but it also alerts the practitioner "to the presence of a dynamic, positive Reality that is to be experienced once the conceptual mind is defeated."


title: Madhyamaka

text: In the nyingma school, like in Kagyu, there is a variety of views. Some Nyingma thinkers promoted "shentong", like Katok Tsewang Norbu, but the most influential Nyingma thinkers like Longchenpa and Ju Mipham held a more classical prāsaṅgika interpretation while at the same time seeking to harmonize it with the dzogchen view found in the dzgochen tantras which are traditionally seen as the pinnacle of the nyingma view.


title: Madhyamaka

text: According to Sonam Thakchoe, the ultimate truth in the Nyingma tradition, following Longchenpa, is that "reality which transcends any mode of thinking and speech, one that unmistakenly appears to the nonerroneous cognitive processes of the exalted and awakened beings" and this is said to be "inexpressible beyond words and thoughts" as well as the reality that is the "transcendence of all elaborations.


title: Madhyamaka

text: The most influential modern Nyingma scholar is Jamgon Ju Mipham Gyatso (1846–1912). He developed a unique theory of madhyamaka, with two models of the two truths. While he adopts the traditional madhyamaka model of two truths, in which the ultimate truth is emptiness, he also developed a second model, in which the ultimate truth is "reality as it is" ("de bzhin nyid") which is "established as ultimately real" ("bden par grub pa").


title: Madhyamaka

text: This ultimate truth is associated with the Dzogchen concept of Rigpa. While it might seem that this system conflicts with the traditional madhyamaka interpretation, for Mipham this is not so. For while the traditional model which sees emptiness and ultimate truth as a negation is referring to the analysis of experience, the second Dzogchen influenced model refers to the experience of unity in meditation. Douglas Duckworth sees Mipham's work as an attempt to bring together the two main Mahayana philosophical systems of yogacara and madhyamaka, as well as shentong and rangtong into a coherent system in which both are seen as being of definitive meaning.


title: Madhyamaka

text: Regarding the "svatantrika prasangika" debate, Ju Mipham explained that using positive assertions in logical debate may serve a useful purpose, either while debating with non-Buddhist schools or to move a student from a coarser to a more subtle view. Similarly, discussing an approximate ultimate helps students who have difficulty using only "" methods move closer to the understanding of the true ultimate. Ju Mipham felt that the ultimate non-enumerated truth of the svatantrika was no different from the ultimate truth of the Prāsaṅgika. He felt the only difference between them was with respect to how they discussed conventional truth and their approach to presenting a path.


title: Madhyamaka

text: Chinese madhyamaka (known as "sānlùn," or the three treatise school) began with the work of Kumārajīva (344–413 CE) who translated the works of Nāgārjuna (including the MMK, also known in China as the "Chung lun", ""Madhyamakaśāstra""; Taishō 1564) to Chinese. Another influential text in Chinese madhyamaka which was said to have been translated by Kumārajīva was the "Ta-chih-tu lun", or *"Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa Śāstra" ("Treatise which is a Teaching on the Great Perfection of Wisdom [Sūtra]"). According to Dan Arnold, this text is only extant in Kumārajīva's translation and has material that differs from the work of Nāgārjuna. In spite of this, the "Ta-chih-tu lun" became a central text for Chinese interpretations of madhyamaka emptiness.


title: Madhyamaka

text: "Sānlùn" figures like Kumārajīva's pupil Sengzhao (384–414), and the later Jizang (549–623) were influential in restoring a more orthodox and non-essentialist interpretation of emptiness to Chinese Buddhism. Yin Shun (1906–2005) is one modern figure aligned with "Sānlùn."


title: Madhyamaka

text: Sengzhao is often seen as the founder of "Sānlùn." He was influenced not just by Indian madhyamaka and Mahayana sutras like the Vimalakirti, but also by Taoist works and he widely quotes the Lao-tzu and the Chuang-tzu and uses terminology of the Neo-Daoist "Mystery Learning" ("xuanxue" 玄学) tradition while maintaining a uniquely Buddhist philosophical view. In his essay "The Emptiness of the Non-Absolute" ("buzhenkong", 不眞空), Sengzhao points out that the nature of phenomena cannot be taken as being either existent or inexistent:


title: Madhyamaka

text: Hence, there are indeed reasons why myriad dharmas are inexistent and cannot be taken as existent; there are reasons why [myriad dharmas] are not inexistent and cannot be taken as inexistent. Why? If we would say that they exist, their existent is not real; if we would say that they don't exist, their phenomenal forms have taken shape. Having forms and shapes, they are not inexistent. Being not real, they are not truly existent. Hence the meaning of bu zhen kong [not really empty, 不眞空] is made manifest.


title: Madhyamaka

text: Sengzhao saw the central problem in understanding emptiness as the discriminatory activity of "prapañca." According to Sengzhao, delusion arises through a dependent relationship between phenomenal things, naming, thought and reification and correct understanding lies outside of words and concepts. Thus, while emptiness is the lack of intrinsic self in all things, this emptiness is not itself an absolute and cannot be grasped by the conceptual mind, it can be only be realized through non-conceptual wisdom ("prajña").


title: Madhyamaka

text: Jizang (549–623) was another central figure in Chinese madhyamaka who wrote numerous commentaries on Nagarjuna and Aryadeva and is considered to be the leading representative of the school. Jizang called his method "deconstructing what is misleading and revealing what is corrective". He insisted that one must never settle on any particular viewpoint or perspective but constantly reexamine one's formulations to avoid reifications of thought and behavior. In his commentary on the MMK, Jizang's method and understanding of emptiness can be seen:


title: Madhyamaka

text: The abhidharma thinkers regard the four holy truths as true. The Satyasiddhi regards merely the truth of cessation of suffering, i.e., the principle of emptiness and equality, as true. The southern Mahāyāna tradition regards the principle that refutes truths as true, and the northern [Mahāyāna tradition] regards thatness [suchness] and prajñā as true… Examining these all together, if there is a single [true] principle, it is an eternal view, which is false. If there is no principle at all, it is an evil view, which is also false. Being both existent and non-existent consists of the eternal and nihilistic views altogether. Being neither existent nor nonexistent is a foolish view. One replete with these four phrases has all [wrong] views. One without these four phrases has a severe nihilistic view. Now that [one] does not know how to name what a mind has nothing to rely upon and is free from conceptual construction, [he] foists "thatness" [suchness] upon it, one attains sainthood of the three vehicles… Being deluded in regard to thatness [suchness], one falls into the six realms of disturbed life and death.


title: Madhyamaka

text: In one of his early treatises called "The Meaning of the two Truths" ("Erdiyi"), Jizang, expounds the steps to realize the nature of the ultimate truth of emptiness as follows:


title: Madhyamaka

text: In the first step, one recognises reality of the phenomena on the conventional level, but assumes their non-reality on the ultimate level. In the second step, one becomes aware of Being or Non-Being on the conventional level and negates both at the ultimate level. In the third step, one either asserts or negates Being and Non-Being on the conventional level, neither confi rming nor rejecting them on the ultimate level. Hence, there is ultimately no assertion or negation anymore; therefore, on the conventional level, one becomes free to accept or reject anything.


title: Madhyamaka

text: In the modern era, there has been a revival of mādhyamaka in Chinese Buddhism. A major figure in this revival is the scholar monk Yin Shun (1906–2005). Yin Shun emphasized the study of Indian Buddhist sources as primary and his books on mādhyamaka had a profound influence on modern Chinese madhyamika scholarship. He argued that the works of Nagarjuna were "the inheritance of the conceptualisation of dependent arising as proposed in the Agamas" and he thus based his mādhyamaka interpretations on the Agamas rather than on Chinese scriptures and commentaries. He saw the writings of Nagarjuna as the correct Buddhadharma while considering the writings of the Sānlùn school as being corrupted due to their synthesizing of the Tathagata-garbha doctrine into madhyamaka.


title: Madhyamaka

text: Many modern Chinese mādhyamaka scholars such as Li Zhifu, Yang Huinan and Lan Jifu have been students of Yin Shun.


title: Madhyamaka

text: The Chán/Zen-tradition emulated madhyamaka-thought via the San-lun Buddhists, influencing its supposedly "illogical" way of communicating "absolute truth." The madhyamika of Sengzhao for example, influenced the views of the Chan patriarch Shen Hui (670-762), a critical figure in the development of Chan, as can be seen by his "Illuminating the Essential Doctrine" ("Hsie Tsung Chi"). This text emphasizes that true emptiness or Suchness cannot be known through thought since it is free from thought ("wu-nien"):


title: Madhyamaka

text: Thus we come to realize that both selves and things are, in their essence, empty, and existence and non-existence both disappear.


title: Madhyamaka

text: There is no thought, no reflection, no seeking, no attainment, no this, no that, no coming, no going.


title: Madhyamaka

text: Shen Hui also states that true emptiness is not nothing, but it is a "Subtle Existence" ("miao-yu"), which is just "Great Prajña."


title: Madhyamaka

text: Thich Nhat Hanh explains the madhyamaka concept of emptiness through the Chinese Buddhist concept of interdependence. In this analogy, there is no first or ultimate cause for anything that occurs. Instead, all things are dependent on innumerable causes and conditions that are themselves dependent on innumerable causes and conditions. The interdependence of all phenomena, including the self, is a helpful way to undermine mistaken views about inherence, or that one's self is inherently existent. It is also a helpful way to discuss Mahayana teachings on motivation, compassion, and ethics. The comparison to interdependence has produced recent discussion comparing Mahayana ethics to environmental ethics.


title: Madhyamaka

text: Madhyamaka forms an alternative to the perennialist and essentialist understanding of nondualism and modern spiritual metaphysics (influenced by idealistic monism views like Neo-Advaita).


title: Madhyamaka

text: In some modern works, classical madhyamaka teachings are sometimes complemented with postmodern philosophy, critical sociology, and social constructionism. These approaches stress that there is no transcendental reality beyond this phenomenal world, and in some cases even explicitly distinguish themselves from neo-Advaita approaches.


title: Madhyamaka

text: The yogacara school was the other major Mahayana philosophical school (darsana) in India and its complex relationship with madhyamaka changed over time. The "Saṃdhinirmocana sūtra", perhaps the earliest Yogacara text, proclaims itself as being above the doctrine of emptiness taught in other sutras. According to Paul Williams, the "Saṃdhinirmocana" claims that other sutras that teach emptiness as well as madhyamika teachings on emptiness are merely skillful means and thus are not definitive (unlike the final teachings in the "Saṃdhinirmocana").


title: Madhyamaka

text: As Mark Siderits points out, yogacara authors like Asanga were careful to point out that the doctrine of emptiness required interpretation in lieu of their three natures theory which posits an inexpressible ultimate that is the object of a Buddha's cognition. Asanga also argued that one cannot say that all things are empty unless there "are" things to be seen as either empty or non-empty in the first place. Asanga attacks the view which states "the truth is that all is just conceptual fictions" by stating:


title: Madhyamaka

text: As for their view, due to the absence of the thing itself which serves as basis of the concept, conceptual fictions must all likewise absolutely not exist. How then will it be true that all is just conceptual fictions? Through this conception on their part, reality, conceptual fiction, and the two together are all denied. Because they deny both conceptual fiction and reality, they should be considered the nihilist-in-chief.


title: Madhyamaka

text: Asanga also critiqued madhyamaka because he held that it could lead to a laxity in the following of ethical precepts as well as for being "imaginatively constructed views that are arrived at only through reasoning." He further states:


title: Madhyamaka

text: How, again, is emptiness wrongly conceptualized? Some ascetics and Brahmins do not acknowledge that [viz. intrinsic nature] of which something is empty. Nor do they acknowledge that which is empty [viz. things and dharmas]. It is in this way that emptiness is said to be wrongly conceived. For what reason? Because that of which it is empty is non-existent, but that which is empty is existent— it is thus that emptiness is possible. What will be empty of what, where, when everything is unreal? This thing's being devoid of that is not [then] possible. Thus emptiness is wrongly conceptualized in this case.


title: Madhyamaka

text: Asanga also wrote that:"if nothing is real, there cannot be any ideas ("prajñapti"). Someone who holds this view is a nihilist, with whom one should not speak or share living quarters. This person falls into a bad rebirth and takes others with him." Vasubandhu also states that emptiness does not mean that things have no intrinsic nature, but that this nature is "inexpressible and only to be apprehended by a kind of cognition that transcends the subject-object duality."


title: Madhyamaka

text: Thus early yogacarins were engaged in a project to reinterpret the radical madhyamaka view of emptiness. Later yogacarins like Sthiramati and Dharmapala debated with their madhyamika contemporaries. However, yogacara authors also commented on madhyamaka texts. As noted by Garfield, "Asaṅga, Sthiramati, and Guṇamati composed commentaries on the foundational text of madhyamaka, Nāgārjuna's "Mūlamadhyamakakārikā"."


title: Madhyamaka

text: According to Xuanzang, Bhavaviveka, who critiques yogacara views in his "Madhyamakahṛdayakārikāḥ", was disturbed by the views of yogacarins and their critiques of madhyamaka as nihilism, and himself traveled to Nalanda to debate Dharmapala face to face, but Dharmapala refused. Bhavaviveka quotes the attacks from the yogacarins in his texts as claiming that while the yogacara approach to prajñaparamita is the "means to attain omniscience", the madhyamaka approach which "concentrates on the negation of arising and cessation" is not. Bhavaviveka responds to various yogacara attacks and views in his "Tarkajvālā" (Blaze of reason) including the view that there are no external objects (idealism), the view that there is no use for logical argumentation ("tarka"), and the view that the dependent nature ("paratantra-svabhāva") exists in an absolute sense.


title: Madhyamaka

text: Several modern scholars have argued that the early Advaita Vedanta thinker Gaudapada (c. 6th century CE), was influenced by madhyamaka thought. They note that he borrowed the concept of ""ajāta"" (un-born) from madhyamaka philosophy, which also uses the term ""anutpāda"" (non-arising, un-originated, non-production). The Buddhist tradition usually uses the term "anutpāda" for the absence of an origin or shunyata. "Ajātivāda" is the fundamental philosophical doctrine of Gaudapada. According to Gaudapada, the Absolute (Brahman) is not subject to birth, change and death. Echoing Nagarjuna's use of the catuskoti, Gaudapada writes that "nothing whatsoever is originated either from itself or from something else; nothing whatsoever existent, non-existent, or both existent and non-existent is originated."


title: Madhyamaka

text: However, it has been noted that Gaudapada's ultimate philosophical perspective is quite different from Nagarjuna's since Gaudapada posits a metaphysical Absolute (which is "aja", the unborn, and eternal) based on the "Mandukya Upanishad" and thus he remains primarily a Vedantin. The empirical world of appearances is considered unreal, and not absolutely existent. In this sense, Gaudapada also shares a doctrine of two truths or two levels of reality with madhyamaka. According to Gaudapada, this absolute, Brahman, cannot undergo alteration, so the phenomenal world cannot arise from Brahman. If the world cannot arise, yet is an empirical fact, then the world has to be an unreal appearance of Brahman. From the level of ultimate truth ("paramārthatā") the phenomenal world is "Maya" (illusion).


title: Madhyamaka

text: Richard King notes that the fourth prakarana of the "Gaudapadiyakarika" promotes several Mahayana Buddhist ideas, such as a middle way free from extremes, not being attached to dharmas and it even references beings called "Buddhas". King notes that this could be an attempt to either reach a rapprochement with Buddhists or to woo Buddhists over to Vedanta. However, King adds that "from a Madhyamaka perspective, the "Gaudapadiyakarika"'s acceptance of an unchanging Absolute supporting the world of appearances is a mistaken form of eternalism, despite Gaudapadian protestations to the contrary."


title: Madhyamaka

text: Shankara (early 8th century), a later Advaitin, directly dismissed madhyamaka as irrational and nihilistic, stating that it was a kind of nihilism that held that "absolutely nothing exists" and that this view:


title: Madhyamaka

text: This critique was upheld by most post Shankara Advaitins. However this did not prevent later Vedanta thinkers like Bhaskara of accusing Shankara of being a crypto-buddhist for his view that everyday reality is Maya (illusion) and that Brahman has no qualities and is undifferentiated. Another Vedantin philosopher, Ramanuja (1017–1137), directly compared Shankara's ""mayavada"" views to madhyamaka, arguing that if Maya/Avidya is unreal, "that would involve the acceptance of the Madhyamika doctrine, viz. of a general void". This critique by comparison is also echoed by the later philosophers like Madhva as well as Vijñanabhiksu (15th or 16th century), who goes as far as to call Shankara a nastika (unorthodox). Later Advaitins also acknowledged the similarity of their doctrine with madhyamaka. Vimuktatma states that if by "asat" (nonbeing), the Madhyamaka means Maya and not mere negation, then he is close to Vedanta. Sadananda also states that if by Sunya, what is meant is the reality beyond the intellect, then the madhyamaka accepts Vedanta. Sri Harsha notes that the two schools are similar, but they differ in that Advaita holds consciousness to be pure, real and eternal, while madhyamaka denies this.


title: Madhyamaka

text: Modern scholars such as Jeffery Long have also noted that the influential Jain philosopher Kundakunda (2nd CE century CE or later) also adopted a theory of two truths, possibly under the influence of Nagarjuna. According to W. J. Johnson he also adopts other Buddhist terms like prajña under the influence of Nagarjuna, though he applies the term to knowledge of the Self (jiva), which is also the ultimate perspective ("niścayanaya)," which is distinguished from the worldly perspective ("vyavahāranaya").


title: Madhyamaka

text: The Jain philosopher Haribhadra also mentions madhyamaka. In both the "Yogabindu" and the "Yogadrstisamuccaya", Haribhadra singles out Nagarjuna's claim that samsara and nirvana are not different for criticism, labeling the view a "fantasy".


title: Madhyamaka

text: It is well known that medieval Chinese Taoism was influenced by Mahayana Buddhism. One particular school, the Chongxuan (重玄, "Twofold Mystery") founded by Cheng Xuanying (fl.632-650), was particularly involved in borrowing and adapting madhyamaka concepts like emptiness, the two truths and the catuskoti into their Taoist philosophical system.


title: Madhyamaka

text: As noted by Ruegg, Western scholarship has given a broad variety of interpretations of madhyamaka, including: "nihilism, monism, irrationalism, misology, agnosticism, scepticism, criticism, dialectic, mysticism, acosmism, absolutism, relativism, nominalism, and linguistic analysis with therapeutic value". Jay L. Garfield likewise notes:


title: Madhyamaka

text: These interpretations "reflect almost as much about the viewpoints of the scholars involved as do they reflect the content of Nāgārjuna's concepts".


title: Madhyamaka

text: According to Andrew Tuck, the Western study of Nagarjuna's madhyamaka can be divided into three phases:


title: Madhyamaka

text: The Sri Lankan philosopher David Kalupahana meanwhile saw madhyamaka as a response to certain essentialist philosophical tendencies which had arisen after the time of the Buddha and sees it as a restoration of the early Buddhist middle way pragmatist position. Among the critical voices, Richard P. Hayes (influenced by Richard Robinson's view that Nagarjuna's logic fails modern tests for validity) interprets the works of Nagarjuna as "primitive" and guilty "errors in reasoning" such as that of equivocation. Hayes states that Nagarjuna was relying on the different meanings of the word "svabhava" to make statements which were not logical and that his work relies on various "fallacies and tricks". William Magee strongly disagrees with Hayes, referring to Tsonghkhapa's interpretation of Nagarjuna to argue that Hayes misidentifies Nagarjuna's understanding of the different meanings of the term "svabhava."


title: Madhyamaka

text: Many recent western scholars (such as Garfield, Napper, Hopkins,) have tended to adopt a Gelug Prāsaṅgika influenced interpretation of madhyamaka. However, American philosopher Mark Siderits is one exception, who has attempted to defend the Svātantrika position as a coherent and rational interpretation of madhyamaka.


title: Madhyamaka

text: C.W. Huntington meanwhile has been particularly critical of the modern Western attempt to read Nagarjuna "through the lens of modern symbolic logic" and to see him as compatible with analytical philosophy's logical system. He argues that in reading Nagarjuna, a thinker who he sees as "profoundly distrustful of logic", in an overly logical manner, we "prejudice our understanding of Nagarjuna's insistence that he has no proposition ("pratijña")." He puts forth a more literary interpretation that focuses on the "effect" Nagarjuna was attempting to "conjure" on his readers (i.e. an experience of having no views) instead of asking how it works (or doesn't) in a logical manner. In response to this, Jay Garfield defends the logical reading of Nagarjuna through the use of Anglo-American analytical philosophy as well as arguing that "Nagarjuna and Candrakirti deploy arguments, take themselves to do so, and even if they did not, we would be wise to do so in commenting on their texts".


title: Madhyamaka

text: Another recent interpreter, Jan Westerhoff, argues that madhyamaka is a kind of anti-foundationalism, "which does not just deny the objective, intrinsic, and mind-independent existence of some class of objects, but rejects such existence for any kinds of objects that we could regard as the most fundamental building-blocks of the world."


title: Bird (1988 film)

text: Bird is a 1988 American biographical film about jazz saxophonist Charlie "Bird" Parker, directed and produced by Clint Eastwood from a screenplay by Joel Oliansky. The film stars Forest Whitaker as Parker, with Diane Venora, Michael Zelniker, Samuel E. Wright, and Keith David in supporting roles. It is constructed as a montage of scenes from Parker's life, from his childhood in Kansas City, through his early death at the age of 34.


title: Bird (1988 film)

text: The film moves back and forth through Parker's history, blending moments to find some truth to his life. Much of the film revolves around his only grounding relationships with wife Chan Parker (Venora), Bebop pioneer trumpet player and band leader Dizzy Gillespie (Wright), and his influence (both musically and into the world of heroin addiction) on trumpet player Red Rodney (Zelniker).


title: Bird (1988 film)

text: Despite lukewarm commercial performance, the film was critically well-received, with particular praise toward Whitaker's performance, for whom the film became a breakthrough project. He won the Best Actor Award at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama at the 46th Golden Globe Awards, while Eastwood won the award for Best Director. Cahiers du Cinéma ranked "Bird" at #5 on its end-of-year Top 10 List.


title: Bird (1988 film)

text: In 1939 Kansas City, Missouri, young alto saxophone player Charlie "Bird" Parker performs at the Reno Club. However, his rapid and sporadic playing gets him jeered offstage. Moving to New York City, Charlie begins performing at different jazz venues on 52nd Street and meets trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. While Charlie performs with Dizzy, their specific style of jazz develops a following and is known as "bebop."


title: Bird (1988 film)

text: One evening, Charlie meets Chan Parker, a dancer and jazz lover. Attracted to Chan, Charlie continually asks her out, but she refuses his advances and moves to Chicago, Illinois. Later, Chan returns from Chicago and confesses she is pregnant with another man’s child. Upset, Charlie leaves for Los Angeles, California, to perform with Dizzy. One evening, Red Rodney, a Jewish trumpet player, approaches Charlie and tells him he is a fan. Later, Charlie and Dizzy’s engagement is cancelled due to a lack of interest in bebop. Charlie stays in Los Angeles, but his addiction to drugs and alcohol worsen, and he is hospitalized for eight months.


title: Bird (1988 film)

text: After Charlie gets clean and is released, Chan obtains a booking at a New York club for him. When he thanks Chan for her help, she introduces him to her daughter, Kim. Later, Charlie learns that his friend, Brewster, is opening a new club and naming it Birdland after Charlie. In need of work and money, Charlie travels to Paris, France, and finds an audience for jazz and bebop. However, he returns to New York and performs at Birdland.


title: Bird (1988 film)

text: Charlie later meets with Red and, while waiting for Birdland to open, offers a job touring with him in the South. Although Red is hesitant about how an interracial band might be received, Charlie assures him no harm will come to them. Arriving at their first engagement, Red sees Charlie has advertised him as being a blues singer named "Albino Red." During the tour, Charlie learns that Red is addicted to heroin and insists that he stop using drugs.


title: Bird (1988 film)

text: Returning to New York, Charlie and Red perform together for Birdland’s grand opening. Afterward, authorities pick up Red for drug possession. Charlie continues to perform at Birdland and other New York clubs. Chan and Kim move in with Charlie, and he and Chan have two children of their own: son Baird, and daughter Pree.


title: Bird (1988 film)

text: Some time later, Charlie is arrested for drug possession and put on probation. He loses his cabaret card, leaving him unable to perform in New York, and moves to Los Angeles in order to find work. He reconnects with Dizzy, who sees that he is using drugs again. Charlie later learns that Pree has died from an illness and returns home for her funeral. Depressed by Pree’s death and his faltering career, Charlie tries to kill himself by drinking iodine, but survives. After Chan has him committed to a hospital psychiatric ward, she is advised to send Charlie to a state facility for shock treatments. She worries that such treatments might rob him of his creative abilities. After Charlie is released, Chan convinces him to move their family to upstate New York.


title: Bird (1988 film)

text: Charlie later returns to the city for an audition set up by Brewster, but becomes distracted seeing all the former jazz clubs on 52nd Street have been turned into strip clubs. Missing the audition and embarrassed to tell Chan, Charlie goes to the apartment of Baroness Nica, a wealthy jazz music patron, and soon passes out. A doctor arrives and advises Charlie to go to the hospital, but he refuses. Later as he watches television with the Baroness, Charlie suffers a heart attack and dies at the age of 34.


title: Bird (1988 film)

text: In the 1970s, Parker's friend and colleague Teddy Edwards shared his reminiscences of the saxophonist to Oliansky, who had wanted to make a biopic about Charlie Parker starring actor Richard Pryor. The property was originally owned by Columbia Pictures, which traded the rights to Warner Bros. at Eastwood's instigation, in exchange for the rights to what would become Columbia's 1990 Kevin Costner vehicle, "Revenge". There was a delay of a few years while the trade was completed, and by then Pryor had lost interest. The film was eventually shot in 52 days for $14.4 million, not counting Eastwood's fee, although in interviews Eastwood sometimes said the film only cost $9 million to make.


title: Bird (1988 film)

text: Eastwood, a lifelong fan of jazz, had been fascinated by Parker ever since seeing him perform live in Oakland in 1945. He approached Chan Parker, Bird's common-law wife on whose memoirs the script was based, for input. She gave Eastwood a collection of lost recordings she'd kept in a bank vault.


title: Bird (1988 film)

text: Locations used for filming include the Sacramento Valley, Los Angeles, and Pasadena, California as well as New York City.


title: Bird (1988 film)

text: Initially, when Columbia owned the project, the studio executives wanted to hire musicians to re-record all of Parker's music, largely because the original recordings were in mono, and were not of acceptable sound quality to accompany a feature film. Eastwood had some recordings of Parker made by Parker's wife, Chan, from which he had a sound engineer electronically isolate Parker's solos. Musicians, such as Ray Brown, Walter Davis, Jr., Ron Carter, Barry Harris, Pete Jolly, and Red Rodney, were then hired to record backing tracks on modern equipment. Dizzy Gillespie was on tour at the time of recording, so trumpet player Jon Faddis was hired to record his parts.


title: Bird (1988 film)

text: "Bird" received a positive reception from critics, scoring an 83% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 23 reviews. Whitaker's performance as Parker earned positive notices and honors including the Best Actor award at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival and a Golden Globe nomination. Eastwood was awarded the Golden Globe for Best Director. The film won the Grand Prix of the Belgian Film Critics Association and the Academy Award for Best Sound (Les Fresholtz, Dick Alexander, Vern Poore, Willie Burton).


title: Bird (1988 film)

text: Despite its positive reception, "Bird" was a commercial failure, only grossing $2.2 million in North America, Eastwood's worst-performing film since "Breezy", and his third least-successful film overall; "Breezy" earned $200,000, while "White Hunter Black Heart" earned $2 million at the box office. The film opened in one theater in New York City and only grossed $27,116 in its opening weekend.


title: Bird (1988 film)

text: "Clint Eastwood is a fabulous actor as well as a fabulous filmmaker," observed Rolling Stones drummer and jazz aficionado Charlie Watts. "When he made 52nd Street move in "Bird", it was one of the most exciting things I'd ever seen. He took the shot from a black-and-white still and then suddenly it all became color and it moved! I'd have loved to have been there in the '40s."


title: Avani Lekhara

text: Avani Lekhara (born 8 November 2001) is an Indian Paralympian and rifle shooter. She won a "Gold Medal" in 10m air rifle standing and a "Bronze Medal" in 50m rifle 3 positions at Tokyo 2020 Paralympics. Avani Lekhara wins gold medal in shooting event] "Hindustan Times". Retrieved 30 August 2021 Lekhara is currently World No 1 in Women's 10m Air Rifle standing SH1 (World Shooting Para Sport Rankings) and has competed in the 2018 Asian Para Games. She has been supported by GoSports Foundation through the Para Champions Programme. She is also the first Indian woman to win multiple medals in a single Paralympic Games. She has been given out of turn appointment as Assistant Conservator of Forest (ACF) by the Government of Rajasthan.


title: Avani Lekhara

text: Lekhara is the first Indian woman to win a Paralympic gold medal. Lekhara also won India's first gold medal at the 2020 Summer Paralympics. With a score of 249.6 points in the final event, the young shooter set a Paralympic record and tied the world record. She began shooting in 2015, inspired by former Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra and has since won several national and international titles. On 3 September 2021, she became the first Indian female Paralympian to win two medals in Paralympics history after claiming bronze in women's 50m air rifle standing event.


title: Avani Lekhara

text: A car accident in 2012, at the age of 11, left her with complete paraplegia. Her father encouraged her to join sports, training in archery but moving to shooting in which she found her true passion. She currently studies law in Rajasthan, India.<br>


title: Avani Lekhara

text: She was student of Kendriya Vidyalaya 3 (Jaipur), where she received her first gold medal in regional match of shooting.


title: Gibson Explorer

text: The Gibson Explorer is a type of electric guitar model by Gibson guitars, released in 1958. The Explorer offered a radical, "futuristic" body design, much like its siblings: the Flying V, which was released the same year, and the Moderne, which was designed in 1957 but not released until 1982. The Explorer was the final development of a prototype design that, years later, Gibson marketed under the name Futura.


title: Gibson Explorer

text: The Explorer's initial run was unsuccessful, and the model was discontinued in 1963. In 1976, Gibson began reissuing the Explorer after competitor Hamer Guitars had success selling similar designs. The Explorer became especially popular among the hard rock and heavy metal musicians of the 1970s and 1980s.


title: Gibson Explorer

text: Gibson displayed a prototype guitar at the 1957 NAMM Show which was dubbed the Futura. It featured the body shape which would later be known as an Explorer, but with no controls and a "V"-shaped headstock.


title: Gibson Explorer

text: Gibson produced very few Explorers during the 1958 run of the original korina wood model. Because production records have been lost and shipping records are unclear, it is not known exactly how many were made, but the original run total has been estimated to be no more than 50.


title: Gibson Explorer

text: After the first few guitars, the Explorer had a long drooping headstock with the tuners placed in a straight line on one side (referred sometimes as "banana" and "hockey-stick"). This headstock design was incorporated by Grover Jackson, founder of Jackson Guitars and other electric guitar makers such as Kramer 20 years later, giving rise to the "pointy-headstock era" of guitars. However, the very earliest Explorers made between 1957 and spring 1958 featured an unusual "split"-shaped head with the tuners placed in a standard 3+3 arrangement, carried over from the Explorer prototype (better known as the Futura).


title: Gibson Explorer

text: The 1958–1959 korina Explorer is one of the most valuable production-model guitars on the market, ranked at #4 on the 2011 Top 25 published by "Vintage Guitar", worth between $250,000 and $300,000. Only 22 were shipped in its first two years, 19 in 1958 and 3 in 1959; an unknown (small) number of leftover bodies were completed with nickel 1960s hardware and sold in 1963. 38 examples were known to exist .


title: Gibson Explorer

text: There have been several variants produced by Gibson. These include several smaller-bodied, more "user-friendly" versions such as the X-Plorer Studio; the Matthias Jabs-designed Explorer 90 (named so because it was 90% the body size of a regular Explorer), and the Explorer Pro, introduced in 2007.


title: Gibson Explorer

text: In 1979 Gibson introduced the E2 model (also known as the Explorer II), featuring a 5-piece walnut/maple laminated construction and a contoured body. This model was discontinued after 1983, but was partially returned as the "Thunderhorse", a signature model for comedian/musician Brendon Small, which was heavily based on the E2.


title: Gibson Explorer

text: From 1979 to 1983 Gibson produced the "Explorer II", not to be confused with the later E/2 Explorers. The distinction is that the Explorer-II/E-II has a straight edge body with cream binding. These E-II's are made with a mahogany back and figured/flamed maple tops in "burst" colors, namely "cherry-burst" and "Tobacco burst". They did not come in clear or solid colored finishes. Also, they have the TP6 tail-piece, gold hardware, and "velvet brick" or "dirty fingers" pickups, cream color body binding, with a black pickguard and 3 knobs in a row. The necks have ebony fretboards. Those items together distinguish an Explorer II from the later E/2.


title: Gibson Explorer

text: For the E/2 Explorer, Gibson optioned them with various different parts. The biggest difference was the curved/contoured body. Some came with "dirty fingers" pickups where some are cream and black-colored (Zebra) or all black. Most had the standard stop-bar tailpiece, but some E/2's did come with a TP6 tailpiece. The E/2 was also offered in burst colors and clear finishes, whereas the E-II did not come in clear finishes.


title: Gibson Explorer

text: Gibson also produced a range of Explorer models between 1981 and 1984 with high-output "dirty fingers" pickups, maple neck and body, and a bound figured maple top available in natural, cherry sunburst, or vintage (tobacco) sunburst finishes. These were alternately named E/2, Explorer CMT, or The Explorer. They could be equipped from the factory with either a standard tune-o-matic bridge/stopbar tailpiece or a Kahler tremolo.


title: Gibson Explorer

text: From 1984 to 1987 the standard Explorer's body wood varied between mahogany and alder. The neck wood would vary between maple and mahogany and the fretboard wood varied between Indian rosewood and ebony. Other additions to this model included rear-loaded pickup cavities, no pickguard, and control knobs arranged in a triangle pattern (rather than a straight line as on the original model).


title: Gibson Explorer

text: In 1984 and 1985 Gibson produced the Explorer III, with three single-coil P-90 pickups and an alder body, as well as the Designer Series Explorer (and Flying V), which had factory-painted graphics in geometric and "Artist Original" designs.


title: Gibson Explorer

text: In 1998 Gibson introduced an Explorer in its "Gothic" line, which featured Gibson's guitars (including the Explorer, Flying V, SG, and Les Paul) in matte black finishes.


title: Gibson Explorer

text: Several variants are also produced by Epiphone Gibson's lower-cost, non-US manufacturer. These include a model produced in korina wood and Epiphone's own "Goth" model, available with a stop-tail or Floyd Rose locking tremolo bridge. Epiphone also produced an Explorer Bass in ebony black and velvet natural finishes with two humbucking pickups and a 34"-scale 22-fret dark rosewood fingerboard. The Explorer Bass employs a set-neck design rather than the bolted-neck construction used in the Epiphone version of the Gibson Thunderbird. (Gibson produced some 32"-scale Explorer basses in the 1980s, including one model that featured a futuristic piezo pickup in place of the traditional pickups found on the other models)


title: Gibson Explorer

text: In 2001 Gibson produced limited editions of Eric Clapton's modified 1958 Explorer, the Explorer Clapton Cut, featuring a shortened bass bout that allows more comfortable arm positioning and the Explorer Split Headstock, a faithful recreation of the original 1958 korina Explorer with the "forked" headstock found only on the very earliest examples..


title: Gibson Explorer

text: In 2003 Gibson Guitars produced limited editions of Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Allen Collins's Gibson Explorer. The guitar is made of African limba wood and features an aged finish, Maestro vibrola, and classic humbucking pickups


title: Gibson Explorer

text: In 2008 Gibson released two new versions of the guitar, the first of which was the "50-Year Commemorative Explorer". This version features a solid mahogany body with AA-grade maple top, and the body style is the so-called "new retro Explorer", which has rounded edges. The second is called the "Reverse Explorer" due to its inverted body style. The reverse model features a carbon fibre-like pickguard and inlays as well as a McCarty-era inspired headstock. Only a limited run of 1000 of each model were built for the Guitar of the Month feature. In the same year, Gibson also released the Robot Explorer, an Explorer version of the Gibson Robot Guitar together with a similar version of the Flying V featuring custom red metallic nitrocellulose finish, ebony fingerboard with white lining and trapezoid inlays, and lacking a pickguard. Production of this guitar was discontinued in 2008.


title: Gibson Explorer

text: In 2009 the company released two new versions of the guitar, the first of which is the Tribal Explorer. It features a Kahler-style tremolo and tribal designs and lacks a pickguard. The final new 2009 model is the Holy Explorer, designed as a counterpart to the Holy V, with numerous notches cut through the body of the guitar.


title: Gibson Explorer

text: After creating Matt Heafy of Trivium a white seven-string Explorer, Gibson released a statement that they would make a regular production version. It has many classic characteristics such as a rosewood fretboard, 22 frets, 24.75 scale length and a 12" radius while acquiring some more metal-oriented hardware and styling with the addition of active EMG pickups (81-7 bridge & 707 neck), and no fretmarkers on the fretboard.


title: Gibson Explorer

text: Although thought to be a staple in the Gibson lineup, the Explorer was discontinued and brought back multiple times in the late 2000s, along with the Flying V. In 2014 a limited edition 120th Anniversary model, with a special 12th-fret inlay and neck binding, was made available. In 2016 the Explorer was brought back into the standard lineup.


title: Gibson Explorer

text: Hamer Guitars created a tribute to the Explorer in 1974 called the Hamer "Standard". This model typically differed from the original Explorer in that it had no pickguard and a mahogany body with a highly figured maple top in a cherry sunburst finish, though custom finishes were also available. Gaining popularity with the hard rock musicians of the day, including Rick Nielsen, Hamer's success led the way for other copies and was partly responsible for prompting Gibson's own decision to reissue the Explorer.


title: Gibson Explorer

text: Jackson Guitars (now a subsidiary of Fender) was sued by Gibson for their line of Kelly guitars, which are very similar to the Explorer. The Kelly was sleeker and lighter, with basically the same shape but with beveled edges.


title: Gibson Explorer

text: High-end guitar company Alembic Inc produced the Exploiter bass guitars for the late John Entwistle of the Who. These basses had the body shape of the Explorer with either a cone- or V-shaped headstock. The Exploiter is different in that the edges are rounded over and the lower bout cuts more deeply into the body than an Explorer. After Entwistle's death, Alembic released the "Spyder" based on John's custom basses, with production limited to 50 guitars. Warwick also produces the "Stryker" basses, based on the custom Explorer-style basses.


title: Gibson Explorer

text: Dean Guitars produced a John Entwistle Spyder Signature Bass in 2013, limited to 25 US models and a low-cost Korean import series.


title: Gibson Explorer

text: Ibanez introduced the Destroyer model in the 1970s, with a korina-coloured Japanese Sen body that closely resembled the original 1958 Explorer. In about 1981 Ibanez changed the shape of the Destroyer body. Although the new Destroyer II model was still clearly inspired by Gibson's original Explorer design, the body lines were modified, most notably around the treble "horn" and the rear edge, and the headstock was changed to a slight variation of the traditional Ibanez headstock shape, no longer resembling Gibson's "hockey stick" shape.


title: Gibson Explorer

text: Dean Guitars was ordered to halt sales of the Dean Z in 2022 after the shape was found to infringe on Gibson's patents.


title: Gibson Explorer

text: Other guitars similar to the Explorer include the ESP EX Greco guitars' Explorer, Aria Pro II, Kramer's Condor, Peavey's Rotor series, Rondo Music's Douglas Halo and Agile Ghost, Gordon-Smith's Explorer, Chapman's Ghost Fret, and the Cort Effector (an Explorer version with built-in effects, but no pickup toggle switch).


title: Gibson Explorer

text: Gibson owns for the mark EXPLORER in connection with guitars. Gibson also owns for the Explorer's headstock design, and for the Explorer's body shape design. However, the enforceability of the latter two design trademarks is uncertain in light of Gibson's unsuccessful lawsuit against PRS Guitars for allegedly infringing Gibson's Les Paul shape. In 2005 the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ordered summary judgment against Gibson in that action, on the grounds that there was no evidence to support a finding of likelihood of confusion.


title: Brahui people

text: The Brahui (), Brahvi or Brohi, are an ethnic group of pastoralists principally found in Balochistan, Pakistan. A minority speaks the Brahui language, which belongs to the Dravidian language family, while the rest speaks Balochi and tend to identify as Baloch. The Brahuis are almost entirely Sunni Muslims.


title: Brahui people

text: The origin of the word "Brahui" is not certain. According to Elfenbein, it is most likely of non-Brahui origin and probably derives from Saraiki "brāhō", itself a borrowing into Saraiki of the name of the prophet "Ibrāhīm". It most likely only became the native endonym of the Brahui after they migrated into Sindh and became Muslims, years ago.


title: Brahui people

text: Their main area of habitation, including the main area where Brahui is spoken, is situated in a continuous area over a narrow north-south belt in Pakistan from the northern fringes of Quetta southwards through Mastung and Kalat, including Nushki to the west, all the way to Las Bela in the south, near the Arabian sea coastline. Kalat separates the area into a northern part, known as Sarawan, and a southern part, known as Jahlawan.


title: Brahui people

text: Large numbers of nomadic and semi-nomadic Brahui speakers are also found in Afghanistan, from the Shorawak desert to the northwest of Nushki in Pakistan in an area extending west along the Helmand river into Iranian Sistan. In Iran, no Brahui speakers are found to the south of Sistan, even though G. P. Tate mentioned a few Brahui's in 1909 as far south as Khash who were already assimilating into the neighboring Baloch. Some Brahui are also found in Turkmenistan, mainly in the Merv oasis. Most of these Turkmenistani Brahuis are descendants of the Brahui who migrated together with the Baloch from British administered Balochistan and Afghanistan in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.


title: Brahui people

text: The only census that ever recorded the Brahui was conducted in British India. Even then the numbers are marred by confusion between "Brahui tribesmen" and "Brahui speaker". As most Brahui have described themselves as Baloch for centuries to outsiders, this has led to confusion. In Afghanistan and Iran, the Brahui are considered to be ethnically the same as the Baloch people. "Ethnologue"'s latest estimate of 2.4 million Brahui speakers is likely an exaggerated count suffering from such issues. Elfenbein, referencing estimations from 1996, notes that there are Brahui tribesmen, scattered across Pakistani Balochistan and Afghanistan.


title: Brahui people

text: The origins of Brahuis remain unclear and their presence in the area cannot be traced to before the sixteenth century. Emeneau (2007) writes:


title: Brahui people

text: The fact that other Dravidian languages only exist further south in India leads to the hypothesis that the Brahuis are either a relict population of Dravidians remaining from a time when Dravidians were more widespread or that they migrated to Baluchistan from South India at sometime in the last two milenia. Noting extensive phonological similarities with Malto and Kurukh, spoken in Eastern India, Bhadriraju Krishnamurti speculates that the three groups might have had a common stage before migrating to different directions. In their oral traditions, both Kurukhs and Maltos speak of an eastward migration from Karnataka; Brahuis do as well but from Syria, which can be interpreted to be the Islamization of a migratory origin. However, the Brahuis do not have any significant Dravidian genetic component and are largely indistinguishable from surrounding Indo-European speakers (Balochi, Makrani, and Pathan) — this suggests passage of sufficient time since the admixture event thereby supporting the relic hypothesis.


title: Brahui people

text: Currently, the so-called Brahui nation comprises 27 tribes, of which 8 are referred to as nuclear tribes, and 19 are peripheral. Significant majority of Brahuis is related to peripheral tribes. Representatives of only two nuclear tribes speak Brahui as a primary language. The "nucleus" consists of the Achmadzai, Gurguari, Iltazai, Kalandari, Kambrani, Mirwari, Rodeni and the Sumalari, but they account for only a small proportion of the total number of Brahuis. The majority is divided up between the Jhalawan Brahuis (which include the tribes of the Bizanjars, Harunis, Muhammad Hasnis, Mengals, Nicharis, Pandranis, Sajdis and the Zahris), and the Sarawan Brahuis (comprising the tribes of the Bangulzai, Kūrd, Lahri, Langav, Muhammad-Shahi, Raisani, Rustamzai, Sarparah, Satakzai, Shahwani and Zagar-Mengal).


title: Brahui people

text: According to Elfenbein, about 15% of the Brahui tribesmen are estimated to be primary speakers of the Brahui language. Half of the rest may be secondary speakers of Brahui with Balochi as the primary language, while the other half are estimated to speak no Brahui "at all".


title: Brahui people

text: The Brahui language belongs to the Dravidian language family, while Balochi is an Iranian language. Brahui has extensively borrowed from Balochi and other languages of the area (Indo-Aryan as well as Iranian); McAlpin (2015) found the language to be an "etymological nightmare". Brahui has three dialects with no significant variation among them: Sarawani (spoken in the north), Jhalawani (spoken in the southeast), and Chaghi (spoken in the northwest and west). It does not have any standard script and there does not appear to exist any significant corpus of literature either; literacy rates among Brahuis remained very low as late as 1990s.


title: Metasequoia glyptostroboides

text: Metasequoia glyptostroboides, the dawn redwood, is a fast-growing, endangered deciduous conifer. It is the sole living species of the genus "Metasequoia", one of three genera in the subfamily Sequoioideae of the family Cupressaceae. It now survives only in wet lower slopes and montane river and stream valleys in the border region of Hubei and Hunan provinces and Chongqing municipality in south-central China, notably in Lichuan county in Hubei. Although the shortest of the redwoods, it can grow to in height.


title: Metasequoia glyptostroboides

text: In 1941, the genus "Metasequoia" was reported by paleobotanist Shigeru Miki as a widely distributed extinct genus based on fossils, before attracting considerable attention a few years later when small populations were found alive in central China. It is a particularly well-known example of a living fossil species. The tree faces considerable risks of extinction in its wild range due to deforestation, however it has been planted extensively in arboreta worldwide, where it has proved a popular and fast-growing ornamental plant. If the species had been discovered later, it might have become extinct before being investigated.


title: Metasequoia glyptostroboides

text: Although it was commonly known from the fossil record from across the northern hemisphere, the dawn redwood was considered extinct until the mid-twentieth century. When the genus "Metasequoia" was first described in 1941, it was from Mesozoic Era fossils, none of which were less than 150 million years old. While studying fossil samples of the family Cupressaceae, Dr. Shigeru Miki from Kyoto University identified a divergent leaf form. He realized he had discovered a new genus, which he named "Metasequoia", meaning "like a sequoia".


title: Metasequoia glyptostroboides

text: In the same year, Kan Duo (Toh Kan, 1903-1961), professor of Forest Management, National Central University, Chongqing, (formerly Chungking) observed an enormous living specimen while performing a survey in Sichuan and Hubei provinces. Though unaware of Miki's new genus, he recognized the unique traits of the tree. Unfortunately, while he collected some plant material, he did not attempt to identify or publish his findings. This tree formed part of a local shrine, where villagers called it "Shuǐshān" or "water fir".


title: Metasequoia glyptostroboides

text: In 1943, Wang Zhan (Chan Wang, 1911–2000) of the National Bureau of Forest Research, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forests, Chongqing, collected samples from an unidentified tree in the village of Moudao (; formerly Motaochi, Maodaoqi or Modaoxi) in Lichuan County, Hubei province—now believed to be the same tree Kan discovered. The samples were determined to belong to a tree yet unknown to science, but World War II postponed further study.


title: Metasequoia glyptostroboides

text: Professors Zheng Wanjun (Cheng Wan-Chun) and Hu Xiansu (Hu Hsien-Hsu) made the pivotal connection between Miki's fossil genus and the living samples in 1946, and provided the specific epithet ""glyptostroboides"", after its resemblance to the Chinese swamp cypress ("Glyptostrobus").


title: Metasequoia glyptostroboides

text: In July 1947, the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University provided $250 to fund an expedition by Zheng Wanjun's assistant Hua Jingchan (Ching-Shan Hwa 1921- ) to collect seeds for the arboretum from the "Metasequoia" type tree in Moudao, and trees in the nearby Metasequoia Valley (Shuishaba Valley). Hua's collecting trip returned with several kilos of seed that were distributed over the next few months for growth trials to Chinese institutions; the Arnold Arboretum, Missouri Botanic Garden, and elsewhere in the United States; botanic gardens at Kew, Edinburgh, and other locations in the United Kingdom; as well as botanic gardens in continental Europe and worldwide.


title: Metasequoia glyptostroboides

text: "Metasequoia glyptostroboides" leaves are opposite, long, and bright fresh green, turning a foxy reddish brown in fall. The pollen cones are long, produced on long spikes in early spring; they are produced only on trees growing in regions with hot summers. The cones are globose to ovoid, in diameter with 16-28 scales arranged in opposite pairs in four rows, each pair at right angles to the adjacent pair; they mature in about 8–9 months after pollination.


title: Metasequoia glyptostroboides

text: While the bark and foliage are similar to another closely related genus of redwoods, "Sequoia", "M. glyptostroboides" differs from the coast redwood in that it is deciduous, like "Taxodium distichum" (bald cypress). Similar to "T. distichum", older trees may form wide buttresses on the lower trunk. "M. glyptostroboides" is a fast-growing tree, exceeding in height and in trunk diameter by the age of 50, in cultivation (with the potential to grow to even greater dimensions). The trunk forms a distinctive "armpit" under each branch. The bark is vertically fissured and tends to exfoliate in ribbon-like strips.


title: Metasequoia glyptostroboides

text: The largest dawn redwood recorded was an isolated specimen in China about 50 meters (165 feet) tall and 2.2 meters (7.2 feet) wide. This tree was killed by a lightning strike in 1951. Several dawn redwoods of this height still live in the eastern part of "Metasequoia" Valley, where the tree was discovered. The tree's true potential size is much larger, as logs up to 8 meters (26 feet) wide at the base have been discovered in rice paddies.


title: Metasequoia glyptostroboides

text: The thickest and tallest dawn redwoods listed by Monumental Trees are both in the Longwood Gardens of Kennett Square in Pennsylvania, United States. The widest has a girth at breast height of 5.79 m (19 ft, average diameter 1.84 m, 6 ft), and is 30.18 m (99 ft) tall. The tallest is 41.15 m (135 ft) tall, and has a girth at breast height of 3.35 m (11 ft, average diameter 1.07 m, 3.5 ft). Both trees were planted in 1948 and measured in 2018.


title: Metasequoia glyptostroboides

text: Ecotypic variation has developed in a variety of microhabitats. Three variations have been observed based on the size of their cones, large, medium, and small. The large cone type is found growing on mountain slopes, develops a broad canopy, seeds more readily and is more drought tolerant. The small cone type is found near stream banks, is more sensitive to drought, and develops a more uniform trunk.


title: Metasequoia glyptostroboides

text: Together with "Sequoia sempervirens" (coast redwood) and "Sequoiadendron giganteum" (giant sequoia) of California, "M. glyptostroboides" is classified in the subfamily Sequoioideae of the family Cupressaceae. Although it is the only living species in its genus, three fossil species are known as well. The other Sequoioideae and several other genera have been transferred from the Taxodiaceae to the Cupressaceae based on DNA analysis.


title: Metasequoia glyptostroboides

text: Studies carried out between 2007 and 2009 counted 5,371 trees primarily in Lichuan, Hubei, with much smaller groups in Shizhu, Chongqing and Longshan, Hunan.


title: Metasequoia glyptostroboides

text: The floodplain of Metasequoia Valley in Hubei had already been turned to rice paddies by the time of the tree's discovery, but was once probably a more extensive dawn redwood forest. Such a forest would have been similar to bald cypress forests in the United States, with many similar species growing in association. Nearly 3,000 trunks were found in the floor of the valley, ranging from 2 meters (6.5 feet) to 8 meters (26 feet) wide at the base. Additionally, houses made of "Metasequoia" wood 200–300 years old still exist and probably date back to the original settlement of the valley.


title: Metasequoia glyptostroboides

text: Since its discovery, the dawn redwood has become something of a national point of pride, and it is protected under Chinese law and also planted widely. However, it is still listed as endangered in the wild. Cutting of trees or branches is illegal, but the demand for seedlings drives cone collection to the point that natural reproduction is no longer occurring in the dawn redwood forest. In addition, the landscape has been highly modified by human use, and a 1980 expedition found that the habitat has significantly degraded since the tree's discovery. Most of the other vegetation has been cut, and most of the area is no longer suitable ground for seedlings. Between 1950 and 1980 several hundred were logged in Metasequoia Valley, some over 2 meters (6.5 feet) wide.


title: Metasequoia glyptostroboides

text: A survey in the 2000s counted and measured all wild dawn redwoods. The remaining healthy trees range from 25 cm (10 in) to 1.65 m (5.4 ft) wide at breast height, 12–51 m (39.5-167.5 ft) in height, and estimated 41–265 years in age. The average size was 27 m (88.5 ft) tall and 0.45–0.9 m (1.5–3 ft) wide at breast height, with an estimated age of about 95 years. (The type tree, 2.48 m (8 ft) at breast height, was in poor health and therefore excluded from the study) No seedlings were found, and if they ever do appear it is legal to remove and transplant them. The species will continue to live in yards, parks and on roadsides all over China, but the "M. glyptostroboides" forest ecosystem could disappear when its mature trees die.


title: Metasequoia glyptostroboides

text: Since the tree's rediscovery, the dawn redwood has become a popular ornamental tree in parks and gardens worldwide.


title: Metasequoia glyptostroboides

text: Dawn redwood seed arrived at the Arnold Arboretum on January 5, 1948, and was shipped to arboreta around the world soon after. By 1951, the species had entered the commercial horticultural trade in the US, and following media excitement about the new discovery, including in the "San Francisco Chronicle" of March 25, 1948, sales soon took off.


title: Metasequoia glyptostroboides

text: Dawn redwood has proved an easy tree to grow in temperate regions, and is now widely planted as an ornamental tree. Planted trees have already reached at least up to 1.84 meters (6 feet) in diameter at breast height and 41.15 meters (135 feet) tall, despite being in cultivation for only 70 years. This rapid rate of growth has led to consideration for using the tree in forestry plantations. It has been discovered that "M. glyptostroboides" will thrive in standing water, much like bald cypress, and if left branched to the ground in full sun, will develop the large, contorted boles that have made it famous. Limbing or pruning at an early age will prohibit this formation later on.


title: Metasequoia glyptostroboides

text: In cultivation, "M. glyptostroboides" is hardy to USDA Zone 5, making it hardy down to lows of −25 °F (−32 °C). It is tolerant of soggy, waterlogged soils; in the wild it is adapted to growing on flood plains. Until it is established in a specific site, it is prone to drought and inadequate water availability. The dawn redwood is recommended for urban areas in the Midwest, Southeast, and East Coast of North America, as its fast growth rate and tolerance for air pollution make it widely adaptable and able to thrive where other species might suffer. This species tends to struggle without irrigation in arid climates such as the American West unless planted directly on or adjacent to a body of water such as a pond or stream. This species is also highly susceptible to damage from contact with heavy amounts of winter de-icing salt.


title: Metasequoia glyptostroboides

text: In the 1980s, it was discovered that many of the second-generation trees in cultivation suffered from inbreeding depression (extremely low genetic variability), which could lead to increased susceptibility to disease and reproductive failure. Many sources claim that the original 1947 seedlots came from as few as one tree; however, this has proven to be false. The original seeds did have a wide range of source trees, and the inbreeding depression is more likely to come from self-pollination by isolated trees. However, the total cultivated population still had less genetic variation than the wild ones, and more widespread seed-collecting expeditions in China in the 1990s sought to resolve this problem and restore genetic diversity to cultivated "M. glyptostroboides".


title: Metasequoia glyptostroboides

text: Pizhou, Jiangsu has the longest dawn redwood avenue in the world. The avenue is approximately 60 km long with over one million trees. The Water Forest in Xinghua, Jiangsu is named after the many dawn redwood trees found there in the park.


title: Metasequoia glyptostroboides

text: The dawn redwood is frequently encountered across the UK. Growth has been fastest in the south-east, but it is believed the tree may have a longer future in the more humid western regions. The first dawn redwood to be planted out in the UK was at the Cambridge University Botanic Garden. The seed was not from the Arnold expedition, but came to Cambridge directly. The Botanic Garden’s Annual Report for 1949 declares: ‘Seeds of Metasequoia glyptostroboides, sent by Dr Silow from China to Professor F T Brooks, germinated freely. Three of the seedlings have been planted out: one in the Yard at the back of the Range and two beside the Pond (now called the Lake).' The tree on the south-west side of the Lake is still living, as at July 2019. Seed distributed in the 1940s to Hillier Gardens near Winchester, UK, have thrived and are now the emblem of the gardens. The TROBI Champions are at Woking Park, Surrey: 22 m height by 144 cm d.b.h, Clare College, Cambridge: 21 m × 129 cm (planted 1949), and Wayford Woods, Somerset: 32 m × 99 cm. Several cultivars are available providing a range of different foliage colours and textures. The cultivar ‘Golden Oji’ has gained the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit.


title: Metasequoia glyptostroboides

text: Dawn redwoods thrive over a large, crescent-shaped region that encompasses the eastern and southern United States, as well as on the West Coast. Many institutions, such as the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, have fine specimens. The H. H. Hunnewell estate in Wellesley, Massachusetts, has two specimens (numbers 29 and 34) that date back to the initial distribution of seed by the Arnold Arboretum in 1949. There is a small grove of dawn redwoods at Bailey Arboretum in Locust Valley, New York, including one tree which is claimed to be the world's largest by diameter. The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation has begun planting dawn redwoods on sidewalks throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn, this link maps them. Washington, D.C.'s Urban Forestry Division has planted hundreds throughout that city, including all of the street trees in the 1800 block of Redwood Terrace, NW. A dawn redwood grows outside of the Rosicrucian Research Library at Rosicrucian Park in San Jose, California, as a memorial to H. Spencer Lewis. It was planted in 1950 from a seedling from the lot brought from China by Dr. Ralph Chaney, and donated by an unnamed donor to H. Spencer Lewis's widow for this purpose. In North Carolina, a private endeavor is working to create a "Metasequioa" reserve on 50 acres of uplands in the Sauratown Mountains. Portland, Oregon, is home to some of the oldest dawn redwoods in the US. One specimen planted in the Hoyt Arboretum in 1948 was 103' tall at last measurement and in 1952 earned the distinction of being the first dawn redwood to bear cones in the Western Hemisphere in 6–8 million years. A dawn redwood was planted at Southern Illinois University Carbondale in Carbondale, Illinois by William Marberry in 1950 and remains there to this day.


title: Teej

text: Teej () is the generic name for a number of Hindu festivals that are celebrated by women and girls. and welcome the monsoon season and are celebrated primarily by girls and women, with singing, dancing, enjoyment and prayer rituals. The monsoon festivals of Teej are primarily dedicated to Parvati and her reunion with Lord Shiva. Women often fast in celebration of "Teej."


title: Teej

text: Hartalika Teej is celebrated in hilly and terai regions of Nepal and most of the parts of North India (Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Rajasthan). "Teej" festivals are traditionally observed by women to celebrate the monsoons during the months of Shravan and Bhadrapada of Hindu calendar. Women pray to Parvati and Shiva during "Teej".


title: Teej

text: refers to the third day that falls every month after the new moon (), and the third day after the full moon night of every lunar month. According to Kumar (1988), and fall in Bhadrapada.


title: Teej

text: festivals are traditionally observed by women to celebrate the monsoons during the months of Shravan and Bhadrapada in the Hindu calendar. Women often pray to Parvati and Shiva during "Teej".


title: Teej

text: The festival is also celebrated to remember the reunion of Shiva and Parvati, the day when Shiva accepted Parvati as his wife. Parvati fasted and was austere for many years and was accepted by Shiva as his wife in her 108 birth. Parvati is also known as (lit. "Teej "mother).


title: Teej

text: On married daughters receive the gifts by her mother such clothes, bangles, bindi, "mehandi", etc. , a special sweet, are given to them on this day. These gifts are known as . According to Bhatnager (1988), is derived from the Sanskrit word "Sringar" which means 'decoration of women and their charming beauty'. These gifts include sweets, henna, new bangles, and a new dress. The rich send expensive gifts. The unmarried girls also receive new clothes and articles of decoration.


title: Teej

text: Haryali teej is celebrated in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan. The festival is also celebrated in Chandigarh.


title: Teej

text: Chandigarh administration makes special arrangements for celebration in the Rock Garden in the city. School children present plays and other cultural programs on this day. The female members of the family, especially daughters, are given gifts and dresses.


title: Teej

text: is one of the famous festivals of Haryana, and is celebrated as an official holiday. Many functions are organised by the Government of Haryana to celebrate this festival, which welcomes the rainy season. Boys traditionally flew kites from morning to evening, though this tradition is losing its charm in big cities due to high rise buildings and lack of terrace space.


title: Teej

text: Swings are set up in open courtyards, under trees for the season. Girls apply henna to their hands and feet and are excused from household chores on this day. On , girls often receive new clothes from their parents.


title: Teej

text: On , just as on Karva Chauth, the mother sends a or gift. The puja is performed in the morning. The , which consists of a variety of foodstuffs, is placed on a at a place of worship where a (square) has been decorated, and an idol or picture of Parvati has been installed. The evenings are set aside for folk singing and dancing, including the women's prayers for their husbands' longevity and their families.


title: Teej

text: is known as "Teeyan" in Punjab and is seen as a seasonal festival which is dedicated to the onset of the monsoon. The festival is celebrated by women of all faiths, and lasts from the third day of the bright half of the lunar month of Sawan as per the Bikrami calendar (Punjabi calendar) to the full moon of Sawan (about 13 days). Teeyan involves women getting together and performing Gidda, married women visiting their families and receiving gifts. It is also traditional for women to ride on swings.


title: Teej

text: welcomes the monsoon and observed in the month of Shravan (July/August). The monsoon rains fall on the parched land and the pleasing scent of the wet soil rises into the air. Swings are hung from trees and women dressed in green clothes sing songs in celebration of the advent of the monsoon.


title: Teej

text: This festival is dedicated to Parvati, commemorating her union with Shiva. Parvati is worshipped by seekers of conjugal bliss and happiness. An elaborate procession is taken out in Jaipur for two continuous days on the festive occasion which is watched by people in large numbers. The idol is covered with a canopy whereas the Gangaur idol is open. The traditional "ghevar" sweet is also associated with the festival.


title: Teej

text: During , Parvati is worshiped. The day before , is celebrated as "Sinjara", wherein women put mehandi on their hands and eat.


title: Teej

text: Women in Uttar Pradesh pray to Shiva on . It is also customary to sing folk songs known as . The focus of the lyrics is usually on separation expressing the pining of a woman for her beloved in her parents' home, where she has been sent to celebrate , or waiting in anticipation to be collected by brothers to celebrate . The kajri is a folk song composed and sung in the regions of eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and in parts of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.


title: Teej

text: Women who observe the fast go without food and water. is associated closely with , which also involves praying to the moon. The fast is broken by eating sattu. The other focus of the day is to pray to the neem tree. A fair is held in Bundi in Rajasthan to celebrate .


title: Teej

text: On the third day of the bright half of Bhadrapud, Parvati made a out of sand and silt of Ganga and prayed. Shiva was so impressed that he gave his word to marry Parvati. Eventually, Parvati was united with Shiva and was married to him with her father's blessing. Since then, the day is referred to as as Parvati's female () friend had to abduct () her in order for the goddess to achieve her goal of marrying Shiva.


title: Teej

text: Accordingly, is seen as a major festival and is celebrated on the third day of the bright half of the Indian/North Nepali Lunar month of Bhadrapud. The festival women feasting during the evening of , praying to Parvati and Shiva, remembering their wedding and staying up all night listening to prayers. The fast (also called nishivasar nirjala vrat) commences during the evening of and is broken the next day after a full day's observance which involves women not even drinking water. The focus is on praying to Parvati whom Shiva desired should be worshipped under the name Hartalika. The main areas of celebration are Bihar, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. In Rajasthan, an idol of Parvati is taken out in procession in the streets accompanied by singing, and music. has also spread to parts of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh .


title: Teej

text: In Maharashtra Hartalika teej also known as Hartalika tritiya vrat, which is celebrated in similar manner like northern India. It is observed by married women for the welfare, health, and long life of their husbands and for a happy married life and unmarried girls for being blessed with a good husband. It is Nirjala Vrat, they fast for one and half day.


title: Teej

text: Women do Sola shrungar, apply mehendi, wear new red or green sari observe fast, make idol of shiva, gauri, sakhi and ganesh with clay or river sand, read katha.


title: Teej

text: It is very auspicious vrat for women in India to worship goddess Parvati in the form of Gouri along with shiva parivar.


title: Teej

text: (also called Akshaya Tritiya) falls on the third day after full moon in the month of Vaisakha. It is an auspicious day of the birthday of Parasurama, the sixth incarnation of Vishnu. On this day Veda Vyas and Ganesha began to write the Mahabharata. Jains celebrate this day to commemorate Tirthankara Rishabha's ending of his fast by consuming sugarcane juice poured into his cupped hands. According to Gagne (2013), is an important festival in the Hindu calendar.


title: Teej

text: is celebrated in the month of in parts of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. This festival of falls in Spring. The month of occurs during spring.


title: Teej

text: On the day of , idols of Krishna and Radha are placed on swings in the temples and the focus of is religious. The green theme, popular in neighbouring Rajasthan and Haryana on , can also be seen in the . Idols of Krishna and Radha are dressed in green clothes.


title: Teej

text: in Telangana forms part of a wider celebration which is a forerunner to other festivals being celebrated and is known as . is one of the Banjara tribe's biggest festivals.


title: Teej

text: , also known as , is a festival observed mainly in Gujarat. The festival is celebrated on the third day of the Shukla Paksha (waxing of the moon) of in Gujarat. This observance is similar to the fast (). Married and unmarried women observe a fast on the day and offer the flower (pine screw) to Parvati and Shiva.


title: Teej

text: Dedicated to Parvati, commemorating her union with Shiva, the festival is celebrated for well-being of spouse and children and purification of one's body and soul. The festival is a three-day-long celebration that combines sumptuous feasts as well as rigid fasting. (also romanised ) is celebrated by women, for the long life of her husband and long and firm relationship between them in this life and all the lives to come. It is particularly celebrated by women from various castes of Nepalese society, particularly the Bahun, Chettri, Kiratis and others, on the third day after the new moon of the month of Bhadra (mid-August to mid-September).


title: Teej

text: Amongst some communities it is viewed as a "festival of sisterhood", Teej has traditional and modern values as a festival of celebrating good times with siblings. Although it looks like it is celebration of sisterhood because when married women get rare chance to meet with sisters and friends from their birthplace, there is a strong role of brothers to celebrate the festival as they are to call their sisters in this auspicious occasion and cook special food for their sisters, and all the girls enjoy time doing make up to look the best and dance to forget the pain they get from their in-laws, which is expressed in the form of folk songs with particular rhythm.


title: Teej

text: According to Hindu mythology, "Shree Swosthani Bratakatha", goddess Parvati ran away from her home with her friends to jungle as she was afraid that her father Himalaya promised to Vishnu to give his daughter Parvati in marriage. She then went to jungle and started praying Shiva to fulfill her wish to marry him. He said "" meaning he will fulfill her wish. That was the day of when Parvati got her husband as her undying wish. So this day is celebrated to get the husband of their dream by unmarried women and for long, healthy and prosperous life of husband by married women.


title: Teej

text: The first day of Teej is called . On this day the women assemble at one place in their finest attire and start dancing and singing devotional songs. Amidst all this, the grand feast takes place. What is unusual about this day is that the feast is hosted by men. Women, who work hard throughout the year, do not have to do anything that day. That is the day for them to embellish themselves in — dressing up and using make up to the full extent, indulge in good food, and dance. Oftentimes, because women are invited by multiple brothers for the feast, they try to dance off some food before they are ready to eat more. The food served is supposed to be rich and abundant.


title: Teej

text: This is probably the only day in a year that allows women full freedom of expression. Consequently, women have traditionally used this occasion to express their pains and pang in the songs they sing while dancing. With the advancement of communication and awareness, women these days use this occasion to voice their concerns about social issues and discrimination against women. The jollity often goes on until midnight, after which the 24-hour fast starts.


title: Teej

text: The second day is the day of fasting. Some women don't eat or drink food and water while others drink liquids and eat fruit. The fasting is observed by married and unmarried women. Married women abstain strictly from food and drinks with a belief that their devotion to the gods will be blessed with longevity, peace and prosperity of their husband and family. Unmarried women observe the fast with a hope of being blessed with a good husband.


title: Teej

text: They dress gaily and visit a nearby Shiva temple singing and dancing on the way. The Pashupatinath Temple gets the highest number of devotees. At the temple, women circumambulate the , which symbolizes Shiva. The main pooja (religious ceremony) takes place with offerings of flowers, fruits, etc., made to Shiva and his wife Parvati, beseeching them to grant their blessing upon the husband and family. The important part of the puja is the oil lamp which should be alight throughout the night. It is believed that by the light of an oil lamp all night will bring peace and prosperity to the husband and family.


title: Teej

text: The third day of the festival is Rishi Panchami. After the completion of the previous day's puja, women pay homage to seven saints or sages, offer prayers to deities, and bathe with red mud found on the roots of the sacred datiwan bush, along with its leaves. The Rishi Panchami revolves around the purity of women. It is a time when women cleanse themselves of the possible "sin of touching a man during menstruation." During this festival, which occurs two days after the Teej, the women participate in ritual baths and puja (worship). One of the defining characteristics of the Teej Festival is the songs the women sing. Traditionally, these songs emphasized the subservient role of women in Nepalese society in addition to reinforcing traditional Hindu ideology of gender relations. Within the past few decades, as Nepal and the surrounding area experiences rapid development and modernization, the Teej songs have become more of a critical commentary on gender relations from women's perspectives. These songs "extend the women's thoughts and experiences of hardships from an intimate conversation to a public setting". The Teej songs allow women to effect change in their respective societies by giving them a public voice.


title: Necessary Roughness (film)

text: Necessary Roughness is a 1991 American sport comedy film directed by Stan Dragoti, his final film. The film stars Scott Bakula, Héctor Elizondo, Robert Loggia, and Harley Jane Kozak. Co-stars include Larry Miller, Sinbad, Jason Bateman, Kathy Ireland, Rob Schneider, and Fred Dalton Thompson.


title: Necessary Roughness (film)

text: The film touches on an up-and-coming season at the fictional higher learning institution of Texas State University and its football team nicknamed the Fightin' Armadillos. (At the time the film was made, there was no Texas State University, but in 2003, Southwest Texas State University changed its name to Texas State University, nicknamed the Bobcats, which coincidentally was the "season opener" opponent of the fictional Texas State Armadillos.)


title: Necessary Roughness (film)

text: The once-powerful Armadillos are forced to start the season with a host of new coaches and players after the previous staff and all but one players are banned following a scandal. This predicament is based on the "death penalty" handed out to the Southern Methodist University football team for violations very similar to the ones found at the fictional Texas State.


title: Necessary Roughness (film)

text: The Texas State University Fightin' Armadillos were once one of the most powerful teams in college football. After winning consecutive conference and national championships, massive NCAA violations resulted in the program having to forfeit years' worth of victories. All of the coaches were fired and all of the players are banned from returning and expelled from college except Charlie Banks, the only "clean" player, who never got to play despite having "heart".


title: Necessary Roughness (film)

text: This move forces new head coach Ed "Straight Arrow" Gennero (Elizondo) to build an almost entirely new team with little assistance. No athletic scholarships are available, forcing them to hold tryouts. Along with this, they must worry about Phillip Elias (Miller), the dean of the university, who wants the team to fail so he can scrap it due to the corruption the football program has caused over the years, and funnel the funding into his own pocket. The coaches soon have a makeshift team in place.


title: Necessary Roughness (film)

text: Due to Dean Elias declaring many prospective players ineligible because of poor grades, only 17 players are allowed on the team—not enough for separate offensive and defensive squads. The Armadillos are thus forced to play ironman football. The team lacks experience and talent in all areas, especially at quarterback, placekicker, and the defensive line. Assistant coach Wally "Rig" Riggendorf (Loggia) finds Paul Blake (Bakula), a 34-year-old high school star who never attended college due to his father's death. Rig convinces him to enroll and become the Armadillos' quarterback.


title: Necessary Roughness (film)

text: Blake arrives on campus and catches everyone's attention due to his age, especially Professor Carter (Kozak). Blake then recruits a graduate student teaching assistant named Andre Krimm (Sinbad), who is also enrolled at the school and still has some eligibility remaining. Blake convinces him to join, and he is positioned on the defensive line, where he excelled years earlier. Even with the new members, the team is unable to win.


title: Necessary Roughness (film)

text: Carter tells Blake that she knows him from 16 years earlier. Carter's ex-boyfriend was a high school football star, but Blake and his team humiliated him and his team in a 1975 championship game. This episode actually caused Carter to become infatuated with Blake. Now, years after the fact, the two begin a romantic relationship which Dean Elias opposes due to their student-teacher dynamic—not to mention Elias' own lascivious interest in Carter.


title: Necessary Roughness (film)

text: Coach Rig makes one more recruiting move to secure a kicker. He shocks everybody by selecting Lucy Draper (Ireland) from the school's women's soccer team. When she is brought on board, the team has its first taste of success, as Draper kicks a field goal in a driving rainstorm to forge a 3–3 tie with Kansas (in real life, Kansas holds the all-time NCAA Division I-A record for number of tie games with 57). After this game, Blake quits the team after arguments with Gennero and Carter, but convinces himself to come back after a teammate Edison, who is also quitting, inadvertently changes his mind and both come back. Dean Elias barges into Carter's office after end-of-term exams, first coming onto her as a distraction from him tampering with the team's grades (to sabotage their eligibility for the final game), but she plays along momentarily before warning him that if one grade changes, she'll report him to the University President.


title: Necessary Roughness (film)

text: With the coaches and players now on the same page, the team plays their last game of the season against the number one ranked team in the state of Texas, the University of Texas Colts, with whom the Armadillos were involved in a barroom brawl earlier in the season. They head into the game as huge underdogs, and without Gennero, who is hospitalized just before the game for a potential heart attack, leaving Coach Rig in charge. After a horrible first half, they rally in the second half to cut the deficit to one, and Gennero returns to the sideline, having only suffered from


title: Necessary Roughness (film)

text: indigestion, though he lets Coach Rig call the final play. Minutes before the final touchdown, after learning about his scheme to get rid of the football program (and his sexual harassment of Carter), TSU president Purcell fires Dean Elias, though not before the entire Armadillo defensive line runs him down. The team decides to try to win it all with a two-point conversion. They fake a point after attempt and pass for two. Blake scrambles and finally finds Banks in the end zone to win the game.


title: Necessary Roughness (film)

text: The film was shot at various locations in Texas. Azle, Dallas, Fort Worth, and Denton were the primary locations used for filming. The University of North Texas in Denton, specifically Fouts Field, which was then UNT's football stadium, was a major location for filming football and college scenes. Texas State's green and white uniforms in the movie are exactly the same colors worn by North Texas. Texas State's helmet logo, a large "T" flanked by a smaller "s" and "u", is a nod to the Texas Southern University Tigers, whose helmet logo is a large "T" flanked by a smaller "s" and "u".


title: Necessary Roughness (film)

text: During one scene, when the team takes part in a scrimmage game with a team of convicts, cameos are made by several NFL players. These players included Jerry Rice, Roger Craig, Earl Campbell, Dick Butkus, Ben Davidson, Tony Dorsett, Ed 'Too Tall' Jones, Herschel Walker, Jim Kelly, and Randy White. The film also has some cameo appearances from Chris Berman and Evander Holyfield.


title: Necessary Roughness (film)

text: The film was released on September 27, 1991, and went on to gross over $26 million at the box office. The film earned an approval rating of 33% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 30 reviews. The consensus states: "This likable, goofy football comedy has its moments, but it ultimately adheres too closely to the sports movie playbook to overcome the cliches in the script." The film was released in the United Kingdom on March 27, 1992, and failed to reach the Top 10.