Inauguration of the renovated Mahakala Temple
On Tuesday, 11th October 2022, phase 1 of renovation of the Mahakala temple of Ujjain was completed and inaugurated. This is said to be a Rebirth of Ujjain, the civilizational capital of India.
Ujjain, a city in the State of Madhya Pradesh, is the home of Mahakala, one of the oldest temples of Lord Shiva.
Sandipani Ashrama at Ujjain was the celebrated place for education at which two princes -Krishna and Balram, and Sudama from a very poor family studied in the same class, about 5500 years back. The education at the fully residential institution was completely free for all. The institution provided common dresses, food and facilities for studies to all the students on a completely equal basis.
In Kalidasa’s famous book – Meghadootam, Yaksha has described the beautiful city of Avantika (the older name of Ujjain), which is one of the seven great cities of ancient India. (Kalidasa (380 CE – 415 CE) is considered as the greatest author of Sanskrit language. Today’s readers may understand if I describe William Shakespeare (1582-1616) as Kalidas of English language.)
In this city’s Observatory, worked Varahamihira, a Professor of Astronomy, who wrote an encyclopedia, called Brihat Samhita, which is used for calculating the days and months according to the position of stars wrt the earth and moon. (The Samhita is believed to be an updated and combined version of five encyclopedias on astronomy, written earlier by others.) Al Biruni, a well-known scholar of Arabia refers to Varahamihira’s Samhita. Varahamihira knew Greek language and had said that Greeks had good training places for sciences.
King Vikramaditya, after whom the Vikrami calendar, used in India, is named, is said to have ruled with Ujjain as his capital.
Brahmgupta, who used the modern number system with zeros and wrote a number of books on mathematical astronomy also taught at Ujjain. He initially worked at Bhillamala (today called Bhinmal. It is in the State of Rajasthan. It was also a Center of learning for Mathematics and Astronomy.) As he became senior and better-known, he moved to Ujjain. At Ujjain, he compiled Khandakhadyaka, a practical manual of astronomy for students, which is used even today. He died in 668 CE at Ujjain.
Calculation of time etc for this part of the world was done according to the Observatory at Ujjain. Ujjain was, for this part of the world, for the period before 1100 CE, somewhat like Greenwich is today for the world of today. Ujjain is one of the seven great cities of ancient India. (The 7 cities are- Haridwar, Mathura, Ayodhya, Varanasi, Ujjain, Dwarka, Kanchipuram- from North to south. Haridwar and Varanasi are places of pilgrimage.)
Please refer to the following for news about the event of 11th October 2022: