To be established in partnership with private institutions
The district administration will set up a career guidance cell for students to make choices of courses and career.
The centre will have counsellors whom students can meet and seek guidance from. “Last month, we organised a workshop on civil services examinations, where officials from All India Services interacted with students. The event was well-received by students, which made us think of institutionalising the whole career guidance process,” Deputy Commissioner P.C. Jaffer told The Hindu .
The centre will be established in partnership with private educational institutions. It will conduct aptitude tests and interest inventories for students of 10th and 12th standards. It will also conduct career guidance workshops for 12th and final year degree students, and address problems the students face in their SSLC and PU examinations.
A series of lectures on basic English will be conducted for school students in all taluks.
Training sessions
The centre will support efforts by private educational institutions to train students and graduates to get admission to universities or recruitment examinations. It will collaborate with colleges that plan to conduct training sessions for the National Eligibility Test and teachers’ recruitment.
At a meeting on here on Saturday, some institutions agreed to host aspirants for competitive examinations in their hostels and offer them mess and library access.
“The district administration and the zilla panchayat have drawn up a plan to strengthen primary education in the district, which will begin in June,” Mr. Jaffer said.
Vijay Mallya may be having problems with some of his companies, but it seems he believes in living life king size. Bidri artisans of Bidar are making a wall-mounted dining table, decked with silver all over, for the Mallya family.
National award-winning master craftsman Mohammad Rauf and his son Abdul Bari are working overnight to create a dining table with floral designs.
The table that looks like an ordinary table cut into half, has four legs. The straight end of the table would be fixed to a wall.
“Last month, some officials from the Kingfisher company came to Bidar looking for me. They wanted to see my designs. I made a free hand design and showed it to them. They liked it and asked me to deliver it within three weeks,” Mr. Rauf said.
“The officials had seen a table that I made earlier. Around 20 years ago, I designed a Bidri dining table, based on the picture of a wooden table from Iran. The table top was inlaid with mother-of-pearl pieces. I thought of doing the same with Bidri ware and produced an 18-inch table. We sold it to a collector in Mumbai. Someone from the company must have seen it and liked it,” he said.
He has not decided upon the price yet.
It depends upon the amount of silver that goes into it. Now we have used over 3.5 kg of silver. It should cost around Rs. 4 lakh, he said. As many as nine artisans are working on the table.
Rauf is a third generation Bidri artisan.
He is among the three master craftsmen identified by the Union Culture Ministry. He created a memento for the Commonwealth Games and the Union government’s souvenirs at the world economic forum in Davos.
Karnataka Government today announced creation of 43 new taluks and allocated Rs 86 crore funds for creating infrastructure in them.
Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, who is also in-charge of Finance Department, presenting the 2013-14 budget proposals said "based on reports submitted to the government in the recent years, demand from public and due to geographical factors, it is proposed to create 43 new taluks".
Rs two crore will be provided to each of the new taluk, he said.
Kamthana in Bidar district is one of the most inspiring places for a number of Jain ascetics and devotees. The annual three-day car festival held here from February 15 to 17 attracts hordes of devotees from neighbouring states, reports Srinivas Sirnoorkar Jainism was the most vibrant religion in the ancient and medieval period of the Hyderabad Karnataka region’s history. This is evident from a plethora of Jain monuments, historical and heritage sites, artefacts, nishidhis (memorial stones), basadis and inscriptions found extensively in several parts of the region, particularly in Gulbarga and Bidar districts. One such unique Jain centre is the Jain Mandir of Parshavanth Tirthankara at Kamthana in Bidar district.Situated at Kamthana village, 10 km south of the district headquarters of Bidar, it has a number of unique attributes. Like the Jain holy places of Shravanabelagola and Koppal, Kamthana was one of the most sought-after centres by Jain munis and shravaks who would choose this site to seek salvation through the practice of sallekhana, fasting unto death with traditional vows.
The place also reveals the influence of the Jain traditions prevalent in North India, evident from the presence of the ‘Srivatsa’ mark on the chest of the Parshvanath. ‘Srivatsa’ is a diamond-shaped mark on the chest of the Parshvanath usually found on sculptures in North India but not in South India. The mark is symbolic of the greatness of the soul, much like the diamond, known for its qualities of firmness, brightness and purity.
Carved in black mixed blue soft granite, the 115-cm tall and 55-cm wide monolith Parshvanath idol mesmerises not just because of its beautiful form but also because of its inner beauty. Qualities like self restraint, serenity, calmness, compassion, detachment, renunciation, austerity, meditation, all can be found and experienced in the sculpture.
The prabhamandala or radiance can be found at the back of the head of Parshvanath sitting in the paryankasana pose and sheltered under a seven-hooded serpent. Needless to say, Kamthana has remained one of the most inspiring places for a number of Jain ascetics for self realisation and salvation.
Many of them would come here to undertake sallekhana. A number of nishidhis, stone memorials recording the act of sallekhana, can also be found in and around Kamthana.
Anonymous sculptor
Though the sculptor who made such a marvellous piece of stone poetry remains anonymous, the inscription in Kannada found at the bottom of the sculpture states that it has been installed by Rechisetty of Sri Mollasangha tradition. This is the 18th Jain inscription found in Bidar district, according to history professor Appanna Hanje who has written a research article on the Kamthana Jain shrine. According to another amateur research scholar, D N Akki, the original meaning of Kamthana is ‘a place of forgiveness’, which is one of the greatest tenets of Jainism.
Made during the reign of the Kalyani Chalukyas in the 11th-12th century, due to fear of aggressors, the sculpture was installed at a safer place in the cellar of the temple. However, it was rediscovered by Acharya Shruta Sagar Muni in 1987 and the idol was brought out from the cellar and installed on a higher platform in the temple.
Though the temple has been renovated, the sculpture of Parshvanath Tirthankara has remained unaltered ever since its installation about 900 years ago.
Bidar Jain Milan Secretary Vijaykumar Jain maintains that Kamthana is one of the most inspirational Jain centres where three-day annual Rathyatra Mahotsava is held from February 15 to 17, attracting devotees from Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and other states. The temple committee wants to restore the glory of the temple through a number of religious and cultural activities.
