Focus: GS I: History
Why in News?
Prime Minister of India inaugurated the month-long Kashi Tamil Sangamam in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.
About Kashi Tamil Sangamam
- The Kashi Tamil Sangamam commemorates a variety of characteristics of the North and South of India’s shared history and culture.
- The overarching goal is to strengthen the bonds between the peoples of the North and the South by bringing their respective knowledge systems and cultural traditions closer together.
- It is being put on by the Ministry of Education in association with the Government of Uttar Pradesh and other ministries including Culture, Textiles, Railways, Tourism, Food Processing, Information & Broadcasting, etc.
- The project is in line with the National Education Policy (NEP), which places a strong emphasis on fusing the richness of Indian Knowledge Systems with contemporary knowledge systems by the year 2020.
- The program’s two implementing organisations are IIT Madras and Banaras Hindu University (BHU).
Cultural Significance:
- In order to construct a temple for Lord Shiva, King Parakrama Pandya of the area around Madurai in the 15th century travelled to Kashi (Uttar Pradesh) and brought back a lingam.
- He took a break under a tree while travelling back, but when he tried to move on, the cow carrying the lingam stood still.
- When Parakrama Pandya realised that this was the Lord’s intention, he put the lingam in the area, which later became known as Sivakasi, Tamil Nadu.
- The Pandyas had constructed the Kasi Viswanathar Temple for devotees who could not go to Kashi at what is now Tenkasi in southern Tamil Nadu, near to the state’s border with Kerala.
