Vishnu one of the body is Salagramam. God is in 3 types. There are Statue, Vikkragam and Salagramam, people in south India and north India use this Salaramamin house and temple. In houses people keep their Salagramam in koil alwar and in temples they keep the Salagramam at God's neck's as Maalai. In Nepal Salagramam is available Salagramam is produce in the river of Kandaki river. Dr. S.L. Srinivasa Iyengar is the author of Slalagramam history and pooja steps given in Tamil text. In this book there are several shapes of Salagramam, Pooja steps, Sostram, Gayathri Moola Manthiram. So, every one who want to know about Salagramam can get this book. This books are available at below address.
Sri Vaushnava Sri Chennai New No & old.No.29.Ellai Amman Koil Street, No.8/C 3rd Floor, C.Block Mangadu Apartments, West Mambalam,Chennai -33. Ph No.044-24715120/cell No.09941793151.
Sri vaishnava sambharathaya books detailed Web:http//www.srivaishnavasrichennai.com Email:[email protected]
Dear SPS & Venkateswaran, I've never seen so many Shaligramas. Could they really all have come from the Gandaki River? Amazing. Wonder what accounts for all those fossils ? Kathie
HI Katherine, You are exactly right. The Shaligram we worship are ammonite fossils. The Himalyas are formed by the collision of the Indian and Eurasion landmasses which were originally separate. This collision uplifts the mountains, which is why they are still rising.
es was covered by the Tethys Sea which was filling with sediments and had sea creatures which left fossils in the sedimentary rocks formed there. Around 70 million years ago the land masses collided and this started pushing up the seabed of the Tethys. Over the years a number of phases of uplift occurred with resulted in the mountain range we see today.
It is the remains of this sea what we see in the Gandaki valley. Fossils of a marine animal called Ammonite are found in large numbers in the Kali Gandaki river in Nepal. Ammonites were sea animals having shells - either straight or coiled. When the Tethys sea disappeared, they were caught in the shale layers of clay and transformed into fossils. Some of the fossils are large with a diameter up to 2 m.
There are many big ammonite fossils in the Muktinath area of the Kali Gandaki valley, Nepal at around the elevation of 12,000 ft above sea level. This is one of the proofs that the Himalayas were indeed once under water. Apart from this, one can clearly see many layers of sedimentray rocks in himalayas showing high geological activity.
I was given an Ammonite by a friendly young boy, Mamoud, way back in '86, when travelling by camel from Jodhpur to Jaisalmer. I will treasure it always, whatever kind of Shalagrama it is.
I happen to be gifted to have a few at my home, they are mystical and the very fact that they are ancient and something that not many can get to possess must be by itself a treasure.
The cue here is, ammonites were not very slow moving creatures, so they either must have been fossilized into rock by molten lava or something else that we probably do not know.
Incidentally, I bounced into a thirupugazh which talks of a different destruction that happened, which will be a next thread.
Kathie, I collect crystals and various gemstones wherever I go - all natural gems have vibrations, which are healing and affect the body in many different ways. Some gems require special conditions due the power of vibrations - certain diamonds, crystals shaped as shivalinga (spatika linga) and some forms of jade. The stories of diamonds associated with fortune abound all around the world - would make for an interesting discussion!!