Take deep breath and put on your browser seat belts as we load 52 image of the story of the creation of the base of the avudaiyar of the Iraivan Temple Maha Sphatika Lingam.

The avudaiyar (Tamil, pronounced AA-vu-dai-YAR), or pitham in Sanskrit, of the lingam, is being poured in Swamimalai, India, in several sections. Today’s documentary details the pouring of the very bottom portion which is marked on the painting.

We take you now to Swamimalai where the work is being supervised by Kubera Sthapati–the chief artisan of the metal works–under the guidance of Selvanathan Sthapati, our temple architect.

First a wax model made to exacting proportions was created. This was then encased in a special mixture of earthen clay that is indigenous to the area. We are told the earth in the Swamimalai area is one of the few soils that you simply dig up, mold and dry and it is perfectly suited to hold molten metals. You might call it the original metal works plaster. This mold is heated and the wax is melted out. Hence this area is popular for metal works.

The methods, materials and tools have been handed down by Swamimalai artisans for many generations.

The mold is baked to harden it. The mold is then buried and packed in the ground. Metal re-inforcement strapping has been added on the outside to help the packed mold sustain the pressures of the hot molten metal about to be poured into its interior.

Near by a pit full of coal has been burning for hours with crucibles of metal therein, heating up for the pour.

There are two coal pits burning away at incredible temperatures of over 1,800 degrees farehnheit.

Nearby a homa to Lord Ganesha has been performed to invoke blessings on the morning’s work, assuring that all barriers will be removed.

The two Sthapatis overseeing the work.

The time has come. The metal is molten, hot enough to pour and the covers of the pits are removed.

More coal is added to the pits.

The copper makes the fire green.

A final check on the state of the molten metal indicates it is ready for the pour.

Giant two-man tongs that will be used to pick up the crucibles are brought to the pits.

These vitrified ceramic crucibles are brought, one-by-one to the mold.

vitrify |ˈvitrəˌfī|
verb ( -fies, -fied) [ trans. ] (often be vitrified)
convert (something) into glass or a glasslike substance, typically by exposure to heat.

The pour begins.

More crucibles are brought out and queue up behind each other.

Two crucibles remain to pour in: early 1,000 degrees Celsius

All the metal has been filled into the mold

The team behind the job.

Now we wait, while the metal cools.

Gurudeva called Hinduism Today magazine “the prow of the ship.” By that, he meant that the magazine was designed and written to reach into every corner of the Hindu world, to relate to every member of every Hindu lineage, and as such it could open doors for many initiatives and bring his other teachings to the far corners of the Earth.

Thirty Years of
Sharing Dharma

This sticker is printed on the cover of all the issues printed in 2009.

The 30th year anniversary issue should be arriving in your mailboxes just about now. If you see something you especially like, or an issue that tugs at your heart, write us a letter to the editor at letters@hindu.org.

And this is one of the early Macs we used when we moved from light tables and paste-up to digital production in 1986. Bodhinatha tells a bit about that part of our history, too.

And how we now live in a digital world.

Having left Old School photography behind.

He also mentions our free online digital edition. Here is a screen shot of the application that delivers the PDF files to your desktop.

Along with rich media and links to our many resources.

These are the presses in Missouri where the magazine is printed.

Gurudeva loved the way the magazine was received, and would have been delighted to hear a conversation the editors had this morning. A California subscriber called to seek some help with vegetarianism, and mentioned that the magazine had changed her 25-year-old’s life completely. He became a Hindu. He became a vegetarian. And through the magazine he found teachers to guide him in his newest fields of interest–Vedic astrology and ayurveda. It’s rewarding to hear such tales of the magazine’s impact during this celebration of 30 years of publishing.

The monastery’s Ganapati Kulam just completed Bodhinatha’s Publisher’s Desk video for the January/February/March, 2009, edition of Hinduism Today on YouTube. As Bodhinatha explains in the video below (which also links to the Publisher’s Desk video at the end using YouTube’s new annotation feature), this is one of three types of video content we will be rotating through each quarter as our Kauai’s Hindu Monastery monthly video.

Palaniswami is working on the 10-minute video of that issue, to be posted to YouTube. And if you have not seen the YouTube videos, you can search for Hinduism Today and watch. Over 3,900 people have watched the October-November-December video so far.