Guest guest Posted October 2, 2001 Report Share Posted October 2, 2001 --- Lynken Ghose <lynkenghose wrote: > Dear Indology: > > Has anyone ever heard of the series of incidents in > which Ganesa images > supposedly imbibed milk that was offered to them? > One of my students asked > me about this and I didn't know what to make of it. > Does anyone know > anything about this? These series of incidents tooks about 4-5 years back when the idols of Lord Ganesha 'drank' milk through his trunk. The procedure was simply to hold a spoonful of milk near the end of his trunk and lo behold it was all sucked up in a couple of minutes.It seemed to happen only to idols and not images and soon enough there were long lines to feed the lord and be blessed. The scientific reasoning behind this was a simple capillary effect where the trunk, which sometimes can be hollow on the inside, acted like a capillary. hope this helps Amit > > Thanks, > > Lynken Ghose > > > > _______________ > Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at > http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp > > > ===== Amit S Khare 4900 Boardwalk Drive Apt # C203 Fort Collins CO 80525 Phone No 970-267-9093 (Home) 970-206-8111 (Office) Listen to your Mail messages from any phone. http://phone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 5, 2001 Report Share Posted October 5, 2001 Amit: Can you clarify the capillary effect a little more? Thanks, Lynken Ghose >Amit Khare <akhare_01 >Re: [Y-Indology] Ganesa and milk >Tue, 2 Oct 2001 07:27:19 -0700 (PDT) > >These series of incidents tooks about 4-5 years back >when the idols of Lord Ganesha 'drank' milk through >his trunk. The procedure was simply to hold a spoonful >of milk near the end of his trunk and lo behold it was >all sucked up in a couple of minutes.It seemed to >happen only to idols and not images and soon enough >there were long lines to feed the lord and be blessed. > >The scientific reasoning behind this was a simple >capillary effect where the trunk, which sometimes can >be hollow on the inside, acted like a capillary. > >hope this helps > >Amit > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 9, 2001 Report Share Posted October 9, 2001 Lynken: The capillary effect can take place within the confines of a porous material due to the forces of adhesion, cohesion and surface tension of the liquid. One common example, which I sure you must be aware of, is in plants where the water is moved from roots upwards. In our case the idols have hollow trunks or have pathways on their surface which can act as capillaries. Thus when the idol comes in contact with the surface of milk, capillary action draws upwards. When almost all the pathways are full of liquid and no more liquid can be sucked in, one has to wait for some of the milk to be drained (which happens through the feet etc.). Once the milk has been drained the process continues. This ofcourse has been shown to happen not only with Lord Ganesha but with Shiva idols as well. Another point also to be noted here that this happens only with milk and not with other liquids (e.g., honey/water) the reason must that only in milk is there a perfect balance of forces required for capillary action to take place. I have attached a couple of links for your reference. http://www.csuchico.edu/~cheinz/syllabi/asst001/spring99/Karmegam/milk.html http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/capillaryaction.html Hope this is what you were looking for cheers Amit. --- Lynken Ghose <lynkenghose wrote: > Amit: > > Can you clarify the capillary effect a little more? > Thanks, Lynken Ghose > > > >Amit Khare <akhare_01 > >Re: [Y-Indology] Ganesa and milk > >Tue, 2 Oct 2001 07:27:19 -0700 (PDT) > > > >These series of incidents tooks about 4-5 years > back > >when the idols of Lord Ganesha 'drank' milk through > >his trunk. The procedure was simply to hold a > spoonful > >of milk near the end of his trunk and lo behold it > was > >all sucked up in a couple of minutes.It seemed to > >happen only to idols and not images and soon enough > >there were long lines to feed the lord and be > blessed. > > > >The scientific reasoning behind this was a simple > >capillary effect where the trunk, which sometimes > can > >be hollow on the inside, acted like a capillary. > > > >hope this helps > > > >Amit > > > > ===== Amit S Khare 4900 Boardwalk Drive Apt # C203 Fort Collins CO 80525 Phone No 970-267-9093 (Home) 970-206-8111 (Office) NEW from GeoCities - quick and easy web site hosting, just $8.95/month. http://geocities./ps/info1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 9, 2001 Report Share Posted October 9, 2001 INDOLOGY, Amit Khare <akhare_01> wrote: > In our case the idols have hollow trunks or have > pathways on their surface which can act as > capillaries. It is difficult to make a Ganesa idol with a capillary truck. To bore a 1 mm capillary through the hard rock , of say 9 inches, is not an easy task and I don't think traditional shilpa shastas recommend it. After all , the traditional stapathis who make these idols (assuming these idols are made by such people) have elaborate rules on how different idols should look like and secondly , from an aesthetic point, what is the point in having a capillary? It adds nothing to the beauty. I don't know what material these idols were made of , but capillary action through an ordinary rock should be extremely difficult. It looks like a closer study of this phenomenon was not made Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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