Nephrite such as Lantian, Shaanxi, were also in great demand). There, white and greenish nephrite jade is found in small quarries and as pebbles and boulders in the rivers flowing from the Kuen-Lun mountain range northward into the Takla-Makan desert area. River jade collection was concentrated in the Yarkand, and the White Jade (Yurungkash) and Black Jade (Karakash) Rivers in Khotan. From the Kingdom of Khotan, on the southern leg of the Silk Road, yearly tribute payments consisting of the most precious white jade were made to the Chinese imperial court and there transformed into "objets d'art" by skilled artisans, as
Thirty-two forms of Ganesha Thirty-two forms of Ganesha Thirty-two forms of Ganesha are mentioned frequently in devotional literature related to the Hindu god Ganesha (Ganapati). The Ganesha-centric scripture "Mudgala Purana" is the first to list them. Detailed descriptions are included in the "Shivanidhi" portion of the 19th-century Kannada "Sritattvanidhi". There are also sculptural representations of these thirty-two forms in the temples at Nanjangud and Chāmarājanagar (both in Mysore district, Karnataka), done about the same time as the paintings were done and also at the direction of the same monarch. Each of the thirty-two illustrations is accompanied by a short Sanskrit meditation verse (""), written