title: Kamakhya Temple

text: The "pancharatna" to the west of "calanta" is large and rectangular with a flat roof and five smaller "shikharas" of the same style as the main "shikhara". The middle "shikhara" is slightly bigger than the other four in typical pancharatna style.


title: Kamakhya Temple

text: The "natamandira" extends to the west of the "pancharatna" with an apsidal end and ridged roof of the Ranghar type Ahom style. Its inside walls bear inscriptions from Rajeswar Singha (1759) and Gaurinath Singha (1782), which indicate the period this structure was built. The outer wall has stone sculptures from an earlier period embedded in high relief.


title: Kamakhya Temple

text: Historians have suggested that the Kamakhya temple is an ancient sacrificial site for an Austroasiatic tribal goddess, "Kameikha" (literally: "old-cousin-mother"), of the Khasi and Garo peoples; supported by the folk lores of these very peoples. The traditional accounts from Kalika Purana (10th century) and the Yogini Tantra too record that the goddess Kamakhya is of Kirata origin, and that the worship of Kamakhya predates the establishment of Kamarupa (4th century CE).


title: Kamakhya Temple

text: The earliest historical dynasty of Kamarupa, the Varmans (350–650), as well as Xuanzang, a 7th-century Chinese traveler ignored the Kamakhya; and it is assumed that the worship at least till that period was "Kirata"-based beyond the brahminical ambit. The first epigraphic notice of Kamakhya is found in the 9th-century Tezpur plates of Vanamalavarmadeva of the Mlechchha dynasty. Since the archaeological evidence too points to a massive 8th-9th century temple, it can be safely assumed that the earliest temple was constructed during the Mlechchha dynasty. From the moldings of the plinth and the "bandhana", the original temple was clearly of Nagara type, possibly of the Malava style.


title: Kamakhya Temple

text: The later Palas of Kamarupa kings, from Indra Pala to Dharma Pala, were followers of the Tantrik tenet and about that period Kamakhya had become an important seat of Tantrikism. The Kalika Purana (10th century) was composed and Kamakhya soon became a renowned centre of Tantrik sacrifices, mysticism and sorcery. Mystic Buddhism, known as Vajrayana and popularly called the "Sahajia cult", too rose in prominence Kamarupa in the 10th century. It is found from Tibetan records that some of the eminent Buddhist professors in Tibet, of the 10th and the 11th centuries, hailed from Kamarupa.


title: Kamakhya Temple

text: There is a tradition that the temple was destroyed by Kalapahar, a general of Sulaiman Karrani (1566–1572). Since the date of reconstruction (1565) precedes the possible date of destruction, and since Kalapahar is not known to have ventured so far to the east, it is now believed that the temple was destroyed not by Kalapahar but during Hussein Shah's invasion of the Kamata kingdom (1498).


title: Kamakhya Temple

text: The ruins of the temple was said to have been discovered by Vishwasingha (1515–1540), the founder of the Koch dynasty, who revived worship at the site; but it was during the reign of his son, Nara Narayan (1540–1587), that the temple reconstruction was completed in 1565. According to historical records and epigraphic evidence, the main temple was built under the supervision of Chilarai. The reconstruction used material from the original temples that was lying scattered about, some of which still exists today. After two failed attempts at restoring the stone "shikhara" Meghamukdam, a Koch artisan, decided to take recourse to brick masonry and created the current dome. Made by craftsmen and architects more familiar with Islamic architecture of Bengal, the dome became bulbous and hemispherical which was ringed by minaret-inspired "angashikharas". Meghamukdam's innovation—a hemispherical "shikhara" over a "ratha" base—became its own style, called Nilachal-type, and became popular with the Ahoms.


title: Kamakhya Temple

text: Banerji (1925) records that the Koch structure was further built over by the rulers of the Ahom kingdom. with remnants of the earlier Koch temple carefully preserved. By the end of 1658, the Ahoms under king Jayadhvaj Singha had conquered the Kamrup and after the Battle of Itakhuli (1681) the Ahoms had uninterrupted control over the temple. The kings, who were supporters of Shaivite or Shakta continued to support the temple by rebuilding and renovating it.


title: Kamakhya Temple

text: Rudra Singha (1696–1714) invited Krishnaram Bhattacharyya, a famous mahant of the Shakta sect who lived in Malipota, near Santipur in Nadia district, promising him the care of the Kamakhya temple to him; but it was his successor and son Siba Singha (1714–1744), on becoming the king, who fulfilled the promise. The Mahant and his successors came to be known as Parbatiya Gosains, as they resided on top of the Nilachal hill. Many Kamakhya priests and modern Saktas of Assam are either disciples or descendants of the Parbatiya Gosains, or of the Nati and Na Gosains.


title: Kamakhya Temple

text: The Kalika Purana, an ancient work in Sanskrit describes Kamakhya as the yielder of all desires, the young bride of Shiva, and the giver of salvation. Shakti is known as Kamakhya. Tantra is basic to worship, in the precincts of this ancient temple of mother goddess Kamakhya.


title: Kamakhya Temple

text: The worship of all female deity in Assam symbolizes the "fusion of faiths and practices" of Aryan and non-Aryan elements in Assam. The different names associated with the goddess are names of local Aryan and non-Aryan goddesses. The Yogini Tantra mentions that the religion of the "Yogini Pitha" is of Kirata origin. According to Banikanta Kakati, there existed a tradition among the priests established by Naranarayana that the Garos, a matrilineal people, offered worship at the earlier Kamakhya site by sacrificing pigs. The tradition of sacrifices continue today with devotees coming every morning with animals and birds to offer to the goddess.


title: Kamakhya Temple

text: The goddess is worshiped according to both "vamachara" ("left-hand path") as well as the "dakshinachara" ("right-hand path") modes of worship. Offerings to the goddess are usually flowers, but might include animal sacrifices. In general female animals are exempt from sacrifice, a rule that is relaxed during mass sacrifices.


title: Kamakhya Temple

text: According to the Kalika Purana, Kamakhya Temple denotes the spot where Sati used to retire in secret to satisfy her amour with Shiva, and it was also the place where her yoni (genitals, womb) fell after Shiva tandav (dance of destruction) with the corpse of Sati. It mentions Kamakhya as one of four primary shakti peethas: the others being the Vimala Temple within the Jagannath Temple complex in Puri, Odisha; Tara Tarini) Sthana Khanda (Breasts), near Brahmapur, Odisha, and Dakhina Kalika in Kalighat, Kolkata, in the state of West Bengal, originated from the limbs of the Corpse of Mata Sati. This is not corroborated in the "Devi Bhagavata", which lists 108 places associated with Sati's body, though Kamakhya finds a mention in a supplementary list.


title: Kamakhya Temple

text: The "Yogini Tantra", a latter work, ignores the origin of Kamakhya given in "Kalika Purana" and associates Kamakhya with the goddess Kali and emphasizes the creative symbolism of the "yoni".


title: Kamakhya Temple

text: Due to a legendary curse by the Goddess, members of the Koch Bihar royal family do not visit the temple and avert their gaze when passing by.


title: Kamakhya Temple

text: Being the centre for Tantra worship this temple attracts thousands of tantra devotees in an annual festival known as the "Ambubachi Mela". Another annual celebration is the "Manasha Puja". Durga Puja is also celebrated annually at Kamakhya during Navaratri in the autumn. This five-day festival attracts several thousand visitors.


title: Cron

text: The codice_1 command-line utility is a job scheduler on Unix-like operating systems. Users who set up and maintain software environments use cron to schedule jobs (commands or shell scripts), also known as cron jobs, to run periodically at fixed times, dates, or intervals. It typically automates system maintenance or administration—though its general-purpose nature makes it useful for things like downloading files from the Internet and downloading email at regular intervals.


title: Cron

text: Cron is most suitable for scheduling repetitive tasks. Scheduling one-time tasks can be accomplished using the associated "at" utility.


title: Cron

text: The actions of cron are driven by a crontab (cron table) file, a configuration file that specifies shell commands to run periodically on a given schedule. The crontab files are stored where the lists of jobs and other instructions to the cron daemon are kept. Users can have their own individual crontab files and often there is a system-wide crontab file (usually in codice_2 or a subdirectory of codice_2 e.g. ) that only system administrators can edit.


title: Cron

text: The syntax of each line expects a cron expression made of five fields which represent the time to execute the command, followed by a shell command to execute.


title: Cron

text: While normally the job is executed when the time/date specification fields all match the current time and date, there is one exception: if both "day of month" (field 3) and "day of week" (field 5) are restricted (not contain "*"), then one or both must match the current day.


title: Cron

text: For example, the following clears the Apache error log at one minute past midnight (00:01) every day, assuming that the default shell for the cron user is Bourne shell compliant:


title: Cron

text: Note: On some systems it is also possible to specify codice_4 to run for every "n"-th interval of time. Also, specifying multiple specific time intervals can be done with commas (e.g., codice_5). The below would output "hello world" to the command line every 5th minute of every first, second and third hour (i.e., 01:00, 01:05, 01:10, up until 03:55).


title: Cron

text: The configuration file for a user can be edited by calling codice_6 regardless of where the actual implementation stores this file.


title: Cron

text: Some codice_1 implementations, such as the popular 4th BSD edition written by Paul Vixie and included in many Linux distributions, add a sixth field: an account username that runs the specified job (subject to user existence and permissions). This is allowed only in the system crontabs—not in others, which are each assigned to a single user to configure. The sixth field is alternatively sometimes used for "year" instead of an account username—the nncron daemon for Windows does this.


title: Cron

text: The Amazon EventBridge implementation of cron does not use 0 based day of week, instead it is 1-7 SUN-SAT (instead of 0-6), as well as supporting additional expression features such as first-weekday and last-day-of-month.


title: Cron

text: codice_8 configures a job to run once when the daemon is started. Since cron is typically never restarted, this typically corresponds to the machine being booted. This behavior is enforced in some variations of cron, such as that provided in Debian, so that simply restarting the daemon does not re-run codice_8 jobs.


title: Cron

text: codice_8 can be useful if there is a need to start up a server or daemon under a particular user, and the user does not have access to configure init to start the program.


title: Cron

text: Note that if neither of these files exists then, depending on site-dependent configuration parameters, either only the super user can use cron jobs, or all users can use cron jobs.


title: Cron

text: Most cron implementations simply interpret crontab entries in the system time zone setting that the cron daemon runs under. This can be a source of dispute if a large multi-user machine has users in several time zones, especially if the system default time zone includes the potentially confusing DST. Thus, a cron implementation may as a special case recognize lines of the form "CRON_TZ=<time zone>" in user crontabs, interpreting subsequent crontab entries relative to that time zone.


title: Cron

text: The cron in Version 7 Unix was a system service (later called a daemon) invoked from codice_11 when the operating system entered multi-user mode. Its algorithm was straightforward:


title: Cron

text: This version of cron was basic and robust but it also consumed resources whether it found any work to do or not. In an experiment at Purdue University in the late 1970s to extend cron's service to all 100 users on a time-shared VAX, it was found to place too much load on the system.


title: Cron

text: The next version of cron, with the release of Unix System V, was created to extend the capabilities of cron to all users of a Unix system, not just the superuser. Though this may seem trivial today with most Unix and Unix-like systems having powerful processors and small numbers of users, at the time it required a new approach on a one-MIPS system having roughly 100 user accounts.


title: Cron

text: In the August, 1977 issue of the "Communications of the ACM", W. R. Franta and Kurt Maly published an article titled "An efficient data structure for the simulation event set", describing an event queue data structure for discrete event-driven simulation systems that demonstrated "performance superior to that of commonly used simple linked list algorithms", good behavior given non-uniform time distributions, and worst case complexity formula_1, "n" being the number of events in the queue.


title: Cron

text: A Purdue graduate student, Robert Brown, reviewing this article, recognized the parallel between cron and discrete event simulators, and created an implementation of the Franta–Maly event list manager (ELM) for experimentation. Discrete event simulators run in "virtual time", peeling events off the event queue as quickly as possible and advancing their notion of "now" to the scheduled time of the next event. Running the event simulator in "real time" instead of virtual time created a version of cron that spent most of its time sleeping, waiting for the scheduled time to execute the task at the head of the event list.


title: Cron

text: The following school year brought new students into the graduate program at Purdue, including Keith Williamson, who joined the systems staff in the Computer Science department. As a "warm up task" Brown asked him to flesh out the prototype cron into a production service, and this multi-user cron went into use at Purdue in late 1979. This version of cron wholly replaced the codice_13 that was in use on the computer science department's VAX 11/780 running 32/V.


title: Cron

text: Additionally, the daemon responds to SIGHUP signals to rescan modified crontab files and schedules special "wake up events" on the hour and half-hour to look for modified crontab files. Much detail is omitted here concerning the inaccuracies of computer time-of-day tracking, Unix alarm scheduling, explicit time-of-day changes, and process management, all of which account for the majority of the lines of code in this cron. This cron also captured the output of "stdout" and "stderr" and e-mailed any output to the crontab owner.


title: Cron

text: The resources consumed by this cron scale only with the amount of work it is given and do not inherently increase over time, with the exception of periodically checking for changes.


title: Cron

text: Williamson completed his studies and departed the University with a Masters of Science in Computer Science and joined AT&T Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey, and took this cron with him. At Bell Labs, he and others incorporated the Unix codice_15 command into cron, moved the crontab files out of users' home directories (which were not host-specific) and into a common host-specific spool directory, and of necessity added the codice_16 command to allow users to copy their crontabs to that spool directory.


title: Cron

text: This version of cron later appeared largely unchanged in Unix System V and in BSD and their derivatives, Solaris from Sun Microsystems, IRIX from Silicon Graphics, HP-UX from Hewlett-Packard, and AIX from IBM. Technically, the original license for these implementations should be with the Purdue Research Foundation who funded the work, but this took place at a time when little concern was given to such matters.


title: Cron

text: With the advent of the GNU Project and Linux, new crons appeared. The most prevalent of these is the Vixie cron, originally coded by Paul Vixie in 1987. Version 3 of Vixie cron was released in late 1993. Version 4.1 was renamed to ISC Cron and was released in January 2004. Version 3, with some minor bugfixes, is used in most distributions of Linux and BSDs.


title: Cron

text: Other popular implementations include anacron and dcron. However, anacron is not an independent cron program. Another cron job must call it. dcron was made by DragonFly BSD founder Matt Dillon, and its maintainership was taken over by Jim Pryor in 2010.


title: Cron

text: In 2003, Dale Mellor introduced mcron, a cron variant written in Guile which provides cross-compatibility with Vixie cron while also providing greater flexibility as it allows arbitrary scheme code to be used in scheduling calculations and job definitions. Since both the mcron daemon and the crontab files are usually written in scheme (though mcron also accepts traditional Vixie crontabs), the cumulative state of a user's job queue is available to their job code, which may be scheduled to run iff the results of other jobs meet certain criteria. Mcron is deployed by default under the Guix package manager, which includes provisions (services) for the package manager to monadically emit mcron crontabs while both ensuring that packages needed for job execution are installed and that the corresponding crontabs correctly refer to them.


title: Cron

text: A webcron solution schedules ring tasks to run on a regular basis wherever cron implementations are not available in a web hosting environment.


title: Cron

text: A cron expression is a string comprising five or six fields separated by white space that represents a set of times, normally as a schedule to execute some routine.


title: Cron

text: In the particular case of the system crontab file (/etc/crontab), a "user" field inserts itself before the "command". It is generally set to 'root'.


title: Cron

text: In some uses of the cron format there is also a "seconds" field at the beginning of the pattern. In that case, the cron expression is a string comprising 6 or 7 fields.


title: Cron

text: The following are non-standard characters and exist only in some cron implementations, such as the Quartz Java scheduler.


title: Cron

text: Note that frequencies in general cannot be expressed; only step values which evenly divide their range express accurate frequencies (for minutes and seconds, that's and because 60 is evenly divisible by those numbers; for hours, that's and ); all other possible "steps" and all other fields yield inconsistent "short" periods at the end of the time-unit before it "resets" to the next minute, second, or day; for example, entering for the day field sometimes executes after 1, 2, or 3 days, depending on the month and leap year; this is because cron is stateless (it does not remember the time of the last execution nor count the difference between it and now, required for accurate frequency counting—instead, cron is a mere pattern-matcher).


title: Ted DiBiase

text: Theodore Marvin DiBiase Sr. (born January 18, 1954) is an American retired professional wrestler, manager, ordained minister and color commentator. He is currently signed to WWE working in their Legends program. DiBiase achieved championship success in a number of wrestling promotions, holding thirty titles during his professional wrestling career. He is best recalled by mainstream audiences for his time in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), where he wrestled as "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase. He has been named as one of the best technical wrestlers, and greatest villains, in pro wrestling history.


title: Ted DiBiase

text: Among other accolades in the WWF/E, DiBiase was the first WWF North American Heavyweight Champion, a three-time WWF Tag Team Champion (with Irwin R. Schyster), a one-time WWE 24/7 Champion, and winner of the 1988 King of the Ring tournament. He held the WWF World Heavyweight Championship once, although recognition of this reign was withdrawn by the company. DiBiase also awarded himself the Million Dollar Championship, which was held by various associated wrestlers. DiBiase headlined multiple WWF cards, including WrestleMania IV and the first-ever SummerSlam in 1988. DiBiase is a member of several professional wrestling halls of fame: he was inducted into the "Wrestling Observer Newsletter" Hall of Fame upon its inception in 1996, and headlined the 2010 WWE Hall of Fame ceremony.


title: Ted DiBiase

text: DiBiase was born Theodore Marvin Willis in Omaha, Nebraska. He is the biological son of wrestler Helen Nevins and Ted Wills, an entertainer and singer. He is the adopted son of wrestler "Iron" Mike DiBiase, who married his mother when he was 4 years old.


title: Ted DiBiase

text: His adoptive father Mike died of a heart attack in the ring when DiBiase was 15. Seven-time NWA World champion Harley Race rushed to the ring and performed CPR, but was unable to save Iron Mike's life. In response, his mother suffered from depression and alcoholism, so DiBiase was moved to Willcox, Arizona to live with his grandparents. He attended Creighton Preparatory high school in Omaha, Nebraska and attended West Texas State University on a football scholarship. While there he became a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. However, due to an injury in his senior year, he later dropped out of college to begin a career in professional wrestling.


title: Ted DiBiase

text: Ted DiBiase was trained by Dory Funk, Jr. and Terry Funk. He made his professional wrestling debut as a referee in June 1974 in the Amarillo territory owned by the Funks. He then went to the Mid-South territory of Bill Watts being promoted as the son of Iron Mike in 1975 where he wrestled for four years. His first match was a loss against Danny Hodge. By February 1978, DiBiase would unseat Dick Slater to become Missouri State champion only to lose to Dick Murdoch after a few weeks on television.


title: Ted DiBiase

text: DiBiase had a short stint with Vince McMahon, Sr.'s World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979, that was in the transition from being called the World Wide Wrestling Federation. He was awarded the short-lived North American Championship, becoming the title's first champion. On June 19, 1979, he lost the North American Championship to Pat Patterson, who unified the title with the fictional "South American Championship" to become the first ever Intercontinental Champion.


title: Ted DiBiase

text: DiBiase also spent time in the Georgia area where he had an early face run. One legendary angle had DiBiase enduring four piledrivers (one on the concrete floor and three in the ring) administered in the WTBS studio arena by The Fabulous Freebirds before his tag team partner, Tommy "Wildfire" Rich, threw in the towel (the angle of DiBiase being badly injured was so real the TBS studio audience could be seen crying). Rich and DiBiase later feuded, leading to a loser leaves town match which DiBiase won, but instead of Rich leaving the area, he donned a mask calling himself "Mister R." The feud culminated in a match between Mister R and DiBiase, Rich appeared from backstage and distracted DiBiase. Mister R then rolled up DiBiase to get the win and unmasked as Brad Armstrong. Both DiBiase and Rich left the territory shortly thereafter.


title: Ted DiBiase

text: In the early to mid-1980s, DiBiase participated in angles in various territories feuding with the likes of Ric Flair best known from this point in his Mid South return with the likes of Bob Roop, Paul Orndorff, Dick Murdoch, The Fabulous Freebirds and One Man Gang. DiBiase turned heel against the Junkyard Dog and formed a group called The Rat Pack with Jim Duggan and Matt Borne, ran Mid-south for months. Aligning with Skandor Akbar, Dibiase caused a riff with the group, namely Duggan. The two would feud until DiBiase lost a loser leaves town match. He also held various championships and made frequent trips to All Japan Pro Wrestling until his eventual departure from Mid-South Wrestling (which by this point was now the UWF). Typically, his matches ended with the use of a "loaded" black glove, which he pulled from his tights to "knock out" his opponent when the referee was not looking.


title: Ted DiBiase

text: While locked in talks with the National Wrestling Alliance in 1987 after the UWF was acquired by Jim Crockett, DiBiase received an offer from the WWF. DiBiase was eventually convinced by WWF to sign despite the fact that he would not be told his gimmick until after he agreed, under the promise that it was something that would receive a serious push. WWF official Pat Patterson informed DiBiase that if owner Vince McMahon were to go out to wrestle, it would be the gimmick that he would give himself.


title: Ted DiBiase

text: DiBiase entered All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) in 1983. He won the NWA United National Championship on October 14, 1983 in a tournament defeating Jerry Lawler by forfeit. Three months later, on January 28, 1984, DiBiase lost the title to Michael Hayes. DiBiase's mother Helen Hild died two months later on March 4, 1984.


title: Ted DiBiase

text: In August 1985, DiBiase formed a tag team with fellow gaijin Stan Hansen, and the two became the PWF Tag Team Champions when Hansen chose DiBiase to replace Bruiser Brody, who left for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). Later that year, DiBiase and Hansen entered the 1985 World's Strongest Tag Determination League and would emerge victorious, finishing in first place with 7 points.


title: Ted DiBiase

text: On July 3, 1987, DiBiase and Hansen would lose the PWF Tag Team Championship to Jumbo Tsuruta and Tiger Mask, ending their two-year reign as champions. Eight days later, on July 11, DiBiase and Hansen regained the title for a second time, but would be stripped of the title shortly after due to DiBiase leaving AJPW for the WWF.


title: Ted DiBiase

text: In September 1993, DiBiase returned to AJPW and reformed his team with Hansen. The two immediately saw success as they defeated The Holy Demon Army on September 3, 1993 for the World Tag Team Championship. Two months later, on November 13, 1993, DiBiase and Hansen would be stripped of the title so it could be put on the line for the 1993 World's Strongest Tag Determination League. DiBiase would enter the tournament, but would only wrestle one match, on November 14, where he and Hansen defeated Tracey Smothers and Richard Slinger before he suffered neck and back injuries which forced him out of the tournament (Giant Baba ended up replacing him).


title: Ted DiBiase

text: DiBiase made his return to the WWF as a babyface on May 15, 1987, at a house show in Houston, Texas. He came out to the ring to announce to those in attendance that it was only fitting that he was now competing in the WWF. Moments later The One Man Gang and Slick came to the ring for Gang's scheduled match. The referee had to force DiBiase to leave before there was a confrontation. At the next house show on June 7, DiBiase would have his first match and lose to The One Man Gang. He went on to lose two additional house show confrontations to The Gang. DiBiase would tag-team with Sam Houston on June 26 against The One Man Gang and Ron Bass (Houston had run in to assist DiBiase against The Gang at one of the earlier house show matches); towards the end of the match, DiBiase (kayfabe) turned on and attacked Houston after Houston missed a dropkick on Bass, leaving him to get double-teamed and pinned. His actions during the match served to effectively turn Dibiase heel, right before the onscreen debut of his new gimmick.


title: Ted DiBiase

text: On a June 27 episode of "WWF Superstars", DiBiase had his first vignette. He would now be known as "The Million Dollar Man", a millionaire who wore a gold-studded, dollar-sign-covered suit and, in time, a custom-made, diamond-encrusted and self-awarded "Million Dollar Championship" belt. The Million Dollar Man character was based on the type of wrestler who Vince McMahon would want to be. He was billed as having a spring residence in Palm Beach, Florida, a summer residence in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, an autumn residence in Bel Air, California, and a winter residence in the Netherlands Antilles.


title: Ted DiBiase

text: DiBiase had a bodyguard by the name of Virgil, who was by his side during his matches and vignettes. The idea for the name Virgil was based on then-NWA/WCW booker Dusty Rhodes, whose real name was Virgil Runnels, though booker and producer Bruce Prichard disputes this. The name of DiBiase's finishing move, the Million Dollar Dream (a Cobra Clutch), was also supposedly meant to be a rib (inside joke) towards Dusty Rhodes, who was nicknamed "The American Dream". Virgil was often seen performing humiliating tasks, such as rubbing DiBiase's feet. DiBiase claimed "Everybody has a price" demonstrating his "power" through a series of vignettes in which he did things such as bribe the manager of a local swimming pool to close for the day so he could have the pool to himself, or when the honeymoon suite in a hotel was already booked, he bribed the desk clerk to have the couple already in there thrown out. Other skits featured DiBiase traveling in limousines, giving $100 tips to waiters, and using $100 bills in convenience stores for small purchases like chewing gum. In reality, DiBiase's road travel was deliberately booked for first-class airplane flights and five-star hotel accommodations, and he was given a stipend of petty cash from the WWF Offices so that he could "throw money around" in public (i.e. pick up tabs and "overtip", buy drinks for entire bars, actually pay for small items with a $100 bill, etc.) in order to make the character seem more real. Other times, DiBiase invited fans (including a young Rob Van Dam and a then-unknown Linda McMahon) to perform humiliating acts (such as kissing his feet) for money. During one skit, he invited a young boy onto a stage and told him if he bounced a ball 15 times in succession, DiBiase would pay him $500. After the 14th bounce, DiBiase kicked the ball away, sending the boy home without pay; however, according to his autobiography, everybody who wasn't paid on-camera "was" paid off-camera. He frequently stuffed a $100 bill into the mouth of a wrestler on whom he had used the Million Dollar Dream move. Virgil, however, would more often than not retrieve the discarded bill from the wrestler's mouth.


title: Ted DiBiase

text: His first big in-ring angle came in late 1987 on an episode of "Superstars of Wrestling", where he announced his plan to buy the WWF World Heavyweight Championship from Hulk Hogan, as Hogan refused and said that DiBiase would have to defeat him in the ring for the championship belt. Hogan got the upper hand in a series of matches, and a frustrated DiBiase approached André the Giant to win the title for him, which did happen on the February 5, 1988, edition of "The Main Event I" (which aired live on NBC), where André defeated Hogan under questionable circumstances for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship. This was the match of the infamous "who is the true Dave Hebner" debacle. Whom the crowd and viewers at home thought was the "real" Dave Hebner (it was actually his real-life twin brother Earl, whom many now mistake as being the original Hebner) counted the match finishing pin for André despite the fact that Hogan's shoulder was up at the count of one. Afterwards the real Dave Hebner came running into the ring to dispute the ruling his "evil twin" had made awarding the WWF world championship to Andre the Giant; André then announced he was surrendering the championship belt and handed it to DiBiase. In the following days, DiBiase was, in fact, billed as the WWF World Heavyweight Champion in three house shows, defending the title one time against Bam Bam Bigelow.


title: Ted DiBiase

text: However, WWF President Jack Tunney declared DiBiase was not the champion, as he did not win the title by pin or submission, and said that because Andre had surrendered the title, it was therefore vacant. André's world title win was still recognized, though it is still considered the shortest world title reign in WWF history. This angle was an amplification of an angle in the old Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW), when Larry Zbyszko paid Killer Tim Brooks $25,000 for his NWA National Heavyweight Championship in 1983.


title: Ted DiBiase

text: A tournament was announced to crown a new WWF World Heavyweight Champion at WrestleMania IV, where DiBiase defeated Hacksaw Jim Duggan in the first round and Don Muraco in the quarterfinal before receiving a bye in the semi-finals to advance to the finals of the tournament. The reason for the bye was a double-elimination of Hulk Hogan and André the Giant when they both were disqualified in their match, with DiBiase meant to face the winner. In a backstage interview afterwards, André revealed that DiBiase paid him to make sure Hogan didn't advance in the tournament. DiBiase was defeated by "Macho Man" Randy Savage in the finals, helped by Hulk Hogan negating André's repeated interference in the match. DiBiase continued to feud with Savage over the WWF World Heavyweight Championship throughout the summer of 1988, even headlining in a tag team match pitting DiBiase and André the Giant vs. Hogan and Savage at the inaugural SummerSlam (in a match billed as "Where The Mega Powers Meet The Mega Bucks"). Although pro-heel commentator Jesse "The Body" Ventura served as the guest referee, Hogan pinned DiBiase to win the match. DiBiase then defeated Brutus Beefcake, Ken Patera, Ron Bass, and Randy Savage to win the 1988 King of the Ring tournament, receiving his first WWF success.


title: Ted DiBiase

text: Bobby Heenan sold Hercules' contract to Ted DiBiase for his services as his personal slave. DiBiase claimed that Hercules was his slave, but started feuding with him after Hercules turned face. He eliminated Hercules from the main event at Survivor Series.


title: Ted DiBiase

text: At the Royal Rumble in 1989, DiBiase purchased the #30 entrance spot from Akeem to become the final entrant in the match. Big John Studd and DiBiase were the final two participants in the match. DiBiase offered Studd a bribe to eliminate himself, but Studd eliminated him to win the match. DiBiase continued to feud with Hercules; the two had a series of matches including a match that DiBiase won on the February 3 "The Main Event II". He defeated The Blue Blazer on the March 11 "Saturday Night's Main Event XX". After that match, he introduced the Million Dollar Championship, his own championship belt which was not recognized by the WWF. He created this belt because he was unable to buy or win the WWF World Heavyweight Championship from Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage.


title: Ted DiBiase

text: DiBiase fought Brutus Beefcake to a double-count-out at WrestleMania V. DiBiase's next big feud was with Jake "The Snake" Roberts. A few weeks after WrestleMania, DiBiase attacked Roberts on "WWF Superstars of Wrestling" after Roberts defeated Virgil in a match. DiBiase put Roberts out of action for several months with a neck injury. (The storyline was created so Roberts could get surgery on his back from the guitar attack from The Honky Tonk Man a year earlier.) While Roberts recuperated, DiBiase defeated Jimmy "The Superfly" Snuka at SummerSlam by count-out. On the October 14 "Saturday Night's Main Event XXIII", DiBiase faced Hulk Hogan in a match for the WWF Championship where DiBiase had the monster Zeus by his side. DiBiase lost the match when he accidentally hit Zeus and was pinned by Hogan with a small package. At Survivor Series, DiBiase captained a team dubbed the "Million Dollar Team" consisting of himself, The Powers of Pain (The Warlord and The Barbarian), and Zeus against Hogan's "Hulkamaniacs" consisting of Hogan, Jake Roberts, and Demolition (Ax and Smash). DiBiase eliminated Roberts after pinning him with help from Virgil before being pinned himself by Hogan.


title: Ted DiBiase

text: In 1990, he was punished for buying #30 in the previous year's Royal Rumble. For his punishment, he was forced to enter as entrant #1. He broke the record at the time by lasting 45 minutes in the Royal Rumble match after entering as the #1 entrant. He eliminated two opponents before he was eliminated by The Ultimate Warrior. This may have foreshadowed Dibiase seeking revenge on Warrior after Warrior became WWF Champion, by facing him several months later at a co-promotional All Japan and New Japan event in the Tokyo Dome. He then continued his feud with Jake Roberts, who stole the Million Dollar Belt, leading to a match at WrestleMania VI where Roberts was counted out. Shortly after WrestleMania, he had a brief feud with Big Bossman which dated back to when DiBiase tried to bribe Bossman into retrieving the Million Dollar Belt. Bossman refused DiBiase's bribe and returned the Million Dollar Belt to Roberts. At SummerSlam, DiBiase bought the services of Sapphire, who was the manager of Dusty Rhodes at the time. This led to Rhodes and DiBiase feuding throughout the end of 1990 into the beginning of 1991. On the October 13 "Saturday Night's Main Event XXVIII", he attacked Dusty's son Dustin Rhodes during Dusty's match with Randy Savage. DiBiase and Dusty captained rival teams at Survivor Series, with DiBiase's mystery partner turning out to be the debuting Undertaker. DiBiase wound up eliminating both members of The Hart Foundation and was the sole survivor of the match. He, however, was eliminated in the main event by Hogan. DiBiase said about Undertaker's debut "nobody knew him, at the time if you know how this works they were using my celebrity and me introducing The Undertaker was helping him get over. He wasn't 'The Phenom' then he was just a new kid on the card, this new character The Undertaker and of course he grew in to be one of the greatest attractions the WWE has ever had. At the time it wasn't a big deal to me, I was just doing my job." DiBiase then received a shot at the WWF champion: The Ultimate Warrior on a special Thanksgiving episode of Saturday Night's Main Event, which ended when DiBiase was disqualified after Virgil attacked Warrior, which was seemingly an interlude to Randy Savage further assaulting Warrior. During this time DiBiase started to develop a real-life disdain for the Warrior and would later become very vocal about it both in behind the scenes interviews and in his autobiography.


title: Ted DiBiase

text: At the Royal Rumble, Ted DiBiase and Virgil defeated Dusty and Dustin Rhodes in a tag team match. After the match, DiBiase ordered Virgil to put the Million Dollar Championship belt around his waist. Virgil instead hit DiBiase with the belt, turning face. At WrestleMania VII, DiBiase lost by count-out to Virgil, who had help from 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper. Sensational Sherri, who earlier in the night had turned on a losing Randy Savage, came down midway through the match to help DiBiase and became his full-time valet. On the April 27 "Saturday Night's Main Event XXIX", DiBiase fought Bret Hart to a double count-out.


title: Ted DiBiase

text: DiBiase lost the Million Dollar Championship to Virgil at SummerSlam when Virgil smashed his head into an exposed turnbuckle and pinned him to get the victory. DiBiase participated in the 1991 King of the Ring tournament drawing with Ricky Steamboat in the first round. DiBiase and Steamboat would battle to a time-limit draw with neither man advancing in the tournament. DiBiase regained the Million Dollar Championship from Virgil with help from Repo Man on the November 11 edition of "Prime Time Wrestling" which was dubbed "Survivor Series Showdown". At Survivor Series, he was one of the contestants eliminated from his match. At This Tuesday in Texas, DiBiase and Repo Man defeated Virgil and Tito Santana.


title: Ted DiBiase

text: Shortly after Royal Rumble 1992, DiBiase quietly dropped Sherri as his valet (so she could manage Shawn Michaels) and officially formed the tag team Money Incorporated with Irwin R. Schyster (IRS). The duo, mostly managed by Jimmy Hart, won the WWF Tag Team Championship three times between February 1992 and June 1993. Their first reign came on February 7, 1992, when they defeated The Legion of Doom for the titles. Money Incorporated then feuded with The Natural Disasters (Earthquake and Typhoon). They defended the title against the Natural Disasters at WrestleMania VIII and lost the match by count-out, thus retaining the title. On July 20, they lost the title to the Natural Disasters.


title: Ted DiBiase

text: After losing a match to the Legion of Doom at SummerSlam, DiBiase and IRS regained the belts on the October 13 edition of "Wrestling Challenge" from the Natural Disasters. This title change led to a feud with The Nasty Boys, who were originally scheduled for the title shot. On the November 14 "Saturday Night's Main Event XXXI", they defended their titles against the Ultimate Maniacs (Ultimate Warrior and Randy Savage). DiBiase and IRS lost the match by count-out and thus retained the titles once more.


title: Ted DiBiase

text: DiBiase participated in the Royal Rumble match, entering at #4 before eventually being eliminated by The Undertaker. Shortly after, DiBiase and IRS became involved in a major angle with the returning Brutus Beefcake. DiBiase faced Beefcake on one of the first episodes of "Monday Night Raw". DiBiase and IRS attacked Beefcake after the match and slammed his face (which had been surgically repaired following a windsailing accident) with a briefcase. Money Inc. also attacked their manager Jimmy Hart, who was disgusted by their actions. Beefcake's best friend Hulk Hogan came to Beefcake's defense and challenged Money Inc. to a tag team title match at WrestleMania IX. DiBiase and IRS retained their titles by disqualification after Hogan used Beefcake's protective face mask as a weapon.


title: Ted DiBiase

text: Money Inc. dominated the tag team division of the WWF. They feuded with the Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott) and had a series of title exchanges. DiBiase and IRS were defeated by the Steiners for the WWF Tag Team Championship on June 14 in a non-televised match at a Wrestling Challenge taping. They would regain the titles on June 16 at a live event but lost them back to the Steiners three days later on June 19 at another live event, their feud culminated in a tag team steel cage match for the WWF Tag Team Championship at SummerSlam Spectacular. DiBiase last wrestled for the WWF in August, bowing out following an angle which saw Razor Ramon turn face and 1-2-3 Kid debut. The Kid had scored an upset pinfall against a cocky Ramon, causing DiBiase to mock Ramon and tell him he would show him how it was done. He then went on to also lose to the Kid, giving Razor a newfound respect for the Kid thus turning Razor face. This included a match at SummerSlam between DiBiase and Ramon which DiBiase lost. This was DiBiase's last TV appearance in the WWF during this run. He revealed in a shoot interview that his decision to leave the WWF at this point was motivated by a desire to resolve his marital problems.


title: Ted DiBiase

text: After a few months back in AJPW, where he won the World Tag Team Championship with Hansen, he quietly announced his retirement due to sustaining an injury to two cervical discs in his neck and returned to the USA.


title: Ted DiBiase

text: DiBiase returned to the WWF at the Royal Rumble as a guest commentator. DiBiase then began working as a commentator and manager for the WWF. Later in 1994, DiBiase purchased the contracts of many wrestlers for his Million Dollar Corporation stable in the WWF, which over time included I.R.S., Bam Bam Bigelow, Nikolai Volkoff, Kama, King Kong Bundy, Sycho Sid, 1-2-3 Kid, and in a swerve, Tatanka. DiBiase also renewed his connection with the Undertaker after the latter's six-month hiatus after the January Royal Rumble. Saying that he had originally brought the Undertaker to the WWF, and he was going to bring him back, DiBiase debuted a new Undertaker under his control. This Undertaker, however, proved to be an impostor played by Brian Lee, and was subsequently defeated by the real Undertaker at SummerSlam.


title: Ted DiBiase

text: DiBiase also had a place in the main event of WrestleMania XI as the manager of Bam Bam Bigelow in his match versus Lawrence Taylor. Surrounding the ring were members of DiBiase's corporation to offset Taylor's entourage of NFL All-Pros on the opposite side. After Taylor defeated Bigelow, DiBiase publicly referred to Bigelow as an embarrassment. This culminated in Bigelow quitting The corporation after DiBiase fired him following a loss to Diesel in a WWF Championship match. Bigelow aligned himself with Diesel in a feud versus members of DiBiase's corporation.


title: Ted DiBiase

text: As a manager, DiBiase also later introduced "The Ringmaster", who eventually became Stone Cold Steve Austin, to the WWF in January 1996. Austin became the Million Dollar Champion and began wearing DiBiase's gold belt that was introduced in 1989. DiBiase's last appearance with the company was at in 1996, where he was kayfabe forced to leave the WWF after Steve Austin lost to Savio Vega. In reality, he left for rival promotion World Championship Wrestling (WCW).


title: Ted DiBiase

text: DiBiase debuted in WCW on August 26, 1996, revealing himself as the fourth member of the New World Order, joining Scott Hall, Kevin Nash and Hollywood Hogan. DiBiase claimed to be financing the group (seemingly playing on his "Million Dollar Man" WWF persona). He was jokingly referred to by the members of the group as "Trillionaire Ted", satirizing "Billionaire Ted", which was itself a disparaging nickname WWF had given to WCW owner Ted Turner. DiBiase was the spokesperson for the nWo for 3 months until Eric Bischoff joined the nWo and replaced him in that role.


title: Ted DiBiase

text: DiBiase quit the nWo shortly after Spring Stampede. Less than a few months later, on the August 4, 1997, episode of "Nitro", he made a face turn and began managing The Steiner Brothers, leading them to two World Tag Team Championships. DiBiase managed The Steiners until Scott Steiner turned heel via betraying Rick Steiner at SuperBrawl VIII on February 22 and joined the nWo (DiBiase still remained in Rick's corner thru April 1998). DiBiase also managed one-time WWF rival Ray Traylor for a while until he stopped managing altogether.


title: Ted DiBiase

text: In 2013, DiBiase said about his time in WCW: "Eric Bischoff doesn't know that much about wrestling", "Eric took credit for the nWo but that wasn't his idea, the nWo had already been done in Japan, so they had copied something that had already been done. It was a good idea, but originally I was supposed to be the mouthpiece of the nWo and reality is I think Eric saw how it was getting over and he saw how he could put himself in the role that he had hired me for. As each week went by pretty soon Eric isn't the announcer anymore, he becomes part of the nWo and I just went to him one day and told him I'm not just going to walk out there and be Hulk Hogan's Virgil, you hired me to be the spokesperson for this, so if that's not what I'm going to do you can send me home. The reason I said that was because they had to pay me one way or the other because I had a contract where they had to pay me for three years".


title: Ted DiBiase

text: In late 2004, WWE offered DiBiase a job as creative. He accepted the job and worked as part of the creative team a year and a half. In April 2005, DiBiase was hired as a creative consultant and road agent for the SmackDown! brand of World Wrestling Entertainment. On October 3, 2005, at "WWE Homecoming", DiBiase appeared with other WWE legends in a ceremony. He eventually led the attack on Rob Conway, who had come down to the ring to insult the legends.


title: Ted DiBiase

text: DiBiase inducted his former manager Sensational Sherri into the WWE Hall of Fame on April 1, 2006 and made an appearance at WrestleMania 22, offering Eugene $1,000 to dribble a basketball 100 times backstage and kicked the ball away at the last second. DiBiase also appeared on the April 17 episode of "Raw" behind a newspaper doing his famous evil laugh as the camera went off air. DiBiase made an appearance at an IPW show in Newton, Iowa on July 14, 2006, where he watched his sons' tag team match. The following day, he accepted the George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame induction for his father, Mike, at the International Wrestling Institute and Museum. He also appeared at the "Raw Family Reunion" on October 9, 2006 aiding Ric Flair in his match with the Spirit Squad. On October 26, 2006, Ted DiBiase was released from his WWE contract.


title: Ted DiBiase

text: DiBiase made his first in ring appearance in over five years at the "Raw 15th Anniversary Special" on December 10, 2007, by winning a 15-man battle royal, in which he was not even an active participant. Irwin R. Schyster, DiBiase's former tag team partner of Money Incorporated, had won the battle royal. DiBiase came down to ringside and offered Schyster a bribe to eliminate himself. Schyster accepted and hopped over the top rope, making DiBiase the victor. DiBiase then declared that even after fifteen years, everyone still had a price for the "Million Dollar Man."


title: Ted DiBiase

text: On the May 19, 2008 edition of "Raw", he was seen alongside Mr. McMahon about to "discuss business", in William Regal's office. On the following "Raw", DiBiase introduced his son Ted DiBiase, Jr. to WWE as its newest member.


title: Ted DiBiase

text: On the June 29 episode of "Raw", Ted DiBiase, Jr. announced in a segment with Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton that DiBiase would appear on "Raw" the following week as the special guest host, and DiBiase appeared as scheduled on July 6. On the show, DiBiase booked his son to face Randy Orton. After DiBiase Jr. lost the match, he accused his father of setting him up and trying to steal his time, even slapping his father across the face. DiBiase would later come out at the end of the show and sanctioned a triple threat match for Randy Orton's WWE Championship at Night of Champions including John Cena and Triple H in his final act as the guest host. He is also a playable character in "WWE Legends of WrestleMania" and an unlockable superstar in "WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010" and "WWE 2K14". DiBiase was announced as the first inductee of the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2010 on the February 8 episode of "Raw". DiBiase appeared again on the November 2 edition of "NXT", where he was the minister for Aksana and Goldust's wedding. Later in November 2010, DiBiase made an appearance on Raw, accompanied by Irwin R. Schyster, wherein Goldust returned the stolen Million Dollar Championship to him. DiBiase immediately offered to give the newly returned title to his son Ted DiBiase Jr., but was refused. On February 21, 2011, it was announced DiBiase would induct Jim Duggan into the Hall of Fame. He appeared on the Slammy Awards episode of "Raw" on December 12 alongside fellow legend Mick Foley, and presented the "Holy %&@*# Move of the Year" award, which was won by Mark Henry and Big Show. On April 10, 2012, DiBiase made an appearance on "Smackdown: Blast from the Past". He returned on the March 4, 2013 "Old School Raw" at ringside with The Prime Time Players and agreed to be their manager if they won the match against Team Hell No. DiBiase, again accompanied by IRS, appeared at the 2014 "Old School Raw" special, encountering Big E Langston on his way to a match and told him everybody's got a price, to which Langston smiled.


title: Ted DiBiase

text: On January 22, 2018, DiBiase made an appearance during the 25th Anniversary episode of "Raw" in which he played Poker with The Acolytes Protection Agency.


title: Ted DiBiase

text: On July 22, 2019, DiBiase "bought" the WWE 24/7 Championship from Alundra Blayze. The 26-year space between his last title victory in 1993 is reportedly the longest in WWE history. He later lost the title to Drake Maverick in a limousine on the same night.


title: Ted DiBiase

text: On the April 27, 2021 episode of NXT, DiBiase "was inside the jewelry store showing his Silver and Gold diamond watch in front of Cameron Grimes and his gold watch and made Grimes jealous. Throughout May 2021, DiBiase would continue to cost Grimes matches and outdo him during skits such as outbidding him during a house auction on May 11, and costing him a victory on May 18th, following this incident it was announced the pair would have a 'Million Dollar Faceoff' on the May 25 episode of NXT. During the showdown, Grimes was attacked by L. A. Knight, with DiBiase yelling him he's "never gonna get it" before laughing and leaving with Knight. DiBiase put the Million Dollar Championship on the line in a ladder match between Knight and Grimes at , in which Knight was victorious. On June 15, 2021 episode of NXT, Knight turned on DiBiase and attacked him. Grimes saved DiBiase from Knight. At NXT Takeover 36 Knight would face Grimes again, If Grimes lost, DiBiase would have had to become Knight’s butler. At the event, Grimes defeated Knight to become the Million Dollar Champion with the help of DiBiase. On August 24, the storyline came to a conclusion on NXT, as they talked about Grimes’ journey to the title and how he was now headed "Straight to the moon!". The celebration ended with fake $100 bills with Grimes’ face raining down over the Capitol Wrestling Center.


title: Ted DiBiase

text: Grimes later escorted DiBiase to his limousine and handed him the Million Dollar Championship. DiBiase handed the belt back, however upon checking it, Grimes realizes he has been handed a cheap replica. DiBiase leaves after giving his signature laugh.


title: Ted DiBiase

text: DiBiase is now a Christian minister. In 1999, he founded "Heart of David Ministry" and travels the world ministering to churches, camps and conferences including Promise Keepers and Youth of the Nation. Ted is also the author of "Every Man Has His Price", a part-autobiography and part-Christian testimony.


title: Ted DiBiase

text: In February 2020, it was reported that DiBiase's ministry received more than $2.1 million in welfare funds from the state of Mississippi after his son, Brett, was hired as deputy administrator of the state's Department of Human Services. His son, Brett, pleaded guilty to creating fraudulent statements in what has been labeled as Mississippi's largest public embezzlement case in state history. In October 2021, a court ordered Ted DiBiase, Sr. to pay $722,299 of the misappropriated funds given to his Heart of David Ministries. In May 2022, the Mississippi Department of Human Services sued DiBiase, his sons, and retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre, and several others to recover more than $20 million in money "squandered" from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families anti-poverty program.


title: Ted DiBiase

text: In April 2022, the Mississippi Office of State Auditor reported that DiBiase personally received a $250,000 check from the Family Resource Center, a Mississippi welfare grantee, to "provide services as a Motivational Speaker." DiBiase forwarded an email from the welfare grantee to his sons, Ted DiBiase, Jr. and Brett DiBiase, stating, “Look what I got today!".


title: Ted DiBiase

text: In a 2016 interview with ESPN.com, DiBiase revealed that he and Virgil had a falling out over Virgil trying to book himself and DiBiase on independent wrestling shows without DiBiase's knowledge. DiBiase stated that Virgil does not represent him for bookings.


title: Married at First Sight (Australian TV series)

text: Married At First Sight is an Australian reality television adaptation of the Danish series of the same name. The show features a group of strangers who participate in a social experiment and are paired together by experts. Legal restrictions in Australia mean that the couples do not partake in a legally-binding marriage as prohibited by the Marriage Act 1961. Rather, contestants engage in an unofficial commitment ceremony. The series first premiered on the 18 May 2015 on the Nine Network. The show has had nine seasons between 2015 and 2022, plus a two-part reunion special which was broadcast before the 2021 season.


text: Couples meet for the first time at the altar, before spending their wedding night in a hotel and then embarking on a honeymoon. Upon return, they live together for a period of time and each week decide whether they will continue their relationship at a commitment ceremony where they can choose to either "stay" or "leave". The experts encourage contestants to fully immerse themselves within all stages of the experiment which focuses on relationship building and companionship.


text: In the first episode, two couples (Michael & Roni, Clare & Lachlan) met and wed in Melbourne and Sydney respectively. In the second episode, another two couples (Zoe & Alex, Michelle & James) met and wed in Melbourne and Sydney.


text: The Nine Network announced on 26 June 2015 that Lachlan would participate in the network's upcoming revival of "The Farmer Wants a Wife".


text: In the first episode, two couples (Erin & Bryce, Christie & Mark) meet and wed in Melbourne and Sydney. In the second episode, another two couples (Clare & Jono, Simone & Xavier) met and wed in Melbourne and Sydney respectively.


text: Season 3 was the first to feature five couples, including the series' first same-sex couple. In the first episode, two couples (Nicole & Keller, Monica & Mark) met and wed in Brisbane and Sydney. In the second episode, another two couples (Jess & Dave, Bella & Michael) met and wed in Sydney and Brisbane. In the third episode, one more couple (Craig & Andy) met and wed in New Zealand.


text: In the first episode, two couples (Cheryl & Jonathan, Susan & Sean) met and wed in Sydney and Melbourne. In the second episode, another two couples (Scarlett & Michael, Nadia & Anthony) met and wed in Sydney. In the third episode, two more couples (Alene & Simon, Vanessa & Andy) met and wed in Sydney and Melbourne respectively. In the fourth episode, another two couples (Lauren & Andrew, Deborah & John) met and wed in Sydney. In the fifth episode, two of the women were twins and they were all married in the same ceremony in Perth, (Michelle & Jesse, Sharon & Nick). In the ninth episode two previous contestants were matched up (Andrew & Cheryl).


text: In the first episode, the first two couples (Tracey & Dean, Sarah & Telv) met and wed in Sydney and Melbourne. In the second episode, another two couples (Jo & Sean, Alycia & Mat) met and wed in Sydney and Melbourne. In the third episode, two more couples (Davina & Ryan, Charlene & Patrick) met and wed in Warrawong and Melbourne. In the fifth episode, two more couples (Ashley & Troy, Melissa & John (a returning groom from season 4)) met and wed in Gold Coast and Melbourne. In the sixth episode, another two couples (Gabrielle & Nasser, Carly & Justin) met and wed in Sydney. In the seventh episode, the final couple (Blair & Sean) met and wed in Sydney.


text: In the first episode, two couples (Jules & Cameron, Cyrell & Nic) met and wed in Sydney. In the second episode, two more couples (Jessika & Mick, Melissa & Dino) met and wed in Byron Bay and Hawkesbury River, both in New South Wales. In the third episode, another two couples (Heidi & Mike, Ning & Mark) met and wed in Byron Bay and Melbourne. In the fifth episode, two more couples (Lauren & Matthew, Elizabeth & Sam) met and wed in Byron Bay and Hawkesbury River. In the sixth episode, the last two couples (Ines & Bronson, Martha & Michael) met and wed in Byron Bay and Melbourne. In the eighteenth episode, two new couples (Susie & Billy, Tamara & Dan) met and wed in Sydney.


text: The experts had to decide on a controversial request by Dan and Jess who wanted to leave their respective "spouses" but remain in the experiment as a couple. The experts allowed the couple to leave their previous matches and stay in the experiment as a new couple.


text: In the first episode, the first two couples (Poppy & Luke, Cathy & Josh) met and wed in Bilpin and Wyong Creek, both in New South Wales. In the second episode, another two couples (Natasha & Mikey, Amanda & Tash) met and wed in Stanwell Tops and Melbourne. In the third episode, another two couples (Hayley & David, Vanessa & Chris) met and wed in Melbourne and Sydney. In the fifth episode, two more couples (Connie & Jonethen, Aleks & Ivan) met and wed in Melbourne and Sydney. In the sixth episode, the last two couples (Mishel & Steve, Stacey & Michael) met and wed in Melbourne. In the eighteenth episode, two new couples (Elizabeth & Seb, KC & Drew) met and wed in Sydney and Central Coast.


text: After Season 8 was delayed by three weeks due to a delayed Australian Open, the Nine Network commissioned a two part reunion special to fill the programming gap. Part 1 centered around a dinner party, whereas Part 2 focused on experts John Aiken and Mel Schilling catching up with each participant, where they reflected on their lives following their time in the experiment.


text: Part 1 aired on 31 January 2021. Part 2 was scheduled to air on 7 February 2021, however was brought forward to 1 February 2021, as counter-programming to the Seven Network's premiere of "Holey Moley".


text: In the first episode, two couples (Melissa & Bryce, Rebecca & Jake) met and wed in Richmond and Hunter Valley, both in New South Wales. In the second episode, three more couples (Samantha & Cameron, Booka & Brett, Coco & Sam) met and wed in Sydney and Hunter Valley. In the third episode, another two couples (Alana & Jason, Joanne & James) met and wed in Sydney and Vaucluse. In the fifth episode, two more couples (Belinda & Patrick, Beth & Russell) met and wed in the Hunter Valley and Sydney. In the fourteenth episode, an additional two couples (Kerry & Johnny, Georgia & Liam) met and wed in Richmond and Helensburgh, both in New South Wales. In the fifteenth episode, the final couple Jaimie & Chris met and wed in Sydney.


text: In the first episode, two couples (Selin & Anthony, Tamara & Brent) met and wed in Richmond and Sydney. In the second episode, two more couples (Domenica & Jack, Ella & Mitch) met and wed in Helensburgh and Sydney. In the third episode, another two couples (Holly & Andrew, Selina & Cody) met and wed in Sydney and Cattai, New South Wales. In the fifth episode two more couples (Olivia & Jackson, Samantha & Al) met and wed in Sydney. In the fourteenth episode, an additional two couples (Kate & Matt, Carolina & Dion) met and wed in Sydney and Oatlands, New South Wales. In the fifteenth episode, the final couple Jessica & Daniel met and wed in Richmond, New South Wales.


text: Before the first season went to air, an online petition calling for the series to be axed attracted over 15,000 signatures.


text: Contestants have also criticised the show, such as second season participant Simone Lee Brennan described the program as "never [being] portrayed to its full authenticity," suggesting the man she had been paired with, Xavier Forsberg, had been recruited by producers and was seeking a sports-presenting role rather than a relationship.


text: At the show's commitment ceremonies, each person writes "leave" or "stay", and participants can only leave the "marriage" if both they and their "spouse" write "leave". This has been criticised as sending "the worst possible message" to people who may be in a toxic relationship.


text: Some of the contestants of the show have also spoken out against the program claiming it to be fake, including Dean Wells from Season 5 Other former contestants have been abused in the street, received death threats online, attempted suicide, or been taken to a psychiatric hospital.


text: In The Netherlands the show is called "Married at First Sight" and is broadcast at primetime on RTL 4.


text: In Belgium the show is broadcast as "Blind getrouwd - Australië" and runs every weekday on the Flemish channel VTM2.


text: In Spain, the show is broadcast as "Casados a ciegas" and runs every weekday from 6:15 pm for three hours each day on TEN.


text: In the United Kingdom, in 2020, E4 aired the fourth series (2017), following this the fifth series (2018) was aired and then in early 2021, the sixth series (2019) was broadcast on the channel. By 2021 the series had become a hit with British audiences, earning a number of celebrity fans that included Sam Smith, Michael Ball, and Duncan James.


text: In the United States, the show is broadcast on cable network Lifetime on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 9pm ET/PT.


title: Haridwar

text: Haridwar (; ) is a city and municipal corporation in the Haridwar district of Uttarakhand, India. With a population of 228,832 in 2011, it is the second-largest city in the state and the largest in the district.


title: Haridwar

text: The city is situated on the right bank of the Ganges river, at the foothills of the Shivalik ranges. Haridwar is regarded as a holy place for Hindus, hosting important religious events and serving as a gateway to several prominent places of worship. Most significant of the events is the Kumbha Mela, which is celebrated every 12 years in Haridwar. During the Haridwar Kumbh Mela, millions of pilgrims, devotees, and tourists congregate in Haridwar to perform ritualistic bathing on the banks of the Ganges to wash away their sins to attain "moksha".


title: Haridwar

text: According to Puranic legend, Haridwar, along with Ujjain, Nashik, and Prayag, is one of four sites where drops of "amrita", the elixir of immortality, accidentally spilled over from a "kumbha" (pitcher) while being carried by the celestial bird Garuda during the "Samudra Manthana", or the churning of the ocean of milk. "Brahma Kund", the spot where the amrita fell, is believed to be located at Har ki Pauri (literally, "footsteps of the Lord") and is considered to be the most sacred "ghat" of Haridwar. It is also the primary centre of the Kanwar pilgrimage, in which millions of participants gather sacred water from the Ganges and carry it across hundreds of miles to dispense as offerings in Shiva shrines. Today, the city is developing beyond its religious importance with the fast-developing industrial estate of the State Industrial Development Corporation of Uttarakhand (SIDCUL), and the close by township of Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), as well as its affiliated ancillaries.


title: Haridwar

text: Haridwar presents a kaleidoscope of Indian culture and development. In sacred writings, it has been differently specified as Kapilsthan, Gangadwar and Mayapuri. It is additionally a passage for the Chota Char Dham (the four principal pilgrim destinations in Uttarakhand). Subsequently, Shaivites (devotees of Shiva) and Vaishavites (devotees of Vishnu) call the city "Hardwar" and "Haridwar", respectively, "Har" meaning Shiva and Hari, Vishnu.


title: Haridwar

text: The modern name of the town has two spellings: "Haridwar and Hardwar". Each of these names has its own connotation.


title: Haridwar

text: In Sanskrit"," the liturgical language of Hinduism, "Hari" means "Vishnu", while "dwar means" "gateway". So, "Haridwar" translates to "The Gateway to Vishnu". It earns this name because it is typically the place where pilgrim's start their journey to visit a prominent temple of Vishnu – Badrinath.


title: Haridwar

text: Similarly, "Hara" could also mean "Shiva". Hence, "Hardwar" could stand for "Gateway to Shiva". Hardwar is also a typical place to start a pilgrim's journey in order to reach Mount Kailash, Kedarnath, the northernmost Jyotirlinga and one of the sites of the smaller "Char Dham" pilgrimage circuit – all important places for worship for Hindus.


title: Haridwar

text: According to legend, it was in Haridwar that Goddess Ganga descended when Shiva released the mighty river from the locks of his hair. The River Ganga, after flowing for from its source at Gaumukh at the edge of the Gangotri Glacier, enters the Gangetic Plain for the first time at Haridwar, which gave the city its ancient name, Gangadwára.


title: Haridwar

text: In the annotations to her poetical illustration "Hurdwar, a Place of Hindoo Pilgrimage", Letitia Elizabeth Landon provides information on this name derivation, and also the story of the supposed origin of the 'River Ganges'. The accompanying plate is engraved form a painting by Samuel Prout


title: Haridwar

text: In the scriptures, Haridwar has been variously mentioned as Kapilasthana, Gangadwara and Mayapuri. It is also an entry point to the Char Dham (the four main centres of pilgrimage in Uttarakhand "viz", Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri, and Yamunotri), hence, Shaivaites (followers of Shiva) and Vaishnavites (followers of Vishnu) call this place Hardwar and Haridwar respectively, corresponding to Hara being Shiv and Hari being Vishnu.


title: Haridwar

text: In the Vanaparva of the Mahabharat, where sage Dhaumya tells Yudhishthira about the tirthas of India, Gangadwar, i.e., Haridwar and Kankhal, have been referred to, the text also mentions that Agastya Rishi did penance here, with the help of his wife, Lopamudra (the princess of Vidharba).


title: Haridwar

text: The legendary King, Bhagiratha, the great-grandson of the Suryavanshi King Sagar (an ancestor of Rama), is said to have brought the river Ganges down from heaven, through years of penance in Satya Yuga, for the salvation of 60,000 of his ancestors from the curse of the saint Kapila, a tradition continued by thousands of devout Hindus, who bring the ashes of their departed family members, in hope of their salvation. Vishnu is said to have left his footprint on the stone that is set in the upper wall of Har Ki Pauri, where the Holy Ganges touches it at all times.


title: Haridwar

text: Haridwar came under the rule of the Maurya Empire (322–185 BCE), and later under the Kushan Empire (c. 1st–3rd centuries). Archaeological findings have proved that terra cotta culture dating between 1700 BCE and 1200 BCE existed in this region. First modern era written evidence of Haridwar is found in the accounts of a Chinese traveller, Huan Tsang, who visited India in 629 CE. during the reign of King Harshavardhan (590–647) records Haridwar as 'Mo-yu-lo', the remains of which still exist at Mayapur, a little to the south of the modern town. Among the ruins are a fort and three temples, decorated with broken stone sculptures, he also mentions the presence of a temple, north of Mo-yu-lo called 'Gangadwara', Gateway of the Ganges.


title: Haridwar

text: During his visit to Haridwar, first Sikh Guru, Guru Nanak (1469–1539) bathed at 'Kushawart Ghat', wherein the famous, 'watering the crops' episode took place, his visit is today commemorated by a gurudwara (Gurudwara Nanakwara), according to two Sikh Janamsakhis, this visit took place on the Baisakhi day in 1504 CE, he later also visited Kankhal en route to Kotdwara in Garhwal. Pandas of the Haridwar have been known to keep genealogy records of most of the Hindu population. Known as "Vahis", these records are updated on each visit to the city, and are a repository of vast family trees of the family in North India.


title: Haridwar

text: In the 16th century, the city came under the rule of the Mughals. "Ain-e-Akbari", written by Abul Fazal in the 16th century during the reign of Mughal Emperor Akbar, refers to it as Maya (Mayapur), known as Hardwar on the Ganges", as seven sacred cities of Hindus. It further mentions it is eighteen kos (each approx. 2 km) in length, and large numbers of pilgrims assemble on the 10th of Chaitra. It also mentions that during his travels and also while at home, Mughal Emperor, Akbar drank water from the Ganges river, which he called 'the water of immortality'. Special people were stationed at Sorun and later Haridwar to dispatch water, in sealed jars, to wherever he was stationed


title: Haridwar

text: During the Mughal period, there was mint for Akbar's copper coinage at Haridwar. It is said that Raja Man Singh of Amber, laid that foundation of the present-day city of Haridwar and also renovated the ghats at Har Ki Pauri. After his death, his ashes are also said to have been immersed at Brahma Kund. Thomas Coryat, an English traveller, who visited the city in the reign of Emperor Jahangir (1596–1627) mentions it as 'Haridwara', the capital of Shiva.


title: Haridwar

text: Being one of the oldest living cities, Haridwar finds its mention in the ancient Hindu scriptures as it weaves through the life and time stretching from the period of the Buddha, to the more recent British advent. Haridwar has a rich and ancient religious and cultural heritage. It still has many old havelis and mansions bearing exquisite murals and intricate stonework.


title: Haridwar

text: One of the two major dams on the river Ganges, the Bhimgoda, is situated here. Built-in the 1840s, it diverts the waters of the Ganges to the Upper Ganges Canal, which irrigated the surrounding lands. Though this caused severe deterioration to the Ganges water flow, and is a major cause for the decay of the Ganges as an inland waterway, which till the 18th century was used heavily by the ships of the East India Company, and a town as high up as Tehri, was considered a port city The headworks of the Ganges Canal system is located in Haridwar. The Upper Ganges Canal was opened in 1854 after the work began in April 1842, prompted by the famine of 1837–38. The unique feature of the canal is the half-kilometre-long aqueduct over the Solani river at Roorkee, which raises the canal above the original river.


title: Haridwar

text: 'Haridwar Union Municipality' was constituted in 1868, which included the then villages of Mayapur and Kankhal. Haridwar was first connected with railways, via Laksar, through branch line in 1886, when the Awadh and Rohilakhand Railway line was extended through Roorkee to Saharanpur, this was later extended to Dehradun in 1900.


title: Haridwar

text: In 1901, it had a population of 25,597 and was a part of the Roorkee tehsil, in Saharanpur district of the United Province, and remained so till the creation of Uttar Pradesh in 1947.


title: Haridwar

text: Haridwar has been an abode of the weary in body, mind, and spirit. It has also been a centre of attraction for learning various arts, science, and culture. The city has a long-standing position as a great source of Ayurvedic medicines and herbal remedies and is home to the unique Gurukul (school of traditional education), including the Gurukul Kangri Vishwavidyalaya, which has a vast campus, and has been providing traditional education of its own kind, since 1902. Development of Haridwar took an upturn in the 1960s, with the setting up of a temple of modern civilisation, BHEL, a 'Maharatna PSU' in 1975, which brought along not just a its own township of BHEL, Ranipur, close to the existing Ranipur village, but also a set of ancillaries in the region. The University of Roorkee, now IIT Roorkee, is one of the oldest and most prestigious institutes of learning in the fields of science and engineering.


title: Haridwar

text: The Ganges emerges from the mountains to touch the plains. The water in the river Ganges is mostly clear and generally cold, except in the rainy season, during which soil from the upper regions flows down into it.


title: Haridwar

text: The river Ganges flows in a series of channels separated from each other called aits, most of which are well wooded. Other minor seasonal streams are Ranipur Rao, Pathri Rao, Ravi Rao, Harnaui Rao, Begham Nadi etc. A large part of the district is forested, and Rajaji National Park is within the bounds of the district, making it an ideal destination for wildlife and adventure lovers. Rajaji is accessible through different gates; the Ramgarh Gate and Mohand Gate are within of Dehradun, while the Motichur, Ranipur and Chilla Gates are just about from Haridwar. Kunaon Gate is from Rishikesh, and Laldhang gate is from Kotdwara.


title: Haridwar

text: Haridwar district, covering an area of about , is in the southwestern part of Uttarakhand state of India.


title: Haridwar

text: Haridwar is situated at a height of from the sea level, between Shivalik Hills in the North and Northeast and the Ganges River in the South.


title: Haridwar

text: For centuries when Hindu ancestors visited the holy town of Haridwar for any purpose which may have been for pilgrimage purposes or/and for cremation of their dead or for immersion of ashes and bones of their kin after cremation into the waters of the holy Ganges as required by Hindu religious custom, it has been a custom to go to the Pandit who is in charge of one's family register and update the family's family tree with details of marriages, births, and deaths from ones extended joint family.


title: Haridwar

text: India census, Haridwar district has population of 1,890,422 (2011). In 2001, the population was 1,447,187.


title: Haridwar

text: Haridwar city has a 310,562 population (2011). Males constitute 54% of the population and females, 46%. Haridwar has an average literacy rate of 70%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 75%, and female literacy is 64%. In Haridwar, 12% of the population is under six years of age.


title: Haridwar

text: In Hindu traditions, the 'Panch Tirth' (Five Pilgrimages) within Haridwar, are "Gangadwar" (Har ki Pauri), "Kushawart" (Ghat in Kankhal), "Bilwa Tirtha" (Mansa Devi Temple) and "Neel Parvat" (Chandi Devi Temple). There are several other temples and ashrams located in and around the city, a list of which can be found below. Also, alcohol and non-vegetarian food is not permitted in Haridwar.


title: Haridwar

text: This Ghat was constructed by King Vikramaditya (1st century BCE) in memory of his brother Bharthari. It is believed that Bharthari came to Haridwar and meditated on the banks of the holy Ganges. When he died, his brother constructed a Ghat in his name, which later came to be known as Har Ki Pauri. The most sacred ghat within Har Ki Pauri is Brahmakund. The evening prayer (Aarti) at dusk offered to Goddess Ganga at Har Ki Pauri (steps of God Hara or Shiva) is an enchanting experience for any visitor. A spectacle of sound and colour is seen when, after the ceremony, pilgrims float "Diyas" (floral floats with lamps) and incense on the river, commemorating their deceased ancestors. Thousands of people from all around the world do make a point to attend this prayer on their visit to Haridwar. A majority of present ghats were largely developed in the 1800s.


title: Haridwar

text: On the night of Dussehra or a few days before that, the Ganga Canal is dried in Haridwar to clean the riverbed. The water is restored on Diwali. It is believed that on Dussera Maa Ganga goes to her father's house and returns after Bhai Duj or Bhai Phota. It is for this reason that the waters in the Ganga canal in Haridwar are partially dried on the night of Dussehra and the waters are restored on the day of Bhai Duj or Bhai Phota.


title: Haridwar

text: The temple is dedicated to Goddess Chandi, who sits atop the 'Neel Parvat' on the eastern bank of the river Ganges. It was constructed in 1929 CE by the king of Kashmir, Suchat Singh. Skanda Purana mentions a legend, in which "Chanda-Munda", the Army Chief of a local Demon Kings "Shumbha" and "Nishumbha" were killed by goddess Chandi here, after which the place got the name, Chandi Devi. It is believed that the main statue was established by the Adi Shankaracharya in the 8th century CE. The temple is a trek from Chandighat and can also be reached through a ropeway.


title: Haridwar

text: The temple of Goddess Mansa Devi is situated at the top of the Bilva Parvat, literally means 'Goddess fulfilling desires'. Mansa is a tourist destination, Especially because of the mountain cable cars which offer city views. The main temple houses two idols of the Goddess, one with three mouths and five arms, while the other one has eight arms.


title: Haridwar

text: Haridwar was previously known as Mayapuri which is because of the Goddess Maya Devi. Dating to the 11th century CE, this ancient temple of Maya Devi, the "Adhishthatri Devi" (Patron Goddess) of Haridwar, is considered one of the Siddhapithas and is said to be the place where the heart and navel of Goddess Sati had fallen. It is one of few ancient temples still standing in Haridwar, along with Narayani Shila temple and Bhairav Temple.


title: Haridwar

text: Located close to the Birla Ghat, near Laltarao Pul is a temple dedicated to Goddess Ganga. This temple was established by Jayandra Saraswati, Shankaracharya of Kanchi Kamakoti, a few decades ago. The temple, built in South-Indian style, has a traditional custom of decorating the goddess with vegetables and dry fruits, giving her the title of Shakumbhari on Ashtami Pooja, the eighth day of Navratri.


title: Haridwar

text: The ancient temple of Daksha Mahadev also known as Daksheshwar Mahadev Temple has situated in the south Kankhal town. According to Hindu texts, King Daksha Prajapati, father of Dakshayani, Shiva's first wife, performed a yagña, to which he deliberately did not invite Shiva. When she arrived uninvited, he was further insulted by the king, seeing which Sati felt infuriated and self-immolated herself in the "yagna kund". King Daksha was later killed by Virabhadra, born out of Shiva's anger. Later the king was brought to life and given a goat's head by Shiva. Daksha Mahadev temple is a tribute to this legend.


title: Haridwar

text: Sati Kund, another well-known mythological heritage worth a visit is situated in the Kankhal. Legend has it that Sati immolated herself in this "kund".


title: Haridwar

text: Bharat Mata Mandir is a multi-storey temple dedicated to "Bharat Mata" (Mother India). "Bharat Mata Mandir" was inaugurated on 15 May 1983 by Indira Gandhi on the banks of the river Ganges. It is situated adjacent to the "Samanvaya Ashram", and stands eight stories tall to a height of . Each floor depicts an era in the Indian history, from the days of Ramayana until India's independence.


title: Haridwar

text: On the first floor is the statue of "Bharat Mata". The second floor, "Shur Mandir", is dedicated to the well-renowned heroes of India. The third floor "Matri Mandir" is dedicated to the achievements of India's revered women, such as Radha, Mira, Savitri, Draupadi, Ahilya, Anusuya, Maitreyi, Gargi etc. The great saints from various religions, including Jainism, Sikhism, and Buddhism are featured on the fourth floor "Sant Mandir". The assembly hall with walls depicting symbolic coexistence of all religions practised in India and paintings portraying history in various provinces is situated on the fifth floor. The various forms of the Goddess Shakti can be seen on the sixth floor, whilst the seventh floor is devoted to all incarnations of Vishnu. The eighth floor holds the shrine of Shiva from which devotees can gain a view of Himalayas, Haridwar, and the campus of "Sapta Sarovar".


title: Haridwar

text: The temple was built under the former Shankaracharya Maha-Mandleshwar Swami Satyamitranand Giri Maharaj. Since the inception of the Swami Satyamitranand foundation in 1998, several other branches have been opened, namely in Renukut, Jabalpur, Jodhpur, Indore, and Ahmedabad. It is presently under The Junapeethadheesh, Acharya Shree Mahamandaleshwar Swami Avdheshanand Giri Ji Maharaj.


title: Haridwar

text: Piran Kaliyar Sharif, built by Ibrahim Lodhi, a ruler of Delhi, this 'Dargah' of Hazrat Alauddin Sabir Kaliyari, a 13th-century, Sufi Saint of Chishti Order (also known as Sarkar Sabir Pak), in Kaliyar village, . from Roorkee, is visited by devotees from all over the world, during the annual 'Urs' festival, which is celebrated from 1st day of sighting the moon to 16th day of Rabi al-awwal month, in the Islamic calendar.


title: Haridwar

text: At a distance of from Haridwar Junction Railway Station, Neel Dhara Pakshi Vihar is a bird-watching point situated at the Bhimgoda Barrage of Haridwar and has rich flora and fauna. The Bhimgoda Barrage is on the Ganges River near Har-Ki-Pauri Ghat. The barrage was originally built to aid irrigation but it also generates hydro-electric power and controls floods. The area behind the barrage is known as Neel Dhara Pakshi Vihar. The place is popular among bird-loving tourists. The place is known for Siberian Cranes that can be spotted during the winter months at Laljiwala. In addition, the place is also a natural habitat of different species of migratory birds. Not only avid bird watchers, but the spot also welcomes a number of nature lovers and trekkers. Also, the spot of Neel Dhara Pakshi Vihar is visited by trekkers as it is situated close to many trekking routes in Haridwar. Visitors can also see the Shivalik Hills from the bird watching point and enjoy the sight of the snow-covered mountains which makes it to the top list of tourist attractions in Haridwar.


title: Haridwar

text: Dudhadhari Barfani Temple, part of the ashram of Dudhadhari Barfani Baba, was constructed from shining white marble and honours Rama-Sita and Hanumana.Sureshvari Devi Temple, a temple dedicated to the goddess Sureshwari, is situated in the middle of Rajaji National Park, and thus is only accessible with permission from forest rangers. Pawan Dham is a modern temple made entirely of glass pieces, which is now a tourist destination.


title: Haridwar

text: One of the most sacred temples in Haridwar is Tirupati Balaji Mandir. The temple, which is built in the Dravidian architectural style, is located away from Har Ki Pauri. It is a major pilgrimage centre of Haridwar in Uttarakhand. The image of the temple deity represents both Vishnu and Shiva ( Vishnu is considered as the preserver whereas Shiva is considered as the destroyer in Hindu religion).


title: Haridwar

text: Sapt Rishi Ashram at Sapt Sarovar, near the bank of the Ganga, is a meditation and yoga centre. The Ashram, established in 1943 by Guru Goswami Dutt, provides lodging, meals and free education for poor kids. Sapt Rishi Ashram, as its name would suggest, was the place where seven sages, namely Kashyapa, Vashisht, Atri, Vishwamitra, Jamadagi, Bharadwaja and Gautam, meditated. As per the mythological records, when all the sages were meditating, they were disturbed by the gushing sound of river Ganges. Annoyed and irritated due to sound, all seven of them were trapped in the flow of the river. Later, Ganges River splits into seven water streams so there is less noise. Those seven river streams are now known as Sapt Sarovar, and the point where the seven sages meditated is called as Saptrishi Ashram.


title: Haridwar

text: In the Harihar Ashram, Kankhal, the Parad Shivalinga (Mercury Shivalinga) weighing about 150  kg and a Rudraksha tree are the main attractions for pilgrims and tourists. The Ramanand Ashram, situated in the Shravan Nath Nagar district near the railway station, is the main ashram of Ramanand Sampraday in Haridwar. The Uma Maheswar Sanyas Ashram lies on the banks of the Ganga, in Bairagi Camp; while the Anandamayi Maa Ashram is located in Kankhal, one of five sub-cities of Haridwar, and houses the samadhi shrine of Sri Anandamoyi Ma (1896–1982), a noted saint of India. Shantikunj is the headquarters of the spiritual and social organisation All World Gayatri Pariwar (AWGP) established by Pandit Shriram Sharma Acharya. Located from Haridwar railway station, at the bank of the Ganges and under the Shivalik Himalayas, it is a place of attraction for tourists as well as seekers of spiritual guidance.


title: Haridwar

text: The Shri Chintamani Parshwnath Jain Shwetambar Mandir was built in 1990 by Jain saint Shri Padam Sagar Suri. This temple is built by Jaisalmer stone in Jain architectural style. Moolnayak of this temple is a black coloured idol of Chintamani Parshwnath Bhagwan in Padmasan posture. Idols of Shri Parshv Yaksha and Mata Padmawati on both sides of the main idol. There is also an idol of Rishabhanatha made up of white marble. There is small temple of Shri Ghantakaran Mahavir Ji and charan-paduka's (foot imprints) near this temple. The temple also has a dharmshala for accommodation of around 1000 pilgrims at a time.


title: Haridwar

text: The Patanjali Yogpeeth is situated in Haridwar-Delhi Highway. This is a yoga institution and research centre of Swami Ramdev. Every day thousands of people come here for yoga and other purposes. The Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission Sevashrama is a branch of the worldwide Ramakrishna Movement. The Mission centre was founded in 1901, and the Math centre was started in 1980. The Math centre conducts daily worship and bhajans, and fortnightly Ramnam Sankirtan.


title: Haridwar

text: Note the use of the puranic name 'Maya' for Haridwar. As also the inter-change usage of Puri and Dwaraka.


title: Haridwar

text: The "Garuḍa Purāṇa" enumerates seven cities as the giver of "Moksha". Haridwar is said to be one of the seven most holy Hindu places (="Kṣetra") in India, with Varanasi usually considered the holiest. A Kṣetra is sacred ground, a field of active power, a place where "Moksha", final release can be obtained.


title: Haridwar

text: situated in Haridwar- Delhi highway it is the part of Patanjali group. This is residential institution.


title: Haridwar

text: Situated in Kankhal, at the banks of the river Ganges, Gurukul Kangri University is one of the oldest Universities of India, it was founded in 1902 by Swami Shraddhananda (1856–1926), according to the tenets of Swami Dayananda Saraswati, the founder of Arya Samaj. It has also been visited by British Trade Union leader Charles Freer Andrews and British prime minister, Ramsay MacDonald, to study the unique Gurukul based education system. Here Ancient Vedic and Sanskrit literature, Ayurveda, Philosophy are part of the curriculum besides Modern Sciences and Journalism. Its 'Archaeological Museum', (established 1945) houses some rare statues, coins, paintings, manuscripts, and artefacts, starting from Indus Valley civilisation culture (c. 2500–1500 BCE). Mahatma Gandhi visited the campus three times, and stayed in its sprawling and serene campus for extended periods of time, most notably during the 1915 Kumbh mela, followed by a visit in 1916, when on 20 March, he spoke at Gurukul Anniversary.


title: Haridwar

text: Dev Sanskriti Vishwavidyalaya was established in 2002 by the act of the Uttarakhand Government is a fully residential university. Run by Shri Vedmata Gayatri Trust, Shantikunj, Haridwar (headquarters of All World Gayatri Pariwar), it provides various degree, diploma and certificate courses in areas like Yogic Science, Alternative Therapy, Indian Culture, Tourism, Rural Management, Theology, Spiritual Counseling, etc. It also provides courses through distance learning.


title: Haridwar

text: Set up by the Government of Uttarakhand, the university is dedicated to studies of ancient Sanskrit scriptures and books. It also has a curriculum covering ancient Hindu rituals, culture, and tradition, and boasts of a building inspired by ancient Hindu architecture style.


title: Haridwar

text: It was established in the year 2002. HEC College provides Undergraduate, Postgraduate, PG diploma courses. The courses are in the field of commerce, Management, Science, Lib. Science and Arts and it is affiliated to HNB Garhwal University, Sri Nagar, Garhwal, and Sri Dev Suman Uttarakhand University, Badshahithol, Tehri Garhwal.


title: Haridwar

text: There are two State Ayurvedic College & Hospital in Haridwar, one is Rishikul State Ayurvedic College (has PG level courses) and the other is Gurukul Ayurvedic College.


title: Haridwar

text: The campus of Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, a Maharatna Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) is spread across an area of . The main factory consists of two divisions: the Heavy Electricals Equipment Plant (HEEP), and the Central Foundry Forge Plant (CFFP). Together they employ over 8000 skilled employees. The campus is divided into six sectors providing excellent residential, schooling and medical facilities.


title: Haridwar

text: It is located on the Haridwar–Delhi National Highway at a distance of from Haridwar. Close by, in village Pathri, lies the Bhimgoda Barrage built on the Upper Ganges Canal in 1955. It also has a block development office responsible for many developed villages (e.g. Khedli, Kisanpur Rohalki, Atmalpur Bongla, Sitapur, Alipur, Salempur).


title: Haridwar

text: A massive industrial area, spread over , developed by State Industrial Development Corporation of Uttarakhand (SIDCUL), a state government body. With the arrival of big enterprises like ITC, Hindustan Unilever Limited, Dabur, Mahindra & Mahindra, Havells and Kirby, SIDCUL is set to develop into another industrial township within the city. away from the Delhi-Hardwar National Highway, SIDCUL lies adjacent to the BHEL Township, an important Public Sector township.


title: Haridwar

text: An old part of the city, Jwalapur is the financial and industrial capital of the city, and now an important trading and shopping centre for the locals. The town dates back to 1700 CE. This town was called Mohammed Pura and ruled by a local Muslim ruler. In the early 1600s the family of Sisodias from Mewar, descendants of Rana Pratap, fleeing from the Mughal invasion, came to settle on the outskirts of Haridwar. The families lived quietly for almost a generation to avoid detection. Local people renamed their surname to Mehta. It is firmly believed that in early 1700 the Mehtas dislodged the Muslim ruler and renamed the town as Jwalapur. This family subsequently settled in Jwalapur itself and intermarried with the local population.


title: Haridwar

text: A good picnic spot with a dam and a man-made lake nearby. Elephants and other wild animals may be spotted.


title: Haridwar

text: One of the newest and biggest residential areas of Haridwar. It is divided into various clusters. It was originally developed as a residential colony for BHEL employees, but with the advent of SIDCUL, population and financial activity has grown rapidly in the area due to its proximity.


title: Haridwar

text: Haridwar is headquarters of Haridwar district and it has good connectivity with the other towns of the district and the state.


title: Haridwar

text: National Highway 58, between Delhi and Mana Pass passes through Haridwar connecting it with Ghaziabad, Meerut, Muzzafarnagar, Roorkee and Badrinath and National Highway 74 originating from Haridwar connects it with Kashipur, Kichha, Nagina, Pilibhit and Bareilly. Haridwar is well connected to all major cities by bus. Buses from Delhi to Haridwar are available daily, more than 150 buses are available.


title: Haridwar

text: The Haridwar Railway Station located in Haridwar is under the control of the Northern Railway zone of the Indian Railways. It has direct links the major cities of India such as Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai, Thiruvananthapuram, Chennai,Gorakhpur, Muzaffarpur, Madgaon, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Ahmedabad, Patna, Gaya, Varanasi, Allahabad, Bareilly, Lucknow, Puri, and major cities of Central India namely Bhopal, Ujjain, Indore, Khandwa, Itarsi.


title: Haridwar

text: The nearest domestic airport is Jolly Grant Airport in Dehradun which is located from Haridwar. Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi is the nearest International Airport which is located from Haridwar.


title: Haridwar

text: Haridwar is rapidly developing as an important industrial township of Uttarakhand since the state government agency, SIIDCUL established in 2002, set up the Integrated Industrial Estate in a district attracting many important industrial houses which are setting up manufacturing facilities in the area. According to list of allottee provided by SIIDCUL, the industrial estate is home to over 650 companies currently.


title: Haridwar

text: Haridwar has a thriving industrial area situated at the bypass road, comprising mainly ancillary units to PSU, BHEL, which was established here in 1964 and currently employs over 8000 people.


title: Portuguese India

text: The State of India (), also referred as the Portuguese State of India ("Estado Português da Índia", EPI) or simply Portuguese India (), was a state of the Portuguese Empire founded six years after the discovery of a sea route to the Indian subcontinent by Vasco da Gama, a subject of the Kingdom of Portugal. The capital of Portuguese India served as the governing centre of a string of military forts and trade posts scattered all over the Indian Ocean.


title: Portuguese India

text: The first viceroy, Francisco de Almeida established his base of operations at Fort Manuel, after the Kingdom of Cochin negotiated to become a protectorate of Portugal in 1505. With the Portuguese conquest of Goa from the Bijapur Sultanate in 1510, Goa became the major anchorage for the Portuguese Armadas arriving in India. The capital of the viceroyalty was transferred from Cochin in the Malabar region to Goa in 1530. From 1535, Mumbai (Bombay) was a harbour of Portuguese India as "Bom Bahia", until it was handed over via the dowry of Catherine Braganza, to Charles II of England in 1661. The expression "State of India" began regularly appearing in documents in the mid-16th century.


title: Portuguese India

text: Until the 18th century, the viceroy at Goa had authority over all Portuguese possessions in and around the Indian Ocean, from southern Africa to southeast Asia. In 1752, Mozambique got its own separate government, from 1844 onwards Portuguese Goa stopped administering Macao, Solor and Timor.


title: Portuguese India

text: In later years, Portugal's authority was confined to holdings in the Canara, Cambay and Konkan regions, along the west coast of India. At the time of the dissolution of the British Raj in 1947, Portuguese India comprised three administrative subdivisions, sometimes referred to collectively as "Goa": namely Goa which included Anjediva; and Daman, which included the exclaves of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Dio districts. The Salazar regime of Portugal lost de-facto control of Dadra and Nagar Haveli in 1954. Finally, the rest of the overseas territory was lost in December 1961 with the Indian annexation of Goa under PM Nehru. Portugal only recognised Indian control after the Carnation Revolution and the fall of the Estado Novo regime by a treaty signed on 31 December 1974.