[SOLVED] background image causes problems in IE8

In Body Style under Body, Text and Links, I have defined a background image using background: url. In Layout Container Style under Style and Configure LAYOUT, I have defined background: #ffffff;. This would mean that the actual body of the page would be a white background with the text, sidebars, etc. within, and the image background surrounding it. This happens on browsers chrome, firefox and opera (http://img546.imageshack.us/img546/8665/sitefine.png). However, in IE8, its all messed up (http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/483/sitemessedup.png). Then I tried moving the definition background: #ffffff; to be the last definition in Layout Container Style under Style and Configure LAYOUT, and now it seems to work except that there is no background image (http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/5632/sitenobg.png). To make things more interesting, I then moved back the background: #ffffff; definition to its original position (i.e., not the last definition), and lo and behold, its not messed up as it was before, although there is still no background image. I disabled caching while running the above tests. Please advise.

My site URL: www.tatvaanveshanam.org