Lepakshi is a small town in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh, India. Town was built during the Vijayanagara period (1336–1646) and it is historically and archaeologically significant, with three shrines dedicated to Shiva, Vishnu and Veerabhadra. The most interesting thing about Lepakshi is its hanging pillar.
A pillar which is attached with the ceiling but not to the floor. One can easily swipe a piece of cloth or paper mid-air that separates the ground and the pillar. The pillar is at Veerabhadra temple and itis famous as Aakaasa Sthambha (floating pillar). There are about 70 pillars at this fabulous temple of stone in Vijayanagar style, but this one is the best known and a tribute to the engineering genius of ancient and medieval India’s temple builders.
Hanging Pillars of Lepakshi
The 70 feet pillar is believed to have been dislodged by a British engineer who unsuccessfully tried to remove it to uncover the secret of its support.
The Veerabhadra temple dates back to 1583 and was built by two brothers Virupanna and Veeranna, who were allies of the Vijayanagar empire.
Temple is famous for its sculptures, which were created by the artisans of Vijayanagara empire. Lepakshi is also renowned for having one of the best collections of mural paintings from the Vijayanagar Kings period. Many old Kannada inscriptions dating back centuries can be seen on its walls. The inside of the temple is carved out of granite.
The murals in the temple have been damaged due to prolonged exposure to vagaries of nature but still can be identified as depicting various stories like the marriage of Shiva with Parvati, wars, architects of the temple praying before Shiva, and many more.
There are several forms of Shiva here — a majestic Kankala Murthi, Dakshinamurthi (Guru of Gurus), Tripuranthaka or Tripurasurasamhara (vanquisher of demon Tripura), Ardhanareeshwara (the half-female, half-male form, where Shiva and Parvati are equally represented in one body), etc. Another shrine has the fiery goddess Bhadrakali, though bearing an uncharacteristically serene expression.
According to legends, the history of this place dates back to the Ramayana. It was the site where Lord Ram’s faithful follower Jatayu fell down after having been injured mortally by Ravana, who was taking away Sita in his Vimana (flying chariot).
Besides the Hanging Pillar, another draw is the spectacular Nandi bull made out of a single granite stone. At 27ft in length and 15ft in height, it is a colossal structure, reputedly India’s biggest monolithic Nandi. Besides the record size, the perfectly proportioned body, finely-carved ornaments, and smooth contours add to its grandeur and make it a popular photo-op with visitors. It has been positioned such that it faces the Shiva Linga shielded by a huge serpent inside the temple.
Stone carved Nandi at Lepakshi
The huge Nagalinga or serpent with three coils and seven hoods can be seen cut out of granite rocks to create a breathtaking structure. Here the Shiva Lingam is protected by the hood of the serpent and legend has it that the entire structure was carved out by a craftsman while his mother prepared lunch for him. It also has a sculpture of Ganesha.
On 12th September, 1990 Boise TV station aired the story about the discovery of a giant pictograph about a quarter of a mile wide appearing in a dry lake bed east of Steens mountain, about 70 miles S.E. of Burns, Oregon in United States. The glyph had a machine like precision in its shape and clarity of lines and it was quickly identified as perfectly formed, the ancient Hindu meditation device ‘the Sri Yantra‘ identical in shape and proportion, and in its geometrical properties. This symbol was over a quarter of a mile in length, and consisted of 13.3 miles of lines, was scored into the hardpan at a depth of 3 inches and were 10 inches wide.
When asked about the ancient classics of India, most would quickly reply with The Ramayana and The Mahabharata. Although this answer is correct, there is an even more ancient story that has been forgotten. That ancient story is called the Dasharajnya or ‘Battle of ten Kings’.
This battle is memorialized in the 7th Mandala of the Rigveda, in hymns 18, 33 and 83.4-8). In this Battle of Ten Kings all the people of the Rigvedic India were involved. It took place near the Parusni River (Ravi River) in Punjab. The place where they fought later became the site of the city of Harappa, possibly the first modern urban center in history.
This Battle is also Important as it heralded the spread of Vedic beliefs to other parts of the world, for the simple reason the kings and their subjects were forced to pay tributes and had to migrate outwards towards the present lands now called as Iran, Iraq, Egypt etc… An Aryan migration, out of India could be seen here.
In the battle some of the powerful Puru tribes created an alliance with other tribes from the India and Persia. Guided by the royal sage Vishvamitra, this army came on to oppose the Bharata King Sudas (Note: King Sudas was also descendant of Puru Dynasty) in battle. But, Sudas defeated them all, and captured all the Rigvedic tribes.
King Sudas was the grandson of the powerful king Divodas Atithigva and son of King Pijavana. Divodas had his empire in the regions of Punjab and earned fame as a warrior by waging a long war with the powerful non-Arya King Sambara whom he ultimately defeated and killed.
Sudas’s capital city was on the Sarasvati River. He inherited the kingdom from his grandfather and greatly expanded it. He was also supported by the spiritual mentorship of his guru, the legendary sage Vasishta. In the process, he alienated all the neighboring kingdoms surrounding him. After years of subjugation, a group of roughly a dozen or ‘ten’ (dasha) kings and chieftans (‘raja; rajnya’) formed a confederacy to combine their strength and defeat King Sudas once and for all.
The list of confederate kings involved in this war is actually slightly over ten, but was referred to roughly as ‘dasha’ (ten) in the Rig Veda. It may be that they belonged to ten tribes in all. Some of the Tribes mentioned in Rigveda are:
Alinas: it was suggested that they lived to the north-east of Nuristan, because the land was mentioned by the Chinese pilgrim Hiouen Thsang.
Anu: Some place them in the Parusni (Ravi) area.
Bhrigus: The priestly family descended from the ancient Kavi Bhrigu. Later, they are related to the composition of parts of the Atharva Veda (Bhṛgv-Āṅgirasa).
Bhalanas: Some scholars have argued that the Bhalanas lived in the Bolan Pass area.
Druhyus: Some align them with the Gandhari. (Later age Druids of Europe)
Matsya: are only mentioned in the Rigveda (7.18.6), but later in connection with the Salva Kingdom.
Parsu: The Parśu have been connected by some with the ancient Persians.
Purus: one of the major tribal confederations in the Rigveda.
Panis: Also the name of a class of demons; later associated with the Scythians.
These kings, though some are described as Aryans, were actually fallen Aryans, or rebellious and materialistic kings who had given up the spiritual path and were conquered by King Sudas. Occasionally, there was a degeneration of the spiritual kingdom in areas of India, and wars had to be fought in order to reestablish the spiritual Aryan culture in these areas.
The war was started on the banks of the Parusni (Ravi) river and it span for many years between Puru and Bharata. According to Rig veda, Sudas and his army was forced to retreat but managed to cross the Parusni river safely, while his foes, trying to pursue, were scattered by a flood and either drowned or were slaughtered by Sudas’s men. Later on, he had to fight Aja, Shigru and Yakshas on the Yamuna river and he defeated them too.
Sudas was able to defeat the entire confederacy of ten+ Kings and emerge as victorious. All enemies of Sudas were defeated, thousands were killed.
There are diffferent account as to when this battle actually took place due to different hypothesis from different scholars. Some date it back to near 3000-4000 BCE while other consider it to be dated around the 2350 BCE.
The Battle of Ten Kings or the dasharajanya war is the Worlds first recorded Battle. Not just that, it was no mere neolithic stick and stone fight. It was the first organized war with infantry, archers and elephants.
After the Battle of Ten Kings, many inhabitants of India got scared and out of fear migrated westwards into Iran and beyond.(RV-VII:18,19,33,83). Western scholars easily misinterpreted this battle to mean an invasion of nomadic people called Aryans rather than simply a war in which the superior Aryan kings re-established the spiritual values and the Vedic Aryan way of life.
It is important to note that the Sanskrit word ‘Arya’ (English: ‘Aryan’) has no racial connotation in the Vedas and is a term originally used to identify the members of the Puru-Bharata Dynasty. The Vedic Aryans were not the ultimate ancestors of the different tribes and peoples found in the Sanskrit texts. They have a definite historical identity: the Vedic Aryans were the Purus of the ancient texts.
The Purus were a confederation of tribes located at the banks of the Sarasvati River. According to the Puranas (ancient Hindu texts), the Bharatas are descendant of the Purus. “Bhārata”– the official name of the Republic of India — is actually named after a descendant of the Puru dynasty King Bharata and King Sudas was the descendant of Emperor Bharata. This Puru-Bharata dynasty provided the continuity of leadership for thousands of years which is documented in the ancient scriptures, particularly the Rigveda.
Rigvedic Chandravanshi Puru Dynasty Tree. From Yayati to Kauravas and Pandavas.
The Bharata ruler later allied and merged with the Purus Tribe, to form the Kuru Dynasty. It was King Sudas, whose later descendants fought the great Mahabharata war.
After 15 generations of Kuru Dunasty, Kauravas and Pandavas were born who fought the epic battle of Mahabharata.
According to historian, King Porus who fought Alexander in the Battle of the Hydaspes River, was descendant of the Purus and Pandava of Mahabharat. The modern Punjabi surname Puri may have originated with the Puru tribe.
The Archaeological Survey of India during its excavations carried out at Chandyan village in Baghpat district of Uttar Pradesh, has found remnants of a house that correspond to the late Harappa period. This is the first time when remnants of old civilization pertaining Harrappan period are found in the Upper Doab region which lies between Ganga and Yamuna rivers.
Large megalithic stone structures were created by man from Neolithic times for sepulchral as well as non-sepulchral purposes, including astronomy. One of the most spectacular and well known of these is Stonehenge in England, which has definite astronomical associations. Not many though, might be aware that India has its own version of Stonehenge. Located in Byse village in Karnataka these Megaliths structures dates back to 1000 BC and have been found to be aligned with certain Solar and Stellar movements including solstices and equinoxes.
Archaeologists have discovered Buddhist sculptures and heads in Haripur district of Pakistan.
Buddhist sculptures and heads dating back to second to fifth century AD had been discovered by archaeologists during ongoing excavation at the site of an ancient Buddhist Stupa known as Bhamala Buddhist Complex.
Telhara is a village in the Nalanda district of Bihar, India. It was the site of a Buddhist monastery in ancient India. Located about 33 km from the ruins of the famous Nalanda University, Telhara could be ‘Tilas-akiya’ or ‘Tiladhak’, the place Chinese travellers Hiuen Tsang visited and wrote about during his travels through India in 7th century AD? So far, there were only vague references but recent excavations at the mound suggest that Telhara was indeed an ancient university, older than Nalanda and Vikramshila universities.
Mustang, the former Kingdom of Lo in northern Nepal is home to one of the world’s great archaeological mysteries. The region is known for it’s vast, mysterious, and nearly impossibly complex system of man-made caves. These mysterious caves nestled in rugged Himalayan terrain are around 10,000 in number. While some of them are easily accessible, others are too small to fit in a human.
Located at the height of 155 ft from the ground, these man-made caves are at least 2,000 years old but no one knows who built them or why. Or even how people climbed into them.
Some sit by themselves, a single open mouth on a vast corrugated face of weathered rock. Others are in groups, a grand chorus of holes, occasionally stacked eight or nine stories high, an entire vertical neighborhood. Some were dug into cliff sides, others tunneled from above. Some caves are even located on a single windswept rock and some were discovered to have been dug in such a way that it connects an entire neighborhood.
According to researcher, local used ramps or ladders to get to a level, and then the flats themselves. Inside the caves, vertical shafts have been found that connect the upper and lower levels together, and these likely had wooden ladders in them.
The residential caves also had kitchen areas, storage rooms with built-in containers, and rooms probably used primarily for sleeping.
While exploring these mysterious caves in Mustang, the researchers found priceless 14th-century wall paintings which included a 55 panel depiction of Buddha’s life, almost 3000 years old ancient human remains and centuries-old hidden library consisting of 8,000 calligraphed manuscripts—a collection, most of it 600 years old, that included everything from philosophical musings to a treatise on mediating disputes.
Scientists divide cave use in Upper Mustang into three periods. As early as 1000 BC, the caves were used as burial chambers. During the 10th Century, the region is thought to have been frequently battled over, and consequently, placing safety over convenience, families moved into the caves, turning them into living quarters. By the 1400s, the caves functioned as meditation chambers, military lookouts or storage units as people moved into villages.
In 2010, a team of mountaineers and archaeologists uncovered 27 human remains in Samdzong’s two biggest caves. The bones date from the third to the eighth centuries—before Buddhism came to Mustang—had cut marks on them. Scientists believe that this burial ritual may be related to the Buddhist practice of sky burial. To this day, when a citizen of Mustang dies, the body may be sliced into small pieces, bones included, to be swiftly snatched up by vultures.
Seven hundred years ago, Mustang was a bustling place: a center of Buddhist scholarship and art, and possibly the easiest connection between the salt deposits of Tibet and the cities of the Indian subcontinent. Salt was then one of the world’s most valuable commodities.
Later, in the 17th century, nearby kingdoms began dominating Mustang. Economy of Mustang started declining when cheaper salt became available from India. The great statues and brilliantly painted mandalas in Mustang’s temples started crumbling. And soon the region was all but forgotten, lost beyond the great mountains.
Even after the discovery and finding a little bit more about these caves many questions remains unanswered like “Who built them? Who lived there? What was the purpose of building them so high off the ground? How did they get inside the caves if it is so hard for the explorers to get to even with the help of modern equipments?”
The Indus Valley Civilisation has puzzled archaeologists and researchers ever since it was first discovered in the early twentieth century. Who were these ancient people who lived along the Indus River between 3,300 and 1,300 B.C.? Could they have been wiped out by a flood or there may have been an epidemic or some terrible disease which killed the people? Or did they abandon the northwest part of the subcontinent because the river (Saraswati river) they depended upon dried up, or changed course, to migrate to other parts like South India?
The writing system of the Indus Valley Civilization is not deciphered and it still remains a mystery. All attempts to decipher it have failed. This is one of the reasons why the Indus Valley Civilization is one of the least known of the important early civilizations of antiquity.
“On the goddess Kotamma temple woollen market way there is a rocky roof shelter for shepherds and sheep to stay at night up to morning.”
The sentence emerged after a set of 19 drawing and pictographs discovered on a hilltop in Hampi(Karnataka, India) were deciphered using root morphemes of Gondi Tribe language.
Eleven of the Hampi pictographs resemble those of the Indus valley civilisation. This innocuous sounding statement could actually be a revolutionary find linking the Gond or Gondi tribe to the Indus Valley civilisation.
The Gondi people are a Dravidian people of central India, spread over the states of Madhya Pradesh, eastern Maharashtra (Vidarbha), Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana and Western Odisha. With over four million people, they are the largest tribe in Central India.
“Eleven of the Hampi pictographs resemble the Late Harappan writing of the Indus Valley Civilisation”, says Dr KM Metry, professor of tribal studies at the Kannada University. The professor claims that this shows that after the collapse of the civilisation situated in North-West India, the Harappans moved to other parts of the country, with some of them settling in Central India and a majority of them in the South.
Years of his research on Gondi culture, visits to tribal areas in Chhattisgarh and recent discovery of drawing led him to believe that undeciphered script of the Indus Valley Civilisation is a combination of Gondi symbols.
Dr KM Metry, who discovered what appear to be rock paintings of the Harappan script in Hampi. – Image Source
“The ability to decipher the script has proven elusive because no one has attempted to study the script using Gondi symbols and language. When you start looking at the script keeping in mind Gondi symbols, then everything becomes clear,” says Dr. Motiravan Kangali, a linguist and expert in Gondi language and culture from Nagpur.
Though the discovery is yet to be authenticated, Dr. Metry and his associates are very optimistic about their work. If the discovery stands the scrutiny of experts in the field, it would mean that the Gonds living in central and southern India could have migrated from the Indus Valley civilisation.
Jwala Ji is Hindu temple located in the lower Himalayan town of Jawalamukhi in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh. Dedicated to Hindu goddess Jwala, temple is probably the most ancient temple in India. It is mentioned in the Mahabharata and other scriptures. Unlike any other temple, Jwala Ji temple doesn’t have a statue or an image, but a constantly burning blue flame that seems to come from the rocks. The flame can be seen at various places in the temple and it is burning continuously since first date of its known history.
Despite many scientific researches, the reason behind these natural flames couldn’t be found out. The scientists say there is a sleeping volcano under Jwala Ji temple and the natural gas coming out of that volcano is burning as flames, which Hindus revere as Goddess.
During 70s a foreign company was appointed by Government of India to explore possibilities of big reservoirs of natural gas there. They worked for some years but left saying they could not find any gas.
The Mughal Emperor Akbar once tried to extinguish the flames by covering them with an iron disk and even channelizing water to them. But the flames blasted all these efforts. Akbar then presented a golden parasol at the shrine. Even Aurangzeb, returned back to Delhi after knowing Maa Jwala Devi’s powers.
There is surely some other phenomena and science that is working behind Jwala Ji eternal flame but that can be indication of glory of our ancestors. Till now no scientists or geologists says nothing since they only tried their level best to find a clue but, failed.
History of Jwala Devi’s eternal flame
The legend of the Jwala Ji Temple relates to Sati -granddaughter of Lord Brahma andwife of Lord Shiva.It is here that Sati’s tongue fell which can now be seen in the form of the flame.
According to legends Sati immolated herself after her father insulted Lord Shiva. In his rage at loosing his wife, angry Shiva performed the fearsome and awe-inspiring Tandava dance with Sati’s charred body on his shoulders. During this dance, Sati’s body came apart and the pieces fell at different places on earth.
According to another version, Shiva placed Sati’s body on his shoulder and ran about the world, crazed with grief. The Gods called upon the God Vishnu to restore Shiva to normalcy and calm. Vishnu used his Sudarshana Chakra (a spinning, disk-like weapon) to dismember Sati’s lifeless body, following which Shiva regained his equanimity. Both versions state that Sati’s body was thus dismembered into 51 pieces which fell on earth at various places. These places came to known as Shakti Peeths. Sati’s tongue fell at the place where Jwala Ji temple is located and the goddess is manifest as tiny flame that burns flawless blue through fissures in the age-old rock.
History of Jwala Devi Temple
The temple is supposed to be first built by a king Raja Bhumi Chandra who, on the complain of a cowherd, tried to find out the a female who came out of the forest and drank the milk of his cow. Since, the king was aware of the legend of Sati, he continued his search for the place and finally succeeded. He constructed a temple there and employed priest to perform puja (prayer). Later, Pandavas came and carried out some renovation work in the temple.
The modern building of temple is with a gilt dome and pinnacles and possesses a beautiful folding door of silver plates, presented by Maharaja Kharak Singh. His father, Maharaja Ranjit Singh also presented the gilt roof in 1815 AD. The interior of the temple consists of a square pit about 3 feet deep with a pathway all around.
The term ‘Jwala‘ means “flame” in Sanskrit and ‘Ji‘ is an honorific used in the Indian subcontinent. Goddess Jwala is also referred to as Mata Jvala Ji and Mata Jwala Mukhi Ji.
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