Bol Bhai: June 2005

In the beginning there was stone. Armed with his thumb, man fashioned tools out of stone, and gathered his food. With stone, he drew pictures on the walls of the caves he lived in.

Then he built houses to live in, and dolmens to bury the dead. They were the first Taj Mahals. More than anything else, the stone—be it the rubble stone on which Asoka wrote his edicts, the granite with which Buddhist caityas and Hindu temples were carved, the marble that Shahjehan fancied, the laterite that the Portuguese used for building Goan churches or the red and white sandstones that Lutyens got from Dholpur—has been the medium through which rising and falling civilisations bequeathed their legacies to posterity.

Most of everything else has perished or worn down by the sands of time.
The story of India’s monuments also reflects the saga of the wonder that was India. Nowhere else does one see such a variety of monuments.

Except perhaps a Chinese great wall, or a few pyramids, every type of architecture is present in India. Till now only the Taj Mahal, that arch through which dreams pass as Fergusson put it, has made it into the list of the world’s wonders. But there are many more monuments in India, explored and listed, but yet to be recognised as wonders.

We list a few such wonders in the following pages.
The story of India’s monuments has been divided into seven periods, depending on the political culture that prevailed during the period. Interestingly, most of these cultures are still extant in India.

Thus one finds Hindu India still going strong in Rajaputana and the south even when the Islamic sultanate’s flag was flying in Hindustan. The same trend continues to this day. One can still see the same primeval rock-carvers still drawing sketches on cave walls in forests.

Or temples Chandela-Pratihara style still being built on the banks of the Yamuna in Delhi.
This co-existence of cultures has made the classification a bit difficult chronologically. The first period, the proto-historic period, represents a stage in the evolution of the Indian man when he was yet to build his own house.

This cave-man continued to live even when his Harappan cousins were building well-drained cities and trading with west Asian ports, or when Ajantas and Elloras were being chiselled out in the Buddhist period. Ironically, a neat classification could be attempted only in the case of the Harappan period because of our own ignorance of that culture. It stands out differently from what is known about the period before it—and what came afterwards.

The original Vedic period could have been around this time, but the absence of Vedic monuments from that time is a major problem confronted by antiquarians. It is possible, as many historians argue, that the primary construction material of the Vedic Indian was wood. This would have rotted away, leaving nothing to look at and wonder, save the great texts composed in the period.

Well-chronicled history began only after this, perhaps starting with the historically detailed life of the Buddha, the well-chronicled invasion of Alexander and the evidence available about the Mauryan empires. The oldest remains of man-built stone structures, save the Harappan brick cities, date back to this era.
The decline of Buddhism and the revival of the Vedic religion were evident even at the time of the Guptas and Harsha, but since classification requires landmarks, one may be permitted to start the Hindu period with Sankara.

Politically, empires of Macedonian or Mauryan scale vanished during this period; in their place came up innumerable smaller ones, building temples which exist to this day and forts which have since crumbled or been built over. The end of this period is well-marked in the north, with the Ghazni-Ghori invasions and the erection of the Qutab Minar. But in the south the Hindu period continued with the Cholas and later Chalukyas till the fall of the temple-prolific Vijayanagar empire.

The end of the sultanate and the beginning of the Mughal period is historically marked on the battle of Panipat, but politically the sultanate continued well into the Mughal era. The Mughals were even routed for a while by the Suri sultans, and the Khiljis and Tughlaqs continued to rule over various parts of central India till Akbar demanded their submission. Architecturally, however, the beginning of the Mughal period could be zeroed in on the building of Humayun’s tomb.

Though the first European churches were built by the Portuguese during or even before the Mughals, politically the European period began only after the decline of the Mughal empire and the battle of Plassey that laid the foundation of the British empire in India.
Going through the pattern of monuments that each culture wanted to last, one may wonder: did each of them want a particular type of monument to last. Of course they all had palaces, forts, shrines and so on.

But we hardly ever see a Buddhist period fort or a Hindu period palace. Apparently, each culture chose one or two types of monuments only to last. Thus the Buddhist built their caityas and cave temples to last, the Hindu period kings wanted their temples to last.

The sultans wanted their tombs and mosques to last, the Mughals their forts, palaces and of course tombs and mosques, and the Europeans their churches and state buildings.
The one common item in this list is the shrine. Call it caitya, temple, mosque or church, every period built it to last.

Nowhere else in the world does one find so many of them, and in such variety, ‘enshrining’ a spirit that has survived millennia.

Proto-historic period: Pictures of his dance, along with scenes of his hunt, have been preserved in various caves
By R. Prasannan
History textbooks start the story of India with the Harappans.

But then, the Harappans could not have just come out of nowhere and built cities, ports and docks and vanished into oblivion. As J.C.

Harle says, "traces of human activity, almost entirely limited to animal remains and to flint tools and weapons, have been found in India stretching back at least 1,50,000 years. Relatively recently on this time scale, the inhabitants of the subcontinent discovered fire and commenced—not necessarily in this order—to domesticate animals, to raise crops, to make and decorate pottery, to use metals, and to construct permanent buildings. These Neolithic and Chalcolithic societies were not innocent of art in the widest sense, as proved by the not infrequent beauty of form and finish of their pots and of their copper and bronze implements.

Human and animal figures in terracotta are fairly common, and they have also been found scratched and painted on rock surfaces."
The cave paintings of India belong to various periods—from proto-historic sketches of the Neolithic man found at Edakkal caves in Kerala to Bhimbetka to the ‘eastman colour’ productions at Ajanta and Ellora which belong partly to the Buddhist and partly to the Hindu period. Our concern here is only about the art and architecture of the protohistoric Indians, some of whom lived before the Harappans, some of whom were their contemporaries, and some of whom are our ‘Adivasi’ neighbours.

Historically, the existing paintings were all wonders left by Neolithic man. The Old Stoner, or the paleolith, could neither make pottery nor fire. This man, the Old Stoner, left hardly anything for us to look at and awe, except a few chipped stones which only the trained eye of an archaeologist can pick out from the rubble it is found amidst.

So the wonder that was India began with the New Stoner, who painted the walls of Bhimbetka and Edakkal and probably buried his dead in the sepulchres, some of them shaped like umbrellas. As for his resources, he had two. One of course was the stone, and the other, was gold!

How was the New Stoner different from his great grandfather of the old stone? The Old Stoner was essentially a hunter-gatherer. The new stone man, on the other hand, cultivated land, grew fruits, domesticated the cow, produced fire and made pots, first by hand and then with the potter’s wheel.

The potter’s wheel, thus, was the first complicated machine, or machine-tool, ever invented by man. Everything else before it was just a straight tool for carving, cleaving or throwing. The wheel, on the other hand, was a machine-tool, which did not carve or cleave, but produced something it did not touch.

The wheel and the crop from the farmlands gave the New Stoner something that is considered essential for the flowering of culture—spare time for hobbies. Some kind of crude music was obvioulsy born then, maybe by imitating wild or domesticated animals. There is no evidence of the New Stoner’s music.

But we know that he danced. For pictures of his dance, along with scenes of his hunt, have been preserved in various caves in many parts of India.
But the biggest wonder about the New Stoner is his burial practice.

World over, the Neolithic men built dolmens of three or more stones carrying a huge roof stone. Quite a few of these sepulchres belong chronologically to the post-Harappa period, but then the culture that built them was Neolithic.
Very few of the Neolithic settlements have been discovered.

But there are clues as to what happened to them. For example, below the major Harappan finds of Kalibangan, archaeologists have found traces of a pre-Harappan settlement. The Kalibangans built a mud-brick wall over the deposits of a pre-Harappan settlement.

In that case, it could be surmised that the Harappans were merely great grandsons of the New Stoner.
Historic significance: A habitat of Neolithic (i.e.

, late Stone Age, 4000 BC-1700 BC) people. One of the very few places in India where prehistoric drawings in stone have been found. There are three distinct sets of petroglyphs, the earliest thought to date back to 5,000 years.

The rock surface has linear motifs like crosses, triangles and tridents; a rectangle divided into nine square-shaped chambers; stars, wheels and quatrefoils; spirals, whorls and volutes; plant motifs, pot-shaped items; various animals. Five ancient inscriptions have been identified of which, two have been deciphered.
The rock shelters of Bhimbetka present life of prehistoric man in vivid colour.

Just 45 km south of Bhopal on the Nagpur highway, Bhimbetka has the largest collection of Mesolithic art on sandstone in the country, with over 600 rock shelters in 500 caves spread on 60 hillocks. It was declared a World Heritage site two years ago.
The paintings have retained their glory despite their age because natural colours—made of minerals, vegetable dyes, roots and animal fat—were used.

The Zoo Rock depicts elephants, sambars, bisons and deer taking flight; another shows naked hunters with bows, arrows, swords and shields. Paintings, obviously of a later age, have men clothed and riding horses and elephants.
Archaeologist V.

S. Wakankar of Ujjain discovered Bhimbetka in 1958, quite by accident. Wakankar, known as the Pitamaha (father) of the Rock Art School in India, had been associated with rock art in India and in the UK, Austria, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Greece, Mexico, Egypt and the US.

He was travelling by train from Bhopal to Nagpur when he saw some rock formations, similar to the ones he had seen in Spain and France where cave paintings had been found, near Bhimbetka. At that time of the year, the vegetation was sparse and the rock formations were quite visible. He decided to visit the area along with a team of archaeologists and was surprised to come across the prehistoric rock shelters.

Bhimbetka derives its name from Bhim of the epic Mahabharat. It is said that the Pandavas spent one year in exile in this region and the Shiva temple at Bhojpur is said to have been where Bhim worshipped Lord Shiva.
Most of the rock shelters have recently been covered by iron railings for protection.

From a distance, the entrance to the shelter looks like a worn-out fort, but let that not deter an interested historian.
Historic significance: Is home to over 600 rock shelters belonging to the Neolithic age. There are paintings in about 500 caves that depict the life of the prehistoric cave-dwellers.

Executed mainly in red and white with the occasional use of green and yellow, the themes are usually taken from hunting, dancing, music, horse and elephant riders, animals fighting, honey collection, decoration of bodies, disguises, masking and household scenes. Popular religious and ritual symbols and animals can also be seen.
Harappan period: Like the Spartans, they ossified into non-existence
Till recently, the cities remained like a nowhere land—seeming to have appeared out of the blue, and like a gypsy camp, vanished into the blue.

Strange as it may seem, dozens of theories abound about the destruction of the Harappan cities. Pioneering excavators like Sir Mortimer Wheeler theorised that they were Dravidians and were destroyed by the rampaging Aryans, as described in the Vedic adventure stories of Indra the Purandara (fort-breaker). Since the cities looked like exclusivist forts, and since signs of quick destruction (like dead bodies with wound marks) were found in certain cities, this theory gained currency.

But even Wheeler, who propounded the Aryan invasion theory, is said to have had second thoughts, especially after it was found that some of the wounds found on the dead bodies had healed long before the victim died.
Theories have also been centred on great tectonic changes that forced the life-sustaining rivers of Sarasvati and Indus to change their course. Evidence of earthquake destruction has been found in some sites, but then there has also been evidence of post-quake reinforcement of the same sites.

In other words, earthquakes could not have forced them to abandon their cities, rather the Harappans reinforced their walls after any earthquake.
Today, most archaeologists believe that they did not just vanish into the blue. Rather, they declined slowly with the gradual drying of the river basins they flourished on.

As they moved further and further from the Indus-Sarasvati basin towards central India, they declined in prosperity. In fact, cheap imitations of their own artistic pottery have been traced in other later settlements, especially in central India.
So the decline of the Harappan civilisation is no longer a mystery.

But the rise of the civilisation is. Of late, archaeologists have unearthed pre-Harappan settlements in sites like Kalibangan, but till more evidence is unearthed, the rise of the civilisation would have to remain an enigma.
The biggest mystery about the Harappans is not their cities or drainages, but their script.

There have been as many interpretations of the script as there have been epigraphists in India and abroad, but none could conclusively read the script, as they did with the Egyptian hieroglyphics from the Rosetta Stone.
And the biggest wonder about the Harappan cities is, simply put, their brick. It had a standard size, be it in Mohenjodaro or Harappa, Kalibangan or Lothal.

If at all the size varied in some sites, it still retained the same length-breadth-height proportion everywhere! Some archaeologists have ventured further. They say that even the constructions—the houses and the cities—were built in the same proportion as the brick.

In other words, the brick was just like the platinum rod kept in Paris to define the world standard of metre.
The amazing level of standardisation, seen throughout the mature Harappan period, raises the question: Was there some sort of a central authority that dictated the standards? Nothing is known about the political culture of the Harappans, except conjectures around the famous terracota image of the ‘priest-king’, clad in a triangular robe.

The fact is that throughout history, such standardisations have been centrally ordered, and enforced. Recent history of city-building, gives such evidence, especially from Russia. Peter the Great, when he built St.

Petersburg ordered that no building shall be taller than the width of the road on which it stood. Similarly, buildings in Stalinist era, mostly made of pre-fabricated walls, had the same length, breadth and look throughout the old Soviet Union.
The later analogies leads us to a supposition that the Harappans too could have been ruled by an iron hand (an anachronism, since iron had not been discovered) that set not only brick standards, but also how to build cities.

Every city had the same layout that conformed to a yet-to-be-discovered centralised pattern.
If that be so, it also leads us to some clue to the decline. Everything about this civilisation shows a kind of exclusivism, or even an unwillingness to change with the times.

Indeed, they did improve on their technology (they invented bone-concrete bricks when it was found that old pure mud bricks were fragile in earthquakes), but were unwilling to adapt to changed circumstances. Even after they declined and moved into central Indian habitations, they produced cheap imitations of their once-great pottery. In other words, like the Spartans of Greece, they ossified into non-existence.

Historic significance: Is an archaelogical village compared to the other Harappan ‘towns’ like Mohenjodaro. The artefacts unearthed suggest a Vedic culture. They include seals and terracotta cakes.

There are triangle-shaped terracotta cakes that symbolise fertility in the Rig Veda. A painting with a horse and pipal motif found here are both associated with the Vedic civilisation. Kunal has three phases of the pre-Harappan culture.

In the earliest, people lived in pits. In the second, moulded mud bricks were used. In the third , bricks were used to make square and rectangular houses.

It was not only in Mesopotamia and in the Nile valley that humans made the transition from hunting to a herding life, in the centuries between 6000 BC and 3000 BC.
India saw the development of a huge number of urban settlements. And Dholavira, in the Khadir island of today’s water-starved Kutch region, appears to have been one of the oldest and biggest, dating back to before 3000 B.

C.
Of all the Indus valley sites, Dholavira—locally known as Kotada—stands apart for its remarkable planning and enormity of area. Spread across 100 hectares, the site represents a Harappan city par excellence—one of the two largest settlements in India.

About 450km by road from Ahmedabad, Khadir is one of the larger bets (islands) in the Greater Rann of Kutch. On reaching the taluka headquarters at Rapar, the drive leads northwest to a lonesome causeway surrounded by salt deposits shimmering under the early morning sun. The archaeological site looks indistinguishable from the rest of the island except for the wire boundary and the familiar ASI board for protected monuments.

The locals reveal there is nothing but stones and wells out there.
Till as late as 1990, when excavations began, the bland, flat-peaked hillock was covered in scrubs and boulders. Today, there are signs of large-scale excavations, exposing a brick structure with intricate steps, pathways, terraces and broken walls.

It is not always as deserted as during a typically hot summer. Between December and March, hired workers led by a leader of the ASI excavations, Dr R.S.

Bisht, explain the uncovered details to interested tourists.
Dholavira must have been a huge and thriving city some 50 centuries ago where textiles, jewellery and pottery were made. It was well-fortified against passing nomads.

The fortress wall runs all the way round the 48-hectare city. The embattled ‘middle town’ measures about 350m east-west and 200m north-south and rises 8.6m from the ground.

A concentric wall separates the lower town, which could have been the industrial area, from the main residential area.
The built-up area of the lower town occupies nearly two-thirds of the eastern half of the city, attaining a height of about 7.5m.

Within this was a third wall which protected the acropolis and the palace.
Beyond, are other structures which have not been fully excavated as yet. Part of this is the cemetery and the variety of funerary structures which leads you to two conclusions.

One, the ancient Dholavirans believed in after-life. Two, the citizens of this great city belonged to a number of ethnic groups, each with distinctive customs.
The trading civilisation must have attracted people from across the seas.

You can imagine Dholavira, a pink-and-white city with its walls, roads, floors and possibly even the roofs of dwellings glinting with baked colours, attracting ships from the northwest and the northeast. And when these foreigners moored at the wharfs, they must have met merchants, traders and travellers dressed in distinctive costumes, speaking different languages, all assessing the citadel’s wealth and weaknesses.
One of the greatest attractions must have been the huge reservoirs between the city walls that held an amazing 2.

5 lakh cubic metres of water—a fantastic achievement in an area known for its aridity today. There are so many of these great reservoirs that it looks like a complex of artificial lakes.
The main source of water was the swift-moving, rain-fed streams on which check dam were built.

Water was also diverted from the rooftops into an intricate system of drains with vents, which allowed air to escape without impeding the flow. Dholavira can be ranked as a truly remarkable city on the basis of its water-harvesting systems alone.
But there was much more.

Dholavirans were skilled in working with copper, stone, beads, shells and ceramics. And it was not all work and no play. There was an enormous recreational ground in the heart of the town, with stepped tiers indicating a public amphitheatre.

There was much more to see and speculate upon. But the unique inscription of ten large-sized signs of the Harappan script was fully covered in tin sheets to avoid further damage. The consolation was in the form of a reproduction of the world’s oldest signboard with 10 large "letters" in their undecipherable script, on the walls of the ASI office.

The present generation of Dholavirans, who live in the modern-day village of 5,000 residents, have no insights to offer. They are too busy drawing water at noon, not from the Narmada pipelines, but from one of the wells of Harappan enterprises recharged and put to use by the ASI recently. The water, sweet as ever, was perhaps a signal of Dholavira’s refusal to remain in long hibernation amidst the salt-infested Rann of Kutch.

Historic Significance: Locally known as Kotada, it is one of the two largest settlements in India and the fifth largest in the subcontinent, the others being Mohenjodaro, Harappa, Gharo Bhiro (all in Pakistan) and Rakhigarthi (in India). Ten large-sized inscribed signs of the Harappan script were found here, making it the oldest sign-board in the world. Dholavira measures about 600m on the north-south axis and 775m on the east-west.

There are three distinct complexes—an acropolis, a middle town and a lower town. The acropolis is the most imposing complex in the city. The towering ‘castle’ stands at a height of more than 16m.

Historic significance: Is a 5,000-year-old pre-historic Harappan site. Architecture and design of the city are similar to those of Mohenjodaro, with streets that intersect at right angles, drainage system, houses made of baked bricks and bathrooms that had water pipes and taps. Subsequent excavations have unearthed relics of an even more ancient culture, dubbed as pre-Harappan.

Adockyard, 84km in southwest India amid the arid plains of Dholka, must be hard to imagine. More surprising is the fact that the nearest shoreline, the Gulf of Khambhat, lies just 23km away. And here is a dock—a 218x37x5 cubic metre kiln-fired brick structure—that was used to serve 30 ships of 60 tonne capacity each.

Remnants of the Harappan/Indus valley civilisation at Lothal, near Dholka, were discovered rather late, after Independence. Lothal means mound of the dead in Gujarati. It is hard to associate death with this ancient mound which has withstood the vagaries of nature and human neglect to tell its own tale.

The earliest boats and ships came into use some 25,000 years ago. There were ships on the Red Sea long before the pyramids were built and people were freely trading by 4000 BC.
Maritime trade flourished here between 2400 BC and 1900 BC.

It is believed that the Harappans came down from the Sindh valley to the southern sea coast around 2400 BC. in search of fertile land and potential ports. They developed Lothal as their most important port and consequently, as a great city similar to Mohenjodaro.

In the early days, the ancient dock was not very far from the sea shore, as it appears today, and was navigable through the Bhogavo river. Its proximity to the sea, the river and the hazards of floods prompted the Harappan builders of Lothal to create a boundary wall outside the town and to build dwellings on a high platform of sun-dried bricks.
It was from the acropolis (known so because of its importance as a seat of power), that the block supervisors observed the movement of ships in the dock and hauling of cargo in the wharf.

What one sees today from atop the acropolis is a planned city with an intricate underground drainage system, wells, and houses with attached baths. Divided into two parts, the lower town with well-paved streets, comprising a bazaar and residential areas, and a warehouse on a plinth, can be seen.
The huge dock to the east, said to be superior to those of Phoenicians and Romans, is a treat to the eye.

An inland dockyard made of bricks with a spill channel and a 7m-wide inlet channel was connected to the Bhogavo river which flows into the Arabian Sea. It has been excavated and restored by the ASI and is intact now.
Bead-making was the most important industry here.

This is evident from the rings and bangles in the museum. Lothal also specialised in steatite micro beads which were used to make necklaces, amulets and waistbands. Also on display at the museum are shell and terracotta ornaments from that time.

Seals played an important part in the Harappan economy and more than 200 have survived in Lothal, many of which are masterpieces of craftsmanship, getting pride of place in the museum.
The oft-portrayed animals are the mythical unicorn, elephant, mountain goat, tiger and the mythical elephant bull. The Harappans of Lothal worshipped the fire god and the sea god, but worship of the goddess was not given importance.

The relics—a mummy, an Assyrian’s head, a seal with five ships sketched on it and seals of the Arabian and Sumerian cities and muslin and indigo found in the Egyptian pyramids—suggest that Lothal had overseas trade relations with Abbas, Bushayar, Bahrain, Susa and Sumer. It is said the ancient sea-farers of Lothal are the ancestors of the Bania community and they have bequeathed the legacy of sea-faring to the people of Gujarat.
The civilisation at Lothal survived till 1500 BC, though it vanished from the north in 1600 BC.

Today, it harbours 20m deep debris. It measures 284m north-south and 228m east-west. The remains suggest that it must have extended 300m away from the mound.

The excavation site consists of the mound, disrobed for display, and a museum with the archaeological finds. The museum is open only between 10 a.m.

and 5 p.m. from Saturday to Thursday.

The excavations stopped long ago and there are no archaeologists around. Despite the hot weather, one can enjoy the experience. However, do not expect any enthusiasm in modern Gujarat on this chapter of Indian history.

Historic significance: Is a 4,500-year-old well-laid city divided into two parts: the upper part or the acropolis where the rulers of the city lived and the lower part meant for the commoners. It had a scientific drainage system, paved roads and a bath for every house. Some of them were double storied.

Lothal’s dockyard was architecturally advanced, with berthing facility and a 13m-wide channel to facilitate entry of ships. It was also an active business centre, linked with Mesopotamia, Egypt and Persia. Beads and pottery were the chief exports.

The ruins of a fire altar suggest that the Lothal people worshipped the fire and the sea gods.
The three-horned ‘lord of the beasts’ sealing from the Harappan period has been variously interpreted as a proto-Siva (Pasupati) or as a proto-Buddha in meditation. The problem with the latter interpretaion is that this period definitely pre-dates the Buddha.

Since no other evidence is available about this, we date our Budhist period purely along archaeological lines. By all historical evidence, Siddhartha Buddha (there could have been many Buddhas earlier, going by Buddhist tradition) was born in 544 BC in Lumbini, the republican village of Kapilavastu on the present India-Nepal border.
Mediaeval splendour: The Ellora Caves, carved under royal patronage, represent the faiths of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism (above left)
Apparently, the city-states of the Himalayan region were still following the republican order, when great political changes were taking place in the plains of the Indus, deserted by the Harappans a thousand years earlier.

In 520 BC, that is when Siddhartha was 14 years old, Persian emperor Darius crossed the Indus, thus subjecting India to an imperial quest for the first time. Even on the Gangetic plain farther east, kingdoms had replaced village republics in Magadha, Kosala and other places. The xenophobia shown by the Sakya chiefs, who are said to have kept Siddhartha a prisoner in the gilded cage of the palace, could be interpreted as their last attempt to protect themselves from the ‘polluting’ influence of the plains kingdoms.

So the Buddhist period saw not only the rise of kingdoms, but also the incredibly rapid rise of empires. Within a century of the Buddha’s death, Alexander, ancient world’s greatest empire-builder, had invaded India. Alexander’s triumphal march could have left imperial ambitions burning in the hearts of Indian kings too, as made out in the probably-fictitious story of Chandragupta Maurya having learnt a few battle tactics from Alexander.

Chandragupta’s grandson Asoka used the Buddhist tenet of non-violence to consolidate his empire, just like Akbar used Hindu-Muslim amity to neutralise rebellious tendencies in provinces. The non-violent empire became the basis of the state structure, with violence resorted to only to defend itself from external aggressors.
Pax-Mauryana also helped culture flourish.

Great stupas were built in this period, as were numerous viharas, caityas and pagodas. There was a lot of cultural expansionism as well as intake. If Buddhist ideals were propagated to the far east, a lot was taken also from the Greeks and later the Scythians and others ruling over Bactria and beyond.

The sculpture and architecture of the period show a lot of Greek influence, just as the sculptures of the Greek Gandhara region show Indian influence.
Even after the fall of the Mauryas, Magadhan dominance continued under the Sungas. Interestingly, the first recorded military coup took place in this period.

Pushyamitra Sunga, commander-in-chief of the Magadhan army, killed his emperor Brihadratha and took power in 184 BC. Two centuries later in the northwest, Kanishka, the Kushana ruler, was suffocated to death under a quilt at the instance of his minister Mathara, who gave the throne to Huvishka.
The cultural interactions weren’t all that peaceful either.

Antiochus the Great of Syria invaded northwestern India in 206 BC, the Greek Menander overpowered the same region in 180 BC. Within the subcontinent, the Kalingas, once suppressed and pacified by Asoka, rose again under the illustrious Kharavela. The Rashtrakutas asserted in the south.

Signs of a revival were seen soon after the decline of the Mauryas. The defeat of the Scythians by a fabled Vikaramaditya must have marked the beginning of the decline of Buddhism as the state religion. During the Gupta age, both the faith and Buddhism flourished side by side.

The Guptas also attempted at imperial consolidation, what with Samudragrupta’s arms crossing far deep into the Deccan. The fall of the Guptas opened the doors of India again to invaders. The white Hun menace, under Toramana, appeared around 465 AD.

Technologically, the Gupta period marks the greatest achievements in metallurgy, as evidenced from the Gupta iron pillars still standing without rust. The Gupta and post-Gupta period was also the golden age of science, mathematics and astronomy in India. Varahamihira, Bhaskara-I, and Brahmagupta flourished in this age.

By the time of Harsha, Hinduism had also been reviving. Apparently its coexistence with Buddhism till then, was beginning to crack. A sort of rigidity had set in the souls of both.

Historic significance: Is a site of temples carved within caves of the Deccan in the 7th and the 11th centuries AD. The sculptures in Ajanta, carved in solid rock, depict the story of the Buddha and Buddhism, spanning 200 BC to 650 AD. Carved under royal patronage in the mediaeval period, the Ellora caves represent the three faiths of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism.

The 12 caves towards the south are Buddhist, 17 in the centre are Hindu structures and five caves to the north are Jain. The huge free-standing Kailasa Temple was carved out of a single rock.

The Ratnagiri monastery’s isolation on a hilltop is striking.

Built in 5 A.D., Ratnagiri is part of the ancient Buddhist quadrangle in Orissa’s Jajpur district.

Of the other three, the monasteries in Udayagiri and Lalitgiri were built in 6 A.D. and the one in Langudi dates to 3 B.

C.
The discovery of exquisite stone sculptures and brass statues of Buddhist deities like Tara indicate that the monastery was a centre of tantric Buddhism housing about 500 monks. Its decline began in 16 A.

D. as funds and royal patronage gradually ceased.
Ratnagiri’s stupas, two quadrangular monasteries, a courtyard, cells and verandah with a sanctum that enshrines a colossal Buddha are impressive.

So is the temple with a curvilinear tower, the only one of its kind in Orissa.
But what is more awe-inspiring about its architecture is perhaps the monastery’s drainage system which drains out rainwater from the complex even today. Lalitgiri was a seat of Buddhist learning till 16 A.

D. Today ruins of the monastery complex seem like an amphitheatre with a giant Chaitya in the centre surrounded by small stupas carved with figures of the Buddha (photo on top).
Feng Shui may be Chinese but one of its symbols believed to usher in prosperity has Indian roots.

At least that is what Chandrama Giri, a tourist guide in Sanchi, claims, pointing to the pot-bellied dwarfs carved in a gateway to the stupas. "These dwarfs are also known as the Laughing Buddhas and the concept was propagated from Sanchi," he says.
Giri’s theory may be debatable, but experts have established that Sanchi was a prominent Buddhist centre during emperor Asoka’s times.

His son and daughter are believed to have stayed here before going to Sri Lanka to spread Buddhism. But there is more to Sanchi than the Laughing Buddhas. The Archaeological Survey of India has discovered ancient grinders and chulhas (hearths) in Sanchi.

A world heritage site, Sanchi is home to some of the finest examples of Buddhist architecture as seen in the stupas, the monolithic pillars and monasteries.
The history of Sanchi dates to 5 BC. After the Buddha’s death, eight kings, who were also his followers, laid claim to his ashes and bones.

When a war seemed inevitable, sage Drona is believed to have intervened. The remains were divided into eight parts and each ruler erected a stupa.
In 3 BC, Asoka reopened these stupas and divided the relics into 84,000 parts and got numerous stupas built all over the country.

Later, in 2 BC and 1 BC the Sungas and the Satavahanas got more stupas and gateways built in Sanchi. Local people believe that it was Aurangzeb’s attack in 12 AD that led to the downfall of the centre.
Nevertheless, the beauty of the stupas is intact.

Stupa number one consists of the relics of the Buddha and has four gateways beautifully carved by the ‘Vidisha danta karya karigar’ (craftspersons of Vidisha, which is around 10km from Sanchi). Some stones bear names of the donors, pointing to the involvement of citzens in the building of the structure.
The famed Asoka pillar is near the southern gateway; Sanchi, a book by the Archaeological Survey of India, says that a local zamindar had used a part of the pillar as a sugar cane crusher.

In Sanchi, one can also find the remains of monasteries. Though there is nothing in the texts to show that Buddha visited Sanchi and there is no mention of this Buddhist sanctuary in Chinese traveller Huen Tsang’s records, monks believe that the Buddha walked from Bodhgaya to Sanchi.
That perhaps explains the flow of Buddhist pilgrims to Sanchi from all over the world, including Sri Lanka.

Most of them stay at the Maha Bodhi Society and meditate in the morning and evening near the Buddha’s remains. Devotees tie flags around a tree near the stupa in the belief that their wishes would be granted.
The monuments also depict the tenets of Buddhism.

For instance, the subject of the carvings on one gateway is the Buddha’s emphasis on spiritualism rather than on rituals. Another gateway depicts incidents from all the lives of the Buddha. The Laughing Buddhas on another gateway smile invitingly.

Follow the path for what lay ahead is innocent joy, they seem to say.
Historic significance: Was an ancient seat of Buddhist learning and place of pilgrimage where emperor Asoka erected the Great Stupa and the Asoka Pillar in the middle of the 3rd century BC. The stupa, the oldest Buddhist monument in the world, represents Buddha through symbols—the lotus represents his birth, the tree his enlightenment, the wheel his first sermon and the stupa his nirvana.

The Asoka Pillar, with its four lion-head stumps, is situated close to the southern gateway of the stupa. Though similar to the intricately carved pillar in Sarnath, the lions do not support a ‘Wheel of Law’ (Dharmachakra). A unique feature of this pillar is its brilliant polish.

The Gupta Temple (4th century AD), is one of the earliest known examples of temple architecture in India. It consists of a simple flat-roofed chamber with a pillared porch in front.
It is hard to believe that Bihar, which is synonymous with corruption and the breakdown of the system, was once the site of great learning.

The ruins of the Nalanda Mahavihar, said to be the first residential international university in the world, are 100km south east from the capital Patna and 10km from Rajgir, the capital of the Magadhan empire of Asoka.
A walk among the ruins of the university, which consists of 6 brick temples and 11 monasteries spread over 1sq. km, transports one back to an era when India was a place of scholarship.

The courses at Nalanda included Buddhist scriptures (both Mahayana and Hinayana schools), the Vedas, hetu vidya (logic), shabda vidya (grammar) and chikitsa vidya (medicine).
According to Pali scriptures, the Buddha often visited Nalanda, which was a prosperous region in the 5th century BC. On his way from Rajagaha (Rajgir) to Pataliputra (Patna), he would stop at his disciple Pavarika’s mango grove here.

Nalanda is also believed to be the birthplace of Buddha’s chief disciple Sariputra. It is said that Mauryan emperor Asoka erected a stupa in memory of Sariputra and built a temple here.
Mahavira, the great Jain tirthankar (teacher), also visited Nalanda.

Nagarjuna, the famous 2nd century Mahayana philosopher, studied at Nalanda and later became its high priest. Other teachers, Suvishnu, Aryadeva, Asanga and Vasubandhu, also rose to fame in the 5th century. It was under the patronage of Gupta rulers that Nalanda flourished as a university centre.

It housed 10,000 students—from as far as Java and China—and 2,000 teachers. Candidates had to take a rigorous oral entrance test at the gates. But education was free.

According to Chinese traveller Huen Tsang who visited India in the 7th century and studied at Nalanda, the university received the patronage of the great emperor Harshavardhana of Kannauj. Subsequently, the Pala kings who ruled over eastern India for about four centuries were benefactors till the 12th century, when Afghan invaders burnt down the university.
Excavations by the ASI, which has made a proposal to the Unesco to include Nalanda in the World Heritage list, from 1915-37 and 1974-82 exposed the remains of the brick temples on the west and monasteries on the east of a 100-ft wide road.

The monasteries are almost identical in layout and appearance, with rows of rooms around a common verandah, a secret chamber for keeping valuables, a kitchen, a well and a granary. The rooms, according to historians, were once the hostel complex for teachers and students. It has stone slabs, which were used as beds, and recesses in the wall to keep books or night lamps.

The large, imposing main temple, at the southern end of the row of temples, is surrounded by votive stupas. It has four corner towers with niches which hold beautiful stucco images of the Buddha and the Bodhisattas, the state before the Buddha attained enlightenment.
The excavation has unearthed many sculptures in stone, bronze and stucco.

Significant are the sculptures of the Buddha in different postures—avalokiteswara, manjusri, tara, prajnaparamita, marichi, jambhala—and the images of Brahminical deities like Vishnu, Siva-Parvati, Mahisasur-Mardini, Ganesa and Surya. Other noteworthy discoveries include murals, copper plates from the rule of Samudragupta (350-375 AD) , inscriptions, seals, plaques and coins from Kumaragupta’s reign (413-455 AD).
Historic significance: Was one of the most renowned Buddhist universities in India.

Established in the 5th century BC, it remained a centre of learning till the 12th century AD when it was destroyed by the Muslim invader Bakhtiar Khilji. The university had students from China, Korea, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and all the regions of India, who were taught logic, metaphysics, medicine, prose composition and rhetoric. It also offered free educational and residential facilities to as many as 10,000 students and 2,000 teachers.

Its library, Ratna Sagar, is believed to have contained nine million volumes. The Thai Temple and the Nava Nalanda Mahavihara, a centre for research in Pali and Buddhist studies, are 2km from the main site.
Socially, the Hindu revival was primarily propelled from the south.

In the eighth century there was a new-found assertiveness on the part of the Vedic faiths, by now consolidated by Sankara, who had flourished in an age of political uncertainty. With his great organisational skill, he consolidated the warring Vedic faiths into some sort of a monolith. Buddhism was more or less philosophically demolished, and a new faith, which had landed on the shores of Sind under Mohammed bin Qasim some 60 years before Sankara’s birth, had to be confronted.

Jainism too had a quiet revival during this period.
Though there were no overwhelming empires during the so-called Hindu period, there were quite a few illustrious dynasties ruling over various parts of India in the post-Harsha years. The Gohillas carved out a kingdom in Mewar, Kashmir’s Lalitaditya Muktipada defeated Yashovarman of Kannauj, Vanaraja of Deo founded a kingdom in Gujarat, the Palas came to fore in Bengal, the Gurjara-Pratiharas captured Kannauj, the Rashtrakutas reached out to the north, and the Chandelas flourished in central India.

Architecturally, this was the busiest period. If Buddhist art confined itself to cave temples, paintings and sculptures, the Hindu period saw the rise of the great temples. Most of the great temples that we see today in India were built during this period which lasted till the Ghazni-Ghori invasions in the north and the much-later fall of the Vijayanagar empire in the south.

There was also a tendency—which some historians call neo-Vikramadityanism—of harking back to some hoary past. Quite a few kings, on both sides of the Vindhyas, called themselves Vikramadityas in this age, and some even initiated their own Vikrama eras leading to today’s confusion about the original Indian calendar.
Unfortunately, save for the Chola invasion of overseas territories, much of the Vikramadityan spirit was spent on fighting each other.

Within a hundred years of the death of Harsha, quite a few dynasties arose and fell in the north. But in the south, there still was some sort of imperial centralism. Though there were the Pallavas, the Pandyas, the Cholas and so on, they largely succeeded each other, admittedly after much bloodshed, thus ensuring that there was only one paramount power at any given point of time.

Towards the end of this period in the north, the Arabs had been reaching out to India. Initially the interactions were peaceful—of two great cultures exchanging notes—save bin Qasim’s capture of Sind. By now the caliphate had been at the zenith of its glory, and there is record of a Hindu physician Manikya being called to the caliph’s court in 809 AD.

But by 1000 AD, things began to change. In the next 26 years, Mahmud of Ghazni invaded India 14 times and shook the foundations of virtually every kingdom north of the Vindhyas. They were still tottering and falling when Mohammed of Ghori came nearly two centuries later and delivered the death blows.

In the south, however, there was consolidation mainly under the Cholas. Only after their decline could the sultanate, under the Khiljis, cross over to the south and help establish various minor sultanates. Yet Vijayanagar, under the Tuluva dynasty, survived there in splendid isolation till the battle of Talikota in 1565.

Strangely, the Bhakti movement also had its origins in this period after Advaita, and flourished while Islam was overrunning the north.
The architectural difference in time-scale has been well explained by J.C.

Harle in The Art and Architecture of the Indian Subcontinent: "The known artistic history of South India, with very few exceptions, does not begin until the seventh century, whereas by this time in the north there were monuments nearly a thousand years old, and the greatest heights of achievement has perhaps already been scaled."
Historic significance: Houses temples from 9th to 13th centuries, built in the Indo-Aryan Nagara style with erotica as the dominating theme. It was once the religious capital of the Chandela Rajputs, a Hindu dynasty that ruled between 10th and 12th centuries.

The temples were built over a span of a 100 years and enclosed by a wall with eight gates, each flanked by two golden palm trees. There were originally over 80 Hindu temples, of which only 22 stand. They are divided into three groups: the western group dedicated to Shiva and Vishnu; the northern group has Vaishnava temples and the southeastern group consists of Jain temples.

The oldest of these temples, dating to 900 AD is the Chaunsat Yogini Temple in the western group, located southwest of the Shibsagar lake. To the north of this is the Kandariya Mahadeo temple, the largest in Khajuraho. It is considered to be the best representation of the Khajuraho style of Indo-Aryan temples.

Its sanctum enshrines a marble Shivalingam.
If you thought big and beautiful did not go together, the Sun Temple in Konark will prove an eye-opener. Built in 1250 AD by King Narasimhadeva I of the Ganga dynasty, in Orissa’s port town of Kainapara of the Periplus, it took 1,200 architects, blacksmiths, sculptors, builders and artisans 12 years to complete.

The temple, dedicated to the sun god, was built to resemble a giant chariot with 24 wheels pulled by seven horses. Konark is an expression of happiness and all the figurines are smiling. A curious element is the figure of a giraffe.

According to folklore, Narasimhadeva and his queen brought back a giraffe that was gifted to them on a visit to an African country.
What sets the Konark sun temple apart is its scientific and geometrical precision. The name Konark is derived from kon meaning angle and arka meaning sun.

The natmandir (dancing hall)—one of the few surviving structures—has three doors by which the first rays of the sun would enter the main temple and hit the feet of the god enshrined inside. The wheels of the chariot are a sundial. Each wheel has eight hands denoting the division of a day into eight hours.

There are small hands for each half-hour and points to denote minutes.
Apart from the natmandir, the jagmohan (assembly hall) remains. Of the main temple, which was 227 ft tall, only a small part remains.

According to one legend, the main temple had a powerful magnet on its top that used to disrupt British ship movements, so the British used cannon fire to tear down the temple. Another version suggests that Kalapahar, the 16th century Afghan invader, destroyed it.
To the north of the giant chariot, there is a smaller temple dedicated to Sandhya and Chaya, the wives of the sun god.

By D.I. Ravindran
It is believed that the shadow of the majestic Brihadeswara temple in Thanjavur never falls down.

Originally known as Rajarajeshwaram Udaya Paramasamy, it is widely believed that a visit to the temple by a person in power would spell doom. it may be for that reason that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa has never visited this temple, despite being an ardent devotee.

But the temple—or the big temple, as it is commonly referred to—has more to it than the so-called jinx. Built by Raja Raja Chola, this 11th century temple that occupies a large portion of Sivganga fort, has been endorsed as a living monument by the Archeological Survey of India, which has also taken over control of the temple.
The temple occupies an area measuring 800 inches by 400 inches and the total area of the inner courtyard, which is surrounded by a cloister, is 500 inches by 250 inches.

Paintings belonging to three dynasties—Cholas (11th century), Nayaks (16th and 17th centuries) and Marathas (18th century)—contribute to the artistic dimension of the temple.
As one enters, there are two gopurams. The first one is called Keralanthagan Thiruvayil, marking the victory of Raja Raja Chola over Kerala when it was ruled by Bhaskara Ravivarma while the second is the Rajarajeswara Thiruvayil.

The former is a square, massive five-tiered structure. There are two sub-shrines in the first floor with the sannidhis of Dakshinamurthy and Brahma with a beard, which is unique. Rajaraja Thiruvayil (the gate of Raja Raja), the second gateway, is a three-tiered granite structure.

In the raised upapeeta, there are beautifully sculptured scenes from mythology. In the eastern face of the gopuram, above these Puranic panels, are two monolith dwarapalas, measuring 20 feet.
An 11-foot wide inner wall encases the sanctum that enshrines the presiding deity—a massive 13-foot high Shivalinga.

The lower half of the shreepada is made of nine pieces of lotus carvings while the upper half is decorated with the urdhwa padma, a 60-foot circle six feet in length in single stone on which linga bana (the top portion of linga) stands. The entrance of the sanctum is guarded by the massive Nandi (the sacred bull) and Mahakala.
There are 10 ayudha purushas (armed warriors) in the southern and northern entrances of the vestibule (mukha mandapa) but only five of them are in good condition.

The gigantic Nandi—3.66m in height, 5.94m in length and 2.

59m in breadth—is built within a plain 16-pillared mandapam.
The Brihadeeswari shrine, located opposite to the Nandi mandapa is a later addition by a Pandya king in the 13th century. Vijaya Nagara Perumal, a Nayak king during the 15th century, built a large entrance to this shrine.

The inner ceiling of the shrine is adorned with the Maratha paintings of Serfoji period. The mandapam and the Bull were contributed by the Nayaks in the 16th-17th centuries.
Renovations have been in progress since the beginning of the 20th century.

The latest addition before the archaeology department took over was the Karuvurar shrine. Karuvurtthevar, who wrote Thiruvisaippa (sacred musical verses) during Raja Raja Chola’s reign, was believed to have persuaded the emperor to build this great temple.
Varahi Amman, the deity of this temple, attracts a large crowd.

People believe that the deity protects them from evil. Though the shrine is small, the deity occupies a large part of the sanctum. The two other places that house this deity are in Kasi and Arakkonam in Chennai.

Standing tall against the ravages of time, this temple is an enduring monument which is testimony to the greatness of Tamil rulers.
Historic significance: Is the world’s first granite temple built by Chola king Raja Raja in honour of Lord Shiva in 1009 AD. The Brihadeshwara Temple is composed of many interconnected structures such as the 12 ft-tall, 25-tonne Nandi (the mount of Shiva), a pillared portico and a large hall.

The inner walls of the temple have extensive paintings and sculpture. Its top or the shikhara is a single block of stone, 25 ft high and weighing 80 tonnes. The structural idea of constructing a Gopuram (or a fine gateway to the enclosed walls of the temple) was first conceived by the Chola kings.

The temple stands 216 ft tall, but it has been built in such a manner that throughout the day its shadow never falls on the ground.
Historic significance: Was the capital city of the Mallas (7th - 19th century) and is a repository of terracotta temples. The oldest brick temple is a Rasmancha with an elongated pyramidal tower surrounded by hut-shaped turrets, built in the late 16th century by King Beera Hambira.

Terracotta gained further momentum under King Raghunath Singh, who built the Pancha Ratna Temple of Shyam Rai and the Jorebangla Temple of Keshta Rai. The temple of Madanmohana in the Sankharipara area was built in the eka ratna style by King Durjana Singh Dev in 1694 AD. It is a square flat-roofed building with curved cornices, surmounted by a pinnacle.

Its rich decorations and designs surpass the Shyam Rai and Keshta Rai temples. Here, for the first time, there are bigger terracotta plaques than those in the other two temples. Impressive scenes from the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Puranas are carved on the temple walls.

By N. Bhanutej
Legend has it that the monkey kings of yore—in the kingdom of Kishkindha—used these boulders to play marbles. In the middle ages, these magnificent rocks provided the perfect setting for establishing the capital of the Vijayanagar kingdom.

Hampi, one of the greatest metropolises of mediaeval India, was set in the midst of natural rocks on three sides—some of the most spectacular and oldest rocks in the Deccan—and the river Tungabhadra, flowing to its north. These rocks acted like natural walls and the gaps between them were filled to complete the fortification of the city.
Founded by Harihara and Bukka in 1336 AD, the Vijayanagar empire was spread over Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.

Till its fall in the Talikota War of 1565, the writ of the empire prevailed over the southern peninsula. As Robert Swell wrote in his book, A Forgotten Empire: Vijayanagar: "When Vijayanagar sprang into existence, the past was done with forever, and the monarchs of the new state became lords or overlords of the territories lying between the Dakhan and Ceylon."
Hampi, the capital of Vijayanagar, in Karnataka’s Bellary district, showcased the grandeur of the period.

Palaces, temples, markets, aquaducts, gateways, sculptures, baths and pavilions dot the landscape. The first thought in any visitor’s mind is: If ruins can be so enchanting, imagine the real thing. The wind in the rocks, the smell of camphor in the Virupaksha temple or the musical pillars of the Vittala temple—all transport the visitor back in time.

Seated on the Mahanavami Dibba (a royal platform from which the royalty witnessed festivities), one can reconstruct from the ruins all around. The king’s palace, the largest enclosure in the capital, comprises two huge platforms (the structures are missing now) and an underground chamber that might have served as a treasury or a private audience chamber. The enclosure is surrounded by a double fortification.

The Virupaksha temple, which pre-dates Vijayanagar, is the only living monument in Hampi. Dedicated to Lord Shiva, the temple is still used for worship. The Ratha Beedi (Chariot Street) that leads to the temple retains its splendour.

The street is lined with artisans selling their wares. Abdul Razak, a Persian ambassador who visited Vijayanagar and the bustling bazaars of Hampi in 1443, wrote: "Jewellers sell publicly pearls, rubies, emeralds and diamonds."
The Vijay Vittala temple, the Lotus Mahal which is a synthesis of Hindu and Islamic architecture, the Queen’s Bath—a large square structure with a plain exterior and ornate interiors, the elephant stables, the recently-unearthed Pushkarni, which is a tiered structure crafted from rectangular pieces of granite, Hazara Rama temple, Mahanavami Dibba and the imposing statue of Ugranarasimha or Lakshmi Narasimha are must-sees in a tourist’s list.

The Vijaya Vittala temple with its musical pillars and the stone chariot (the wheels of this single-stone sculpture can be rotated) are testimony to the architectural and artistic skills of the period.
While most of the structures are in ruins, the Lotus Mahal, the Queen’s Bath and the Pushkarni are well-preserved. "The ruins of Hampi are signs of the hatred between two people," said Prof S.

Chandrashekhar, professor of history, Bangalore University. "The monuments also show us the kind of civilisation and culture Indians were able to build then but I am equally awestruck at the place being monumentally neglected by the authorities."
While the popular view among historians is that Vijayanagar fell in the Talikota war in 1565 AD to the Bahamanis, some believe that Hampi was reduced to rubble because of the clash between the Vaishnavite and the Shaivite sects within the kingdom.

This theory, for evidence, holds good as one notices the destruction of Vaishnava temples and idols as against the well-preserved Shaivite temples in Hampi. While the Hazara Rama temple, Vijaya Vittala temple, Ugranarasimha and some others are ravaged, the presiding deity in the Virupaksha temple is still worshipped. Krishnadeva Raya, the greatest of the Vijayanagar kings, who descended from the Tuluva lineage, made Vijaya Vittala the presiding deity of the royal family whereas his predecessors from the Sangama and Salva lineages had Virupaksha as their presiding deity.

Yet another theory indicates that the marginalised tribesmen plundered Vijayanagar after the news of King Rama Raya’s defeat in the Talikota war reached the capital. As Abdul Razak put it: "The eye has not seen nor the ear heard of any place resembling it upon the whole earth." And, thus ended the glory of Hampi.

Historic significance: Was the seat of the famed Vijayanagar empire from 1336 to 1565—bounded by the Tungabhadra river on one side and surrounded by granite cliffs on the other three sides. The city is identified with the mythological Kishkindha, the monkey kingdom in the Ramayana. The city is famous for its palaces and temples, especially the Virupaksha Temple with its 120 ft tall tower.

The temple contains the shrines of Shiva, Pampa and Bhuvaneswari. Parts of this temple are older than the Vijayanagar kingdom itself. The work of this style dates to the 11th or 12th century.

The temple also has a 6.7m tall monolith of Ugra Narasimha, with an inscription that states it was hewn in 1528 during the reign of Krishnadeva Raya.
A crucible of cultural traditions and religious practices, Kashmir has earned the sobriquet, ‘Piriveer and Rishiveer’ (The valley of Pirs and Rishis).

While Hinduism has remained a dominant religion, Lalitaditya Muktapida, an eighth century ruler of the Surya dynasty, popularised sun god worship. Lalitaditya’s most memorable and magnificent work was the construction of the wonderful Martand temple dedicated to the sun god (Bhaskara). The temple’s unmatched architecture stands testimony to Lalitaditya's passion.

Historian Kalhana has mentioned in his book, Rajatarangni, about sun-god worship and the existence of an important temple dedicated to it at Mattan. The hamlet of Mattan, 10 km from the south Kashmir district of Anantnag, has been of great religious importance to the Hindus. It has been traditionally known as the ‘Surya tirth’, a place of sun pilgrimage.

The temple, however, began to be known as Martand all over the world. The ruins of the temple in Kehribal village today speak volumes about the glorious past of the monument built on an elevated plateau.
Local people call the temple Pandav laire (the house of Pandavas).

This had created some confusion for historians and archaeologists. But it has nothing to do with the Pandavas of Mahabharata. The temple’s history is well documented in Rajatarangni.

Pandav apparently comes from the material used to build the temple. In Kashmir, especially in Anantnag district, there are huge ruins of rectangular blocks of stones with polished surfaces, associated with Pandavas. Similar material is used in the construction of Martand.

Martand remained an active religious place till the end of the 14th century when according to historians it was destroyed by a fanatic, Suhabhatta, during the reign of Sikander (1389-1413 AD). Thereafter, it never regained its grandeur.
The main temple is located in a spacious oblong courtyard enclosed by a raised basement supporting a roofed colonnade with an array of cells behind.

Unlike other extant ancient temples, Martand has two double chambered side wings flanking the mandapa, a novel and special character of its own.
Villagers are ignorant of the history of the monument. There is no official to look after it or any guide to inform visitors about the history of the great place.

The floriculture department has laid a big park in front of the monument. The famous temple is on the verge of collapse.
Historic significance: Signifies a departure from Buddhism and acceptance of the Brahmanical creed.

The regularly spaced medallions, the frequent use of pilaster, and the pediment motif, signify a touch of the classical west. The capitals of the pillars that support cornices have something Doric about them, while their moulded bases are of attic type. The encircling colonnade have a Greek touch.

The mural sculpture on the walls displays the influence of the Pala rulers of Bengal. The copper gilt image of the sun god installed in the cellar of the temple must have been wrought in the very same foundry where Pala metal-workers shaped that famous copper image of the Buddha discovered at Sultanganj in Bengal.
Historic significance: Was a 7th century port city of the Pallavas, named after the demon king Mahabali.

It has various monuments built between the 7th and the 9th centuries, most of which are rock-cut and monolithic. They constitute the early stages of Dravidian architecture where Buddhist elements are prominent. Recently a major find was made of a large number of underwater ruins, thought to date back to 6000 BC, older than Harappa.

An ancient port city and parts of a temple built in the 7th century have been uncovered after the December 26 tsunami that struck the coast.
The second millennium began for India with a terrestrial tsunami. In 1001, Mahmud of Ghazni defeated King Jayapala of the Shahi dynasty at Peshawar and began his first plunder of the "wealth of Ind".

Nearly two centuries later, in 1191, Mohammed of Ghori came and was defeated by Prithviraj II. Next year he came again, defeated Prithviraj and installed his slave Qutbuddin Aibek as governor of Delhi. Aibek erected the Qutab Minar to mark the beginning of Islamic rule in India.

Delhi became the seat of central power in India under the Slaves.
The Slaves consolidated under Iltutmish who severed his links with the caliphate, and consolidated the state of India.