King Posted May 11, 2007 Share Posted May 11, 2007 This is an amazing video for us folks that reckon Taj Mahal is all India has. This video comes in four parts. I will post the rest shortly. Part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uGB_QNbARY Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0FLjK8yHkk Part 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4Np20dc9nw Part4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6QbPvTlLi0 Part5 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9TYSVRaK04 Part 6 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wHhvZKtnG0 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zooter Posted May 11, 2007 Share Posted May 11, 2007 Re: The lost temples of India - Excellent video Interesting video, but I've never liked the architecture of the South. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Posted May 11, 2007 Author Share Posted May 11, 2007 Re: The lost temples of India - Excellent video Strange you say that Zooter I was never aware of the architectural brilliance behind these temples. Not sure if you saw the next 5 editions of the video. It is fascinating to say the least. I also now understand the wrath of some Indians at the mention of muslim rulers now. The video does mention and show the Muslim rulers that invaded India were not only interested in riches but were also there to spread religion and keen on defacing the original masterpiece sculptures. Looks like the Indian rulers had to hide the sculptures and a lot of history was lost due to this. It is quite a shame if you look at how say a Taj was preserved but not a lot of monuments that were on par or even better than ancient Greek structures. I'm quite fascinated by the effort and the science that was involved in putting together these monuments. You really have to watch the lot to get a better understanding of the science and technology that was used about 1000 years ago. Top work and extreme smartness I would say. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaurav Posted May 11, 2007 Share Posted May 11, 2007 Re: The lost temples of India - Excellent video Absolutely AMAZING!!!! I absolutely love the architecture of Indian temples. I almost had tears in my eyes while watching that. Damn I miss India :eew: If I ever visit India again then I will definitely check that place out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaurav Posted May 11, 2007 Share Posted May 11, 2007 Re: The lost temples of India - Excellent video The saddest part is that currently some non-Indians appreciate our culture more than us Indians. Muslim invaders destroyed so much that it ain't even funny! To be honest to you I never liked Taj Mahal. Even as a kid when I had no idea of it's background I found the building ugly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anakin Posted May 11, 2007 Share Posted May 11, 2007 Re: The lost temples of India - Excellent video Yep, watched that video long time ago. Fascinating documentary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cricketics Posted May 11, 2007 Share Posted May 11, 2007 Re: The lost temples of India - Excellent video i dont know whats the reason behind those naked southie old sculptures, i saw a documentry long back on some guy "Rajaraja" in that documentry, they showed lot of naked sculptures, dont know the reason behind that.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Posted May 11, 2007 Author Share Posted May 11, 2007 Re: The lost temples of India - Excellent video Absolutely AMAZING!!!! I absolutely love the architecture of Indian temples. I almost had tears in my eyes while watching that. Damn I miss India :eew: If I ever visit India again then I will definitely check that place out. I've lost out on my roots but am amazed at the architecture and the smartness of men those days. To place a huge block of carved granite at about 200-300 feet at the top of the dome in 1000 AD without any tools and using domesticated elephants for this work is without a second thought is "Amazing". As the documentary says granite is the hardest rock to carve. Looks like that king had some very smart people under him. I have to say the current and recent past generation of India hasn't really lived up to its ancestors' smartness or workmanship. Looks like India not only were good at science and technology but also had great leaders. There have been very few great leaders from India in the recent past. I have to say India has a very glorious past and am pretty miffed I haven't made an attempt at understanding it very well. Invariably we are aware of the monuments like Eiffel tower or say Times Square?s existence/history despite having no connection with say Paris or Britain. At the same time we wouldn?t have clue about much better monuments in India. I will make my best effort to visit these places when I next visit India. Maybe I will show the video to my wee ones too to ensure they don?t miss out on knowing the glory of past India. I think they need to have a sense of respect for these dedicated artists. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Posted May 11, 2007 Author Share Posted May 11, 2007 Re: The lost temples of India - Excellent video The saddest part is that currently some non-Indians appreciate our culture more than us Indians. Muslim invaders destroyed so much that it ain't even funny! To be honest to you I never liked Taj Mahal. Even as a kid when I had no idea of it's background I found the building ugly. Make no mistake I've seen Taj and it is pretty cool. What I don't like is that that was protected well as it should be but these other great monuments were left to ruins. Why wait for some Brits to come and explore your land and display the glory of the past? I'm pretty surprised some of those bronze/gold sculptures (they are really classy works) were found as recent as 1965 while they were hidden away some 8-9 centuries ago. :shrug: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dada_rocks Posted May 11, 2007 Share Posted May 11, 2007 Re: The lost temples of India - Excellent video See no dwelling of history can be done without underlingint the truth behind mullah raj of 1000 years. Others too ruled india but the pointed zeal thess clowns showed in abolishing temples universities is to say the least sick. Then islamists like lurker and gang wud want u to look at an urdu translation of mahabharat and forget and forgive everything else. Am not so sure about others but for me this is the lamest attemot that ever was for whitewashing the historical wrongs. BTW we don't know these things because pinbko historians have worked hard to gloss over these facts lest their favoruirite war-mongers may be pianted in bad light. Heck clowness Romila Thapar thinks Muhd Gori was a secular warrior and her lopgic goes something like this since one hindu king too destroyed a temple in course of war hence temple destruction is not a communal act hence Gori secular. If I am to extrapolate this idiotic prinicple then since not some but many many and more many islamist kill their fellow islamists for no apparent reason hence killing of islamists on hands of non-muslims for any reason or otherwise can't be a communal act. PS: I am just fascinated by Meenakshi temple. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CC1981 Posted May 11, 2007 Share Posted May 11, 2007 Re: The lost temples of India - Excellent video I've lost out on my roots but am amazed at the architecture and the smartness of men those days. To place a huge block of carved granite at about 200-300 feet at the top of the dome in 1000 AD without any tools and using domesticated elephants for this work is without a second thought is "Amazing". As the documentary says granite is the hardest rock to carve. Looks like that king had some very smart people under him. Ravi, you may be surprised to know but if one were to measure the architectural brilliance of ancient Indians, as grand as the Chola temples & various other temples were, it is not the pinnacle of our ancestor's achievements. No, not even close. The Indian architectural claim to fame is the attention to details. From millions of life-like statues carved into the gopurams of the past to the modern day marvel of Akshadhram temple, Delhi. What could possibly top that you ask ? I say that, to fully realize the scope of our architectural brilliance, dedication and level of sophistication, the Ajanta & Ellora cave which are a legacy to our hindu, buddhist & jain past, present and future. Whats so special about them ? Well together, there are some 65 'caves'. Make no mistake, most of these 'caves' are multi-storey buildings carved into the mountainside that could house a legion. Some of these caves are filled with remnants of exquisite wall-to-wall paintings, murals and statuettes. And then there is the amazing Kailashnatha temple at Ellora - its just 'artsy-fartsy' as any other Indian temple of the past (to put it crudely). But unlike the rest, the artisans didn't have the luxury to re-do their mistakes, use their choice of stone or foundation - this was carved straight out of the rock strata! And take a look at how brilliant the work is : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Kailasha_temple_at_ellora.JPG Notice the people on the bottom-left for an idea of scale. Yes! entire thing just carved out of the mountainside ! People say in passing 'you can move mountains' and there is even the famous Islamic proverb ' if Mohammed wont go to the mountain, then the mountain must come to Mohammed'. Well, our ancestors quite *literally* moved mountains! As far as i am concerned, the architectural marvel that Ajanta & Ellora are is greater than even that of the pyramids, second only perhaps to the great wall of China. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CC1981 Posted May 11, 2007 Share Posted May 11, 2007 Re: The lost temples of India - Excellent video I have to say the current and recent past generation of India hasn't really lived up to its ancestors' smartness or workmanship. Society such as ancient India is not built in a matter of a generation. But rather, take centuries to come into being. It may surprise you that when they discovered Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa, every house in the town had its own toilet, sewage system and water well. Yes, every house in town ! That must give you an idea on the level of poverty ( or the lack of it) when India was 'cruising' at the top of the world before the Islamists showed up. At the time of independence, just 50 years ago, we were on par with sub-saharan Africa for human development. While they've regressed even further, India has come a long way. India will never be that glorious nation of the past (that which a small part in all of us aspires to) unless it can overcome three major obstacles : Overpopulation, Illiteracy/Ignorance and Islamic fundamentalism. The psuedo-secular historians gloss over the Islamic disaster of the subcontinent by saying India had been invaded brutally in the past many many times before the Islamists showed up. And that would be true - the Huns, Shakas, Persians, Greco-Bactrians, etc. were all devastating invasions but they usually whacked the army, killed some, looted some and then either left or pitched tent and let people do whatever they did ( from their foreign perspective) that made India so rich and enlightened. The Islamists were the firsts to start destroying the fabric of what is India. As per Islamic art - i've been priviledged to see quite a few and the Taj is certainly one of the top two examples ( the only other i can think of maybe Topkapi Palace) but Islamic art has always been very 'sterile'. Since they are forbidden to potray any human likeness and they mostly have stuck to that rule dilligently, Islamic art lacks the vivid potrayals of life & capture that which is truely human in terms of fine arts (imo). A pattern of intricate calligraphy is very fine and beautiful but it is sterile and lacking depth compared to a vivid potrait. The engineer in me admires the Taj but the artist in me sees the Taj as a very 'victorian' a structure - lost potential and an architectural masterpiece lacking the coat of 'life' our temples have on them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anakin Posted May 11, 2007 Share Posted May 11, 2007 Re: The lost temples of India - Excellent video If possible watch that documentary "what the ancients did for us - episode india". You'll see when the europe was in dark ages there were planned big cities built in india even with sewerage system. DR, agree with you, but be ready for the "progressive" minds to lecture on and on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CC1981 Posted May 11, 2007 Share Posted May 11, 2007 Re: The lost temples of India - Excellent video If possible watch that documentary "what the ancients did for us - episode india". A brilliant documentary that was from BBC. Only thing i didn't like is the ghee in the eye part. Definitely not for me! :hic: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anakin Posted May 11, 2007 Share Posted May 11, 2007 Re: The lost temples of India - Excellent video i dont know whats the reason behind those naked southie old sculptures' date=' i saw a documentry long back on some guy "Rajaraja" in that documentry, they showed lot of naked sculptures, dont know the reason behind that..[/quote']IIRC, the host of this one tried to give a decent explanation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CC1981 Posted May 11, 2007 Share Posted May 11, 2007 Re: The lost temples of India - Excellent video i dont know whats the reason behind those naked southie old sculptures, i saw a documentry long back on some guy "Rajaraja" in that documentry, they showed lot of naked sculptures, dont know the reason behind that.. If you read Vivekananda, one truth that i think is often ignored starts emerging : Hinduism as we know today is very different than hinduism of our ancestors. Sure, the basic concept of Trimurti & Gods, Karma etc. are all the same but the sense, sensibility and the 'texture' has changed completely. For eg, Indians, even most hindus, today are as uptight about sexuality as the British were 100 years ago. Yet, in the past, our ancestors were very openminded about sexuality - as liberal in practice as modern day western nations, if not more. And India, like any tropical civilization of antiquity, had very little problem with scantily clad men & women. It is rare to see today but even in the boonie villages where ancient customs still persist, women commonly wear just the sari and no blouse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaurav Posted May 11, 2007 Share Posted May 11, 2007 Re: The lost temples of India - Excellent video Some hope for CC when he takes his meds :hic: :wtg: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anakin Posted May 11, 2007 Share Posted May 11, 2007 Re: The lost temples of India - Excellent video Besides it symbolizes the power of man and woman, thus nature. You need both sexes for regeneration, which is an important and potent force. All middle eastern religions treat men as better, more powerful and everything. Hinduism is quite contrary to that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoda Posted May 11, 2007 Share Posted May 11, 2007 Re: The lost temples of India - Excellent video thanks for posting this ravi. what great temples we have! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kumble_rocks Posted May 11, 2007 Share Posted May 11, 2007 Re: The lost temples of India - Excellent video Fantastic video ! :wtg: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts