"On the shores of the Bay of Bengal, bathed in the rays of the rising sun, the [13th cent. Hindu] temple at Konarak [aka Konark] is a monumental representation of the sun god Surya's chariot; its 24 wheels are decorated with symbolic designs and it is led by a team of six horses. Built in the 13th century, it is one of India's most famous Brahman sanctuaries." Source: UNESCO World Heritage List.
According to Myoksha, a provider of pilgrimage tours and temple guides in India, "Konark Temple was referred to as 'Black Pagoda' by European travelers sailing the shores of the Arabian sea. It was so called maybe because of its dark colour due to continuous plastering and subsequent blackening of the surface over many centuries as mentioned by S.P Gupta in his book 'Temples in India'. It may also be that some European scholars believed that the exceptionally frank eroticism [next video] of many of the Konark sculptures has given it the name 'Black Pagoda'."
No English translation available, but most of this video just focuses on the erotic sculpture found at the temple.
"The Sun Temple at Konarak was built in about 1250 AD by the East Ganga king Narasimhadeva, It is thought he built the temple to commemorate military successes against Muslim invaders." Source: Sacred Destinations.
"According to local legend, the temple has a great aura of power that comes from two very powerful magnets said to have been built into the tower - magnets that allowed the king's throne to hover in mid-air."
This magnetic aura could also be the reason for the name "Black Pagoda:"
"European mariners sailing off the coast used the temple's tower for navigation, but dubbed it the Black Pagoda for the frequent shipwrecks that occurred along the coast. They attributed the disasters to the legendary magnets' effect on the tidal pattern." (Sacred Destinations)
This is a magnificent temple, but King Narasimhadeva should be especially remembered for the fact that he "defeated the Muslim forces of Bengal who were constantly posing a threat to the Eastern Ganga dynasty's rule over Odisha [ancient Utkala], and because he was "one the few rulers in India who took the offensive against the Islamic expansion over India..." (Wikipedia)
Narasimhadeva should receive the same respect that we give to Charles Martel in the West.
"In the Ancient Near East, temple women, of whom one class was called qadištu, probably served as sacred prostitutes. Sometimes dedicated by their fathers to the deity, they had special statutes, and provisions were made for them by law (Code of Hammurapi). Customs connected with them are likely to underlie Herodotus' lurid and misleading statement that in Babylon every woman was to serve once as a sacred prostitute before getting married, thus sacrificing her virginity to the goddess Mylitta (Ishtar) ... In Israel the sacred prostitutes were condemned for their connection with idolatry. Deuteronomy 23:18–19 forbids Israelites, men and women alike, to become sacred prostitutes, and states that their wages must not be used for paying vows." Source: Jewish Virtual Library.
Astarte is the Greek name of the very ancient Mesopotamian goddess, Ishtar. According to the Oxford Classical Dictionary (OCD, 3rd ed. revised), Ishtar was the "goddess of love and war, variously described as [the] daughter of Sin (moon god) or of Anu (sky god) with various attributes according to different city traditions." All of Ishtar's temples, according to the OCD, were probably "centers for cult prostitution of various kinds."
Some modern scholars believe that sacred prostitution, as an institution, never actually existed, but it seems like it must have occurred in one form or another or it wouldn't have been mentioned in all the various sources. If it did exist, however, it probably wasn't as widespread as previously believed. Herodotus' account, for instance, must be an exaggeration. It's hard to believe that every woman in Babylon had to serve once as a temple prostitute before getting married. If that was true, then the temples would have been swarming with them.
According to the Oxford Classical Dictionary (3rd ed. revised), "sacred prostitution is a strictly modern, not ancient, term and misleading in that it transfers to the institution, or rather a variety of institutions, an adjective [sacred] which in ancient sources denotes only the status of the personnel involved (sometimes also their earnings, which likewise became sacred on dedication.)." I've read this two or three times now and I'm still not sure what it means. If a prostitute is considered sacred and her earnings are dedicated to a god, then isn't she a "sacred prostitute" by definition? The term may be modern, but how is it misleading?
Sacred prostitution is apparently still practiced in parts of India.
"These caves are situated in the twin hills of Barabar (four caves) and Nagarjuni (three caves); caves of the 1.6 km (0.99 mi)-distant Nagarjuni Hill are sometimes singled out as the Nagarjuni Caves. These rock-cut chambers bear dedicatory inscriptions in the name of 'King Piyadasi' for the Barabar group, and 'Devanampiya Dasaratha' for the Nagarjuni group, thought to date back to the 3rd century BCE during the Maurya period, and to correspond respectively to Ashoka (reigned 273–232 BCE) and his grandson, Dasharatha Maurya."
The precision stonework seen in the Barabar caves is amazingly similar to that found in various megalithic sites in South America (among other places), suggesting, once again, that prehistoric civilizations around the world were much more advanced than commonly believed.
The stonework at Barabar is really stunning, considering the site's age, and the techniques used there may have come to India from Persia through a kind of brain drain following Alexander the Great's conquest of the Persian Empire:
"The caves were carved out of granite, an extremely hard rock, then finished with a very nice polishing of the inner surface, giving a mirror effect of a great regularity, as well as an echo effect." (Wikipedia) According to one expert, the "extraordinary precision and accuracy which characterizes all Mauryan works ... has never, we venture to say, been surpassed even by the finest workmanship on Athenian buildings".
"...This remarkable and large-scale polishing technique, and in many ways without parallel, seems nevertheless to have been derived from polishing techniques in Achaemenid statuary, the stone-working techniques having spread in India after the destruction of the empire by Alexander the Great in 330 BC and the displacement of Persian and Perso-Greek artists and technicians."
"The Ajanta Caves in Maharashtra, India are 29 rock-cut cave monuments which date from the 2nd century BCE. The caves include paintings and sculptures considered to be masterpieces of both Buddhist religious art (which depict the Jataka tales)as well as frescos which are reminiscent of the Sigiriya paintings in Sri Lanka.The caves were built in two phases starting around 200 BCE, with the second group of caves built around 600 CE." (Source: Wikipedia)
When it was occupied this complex of temples, monasteries, traveler residences, etc. was more like a small settlement than a single structure. At least 30 separate caves have been discovered at Ajanta and an inscription found in one of them suggests that the complex was abandoned in the 7th or 8th centuries AD. Locals were well aware of its existence after that, but a British soldier stationed in India is credited with the re-discovery of this magnificent site:
"On 28 April 1819 a British officer named John Smith, of the 28th Cavalry, while hunting tigers discovered the entrance to Cave No. 10 [next video] when a local shepherd boy guided him to the location and the door. The caves were well known by locals already. Captain Smith went to a nearby village and asked the villagers to come to the site with axes, spears, torches, and drums, to cut down the tangled jungle growth that made entering the cave difficult. He then vandalised the wall by scratching his name and the date over the painting of a bodhisattva. Since he stood on a five-foot high pile of rubble collected over the years, the inscription is well above the eye-level gaze of an adult today. A paper on the caves by William Erskine was read to the Bombay Literary Society in 1822." (Wikipedia)
John Smith can be criticized, I suppose, for carving his initials in Cave No. 10, but I have to point out that it was the evil British colonialists who first undertook the task of restoring and studying the site, which had been left to decay for centuries:
This is the Karni Mata Temple, aka the Temple of Rats, in Rajasthan, India. According to Wikipedia, the Hindu temple to the deity / female warrior sage, Karni Mata, is famous for "the approximately 25,000 black rats that live, and are revered, in the temple. These holy rats are called kabbas, and many people travel great distances to pay their respects. The temple draws visitors from across the country for blessings, as well as curious tourists from around the world." There are also a few white rats living there and they are considered to be "manifestations of Karni Mata herself and her four sons." This apparently makes the white rats ultra-holy.
The videos above show various food offerings made to the rats at the temple. In the top video, one worshiper is shown drinking straight from a bowl of milk set out for the sacred vermin. He claims that this is good for his health even though the milk is full of rat droppings. And this kind of lunatic behavior isn't unusual:
"The rodents move freely within the temple and can be seen eating from a huge metal bowl of milk and grains, placed there daily by devotees." Source: Daily Mail (2014).
"Small children can be seen playing and interacting with the rats - while scores of tourists flock there each day to catch a glimpse of the unique spectacle.
"Many visitors offer sweets and other candy to the vermin. The food nibbled by the rats is also considered holy and is sometimes consumed by a devotee - even if it has been half eaten by rodents."
Hindus believe that humans and animals are related through the cycles of reincarnation. We may have been animals in a previous life and we might end up coming back as animals in our next life, depending on our karma. "Humans and animals are believed to be one family and therefore, humans should treat all living creatures with respect and kindness." (Wikipedia)
Fine. I'm against animal abuse myself but worshiping rats, letting them run wild and sharing their food is flat-out disgusting. This temple is a major health hazard:
"Rats serve as outstanding vectors for transmittance of diseases because they can carry bacteria and viruses in their systems. A number of bacterial diseases are common to rats, and these include Streptococcus pneumoniae[causes pneumonia and meningitis in children and the elderly], Corynebacterium kutsheri,Bacillus piliformis [has been known to cause Tyzzer's disease in humans], Pasteurella pneumotropica, and Streptobacillus moniliformis, to name a few. All of these bacteria are disease causing agents in humans. In some cases, these diseases are incurable." (Wikipedia)
As far as I can tell, rodents are only worshiped in India. It's strange to think that this sacred animal is also responsible for wreaking havoc in the country:
"Twice a century, India is attacked by huge rat armies that devour crops in massive destructive waves and leave people without any food. Scientists long dismissed it as an urban myth...until they discovered that it really happens, and why." Source: Gizmodo (2010).
This is a weird situation. On the one hand, rats are worshiped in India; on the other hand, the country is carrying out pest control measures designed to keep the rat population under control, if not eradicate them altogether. Every fifty years these rat swarms wipe out crops, cause widespread famine and "wreak havoc on the entire ecosystem." (Gizmodo) This periodic disaster is called Mautum and it causes serious problems:
"Mautam (Mizo for 'bamboo death') is a cyclic ecological phenomenon that occurs every 48–50 years in the northeastern Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur, which are 30% covered by wild bamboo forests, as well as Chin State in Myanmar, particularly Hakha, Thantlang, Falam, Paletwa, and Matupi Towships. It begins with a rat population boom, which in turn creates a widespread famine in those areas." (Wikipedia)
As nasty as it is, the Temple of Rats at least serves a religious purpose. In the West some people keep rats as pets and prattle on about how adorable they are. This is also kind of crazy, but at least these people don't eat and drink out of their rats' food bowls. Maybe I'm just being narrow-minded about this, but as far as I'm concerned rats aren't just unhygienic; they're downright evil.
The best sources for reliable information about the true nature of rats can be found in the books of the noted rodent experts, James Herbert and H.P. Lovecraft. The next video, a news clip from 1982, shows the devastation caused by rats in the New York subway system. This is real footage. Some skeptics claim that the rats are just wiener dogs dressed up in rat costumes, but that's ridiculous.
The story of Alexander the Great is one of the most exotic adventures to come down from the ancient world, mostly because of its sheer scale and the larger than life, quasi-mythical personality of Alexander himself.
Alexander's conquest of Asia took him across the Hellespont, past the ruins of Troy, down through the Levant into Egypt and then on to Babylon, Afghanistan and the Hindu Kush. He fought through the Punjab to the ocean then returned to Babylon, his army traveling on foot and by ship--a fantastic journey into the unknown.
Alexander's army fought Indian war elephants, massive Persian armies and laid siege to the fortified island of Tyre, building a mole across a half-mile of water in the face of fire ships and relentless attacks. His forces marched through almost every kind of climate--deserts, jungles, mountains--creating the largest empire ever seen, an empire that quickly disintegrated when Alexander died at thirty-two, the victim of wounds and disease (or he was murdered--take your pick).
Alexander thought he was a god: the son of Zeus. According to some stories, his father,Philip II of Macedon, saw Alexander's mother, the ambitious, mystically-inclined Olympias, in bed with a snake (one manifestation of the supreme deity). When Philip sent an emissary to the Oracle of Delphi to find out if he was Alexander's real father, the Oracle told him to make sacrifices to Zeus and predicted that he would lose the eye that had seen his wife with the serpent--a prediction that came true a few years later.
Alexander was a heavy drinker. He may have been involved in the assassination of his father. He may have been bisexual, but the evidence for this is questionable at best. Some writers have called him a psychopath, but these modern terms don't really apply to the ancient world. According to the stories, he never showed fear and always acted with supreme confidence, a confidence that apparently grew into megalomania towards the end of his life. Maybe he was half-crazy--or maybe he really was the son of Zeus.
The True Story of Alexander The Great, an excellent documentary from the History Channel, does a good job of covering the highlights of Alexander's story in two-and-a-half hours. The video recreates Alexander's early days and most of his major battles in reasonable detail using a combination of computer graphics, reenactments and clips (I think) from old movies. The film crew traveled to many of the battle sites and cities that Alexander either founded or passed through, filling out the background through interviews with modern historians and excerpts from the primary ancient sources: Arrian, Quintus Curtius Rufus, Diodorus Siculus and Plutarch.
"Rani ki Vav or Ranki vav (lit. 'Queen’s stepwell') is a stepwell situated in the town of Patan in Gujarat state of India. It is located on the banks of Saraswati river. Its construction is attributed to Udayamati, daughter of Khengara of Saurashtra, queen of the 11th-century Solanki dynasty and spouse of Bhima I. Silted over, it was rediscovered in 1940s and restored in 1980s by the Archaeological Survey of India. It has been listed as one of UNESCO's World Heritage Sites since 2014." Source: Wikipedia.
"The finest and one of the largest examples of its kind and designed as an inverted temple highlighting the sanctity of water, the stepwell is divided into seven levels of stairs with sculptural panels; more than 500 principal sculptures and over a thousand minor ones combine religious, mythological and secular imagery."
Note: "Stepwells are wells or ponds in which the water is reached by descending a set of steps to the water level. They may be multi-storied with a bullock turning a water wheel to raise the well water to the first or second floor. They are most common in western India and are also found in the other more arid regions of the Indian subcontinent, extending into Pakistan. The construction of stepwells is mainly utilitarian, though they may include embellishments of architectural significance, and be temple tanks." (Wikipedia)
According to the second video above, "It is extremely difficult to imagine an entire category of architecture slipping off the grid. But this is precisely what seems to have happened with the step-wells of India." That's true enough. I had never even heard of these fantastic constructions until a few minutes ago. Built between 940 and 1244 AD, Rani Ki Vav and the other stepwells in India are truly impressive works of craftsmanship, rivaling in many ways the water management systems of the Romans.
"Artists may have often turned to drugs at times to help them find inspiration, but it seems cannabis has also played a role in preserving precious artworks within ancient caves in India." Source: Daily Mail (2016).
"A mixture of hemp, clay and lime plaster is responsible for preserving paintings and intricately carved scenes in the sacred Ellora Caves, which were hewn from rock 1,500 years ago."
Note: The Ellora Caves are an "uninterrupted sequence of monuments dating from AD 600 to 1000," according to the UNESCO World Heritage Site. "... these 34 monasteries and temples, extending over more than 2 km, were dug side by side in the wall of a high basalt cliff, not far from Aurangabad, in Maharashtra."
The Romans carried on a thriving trade with India. According to the Oxford Classical Dictionary (OCD), "the principal imports [from India] to Rome were perfumes, spices (especially pepper), gems, ivory, pearls, Indian textiles, and Chinese silk. The Romans exported linen, coral, glass, base metals, 'Arretine' tableware, wine in amphorae, etc., and also sent large quantities of gold and silver (and later copper) coins, of which large hoards have been found in south Indian and the eastern Deccan as well as some clay bullae ('amulets') of Roman coins."
This trade made the empire rich, but it also caused serious problems. The Romans were mostly importing luxury items from India -- items which would have sold almost exclusively to the upper classes who could afford them -- and the importers were paying hard cash for a lot of this merchandise. Back in the days of real money, this would have led to currency shortages. Payments in coin would have caused a significant outflow of money from the Roman economy and Roman emperors such as Augustus made periodic attempts to discourage excessive luxury spending by the aristocracy. Getting the nobility to curb their spending was difficult to do, however, because such spending was a sign of status among the Roman elites.
The coin shortages produced by the Roman aristocracy's taste for luxury goods from the East are a classic example of the problems a state can run into when it uses precious metals for its money. Gold and silver coins can't be created out of nothing like a fiat currency. There's always a limited supply of these coins in circulation and the India trade removed a lot of money from the Roman economy. Some of these coins must have trickled back in one form or another through the complex network of trade that was carried on back then, but the problem was serious enough for Augustus to try to put the brakes on luxury spending in Rome. Managing the Roman economy was a tricky business. The stability of the system depended in large part on the discovery of new mines and the competence of the empire's administrators:
"The monetary system of the Roman Empire always operated on very narrow margins. It is possible to calculate that in normal times perhaps 80 percent of the imperial budget was covered by tax revenues, the rest by the topping up of what came in with coins minted from newly mined metal. Prudent emperors managed; the less prudent did not." -- Oxford Classical Dictionary.
Note:The Roman trade with India began to decline after around 200 AD when "communications with India passed into the hands of intermediaries (Arabians, Axumites[1], Sasanid Persians), and India again became a land of fable to the Mediterranean world." (OCD)
[1] "The Kingdom of Aksum, also known as the Kingdom of Axum or the Aksumite Empire, was an ancient kingdom centered in what is now Eritrea and the Tigray Region of northern Ethiopia." (Wikipedia) The strategically important Aksum was heavily involved in the ivory trade and controlled both banks of the Red Sea near its outlet into the Indian Ocean. All the sea traffic between Rome and India would have had to pass through the kingdom's zone of influence.
"New lipid residue analyses have revealed a dominance of animal products, such as the meat of animals like pigs, cattle, buffalo, sheep and goat as well as dairy products, used in ancient ceramic vessels from rural and urban settlements of the Indus Civilisation in north-west India, the present-day states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh." Source: Science Daily.