My earlier post on the similarity in the stories of Orpheus and Adi Shankara inspired me to look for more, and naturally, I found many. I might, perhaps, write them all down some day. For now, here’s another one. This time it is between the Book of Job (from the Hebrew Bible) and the Markandeya …
The notion of international conferences are a commonplace anymore. But such was not the case over 150 years ago. The first international scientific conference was held on Sept. 3rd, 1860. Sarah Everts marks the 150 years of science as international discipline with this fascinating article in C&E News. Here is an excerpt: When the 1860 …
What if the story of Mahabali and Ramayan were narrating the same episode in ancient Indian history? Remember that the story of Mahabali shows up in Vamana Purana whereas Ramayana is one of the Itihaasas. It is not surprising that the same incident would inspire two different mythological texts during two different periods for two different purposes. However, I claim that they are referring to the same chapter in ancient Indian history, that of the victory of Indo-Aryans over Dravidians. …
Until recently my plans of seeing Halebidu seemed jinxed. I always started with the temple in Belur and by the time I was done with Belur it was too late to see Halebidu properly. I was told that Halebidu was much more impressive than Belur, but I hadn’t had a chance to see it well until a few days ago.
A few days ago I visited the ruins of the temples in Halebidu. It was quite a sight to behold. And this, despite the fact that the temple was, in fact, incomplete, and had been vandalized by the Muslim invaders first, and the British later. Much like Belur, each carving in the temple tells a story. Each carving or sculpture deserves its own post. So I won’t even attempt to describe my entire visit in this post. I might write up separate posts for select sculptures later, but for now, I’d like to focus on the techniques used by the Hoysalas to build the temples.
