A 4500-year-old seal from the Indus Valley Civilisation shows a human figure grasping two lions. Known as the ‘Master of Animals’ motif, this enigmatic
Tucked away near Bhubaneswar lies one of India’s most mysterious temples, Hirapur’s Chausath Yogini Temple. This circular, roofless shrine, built in the 9th century,
What happened to Kalinga after its devastating war with Ashoka? Did Buddhism simply sweep across the region?
A 2000-year-old inscription offers some fascinating clues.
At Rakhigarhi in Haryana, archaeologists uncovered the 4500-year-old skeleton of a middle-aged woman from the Harappan period. Scientists recovered ancient DNA from her remains;
A 4500-year-old seal from the Indus Valley Civilisation shows a human figure grasping two lions. Known as the ‘Master of Animals’ motif, this enigmatic figure appears in different forms across cultures and over many centuries, stretching from Egypt to Mesopotamia. What did this image represent? And how did cultures separated by thousands of kilometres come to adopt such a strikingly similar icon?
Tucked away near Bhubaneswar lies one of India’s most mysterious temples, Hirapur’s Chausath Yogini Temple. This circular, roofless shrine, built in the 9th century, is dedicated to 64 Yoginis; powerful female deities associated with Tantric traditions. The temple is lined with intricately carved Yogini figures, and offers a rare glimpse into a lesser-known spiritual world.
What happened to Kalinga after its devastating war with Ashoka? Did Buddhism simply sweep across the region?
A 2000-year-old inscription offers some fascinating clues. Carved into the walls of the Udayagiri-Khadagiri Caves in Odisha, the Hathigumpha inscription tells the remarkable story of King Kharavela, a powerful ruler who emerged in Kalinga centuries after Ashoka’s conquest.
At Rakhigarhi in Haryana, archaeologists uncovered the 4500-year-old skeleton of a middle-aged woman from the Harappan period. Scientists recovered ancient DNA from her remains; the first successful genome from a Harappan individual. What makes this discovery significant, and what does it tell us about the ancestry of Indians?
An ancient pillar that has been worshipped for centuries.
And a Greek ambassador who declared himself a devotee of Vasudeva.
Around the 2nd century BCE, Heliodorus, an ambassador from the Indo-Greek kingdom, erected a pillar at Besnagar in central India. Its Brahmi inscription identifies him as a devotee of Vasudeva. The Heliodorus Pillar at Vidisha offers a fascinating glimpse into the cultural exchanges that shaped ancient India.
In the rock-cut shrines of the Udayagiri Caves in Madhya Pradesh sits a sculpture often described as the earliest datable image of Ganesha in India today. An inscription at the cave entrance dates the monument to 401 CE, when king Chandragupta II reigned.
A casket within a casket… within another. Buried beneath centuries of earth at Lalitgiri, archaeologists uncovered a remarkable series of nested caskets in 1985. At their center lay a tiny gold reliquary containing relics believed to be those of the Buddha himself! It is one of the most significant Buddhist discoveries in India.
He pioneered the Indo-Saracenic style or architecture and built grand landmarks across India. And yet, he did not trust his own designs and never saw his finest creation completed. This is the story of Maj. Charles Mant and his masterpiece - the Lakshmi Vilas Palace at Vadodara, the world’s largest private residence.
What’s common to the Torii of Japan, China’s Paifang and Korea’s Honsalmun? All these ceremonial gates have a shared inspiration - the toranas of the Sanchi Stupa in Madhya Pradesh. In the 1st c. BCE, the Satavahas built these magnificent gateways, inviting donors to sponsor panels on them. Their names are still inscribed on the railings around the stupa.
Beneath the palaces of Gwalior Fort lies one of the most dreaded prisons of medieval India. Here, princes vanished and rivals were erased from politics. This was the prison that secured Aurangzeb the Mughal throne.
