Few days back we reported on the discovery of a Haritika statue in Sirpur, a town in Chattisgarh state. This is a place which still has samples of Shaiva, Vaishnava, Buddhist and Jain architecture. Now a temple complex, much bigger than Nalanda has been discovered in Sirpur.
About 200 mounds, 100 Buddha vihars, four Jain vihars and more than 100 Shiva temples spread across 25 sq km were found during excavations that began in February but have had to be suspended for the monsoon.
A 1.8-metre Shivalinga, believed to be the tallest in the state, has been found during the recent excavations.
Agreeing with Sharma, Muhhamed said Sirpur gave temple architecture in India a turning point. The Laxman Temple here is one of the country
mmm,
So Sirpur redefined temple architecture in India?
Surprising. But true?
Weren’t the Mahabalipuram temples built at around the same time (Early 6th Century, AD). And I do remember that most temples in the south had the shikara, or the Vimanam as we call it.
Just a thought….I believe it would have helped much to raise awareness about Indian history and culture across the globe, if some of our cine directors such as Shekhar Kapur would spend time and effort in the lines of Troy & Alexander to showcase Indian epics and stories…It’s a pity that the literary/historical treasures such as the world’s largest epic, which still is much relevant to every day life, in my opinion, is out of reach to many in the world….At least better than making Elizabeth-II….Shekhar, are you listening? You might even get an Oscar ;)….
Ravages, I have not done much reading about various architecture styles and when they originated. But I have one blog entry on the laxman temple which says that there was a recent discovery which pushed the age of the temple to 500 AD from 650 AD.
P@L,
If you look at the success of at the Ramayana and Mahabharata TV series, you know that there is a huge market for stories from the epics. When you make movies, you don’t want them to be cartoonish like the TV series (arrows flying towards each other for couple of episodes).
There are many brilliant novels like “Randaam Oozham” (which I mentioned in my book tags) or the Krishnavatara series of KM Munshi, which can easily be made into a movie. Someone producer should have the guts to make a movie like the Passion of Christ.
Why blame Shekhar Kapur. He is being paid by British producers to make British movies. Some Indian producer has to step in and attempt this.