The Little Princess

Saturday, April 9, 2016

H for Heritage

Welcome to the "Believe it or Not- That's Incredible India!" series. India is home to some of the most astonishing wonders in the world. The rich culture, heritage, food, scriptures, architectural marvels and scores of known and unknown facts come together to create this multicolored melange that is India. Throughout this month, read about the various believe it or not facts about India and know what goes into the making of this incredible country!

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The UNESCO has listed 981 world heritage sites in the world. Of these 32 sites are in India. We have heard and probably visited the most famous of these heritage sites like the Khajuraho temples, the Taj Mahal, Fatehpur Sikri, the Agra Fort, Jantar Mantar, Bodh Gaya, Red Fort, Qutub Minar, Humayun’s Tomb, Elephanta, Ajanta and Ellora caves, The stupa at Sanchi, and the temple ruins at Hampi.

A lot of national parks and sanctuaries make it to the list too. The Great Himalayan national park, Western ghats, Sunderbans national park, Nanda Devi and the Valley of flowers, Keoladeo national park, Manas wildlife sanctuary, and the Kaziranga wildlife sanctuary are the ones that have made it to the list.

And then there are lesser known UNESCO sites like Mahabalipuram, Chola temples at Brihadeshvara, The Churches of Goa , Pattadakal, Rani ki Vav, the Mountain railways of India, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, the rock shelters of Bhimbetka, the hill forts of Rajasthan, and the Champaner archeological park.

Each of these places is unique in its own way, displaying stunning architectural details, sculptures that take your breath away and beauty that is unparalleled making every one of these places a worthy member of the prestigious list. Here’s one such UNESCO site that will leave you agape in wonder.

The Konark Sun temple-

The Konark sun temple on the eastern coast of Odisha is nothing short of a marvel! The temple as the name indicates the temple is dedicated to the Sun God – Surya, and is designed in the shape of a massive chariot with twelve pairs of wheels drawn by seven horses. The Kalinga architecture is amazing, but what is truly a scientific marvel are the wheels. Mind you, these are no ordinary wheels, they can tell the time – precisely to the minute! They are Konark’s prestigious Sundials!

How does one tell time at Konark?

The wheel is divided by sixteen spokes, eight thick ones and eight thin ones. The distance between two thick spokes is three hours. And the distance between a thin spoke and a thick spoke is one and a half hour. At the circumference of the wheel are small beads placed closely. Between a thick spoke and a thin spoke, there are 30 beads. So each bead corresponds to 3 minutes. Each bead can be further divided into three parts and that is how you can tell time precisely to the minute!

All you have to do is, place your finger on the center of the wheel and see where the shadow falls. That shows the exact time. The wheel shows time in an anti-clockwise direction.

What’s also amazing is the presence of iron plates between every two stones used to build the main sanctum. A 52-ton magnet was used to create the peak to hold the structure in place.

The temple also had a diamond positioned in the middle of the idol in such a way that the sun’s rays would get reflected by the diamond and fall on the idol. During the colonial rule, the magnets, and the diamond were removed.

Believe it or not - That's Incredible India!

Friday, April 8, 2016

G for Games

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Did you know that many of games that we play today originated in India? The most famous of them is the game of Chess. Chess was being played in India almost 3000 years ago and was called Chatur-anga – meaning four members of an army perhaps referring to the four armies used in the game – horse, camel, elephant and foot soldiers. Apparently, when a clan established new settlements, the game was used to allocate land between clan members!

And then there's the most loved game of Snakes and Ladders. Haven't we all enjoyed playing this as kids? Well, this game was invented in India too. It was known as ‘Moksha Patam’, and was invented to teach the lesson of karma to children. It taught them how one is punished for wrong-doing and rewarded for goodness as well as the concept of fate. What an innovative to teach such complicated lessons to kids!

Source

The game of cards also originated in India. It was called ‘Kridapatram’. It was a pack of 12 cards each containing a king and 11 subjects. A pack contained a king and his 11 subjects and a general and his 11 men. One set of cards was Ashavpati – lord of horses featuring a king on horseback and the Senapati (general) on horseback. Another set would be Gajapati –king on elephant and Senapati on elephant. Similar cards like Narapati – king of the infantry, Dhanpati – king of treasures, Dalapati – king of the squadron, Navpati- king of the navy, Surapati- king of the divine forces, Asrapati- king of the spirits, Vanapati- king of the forest, Ahipati- king of the snakes, so on and so forth were popular cards. All of them had respective set of 11 cards of Senapati or General.

The game of playing cards was probably invented by sages in ancient times who made a set of 12 cards - every king had 11 followers, thus a pack had 144 cards. The Mughals retained 12 sets having 96 cards. They called it Ganjifa and their sets represented different trades like Nakkash – the painter, Mujallid – the book binder, Rangrez -the dyer, etc. In addition there were also the Badshah-i-Qimash - king of the manufacturers and Badshah-izar-i-Safid - king of silver, etc.

Interesting isn’t it?

Believe it or not- That’s Incredible India!

Thursday, April 7, 2016

F for Faith

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India is a country of many faiths. Did you know that there are more than 24 lakh places of worship in India?! Also, did you know that the four popular faiths which are cumulatively followed by over 25% of the world’s population – Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism - originated in India?

Hinduism is one of the world’s oldest faiths and is said have originated about 4000 years ago in India. What is unique to Hinduism is there’s neither a founder of the faith nor an exact date of origin and yet it is the third largest followed faith in the world with about 900 million followers! About 80% of the country’s population are followers of Hinduism.

Jainism originated in 600 BC, Buddhism in 500 BC and Sikhism in 1500 CE.

Other than these four faiths that originated in India, there are numerous other faiths that are followed here.

Islam is India's and the world's second largest religion. There are more than 3 lakh mosques in India which is higher than the number of mosques in any other country including the Muslim world.

Judaism came to India in 200 BC and Christianity in 52 AD. There are more than 5000 churches in India and the oldest European church in India dates back to the 15^th century.

The Zoroastrians or Parses as they are called are Iranian descendents who immigrated to India in 7^th century AD.

India is therefore known as a spiritual land where everyone is free to practice their own faith. Isn’t it amazing that India is virtually a beautiful kaleidoscope of various faiths that make its culture and heritage diverse and yet so rich and magnificent?

Perhaps that is why Max Mueller famously said, “If I were asked under what sky the human mind has most fully developed some of its choicest gifts, has most deeply pondered on the greatest problems of life, and has found solutions, I should point to India.”

Believe it or not – That’s Incredible India!

Wednesday, April 6, 2016

E for Engineering Marvels

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India is full of engineering marvels that stand as a testimony to the knowledge of science and architecture held by ancient Indians. The amazing symmetry of the Taj Mahal never ceases to hold us captive. The Iron Pillar of Mehrauli is another blazing example; the art of creating a rust-free iron pillar that has withstood rain, wind and heat without degrading is a fine example of the ancient knowledge of alchemy. There are many such brilliant examples! Let me take you through one ancient and one recent engineering marvel.

The Rama Sethu-

The Valmiki Ramayan describes the construction of a bridge built between Rameshwaram, the southernmost tip of India to SriLanka by Lord Rama’s monkey brigade - the ‘vanar sena’. The bridge was said to have been built using stones that floated on water and were stuck to each other without the use of mortar or any kind of glue. This ‘Rama Sethu’ or the bridge built by Lord Rama in 5076 BCE is nothing short of an engineering marvel! How can stone float on water?

Scientists have since long tried to find out the secret of the floating stones which are found in Rameshwaram even today. The stones were initially thought to be Pumice stones but the black colour of the stones is very different as compared to the cream colored Pumice stones. The stones are also heavier. Also, the region has no volcanic eruptions and hence the availability of pumice stones in that region was very unlikely too. Some believed the stones were actually due to coral formation, but coral is made of calcium carbonate which is too dense to float on water. There’s no rational explanation about the floating stones yet.

For now, all we know is the bridge does exist (it’s even visible from space!) though there’s no clue what stone was used to build it and what kind of technology helped them build a 30 km long bridge on water. But it definitely looks like some kind of engineering marvel we aren’t aware of yet!

Bandra-Worli Sea Link-

Talking of bridges, the current day Bandra-Worli sea link is no less an engineering marvel itself! This 5.6 kms long bridge made commuting between Bandra and Worli easier and faster saving money and man hours. The eight lane bridge is almost as high as a 43-storied building. It took 2,57,00,000 man hours and 2,250 km of high strength galvanized steel wires to complete this 20,000 ton, two-cable stayed structure which weighs as much as 50,000 African elephants – a true engineering marvel!

Believe it or not- That’s Incredible India!

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

D for Doctor

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The knowledge of medicine and surgery in India dates back to around 800 BC and the ‘doctor’ to whom most of the earliest performed surgeries have been credited is Shusruta. He wrote the Shusruta Samahita which is considered the oldest treatise dealing with surgery.

Shusruta is credited with having performed various complicated surgical procedures, and he was considered to be an expert in plastic surgery of the nose- rhinoplasty, and cataract removal.

In his book, Shusruta details the human anatomy and describes the procedure to perform these surgeries. What's amazing is that the procedure of performing these surgeries explained in explicit detail by Shusruta are strikingly similar to the surgeries performed today!

Shusruta described the procedure of surgery documenting how to perform an incision (cheda), scarification (lehkya), puncturing (vedhya), exploration (esya), extraction ( ahrya) , evacuation ( vsraya), and finally the art of suturing (sivya). He also detailed how a dead body can be preserved and later be used for studying the anatomy. How did he have so much knowledge?

Charaka (200BC) was another important doctor who contributed to the fields of physiology, etiology, and embryology. He wrote the Charaka Samahita which had descriptions of 2000 medicines and cures for almost every part of the human body!

That's not all! There are ancient sculptures dating back to these times which show the various representation of surgical procedures and anatomy. An example is that of a sculpture of a pregnant woman; the belly cut in half to expose the fetus inside the womb, and showing the layers of the skin, the position of the fetus and the connecting cord in excruciating detail! How cool is that!!

Isn’t it amazing to know that the knowledge of medicine and surgery was known in India long before it was known in the modern world?

Believe it or not- That’s Incredible India!