Of all the countries in the world, India has some of the finest examples of Buddhist history and heritage. One of the noteworthy sites is the sacred monastery of Bavikonda in Andhra Pradesh . It is...
There is nothing sadder to see than heritage sites being damaged by the elements or extreme events such as earthquakes or floods. However, when this damage is because of deliberate vandalism it is...
The lingam (also spelled as linga) is a sacred object in Hinduism and is a symbol that represents Shiva. The lingam is often found in temples dedicated to Shiva and is the form in which this Hindu...
The Dharma Wheel is an Ashtamangala, or one of ‘Eight Auspicious Symbols’, a set of sacred symbols found in Indian religions. Although the Dharma Wheel is found also in Hinduism and Jainism, it is...
According to Joseph Campbell (1904 – 1987), the famed U.S. American Professor of Literature who wrote extensively about comparative mythology and religion: “Myths express characters and stories that...
In the Rigveda, the ancient Indian Vedic Sanskrit canonical sacred texts, a hymn is dedicated to each deity and the goddess Saraswathi is revered as a female deity with healing and the purifying...
This is the second part of a two-part article. Read Part 1 In Plato’s Symposium (189–190 AD), Aristophanes displays knowledge of an ancient myth of the androgyne, according to which our original...
“The primitive mind does not invent myths, it experiences them.” -- Carl Jung For nearly 30 years I have returned to the famous “Sleeping Prophet” Edgar Cayce’s readings as a road map to try and...
Borobudur is one of the great monuments of Southeast Asia. It is a colossal Buddhist stupa that rises out of the rice paddies and palm trees with the nearby volcano Gunung Merapi in the distance...
Meenakshi is a goddess in the Hindu pantheon who is worshipped mainly in the southern part of India. This goddess is believed to be an avatar of the goddess Parvati, the wife of Shiva. The most...
For centuries, ancient Taxila in Punjab, modern Pakistan, was revered as a center of learning and a holy city in the Buddhist and Hindu traditions. It hosted one of the earliest institutions which...
Angkor Thom (which means ‘Great City’) was the last capital of the mighty Khmer Empire, which was based in modern day Cambodia. This typically intricately decorated Khmer city, which is located in...
Twenty-two small gold plates with divine symbols and characters have been unearthed in central Java, a large island in the Indonesian archipelago. When archaeologists went to investigate, they found...
So how did the oft-used legend of the Green Man eventually become chosen to be the legend of Jesus? Let us begin when it was the life story of the ancient Green Man and work forward to the time of...
The city of Kathmandu is today the capital of Nepal. This status, however, was only conferred on it during the 18th century. 1769 is traditionally regarded as the year that Nepal was unified by...
Over the centuries, there was a great influence of art, culture, literature, and architecture from India to Cambodia. But after a certain time, when Cambodia and India become the cultural, religious...
Southeast Asia was under Indian influence from around the 3 rd century BC until the 15th century AD, when Hindu - Buddhist influence was absorbed by local politics. India had established trade,...
A group of Indian archaeologists have discovered the ancient remains of an individual whose tomb contained a marking indicating he may have achieved the state of ‘mukthi’, a belief observed by a...
Religion has become associated with having a focus on morality. But that wasn’t always the case, researchers say. Academics have long suspected that the modern world’s major religions were born of...
The oldest of the Vedas, a large body of ancient literature and scriptures of Hinduism, the Rigveda contains poetic and mythological origin stories involving gods and their descendants. In Hindu...
The discovery of an unidentified text in Hungary has led to more than 200 years of attempts to determine who authored it and to decipher its contents. Many scholars have studied the text, known as...
A renovation of Banteay Chhmar temple in Cambodia left workers astounded after three enormous Angkorian-era statue heads were found under half a metre of soil – two intact and one broken. The heads...
The Hoysala Empire was a Southern Indian empire that existed between the 10 th and 14 th centuries A.D. This empire ruled over much of the present day state of Karnataka. Initially, the capital of...
(Read Part 1 ) Kailash Mountain is considered the residence of the Supreme, the Holy of Holies, the pillar of the Universe, the seat of the highest mind, holy for Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and...
