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Jaisalmer Fort.

Jaisalmer Fort: The Imposing Desert Fort With a Bone-Chilling Custom

Sitting in the desert with its towering golden-hued walls and imposing bastions, the 12th century Jaisalmer Fort certainly makes an impact. This fort has two important titles - the oldest desert fort...
Kailasa Temple: How Was This Massive Hindu Temple Carved out of a Single Rock?

Kailasa Temple: How Was This Massive Hindu Temple Carved out of a Single Rock?

The Kailasa Temple has been dubbed as ‘Cave 16’ of the Ellora Caves, and is notable for being the largest monolithic structure in the world that was carved out of a single piece of rock. Apart from...
What Role Did Skepticism Play in the Conquests of Alexander the Great?

What Role Did Skepticism Play in the Conquests of Alexander the Great?

Anaxarchus and Pyrrho. These are two names which are not as well known to the general public as those of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Yet these men are no less important. While the latter three...
Asokan pillar at Vaishali, Bihar, India.

Beautiful Dynastic Artistry Shaped the Face of Modern India

Centuries removed from the prehistoric Indus Valley Region, the Mauryan and Kushan dynasties are among the most significant cultural and artistic regimes in Indian history. The prominence of the...
Ayurvedic medicine. Indian Watercolour: 'Man of the Medical caste, masseuse’.

Ancient Text Prescribing Ways to Conceive a Baby Boy Included in New University Textbook in India

A new university textbook in India has included a controversial, ancient recipe that supposedly formulates a sure way to conceive a boy. The text encourages women who want to conceive a boy to find...
A photo inside the Sunland Big Baobab.

Fancy Sipping a Pint in a 1700-Year-Old Tree? You Can at The Baobab Tree Bar

The Sunland Big Baobab is a bar nestled inside the hollow of a baobab tree. This bar is located on the Sunland Farm in South Africa. As baobabs begin to hollow on the inside as they age, empty...
A Sri Lankan version of the urumi, with multiple blades.

A Flexible and Deadly Blade: The Dangerous Urumi

The urumi (which may be literally translated as ‘curling blade’,) is a type of weapon from India. This weapon is known also as ‘surul vaal’, which means ‘spring sword’). As its name suggests, this...
Art Relics Shed Light on Mysterious Ancient Civilization

Art Relics Shed Light on Mysterious Ancient Civilization

A society still silent and secreted beneath the earth of the Himalayas, the earliest civilization associated with Hindu/Indian art history is the Indus Valley Civilization (IVC). This society is...
An Ancient Australian Connection to India?

An Ancient Australian Connection to India?

Darren Curnoe / The Conversation When was the remote Australian continent first settled? Where did these ancient Australians come from? Was the island settled once, or on multiple occasions? Is there...
Countless Devotees Are Drawn to It, What Makes the Kanchi Kailasanathar Temple So Special?

Countless Devotees Are Drawn to It, What Makes the Kanchi Kailasanathar Temple So Special?

Kanchi Kailasanathar Temple is a beautiful Hindu temple located in Kanchipuram (known also as Kanchi), a city in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. This magnificent temple is claimed to be the...
From the same 1429 Persian manuscript. Sañjīvaka/Schanzabeh.

What Pearls of Wisdom are Held in the Animal Tales of the Panchatantra?

The Panchatantra (which means the ‘Five Principles’ in Sanskrit) is a collection of interwoven short stories from India. The tales in the Panchatantra are told in both prose and poetry, and consist...
Kumbhalgarh: The Great Wall You Have Never Heard Of (and it is NOT in China)

Kumbhalgarh: The Great Wall You Have Never Heard Of (and it is NOT in China)

The wall that encircles the ancient fort of Kumbhalgarh is one of the biggest secrets in India, and possibly the entire planet. Guarding a massive fort that contains over 300 ancient temples, the...
India to Build Immense Statue, Twice the Size of the Statue of Liberty, of Medieval King Shivaji

India to Build Immense Statue, Twice the Size of the Statue of Liberty, of Medieval King Shivaji

India intends to construct the world's tallest statue . The massive construct is meant to honor a medieval King named Shivaji. Once completed, the gigantic structure is expected to be twice the size...
Fun for Everyone: The Evolving History of Board Games

Fun for Everyone: The Evolving History of Board Games

The delightful hobby of playing games isn't a modern invention. While people in ancient times didn't have Pokemon Go to entertain themselves, they still spent hours of fun games both inside and...
The Diwali Festival of Lights: A Celebration of Freedom and Good Triumphing over Evil

The Diwali Festival of Lights: A Celebration of Freedom and Good Triumphing over Evil

Diwali / Deepavali is also known as the Festival of Lights (the name of this festival may be literally translated from Sanskrit as rows of lights) , and is one of the most well-known and important...
Ancient Observatory

Scientists Discover that Megalithic Site in India is Oldest Ancient Observatory in South Asia

A remarkable 7,000-year-old megalithic site that served as an astronomical observatory has been found in Muduma village in Telangana, India. The discovery has been hailed as one of the most...
The Birth of Arthashastra: Ancient Handbook of Science of Politics in India, and Those Who Wielded It

The Birth of Arthashastra: Ancient Handbook of Science of Politics in India, and Those Who Wielded It

In 1904, a copy of an ancient book which had been lost for more than 1400 years was discovered in India. A modest book written on palm leaves, its outward appearance was proven to be deceiving as the...
Tughlaqabad Fort and the Curse of a Sufi Mystic

Tughlaqabad Fort and the Curse of a Sufi Mystic

Tughlaqabad Fort is a medieval stronghold located in Delhi, India. The fort was built during the 14 th century, and once served as a symbol of the might and power of the Tughlaq Dynasty, a Muslim...
Hanuman and Ravana in Tholu Bommalata, the shadow puppet tradition of Andhra Pradesh, India.

The Ancient Beginnings of the Art of Shadow Puppetry

In his Republic, Plato mentions a cave in India with an inscription from the second century BCE. The inscription refers to a shadow play performance where puppets of humans and animals were...
A painting depicting a scene from the Chinese classic, Journey to the West. The painting shows the four heros of the story, left to right: Sun Wukong, Xuanzang, Zhu Wuneng, and Sha Wujing.

The Monk and the Poet: Meet the Rebels behind the Legendary “Journey to the West”

Hsi-yu chi , or Journey to the West, is a Chinese novel published in the 16th century, during the Ming Dynasty. The novel adds elements from a bewildering array of Asian cultural lore, as well as...
Aztec burial of a sacrificed child at Tlatelolco

Bizarre Rituals of Blood and Death That Are Rooted in the Ancient World

Throughout history, there are many rituals that individuals and groups participate in which could be considered strange or unusual by others. The following is a short overview of some of the uncanny...
Illustration of the Flor de la Mar

The Lost Treasure of Flor de la Mar, Flower of the Sea

The Flor de la Mar or Flor do Mar (meaning Flower of the Sea ) was a Portuguese carrack of 400 tons that sailed the seas during the early 1500s. This ship was carrying a great amount of treasure when...
Pleasure, Procreation, and Punishment: Shocking Facts about Sex and Marriage in the Ancient World

Pleasure, Procreation, and Punishment: Shocking Facts about Sex and Marriage in the Ancient World

Much of what is considered normal in the present day might have been seen as shocking in the past and vice versa. This idea applies to many of the aspects of daily life, including customs related to...

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