Early Mauryan temples discovered in Hardoi

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parijataka

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Temples are older than you think

LUCKNOW: Here is one excavation that may alter some historical facts. Chemical analysis of coins found from the site at Lal Tilai in Hardoi district is all set to begin and its result is likely to change the consensus among historians that temple construction began in India around Gupta period.

The experts from Lucknow University's Ancient Indian History (AIH) department, who undertook the excavation from May to July last, believe that they have found remains of temples that belong to Sunga period - 600 years before Guptas' advent - at the site. The analysis of coins and carbon-dating of charcol material may authenticate their claims.

The researchers cite two major findings to prove their point. The first is a twin-temple structure, found underneath a mound at the Lal Tilai.''There is clear evidence that the early apsidal temple structure belongs to the Sunga period or times prior to that,'' claims Prof DP Tewari, team leader and head of the department.

The proof is a the floor of 'parikrama' which is made of brick-jelly, he said. "The technique is quite characteristic to the Sunga period... we have also sent the charcoal materials obtained from the site for radio-carbon dating to determine the exact age of the structure," he added. The team has also recovered certain coins from the site which would give more details about the temple.

Interestingly, the site is called 'twin temple' because an octagonal temple structure was found to be superimposing an older apsidal temple. "It may be assumed that there was an older temple which was renovated by the rulers who succeeded the Sunga rulers," said Prof Tewari.

What makes the discovery of this temple more interesting is the fact that it housed a mysterious deity. "We are sure that the site was a Hindu temple... there is a proper entrance, portico, ardha mandap, mandap, transepts and a garbha griha...but we cannot claim which deity the temple housed," said Sandeep, a team member. In fact the team prefers to stay silent on the issue till they get a concrete evidence.

What gives credence to the claim of the LU team is its another discovery after an excavation in Unnao district in 2008. The structure found then in Sanchankot is said to be a Shiva temple. The team has a number of artifacts to bolster their claim. Although Lal Tilai and Sanchankot fall in different districts, the distance between the two sites is less than five kilometres.

The Shiva temple was discovered by the team in 2008. "The radio-carbon dates clearly show that the Sanchankot temple is about 2300-2400 years old. The finding becomes extremely significant knowing that the Gupta period is about 1500 years old (319 - 550 AD)," said Prof Tewari. Translating the findings in context of the Sanchankot temple, Prof Tewari and his team claims that the temple would have been constructed either in the fag-end of the Sunga period or early rulers of the Mauryan dynasty.

Excavations at the site were started about two years ago under a University Grants Commission (UGC) sponsored excavation project which began in 2004. "Many things have come to fore since we began, but this twin-temple has suddenly taken our work to new heights," explained Prof Tewari.
 

Virendra

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Great find. I will be waiting for the carbon dating results for this one.
 

drkrn

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the heart of Indian epics Mahabharata happened around 5000+ years ago and there are some proofs to them.

the discoveries of these kind will form additional proofs that our country had an excellent culture and architecture when many countries are struggling to stand
 

warriorextreme

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Most of the sunga period temples were built after destroying budhist stupas by vandalising buddha idols into some or other deity which did not exist prior to that period.
 

warriorextreme

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Some links please.
During those times Brihadrata was king of Mauryan dynasty and Pushyamitra Sunga was a general in his army...Mauryan kings were highly biased towards Buddhism and turned a blind eye towards Miniander a greek who converted to Buddhism and accepted Milinda as a his new name (Read Milindapanha)

This act of Miniander aka Milinda was actually a way to mask his soldiers who were hiding in the stupas which were located at what would now be pakistan...

This outraged Pushyamitra Sunga and during a parade he murdered brihadrata then he carried out destruction of many stupas including Sanchi Stupa (not because of religious hatred but because of Minianders soldiers hiding inside)

It is also mentioned in Buddhist text Divyadana....

The reason I said he did not do this for religious hatred is because he also rebuilt Sanchi Stupa and erected many buddhists monastries during his rule and so did his successor Agnimitra...
 

Shaitan

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This act of Miniander aka Milinda was actually a way to mask his soldiers who were hiding in the stupas which were located at what would now be pakistan...

Stupas are solid structures made out of brick. And they're not really big, especially the ones made back then. So you're barely going to fit any soldiers in there if it was hollow.
 

parijataka

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During those times Brihadrata was king of Mauryan dynasty and Pushyamitra Sunga was a general in his army...Mauryan kings were highly biased towards Buddhism and turned a blind eye towards Miniander a greek who converted to Buddhism and accepted Milinda as a his new name (Read Milindapanha)

This act of Miniander aka Milinda was actually a way to mask his soldiers who were hiding in the stupas which were located at what would now be pakistan...

This outraged Pushyamitra Sunga and during a parade he murdered brihadrata then he carried out destruction of many stupas including Sanchi Stupa (not because of religious hatred but because of Minianders soldiers hiding inside)

It is also mentioned in Buddhist text Divyadana....

The reason I said he did not do this for religious hatred is because he also rebuilt Sanchi Stupa and erected many buddhists monastries during his rule and so did his successor Agnimitra...
Thanks for the explanation
 

MAYURA

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Most of the sunga period temples were built after destroying budhist stupas by vandalising buddha idols into some or other deity which did not exist prior to that period.
Since this is defense forum and indians are not known to be great in history, I refrain from going deep nut a short info

There was no buddha idol before kushana period which is some 200 years after the demise of sunga period.

Sungas lavishly patronizing buddhist stupas is a fact but hardcore buddhists can not accept that.


I need acaedemic paper for your claims not some pseudoscholar who is hailing from some dalit or muslim website.
 

MAYURA

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During those times Brihadrata was king of Mauryan dynasty and Pushyamitra Sunga was a general in his army...Mauryan kings were highly biased towards Buddhism and turned a blind eye towards Miniander a greek who converted to Buddhism and accepted Milinda as a his new name (Read Milindapanha)

This act of Miniander aka Milinda was actually a way to mask his soldiers who were hiding in the stupas which were located at what would now be pakistan...

This outraged Pushyamitra Sunga and during a parade he murdered brihadrata then he carried out destruction of many stupas including Sanchi Stupa (not because of religious hatred but because of Minianders soldiers hiding inside)

It is also mentioned in Buddhist text Divyadana....

The reason I said he did not do this for religious hatred is because he also rebuilt Sanchi Stupa and erected many buddhists monastries during his rule and so did his successor Agnimitra...

Buddhist text divyadana is not reliable as it tells us that Pushyamitra announced dinar on head of every buddhist monk but a divine buddhist monk created fake heads and got the reward.

no sane person can accept that story.



Dozens of archaeologists have worked on sanchi stupa and none have found any sign of break during Pushyamitra reign.


the idea of Pushyamitra killing buddhist monks is borrowed from a buddhist unreliable book Divyadana and then it was taken up by a quasi historian Savarkar who gave it nationalistic colour like Internationalist buddhist versus nationalist hindus.
The same savarkar who urged hindus to eat beef to defeat muslims.


Menander was repulsed by Pushyamitra, that is a historical fact but nothing more than that is known and when did Menander reach sanchi in Madhya Pradesh?



I got this from wiki


Menander I Soter "The Saviour" (known as Milinda in Indian Pali sources) was the Indo-Greek king (165/[2]/155[2] BC-130 BC) who established a large empire in the South Asia and became a patron of Buddhism

look man he started ruling from 165 bc whereas Pushyamitra killed brihadratha in 180s bc.

you are pushing his date and that too based on imaginative stories.
 

warriorextreme

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Buddhist text divyadana is not reliable as it tells us that Pushyamitra announced dinar on head of every buddhist monk but a divine buddhist monk created fake heads and got the reward.

no sane person can accept that story.



Dozens of archaeologists have worked on sanchi stupa and none have found any sign of break during Pushyamitra reign.


the idea of Pushyamitra killing buddhist monks is borrowed from a buddhist unreliable book Divyadana and then it was taken up by a quasi historian Savarkar who gave it nationalistic colour like Internationalist buddhist versus nationalist hindus.
The same savarkar who urged hindus to eat beef to defeat muslims.


Menander was repulsed by Pushyamitra, that is a historical fact but nothing more than that is known and when did Menander reach sanchi in Madhya Pradesh?



I got this from wiki





look man he started ruling from 165 bc whereas Pushyamitra killed brihadratha in 180s bc.

you are pushing his date and that too based on imaginative stories.
I know divyadana is unreliable and even Romila Thapar has agreed to this...

Savarkar was more inclined towards Buddhism than so called Hinduism at his time..( Read Sanyasta Khadag based on life of Buddha written by Savarkar)

Menander started ruling from 165 BC and his capital was todays sialkot...He had ambitions to invade Mauryan empire on his western border and Brihadrata had no idea about this hence Sunga had to murder him..

There has to be some explanation as to how once the largest religion in India disappeared without any historical facts....Adi shankaracharya and Pushyamitra Sunga seem to be the catalysts for this..
 

warriorextreme

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Since this is defense forum and indians are not known to be great in history, I refrain from going deep nut a short info

There was no buddha idol before kushana period which is some 200 years after the demise of sunga period.

Sungas lavishly patronizing buddhist stupas is a fact but hardcore buddhists can not accept that.


I need acaedemic paper for your claims not some pseudoscholar who is hailing from some dalit or muslim website.
First image of Buddha is as old as 100 BC from Kushana period Coin



There is no historical evidences of this but a religion does not disappear overnight from it's birthplace...
We know how islam spread in world by uprooting local religions but there is no significant mention as to how Buddhism disappeared from India..
 

MAYURA

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I know divyadana is unreliable and even Romila Thapar has agreed to this...
If you know it to be pure chandukhana ka gappa which it is really so far as history is concerned, why did you mention it in the first place?

this is typical of anti hindu bloggers who when confronted with evidence take a u turn.

Romila thapar is not my authority on this.



Savarkar was more inclined towards Buddhism than so called Hinduism at his time..( Read Sanyasta Khadag based on life of Buddha written by Savarkar)
straw man argument. I did not talk about savarkar and doctrine of buddhism instead i talked on his fantasy ( though not entirely baseless ) of nationalist hindus versus internationalist buddhists.

the story you mentioned about Pushyamitra, menander and Brihadartha is the projection of that beef eating degraded brahmin Savarkar.

this was what he wrote


The reaction against universal tendencies of Buddhism only grew more insistent and powerful as the attempt to re-establish the Buddhist power in India began to assume a more threatening attitude. Nationalist tendencies refused to barter with our national independence and accept a foreign conqueror as our overlord. But if that foreigner happened to be favourably inclined towards Buddhism, then he was sure to find some secret sympathisers among the Indian Buddhists all over India, even as Catholic Spain could always find some important section in England to restore a Catholic dynasty in England. Not only this but dark hints abound in our ancient records to show that at times some foreign Buddhistic powers had actually invaded India with an express national and religious aim in view

Menander started ruling from 165 BC and his capital was todays sialkot...He had ambitions to invade Mauryan empire on his western border and Brihadrata had no idea about this hence Sunga had to murder him..
I have been warned by mods to not use bold lettered post but for your benefit, i repeat it again.

Menander started ruling in 165 bc whereas the mauryan brihadaratha was gone by 185 bc


There has to be some explanation as to how once the largest religion in India disappeared without any historical facts....Adi shankaracharya and Pushyamitra Sunga seem to be the catalysts for this
are you aware of what you are writing?

pushyamitra responsible for nastika mat disappearence?

buddhism became strong in india only after sunga age so how come a starting king of sunga dynasty finished it off?


Shankara had little role to play in buddhist disappearence as he was born at a time when barring Palas, no royal house of india was buddhist. and buddhism continued to flourish in Pala domain even after shankaracharya.


buddhism since 300 ad was on decline and by 800 ad, it had been relegated to Magadha region.



Be happy if it satisfies that buddhism was once largest religion in india because actually apart from some urban folks it was never popular.


Buddhism was as much popular as modern day anti hindu secularism is

dominating the intellectual horizon with help of foreign agents but lacking any base in soil of the land.
 
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MAYURA

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First image of Buddha is as old as 100 BC from Kushana period Coin



There is no historical evidences of this but a religion does not disappear overnight from it's birthplace...
We know how islam spread in world by uprooting local religions but there is no significant mention as to how Buddhism disappeared from India..

Kushan period in 100 bc? a massive error.

I repeat it there is no buddha representation before christian times and you can check Susan L huttington for this.

she is an expert on religious art of india and unlike your fashionable intellectuals is not anti hindu.



2. Buddhism did not disappear overnight but its decline started from 180 ad when even kushanas left this religion and by 800 ad( when shankaracharya was born) , it had become a lost cause . there was no royal house anywhere in India ( including gandhara ) of buddhist beliefs except Palas who too were heavily brahmanized.
 

MAYURA

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About that coin, one can see Bodo written in greek script.

anyone who has read some good books on indian history knows that kushanas called buddha as sakyamuni boddo so coin is of post 50 ad timeperiod.
 

TrueSpirit

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First image of Buddha is as old as 100 BC from Kushana period Coin



There is no historical evidences of this but a religion does not disappear overnight from it's birthplace...
We know how islam spread in world by uprooting local religions but there is no significant mention as to how Buddhism disappeared from India..
Multiple factors in tandem: Facing the full onslaught of Islamic invasions (Arab,Turk, Central-Asian origin), the dominant & peace-nik religion bore the brunt; particularly, their presence being more concentrated in Northern India. While the more de-centralized & geographically diffused Hindu-ism had a Renaissance of sorts, partial credit goes to the impact of Bhakti-like movements. Shaiva, Vaishnav, Shakt, Tantrik & similar traditions had deeper roots among the masses. Oh come on, I do not see any suspense here. It is mentioned all over the history text-books :thumb:
 
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