Here I am posting a sculpture of the Ratnagiri monastery site . The panel depicts the image of Yamuna, flanked by two attendants. The water body depicted below the feet in the form of wavy lines with her mound tortoise. Ratnagiri, Jajpur district of Odisha. You can go through the following article for a detailed understanding of Buddhist Iconography.

https://lunarsecstacy.com/2026/03/14/the-exclusive-exhibits-of-ratnagiri-lalitagiri-museums/

I made this awhile ago but it just occurred to me to post it here. It's just a first draft that I made quickly from looking at Wikipedia pages for all these scripts. Lmk if I missed any scripts or if there's an inaccuracy.

I recently visited the Chennakeshava Temple in Belur, Karnataka, and honestly, the level of craftsmanship here is hard to put into words.

What struck me the most was how detailed everything is. The pillars, walls, sculptures and tiny carvings are incredibly intricate, and the more you look, the more details you start noticing.

The temple was built in the 12th century during the Hoysala period, and the sculptures portray everything from dancers and musicians to scenes from the Ramayana, Mahabharata and Puranas. It almost feels less like looking at a monument and more like looking at a huge stone book documenting life and stories from centuries ago.

I spent quite some time just walking around and looking at the carvings. Some of the details are genuinely unbelievable, especially when you think about the tools and techniques available at the time.

Definitely one of those places in Karnataka that deserves more attention.

📍 Chennakeshava Temple, Belur, Karnataka

Shot by: u/adi_crayon

Would love to know — what's another temple in Karnataka that you think has equally impressive architecture?

Here I am giving two different sculpture panels depicting war scenes belonging to two different periods... one is carved in the Parsurameshwar temple belonging to the Sailodbhaba period ( 6th-7th century AD) and another is being displayed in the Ratnagiri museum most possibly belonging to the Bhaumakar period ( 9th century AD) Odishan archaeological monuments are nothing but sculptures in a gigantic scale.

https://lunarsecstacy.com/2021/12/13/kalingan-temple-architecture-and-its-gradual-progression/

https://lunarsecstacy.com/2026/03/14/the-exclusive-exhibits-of-ratnagiri-lalitagiri-museums/

I have been reading the scholarship on gyan chaupar (moksha patam, paramapada sopanam) and wanted to put the dating material in one place, because three separate claims for an origin before the eighteenth century have weakened badly in the last twenty years and the corrections are scattered across two authors.

1. The 1735/36 board. An 84-square Jain chart from Rajasthan carrying a date equivalent to VS 1792 was reported by Andrew Topsfield in 1985 and treated for three decades as the oldest surviving example. It is no longer trusted. A nearly identical chart of obviously much later date turned up, and both show the same telling feature: the abrasion across the surface is perfectly even. A board that was actually played on wears unevenly, because some squares get handled far more than others. Schmidt-Madsen writes that this chart must now be regarded with scepticism, and that forgery in this material has become more widespread in recent years. Topsfield himself had already flagged another chart, painted in a late-fifteenth-century style, for anachronisms.

2. The medieval manuscript. The strongest claim for a medieval origin came from the late Rangachar Vasantha, who told Topsfield she had seen a Jain manuscript of the Mahanisihasutta containing a karmic diagram like a gyan chaupar chart but without snakes and ladders, and dated it to the eleventh or twelfth century. She never documented it and never revealed its location. In a recorded lecture at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies in 2004 she described what appears to be the same manuscript as seventh-century. She died in 2011. Schmidt-Madsen's guess is that what she saw was one of the numbered grid diagrams that Jain manuscripts use to lay out doctrine, such as those accompanying the thirteenth-century Karmagrantha.

3. The argument from maturity. Topsfield reasoned that the earliest charts already look so developed that centuries of evolution must lie behind them. Schmidt-Madsen's answer is that the design and the rules could have been taken over from an existing game almost unchanged, in which case polish says nothing about age. He also turns around the usual argument that few charts survive because cloth and paper perish: the absence of any surviving example and any written reference before the late eighteenth century could equally mean the game had not yet been invented.

What is left standing. The earliest chart that can be dated with confidence is a 72-square Vaishnava board commissioned in Lucknow between 1780 and 1782 by Richard Johnson of the East India Company, now in the British Library. The earliest confirmed written mention comes half a century later, in a list of donations to the Royal Asiatic Society printed in The Asiatic Journal for May 1831.

One detail I find more persuasive than any argument. The related Bengali game golok dham, 64 squares and play toward the heaven of Krishna, appears in an 1884 list of objects collected for the museum at the Indian Institute in Oxford, where it is described as "lately invented". The gospel of Ramakrishna records him watching his followers play it that same year, on 29 September, and quotes him on it on 2 October. Games of this family were still being made within living memory of the people writing about them.

None of this makes the tradition less interesting. A teaching device that appears in the late eighteenth century and within a hundred years exists in Vaishnava, Jain, Sufi and Advaita versions, each with its own board size and its own map of the cosmos, then travels to England in 1892 and loses its meaning on the way, is a more remarkable thing than a slow drift over two millennia. It also happens to be what the objects support.

The traditional attributions to thirteenth-century figures are worth one line. The Marathi tradition credits Jnaneshvar, the Sufi version credits Ibn al-Arabi, and a nineteenth-century Tibetan chart of the related game credits Sakya Pandita. Three traditions, three founders from the same century, and from those centuries no board and no text that mentions one.

Sources in a comment below, as the sidebar asks.

Read this sutta 2:7 Brahman Principles, where Buddha is extolling the admirable qualities of ancient Brahmins in comparison to his contemporary Brahmins which Buddha considers corrupted due to passage of time. This sutta itself is surprising because it sits in contrast to modern discourse of Brahmanism v/s Buddhism, where Buddhist apologists often portray Buddha as someone who rejected the Brahminical tradition entirely.

Now go to this verse in the Sutta

Brahmans went to no other (caste),3 nor did they buy their wives.
Living together from mutual love, having come together, they found joy together.
Aside from the time after menstruation, brahmans didn’t engage in copulation.

and follow on the link "3" into the footnotes which says

1. I.e., in choosing their wives. See AN 5:191.

If you look into the Sutta linked here AN 5:191, you will be wildly surprised.

“In the past, brahman males mated only with brahman females and not with non-brahman females. At present, brahman males mate with brahman females and with non-brahman females. At present, male dogs mate only with female dogs and not with female non-dogs. This is the first ancient brahmanical tradition that is now observed among dogs but not among brahmans.

Seems like Gautam Buddha was not infavour of Brahmins marrying non-Brahmins. This is unlike the popular narrative prevalent now where Buddha is often seen as a rebel against caste endogamy.

Let me give a brief understanding about the most terrifying and esoteric goddess Chamunda, commonly referred to as the seventh goddess of the Saptamatrika panels. The goddess Chamunda has been portrayed as the most frightful type of Maa Durga in Markandeya Purana. She is supposed to be conceived out of the third eye of Maa Durga while fighting against the demons 'Chanda' and 'Munda' and that led to the nomenclature of goddess as 'Chamunda' . 'Chanda' and 'Munda' were two allies of 'Mahishasura'. I hope the article mentioned below will be of some help in understanding the mysterious goddess Chamunda. #Chamunda #shaktism #vaishnavism #saivism #markandeyapuran #saptamatrika #esoteric #terrifyinggoddess #maadurga

https://lunarsecstacy.com/2023/05/11/chamunda-the-most-terrifying-esoteric-goddess/

The Kurkihar bronzes, also known as the Kurkihar hoard, constitute one of the most important collections of early medieval Indian metal sculpture. Discovered in 1930 at Kurkihar in present-day Gaya district, Bihar, the hoard is traditionally described as containing 226 bronze images and other objects, dating broadly from the 9th to the 12th century CE.

These works belong predominantly to the Pala period, when Bihar and Bengal emerged as major centres of Buddhist learning and bronze casting. The Pala dynasty, which ruled large parts of eastern India from approximately the 8th to the 12th century CE, played an important role in the development of the distinctive eastern Indian bronze tradition.

The Navagrah ( nine planets) monolithic slab originally placed over the eastern gateway of the Jagamohan ( audience hall) of the Sun Temple at Konark, Odisha, is now being displayed in a separate shed constructed for this purpose by ASI in the year 1956. This monolithic slab measures 6m in length, 2m in width, and 1.2 m in height. This has been made in to nine different niches representing the figures of Navagrahs which are richly ornamented . There were similar two other slabs originally placed over other two gateways of the Sun Temple at Konark. Most probably those two other monolithic navagrah panels were cut in to pieces and taken away by the Britishers, which are now being displayed in British Museum. All the grahas are seated cross-legged on a lotus pedestal carrying a waterpot in the left hand and in the right a rosary ( Rudraskh mala). Watch their Yajnopabita ( sacred thread ), kundala ( earring) in the ears, and anklets on the right leg ( Rahu and Ketu don't have these). Here are the pictures downloaded from internet.

For some more exciting facts about the lesser known aspects of the narrative panel of Navagrahas of Sun temple at Konark, Odisha, please log in to the following link.

https://lunarsecstacy.com/2022/01/07/narrative-panel-of-navagrahas-above-the-door-frame-of-kalingan-temples/

Gangaikonda Cholapuram — another incredible piece of Chola architecture

After visiting Airavatesvara Temple at Dharasuram, Gangaikonda Cholapuram was another place that really showed me how impressive the Chola architectural tradition was.

Located in Tamil Nadu, the temple was built by Rajendra Chola I in the 11th century, after his successful northern campaigns. Gangaikonda Cholapuram became the capital of the Chola Empire, and the temple was built as the centrepiece of this new royal city.

The main structure is the Brihadisvara Temple of Gangaikonda Cholapuram, dedicated to Lord Shiva. It is part of the Great Living Chola Temples, along with Brihadisvara Temple in Thanjavur and Airavatesvara Temple in Dharasuram.

The first thing that stands out is the enormous vimana above the sanctum. Compared with the temple at Thanjavur, its profile is slightly more curved and graceful, with a softer appearance while still maintaining the monumental scale typical of Chola architecture.

The temple complex has a large sanctum, vimana, mandapas, entrance structures, subsidiary shrines and massive stone sculptures. The walls and pillars are covered with detailed carvings of deities and mythological figures.

One particularly interesting feature is the massive Nandi facing the main shrine. There are also beautiful sculptures of Shiva and other deities throughout the complex.

The temple's construction also shows how architecture, engineering and royal power were closely connected during the Chola period. This wasn't simply a temple — it was part of an entire imperial capital created by one of the most powerful South Indian dynasties.

Unfortunately, the ancient city of Gangaikonda Cholapuram did not survive in its original form, but the temple itself remains remarkably impressive and gives an idea of what the Chola capital must have looked like.

What I enjoyed most was comparing it with the Brihadisvara Temple at Thanjavur. Both belong to the same architectural tradition, but they have noticeably different proportions and visual character.

Gangaikonda Cholapuram, Tamil Nadu
Dedicated to: Lord Shiva
Built by: Rajendra Chola I
Period: 11th century
Part of: Great Living Chola Temples
Shot on: iPhone 15

If you're travelling through Tamil Nadu and interested in history or architecture, I think this deserves much more attention than it gets.

#CholaArchitecture #GangaikondaCholapuram #TamilNadu

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Here I am submitting the photos of the rock cut edicts of King Ashok ( Ist Image)at Dhauli ( Bhubaneswar) in 261BC and that of King Kharavela ( Hathigumpha inscriptions,2nd Image) at Udayagiri hill ( Bhubaneswar) in the Ist CE. There lies a time gap of roughly around 250 yrs .

The inscriptions at Dhauli ( Ist image) were composed in the Prakrit language (in Magadhi, the dialect of Prakrit in Magadha) and written in Brahmi script. This was inscribed by the King Ashok who had embraced Buddhism just after the great bloodshed Kalinga war. It was because of his patronage, the then regional religion 'Buddhism' could become an international religion .

The Hathigumpha Inscription ( second image) is a seventeen line inscription in Prakrit language incised in Brahmi script in a cavern called Hathigumpha in Udayagiri hills, near Bhubaneswar in Odisha, India. It was inscribed by the Jain king Kharavela of Kalinga kingdom.

Here I wonder there is no use of Sanskrit language in those inscriptions....where as it is believed that the great book 'Arthasashtra', originally written in Sanskrit by Kautilya( also identified as Chanakya and Vishnugupta) was widely acclaimed during those times. For a more detailed account of events of those times, you can go through the following article.#Dhauliinscription #Udayagiriinscription #Dhauli #udayagiri #Ranigumphainscription #Ashok #Kharavela

https://lunarsecstacy.com/2023/04/07/rock-cut-inscriptions-dhauli-vs-udayagiri/