Hey guys, this is the ancient Ramappa temple and you are looking at a very fascinating
structure full of brilliant carvings, but your eyes are naturally attracted to these
shiny black idols, which look completely out of place.
Almost all visitors are totally spellbound by these idols - this is the center of attraction
in this temple even though most of them have been destroyed by invaders.
When you look at these idols, why do you think that these idols don't belong here, they somehow
feel like out of place artifacts?
Because your mind's intuition tells you that these idols could not have been made without
machines, and you have been taught through a lot of books that ancient builders did not
use machines.
This conflict is why you feel that these are out of place artifacts.
This is not only happening in your mind, but all visitors get confused and mesmerized by
these idols at the same time.
Almost all visitors think these are modern day wax models molded and recently placed,
but archeologists confirm that these are at least 800 years old.
The temple has thousands of great carvings, but they can be made with simple tools, but
these statues, known as Madhanikas, cannot be made with chisels and hammers.
Such perfect statues can be made only with advanced technology.
These idols seem to have no human errors, they are so well polished, they actually create
a phenomenon called "highlights and shadows" due to their reflection.
What do I mean by this?
When a material is polished with hands, it doesn't achieve a great level of reflective
surface, but when an object is created with machines, it becomes so reflective that it
automatically creates lighter areas called highlights and darker areas called shadows.
In reality this container I am holding doesn't have any dark or bright areas, but it reflects
the light in the surrounding to create these illusions.
This is similar to highlights and shadows in photography, but that effect is created
by light.
This effect is only achievable on stones with polishing created by machines.
For example, you can see this woman called Nagini or Snake woman.
On her body, you can notice several shades of lightness and darkness.
The entire structure is made of one stone, but this is so well polished, that it automatically
creates dark areas and light areas.
And in photography, we create this effect by using sunlight or by reflecting sunlight
using reflectors, but these statues are so well polished, they don't even need sunlight.
Look, the sun is above the roof, it is not shining on these idols and you can still see
plenty of shades, because they are reflecting the light from the surrounding.
The tour guides tell me that the shadow of the necklace falling on her body is also an
illusion.
If there is no sunlight, how could there be a shadow?
People are baffled by this and locals believe there was some sort of heat treatment done
in this area to make it look like a shadow.
However, I think this is a shadow cast because of the extremely well polished surface, and
it takes the light from the surroundings.
Now, what kind of technology existed 800 years ago which can create this level of perfect
reflection on solid rock?
Archeologists and historians are repeatedly telling us that ancient builders were primitive
people who used simple tools.
In reality, this effect can be created only by using advanced technology.
In today's technology, we are able to melt wax and mold it into realistic figures, but
we have not been able to mold rocks into statues.
But these statues, which are made of black basalt, a very hard rock, have been created
using similar technology.
Unless we test them in a lab, we may not be able to find out if they used melting technology
or machining technology.
Look at the back of the idol here.
This is how black basalt really looks.
A stone that looks like this was finished to look like this - how was this possible?
It is impossible to achieve this level of polishing with simple abrasives like sand.
And remember, I have already shown you carvings in the same temple which look like drilling
and polishing tools.
You can watch it by clicking on the top right corner of this video.
Were these idols created using molding technology or with machining tools?
These figures have a strange effect on your eyes.
The more time you spend on them, the more you are amazed by them.
Today's statues and paintings have errors, for example look at this painting of a woman
wearing shoes.
In this position of her foot, there should be a gap between her shoe and her foot.
This is a mistake made by the painter.
But there are no such mistakes in these idols, and you may think..
well, ancient women did not wear shoes, but not only is this figure wearing high heels,
but the gap between the foot and her shoe is accurately shown.
Here is a beautiful woman holding a bow, and a little man is removing a thorn from her
foot.
Look carefully and you see how there is a small swelling on her foot because of the
thorn.
These are just uncanny details.
Here is a naughty monkey pulling this woman's clothes, and the dress has come down from
her waist, revealing her private parts.
Of course, you can see that this hand has been destroyed by invaders and in this picture,
I've tried to recreate this hand, and originally it would have completely covered her genitalia.
What really surprises me is not the perfect depiction of this area.
What surprises me is this: The space between the hand and her genitals would have been
less than one inch.
It would be impossible to carve this with simple tools like chisels because you would
need a lot more space to use the chisel and make the hammer movements.
This would not even be possible with many of the modern tools we have, because there
is simply not enough space even to put these tools in.
So, how were the ancient builders able to carve her private parts under her hand ? Perhaps
the real clues are these 2 perfect circles found on this idol.
Originally, this figure had a necklace, but it was destroyed but what we see here are
2 perfect circles which stand as connection points between her body and the necklace.
So, ask yourself, what are these 2 circles doing here?
If this entire structure is made of one solid rock, you should not see these perfect circles
when the necklace was destroyed.
What you would see is an unshapely disfiguration like this area on this statue.
So, think about what kind of technology would have really been employed.
And of course, there is another important question we need to ask ourselves.
Why were these statues placed around the temple?
No one has answered this question until now.
There are a total of 12 statues and each one represents a sign of the zodiac.
Watch the video again, and you can find connections between each statue and a zodiac sign.
So what do you think?
Were these idols made with advanced technology by superior builders or were they created
with primitive tools by hardworking laborers?
Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section.
I am Praveen Mohan, thanks a lot for watching.
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Bye!