Hey guys, today we are going to look at an ancient temple called Shikanathar Temple,
located in a remote village called Kudumiyanmalai. This temple is referred to as The Unsolved
Puzzle by experts, because of its completely unexplainable, and unrelated carvings. Today,
I am going to try to solve this puzzle and I want you to join me in understanding
what the ancient builders were doing. Some have claimed that this temple is showing
twin carvings. For example, there are 2 apes who are identical placed opposite to one other. There
are 2 identical warriors placed in front of one another. You can see 2 beauties in the same way,
and see many other carvings the same fashion. However, the theory that this temple is made
of a bunch of twin carvings is also not accepted because in other places,
there are non-identical carvings, you can see carvings like these opposite to
one another, and they are not identical carvings and they don’t even look similar.
If we look at the carvings side by side, it gets even more confusing. For example, when
we enter this 100-pillar hall, on the right side, you can see this beautiful six-headed God, called
Karthikeya sitting on a peacock. But right next to that, you can see Narasimha, a lion headed deity
killing a demon. There is no connection at all between the first carving and the second carving.
And if you look on the left side, you can see the similar problem, here is the elephant God Ganesha
and right next to him, you can see this fantastic carving of a 10 headed figure called Ravana. And
these figures are not connected, at least most people think that way. And you can go on and on,
for example there is no connection between Ravana and this female deity. So, this random array of
completely disconnected Gods, is never seen in any Hindu temple. Not just in ancient temples,
even when they build new temples today, they still follow a pattern of connectivity between adjacent
carvings. I mean, you should be able to see them, like you see the consecutive scenes of a movie.
They don’t just throw a bunch of carvings here and there, there has to be a rhyme and reason.
And because of this complete disconnect in this temple, experts and even pilgrims
just don’t come here, I mean it is human tendency to ignore things you don’t understand.
Even worse, some people have dismissed these carvings as the work of pure madness.
But it is not the fault of ancient builders, it is our fault because we are not looking carefully,
and we are simply, not as smart as them. But let’s try to get into the mind of the architect,
let’s experiment. If you enter this part of the temple, let’s say the first deity you look at,
is this one, the elephant God Ganesha. But then you are supposed to look on the opposite side,
this is his brother, this God on the peacock is the brother of Ganesha. This is the connectivity;
this is how the carvings are arranged opposite to one another.
I am sure some experts have noticed this pattern, but when they looked at these 2 carvings,
maybe they dismissed this theory. Here, you can see the 10 headed Demon called Ravana
and on the opposite side, we can see the Lion Headed God, an avatar of Lord Vishnu. What is
the connection between them? Most experts haven’t read all the ancient Indian texts,
so they cannot see any connection between these two carvings. They are comparing a Demon
to an avatar of God Vishnu. Who is the most powerful between the two? And more importantly, is
there a connection between the two? The connecting factor is this demon, his name is Hiranyakashipu,
who is getting killed by Lord Vishnu. It is mentioned in ancient texts that Ravana, tried to
lift the earring worn by this demon, and he could not do it. Ravana couldn’t even lift the earring
of this demon and this demon is being destroyed by Lord Vishnu. So, these carvings are placed
opposite to one another to tell us how large and powerful Lord Vishnu is,
when compared to Ravana. Even though both these statues are carved the same size,
it is merely an illusion like how we see the sun and moon of the same size, even though
the Sun is much much larger than the moon. Okay, so if this temple is a video game, you don’t
play like this, you don’t see the carvings side by side, you play in a zig zag fashion, right? No.
There is another rule we haven’t learnt. Let’s go take a look at the carvings in a different area.
Here, you can see this carving. Can you identify this deity? He is half human-half
turtle, you can see the shape of the turtle shell at the bottom. And right next to him, you can see
this god, who is this? This figure is half human and half boar, look at his face, he looks like a
boar. They are seemingly unrelated. Ill tell you how you have to see them. You have to see them like this,
as soon as you enter the hall, first you turn to the right side, you can see this carving that is
half-man, half fish. This is the very first avatar of Lord Vishnu. Now turn to the opposite side,
and you can see the Half Turtle God, this is the second avatar of Lord Vishnu. But, then,
you shouldn’t go across in a zig zag fashion, you should see the one right next to it,
this is the third avatar who is half boar, and then you should look opposite to the boar,
this is the half lion form, which is the fourth avatar. And then don't go to the opposite side,
see next to him, and you can see the little man called Vamana, who is the fifth avatar.
So, we are not supposed to play this game in a zig zag fashion, we are supposed to play it like
the Retro Nokia Snake game, in this fashion. I have analyzed hundreds of ancient temples and I have
never seen this idea of placing these carvings in this snake like pattern. And because of this weird
pattern, both experts and regular visitors have not understood most of the carvings in this temple
and their connectivity to one another. So, people just don’t visit this temple simply because
they don’t understand the pattern hidden here. By the way, if you are not a Hindu, and if you are
completely lost by these avatars, the easy way to remember the order of Vishnu’s avatars is Darwin’s
Evolution. First, our planet was dominated by fish, next there were amphibians, then there were
rodents, after that we had the big cats, then the world was dominated by various human like species,
the 10 Avatars of ancient Indian texts is remarkably similar to the theory of evolution.
So now we know, as we walk around the temple, we are supposed to look at the carvings in
a snake like, serpentine fashion. I am not going to bore you with how every carving is
connected to one another, our YouTube community is very smart and can answer most of the questions.
But now, because I have discovered this pattern, it completely changes our understanding of these
carvings. Because until now, people think, many of these carvings are just 2 identical carvings.
Look at this carving on one side and this carving on the opposite side. What do you think?
Can you see any difference between the two? You can easily dismiss them as the same deity,
but since ancient builders arranged a pattern of continuity, they cannot be the same deity. So,
let’s look closer, look at his hands, this guy has weapons in his hands, but look at this guy,
unfortunately all of his hands are cut off except this one. But he is not holding a weapon,
he is holding a lamp and you can even see the tiny fire glowing here. The fire is the key. Look
at the hairdo on him, His hair looks like fire, like Flames, right? Who is he? He is the ancient
Super Saiyan, this is figure is called Agni Veerabhadra, Agni means fire in Sanskrit, so he
is the warrior of fire, who burns his enemies to death. So, who is this guy on the opposite side?
Look at this hand, how he is stylishly pulling out an arrow from the quiver at the back. He is just
using 2 fingers to pull out the arrow, without even turning his head. This God is so stylish,
that even his hairpins are shaped like lingams, you can see multiple lingam shaped hairpins.
But the key detail is in his clothes, see here, you can see the human skulls on his clothes. The
people who use skulls in rituals are called Aghoris, so we can identify this warrior as
Aghora Veerabhadra, the warrior who decapitates his enemies and keeps their skulls as trophies. By the way,
if you are not a Hindu and if you have sat through this and understood this, you should pat yourself
on the back, because I have just taught you some very advanced Indic iconography.
In a similar fashion, we can now decode these 2 apes also. And you can see the ape’s body
hair on this statue, it is remarkable how they achieved these curves on solid granite,
it still remains a mystery. But these figures are not identical, they do have some differences,
they are actually brothers by the names of Vaali and Sugreev mentioned in ancient Indian texts.
But some figures facing each other, don’t look similar to each other at all. But because we know
that opposite carvings are connected, we can now unravel some interesting stories. Here,
you can see this mother Goddess Parvathi. Parvathi is normally supposed to look beautiful and nice,
but here she is actually angry, and you can see her eyes popping out and her fangs are coming out.
Why? Let us look at the opposite side, who is he and what is he doing? He is her husband, Lord
Shiva, and he has lifted up one of his legs. And look carefully, there is an earring in one ear,
but on the other ear, there is no ring. Believe it or not, this missing earring is helping us
crack the case. There was once a dance competition between Shiva and his wife. The competition began
and other Gods started gathering to watch this. Shiva is known as the greatest dancer, the cosmic
dancer of the universe, but surprisingly, his wife was able to do, every move he made. The crowd
started to become bigger and bigger to watch this spectacle. He tried some of the complex moves,
but to his surprise, she was able to do all of them. Unable to defeat her, Shiva played a dirty move,
he dropped one of his ear rings on the ground, but he did not bend down to pick it up with his hand.
Instead, he picked it up with his toes of the right leg, and then put it back in his
ear without using his hands. Now, was his wife capable of doing such a move? According to ancient texts,
she was flexible enough to do it, but due to her modesty, she did not lift her leg, afraid
to reveal her body in front of everybody. And this carving captures it perfectly,
see how she is looking down, as a defeated person. That’s why she is angry at Lord Shiva,
she has lost the competition, but it was unfair. So, you can see that we are now literally able
to dissect each and every carving because we have understood how ancient builders have arranged the
carvings in this temple. I’ll admit that it is a very strange thought process, to expect a visitor
to go in a snake like fashion to understand these carvings. But once we understand this
and follow this, it is just pure magic, now we can understand all these figures,
who they are, and what they are doing, and how every carving is a piece of this giant story,
It used to be an unsolved puzzle, but now we have cracked the code.
I am not going to show you all the carvings, and how they are connected to one another,
that video can go on for 10 hours, you know? So, I hope this video was of some value to you, and I
hope it helped you understand the thought process of ancient builders. I am Praveen Mohan, thanks
a lot for watching, don’t forget to subscribe and I will talk to you soon. Bye