Hey guys, today we are going to look at a very ancient temple called Veeranarayana temple.
Actually, this temple should not even exist, it should have been completely destroyed and
razed to the ground, but there are some hidden secrets which make it still standing, even
after centuries of destruction.
Some experts claim that this temple was not attacked by invaders, but they are wrong.
Focus on the faces of the carvings.
Every face has been defaced, without an exception.
You can see this careful, planned defacing in all the carvings.
This is a clear example of destruction by invaders because they truly believed that
idol worship is wrong.
And they are forbidden not only to carve faces, but also to set eyes on carved faces, they
consider it evil.
This is why all the faces have been scraped off carefully.
This is not a case of natural erosion, nature doesn’t focus only on faces, it would destroy
every part of the body, the same way.
A classic example of disfiguration is this beautiful lady.
Her nose has been completely cut off.
Her lips have been chopped off, and her eyes have been removed.
Today, sometimes we see in the news that, some woman has been disfigured by acid attack,
sometimes women are mutilated purposely to demean them.
This was the ancient predecessor to these attacks.
And this statue, unike a human being, will remain for thousands of years, as a testimony
of hate.
But invaders did not just casually destroy this temple, it was a planned effort, look
at the top, on the tower.
This is really mind boggling, the people who destroyed it, had unbelievable dedication,
they even climbed on top of the tower, and destroyed these statues, so it was very well
planned.
You can clearly understand that they used ladders to climb up and used axes to make
sure all these statues were destroyed.
So you can see, Invaders have laid their hands on almost all these statues, but even then,
they could not destroy the temple’s architecture.
Think about this, instead of defacing all these faces one by one, they could have completely
removed all the stone blocks from the temple and destroy this temple fully, right?
But they could only scratch the surface, they could not dismantle even a single stone blocks
from this temple.
Why?
What happens when a passionate, destructive force meets an advanced immovable object?
This is the result.
The Veeranarayana temple holds the key to creating unbreakable megalithic structures.
If architects want to build structures that last for eternity, they should come and study
how ancient builders assembled the stone blocks here.
Even today it is impossible to remove any single stone block from this temple.
Because every stone block is connected to more stone blocks with several types of fastening.
To dismantle just one block at the bottom, you have to dismantle the entire temple itself,
starting from the top, and this could take years.
First you should unscrew the top screw, and then begin to dismantle everything.
Of course, construction began at the ground level, let us first see, how these blocks
are connected.
They used a secret technology to connect the stone blocks.
Do you see anything?
No, right?
But if you look carefully, a strange fastening technology reveals itself.
You can see a straight groove here, that stretches across both the stone blocks.
What is the purpose of that?
Believe it or not, this is the state of the art technology in surgery today.
Today surgeons and doctors no longer use sutures to close the skin, they staple them together,
and they say this is much better than putting stitches.
And that is exactly what we see here.
Ancient builders have stapled these stone blocks together.
Now, look, this stapling technology is not just seen in one or two stone blocks, you
can see it almost on all the stone blocks at the base level.
Every stapler pin, connects 2 stone blocks.
And what is the stapler pin made of?
Iron, solid iron strips have been used to connect the blocks.
Here, you can see half of the stapler pin, still intact.
This is an 800 year old artifact guys, it was put in at least 800 years ago, and it
is still in place, the other half has been broken but this half is still intact.
You can even hear the sound when I tap on it, this is fantastic.
And here, you can see the entire stapler pin, nearly the entire iron strip is still here, it is
only broken in one place. This is the key to keeping the stone blocks immovable.
You can see every stone block is stapled on this side, and on the other side.
So it just becomes impossible to move.
It is a very strong fastening technology.
Look here, we are so lucky, we are able to see a 3D view, a cross section of this stapler
technology, because invaders tried to destroy this stone block.
You are looking at the depth of the fastener.
The stapler pin, if I may call it, went in at least one inch into the stone block.
We would not have had the chance to see it, had they not tried to destroy this stone block.
Now, the point to note here is that, invaders definitely removed most of these stapler pins,
because the metal strips will not just vanish in thin air.
But remember these were the very first stone blocks put at the ground level, so there will
be plenty of these stapler pins on the inside as well, connecting the stone blocks inside too.
So it is impossible to remove those stapler pins unless, you start dismantling this temple
from the top.
But the stapling is not the only fastening technology they used. The stone blocks have
a mystery element, that I cannot fully explain.
Here you can see this stone block.
There is a hole on this side, and there is another hole on the other side.
I found a miracle tool to demonstrate this. Watch.
If I put this tool through this hole, it comes through the other hole.
But the question is WHY?
How did they use these holes?
But the mystery only becomes deeper.
Here you can see a hole, neatly drilled on one block, and if you look nearby, again you
can see another hole in another block.
If you look at a stone block in a different level, again you can see holes drilled like this.
You can see these unexplained holes all over the temple.
These holes must have served an important purpose, especially in fastening, in joining
the blocks together.
Were they putting metal wires through them and binding them?
How did they use these holes?
Here you can see this Garuda, who is an eagle like God.
Immediately, your eyes are attracted towards these, 2 gear like things on either side.
But if you see here, you can see another fascinating fastening technology.
There are stone pegs, plugged in on both sides, to make sure the carving is secured tightly.
These are like modern day bolts and nuts, they hammered in, small cylindrical stone
blocks, into these holes to secure the carving.
This is a unique fastening technology.
What you saw was the obvious stone pegs, plugged in on a carving, but this temple is full of
hidden pegs.
Watch closely, as I go and check underneath the base of the temple.
It just looks like randomly aligned stone blocks right?
But here, You can see this giant stone peg.
The large stone blocks are kept tightly aligned by these stone pegs.
After aligning the giant stone blocks, these stone pegs were hammered in, to make sure
that the stone blocks do not move.
It becomes impossible to move the stone blocks, once these pegs are driven in.
If you observe the base area carefully, you may understand why it was impossible to destroy
the temple.
Let’s look at the base alone from the top level.
At the first layer, there are giant stone blocks that have protrusions resembling the
teeth of giant gears.
You can also say, they resemble lotus flowers.
Below that, you can see another set of stone blocks, they have smaller gear teeth like protrusions.
Normally engineers would think the base has to be as wide as possible, because, as much
as the area of the base increases, the structure becomes more stable, But here it is the opposite.
They have made sure that the protursions are extending, but inside, it is actually quite narrow.
This is a mysterious construction technique, and I think all these blocks are connected
with interlocking technology, stapling technology, and stone pegs were used as well.
And the blocks below this, they are even more fancy, a weird, wide hourglass or dovetail
like arrangement, again protruding outside, but insides are narrower.
The last layer at the bottom is made with wide blocks with multiple corners.
And because it looks so complicated, you may think this is a random stacking of stone blocks.
But no, each and every block, and its alignment was precisely planned and executed accurately,
down to a millimeter.
Look at the lines here, these lines were put to indicate where the next level of stone
blocks should be placed.
It shows they knew exactly what to do, what shape of stones should be placed on top, and
where they should be placed.
So, who were the architects of this great temple?
Some experts claim that it was built by a Father-Son duo by the names of Jagganachari
and Dakkanachari.
But the priest of this temple, says there is no evidence of that.
of that.
There are several inscriptions in this temple and none of them mention these names.
Whoever built this temple, forecasted that someday, some people will come and destroy
it, so they built it to challenge them, they made sure that it will last for eternity.
There is something about this construction that is going to last forever.
People may come and people may go, but this temple will last for ever.
Even today it is impossible to remove any single stone block from this temple.
Experts have confirmed that the only way to remove even a single stone block from the
base, is to start from the top of the tower, and slowly remove every stone block.
But the invaders did succeed in one particular aspect.
Hindus believe that destroyed carvings are desecrated carvings, meaning that they are
no longer sacred, and they should no longer be worshipped or even be seen.
Even today, Hindus believe, when an idol or carving gets destroyed, it loses its
spiritual aspect.
When a temple gets attacked, they think its spirituality and vibration is also destroyed,
So they stop going to that temple.
This is a belief that is worth changing.
Because of such a belief, this great temple only gets very few visitors.
If you ever get a chance, please do visit this temple and enjoy its beauty and its architecture.
I am Praveen Mohan, thanks a lot for watching, don’t forget to subscribe and I will talk
to you soon. Bye!!