Hey guys, today I am going to show you an ancient pillar manufacturing site, a mass
manufacturing factory with more than 100 different pillars and most of them are lathe turned
pillars.
Let us go closer and take a better look.
I will show you more pillars nearby, but here you can see at least 20 pillars.
You realize that these are quite exotic, Archeologists confirm that yes, you need a lathe machine,
a rotating mechanism to make such pillars.
You can see a lot of scrawling on the stones, these were done by vandals this is why now
they have put these barricades and prevented anyone from taking a closer look.
I really wish I could get inside and examine them better and can also show some good details.
I have shown you finished and assembled pillars set up in ancient temples, but to see a bunch
of these freestanding pillars is a rare sight.
Many people argue that pillars and temple parts would be made on site, but I think they
were usually made in a different location.
It is usually a centralized location, an ancient megalithic manufacturing factory.
I have shown you one in Warangal fort, it is also a fantastic place where you can see
a variety of temple parts strewn in one place.
So, these parts would then be transported to the temple site, and then assembled.
If you see the pillar in the middle, this is a male pillar because it has a projection
on top, and it will fit onto another female block.
But this one is a female, it does not have a projection, but it probably has a hole on
top.
So, the ancient builders must have planned the assembling parts very well.
Notice that each pillar is different from any other pillar, they look similar, but you
can pause or rewind and check these pillars, each one is actually different from another
pillar.
Now, nearby we can see more pillars.
You are looking at atleast 25 different pillars and you may have realized that none of them
are the same, each and every pillar is different from all others.
Actually, at the back we can see more pillars, but again each one is different.
The pillars are anywhere from 3 feet to 7 feet tall.
Here is a fabulous pillar which looks like a long-geared shaft, imagine what kind of
machining technique and mechanism would have been needed to make this.
Let us see what is on top of this, a perfect square hole.
So, this is a female pillar.
Now what are we looking at, right?
We are looking at a spare part, like an extra screw lying around in a garage.
It was just a backup, it was never polished and used.
Some of this pillar’s sisters are fit inside the temple, and they look incredible after
polishing, and when assembled with other stone blocks.
Ok, I know that you are immediately going to be attracted to this stone tank, but I
am not going to explain this, because it can be anywhere from 100 years old to 900 years
old, I just don’t know how old this is.
But you can see at least 100 pillars propped up on the wall back there.
Those are all belonging to the ancient period at least 900 years old.
And this is why I say they were mass manufacturing them like how we make auto parts in a factory.
Obviously, they were not made on demand, because a 100 stone pillars, each weighing at least
a ton would not be lying here, they were never assembled, they were just manufactured as
spares, and I am sure some were never used because of manufacturing defects.
This is not limited to pillars; you can also see other parts lying around in this area.
Okay, so they manufactured these parts, but did they assemble them for testing purposes?
Archeologists have confirmed that ancient builders built small scale models of temples,
and this is one of them.
This is just a model, but it is full of lathe turned pillars.
There is not much carvings or statues, but it was just a practice area where they could
try on lathe turned pillars and assemble them, along with the ceiling and other parts.
There has never been any idols installed here, or rituals done here.
You can see at least 25 lathe turned pillars.
Some of these pillars also have intricate designs on them.
Yeah, you may think the ceiling looks awesome for a model temple, but wait until I show
you the ceiling of the actual temple.
This model temple is situated right behind the Chennakeshava temple.
Now, the real problem with these hundreds of spare lathe pillars lying around is that
it proves it was not difficult for the ancient builders to make these lathe pillars.
Let me show you an example outside the temple right, if we go into this area, this is just
a remote corner with no carvings or statues, but look at the pillars.
Today we think these are extraordinary pillars, because it must have been so difficult to
create using lathe technology back them.
But for them, this was the model by default, meaning if you went to ancient sculptor 900
years ago in this area, and you asked to him to make any type of pillar, he did not give
you a 4-sided pillar or a crude column, he would make you a lathe turned pillar.
This is why every pillar made by the original ancient builders is looking like this.
When the future generations came around 1500 A.D, they expanded the temple, but look at
their pillars.
This is how normal people with chisels and hammers make pillars.
This is not only true 500 years ago, but if you go to an architect today, and if you want
a stone pillar for your house, this is how he is going to make it for you.
He is not going to mount a rock on a lathe machine, and make you those perfect cylindrical
pillars, because it is quite difficult to do this, even with modern machines.
But somehow, this ancient machining technology was lost.
This is why all the medieval pillars made 500 years ago, in the same temple, are all
square or cuboid pillars.
Even though these pillars are fully visible and are going to be seen by everyone, this
is the best the medieval sculptors could do.
But 900 years ago, even in remote places, even in places where nobody is going to see,
the original ancient builders, put only lathe turned pillars.
This means it was really easy and they were making them like this, by default, using advanced
technology.
This is why you see these spectacular pillars just as supportive pillars.
I mean, they made giant, fantastic lathe turned pillars, but did not even care that, they
will be hidden inside the walls, they were just supporting structures, yet they made
them in the lathe machine.
And some pillars, they are really, REALLY big, this one at least 20 feet tall, and 3
feet wide.
This is unimaginably big, and yes you have to use a rotating mechanism, to make such
a pillar.
You can achieve this only using a lathe machine.
But here it is the size, that is just mind-boggling right, I mean today, there are small lathe
machines which can make tiny things and large lathe machines making bigger jobs, and we
need giant ones to make the real giant stuff, so it makes us wonder what kind of machines
did the ancient people have?
How could they scale to create such gigantic pillars?
I mean this finished pillar must weigh about 20 tons, so how did they mount a 20-ton rock
and rotate it?
By the way, the assembly with the neighbouring stone blocks is so perfect, that we don’t
even know if this is a separate pillar at all.
And if you look below, this gets even more confusing, it is just a giant block with many
different shapes, I mean where does it start and where does it end, do we even see some
joints?
But at the bottom, it does give away that it is a separate pillar attached to the wall.
I hope it was refreshing to watch these details about ancient technology, please do subscribe.
Bye!