Indian Heritage and Monuments

The mausoleum of Sher Shah Suri is a famous architectural landmark located in Sasaram, Bihar. It is known for its Indo-Islamic style and its position in the middle of an artificial lake.

The Kailasa temple at Ellora is a famous monolithic rock-cut temple commissioned by the Rashtrakuta king Krishna I in the 8th century.

The Iron Pillar of Delhi is famous for its high resistance to corrosion due to its unique composition and the protective layer formed over centuries of exposure.

Shravasti was the capital of the Kosala kingdom, which was one of the most powerful Mahajanapadas in ancient India during the time of the Buddha.

Champa was the capital of the Anga Mahajanapada, located in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent, near present-day Bihar.

Takshashila (Taxila) was an ancient Indian center of learning dating back to the 6th century BCE, long before the medieval period.

Many Mughal Emperors patronised highly skilled painters. With the decline of the Mughal Empire, many painters moved out to the courts of the emerging regional states. As a result Mughal artistic tastes influenced the regional courts of the Deccan and the Rajput courts of Rajasthan. At the same time, they retained and developed their distinctive characteristics. Portraits of rulers and court scenes came to be painted, following the Mughal example. Besides, themes from mythology and poetry were depicted at centres such as Mewar, Jodhpur, Bundi, Kota and Kishangarh.

The Sun Temple at Konark, Odisha, is famously known as the Black Pagoda due to its dark appearance and its use as a navigational landmark by sailors.

• Jaipur is the capital of Rajasthan. 
• Jaipur was built in 18th century by Raja Sawai Jai Singh and was the first planned city of India.
  
• It is referred to as “The pink city” because of its pink colored buildings. 

Kalibanga is one of the sites of Indus valley civilisation located in Rajasthan. It is located in Hanumangarh district. Kalibangan as a pre-historic site was discovered by Luigi Pio Tessitori, an Italian archaeologist. Kalibangan is distinguished by its unique fire altars and ploughed lands of earliest times.

Traditional food habits are generally based on locally available items of food. Bengal is a riverine plain which produces plenty of rice and fish. Understandably, these two items figure prominently in the menu of even poor Bengalis. Fishing has always been an important occupation and Bengali literature contains several references to fish. What is more, terracotta plaques on the walls of temples and viharas (Buddhist monasteries) depict scenes of fish beingdressed and taken to the market in baskets.

From the 16th century onwards, when local deities, once worshipped in thatched huts in villages, gained the recognition of the Brahmanas, their images began to be housed in temples. The temples began to copy the double-roofed (dochala) or four-roofed (chauchala) structure of the thatched huts.  This led to the evolution of the typical Bengali style in temple architecture.

The Stupas of Sanchi were constructed on the orders of Emperor Ashoka to preserve and spread the Buddhist philosophy. This stupa was originally a low structure of brick, half the diameter of the present edifice hemispherical in shape with raised terraces at the base. It was enclosed by a wooden railing and a stone umbrella at the top. This Great Stupa served as a nucleus to the large Buddhist establishment during the later period.

Amaravati Stupa in Guntur district is the most famous one in Andhra Pradesh. This was built during the rule of Satavahanas about 1900 years ago. The stupa was covered with panels of sculptures depicting the Buddha and his teachings. These panels were found by the British and were taken away by them to London. Some of the panels that could not be transported were kept  in Madras Museum.