Post No. 12,584
Date uploaded in London – – – 13 October , 2023
Contact – swami_48@yahoo.com
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https://www.pustaka.co.in/home/author/london-swaminathan
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K R.
To:swami_48@yahoo.com
Wed, Sep 6 at 6:56 AM
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Namaskaram sir.
Can you oppose these statements with proofs and evidences.
1.there is no Hindu architecture in India before Sanchi stupa built by Ashoka.
2.there is a temple in India in Kanchi ,Badri etc before (they were) Jain temples and Buddhist temples.
3.in Siva Kanchi, boundary wall of temple has Buddhist idols .
xxx
Reply to the Question by London Swaminathan
First, the person who asks a question must have some basic knowledge in the subject. I explained it in detail yesterday. So, I am not going to repeat it.
Sanchi Stupi is not Hindu, but Buddhist. It is NOT a place of worship. All Buddhist Stupis have some body parts of Buddha. So it is not like Hindu Garbhagrihas where we have idols or statues for worship.
Sanchi Stupi which is 2300 year old is dome shaped and not temple (Pyramidal/ Cone shape) shaped.
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Is there any religious structure like that before Sanchi Stupi? Perhaps the answer is ‘No’. We don’t see anything elaborate or big like that before 2300 years. But we read about Temples in Mahabharata and Ramayana. Krishna kidnapped Rukmini from a temple. So, temples were there, may be built out of rocks or bricks in smaller size.; In Indian climate, nothing would survive for a long period.
It is amazing to see Sanchi Stupi (India) and Anuradhapura Stupi (Sri Lanka) survived until this day. Perhaps their massiveness, special dome like structure saved them for 2300 years.
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Indus-Saraswati River Civilization
In the Indus civilization we see Mother Goddess, Swastika emblem, so called Pasupati seal and unknown Tigress goddesses All scholars agree that Hinduism originated there at least 3000 years ago.
All temples including the Toda Tribe temple are in Triangular/pyramidal shape. But all ancient Buddhist structures are dome shaped. Even the Ziggurat of the Middle East was similar to current Hindu temples in shape. Even the word Ziggurat came from the Sanskrit word Sikhara (mountain top, temple top).
This shows such structures existed but vanished in course of time. India is a country which witnessed more wars than any other country. Most of the structures were razed to ground by foreign invaders. Just 400 years ago Portuguese Christian invaders destroyed all the 500 temples in Jaffna, Sri Lanka.
So, the simple answer is some sort of architecture existed but extinct today.
One other comparison is writing. We see it in Indus- Saraswati area around 2000 BCE. Then we see Brahmi writing in Asoka time. There is a gap of at least 1700 years. Writing was there but Hindus wrote on decayable materials and only Asoka started using rocks for writing.
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The second part of the question is Buddhist symbols or statues in Hindu temples like Kanchipuram. We need someone at the stature of Dr Nagaswami to answer such questions. Unfortunately ,the great historian is no more.
Like I said earlier, Buddhists did not have place of worship. Buddha never spoke about God or ritual worship. Bhikshus went against what Buddha said and started new rituals of worshipping ash and bone. Their dome shape structure is also their own innovation. In course of time they might have placed their symbols in our temples to get status and respect. The biggest proof for such an assumption come from their theft of Hindu materials.
They stole all our Panchatantra , Ramayana and Mahabhaata stories and created new Jataka stories. It shows them as the thieves; literary pirates. Like they stole our stories , they might have stolen our temples as well. Jataka Storis in Pali came about 2300 years ago.
Regarding the Kanchi temple and Buddhist statues , only archaeologists can say which came first.
Generally speaking, Buddha took everything from Hinduism. The word Nirvana , Biksha etc are in Upanishads. In the later days, our people might have re installed the original Hindu statues. It happened in Ayodhya, Varanasi and several Indian places s well. Moghuls took our Hindu temples and we are slowly reconverting them.
Like Gnanvapi – Kasi temple, Mathura Temple with mosque , Ayodhya Ram Temple, Saraswati temple inside mosque in Dhar (M.P), we have to take each case separately and probe them to see who installed the statue first.
Look at Tibetan Buddhist sculptures; They took all the Hindu Gods and Goddesses and put 10 heads and 20 hands and named them differently. It shows they stole our Gods and Words (literature) . So, I would like to conclude that they stole our temples too.
In Sri Lanka Buddhists are replacing Shiva and Ganesh with Buddha; Following Hindu complaints many projects are stopped, and enquiry ordered. I had been to Kanniya Hot Springs in Trincomalee last month and the driver told me Shiva and Ganesh disappeared there suddenly. That area is cordoned off.
(Hope I understood your question and gave appropriate reply).
— subham—
Tags- Buddhism, literary piracy, stealing gods, temples, Sanchi
Tamil and Vedas 