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Indian Rock-cut Architecture
Indian rock-cut architecture is more various and found in greater abundance in that country than any other form of rock-cut architecture around the world. Rock-cut architecture is the practice of creating a structure by carving it out of solid natural rock. Rock that is not part of the structure is removed until the only rock left makes up the architectural elements of the excavated interior. Indian rock-cut architecture is mostly religious in nature. There are more than 1,500 known rock-cut structures in India. Many of these structures contain artwork of global importance, and most are adorned with exquisite stone carvings. These ancient and medieval structures represent significant achievements of structural engineering and craftsmanship. The effort expended often astonishes visitors, but seen from one aspect, a rock-cut structure is a decorated rock quarry; most of the stone removed was typically put to economic use elsewhere. In India, caves have long been regarded as sacred ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ajanta Caves
The Ajanta Caves are 30 rock-cut architecture, rock-cut Buddhist caves in India, Buddhist cave monuments dating from the second century Common Era, BCE to about 480 CE in Aurangabad district, Maharashtra, Aurangabad district of Maharashtra state in India. Ajanta Caves are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Universally regarded as masterpieces of Buddhist art, Buddhist religious art, the caves include paintings and rock-cut sculptures described as among the finest surviving examples of Ancient Indian architecture, ancient Indian art, particularly expressive paintings that present emotions through gesture, pose and form. The caves were built in two phases, the first starting around the second century BCE and the second occurring from 400 to 650 CE, according to older accounts, or in a brief period of 460–480 CE according to later scholarship. The Ajanta Caves constitute ancient monasteries (''Vihāra, Viharas'') and worship-halls (''Chaityas'') of different Buddhist traditions car ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paranirvana
In Buddhism, ''Parinirvana'' (Sanskrit: '; Pali language, Pali: ') describes the state entered after death by someone who has attained ''Nirvana (Buddhism), nirvana'' during their lifetime. It implies a release from ''samsara, '', karma and Rebirth (Buddhism), rebirth as well as the dissolution of the ''skandhas''. In some Mahayana, Mahāyāna scriptures, notably the ''Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra, Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra'', ''parinirvāṇa'' is described as the realm of the eternal true Ātman (Buddhism), Self of the Buddha. In the Buddha in art, the event is represented by a reclining Buddha figure, often surrounded by disciples. Final nirvana at death In the Buddhist view, when ordinary people die, each person's unresolved karma passes on to a new birth; and thus the karmic inheritance is reborn in one of the Six Paths of ''Samsara (Buddhism), samsara''. However, when a person attains nirvana, they are liberated from karmic rebirth. When such a person die ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
First Buddhist Council
Since the Mahaparinirvana of the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, Buddhist monastic communities, the "''sangha''", have periodically convened for doctrinal and disciplinary reasons and to revise and correct the contents of the Buddhist canons. Referred to as Buddhist "councils" (Pāli and Sanskrit: ''saṅgīti'', literally meaning "reciting together" or "joint rehearsal"), the famous First Buddhist Council is recorded in Buddhist texts as being held one year after the Buddha's passing, when Ananda recited all of the spoken sutras, which were recorded in Rajagriha. The two next major Councils were held more than 100 years later. The details of the later councils are debated by modern Buddhist studies. Various sources belonging to different Buddhist schools may contain different accounts of these events. First Buddhist council All six of the surviving Vinaya sources of various early Buddhist schools contain accounts, in whole or in part, of the first and second co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rajgir
Rajgir, old name Rajagriha, meaning "The City of Kings," is an ancient city and university town in the Nalanda district of Bihar, India. It was the capital of the Haryanka dynasty, the Pradyota dynasty, the Brihadratha dynasty, the Mauryan Empire, and it was the retreat center for the Buddha and his sangha. Other historical figures such as Mahavira and king Bimbisara lived there, and due to its religious significance, the city holds a place of prominence in Hindu, Buddhist and Jain scriptures. Rajgir was the first capital of the ancient kingdom of Magadha, a state that would eventually evolve into the Mauryan Empire. It finds mention in India's renowned literary epic, the Mahabharata, through its king Jarasandha. The town's date of origin is unknown, although ceramics dating to about 1000 BC have been found in the city. The 2,500-year-old cyclopean wall is also located in the region. The ancient Nalanda university was located in the vicinity of Rajgir, and the c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saptaparni Cave
Saptparni Cave, also referred to as Sapta parni guha (Sanskrit) or sattapaṇṇi guhā (Pali), literally Seven-leaves-cave (cognate with sapta, sept), is a Buddhist cave site about southwest from Rajgir, Bihar, India. It is embedded in a hill. The Saptaparni Cave is important in the Buddhist tradition, because many believe it to be the site in which Buddha spent some time before his death, and where the first Buddhist council was held after Buddha died ( paranirvana). It is here that a council of few hundred monks decided to appoint Ananda, Buddha's cousin, and Upali, who had accompanied the Buddha when he gave sermons in north India, to compose Buddha's teachings for the future generations. This was of special importance because the Buddha never wrote down his teachings. After the meeting in Saptaparni Cave, Ananda created an oral tradition of Buddha's teaching from his memory, prefacing it with " Thus have I heard on one occasion". Upali is credited with reciting the ''Vi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha (),* * * was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist legends, he was born in Lumbini, in what is now Nepal, to royal parents of the Shakya clan, but renounced his home life to live as a wandering ascetic. After leading a life of mendicancy, asceticism, and meditation, he attained nirvana at Bodh Gayā in what is now India. The Buddha then wandered through the lower Indo-Gangetic Plain, teaching and building a monastic order. Buddhist tradition holds he died in Kushinagar and reached ''parinirvana'' ("final release from conditioned existence"). According to Buddhist tradition, the Buddha taught a Middle Way between sensual indulgence and severe asceticism, leading to freedom from ignorance, craving, rebirth, and suffering. His core teachings are summarized in the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Ei ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grotto
A grotto or grot is a natural or artificial cave or covered recess. Naturally occurring grottoes are often small caves near water that are usually flooded or often flooded at high tide. Sometimes, artificial grottoes are used as garden features. The '' Grotta Azzurra'' at Capri and the grotto at Tiberius' Villa Jovis in the Bay of Naples are examples of popular natural seashore grottoes. Etymology The word ''grotto'' comes from Italian ''grotta'', Vulgar Latin ''grupta'', and Latin ''crypta'' ("a crypt"). It is also related by a historical accident to the word ''grotesque''. In the late 15th century, Romans accidentally unearthed Nero's '' Domus Aurea'' on the Palatine Hill—a series of rooms, decorated with designs of garlands, slender architectural framework, foliage, and animals. The rooms had sunk underground over time. The Romans who discovered this historical monument found it very strange, partly because it was uncovered from an "underworld" source. This led ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tool
A tool is an Physical object, object that can extend an individual's ability to modify features of the surrounding environment or help them accomplish a particular task. Although many Tool use by animals, animals use simple tools, only human beings, whose use of stone tools dates back hundreds of millennia, have been observed using tools to make other tools. Early human tools, made of such materials as Rock (geology), stone, bone, and wood, were used for the preparation of food, hunting, the manufacture of weapons, and the working of materials to produce clothing and useful Cultural artifact, artifacts and crafts such as pottery, along with the construction of housing, businesses, infrastructure, and transportation. The development of metalworking made additional types of tools possible. Harnessing energy sources, such as Working animal, animal power, wind, or steam, allowed increasingly complex tools to produce an even larger range of items, with the Industrial Revolution markin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sandstone
Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar, because they are the most resistant minerals to the weathering processes at the Earth's surface. Like uncemented sand, sandstone may be imparted any color by impurities within the minerals, but the most common colors are tan, brown, yellow, red, grey, pink, white, and black. Because sandstone beds can form highly visible cliffs and other topography, topographic features, certain colors of sandstone have become strongly identified with certain regions, such as the red rock deserts of Arches National Park and other areas of the Southwestern United States, American Southwest. Rock formations composed of sandstone usually allow the p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World Heritage Site
World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity". To be selected, a World Heritage Site is nominated by its host country and determined by the UNESCO's World Heritage Committee to be a unique landmark which is geographically and historically identifiable, having a special cultural or physical significance, and to be under a sufficient system of legal protection. World Heritage Sites might be ancient ruins or historical structures, buildings, cities, deserts, forests, islands, lakes, monuments, mountains or wilderness areas, and others. A World Heritage Site may signify a remarkable accomplishment of humankind and serve as evidence of humanity's intellectual history on the planet, or it might be a place of grea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rock Shelters Of Bhimbetka
The Bhimbetka rock shelters are an archaeological site in central India that spans the Paleolithic and Mesolithic periods, as well as the historic period. It exhibits the earliest traces of human life in India and evidence of the Stone Age starting at the site in Acheulean times. It is located in the Raisen district in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, about south-east of Bhopal. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that consists of seven hills and over 750 rock shelters distributed over .Javid, Ali and Javeed, Tabassum (2008), ''World Heritage Monuments and Related Edifices in India'', Algora Publishing, 2008, pages 15–19 At least some of the shelters were inhabited more than 100,000 years ago. The rock shelters and caves provide evidence of human settlement and the cultural evolution from hunter-gatherers to agriculture, and expressions of prehistoric spirituality. Some of the Bhimbetka rock shelters feature prehistoric cave paintings and the earliest are dated to 10,00 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
