When historian and author William Dalrymple visited Angkor Wat, he wondered, ‘Why is the world’s biggest Hindu temple not in India but Cambodia?’. The idea seeded his latest book, ‘The Golden Road’. But at least one prominent archaeologist believes the inspiration for Angkor might have sprung from a unique temple in Himachal Pradesh
About 1,300 years ago, there were two powerful kings in north India: Yashovarman and Lalitaditya. Lalitaditya ruled over the hills from Kashmir; Yashovarman over the northern plains from Kannauj. Lalitaditya worshipped Vishnu; Yashovarman was a devotee of Shiva. Lalitaditya patronised temples with sloping, pyramid-like roofs, Yashovarman preferred curving temple spires, now known as the ‘Nagara’ style. And both Yashovarman and Lalitaditya thought they were better than the other. They wanted to become masters of the “four corners of the world”.
What does their story have to do with Cambodia’s Angkor Wat, the world’s “largest religious monument” which is as big as 227 football fields? And what does Angkor have to do with Masrur, a small, ruined temple carved out of one rock in Himachal Pradesh’s Kangra district?
What does their story have to do with Cambodia’s Angkor Wat, the world’s “largest religious monument” which is as big as 227 football fields? And what does Angkor have to do with Masrur, a small, ruined temple carved out of one rock in Himachal Pradesh’s Kangra district?