Downtown Ajmer and Pushkar

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The present urban fabric of many cities and towns in India have their roots in the late 19th c and early 20th c, especially the “old town”/”old city” parts of town. Individual structures in these places may be older, but as functional urban entities, this is usually how old the urban landscape is. I’ve become really interested in these parts of town, and while visiting Ajmer recently sought it’s “downtown” out. Pushkar as a whole seems to be from that era. Continue reading →

Four Ghurid Mosques

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The four mosques discussed in this post are among the earliest royally-sanctioned mosques in north India, dating from the last decade of the 12th c and first decade of the 13th c (1190-1210 AD). All four were built in the wake of the conquest of north India by the armies of Mohammad Ghouri, and are said to be built at the sites of remains of earlier Hindu temples. Continue reading →

Avantipur and Martand

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Avantipur and Martand, on the road from Srinagar to Pehelgam, are the site of three imposing Hindu temples. The two temples in Avantipur date from the 9th c AD, and the the largest of the three in Martand is from the 8th c. While all three temples are in ruins, there is enough there (after reconstruction) to give an idea of what stone temple architecture in Kashmir from that time would have looked like. The style of these temples is unique, heavily influenced by the Buddhist Gandhara school of art, which in turn is heavily influenced by Greek and Hellenistic art and architecture. Scholarship mentions that these Kashmiri temples also show direct Roman influences, but I wonder if this influence could also be redirected from later Gandharan times. Continue reading →

Jageshwar

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I had visited Jageshwar around 10 years ago for a short while on the way to Pataal-Bhuvaneshwar, and always wanted to get back there because I remembered the setting and temples to be beautiful. The main Jageshwar temple complex consists of a collection of large temples and smaller shrines all in close proximity, and it’s really nice to walk and sit around the temples. Continue reading →