Akshardham - The World's Largest Hindu Temple. Its Official!!
In 2004 Spring, I participated in a quiz program which was conducted for all TCS-USAA employees and one of the questions put forward was “Where is the world’s largest Hindu temple in the world?” Everyone came up with some place name in India such as Madhurai , Puri etc. But, the quiz master turned down all of them with I-know-you-cannot-tell kind of smile. Finally, he told that a temple dedicated to the Lord Vishnu at Angkor in Cambodia is the largest one. Pictures of this temple can be found here(site is Japanese language).
I was very much surprised how come India, with thousands of temples in it, did not have the distinction of having the largest Hindu temple. But, what I was not aware then that there were around 11,000 people building a marvelous marble temple in the capital city of India that would become the largest temple one day. Yes. I am referring to Akshardham temple which made it to Gunnies book yesterday for being the largest hindu temple in world. Below are few statistics about the temple.
* It consists of 234 ornately carved pillars, 9 ornate domes, 20 quadrangled shikhars, a spectacular Gajendra Pith (plinth of stone elephants) and 20,000 murtis and statues of India's great sadhus, devotees, acharyas and divine personalities
* The monument was built after over 300 million man hours of services rendered by 11,000 volunteers, sadhus and artisans
* The ornate external wall (Mandovar) is the only and largest, intricately carved structure with dimensions of 611ft x 31ft that is built in the last 800 years
* The Gajendra Pith stretching for 1,070 ft and weighing 3,000 tons, has 148 full-sized elephants, 42 birds and animals, 125 human sculptures!
* The Akshardham parikrama (circumambulatory path) consists of 1,152 pillars, 145 windows and 154 samvaran shikhars; amounting to a total of 53,956 stones.
* It is entirely composed of sandstone and marble. No usage of steel at all.
Watch this stunning video about the temple.
Few magnificent pictures taken inside and around the temple.
Update: Launch PicLens to see the slide show.
I was very much surprised how come India, with thousands of temples in it, did not have the distinction of having the largest Hindu temple. But, what I was not aware then that there were around 11,000 people building a marvelous marble temple in the capital city of India that would become the largest temple one day. Yes. I am referring to Akshardham temple which made it to Gunnies book yesterday for being the largest hindu temple in world. Below are few statistics about the temple.
* It consists of 234 ornately carved pillars, 9 ornate domes, 20 quadrangled shikhars, a spectacular Gajendra Pith (plinth of stone elephants) and 20,000 murtis and statues of India's great sadhus, devotees, acharyas and divine personalities
* The monument was built after over 300 million man hours of services rendered by 11,000 volunteers, sadhus and artisans
* The ornate external wall (Mandovar) is the only and largest, intricately carved structure with dimensions of 611ft x 31ft that is built in the last 800 years
* The Gajendra Pith stretching for 1,070 ft and weighing 3,000 tons, has 148 full-sized elephants, 42 birds and animals, 125 human sculptures!
* The Akshardham parikrama (circumambulatory path) consists of 1,152 pillars, 145 windows and 154 samvaran shikhars; amounting to a total of 53,956 stones.
* It is entirely composed of sandstone and marble. No usage of steel at all.
Watch this stunning video about the temple.
Few magnificent pictures taken inside and around the temple.
Update: Launch PicLens to see the slide show.
Labels: akshardham, angkor, guinnes book, hindu temple, photos, video
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posted by Krish talk at 4:22 PM
3 Comments:
Nice info.
hi...
excellenet in deed...
given the commitment our [indian] people can do/achieve the best
BUT for consistency ....
thank u for the collection dear....pl do keep on adding such interesting....
i m speechlesss...
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