Myth is the cousin of history, born in the turmoil of time. Often, it predicts the times to come, and the absurd turning into reality. Or vice versa. India is a country of myth and magic, the most mysterious land in the Orient. Much before children learned about the Wright brothers, they would have heard stories of flying machines and missiles from their grandmothers, taken from the epics, the Ramayan and the Mahabharata. Perhaps the ‘pushpak vimana’ anticipated the Boeing 747 or the Brahmastra was an ancestor of the cruise missile. Or they truly existed. Who knows? It was written that Krishna could kill thousands with his Sudarshan chakra or Hanuman could bring the mountain on which the miracle herb Sanjeevani flourished. Call these folktales or epics, but the stories bear some uncanny resemblance to the marvels that science is creating everyday. Frequent invasions and conversions by Islam and Christianity destroyed much of India’s heritage. As the invaders or rulers returned to their homeland, they took away some—or sometimes more of India—with them. However, all is not lost. There remain more unexplored secrets existing in lesser-known corners of the land that are obscured by tourism-hyped places, which add to the diversity of a country known for its unexplored realms.
A column that defies gravity and peaks that baffle geologists | Ima Market, the world’s only market run by women | A little bit of Denmark in Tranquebar and Portugal at Anjidiv Islands |
Mayong, the land of magic, wizards and ancient temples |
Babia the crocodile at Ananthapura Lake Temple, Kerala |
Tallest waterfall plunge and the ‘disappearing’ act of Holy Rosary Church |
The holiest of holy places, Lord Rama’s bow and the merging of seas |
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Earliest signs of life at the Bhimbetka and Edakkal caves |
The soldier’s shrine, a ‘living’ martyr of the Sino-Indian war |
With inputs from George Poikayil,Suhas Yellapantula,Prasanta Mazumdar,Marx Tejaswi,Udaya Kumar & Sunita Raghu