Here, we look at and try to understand what lies beneath the cosmic water of Budhanilkanta temple.
For me personally, the love and respect of temples, traditions, it’s story ,the myth and the whole structure it self belonging in Nepal grew much after visiting other such and similar countries . One or few country as an example I can give which was an eye opening experience was in Egypt and Indonesia. Sometimes, I wonder the saying of –we hardly recognize the God within ourself and start searching the whole world for God is possibly true.
The Temple of Narayanthan or Budhanilkanta lies less than 4 k.m from my home. It is a walking distance or the best option would be to go in the early morning walk or jogging to and from the temple.For the unknown or who haven’t been to the temple, let me introduce you to the Temple of Budhanilkanta. It is the biggest statue of Lord made from pure dark basalt stone in entire Nepal. The statue is made representing Lord Vishnu, although some of the interviews of the priest attending the temple have stated that this is the statue of Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva. Though, the latter statement makes me more confused about the temple.
O.k , now I will twist a bit in this article. I wanted to write about this a long time back, but I had to be very careful in it. If you want to know about the origin or what is maybe as there are no factual data about this statue like many other lying in Nepal, you can just Google it. You will come with many national and international sites that claim to be the right one of the statue’s birth.I nearly forget the main theme of this site, I do not copy paste and for me being curios is what it all takes to get one step closer to truth.
After thinking for nearly a time and being very logical in this, I still find it hard to believe the effort and the time it took to built this ancient marvelous structure. I am stating this not from the point of being religious but being factual. This is a statement not from an agnostic or scientific mind but from a curios mind.
Maybe this maybe that..the origin.
After gathering much needed information to fuel my curiosity. I support the following , but still in doubt.The statue was built in seventh century. Those days Licchivi dynasty ruled the Kathmandu valley, and they were controlled by Gupta monarch from India. There is a seperate history lesson about the origin of Licchivi rulers, but they were very artistic and there are proof about their beautiful architecture wonders built in those era. Now here is where my curious mind empties.
The statue is stated to be built by dark basalt stone.It’s width is around 16.4 feet and length being 42.6 feet. This might not be so accurate as well and I will come to that in the end, about why everything about this statue is not so accurate but a guessing game.
For those who do not know about basalt stone, it is a type of stone made by cooing of the lava when the volcanos erupt. They are very rich in magnesium and iron and used in building architectures for centuries. Now, although this type of stone is found all around the world, to make this statue they would be needing at least a massive huge one piece of rock, after chipping and cutting for sure the stone must be massive in size than the statue itself.Nepal is a country of Himalayan range but there are no much evidence of it having any volcanic range. These type of rock are mostly removed from the ocean bed or where the earth crust is thin.
Now, the stone for building such is nowhere near found in Kathmandu or in Nepal itself. I tried looking at Government’s Department of Mines and Geology and I could not find much needed information about basalt stone although it has claimed to be found in Nepal.https://ibn.gov.np/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Mines-Minerals-Sector-Profile.pdf I might be wrong in this as it might be that found under the river bed. But for sure this massive huge rock had been moved from somewhere else, as there have been no evidence of such rock near that area. Now the question remains such as:
- If the rock is no where near found where the statue lies, where is its origin? Most importantly how it must have been transported or shifted. We are talking about seventh century where there are few elements of moving such heavy objects.
- If the rock had been brought from India as the ruling members of Licchivi monarch of those times where from India. How was it possible to move such a distance? What kind of instruments they must have been used? Is it the same technique of moving rocks while building Pyramids?
- The architecture is so exact and so many minute details have been carved that what and how must they have managed to do so? How many people were engaged in building this marvel?How many days or months or year must it have been taken to complete this statue without any flaw in it?
- There is no question that this statue had been buried in the soil for who knows how long. Does this mean that there was a civilization established at this area? If upon digging or researching the area what if such evidence of ancient civilization pops up in the nearby area?
- With such a massive statue of Lord Vishnu, we still are not aware with many questions such as what might be the exact dimension and weight of the statue or what might be the actual mineral it is made up of?
So, the more I think the more question comes forward.I personally love this huge marvel apart from the respect toward the God itself. I get hypnotized by its beauty and the scale of wonderful work by such talented group of craftsmanship. Now, coming to the main part most of the question above can be moved from IF to THIS. What I mean is there is no serious work done towards this statue of Budhanilkanta. What I heard was there was a barrier built by the religious people saying not to mess with the God’s form. This is not a good news for the country. What I say is this are the ancient wonders that can put our country in the limelight. There might by many such to be discovered and researched upon. But what if everywhere, they put the hold in it in the name of religion.Many question can be answered by Science such as they can mark us the date of origin by their scientific method. I am guessing what is some sort of politics involved by the people holding the authority guessing what if the truth comes out and their fairy tale goes unnoticed. Everyone has the right to know the truth and no-one has the right to stop truth from coming out.
I am not against the religion or the people who have been doing so for generation after generation. We have a proof in the developing countries that science and religion can go hand in hand.All I am saying is let’s invest in bringing researchers to get the fact about the origin of this statue. Who knows it might be the eighth wonder of the world. Who knows what might come forward after the research. As, the country is struggling to walk the talk all I say is it is not enough to advertise Nepal with Mount Everest or Lord Buddha. There might be other underlying opportunities that we don’t even care about. Just like me who didn’t appreciate the history until I had to reach other countries to shake me up.
This might just be the statue of David crafted by Michelangelo.No offense to those worshipping the Lord’s form. All I am trying to do is help my country with the help of the GOD.
