Bharat, the oldest civilization still thriving also has several other modern accolades to its name. This post is to capture some of those amazing records – both ancient and the new.
Largest Monolithic Temple & Largest Office Complex
The Kailash temple at Ellora, Chattrapati Sambhaji Nagar in Maharashtra os the largest monolithic temple in the world. We visited in 2019 to celebrate my 50th birthday. I had visited earlier as part of a school trip when the place was known as Aurangabad and we were singing paeans to the vile, barbaric Mughal despot Aurangzeb.
Do see this short video that’s part of a documentary series titled Ancient Aliens, on History Channel about the Kailasa Temple –
From the largest monolithic rock temple in the world to the largest office complex in the world !! Yes, India now boasts of the largest office complex in the world.
The Surat Diamond Bourse becomes the largest office complex in the world surpassing the Pentagon. It will accommodate 65000 employees once the operations start in Nov this year. Literally every single diamond in the world will pass through this building, as always :). 90% of the world’s diamonds are cut and polished in Surat for the longest time now. 15 storeys high, spread over 35 acres and nine rectangular towers. It has 7.1 million square feet of floor space.
Tallest Statue in the World
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel looks upon his beloved motherland from a height of 790 ft (Statue is 597 feet tall, the total height including the pedestal is 790 ft)….. The statue of unity is the tallest statue in the world. Sardar Patel deserves this admiration and homage because in the known history of mankind, no one else has united 560+ princely states into one country. The process of unifying the princely states was started on Aug 6, 1947 and completed by Jan 1948, with just a few states taking longer.
We are still together, bound by our unifying Sanatana Dharma that teaches us to be inclusive.
And the tallest Monolithic statue in the world is also in India. Bhagwan Gommateshwara’s statue at Shravanabelagola in Karnataka at 58 ft is the world’s tallest monolithic statue. The statue was built around 983 AD and its dedicated to the Jain God Bahubali.
Emperor Chandragupta Maurya (Emperor Ashoka’s father) was a Jain and South India has several Jain temples, once again proving that this piece of land has always had a single unifying thread no matter how many Kingdoms came and went. We didn’t need the invaders or the colonisers to make us into a country !
Longest Double Decker Viaduct
When we were in Nagpur in Nov 2022, we passed through the world’s longest double decker viaduct. We took some pictures of it –
Initially it was termed as Asia’s longest multilevel viaduct, but the Guinness Book of World records has accepted India’s claim that the 3.14 kms long viaduct built by the Maharashtra Metro Rail Corporation Ltd is indeed the world’s longest.
Oldest Civilization on Earth
Well there are no competitors for this title – Bharat is the oldest civilisation on Earth and Hinduism is the oldest religion in the world which continues to be relevant and vibrant to this day. Sanatana Dharma is timeless. When archaeologists excavate any historical site anywhere in the World, something from Bharat is found and rightfully so.
Varanasi is the oldest city that has seen continuous habitation. If we take Nilesh Oak’s dating of the Ramayana as 12209 BC, then Kashi has seen continuous habitation for 14000+ years !!
Thrilled to see India through the lens of different “world records”. It’s just another way to celebrate our beloved motherland. Jai Hind. Jai Hind Ki Sena.