Ancient Indian Entrance & Exit Signs Revealed - Airavatesvara Temple, Darasuram

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 I am currently researchingat the Darasuram Temple in India and wanted to show you something very interesting. As you can see there are lots of both local and foreign tourists that come to visit these temples and they often complain that there are no entrance or exit signs. So they get confused and don't know which way to get in and which way to get out because there are so many chambers and sub chambers in the temple.

  

Why don't Indian temples have entrance or exit signs? In fact, archeologists and religious experts will tell you that no such signboards or even writings have been found in ancient temples marking these doorways.  This is mind boggling because Indians have been writing in languages like Tamil and Sanskrit for at least 2000 years and you can even see these writings in the very temple that I am currently researching on.

Rest of the pillars have a twisted tail, making a ring

But I am gonna show you how intelligent the builders were many centuries ago. Let's say you are inside the sanctum and want to get out. Focus on the pillars and you will see the sculpture of this animal called yali on all the pillars. Notice that the tails of all these animals are curved or twisted. All of them except one, which is straight. Just walk towards this pillar and that's the way you should get out. This is the ancient way of marking the exit sign.

The pillar marking the exit sign, is not twisted and does not make a ring

Is this just a coincidence? No, because I am gonna show you the entrance sign as well. When you are outside and want to get in,  you can see the front side of the same figure on all the pillars. Now you can see that the trunks of these figures are slightly curved and point up.

The rest of the pillars have a straight trunk which point up

 Even though you see the stairs right here, don't enter through this way because you haven't seen the entrance sign yet. Now, I am walking around and you can see that the trunks are all straight except one.  This is the only sculpture with a twisted trunk. This is the way to properly enter this temple's chamber.

The entrance sign is marked with a twisted trunk that points down

This is a classic example of how valuable ancient knowledge has been lost. In fact, I just rediscovered this after many centuries because I checked with the local priests and archaeologists and they told me they had no idea about these signs.

This is the entrance stairway - On the right is the entrance sign

Just think, the ancient builders who historians describe as unsophisticated people, have created these signs many centuries ago, this temple being at least 850 years old. And we, who are supposed to be modern and sophisticated people are actually not so perceptive and don't pay attention to these nuances. 

Even though there is a stairway between these pillars on the other side, it is not an exit (It is the entrance)

If historians are right about ancient people, who could have used these secret signs? These signs prove that there was a better system in place - they had to enter through a certain doorway and exit through another. Today,  people random enter and exit through whichever way they can.  

Another remarkable feature is that there is no way you can see the exit sign from the outside because you don't need to see it as long as you are outside and it only becomes visible once you are inside and want to get out. And Vice Versa is also true. These sign boards if you will, need no maintenance and are immortal because they can't be destroyed. They are not just some external signs that can be removed and replaced, but they have been incorporated with the infrastructure of the temple. This proves that ancient sculptures were not only created just for art, optical illusions and humor but also to create a system.  

After discovering these ancient signs, I went to several modern temples built in the last few centuries to see if this tradition is still being followed. Sadly, these little nuances have been lost in the last 500 years and modern temples don't have these carvings that mark entrance and exit signs. I also noticed that the purpose of Yali, the animal on the pillars, had become a mere decorative one. 

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