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The catalogue
55 places to sift through. Narrow by kind, country, period or how firmly each one is established — contested and pseudoarchaeological claims are labelled here, never hidden.
🇮🇳 India · Temple complex
Chaulukya–Solanki Golden Age (960–1243 CE) · Hindu Solanki (Gurjara–Pratihara derivative); Surya cult
1026 Bhima I Chaulukya: 100-m Surya Kund mirror tank and equinox-aligned sanctum on Tropic of Cancer.
🇮🇳 India · Temple complex
Gupta Golden Age (Classical India 320–550 CE) · Gupta Vaishnava; later Jain Chandella
525 CE earliest Nagara Panchayatana shikhara — Vishnu Anantasayana and Betwa Jain cliff.
🇮🇳 India · Temple complex
Karkota dynasty (Kashmir Hindu, 625–855 CE) · Kashmiri Shaiva–Saura (Surya) with Gandhara–Greek syncretism
Lalitaditya 725–56 Kashmir's greatest: 84-column peristyle on Mattan Karewa, Greco-Buddhist limestone, Miri-sacked.
🇮🇳 India · Temple complex
Sunga → early Satavahana (Shunga art) 150–75 BCE · Sunga (Dhanabhuti lineage)
Great Sunga stupa 150–75 BCE — 11 m vedika with toranas, Jataka-labelled reliefs and yakshi pillars (Cunningham).
🇮🇳 India · Rock-cut
Early Medieval Indian (Vakataka–Chalukya Buddhism) · Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhist monastic (Sopara branch)
Kanheri northern 11-cave rainy-season retreat 500–700 CE with chaitya and channel cisterns.
🇮🇳 India · Rock-cut
Early Medieval (Rashtrakuta) · Rashtrakuta Shaivite Brahminical (Kannarid influence)
Urban Deccan basalt 8th-c Shiva quarry-temple 40×28 m with circular Nandi mandapa, unfinished Rashtrakuta.
🇮🇳 India · Temple complex
Mauryan 3rd c BCE → Sunga 2nd c BCE → Gupta 5th c · Mauryan Buddhist sangha → Sunga
Sanchi mandala outlier 10 km SW — 8 stupas (Stupa 2 relic casket, Brahmi) on Betwa ridge.
🇮🇳 India · Temple complex
Gupta Classical (Chandragupta II to Kumaragupta) 320–550 CE · Gupta
Gupta’s open-air bible — 20 sandstone caves with Varaha (402 CE) and Durga, Chandragupta II's inscriptions on Udayagiri Hill.
🇮🇳 India · Temple complex
Mauryan 3rd c BCE → Sunga–Gupta 2nd c BCE–6th c CE · Mauryan → Sunga → Gupta
Sanchi's western gate — 60-stupa Halali cluster with 30 m Great Stupa and Sariputra relics (9 km W).
🇮🇳 India · Ancient city
Chalcolithic 1200–600 BCE → Sunga 200 BCE → Gupta 4–6 c. CE · Chalcolithic → Sunga → Gupta (Vakataka-Hunas)
Gupta temple city Airikina on Bina river (600 BCE–600 CE) — home to 2.66 m Varaha boar (510 CE) and earliest Sati inscription.
🇮🇳 India · Temple complex
Maurya 3 c. BCE → Sunga 187–78 BCE → Gupta 4–6 c. CE · Maurya → Sunga → Indo-Greek → Gupta (Malwa)
Ancient Vidisha (Besnagar) capital with Heliodorus Garuda column (113 BCE) — first Indo-Greek Krishna inscription 6.5 m monolith.
🇮🇳 India · Ancient city
Vidarbha Megalithic 1100–300 BCE → Maurya 300–187 → Sunga–Satavahana 187 BCE–250 CE → Vakataka 250–500 CE · Vidarbha Megalithic → Mauryan → Satavahana → Vakataka (Vidarbha Early Historic)
Vidarbha fortress-city Padmavati on Wainganga (1100 BCE–300 CE) — 4 km rampart with two Satavahana stupas (38 m) and megalithic-to-Mauryan continuity.
🇮🇳 India · Ancient city
Maurya 300–187 BCE → Satavahana 187 BCE–230 CE → Vakataka 250–400 CE · Satavahana (Periplus Tagara)
Periplus Tagara emporium (300 BCE–400 CE) on Terna — 50+ Roman amphorae and Ter ivory lady with Roman hair, 40 ha rampart.
🇮🇳 India · Temple complex
Mauryan Ashoka 3rd c BCE → Sunga 1st c BCE–2nd c CE · Mauryan–Sunga Buddhist (Ashokan–Sunga complex)
Deorkothar Katra Stupa Complex — Ashokan–Sunga Buddhist establishment (3rd c BCE possible Ashoka, 1st c BCE inscribed pillar) with 4 stupas, 30.5-m brick stupa-1 with stone vedika rail similar to…
🇮🇳 India · Temple complex
Mauryan 3rd c BCE → Satavahana 1st c BCE–3rd c CE · Mauryan–Satavahana Deccan Buddhist (Bhima valley)
Sannati — major Early Historic Buddhist stupa complex (3rd c BCE–3rd c CE) on Bhima River at Sannati, Kalaburagi district, excavated 1986–2002 by A. Sundara (ASI Dharwad) and later Karnataka Dept.
🇮🇳 India · Temple complex
Mauryan 3rd c BCE → Satavahana 1st c BCE–3rd c CE · Mauryan–Satavahana Buddhist (Bhima valley)
Kanaganahalli — mega Buddhist stupa complex (3rd c BCE–3rd c CE) 3 km SE Sannati on Bhima River, Kalaburagi, excavated 1994–2002 by Karnataka Archaeology Dept (K.P. Poonacha).
🇮🇳 India · Temple complex
Maurya 3 c. BCE → Sunga 2–1 c. BCE → Gupta 4–6 c. CE · Maurya → Sunga Buddhist (Ashokan sphere)
Four-stupa Mauryan–Sunga Buddhist hilltop complex (3 c. BCE–6 c. CE) on Vindhyan escarpment between Rewa and Prayag.
🇮🇳 India · Rock-cut
Maurya → Satavahana 230 BCE–220 CE → Vakataka 250–400 CE · Satavahana Early Buddhist (Hinayana) → Brahmanical
200+ Satavahana rock-cut caves on Nanaghat pass (300 BCE–400 CE) — Naganika Brahmi inscription of Vedic rites.
🇮🇳 India · Temple complex
Mauryan Ashoka → Sunga 3rd–1st c BCE · Sunga Buddhist Hinayana — early narrative sculpture
Bharhut Satna Stupa — Sunga–Satavahana Buddhist stupa (3rd c BCE Ashokan nucleus, 2nd c BCE Sunga rail decoration) at Bharhut 15 km Satna, discovered 1873 by Cunningham with 40 ft stupa, red…
🇮🇳 India · Temple complex
Mauryan 3rd c BCE → Sunga–Gupta 2nd c BCE–5th c · Mauryan → Sunga → Gupta
Sanchi SE terminus — 3 brick stupas (Stupa 1 17 m) on watershed with reservoir (17 km SE).
🇮🇳 India · Temple complex
Saka–Gupta 1st c BCE–6th c CE · Saka–Gupta Brahmanical (Vishnu–Varaha) — Early Classical
Eran Gupta Temple Complex — ancient Airikina (Saka–Gupta 1st c BCE–510 CE) on Bina River at Sagar, famed for earliest Gupta temples and Eran boar (Varaha) inscription of Toramana (510 CE) and Alchon…
🇮🇳 India · Temple complex
Mauryan to Ikshvaku 300 BCE–400 CE · Satavahana / Ikshvaku
Largest Buddhist stupa in Deccan (c.300 BCE–300 CE), 50 m diameter drum plus 15 m high dome and 42 m high railing, capital of Satavahana (Andhra) empire's Buddhist centre Dhanyakataka.
🇮🇳 India · Temple complex
Shunga 187–78 BCE · Shunga (Maurya successors)
Great Shunga Buddhist stupa (c.150 BCE) whose 8 m-high gateway and 3.2 m limestone railing — longest early Indian stone railing (40 m diameter stupa) — was dismantled in 1873–76 by Cunningham and is…
🇮🇳 India · Temple complex
Pallava–Pandya Early Medieval · Digambara Jain
Pallava–Pandya Jain cave complex (7th–9th c. CE) on Sittanavasal hillock, famed for Arivar Koil — earliest Tamil rock-cut Jain shrine with natural-cavern-pillared mandapa and Brahmi-Tamil inscription.
