‘My Devi comes to me’: The 4-word answer by world's greatest mathematician, Ramanujan that filmmaker Shekhar Kapur connects to Kailasa Temple, a UNESCO site's mystery

Monuments often leave many in awe, of its beauty, its symbol, its symmeterical architecture and craftsmanship it showcases.
However, Bollywood filmmaker, Shekhar Kapur raised a question that will get you thinking. Kailasa Temple at the Ellora Caves is the world’s largest monolithic rock-cut structure, it was carved from top to bottom out of a single piece of solid basalt using traditional tools such as hammers and chisels. This UNESCO World Heritage site is dedicated to Lord Shiva to represent his heavenly abode, Mount Kailash. Speaking about the monument's spectacular craftsmanship, Shekhar Kapur reflected on the precision behind each design of the temple and asked a simple question: what happened if even one detail went wrong?

What if one sculpture was carved wrong?

Recently, ex-CA and now a filmmaker, Shekhar Kapur, director of Anil Kapoor and Sridevi’s Mr India, took to X to share his thoughts about the Kailasa Temple. Kapur wondered what would have happened if a sculptor had “chiselled a nose” on one of the sculptures incorrectly. Would the entire temple have needed to be carved out again? Yet, such was their precision and craft, "they did not get it wrong".


What has left him fascinated is the method that was used to create this breathtakingly perfect mounument. Kailasa Temple was carved on a huge monolithic rock-structure, which itself sounds challenging if you think about it. One wrong move, and the art would be destroyed. To add to that, the temple was carved downwards with just hammer and chisels.

The extraordinary attention to detail of the carvings and sculptures inside the temple, is a marvel to look at, because of their form and geometry. This precison raised a question for Shekhar Kapur as he described it as a “a mystery greater than the mystery of the Pyramids of Giza”.

Kailasa Temple and the mathematics of ancient India

Kapur then connected the temple’s architectural precision with what he described as the mathematical traditions of ancient India. He said the system of mathematics in ancient India were part of the scriptures and formed the basis of much of the country’s music, art and architecture. He particularly referred to Taal in music. According to Kapur, ancient Indian philosophy was not linear but circular, with the finite meeting the infinite repeatedly in concentric circles, much like the universe.

He drew a connection between this way of thinking and concepts in modern science, saying the closest modern science comes to it is what is known as quantum computing and quantum entanglement. Kapur specifically referred to Google’s Willow, calling it the “world’s fastest Quantum Computer”.

Shekhar Kapur on colonialism and lost wisdom

Kapur also shared his view on how colonial rule changed India’s educational system and "made it linear". He added that the colonisers did not have the knowledge and understanding of quantum concepts and India to lost this ancient knowledge and wisdom of its ancestors. His comments therefore moved beyond the physical construction of Kailasa Temple to a larger reflection on mathematics, philosophy, education and the relationship between knowledge and wisdom.

Shekhar Kapur recalls Srinivasa Ramanujan

Kapur then connected his thoughts to one of India’s most celebrated mathematicians, Srinivasa Ramanujan. He referred to Ramanujan as the “greatest Indian Mathematician of all time” and recalled how he was asked how he solved some of the perplexing mathematical questions that had challenged leading physicists and mathematicians around the world. According to Kapur’s account, Ramanujan’s response was deeply spiritual. He said, “My Devi comes to me.”

For Kapur, that statement fits into the larger question raised by Kailasa Temple: how could such extraordinary mathematical thinking, artistic precision and architectural detail emerge from an era without the tools and technology available today?