Bṛhat Anveṣī

A travel program to contemporize ancient Indian tradition by guiding travel groups through hitherto rarely explored sacred kṣetras of India.

Each chapter of Bṛhat Anveṣī focuses on a specific area of India with dense concentrations of great temples and heritage centers. Anveṣī chapters are thrilling rides of three to four days, full of exploration of local cuisine, culture and heritage. Designed to satisfy both your wanderlust and curiosity, leaving you with an elevated taste of the cultural magic of India.

Pankaj Saxena is a scholar of Hindu temple architecture, Hindu arts and aesthetics.

He has visited more than 1200 ancient temples all over India and documented photographic, historical and oral evidence of the living tradition centred around the Hindu temple. He writes on the meaning and purpose of the Hindu temple in Hindu society and history and has authored various articles on that topic.

anveṣī experience

A collection of traveller images, trip videos, testimonials and writings from our trips. To submit your own experience, please write to anveshi@brhat.in

Travel Diary by Kriteesh Vajrapani - Karnataka

The Bṛhat Anveṣī trip for me started at the airport itself. The wait was more rewarding than I expected...Read More

Yatra – Journey to the Divine

Siddharth Balaji recounts his experience on the Karnataka Chapter. Read on his blog.

FAQs

about anveṣī

Man is born to search: for truth; for beauty; for meaning in life. Kaśmīr Śaiva darśana tells us that, vimarṣa - Śiva reflecting upon himself – is one of the highest goals of existence itself. According to another school of thought, Nature nudged evolution to a point where a species would emerge capable of reflecting upon itself and the mysteries of the cosmos, life and existence.

Without getting deep into darśana, the point is that, man is born to search, for anveṣaṇa. The word anveṣaṇa means discovery, and the one who searches is called – anveṣī – the discoverer. This element of discovery has mainly two dimensions – inner and outer. And the two are connected. The favorite theme of literature is wanderlust/ fernweh – the innate urge of man to go out and discover the world.

Yes that urge to discover the world is innate in man. To search for what is novel, what is new is basic. To discover the undiscovered, to unravel the hidden, to find pleasure in the very act of discovery – anveṣaṇa – comes naturally to man.

Human history is full of courageous journeys taken by man, individually and in groups, changing the course of entire humanity in the process. This urge is biological, as most other species also have this urge to chart new waters and to discover new territories. We are born – anveṣī.

But there is a deep inner dimension to this urge for discovery. While discovering the world we also discover for the self. While looking for the new, we also crave for what is eternal and everlasting. While looking for change, we also look for the unchanging and the permanent. In short, while we discover the outer world, we also go on an inner journey an inner – anvekṣaṇa.

In Bhāratavarṣa and Hindu dharma, we discovered a perfect way to harmonize these two seemingly dichotomous urges of man in one fulfilling quest. We created an entire tradition of traveling to sacred kṣetrās, where both the inner and the outer quest of man for discovery is quenched in a way that is not just fulfilling, fun and satisfying but also spiritually and culturally elevating.

Bṛhat Anveṣī seeks to contemporize this ancient Indian tradition by taking the cohort to sacred kṣetrās of India which are hitherto almost unexplored by most of us, but which are not just full of architectural, sculptural and cultural splendor, but are also living systems carrying beautiful cultural traditions for thousands of years.

We will take you to various kṣetrās in a cultural ensemble in every edition of Bṛhat Anveṣī. We seek to satisfy the wanderlust in you in a way which will leave you not just intellectually satisfied but will also elevate your understanding and knowledge to the next level.