India has come out of widespread superstition, where everything unbelievable was still believable. Indians are now a rational lot, and no longer bound by the idea of accepting something for the heck of accepting or just because they can’t confront back with facts and stats. Yet there are some mysteries which remain covert and obscure and these feature in our Unsolved Mysteries of India list
It is important to note that these are unsolved mysteries of India because we still do not have rational explanation to explain these mysteries. Also, conspiracy theories do not find a place in the list, and for a good reason that no rational explanation can remove the doubt from the minds of conspiracy theorists.
So lets have a look at 10 Greatest unsolved mysteries of India.
1. Ganesha Drinking Milk
It was a normal morning on the day of 21st September 1995. A strange event started getting reported, in which statues of the Hindu deity Ganesha were said to drink milk offerings from his worshipers. We all know that statues do not drink milk, right?
Furthermore this event was witnessed across cities in India by thousands and perhaps millions of people.
By noon the news started spreading beyond India. Hindu temples in the United Kingdom, Canada, UAE, and Nepal among other countries also witness the same phenomena. Even in United States, it was observed at the Hindu Temple Society of North America (Ganesh Temple)
The incident led to widespread hysteria across the country and temples were thronged by devotees throughout the day. However, the madness lasted for just one day and life went back to normal the next day, when the idols stopped drinking milk. This remained in the memory of people as one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of India
Rational Explanation
Trying to explain the phenomenon, Ross McDowall from India’s Ministry of Science and Technology travelled to a temple in New Delhi and made an offering of milk containing a food colouring.
As the level of liquid in the spoon dropped, the scientists hypothesised that after the milk disappeared from the spoon, it coated the statue beneath where the spoon was placed. With this result, the scientists offered capillary action as an explanation; the surface tension of the milk was pulling the liquid up and out of the spoon, before gravity caused it to run down the front of the statue.
For many who believed in the miracle, further proof was offered when the phenomenon seemed to cease before the end of the day, with many statues refusing to take more milk even before noon. A small number of temples outside of India reported the effect continuing for several more days, but no further reports were made after the beginning of October. However, skeptics hold the incident to be an example of mass hysteria.
Why does it remain a mystery
If the phenomena was due to capillary action only, then it does not explain why it did not work with other idols. Besides, this should take place today in Ganesha idols. But it doesn’t. If you try to feed a Ganesha idol with milk today, it will not absorb it. It remains an unsolved mystery of India. Until a day when the same happens again and better technology of today can unearth the mystery
2. A Man Who Lives Without Water and Food for Over 78 Years!
Also known as Mataji, Prahlad Jani is an Indian sadhu. Prahlad has been in news and in series of scientific researches for his claims that he hasn’t eaten or drank anything since 1940. He says that he is a devotee of Hindu Goddess Amba and believes that he can survive without food and water.
Scientists have run many tests on him since 2003 and there is no explanation to how this is possible.
Scientific Investigations
Two observational studies of Jani have been conducted in 2003 and 2010. Both the studies confirmed Jani’s unbelievable ability to survive without food and water during the testing periods, although neither study was submitted to a scientific journal and was not up-to scientific standards.
Why does it remain a mystery
Till date no one has been able to explain the phenomena in detail. Most skeptics have been relying upon the argument that it is not physiologically possible for a man to survive without food and water for even 15 days.
Furthermore it has been observed that Prahlad Jani even gained weight after 7 days of controlled observation without food and water. Even if it were a hoax and he did consume some water, no one has been able to explain how did he gain weight without consuming any calories.
He was not even allowed to touch water for 7 days even for bathing. It is almost impossible for a normal human being to survive without water for 7 days!
3. Jodhpur Sonic Boom
On morning of December 18, 2012, precisely at 11:25 AM, people of Jodhpur, India were frightened by a deafening sound that appeared out of nowhere in the sky.
The sound resembled the sound caused by a jet plane crossing the speed of sound. This phenomenon is known as sonic boom but the problem with Jodhpur sound boom was that the sound was far nosier and more profound than a sonic boom.
It was clarified that no planes had flown over Jodhpur and neither any explosions had taken place around the area.
Indian air force said that sound was not an outcome of testing and aircraft.They said sonic booms are always tested at least 60 kilometers outside the town areas where there is no population.
Why does it remain a mystery
No explanation has been found about this sonic boom.This booms were actually taking place all over the globe including USA and UK. Geologists reported that the seismic readings during the booms were unlike anything ever recorded before.
So, what caused these booms? This question isn’t going to be answered anytime soon and we can only hope that someday we get to know the cause and source.
4. Village of Twins, Kerala
Kodinhi a village of over 400 pair of twins that still remain a mystery to the scientists
There is a village in Kerala state of Southerner India known as Kodinhi. It is known that the village experiences an abnormal amount of twins biths. According to the birth data, every year the estimate of the twins increases and no one knows the reason behind this.
The village experiences one of the most mysterious and unexplained phenomenon in the World.
According to estimates, there are at least 400 pairs of twins in the village that has a population of 2000 families. While official estimates in 2008 pegged the number of twins in the village to 280 pairs, the number has only increased in the years that followed, residents point out.
Why does it remain a mystery
This is all the more remarkable because twins are especially rare in India—on average, four out of every 1,000 Indian births are twins. In Kodinhi, the number is 45 per 1,000 births. Doctors have absolutely no idea what is causing this strange phenomenon. They assume there must be some unknown hereditary factor at work, or maybe it’s something they eat
5.Ghost Soldier On duty in Nathula Pass
An Indian soldier who died near Nathula Pass in eastern Sikkim is said to be the saviour of all army personnel who serve in this region. Baba Harbhajan Singh is known as “Hero of Nathula” who helps army personnel in this inhospitable high altitude region of the Himalayas. It has become a common folklore among army men there and thus in his honor, they have built a shrine.
Harbhajan Singh was born in Punjab in the year 1941, joined Indian army in the year in 1956 and served with the 14 Rajput Regiment. In the year 1967, he met with an accident and slipped in a glacier and died when leading a herd of mules carrying supplies at Nathu-La pass.
Though his body was recovered three days later and cremated with National honors people of Nathu-La pass aren’t ready to believe that he is dead! Reason being he is believed to wake up soldiers on duty at this post and give them alert message about expected enemy attacks! After his death, he came in the dreams of a soldier and asked him to construct a shrine in his name. As a result of today, Nathu-La Pass has a shrine built in name of Baba Harbhajan Singh.
Dime a dozen Stories of Harbhajan Singh waking up soldiers in the night and giving them instructions to patrol the border is common among the troops in this region.
Why does it remain a mystery
Interestingly even the professional Indian Army has accepted that Baba Harbhajan Singh is alive and he was given regular promotions and until he retired with Honorary Captain post.
Till his retirement every year on 11th September, a train carrying ‘his’ belongings used to depart for his hometown accompanied with fellow soldiers, and reach his home with the belief he is going on vacation. Even the Chinese troops during flag meet pay their respect to Baba Harbhajan Singh! He has been considered as Holy Saint by people in the region and Indian soldiers respect him as ‘Baba’
6. Yeti sightings in Himalayas
It is not just an exaggerated hoax, but there have been clear signs of a Yeti in the Himalayan region. Though there have also been several reports and photographs and other traces of large footprints over open snow lands, no physical body has ever been found.
Several studies have even claimed that the Yeti might be an ancient relative of humans who is somehow thriving in complete solidarity. However, till some concrete proof is found the Yeti remains one of the biggest unsolved mysteries in the world.
Why does it remain a mystery
In 1921 the explorer and politician Charles Howard-Bury led a British expedition to Mount Everest. He spotted some large footprints and was told that they belonged to “metoh-kangmi”. This means something like “man-bear snow-man”.
By the 1950s, interest ran high. Various mountaineers launched expeditions to find the creature.
The mountaineer Reinhold Messner is perhaps the most famous Yeti-hunter of all. He claims to have seen one in the Himalayas in the 1980s, and returned dozens of times to get to the bottom of the mystery.
7. The 500-year old Mummy of Lama Tenzin
While 500 years old Mummy sounds nothing like a mystery when we have mummies several thousands year old in Egypt. It is worth noting that this mummy was not mummified. Rather its a corpse which is as well preserved as a mummy.
A trek in the Himalayas to the small village of Ghuen in Spiti reveals the eerie and ancient tradition of self-mummification. Here, in a tiny single-room concrete structure, rests a 500-year-old mummy protected by only a thin sheet of glass. The remains of a 15th-century Buddhist monk named Sangha Tenzin, the mummy is remarkably well preserved, with unbroken skin and hair on the head. Sangha Tenzin’s body apparently went through a mysterious natural mummification.
8. Indus Valley Civilization
The Indus Valley Civilization was an ancient civilization that developed maybe as early as 3600 BCE. We can’t read their writing, we’re not sure where they came from, we don’t know why they settled around the Indus River, and we’re unsure how they civilization fell! None of this stops us from learning about and trying to understand this mysterious civilization.
The Indus Valley civilization raises a great many, largely unresolved, questions. Why did this civilization, considering its sophistication, not spread beyond the Indus Valley?
In general, the area where the Indus valley cities developed is arid, and one can surmise that urban development took place along a river that flew through a virtual desert. The Indus Valley people did not develop agriculture on any large scale, and consequently did not have to clear away a heavy growth of forest.
Nor did they have the technology for that, since they were confined to using bronze or stone implements. They did not practice canal irrigation and did not have the heavy plough.
Most significantly, under what circumstances did the Indus Valley cities undergo a decline? The first attacks on outlying villages by Aryans appear to have taken place around 2,000 BCE near Baluchistan, and of the major cities, at least Harappa was quite likely over-run by the Aryans.
In the Rig Veda there is mention of a Vedic war god, Indra, destroying some forts and citadels, which could have included Harappa and some other Indus Valley cities.
Why does it remain a mystery
The conventional historical narrative speaks of a cataclysmic blow that struck the Indus Valley Civilization around 1,600 BCE, but that would not explain why settlements at a distance of several hundred miles from each other were all eradicated. The most compelling historical narrative still suggests that the demise and eventual disappearance of the Indus Valley Civilization, which owed something to internal decline, nonetheless was facilitated by the arrival in India of the Aryans.
It remains one of the unsolved mysteries of Indian history.
9. The Nine Unknown Men
The Nine Unknown Men are to India what the Illuminati is to the Western world, but even more pervasive and mysterious. According to legend, this powerful secret society was founded by Emperor Asoka in 273 BC after a bloody battle that took the lives of 100,000 men.
The function of the Nine Unknown Men was to preserve and develop the sort of secret information that would be too dangerous in the hands of the uninitiated.
Each of the Nine was tasked with holding a special book of knowledge, ranging from propaganda to microbiology. Some of them are even said to hold the secrets of anti-gravity and time travel. Occasionally, some of this precious information leaks out into the world – for instance, it is said that the martial art of Judo was based on “leaks” from the Book of Physiology.
The number of the Unknown Men is always nine, and their undisguised contacts with the outside world are unknown.
10. The silent village of Kuldhara
A few kilometers away from the city of Jaisalmer, lies a village named Kuldhara. What’s striking about this place is that this village had been inhabited from around 1295 A.D till 19th century…until one day each when each and every one of them just disappeared. And no signs of any massacre or abduction were found in the place.
The place is also said to be cursed, and the locals say that no one, who has tried to occupy it, has survived.
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