Joe Rogan’s Awe Reignites Global Fascination With Maharashtra’s Kailasa Temple

Joe Rogan’s astonishment at Maharashtra’s eighth‑century Kailasa Temple has renewed global interest in the massive monolithic structure. Carved top‑down from a single mountain, the temple’s precision, scale, and history have impressed historians and viewers alike. His remarks, echoed by author Amish Tripathi, have sparked rising searches and revived attention to India’s extraordinary rock‑cut architectural legacy.

American podcaster and comedian Joe Rogan has unexpectedly thrust one of India’s greatest architectural achievements back into the spotlight. On a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, he described being “mind‑blown” after discovering the Kailasa Temple at the Ellora Caves—an eighth‑century marvel that many Indians themselves have yet to fully appreciate.

Rogan recounted watching a video about the monument, located roughly 350 km from Mumbai, and being stunned by its massive scale, flawless symmetry, and the ancient techniques used to sculpt it. Unlike traditional temples that are assembled stone by stone, the Kailasa Temple was chiseled directly out of a single mountain. More than 200,000 tonnes of basalt are believed to have been removed in a top‑down excavation, creating what remains the world’s largest monolithic rock‑cut structure.

As he discussed ancient engineering feats with a guest, Rogan repeatedly expressed disbelief that such precise and intricate work could have been executed nearly 1,400 years ago. “It’s so beautiful and so symmetrical,” he said, marveling at the idea that a single miscalculation could have ruined the entire undertaking. “You’re carving a mountain. You can’t undo a mistake—and they nailed it.”

The Kailasa Temple—also known as Cave 16 within the Ellora complex—was commissioned during the rule of Rashtrakuta king Krishna I, around 760 CE. Historians estimate that the carving process continued for nearly two decades. The Ellora site as a whole features 34 caves representing Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain traditions and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983.

Author Amish Tripathi also weighed in recently, highlighting India’s unmatched legacy in rock‑cut architecture. On social media, he pointed out that India alone contains roughly 1,800 such structures—triple the number found in the rest of the world combined.

The engineering behind Kailasa remains particularly astonishing. Scholars believe artisans began carving at the summit of the hill and worked downward, eventually creating a freestanding, multilevel complex roughly 84 metres long and 47 metres wide, rising over 30 metres in height. The site includes a Shiva shrine, Nandi pavilion, gateways, subsidiary sanctums, and narrative panels from the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, and Shaivite legends. Notable carvings include the dramatic relief of Ravana shaking Mount Kailash and a row of life‑sized elephants that appear to support the structure.

Archaeologists credit the precision to master stoneworkers who relied on chisels, hammers, and careful measurements—possibly guided by scale models and plumb lines. The result is a monument so exact in its proportions that modern visitors still struggle to understand how it was constructed with early medieval tools.

Rogan’s enthusiastic commentary has sparked renewed digital interest, with clips circulating widely and online searches for “Kailasa Temple” and “Ellora Caves” surging. While many Indians remain unaware of the temple’s extraordinary heritage, the global conversation it has revived is once again drawing attention to one of India’s most remarkable artistic and engineering achievements.