Vidisha
— — a town older than most of the world's capitals.
Not only on a wall.
“An ancient town in central India, set where the Betwa meets the Bes river about 60 kilometres northeast of Bhopal. Mentioned in the Mahabharata, Vidisha was a Mauryan trading city and the seat of the Western Satraps long before the great stupa rose on the hill at Sanchi, 10 kilometres south. The Heliodorus pillar, raised in 110 BCE by a Greek ambassador to a Vasudeva temple, still stands beside the river, the oldest dated free-standing column in India.
Vidisha, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Vidisha sits at about 23.5° north on the Malwa plateau, where the Betwa and Bes rivers meet in present-day Madhya Pradesh. Excavations at Besnagar, the ancient mound on the western bank, have produced material from the 6th century BCE onward. The town, also called Bhilsa in older records, was the second capital of the Shungas and the home of Emperor Ashoka's first wife, Devi, mother of the missionaries Mahinda and Sanghamitta. The Sanchi stupa complex, a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1989, lies 10 kilometres south.
The Heliodorus pillar, known locally as Khambaba, was raised in 110 BCE by Heliodorus, a Greek ambassador from the Indo-Bactrian king Antialkidas, in honour of the god Vasudeva. Its Brahmi inscription is the oldest dated record of Bhagavata worship and the earliest surviving free-standing column in India still in its original position. Nearby, the Bijamandal mosque sits atop the Charanteerth temple, its 11th-century pillars reused in the foundation; the Udayagiri caves, 4 kilometres west, were carved into sandstone in the Gupta period around the 5th century CE.
Monsoon runs June through September and swells the Betwa enough to flood the lower ghats. October through February is dry and mild, daytime around 25°C, the season for visiting the Heliodorus pillar and the Udayagiri caves on foot. March through May brings dust and 40°C heat, when the temple complexes empty out before noon. The Sanchi stupa hill, 10 kilometres south, is best photographed in November light, when the toranas catch low sun and the eastern gateway throws shadow into the carved jataka panels.