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Every morning before dawn, a group of priests at Mahakaleshwar Temple in Ujjain performs a ritual that has continued uninterrupted for two thousand years. They take fresh ash. And they smear it on a god. This is the Bhasma Aarti…

Walk into any Hindu temple in India and notice which way the main deity faces. East — the direction of the rising sun, of new beginnings, of life. North — the direction of Mount Meru, the cosmic axis, the abode…

Every year, millions of people visit Mahakaleshwar Temple in Ujjain. They attend the Bhasma Aarti. They take darshan of the Jyotirlinga. They walk the Mahakal Corridor. And almost none of them know that above their heads, on the third floor…

Open any world map and you will see a vertical line running through Greenwich, London. It is called the Prime Meridian — the zero line of longitude from which all positions on Earth are measured. All time zones are calculated…

Every day, at a temple in Ujjain, a priest holds a bottle of liquor up to the lips of a stone idol. The liquor disappears. Not a drop falls to the floor. No spillage. No visible swallowing mechanism. The bottle…

There is a rule in Ujjain that has existed for over two thousand years. No king. No emperor. No ruler. No politician. Nobody who holds power over other humans is allowed to spend the night inside Ujjain city limits. This…