Priyanka Chopra Jonas is known for proudly wearing her Indian identity on the global stage and she has once again won over desi fans with her latest appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast. The actor, who has often celebrated India’s culture abroad, spoke passionately about the country’s rich history, cultural diversity and the remarkable range of languages spoken across its states.
Her conversation on the podcast continued that tradition, as she enthusiastically highlighted the depth and diversity of India’s heritage.
Priyanka appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience (Episode 2464) on March 5, where she and Rogan discussed the Kailasa Temple at the Ellora Caves. She described the structure as a feat of “impossible” engineering, focusing on the fact that it was carved out of a single, massive volcanic rock.
Using the platform to highlight the brilliance of ancient Indian artisans, she called the temple one of humanity’s most remarkable achievements especially because it was subtracted from a mountain rather than built upward from the ground.
Speculation on ancient technology and the Vedas
During the episode which touched upon history and ancient civilizations and the wonders of ancient Indian temples, the conversation meandered into how such a massive project could have been completed without modern machinery.
As host Joe Rogan pulled up images of the temple, the actress noted the precision of the carvings and the sheer volume of rock removed, questioning the tools available at the time. She stated, “How could this temple be chiselled? How were stones moved at that time? It made me very curious about what kind of tools we had back then.” She suggested that the temple is evidence of a level of technical skill that has been lost or omitted from modern history books.
Rogan seemed stunned by the highly advanced technical skills on display by ancient Indian artisans. “This is crazy. The precision is spectacular. It’s so nuts when you see videos of people going through it. Absolutely immense. And incredibly precise. And just carved out of a solid piece of stone. The whole thing is carved out of the mountain,” he said.
“This blows my mind. It’s so beautiful and so symmetrical. They carved this thing from the top down out of one giant rock!” he added.
Priyanka Chopra responded by reiterating just how old the structure was and how unbelievably intricate it was given the time period it was built in. “Think about how old that is. This is all BC, Before Christ. Thousands and thousands of years.”
The conversation also covered ancient Indian texts like the Vedas, which mention advanced ideas that seem far ahead of their time. Chopra pointed out references to Vimanas, or flying machines, and weapons that used energy “that travel beyond time and light.”
She mentioned that these stories suggest an ancient civilization that was very advanced and may have had knowledge that scientists today are only starting to understand again. Rogan said he was very interested in visiting the temple himself, calling it an “architectural mystery” that is hard to explain using standard history.
Colonial impact on lost knowledge
The actress also connected the mystery of these buildings to the effects of colonial rule in India. She explained that centuries of foreign invasions, especially by the British East India Company, resulted in the loss of a great deal of cultural and scientific information.
In her conversation with Rogan, she remarked, “In India, she has been invaded over thousands, and thousands, and thousands of years. Only invaded.” She noted that this constant state of conflict meant that much of the country’s indigenous knowledge was either suppressed or destroyed over time by foreign rulers.
Chopra suggested that structures like the Kailasa Temple are among the few remaining physical proofs of this advanced past. She told Rogan that if people visit the caves or the islands of India, they would find illustrations and architecture that “would boggle your mind.” By the end of the segment, she emphasized that even though much of the history has been erased or suppressed, the temple remains a silent witness to a sophisticated era that modern society still struggles to fully understand.