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GemsOfINDOLOGY Profile picture
@GemsOfINDOLOGY
Aug 14, 2022 • 20 tweets • 18 min read • Read on X
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1/ #Thread

#Sanskrit was not limited to India it was far spread upto Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam 2000 years ago let's see the reach in this #Thread
*Map not political
Src #wikiwand
#Archaeology Image
2/ The earliest surviving Sanskrit inscription is from Vo Canh inscription discovered near Nha Trang, Vietnam dates 3rd century ce
The inscription ordains grand daughter of King indicating a Matrilineal society.
#Archaeology
wikiwand.com/en/V%C3%B5_C%E…
m.phnompenhpost.com/post-plus/epig… ImageImage
3/ Yūpa Mulawarman (H!ndu king) inscription in Indonesia written by Brahm!ns in Pallava Script, Borneo, Kutai, Indonesia
Dates 4 century ce

This attests to the emergence of an Indianized state in the Indonesian archipelago.

wikiwand.com/en/Y%C5%ABpa#/… Image
4/ Kebon Kopi or 'Tapak Gajah inscription', Indonesia dating 5th century ce describes elephant ride of King Purnawarman of Tarumanagara, which is equated with Airavata, the elephant vahana (vehicle) of Indra.
#Archaeology
wikiwand.com/en/Kebon_Kopi_… ImageImage
5/ Tugu inscription in Pallava script in Sanskrit dates 5th century ce found in Batutumbuh hamlet, Tugu village, Koja, Indonesia

It describes hydraulic, irrigation and water drainage project of Chandrabhaga river by Rajadirajaguru

#Archaeology
wikiwand.com/en/Tugu_inscri… Image
6/ Cidanghiang inscription, also called Lebak inscription, from Tarumanagara kingdom, estimated to be from the 4th century CE, Banten, Indonesia
It is abt a king Purnawarman, with title vikrānta, who was worshiper of Lord Vishnu.
#Archaeology
wikiwand.com/en/Cidanghiang… ImageImage
7/ Prasasti Ciaruteun Inscription is 5th-century stone inscription discovered on the riverbed of Ciaruteun River, aWest Java, Indonesia.
The inscription states King Purnawarman is the ruler of Tarumanagara (An early H!ndu Kingdom)
#Archaeology
wikiwand.com/en/Ciaruteun_i…
#Archaeology Image
8/
 Sanskrit inscription in Early Pallava script on a stone lying on the Pasir kole-angkak hill, Jambu, to the west of Bogor, Indonesia
C.5th century ce

#Archaeology
…italcollections.universiteitleiden.nl/view/item/84279 Image
9/
 "Suvarnbhumi" "सुवर्णभूमि" found inscribed in 'Sanskrit' on a 7th century slab in Cambodia
#Archaeology Image
10/
 Indonesian non-royal Sanskrit inscription dating 7th century describing how Sankara fulfilled his promise to his father to house a Linga 'representation of Shiva'
#archaeology
brill.com/view/journals/… ImageImage
11/
 Ligor inscription is an 8th-century stone stele or inscription discovered in Ligor, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Southern Thailand Malay Peninsula.
written by Mahārāja dyāḥ Pañcapaṇa kariyāna Paṇaṃkaran, king of Shailendra dynasty
#archaeology
wikiwand.com/en/Ligor_inscr… Image
12/
 Sanskrit inscription found in Trowulan, Melang dating c.966 ce
#Archaeology
journals.openedition.org/archipel/1976 ImageImage
13/ Singapore Stone inscription written in Sanskrit 10th-13th century originally stood at the mouth of Singapore river to be blown by Britishers in 1843 to widen the river pathway

#archaeology
wikiwand.com/en/Singapore_S… Image
14/
 Few sanskrit writings found on pillars of Angkor Wat, Ta Nei, Kravan and Koh Ker temples Cambodia

#Archaeology
angkorphotographytours.com/blog/sanskrit-… Image
15/
More inscriptions at below link i skipped
wikiwand.com/en/Sanskrit_in…
15/
 Laguna copperplate inscription is an official acquittance inscribed onto a copper plate in the Shaka year 822 (Gregorian A.D. 900).
It is the earliest known calendar-dated document found within the #Philippines
#Archaeology #philippinehistory
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laguna_Co… ImageImageImage
16/
Sawlumin inscription is one of the oldest surviving stone inscriptions in Myanmar. The slabs were mainly inscribed in Burmese, Pyu, Mon and Pali, and a few lines in #Sanskrit. the stele was founded in 1079 by King Saw Lu of Bagan.

#archaeology
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sawlumin_… Image
17/
 5.1 Engraved copper sheet of Harsavarman with Sanskrit inscription K.964 found in the ancient moat of U Thong, #Thailand;
5.2. Stone inscription in Sanskrit K.1155 found at Ban Phan Dung, #Thailand
c.7-8th century

#Archaeology
researchgate.net/figure/51-Engr… Image
18/
 #Sanskrit Inscription found in Brunei, a tiny nation on the island of Borneo, in 2 distinct sections surrounded by Malaysia and the South China Sea Brunei

#Archaeology
jstor.org/stable/41492843 ImageImage
19/
 300 CE stone inscription in Sanskrit read
"This is a few feet like the feet of Vishnu. They are the glorious footprints of Purnawarman, the great king of the land of Taruma, the valiant king of the world.”
Bogor, Java, Indonesia
#archaeology
kris-keris.eu/page/mystiek Image

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More from @GemsOfINDOLOGY

GemsOfINDOLOGY Profile picture
Mar 3
1️⃣ A 10,000 BCE cave painting just cracked open India's migration mystery

Bhimbetka artists drew a two-horned rhino. The species never lived in central India.

But before we decode ancestral memory, let's talk about colonial amnesia.

Before 1800, approximately 20,000 rhinos roamed Bengal and Assam.

By 1908? Barely 200. 🦏💰

#DecolonisationImage
2️⃣ British trophy hunting didn't just reduce numbers. It systematically erased a species from entire geographies.

Major-General Richard Carnac killed 30 rhinos in a single year near Purnea, Bihar, 1780s. Sport, they called it. Extinction engineering, more accurately.

Each horn fetched £100-150 in Victorian markets. Aphrodisiac myth met colonial greed.Image
3️⃣ The Bhimbetka paintings now make perfect sense.

Austroasiatic peoples migrated from Southeast Asia through Indonesia-Thailand-Myanmar around 10,000 years ago—the exact route Sumatran rhinos took. They carried ancestral memory of two-horned creatures, painted them centuries later at Bhimbetka.

January 2024: Tamil Nadu excavations at Molapalayam unearth 3,600-year-old rhino bones. First direct evidence of Indian one-horned rhinos in deep South.
Read 8 tweets
GemsOfINDOLOGY Profile picture
Feb 22
1/ Aryan Migration Theory has a math problem.

Not political. Not ideological. Mathematical.

If sophisticated Indo-Europeans brought decimal systems to India around 1500 BCE, show me their source culture's mathematics. 🔢

I'll wait. Image
2/ Reconstructed Proto-Indo-European:

Counting to 100 ✓
Basic addition/multiplication ✓
Systematic large numbers ✗
Decimal place value ✗
Zero as concept ✗
Cosmological calculations ✗

Pontic-Caspian steppe, 4000-2500 BCE.
No mathematical texts. No astronomical observatories.Image
3/ Compare what supposedly migrated TO India:

Greek: imported Egyptian geometry, Babylonian astronomy
Latin: borrowed Greek mathematics wholesale
German: million (Latin), Milliarde (French)
Slavic: миллион (million) - borrowed

Every Indo-European branch borrowed large number terms.Image
Read 10 tweets
GemsOfINDOLOGY Profile picture
Feb 17
THREAD 4
WHEN LAW REPLACED CUSTOM
(surnames, forms, the myth of timeless patriarchy)

1️⃣
This is where the break happens.

Not in ancient India.
Not in temples.
Not in epics.

But in files, registers, and forms. Image
2️⃣
Pre-modern India ran on custom.

Identity was local.
Lineage could be maternal.
Marriage could be flexible.

The system worked because society did not need every child tied to a named father.
3️⃣
Colonial administration could not function like that.

The state needed:
Land titles.
Tax rolls.
Census categories.
Inheritance clarity.

Custom was messy.
Plurality was inefficient.

So lineage had to be fixed.
Read 8 tweets
GemsOfINDOLOGY Profile picture
Feb 15
ASI calls it a "graceful threshold of history."

October 1502: 400 pilgrims locked in a ship and burned alive at sea by the man this arch honors.

This is what government curation looks like when it erases inconvenient details.

Thread on what ASI forgot to mention. 🧵

#GemsofASI MNI500A stone relief features a figure dressed as a viceroy, holding a sword, near a coat of arms and inscriptions, symbolizing colonial history.
Vasco da Gama's second voyage, October 1502:

Intercepted the pilgrim ship Miri near Madayi. 400+ passengers. 50 women and children.

Looted it. Locked them inside. Set it ablaze.

Eyewitnesses Thomé Lopes and Gaspar Correia documented mothers holding babies through portholes.

*ps pic AI generated
2/Image
Francisco da Gama built this arch in 1600 during his viceroyalty (1597-1600).

Historical record by then:

• 300 temples demolished in Bardez (1567)
• Goa Inquisition active (1560-1812, 16,000+ documented trials)
• Dec 4, 1567 decree: Hindu marriages, sacred threads, cremations banned

3/Image
Read 6 tweets
GemsOfINDOLOGY Profile picture
Feb 10
Thread 3

WHEN WOMEN WERE LINEAGE, NOT DEPENDENTS
(Travancore, matriliny, 1920s)

1️⃣
Here is the part most people don’t expect.

These systems did not vanish in antiquity.
They survived into the 20th century.

This is not rock art.
This is documentation. Image
2️⃣
In parts of Kerala and Travancore, lineage followed the woman.

Property.
Household identity.
Social continuity.

Children belonged to the mother’s line.
Not the father’s surname.

This was not chaos.
It was a functioning social order.
3️⃣
Relationships were recognised through custom, not sacrament.

Sambandham-type unions existed.
Women could enter and exit relationships.
Sexual exclusivity was not the foundation of legitimacy.

A child did not need a certified father to be socially valid.

That detail matters.
Read 7 tweets
GemsOfINDOLOGY Profile picture
Feb 7
1️⃣ Every art history course starts in Greece.

But here's what they don't mention: almost every Greek painting from the Classical period is gone. Lost.

Meanwhile, in India, 700 years of continuous wall paintings still exist.

Let's talk about what survives vs what we worship. Image
2️⃣ Ajanta Caves.

Painting phases dated 2nd century BCE – 5th century CE.

That means: Ajanta begins before Alexander. And continues after Rome adopts Christianity.

This isn't parallel art. This is a continuous painting tradition spanning 700 years. Image
3️⃣ Where are Greek paintings from 480–323 BCE?

Answer from classical scholarship: almost entirely lost.

What survives:
• Roman wall paintings (1st c. BCE–1st c. CE)
• Literary praise by Pliny the Elder
• Copies, not originals

An origin remembered by texts vs one preserved in pigment.Image
Read 7 tweets

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