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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
Jan 22
1/10
Meet Bhagirathi — the river that dragged Ganga from Shiva's hair to earth.

Rigveda calls her "the one who flows with the speed of thought."

Today? A trickle dying before Gangotri even starts.

From cosmic torrent to seasonal sewer. Thread 🧵 Image
2/10
Bhagirathi begins at Gaumukh — "cow's mouth" glacier.

1935: 300-meter ice wall, roaring.
2025: Snout retreated 3+ km uphill. Glacier lost 25% volume since the 1960s.

Your Himalayan trek selfie is on her corpse. 📸❄️ Image
3/10
Vedic seers saw her as divine:
नदीं न संनादतीं दमूनसम् (RV 10.75.4)
"The river that roars like a bull in rut."

Now? Summer discharge down 40% since 1990.
Sometimes she doesn't reach Devprayag to become "Ganga."

Literal identity crisis. 🏔️💧 Image
Read 10 tweets
GemsOfINDOLOGY Profile picture
Jan 22
You already know that for over 2,000 years, Indian smiths forged steel so sharp it cut European swords in half. So resilient it became legend across continents.

By 1900, those same smiths were classified as backward. Primitive. Incapable of innovation.

What happened between? 🧠⚔️ You don't know!!

A 5-step manual for erasure. READ On 👇

#decolonisation #UncropTheTruth

1/7Image
Step 1: Extract the technique

Indian wootz steel arrived in British laboratories in 1795. Samples were analysed, chemical compositions documented, papers published in the Royal Society. The steel was credited to "Eastern origin." The smiths who forged it? Unnamed. Untraced. Irrelevant.

The technique was extracted. The technician was erased.

2/7Image
Step 2: Disrupt the ecosystem

Wootz steel required specific forests for charcoal, particular ores, seasonal smelting cycles. Colonial forest laws between 1855–1878 criminalized wood collection, turned smelting zones into "reserved land," cut access to raw materials.

The furnaces went cold. Not because knowledge disappeared, but because resources were locked behind permits the smiths couldn't obtain.

3/7Image
Read 7 tweets
GemsOfINDOLOGY Profile picture
Jan 9
#GemsOfASI #14
Theft, loss, and inventory failure

1/
 When artefacts disappear from protected monuments, the response is usually administrative.
Files are opened, reports are written, and records are updated.
By the time this happens, the loss has already occurred much earlier. Image
2/
 Many antiquities under protection are still incompletely catalogued, irregularly verified, or stored without consistent physical security.
In such cases, legal custody exists on paper, but effective control on the ground is weak or absent. Image
3/
 Once local community presence was removed from many sites, informal and continuous surveillance disappeared with it.
As a result, losses are often discovered only years later, during audits or inspections, when recovery is no longer realistic.
(3/5) Image
Read 5 tweets
GemsOfINDOLOGY Profile picture
Jan 7
#GemsofASI #13

1/ Community custodianship removed. Decay accelerated.

For centuries, India's monuments survived not because of departments.

They survived because of communities.

Priests. Caretakers. Villagers. Guilds.
Daily acts of maintenance kept stone alive.

Then we professionalized protection—and removed the protectors.Image
2/ What did daily custodianship look like?

• Cleaning debris
• Clearing drainage
• Minor repairs before they became major
• Ritual upkeep
• Constant presence

This wasn't "informal."
It was a functioning system.

Colonial archaeology called it a liability. Image
3/ British ASI reframed custodians:

• Untrained ❌
• Intrusive ❌
• Encroachers ❌

Control replaced continuity.

Post-Independence? We kept the same framework.

Protection became professionalised.
Also **detached**.

Local custodianship: removed.
On-ground substitute: none. Image
Read 8 tweets
GemsOfINDOLOGY Profile picture
Jan 7
1/ When did you last hear about a 2000 years old hotel style South Indian site with Roman silver and Chinese coins?

Never.

Because we were taught ancient India was isolated. Insular. Self-contained.

That was a lie.

Here's what they found underground in Karnataka — and why nobody talks about it. 🪙🌏
#GemsOfASI #MNI938Image
2/ Chandravalli. Moon-shaped valley. Chitradurga district, Karnataka.

The site: Ankalagi Caves.

Inhabited since 1000 BCE.

Layers stack like civilizations:
Megalithic burials → Satavahana coins → Kadamba inscriptions → medieval cave shrines.

No single empire. Just continuous occupation for 3,000 years.Image
3/ 1909: B.L. Rice arrives.
1929–30: M.H. Krishna digs deeper.
1947: R.E.M. Wheeler, Archaeological Survey of India.

They weren't looking for artifacts.

They found an entire underground economy.

Trade routes. Religious centers. Water systems.

This wasn't a cave. It was infrastructure.Image
Read 12 tweets
GemsOfINDOLOGY Profile picture
Jan 6
#GemsOfASI #12
Ritual bans, policing faith, and administrative overreach.

1/
 Across India, ritual bans at protected monuments are often justified as “conservation measures”.
Their effects, however, go far beyond conservation. Image
2/
 Rituals in temples are not ornamental additions.
They are structured practices embedded into architecture, time cycles, and spatial design.

Banning them alters how a site functions — not just how it is used. Image
3/
 Colonial-era conservation frameworks treated ritual activity as an external stressor.

This assumption migrated into post-Independence administration, where regulation slowly turned into prohibition. Image
Read 10 tweets

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