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GemsOfINDOLOGY Profile picture
@GemsOfINDOLOGY
Oct 29, 2022 • 9 tweets • 11 min read • Read on X
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1/
 “The Athens of South India” - 'Madurai' c.500 bce
Megasthenese, Strabo 25BC, Pliny 75 AD Ptolemy 130AD mention of Madurai.

#Keeladi an excavation site in this small #Thread
#Archaeology Image
2/n
 #Keeladi was an industrial area of #madurai dated back around 580 BCE determined from the excavated Artefacts
thehindu.com/news/national/…

#Archaeology ImageImage
3/n
The Keeladi residents used to burry their deads in North South direction
thehindu.com/news/cities/Ma…
#Keeladi were experts in Structural #Engineering. They had Plumbing System, Draining system, Water storage system
#Archaeology
thehindu.com/news/cities/Ma… ImageImageImageImage
4/n
 A researcher of #IVC, R. Balakrishnan, points to the similarities in urban planning between the Indus Valley and Keeladi. Some of the symbols found in pot sherds of Keeladi bear a close resemblance to Indus Valley signs. thehindu.com/news/national/…
#Archaeology ImageImage
5/
 The Literacy rate was very high among #keeladi. Their prime occupation was weaving, looming, yarning,, iron industry, carpentry, pottery. They were cultural rich & prosperous. Game objects posturizes the games and pastime activities for kids & elders
#Archaeology ImageImage
6/
Some artifacts found overseas indicates South Indian traders exported as well.
#Archaeology
There were Port towns, and Minor Ports. The confluence of Palar, Cauvery, Vaigai and Tamiraparani played major role in logistics of goods.
Image
7/
 Similarities in #IVC and #Southindian #Tamil #dravidian #ancient scripts are detailed in this thread

#Archaeology
7/
 Similarities in #IVC and #Southindian #Tamil #dravidian #ancient scripts are detailed in this thread

#Archaeology
8/
 Src: vinavu.com/wp-content/upl…

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More from @GemsOfINDOLOGY

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
GemsOfINDOLOGY Profile picture
Feb 5
1️⃣ The first diamond ever touched by human hands came from Indian soil. Golconda mines, 4th century BCE. We didn't dig for profit. We picked them from riverbeds like pebbles. 💎

Then someone realized they could own what the earth gave freely. Image
2️⃣ 1600s: Golconda diamonds weighed 23 million carats annually. The world's entire supply. Tavernier documented it. Shah Jahan embedded them in the Peacock Throne.

We controlled brilliance itself. Image
3️⃣ 1739: Nadir Shah walks into Delhi. Walks out with the Kohinoor and the Peacock Throne. Combined worth? Impossible to calculate. The throne alone held 26,733 gems.

First lesson: What glitters gets taken. Image
Read 8 tweets
GemsOfINDOLOGY Profile picture
Jan 30
1/ ASI admits stone jars occur across Assam, Laos, Vietnam, and the Philippines.

That admission changes everything. Once you acknowledge geographic spread, local narratives collapse. Interpretation must go regional. 🧵 Image
@himantabiswa @ASIGoI @MinOfCultureGoI @tourismgoi @gssjodhpur @UNESCO 2/ ASI records no present-day tribe claims authorship.

That's not ambiguity. That's normal. Mortuary traditions outlast populations, languages, identities by millennia.

Continuity ≠ authorship. Image
3/ ASI calls them ancestral bone repositories — already placing them in secondary burial systems.

The same function archaeologically proven at the Plain of Jars.

Function aligns across regions. Not coincidence. Image
Read 7 tweets

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