GemsOfINDOLOGY Profile picture
Dec 20, 2022 7 tweets 6 min read Read on X
Earliest evidence of sporting event 'Bull leaping' is from India.
In this #Thread we see where else it was enjoyed as a Sporting event.
In this #Harappan seal #H312 Man can be seen Bull Leaping. The Seal dates c.2600-1900 BCE. This is earliest of known records
#Archaeology

1/7
2nd earliest evidence of Bull Leaping is in this #Harappan seal #B335 where 'daring' Indian #Woman are enjoying the sport
Banawali, (Near Dry bed Saraswati River), Haryana
ca.2300-1700 bce
#Archaeology

2/7
Next earliest Bull-leaping scene is found in Hüseyindede vases These belong to Early Hittites, approximately c.1650 bce
#Archaeology

3/7
Nearly 1600 bce-1450bce late Minoan were enjoying the Bull leaping sport.
This Bronze statue made from 'Lost Wax Technique' (An Indian Invention still used by #Nasa @Nasa) depicts an acrobat somersaulting.
#Archaeology britishmuseum.org/collection/obj…

4/7
Man are seen Vaulting a Bull in this Toreador Fresco, from Crete c.1550. bce
britannica.com/art/intonaco

5/7
Bull leaping and taming Bulls in this Fresco from Avaris, Egypt, 1480-1425 BCE
#Archaeology

6/7
A 5000 years old sporting event Bull Leaping/sporting is still played by the name #Jallikattu in #India.
#Archaeology

7/7

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More from @GemsOfINDOLOGY

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
Jan 5
1/ THREAD — Before 1700 CE, European law didn't prohibit child marriage. It regulated it.

Minimum ages codified in canon law. Contracts binding in royal courts. Elite daughters became diplomatic currency.

This thread documents legal practices from primary sources. It doesn't comment on any modern religion or community.

Ages. Alliances. Archives.

Bookmark 🧵👇
2/
Carolingian Europe.

Bertha of Laon is believed to have married Pepin the Short around 744 CE. Historical sources suggest she may have been around 13–14 years old at the time. The marriage aimed to consolidate the Carolingian claim.

Source: Einhard, Royal Frankish Annals.

Alliance first. Childhood considered differently in historical context.Image
3/ Judith of Bavaria married Louis the Pious in 819 CE. Historical sources suggest she was quite young.

This marriage was significant in securing Bavarian loyalty to the Frankish throne, illustrating how alliances were formed in that era.

Source: Astronomer’s Vita Hludovici Image
Read 34 tweets
Jan 4
#GemsOfASI #11

1/ Lving worship, conservation law, and manufactured conflict.

Across India, living worship and heritage protection are repeatedly presented as being in conflict.

This conflict is often treated as inevitable.
It is not. Image
2/
Indian temples were historically designed for continuous use.

Architecture anticipated:
• daily rituals
• water flow
• oil lamps
• human movement

Use was not an accident.
It was part of structural logic. Image
3/
Colonial conservation law introduced a new assumption:
That **use causes damage**, and protection requires restriction.

This assumption worked for abandoned ruins in Europe.
Applied to living Indian temples, it created friction. Image
Read 10 tweets
Jan 2
Your great-great-grandfather didn't have a surname.

He had a gotra. A kula. A title earned or inherited. A village name. A trade.

Then the British census arrived. 1871–1881.

Suddenly, administration needed fixed surnames. Standardized. Permanent. Inheritable only through patrilineal descent.

Surname took birth in addition to "son of / daughter of / wife of"

🧵Image
1/ Before colonization:

Rama Dasharathi. Krishna Vasudev. Arjuna Pandav.

Your identity was relational. Fluid. Context-dependent.

Father's name. Gotra for ritual. Kula for lineage. Village for geography. Occupation when needed.

No bureaucracy required you to pick ONE and freeze it forever.Image
2/ The British didn't care about your gotra.

They cared about taxation, land records, and census data.

So they imported their system: fixed hereditary surnames. Alphabetically sortable. Administratively convenient.

By 1900, most of India had complied. Not by choice. By necessity.Image
Read 7 tweets
Dec 25, 2025
1/ Every December, lights appear worldwide.

Diwali: diyas blaze during Kartik's darkest new moon (late Oct/early Nov).
Hanukkah: 8 candles in December.
Christmas: trees glow on Dec 25.
Yule, Dongzhi, Saturnalia... all cluster around winter solstice.

Why? 𝐇𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐟𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬. 🕯️Image
2/ Rome, 217 BCE: Saturnalia begins Dec 17.

For one week, social order inverts. Slaves dine first. Masters serve. Courts close, gambling's allowed. Gifts exchanged: candles, wax figurines, pottery.

It celebrated Saturn's mythical "Golden Age"—a world without hierarchy.

Then normal life resumed.Image
3/ Fast-forward to 4th-century Rome: Christianity spreads.

Challenge: populations cling to winter festivals—Saturnalia, Sol Invictus (Dec 25 "Unconquered Sun"), local traditions.

Solution: 𝐚𝐝𝐚𝐩𝐭, don't erase.

Dec 25 becomes Christmas. Bible's silent on the date. Shepherds in fields suggest spring.

Same season, new meaning.Image
Read 9 tweets
Dec 18, 2025
🧵 THREAD: Sambhar Lake didn’t become salty by accident.
It is the chemical footprint of the Aravallis. 🧂⛰️

Erase the hills, and the lake doesn’t shrink.
It dies.

#SaveAravalli Image
Image
Image
Image
@narendramodi @PMOIndia @mygovindia @TVMohandasPai @CPCB_OFFICIAL @PIB_India @moefcc 1/
Sambhar Lake sits at the NE edge of the Aravalli Range.
This is not coincidence.
It is a tectonic basin formed along ancient Aravalli fault lines.

No Aravallis → no Sambhar.
Simple geology. Ignored policy. Image
Image
Image
Image
2/
The Aravallis are ~3.2–2.5 billion years old.
Among the oldest folded mountains on Earth.

Sambhar exists because these rocks fractured, weathered, subsided.
Deep time created today’s salt.

Not “desert evaporation folklore”.
Read 10 tweets

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