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Tapesh Yadav

@tapeshyadav_usa

Mar 4

📙Undeciphered scripts of Ancient India
Beyond Indus Valley, 1000 BC-100 BC?

Brahmi & Kharoshthi scripts are well known. Many study Harappan script. Beyond these are undeciphered ancient Indian scripts. Examples: Kohi lipi, Shankha lipi. This 🧵 illustrates Kohi script found near Hindu Kush.

📙Kohi script – location, sources
1⃣Kohistan is the region nestled near Hindu Kush, Swat and Karakoram range. There, midst the valleys and mountain huts west of upper Indus river, numerous inscribed marble, metal, stone slabs and pottery have been found. The script is complex, strange (example photo below).
2⃣Some ancient artwork such as pillars too have small Kohi inscriptions.
3⃣Similar inscriptions are infrequently found in eastern Afghanistan, ancient sites of Bactria and some Tepe in central Asia.
4⃣Prof Nasim Khan has named it "Kohi script" given Kohistan has so far been the largest source of inscriptions with this script. The script is undeciphered. Scholarly publications rare, speculative.
5⃣First guess: perhaps, they are fake! The market for inscribed ancient art encourages fraud. But this is unlikely because of the distance between sites where this script is found, the diversity and sheer weight of the inscribed objects, the repetition and consistency of the symbols despite long distances.
6⃣Some of Kohi-lipi inscribed objects were catalogued in 19th-century and others very recently.

📙Features of Kohi script
1⃣Kohi is complex, not elegantly simplified as Brahmi. This may suggest that the Kohi script is older (as scripts become simpler over time).
2⃣Some symbols and diacritic marks are similar to Indus Valley script. Just like the Brahmi script has many daughter scripts, it is plausible that Indus Valley / Harappan script inspired many daughter scripts.
3⃣Some inscriptions have groups of symbols, almost like words separated by spaces.
4⃣Almost always, the text appears in horizontal lines. It is unclear whether they are read left to right, or right to left.
5⃣This script does not match the historic scripts commonly found in West Asia and Central Asia, though there are a few similar symbols. There is more overlap with Indus Valley script, Brahmi script and Kharoshthi script.
6⃣The context of Kohi-script inscriptions such as ancient Buddhist artwork suggest it was in use till about 3rd-century AD.

📙Textual evidence
1⃣Many early Indian texts give a list of ancient scripts. This list includes Brahmi and Kharoshthi, but many more.
– The ancient Mahavastu text lists the following scripts as known to the Buddha: the Brahmi, Puskarasari, Kharosti, Brahmavani, Pushpa, Kuta, Saktina, Vyatyatsa, [...], Magadha, Daradas, Abhiras, Vangas, Dravida, Dardura, Ramatha, Gulmala, Hastada, Kasula, Ketuka, the Kusuva [....]
– The Lalitavistara lists these: Brahmi, Kharoshthi script, Puṣkarasari, Anga, Vanga, Magadha, Mangalya, Anguliya, Shakari, Brahmavali, Parusya, Dravida, Kirata, [....]
– Jain Agamas mention 18 ancient scripts in India.

Have you seen Kohi script inscriptions in your travels? Share in comments, or DM me.

In a future 🧵, we will see ancient Shankha script inscriptions in India, Java-Indonesia, Borneo and Thailand.

Kohi script common symbols (w/o diacritics):

Sources:
1. M Nasim Khan, Kohi Script from Gandhāra Discovery of Another Ancient Indian Writing System
2. Nasim Khan, Kohi or Puskarasari The Story of an un-deciphered script from Gandhāra
3. Stein, Notes on New Inscriptions Discovered by Major Deane

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Tapesh Yadav

@tapeshyadav_usa

Feb 21

🛕Hindus in ancient Egypt, 250 BC – 500 AD
Berenike excavations, 2018–2024 results

This 🧵 discusses four recent discoveries from ancient Egypt – a Vrishni triad, a Goddess-Tamil-Brahmi inscription, Indian teak and Indian pets. The media already covered the marble Buddha ruins and inscription. Together the evidence says, an Indian community lived in ancient Berenike.

🛕Location
1️⃣Berenike (Berenicé, Trogodytika) lies on Egypt’s Red Sea coast—about 300 km SE of Luxor and 250 km E of Aswan. About 1600 km north of Abbas (Red Sea entrance from south), it was a major Roman-era port city.
2️⃣Berenike was founded by Ptolemy II in the 3rd century BC.
3️⃣Berenike, a Red Sea port excavated since 1994. Over 2018–2024, scholars excavated several spots, including the city’s main Isis temple with a sanctum and large hall. Built in Egyptian style under Tiberius (A.D. 14–37) by merchant Marcus Laelius Cosmus, scholars found stone, wood, metal and marble statues, many inscriptions. Some were Indian.
4️⃣Isis is the Roman guardian deity of sea, ships and seafarers. The town grew around Isis temple. India-origin statue, teak, and pet remains also turned up elsewhere in Berenike.

🛕Discoveries
1️⃣Found inside the temple annex: a votive stele fragment (38 cm high × 42 cm wide × 8 cm thick) with half round pediment at top supported by two pilasters with capitals. Inside are three figures – the Vrishni triad.
– The central figure, 11 cm tall, depicts a female as seen from depictions of breasts. Her left hand holds a vessel, and her right is in abhaya-mudra. Her hair is a topknot. She has earrings.
– The left figure, 14 cm tall, depicts a male with a gadda in his right hand and a hala in left. His face is damaged, but we can see his earrings.
– The right figure, 16 cm tall, also depicts a male with a gadda in his right hand and a round chakra-like motif in left. His hair is a topknot, and he too has earrings.
– All three wear dhoti, with central drooping fold.
This is the Hindu Vrishni triad – Saṃkarṣaṇa to the left, Ekānaṃśā in the middle, Vāsudeva on the right (= Balarama–Subhadra–Krishna, Vaishnava tradition). Based on context and style, Berenike Vrishni date: c. 50–150 AD.
2️⃣Two Satavahana coins (c 100 AD, ancient Maharashtra–Gujarat), likely a donation.
3️⃣In 2024, scholars found a bench to the left of temple's entrance with a Tamil-Brahmi inscription for an Indian goddess, which has not been published yet (expected later in 2026). See video below.
4️⃣A lot of ancient Indian textile fragments, along the weaving pattern found only in ancient Indian textiles.
5️⃣Indian teak wood in many parts of Berenike. Used in ships, temples, houses – teak must have been a major import from India.
6️⃣Indian pets based on genome studies.
7️⃣Numerous pottery and jars found with sacred swastika printed on them. Some jars with Indian food – rice, dal, spices. Many Indian cooking utensils. Potsherd with Prakrit and Brahmi graffito, pre-1st century.

🕉️Significance
1️⃣Vaishnava and Shakta tradition Hindus were among the Indian traders, travelers and residents in Berenike, along with Buddhists.
2️⃣The presence of a Sanskrit-Greek inscription in northern Brahmi (Gujarat) which includes the word "Kshatriya", a Tamil-Brahmi Goddess inscription in Isis temple, graffitos elsewhere suggests a substantial presence of literate Indians in Berenike.
3️⃣Both Vaishnavism and Shaktism must be already established in India, in temple context, before 2nd-century – because Indian diaspora in Berenike would only add well established religious symbols and artwork to Isis temple so far away (~4000 km west of Kerala).
4️⃣Under 10% of the Berenike site had been excavated through 2025, says co-director Steven Sidebotham. The next 10-15 years is expected to yield more Indian art. Berenike is important because it preserves information about Indian people, beliefs, technologies and culture, largely untouched since the 6th century.

Here is the site co-director Sidebotham describing the Tamil-Brahmi Goddess inscription and other recent findings:

A close-up photo of the Tamil Brahmi Goddess platform inscription found in Berenike, Egypt. Seems to be two lines. The paper is expected later in 2026.

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Tapesh Yadav

@tapeshyadav_usa

Jan 9

⚡️Karachi & Hindus: A History

Now the largest Pakistani city with 20 million people, do you know Sindhi Hindus founded Karachi in 1729?
How Hindus were persecuted in 19th-century Sindh? how they rebelled? How modern media and books narrate their story?

Summary in this 🧵:

⚡️Background
1⃣After Aurangzeb's death in 1707, the Muslim Kalhora dynasty seized power in Sindh.
2⃣Kharak Bandar was the primary port back then, but it had silted up. In 1729, Seth Bhojo Mal, a Sindhi Hindu, founded a new harbor, moved the Hindu community and settled a village. He called it Kolachi-jo-Goth (= village of Kolachi). The name was in honor of Mai Kolachi – a legendary Hindu fisherwoman who inspired Bhojo Mal to create a merchant village thru hard work. Kolachi, over time, morphed into Karachi.
3⃣Sindhi Hindu traders thrived here. They linked Oman, Persia, Arabia, the Dutch, and the British. Trade boomed. The village grew into a small town.
4⃣In 1783, the Talpur Mirs, another Muslim dynasty, overthrew the Kalhoras. Hindus formed about 25%–30% of Sindh's population in late 18th-century. Muslims dominated.

⚡️Systematic Persecution, Anti-Hindu Pogrom
1⃣Seth Naomal Hotchand (1804–1878) descended from early merchants. He documented the Mir dynasty era in his memoirs. British visitors like James Burnes confirmed the accounts.
2⃣Seth Naomal Hotchand's memoir describes systematic persecution. Hindus lived as second-class citizens. Humiliation was constant:
– No horse-riding allowed to Hindus; must use donkeys.
– On roads, Hindus must yield to Muslims; step aside or face violence.
– When a Hindu quarreled with a Muslim, revenge would sometimes start with fake accusations of blasphemy and insult to the Prophet. Blasphemy accusations sparked mobs. Example from memoir: Naomal's brother Pursuram argued with a Syed Muslim. The Syed falsely accused Pursuram of insulting the Prophet. Crowds attacked Hindu homes. Temples desecrated. Wells polluted with trash. The Mir dynasty did not stop the violence or intervene. Pursuram escaped to Jaisalmer for asylum.
– a young Hindu boy's minor mosque transgression triggered widespread anti-Hindu pogrom.
– Naomal's elderly father was kidnapped. Thugs demanded conversion to Islam. They threatened forced circumcision.
– Hindus were not allowed to own weapons to defend themselves.
– Etc
3⃣Parsis suffered too. Discrimination against non-Muslims ran deep.

⚡️Don't Just Suffer, Do Something, Change History
1⃣Seth Hotchand and desperate Hindus had enough. They saw British forces as potential liberators. They formed an alliance with the British, after later promised modernization, fair treatment and equality.
2⃣In 1843, the Sindhi Hindus and Parsis welcomed the British troops warmly. They supplied food, logistics. Hindus in interior Sindh provided intelligence on Mir troop movements and weaknesses. General Charles Napier won swiftly. Sindh joined the Bombay Presidency.
3⃣Naomal, then about 39, helped drive change. Liberation from the Mir dynasty ushered in freedoms for Sindhi Hindus and modernization. They built railways, irrigation canals (like the Jamrao), and expanded port. Karachi's surged into a major city.
4⃣In 1910s Seth Harchandrai Vishandas, and in 1930s Jamshed Mehta were key to creating modern era Karachi. The 1947 partition triggered mass exodus of non-Muslims from Pakistan.

⚡️Epilogue, Modern Narratives
1⃣Hindus and Parsis hailed Seth Naomal Hotchand as a liberator. He modernized Sindh.
2⃣The colonial era British adored him. Critical to Napier's victory, Queen Victoria bestowed upon Seth Hotchand CIE order in a lavish Frere Hall ceremony, along with lands and a pension.
3⃣Muslim nationalists brand him a traitor. He ended Muslim rule, helped replace it with colonial rule.
4⃣To some scholars, Seth Naomal Hotchand memoir offers rare firsthand insights of a Hindu in a Muslim state before the British annexed it into their colony. It illuminates Hindu-Muslim relations, how Sharia laws affected non-Muslims in early 19th-century, how Sindhi Hindus suffered, and civil-war like situation in Asia that enabled Europeans to rapidly gain colonies.
5⃣To Marxist scholars, Seth Naomal Hotchand memoir is evidence of class strife, how a wealthy Hindu minority are to be blamed midst the Muslim masses and Muslim king, how Hindu provocations and income inequality led to political crisis.
6⃣Recent Pak authors and newspapers such as Dawn describe Seth Hotchand as "traitor", as evidence that Hindus "betrayed Sindh" because they lacked "national spirit", and why a small British force so easily colonized Muslim lands.

Sources:
1. Memoirs of Seth Naomul Hotchand of Karachi, Oxford Univ Press (1982)
2. Markovits, The Global World of Indian Merchants
3. Karachi, Megacity of Our Times, pp 119-120
4. Akhtar Balouch, 'Traitor of Sindh' Seth Naomal, The Dawn
dawn.com/news/1116294

A hero to Hindus and Parsis of Sindh, an X-headline from Dawn newspaper in 2014 called Seth Naumal Hotchand (सेथ नौमल होत्छन्द) a traitor:

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Tapesh Yadav

@tapeshyadav_usa

Dec 29, 2025

🛕Ancient Hindu temples found in Swat (Pakistan)
600-700 AD, Vishnu

An Italian team dug mounds near Barikot (Swat river, ~250 km NW of Srinagar J&K). Found "large" hilltop Hindu temple. Surprises (🧵):
1⃣Vaikuntha Vishnu and Chakradevi ruins of marble.
2⃣Vishnu with Varaha and Narasimha forms, similar to those found in 500–900 CE Kashmir
3⃣Temple was on about 75 ft x 50 ft platform. This is large. Some Western Indologists claim such large structural Hindu temples came later. But, Swat valley had them by 7th-century. On a hilltop. With monumental steps (found). Italian team's conceptual drawing for the Hindu temple is below. Only lower parts survive.
4⃣The use of marble for Chakradevi and Vishnu's statue are also remarkable. Vishnu statue was likely life size. See photo and artist's drawing in this 🧵.
5⃣The Bir-Kot-Ghwandai / Vajrasthana sites were excavated between 1995 and 2023 (with long stops due to war in Afghanistan). The dig revealed many Buddhist and Hindu art and monuments ruins. Archaeologists also found temple parts such as "amalakas" and panels etc have been reused in numerous graves in nearby villages.

Vishnu statue (artist drawing, blue colored are ruins found). Marble Chakradevi (actual) with amazing details.

Compare: Vaikuntha Vishnu, ca 400 AD, Mathura
(Brooklyn Museum)

Sources for 🧵:
1. Filigenzi (2005), Stone and stucco sculptures from the sacred building of Bir-kot-ghwandai, Swat
2. Olivieri (2025), Vajirasthana Archaeology of the Barikot Hilltop, Volumes 1, 2 and 3.

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Tapesh Yadav

@tapeshyadav_usa

Mar 17, 2025

This 🧵 is the story of an American born in 1882. He sailed to India as a Christian missionary.

The hypocrisy he saw unraveled his faith. He abandoned the Church, married an Indian, plunged into Hindu texts.

He became a Hindu, Lala Lajpat Rai's friend, and a freedom fighter.

Samuel Evans Stokes, Jr., came into the world in a Quaker Pennsylvania family. His father, an entrepreneur, made a fortune building elevators. Young Samuel grew up wealthy, surrounded by books in a private library. His childhood buzzed with energy—happy, chaotic, and studious.

As a teenager, he cared little for religion. That changed in 1903. A chance encounter with Dr. Carleton, an American missionary tending to leprosy patients in India, lit a spark. Samuel signed up to join him.

Read 13 tweets

Tapesh Yadav

@tapeshyadav_usa

Mar 5, 2025

In Feb 2002, a historic Arabic manuscript from Egypt was accidentally discovered.

Dated ~1035 AD, it mentions India, Hindu kings, scholars & Indian cities. It includes world’s oldest known colored world maps.

What does it say? A 🧵:

1⃣Titled “Kitab Gharaib ....” (“Book of Curiosities ....”), it contains the impressions of 10th- to 11th-century India among Fatimid elites in Egypt and Persia.
2⃣Authored by unknown Ismaili-Shia Muslim under Fatimid rule, the text is error-prone but ambitious.
3⃣Features some of the world’s oldest colored world maps, including a pioneering rectangular map locating China, India, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, with major oceans and rivers.
4⃣About 10% content relates to India. It predates the Delhi Sultanate and accounts like Al-Biruni’s.
5⃣Declares Kannauj (Uttar Pradesh) as the origin of the science of astronomy, with Indians perfecting stellar observation and celestial data tabulation 400 years before the Prophet.
6⃣Marks Multan and Sindh as Fatimid Muslim frontiers, crediting Ismaili missionaries for their conquest.
7⃣Calls India as “al-Hind,” its language as “bi-l-hindiyah” (likely Sanskrit or Hindi), and Greece’s as “bi-l-yunaniyah.” Curiously, it is silent about northern India’s linguistic diversity.
8⃣Labels India, Sri Lanka, Java, and China as “lands of infidels”, of idol-worshippers. Declares South Asia (including Sri Lanka) as the richest place on earth.

Cities and kingdoms:
1⃣Praises Kannauj as a gloriously large capital, with King Nabatah (possibly Nagabhatta of the Gurjara-Pratihara dynasty) patronizing scholars in Ujjain and Kannauj to study planetary motion. Says the king patronized many Hindu scholars, ordered them to study planets, observe their motions every night, and tabulate the data every day. Says, this scholar-king joined other scholars in their study of the stars.
2⃣Mentions following 10th-century Indian cities: Bhawalpur, Benisar, Ropar, Mathura, Prayag, Benares, Kapilavastu, Pataliputra, and five in Bengal; says, these are connected by commercial roads.
3⃣Says Assam (Qamarupa) is prosperous. Mentions a Hindu kingdom, Lakshmibur, east of Bengal and Assam, possibly Manipur–Tripura–north Myanmar.
4⃣Erroneously describes the Brahmaputra, Ganges, and Indus as a single connected river network that starts in mountains of Tibet and ends in the Indian Ocean; depicts it as connecting the entire country of al-Hind.

Ancient trade routes:
1⃣Prefers the Musk-routes in India over the Silk Route in Central Asia. Discusses two “Musk routes” between India and China—via Assam to South China and across the Himalayas to Tibet.
2⃣Reports regular travel by merchants and monks between Xian, Lhasa, Patna and Kannauj.

Sources: (Rapoport and Savage-Smith)
1. An Eleventh-Century Egyptian Guide to the Universe: The Book of Curiosities (2014)
2. Lost Maps of the Caliphs: Drawing the World in Eleventh-Century Cairo (2018)
3. Bodleian Library, UK

Below: a colored world map in this manuscript

@dutta_anilk, the text has terms such as al-Hind (folios 4B, 24A e.g.) with descriptive phrases.

Example: al-Hind is "an idolatrous enemy territory, but also a source of wisdom".

That has to do with the structure of manuscript's language. Below is one folio discussing India:

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