𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝: 𝐃𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐯𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐩𝐚𝐝𝐮 – 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐉𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐓𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐚 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐆𝐨𝐭 𝐁𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐝, 𝐄𝐱𝐜𝐚𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐧

1/ Most people driving between Kadapa and Proddatur wouldn’t even notice the tiny village mark “Danavulapadu”. There’s nothing there now except fields and a low mound. Yet 1,100 years ago this was a major Digambara Jain centre under the Rashtrakutas, complete with a 10–12 ft standing Parshvanatha, subsidiary shrines, and dozens of nishidhi memorial stones for monks who took sallekhana.

#GemsofASI MNI#64



2/ Then the Pennar river shifted, sand dunes marched in, the Jain lay community shrank or converted, and the whole complex quietly vanished under alluvium. By the 19th century even the name barely survived in local memory. Just another “old mound with broken stones” that kids played on.

3/ Enter 1903. The Madras Archaeological Department digs, finds a treasure trove of sculptures and Old Kannada inscriptions, and promptly ships everything to the Government Museum, Egmore (now Chennai). The official line: “rescue and preservation. The unspoken line: these are now specimens, not living tirthas.

4/ The giant Parshvanatha? Now stands in a dimly lit gallery in Chennai, catalogued as Acc. No. 192. The nishidhi slabs? Stacked in the museum lapidarium like spare parts. The site itself? Left as an empty pit that filled back with sand within a decade. Village: practically deserted even in 1903.

5/ Result: perfect museum preservation, total community amputation. The idols are “safe” 450 km away, but no Jain from Andhra can offer a coconut or light a lamp at the original spot. The inscriptions speak of 10th-century donors and monks; today’s locals don’t even know the village once had a temple.

6/ This isn’t an isolated tragedy. Orissa’s Khandagiri-Udayagiri copies, Andhra’s Bhattiprolu, Karnataka’s hundreds of buried bastis – same pattern: river silts or forest swallows site → Jain population vanishes → British officer “discovers” it → everything carted off to Madras/Calcutta/London → local memory wiped clean.

7/ The irony is brutal. Colonial archaeology saved the stones from disappearing completely, but killed the tradition they belonged to. A religion that once proudly left footprints across half of India now survives in textbooks and glass cases, while the actual soil that knew those feet has forgotten them.

8/ It doesn’t have to stay this way. The Chennai museum could loan (or cast museum-quality replicas of) the main idols back. The ASI could erect a small protected shrine at the original coordinates with proper signage in Telugu, Kannada and English. Local Jain organisations + INTACH + district administration could run one annual pilgrimage. Takes political will, not miracles.

ASI could only spend 4 Lacs INR in 5 years on this site for its "Conservation" clearly someone knows the priority


9/ Because heritage isn’t just the object. It’s the chain: stone → devotion → story → identity → next generation’s devotion. When you snap the chain and lock the stone in a museum, you haven’t preserved heritage – you’ve taxidermied it.

Danavulapadu isn’t ruins. It’s a question mark.  
Do we want living tirthas or perfectly labelled corpses?

If twenty people reading this thread write to the Chennai Museum director or the Andhra Pradesh Jain Sangh asking for replicas and site revival, something might actually move.

The sand buried the temple once. Let’s not let indifference bury it forever. 

#Danavulapadu #JainHeritage #NotJustMuseumPiec

Danavulapadu: Ancient Jain Center

Born into a weaving family? You learned to weave. Practical. Efficient.

Varna was supposed to be about profession—what you 𝐝𝐢𝐝, not what you 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞.

But convenience became cage. Guilds hardened into bloodlines. Marriage patterns locked it down. Land laws sealed it shut.

During colonial period, your birth certificate was your life sentence.

Who benefited when flexibility died? 🧵🔒

Weaving's Confining Evolution

Britain cries over 600 “stolen” artefacts.
After looting tens of thousands from India.
So who’s the thief really?

Original Mexicans looked like this. Seethe. 👃🏽🔥

Indian "Democracy": MP's e-cigarette? National crisis. Delhi smog killing 15k/year? Meh. Priorities! 😂
#DelhiPollution 

🧵🏰 What kind of fort gets called "minor" at 2,700 feet with multi-tiered defences visible for miles?

The kind that didn't fit colonial narratives. Rayadurgam Fort, Anantapur — massive, sophisticated, erased.

We're still using their textbooks. The stones outlasted empires. The lie outlasted the stones.

#GemsofASI MNI#20

1/15

🛕 Built by 𝐉𝐮𝐧𝐠𝐚 𝐍𝐚𝐲𝐚𝐤𝐚 (1520s–30s), this was a Vijayanagara frontier fort controlling movement between AP & Karnataka. Colonial historians later downgraded it as "minor". Minor? A 2,700-ft citadel controlling two regions. But the empire narrative couldn't accommodate decentralised power. So it became "minor".

2/15

⛰️ At ~𝟐,𝟕𝟐𝟕 𝐟𝐭, Rayadurgam was built for surveillance: long-range visibility, multi-tiered access paths, natural cliffs turned to defence. But British-era archaeology catalogued it under 'regional ruins'. Right — altitude high, curiosity low. Classic imperial scholarship.

3/15

⚔️ 𝟏𝟓𝟔𝟓 — 𝐓𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐨𝐭𝐚. Vijayanagara collapses; power shifts to Palegars. Colonial historians labelled this entire transition as "anarchy". No — it was decentralised self-rule. But acknowledging indigenous political complexity was never their academic priority.

4/15

🏹 Late 1500s–1600s: Rayadurgam becomes a Palegar stronghold. These chiefs:

* ⚡ Collected revenue
* ⚡ Defended trade routes
* ⚡ Negotiated regional politics

But textbooks written miles away from India reduce them to footnotes. Local sovereignty never gets the spotlight in Delhi- or London-centric history.

5/15

🕌 1600s bring Bijapur pressure. Rayadurgam withstands it. Yet colonial manuals summarised the entire century as "regional disturbances". Disturbances? This was border diplomacy, shifting alliances, multi-layered geopolitics. But nuance was too heavy to carry back to London.

6/15

⚔️ Mid-1700s: Mysore rises. 𝐇𝐲𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐀𝐥𝐢 and 𝐓𝐢𝐩𝐮 𝐒𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐚𝐧 absorb the region; Rayadurgam becomes a node in their military chain. British narratives later called this "Mysorean turbulence". Translation: "They resisted us effectively, and we hated it.

7/15

🛡️ 𝟏𝟕𝟕𝟎𝐬–𝟏𝟕𝟗𝟎𝐬, Rayadurgam ties into the 𝐆𝐨𝐨𝐭𝐲 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐞, a crucial Mysore power center. The fort sees upgrades, patrols, supplies. Yet British surveyors described the architecture as "irregular stonework". Yes — because precision stone engineering didn't fit their narrative of 'native improvisation'.

8/15

𝟏𝟕𝟗𝟗 — Tipu falls. The British walk in, rewrite history, rename everything, and declare Rayadurgam "strategically obsolete". Overnight, centuries of fort heritage shrink to a dismissive line in a survey report. Erasure is easy when you hold the pen.

9/15

📜 Early 1800s: The fort is decommissioned. Officers make notes like:

- 🪨 "Rocky inclines"
- 🧱 "Mixed ruins"
- 🔍 "No major inscriptions"
  They missed inscriptions because they 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑𝑛'𝑡 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚. They measured every stone but ignored every story. That's not archaeology — that's inventory making.

10/15

🛕 Temples inside Rayadurgam:

* 🙏 Dashabhuja Ganapathi
* 🔱 Veerabhadra shrine
* 🔺 Carved mandapas
  Yet colonial reports lumped all this as "miscellaneous religious structures". Miscellaneous to them, irreplaceable to us. The arrogance is almost impressive.

11/15

🧱 Vijayanagara engineering at Rayadurgam is world-class:

* 🪨 Natural boulders → bastions
* 🌀 Zigzag ascent → trap points
* 🛡️ Layered walls → multi-stage defence

But British reports labelled such sophistication as "native methods". 

Because admitting skill meant admitting India didn't need 'civilising'.

12/15

📉 20th century: Rayadurgam drifts into neglect. Restoration minimal. Why? Because the same departments inherited the same colonial manuals — unchanged, unquestioned. If you inherit someone else's lens, you inherit their blind spots too. And Rayadurgam slipped right through them.

13/15

🌄 21st century: Still majestic. Still overlooked. A fortress that survived empires, storms, and syllabus committees. Trekking crowds arrive; scholars drop by; departments pretend to care. Rayadurgam remains a reminder of how heritage dies—not by war, but by apathy.

14/15

📚 Rayadurgam is not a ruin. It is a timeline carved in stone:
Vijayanagara → Palegars → Mysore → British → **Erasure**
If textbooks won't tell its story, we will. Without filters. Without hesitation. Without colonial footnotes.

15/15

Rayadurgam Fort: Erased History

𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃: 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐔𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐊𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐑𝐀𝐌 — 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐇𝐈𝐋𝐋 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐑𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑𝐒 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆, 𝐖𝐇𝐈𝐋𝐄 𝐖𝐄 𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐆𝐄𝐓 𝐎𝐍 𝐏𝐔𝐑𝐏𝐎𝐒𝐄 e🛕💥

1/ A hill that has outlived every king, every empire, every ego that tried to own it.  
Sangam poets worshipped it.  
Jain monks bled asceticism into its stones.  
Pandyas turned it into art.  
And now?  
We’re sending JCBs to give it a “haircut.  
Peak India. Peak stupidity. 🤡

*pic AI generated and not real #GemsofASI #MNI2620,2621

2/ This isn’t “just a Murugan temple”.  
It’s a 2,000-year-old hard drive of Tamil history wearing a sacred mask.  
Every crack = an inscription.  
Every cave = a deleted file we’re too lazy to recover.  
But sure bro, let’s add another lane for Tola cabs.

3/ Sangam era already knew this hill was god-tier (300 BCE–300 CE).  
No Pandya PR team needed.  
No ASI sticker required.  
It was holy before your religion, my religion, or that politician’s vote bank was even a thought.


4/Jains rolled in, carved beds harder than your gym resolutions, left Tamil-Brahmi texts sharper than today’s Twitter warriors.  
They meditated here for centuries.  
Now meditators are replaced by mediators—between bulldozers and activists. Progress, baby.

5/ Pandyas showed up like: “Cute Jain cave, hold my chisel.”  
Bam—rock-cut Murugan temple, sculptures that make Michelangelo look mid.  
India doesn’t do “replacement”.  
We do remix. Layers on layers.  
Until someone decides concrete is the final layer.


6/ Current plot twist:  
“Minor road widening” near a 1,400-year-old cave shrine.  
Translation: Let’s shave the hill because some officer wants promotion before retirement.  
Archaeology < pending files. Classic.


7/ Jain stone beds now chilling 10 metres from diesel fumes and vibrating drill machines.  
If this was Italy, Netflix would already be filming a documentary titled “Save the Sacred Hill”.  
Here? We’re filming “Save the Tender”.


8/ HR&CE says “temple”.  
Archaeology Dept says “monument”.  
Highways Dept says “bro do you know how much traffic?”.  
The hill says nothing.  
It just quietly crumbles while committees meet for chai and minutes.

9/ Real question no one wants to answer:  
Can something be BOTH alive (worshipped daily) AND ancient (protected forever)?  
Or are we still mentally colonized—thinking heritage must be dead and frozen to deserve saving?

10/This isn’t a Madurai problem.  
This is a national disease.  
If we can butcher a hill that has Sangam + Jain + Pandya + living Murugan vibes…  
then every random mound in your district is just waiting for a real-estate guy with a blessing.

11/ The hill is still standing.  
Barely.  
It has watched empires rise and fall harder than FOMO altcoins.  
Now it’s watching us choose Instagram reels over inscriptions.

12/ One day, very soon, your kids will ask:  
“Appa, where was that famous cave temple?”  
And you’ll mumble something about “development”.  
The hill will still be there.  
Silent.  
Laughing in granite.

Drop a 🫡 if you’re tired of this nonsense.  
Drop a 🔨 if you’re the one holding it.

Thread over.  
The destruction isn’t.

Thriving Hill: India's Ancient Monument

One week ago, I gave Delhi Govt a ₹12,984 Cr plan that pays for itself in 11 months and saves 13,500 lives every year.
2025 winter is here. Same 450 AQI. Same excuses.
Ghost #1: Traffic mismanagement still kills us.
₹1,534 Cr for AI signals + turbo roundabouts could’ve cut idling emissions 25%.
Why no discussion so far @LtGovDelhi @MoEFCC @BJP4India @gupta_rekha ?
Full plan they buried ↓
#DelhiChokesOnLies #1

https://x.com/GemsOfINDOLOGY/status/1995847975629955237

Delhi Air Quality Plan

1️⃣ 2334 BCE. Sargon of Akkad carved it into stone: "Ships from Meluhha dock at Agade."

Meluhha. The Sumerian name for India.

Meaning? THE ELEVATED PLACE.

Why that name? Because mountains were how they FOUND us across 2000km of open water.

Ancient geography as brand identity. 🧵🗻

#decolonisation #Archaeology 

2️⃣ Meluhha likely comes from 'mel-akam'—elevated place.

Not poetic. PRACTICAL.

Mount Meru wasn't mythology. It was navigation. Maritime traders crossing the Persian Gulf needed landmarks. India's mountain ranges—Himalayas, Aravallis—were the landmarks 2000km away.

The evidence?

Harappan seals in Ur, Babylon, Kish (2600-1900 BCE). Gudea's records: translucent carnelian FROM MELUHHA. Shortugai colony controlling Afghan lapis mines. Meluhhan interpreters living permanently in Mesopotamian cities.

Vedic texts describing cosmic mountains weren't abstract philosophy. They documented the REAL geography that made India recognizable across ancient trade routes.

Mountains weren't landmarks. They were how the world found us. 🗻

3️⃣ Sargon carved it into stone: "Ships from Dilmun, Magan, and Meluhha dock at Agade's quays."

Not mythology. ROYAL INSCRIPTIONS.

Gudea of Lagash imported translucent carnelian specifically FROM MELUHHA. The Royal Cemetery at Ur? Filled with Harappan carnelian beads using acid-etching techniques that ONLY the Harappans mastered.

Here's what they won't tell you:

Harappan civilization covered 1.2 MILLION sq km. Mesopotamia? 65,000 sq km.

India wasn't the "backward" partner. We were the superpower THEY needed to trade with.

4️⃣ The ancient trade network:

DILMUN (Bahrain) = Transit hub
MAGAN (Oman) = Copper source
MELUHHA (India) = Luxury goods powerhouse

What Meluhha exported? Carnelian beads, lapis lazuli via Afghan control, ivory, ebony, pearls, gold, COTTON textiles (we invented cotton fabric), spices, aromatics.

What Mesopotamia sent back? Silver, tin, wool, grain.

Notice the difference?

They sent raw materials. We sent finished luxury goods.

The Harappans established SHORTUGAI—a permanent colony in Afghanistan to control lapis lazuli mines near Badakhshan.

Colonial narrative: "India was isolated and backward"

Reality: India ran international supply chains 4,500 years ago.

They hid the Harappan discovery for 70 years while weaving the narrative.

5️⃣ Mesopotamian cities had MELUHHAN INTERPRETERS living permanently as residents.

Su-i-li-su—a Meluhhan interpreter whose cylinder seal was found at Ur. Not a visitor. A RESIDENT PROFESSIONAL.

Lu-Sunzida case: Legal compensation documents involving a Meluhhan merchant in Mesopotamian courts.

Harappans weren't just trading. They were integrated into Mesopotamian legal systems. Living in their cities. Operating businesses under Sumerian law. Important enough to need dedicated interpreters.

Ur III period texts contain MULTIPLE references to Meluhhan traders and goods.

This wasn't occasional contact. This was systematic, centuries-long relationship with diplomatic infrastructure, legal frameworks, and permanent communities.

Show me another ancient civilization with that level of international integration.


6️⃣ Mount Meru appears in Hindu, Buddhist, AND Jain texts as the cosmic axis—five peaks, 84,000 yojanas high, around which the sun and planets revolve.

Colonial scholars: "Primitive mythology with no basis in reality!"

Actually? BRILLIANT ancient geography.

Mount Meru gets identified with the Himalayas, Aravalli Range, Pamir Mountains, Mount Kailash.

Why multiple identifications? Because "Meru" wasn't ONE mountain. It was the CONCEPT of India's defining mountain ranges serving as navigational landmarks.

Ancient mariners crossing the Persian Gulf couldn't use GPS. They used MOUNTAINS.

Meluhha possibly derives from Dravidian "mel" (elevated) + "akam" (place) = THE ELEVATED PLACE.

The cosmic mountain wasn't abstract philosophy. It was how you FOUND INDIA from 2000km away.

Geography as brand identity.

7️⃣ The Sumerian epic "Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta" describes trade with Aratta—a distant land beyond seven mountains, source of lapis lazuli.

Vedic texts ALSO mention Aratta. The Baudhāyana Śrautasūtra references it, later associated with Punjab regions.

Both Sumerians AND Vedic texts reference the SAME trade network for the SAME precious stone from the SAME geographic region.

Both traditions also share flood myths (Gilgamesh ↔ Manu), creation from primordial chaos, divine pantheons on sacred mountains, approximately 3,000 divine names.


Either:
A) Coincidence (unlikely)
B) Common origins (possible)
C) Extensive cultural exchange via trade (MOST LIKELY)

The evidence points to systematic cultural contact, not isolated civilizations.


8️⃣ Colonial historians erased these connections for a reason.

Acknowledging Harappan-Sumerian trade sophistication destroys the narrative of "backward India civilized by Western contact."

The evidence? India operated international trade networks 4,500 years ago. Harappan civilization was LARGER than Mesopotamia—1.2 million sq km vs 65,000. Indian merchants lived in Mesopotamian cities with legal rights. India controlled strategic resources. Indian technological innovations—acid-etched beads, cotton textiles—were luxury exports.

The "Meluhha" connection isn't a footnote. It's proof that ancient India was a CENTRAL player in global trade, culture, and civilization development.

When Sumerians looked east, they didn't see primitives.

They saw THE ELEVATED PLACE—a civilization wealthy and advanced enough to trade with as equals.

That's the history they erased. 🗻

Meluhha: Ancient Brand Identity

🧵 Haryana wasn't always Haryana.

This land has been renamed, reframed, and reimagined for 3000+ years. Each name tells a story. Each story reveals what mattered to those who lived here.

Let's trace Haryana from Vedic origins to now. 🏛️

1/ BRAHMAVARTA - The Land of Brahma

Vedic texts called this region Brahmavarta. The sacred land between Sarasvati and Drishadvati rivers. Where rituals were pure. Where Brahmins established dharma.

This wasn't just geography. This was spiritual ground zero. 🕉️

2/ ARYAVARTA - Land of the Nobles

Same region, different lens. Aryavarta stretched from the Himalayas to the Vindhyas, but Haryana sat at its heart.

Where Vedic culture flourished. Where Sanskrit evolved. Where the Mahabharata was fought at Kurukshetra.

Yes, THAT Kurukshetra. 🏹

3/ BRAHOMOUPDESA - Land of Divine Instruction

Another Vedic name. Brahomoupdesa meant the place where Brahmanical teachings were given.

Notice a pattern? Every ancient name anchored this land to knowledge, ritual, divine connection.

Haryana was always a teaching ground. 📿

4/ HARIYANAK - The First Written Evidence

1337 Vikram Samvat. An inscription from Bohar village, Rohtak district, during Balban's reign.

The word: Hariyanak.

This is the earliest documented version of the modern name. Not mythology. Not oral tradition. Carved. Dated. Real. 🗿

5/ HARYANA - Under Tughlaq

Sultan Mohammad-bin-Tughlaq's era. Another stone inscription. This time the word appears as Haryana.

The name stuck. Through Mughals. Through British. Through independence. Still here in 2025.

But where did it come from? 🤔

6/ 1857 - When Britain Took Revenge

Haryanvis fought hard in the First War of Independence. The British didn't forgive.

1858: Haryana gets merged with Punjab. Not for administration. For punishment.

108 years later, 1966: Haryana finally breaks free.

Identity delayed, not denied. ⚔️

7/ HARIBANKA - Indra's Abode

Dharanidhar's Akhand Prakash explains: Haryana comes from Haribanka. Hari = Lord Indra. Anka = abode.

Why Indra? Because this is dry land. Rainfall isn't guaranteed. So people worshipped Indra—the rain god—constantly.

The name is a prayer. 🌧️

8/ From Sacred to State

Brahmavarta → Aryavarta → Brahomoupdesa → Hariyanak → Haryana.

From land of gods to land of people. From spiritual identity to administrative unit. From Vedic glory to modern state formed in 1966.

But the essence? Still there. Still resilient. 💪

9/ Why This Matters

We think names are just labels. They're not. They're memory. Identity. Proof of continuity.

Haryana's names show us what each era valued. Vedic: spirituality. Medieval: worship. Modern: identity.

The land remembers. Even when we forget. 🏛️✨