I’m surprised at the response you got, which seems like… skepticism bordering on hostility. Is there a reason this should be a hot button issue? (Please excuse my ignorance, if it is at all redemptive, it isn’t India-specific I just don’t know anything about archeology in general, haha).
During Mughal invasions, the priests buried the idols and inscriptions and many were drowned for safe keeping. As many rural areas are being developed, these are all coming out.
Current state is politics ( at least in the southern states) is such that all Hindu temples are under the control of the state. The corrupt ruling parties have claimed all the revenues and have appropriated land that used to belong to temples and were rented out for services. Temples used to run schools and fed the needy population as the land donated by the rulers and they were essentially outsourcing the work to the temples. This was interrupted during the 250 years of colonial rule when the British eliminated kingdoms.
Further complicating the issue are the other religionists of Islam and Christianity who have strong conversion agendas and are being funded by foreign interests.
For example. The issue of the WAQF board of Islam. Recently this came up in the news : [..]The Tamil Nadu Waqf Board has claimed ownership of the 1500-year-old Manendiyavalli Chandrashekhara Swami temple land. The temple has 369 acres of property in and around Tiruchenthurai village in the Tiruchi District of Tamil Nadu.[..]
How is it possible that a 1500 year old temple can be owned by a religious board that is younger than the temple?
And I found this article: https://organiser.org/2023/01/30/106679/bharat/106679/.. it was specific to that region but spoke about the WAQF Board.
And I had to learn what the WAQF board was and learn more from here:https://www.opindia.com/2022/09/waqf-boards-india-properties...
[..]The very literal meaning of Waqf is detention or confinement and prohibition. As per Islam, it is the property that is now available only for religious or charitable purposes, and any other use or sale of the property is prohibited. As per Sharia law, once Waqf is established, and the property is dedicated to Waqf, it remains as Waqf property forever.
Waqf means that the ownership of the property is now taken away from the person making Waqf and transferred and detained by Allah. As per Sharia, this property is now permanently dedicated to Allah, making Waqf irrevocable in nature.
‘Waqif’ is a person who creates a waqf for the beneficiary. As Waqf properties are bestowed upon Allah, in the absence of a physically tangible entity, a ‘mutawalli’ is appointed by the waqif, or by a competent authority, to manage or administer a Waqf.
The history of Waqf and Waqf Boards in India
In India, the history of Waqf can be traced back to the early days of the Delhi Sultanate when Sultan Muizuddin Sam Ghaor dedicated two villages in favour of the Jama Masjid of Multan and handed its administration to Shaikhul Islam. As the Delhi Sultanate and later Islamic dynasties flourished in India, the number of Waqf properties kept increasing in India.[..]
I am still diving into that rabbithole. And I don’t think it’s relevant to post here.
Back to the topic.. I would prefer if Hindu artifacts and texts and ancient Indian history remains hidden. It is not a safe space out there because even though India is allegedly a Hindu majority country, there are strong interests to wish to erase the Hindu identity of India and weaken the only polytheistic faith that managed to survive millennia.
In the article, there were artifacts that depicted Hindu Gods(Krishna, Balaram and Ekanamsa)but the word Hindu did not occur even once. Sadly, it only confirmed my suspicion that western academia wants to erase Hindu history.
Also can you at least point out to some temples which house these and archeological survey of India have not already done steps to preserve those temples?
[0] https://www.businesstoday.in/latest/economy/story/indias-anc... [1] https://www.amazon.com/Golden-Road-Ancient-India-Transformed...
I'm not affiliated with it, I'm just a fan.
This, there are also very real links connecting famous civilizations of the Ancient Near East such as the Sumerians with the Dravidians of South India.
Isn't this the same thing as saying "Chai-Tea"? As "Dravidian" already means "Southern". Dravida = South in Sanskrit.
AFAIK no South Indian empire like Rasthrakuta or Satavahan called themselves Dravidian.
I think the development of Christianity and later Greek philosophy has _clear_ signs of influence from Buddhism, and I'm sure the influence was bidirectional. These people talked to each other and they argued with each other and learned from each other. Egypt in particular was a wildly religiously inventive melting pot, and the Hermetic and Gnostic texts _especially_ have signs of influence from eastern religion, and if there were active Buddhist communities in Berineke that were presumably proselytizing, that makes a lot of sense.
I think a lot of people sort of make the assumption that because there are core differences between the religions that there is no influence, but sometimes doctrines only become settled through opposition. It's not always "Yes, and", sometimes it's "yes, but", and the popularity of certain ideas (for example the idea of salvation through personal enlightment) could force various sects to adapt and find similarities, while also differentiating themselves. Christianity is obviously not buddhism or an offshoot of Buddhism, but that doesn't mean that aspects of it weren't a reaction to encounters with Buddhist ideas.
I was hooked to “Age of Empires” as a kid. I remember asking a teachers and others if Alexander the Great invaded India, and the Romans were building walls in Scotland, why didn’t they bother visiting anyone in India, Ethiopia, etc.
The answers were always unsatisfactory to me… I’m glad people are pursuing this knowledge.
Smart guy.-
Makes you really stop and think.
You get to a ruin messed up by Indiana Jones’s in the 1940’s or whatever, just note the location, your great^10 grandkids can come back and collect his hat as an artifact.
In the case of Egypt, the chief culprits are usually ancient Egyptians. Not just common thiefs mind you, but also officials from later dynasties using grave goods as their treasury.
Some archeologist in Northern Argentina happened to talk to a local farmer who knew about several ancient sites.
I had a British farmer once locate a medieval path through his land. The documentary evidence already suggested it was in his field and he knew where his plow had found a lot of rocks. We dug a trench and found a beautiful cobblestone path inside.
https://www.ancientportsantiques.com/wp-content/uploads/Docu...
Aparrently this value from one ship, and it's reported to have 100 ships per monsoon season to Indian Ocean, it means per year since you need to have two monsoon for departing and returning. This report is for the first century AD, before the trade route reached its peak.
PS. That, and antibiotics ...
I feel like we don't often hear about times where these civilizations and religions mingled and worked together. The Isis temple would have been something to see.
I found the bio of the author, Jo Marchant, on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B00B9DBJ3E/about):
> [Marchant] has a PhD in genetics and medical microbiology from St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical College in London, and an MSc in Science Communication from Imperial College London. She previously worked as a senior editor at New Scientist and at Nature, and her articles have appeared in publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian and Smithsonian magazine.
htps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco-Buddhist_art
Anyone have insights on what would motivate an otherwise well informed author to do that?
Which shorthand is this?
[0] https://www.outlooktraveller.com/experiences/heritage/chines... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borobudur_ship [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinas
It is quite probable that the modern categories by which we divide religions, nations, cultures, people, are all flawed when brought into relief as this article does. Social interchange is far more complex than 19th century definitions of national identity.
[0]https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gu%E1%B8%ABlum#Akkadian [1]https://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/app/apte_query.py?qs=kajja...
