Speaking Archaeologically™

I am not sure where, on the priority list of the Indian régime, does heritage conservation lie, but it certainly does lie well below changing names and raising statues. Sitting atop a hillock, overlooking the lush green fields, lie the ruins of Rehlu fortress. Once an important outpost on the borders of the hill states of Kangra and Chamba, the once-imposing building and the small village below, hold stories of a vibrant past, but today, everything seems to have been forgotten beneath the sheets of the soil and spoils of the fort walls. The place had always been an object of fascination for me since I was a teenager, and was shrouded enough in wilderness to excite a bunch of adrenaline pumped teenagers, such as I was. Despite the fascination of many like me, though, it was never significant historically and probably will never be, but it was this place, in particular, that made me fall in love with ruins. Hence, this was the perfect setting for my first Member-run-Workshop at...

I feel elated at the opportunity to write about a monument, that I first time saw some fifteen years ago, while traveling by road to Shikarpur city from my village. Conspicuous from the roadside the site is in Lakhi town. I still remember, it was a standing structure of red bricks, built on a high artificial mound and at first glance, I felt as if I was experiencing the past from my window. I hadn’t even had the chance to collect my thoughts before the van conductor yelled, ‘Lakhi Lakhi . . . Halli acho Lakhi wara …,’ and the van stopped. Intrigued and confused by the expression of fascination on my face, the passenger next to me asked me what I was looking at. Perplexed I replied, “Hnmm…chaa” (which means “what?” in Sindhi ). He said plainly, this is ‘ Lakhi Munaro ’ and then there was silence . . . The monument or the site is known by various names such as, ‘Lakhi Munaro,’‘Lakhi Minar’ and ‘ Lakhi Thul’ (this...

Tell people you are a doctor, and their eyebrows shoot so high on their foreheads, you’re scared their hair will swallow it. Tell people you’re an engineer, and they have the choicest words of praise for you. Tell them you are an archaeologist, and you’ve hit the goldmine of blank-faces, confused looks and stoned eyes. Hain? You dig graves, beta? Or worse! They mistake it for architecture! (Nope, not kidding!) Archaeologist? Achha achha! So, do you design bridges? Or buildings? My typical reaction to this: What the devil were you doing in Grade 5, when you first came across the words , “Archaeologists are yet to decipher what the Indus Valley Script means!”?   Seriously, sometimes I wonder, whether I was the only one who heard my teacher explain what an archaeologist truly was! However, you’d be surprised, there are other oddballs like me who took the teacher seriously when he added in an encouraging way: “Well who knows? Maybe you can be an archaeologist tomorrow and...

Have you ever looked at an ancient monument or sculpture Trishla is a research wing member at Speaking Archaeologically since August 2018 and wondered : how it is, that our ancient civilisations, armed with just a set of primitive tools, were able to conceptualise and execute them ? I know I have . But everytime a teacher responded with "That's for you to find out" and multiple google searches led me to the famous "Maybe the God's built it..?" or my mothers favourite, "Alien theory," I put aside my rather genuine inquiry only to forget about it completely-until it hit me again on site at Sanghol. If you haven't read my last blog here, where I took about how we reached the site, its history and present status, it would be a good idea to read that first for what we call "more context". In this blog I'll only be dishing on how we resourcefully tackled our biggest handicap at the Sanghol site which as I had mentioned in that...

Hold it right there! Save your breath. Don't expect me Allahabad juxtaposed with Prayagraj  to call it Prayagraj. The blue of a city I share part of my maternal heritage from never responded to that name. Devprayag if you must absolutely insist but it hasn't been that in several centuries. There's not much of Devprayag left, though, to be fair.  Like I said, it's not a city anymore, it's  a blur-a place where past gasps out of the present like a drowning man gasps for air, beating helplessly at the surface of water.  Allahabad (anglicised version of Illahabad) was originally named after the secular religion Mughal Emperor wished to propagate and was named after the  eponymous Illahabad Fort No matter how much you try to saffronise it, Allahabad  is secular, just like the Mughal Emperor,  w ho decided to call it that but its fate is not too different than that of the unorthodox great-grandson, who was a "pestilent infidel" in the eyes o...

Every ruined city has a story, a curse that it holds, one mistake that brought down every single wall it had. Rattan Kaur Rainu is a Research Wing Member  at Speaking Archaeologically since August 2018 Delhi was one of the major cities during the Medieval Era in India. It was ruled by six dynasties like Tughlaq and Khaljis. Delhi was destroyed and rebuilt seven times. It is a city which was supposedly ruled by the Pandavas during some point of time and was home to the Turko-Afghan raiders from the north. Delhi held the position of  the capital for almost the whole Medieval Period. It is the city of the cities. A city which encapsulates many cities like Siri, Shahjahanabad, Jahanpanah , the Tughlaqabad among the other architectural jewels. Delhi is both my birth place and hometown. One thing that comes naturally in a Delhiite is love for the monuments and the casual way of avoiding the ruined monuments, which we see while driving t...