Category Archives: INDIA

Millet bread and pulse dough from early Iron Age South India: Charred food lumps as culinary indicators

Millet bread and pulse dough from early Iron Age South India: Charred food lumps as culinary indicators

Prof.  Jennifer Bates and her coworkers, Kelly Wilcox Black and Prof. Kathleen Morrison, published a new archaeobotanical article, “Millet Bread and Pulse Dough from Early Iron Age South India: Charred Food Lumps as Culinary Indicators, ” in the Journal of Archaeological Science (Vol.137).

Jennifer is a former Postdoc in the Penn Paleoecology Lab, now an Assistant Professor at Seoul National University, Kelly is a PhD student at the University of Chicago, completing her dissertation. Kathleen is a Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. 

In the paper, the authors explore charred lumps from the site of Kadebakele, in southern India, where they have excavated for several years with the support of the Archaeological Survey of India and colleagues.

Millet bread and pulse dough from early Iron Age South India: Charred food lumps as culinary indicators

The site dates from around 2,300 BCE to CE 1600 or so, but these data are from the Early Iron Age, about 800 BC. Charred lumps are usually seen as not identifiable, but using high-quality imaging, they were able to show that (some of) these are charred remains of dough or batter; these would have been used to make bread-like dishes.

Comparing the data with experimental studies done by another lab group, they identified two kinds of food lumps, along with cattle dung lumps (likely fuel). 

They found a dough made primarily from millets that match the experimental results of “flatbreads” most closely. Millet flatbreads are still made in this region.

There was also a batter made primarily from pulses (beans, lentils, etc.). This highlights the great importance of pulses in the diet, something is also seen in the overall botanical assemblage.

As far as we know, there hasn’t been any previous understanding of how these foods might have been prepared, and this paper is the first glimpse at food making in South Asian prehistory. 

The work contributes to our understanding of cooking, diet, and daily life in the South Indian Iron Age, a period without historical documents, and also establishes the value of a data source previously assumed to be too difficult to study on a routine basis (that is, without using SEM).

Professor Bates, Ms Wilcox Black and Professor Morrison argue that work like this allows archaeologists to move beyond “taxa lists” (lists of plants and animals used — you could think of these as possible ‘ingredients’) to approach issues of culinary practice (combinations of ingredients as well as techniques).

GSI scientists stumble upon 100-million-year-old dinosaur bones in India

GSI scientists stumble upon 100-million-year-old dinosaur bones in India

Researchers have identified fossil bone fragments of long-necked dinosaurs called sauropods, dating back to about 100-million-years from an area around West Khasi Hills District in Meghalaya.

Sauropod skeleton. Image for representational purposes only.

The yet-to-be-published findings were made during a recent field trip by researchers from the Geological Survey of India’s Palaeontology division in the North East. The GSI researchers noted that this is the first record of sauropods of probable Titanosaurian origin discovered in the region.

Sauropods had very long necks, long tails, small heads relative to the rest of their body, and four thick, pillar-like legs. They are notable for the enormous sizes attained by some species, and the group includes the largest animals to have ever lived on land.

The finding makes Meghalaya the fifth state in India after Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu and the only state in the North-East to report Sauropod bones having titanosaurian affinity, they said.

Titanosaurs were a diverse group of sauropod dinosaurs, including genera from Africa, Asia, South America, North America, Europe, Australia and Antarctica.

“Dinosaur bones from Meghalaya were reported by GSI in 2001 but they were too fragmentary and ill-preserved to understand its taxonomic identification,” said Arindam Roy, Senior Geologist, Palaeontology Division, GSI. “The present find of bones is during fieldwork in 2019-2020 and 2020-21. The last visit of the team was in February 2021. The fossils are presumably of Late Cretaceous, about 100 million years ago.”

He noted that the best-preserved fossils are limb bones, adding the type of curvature, development of lateral and proximal margins of the partially preserved bone are indicative of it being a humerus bone.

He, however, noted that the conclusions are drawn from preliminary studies and detailed work is going on.

The bone fragments were collected from poorly sorted, purplish to greenish very coarse-grained arkosic sandstone interlaid with pebbly beds. More than twenty-five disarticulated, mostly fragmentary bone specimens were recovered, which are of different sizes and occur as isolated specimens but some of them were found in close proximity to each other, the researchers said.

Taxonomic identification up to the genus level is difficult due to the poorly preserved, incomplete, fragmentary nature of the bones and most of the recovered bones are partially petrified and partially replaced, they said.

Therefore, only three of the best-preserved ones could be studied. The largest one is a partially preserved limb bone of 55 centimetres (cm) long. It is comparable with the average humerus length of titanosaurids.

Robustness of the bone, the difference in curvature in the lateral margins and the proximal border being relatively straight, are some of the morphological characters that hint at the titanosaurid affinity, according to the researchers.

Another incomplete limb bone measuring 45cm in length is also comparable with the limb bones of titanosauriform clade, they said.

“The abundance of bones recovered during the present work and especially the finding of few limb bones and vertebrae having taxonomic characters of titanosauriform clade are unique,” Roy said. “The record of the sauropod assemblage of probable titanosaurian affinity from Meghalaya extends the distribution and diversity of vertebrates in the Late Cretaceous of India.”

An incomplete chevron of caudal vertebrae and also cervical vertebra have also been reconstructed from a few recovered bone specimens. The other fragmentary specimens though partially preserved might probably be parts of the limb bones of a sauropod dinosaur.

Titanosaurian sauropod dinosaurs were the most diverse and abundant large-bodied terrestrial herbivores in the Southern Hemisphere landmasses during the Cretaceous Period but they were not endemic to the Gondwanan landmasses, the researchers said.

Gondwana is the southern half of the Pangaean supercontinent that existed some 300 million years ago and is composed of the major continental blocks of South America, Africa, Arabia, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, India, Antarctica, and Australia.

In India, the Late Cretaceous sauropod dinosaur generally belongs to the titanosaurian clade and has been reported from the Lameta Formation of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra and Kallamedu Formation of Tamil Nadu, the researchers said.

12th Century stone idol of Lord Ganesh discovered

12th Century stone idol of Lord Ganesh discovered

A 12th-century idol representing the Hindu god Ganesh has been discovered accidentally in southeastern India. A farmer in the village of Motupalli in Prakasam District stumbled across the stone statue while tilling his land. In Hinduism, Lord Ganesh is presented as a portly elephant-headed figure with four arms.

He is considered the god of wisdom, the patron of science and art and the remover of obstacles. Standing about 18 inches tall, the idol displays Ganesh sitting cross-legged, known as the ‘Padmasana’ posture, on a lotus pedestal.

Two of the idol’s hands are broken—in one remaining hand, he holds his broken tusk and in the other a sweet Indian dumpling known as a modaka.

The announcement of the idol’s discovery came during the 10-day Ganesh Chaturthi festival when Hindus celebrate Lord Ganesh’s birth.

Farmer Siripudi Venkateswaralu discovered the idol on September 9 while tilling his farm in Motupalli, a village in the Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh, The Hindu reported.

12th Century stone idol of Lord Ganesh discovered
A 13 inch stone idol of Ganesh, the Hindu remover of obstacles, was discovered in Andhra Pradesh on the eve of a festival celebrating the elephant-headed god’s birth

Found on the eve of a festival devoted to Ganesh, the 800-year-old idol drew crowds of locals and visitors alike.  Running from September 10 to 19 this year, Ganesh Chaturthi is celebrated with fasting, offerings, and prayers.

Later, modaka is distributed and public feasts and martial arts exhibitions are held.

Ganesh is typically presented with four arms, with an axe in his upper right hand, a noose in his upper left hand and sweet dumplings in the lower left. His broken tusk is often shown in his lower right though sometimes the hand is extended out to the viewer in a posture of enlightenment.

On the tenth day, idols of Ganesh are carried in a public procession and immersed in a nearby river or sea. 

The statue found in Motupall is 42 inches long, 30 inches wide and 18 inches tall, and is missing Ganesh’s typical mukut, or crown, according to archaeologist E. Sivanagi Reddy.

Reddy dated the icon to the 12th century, when Andhra Pradesh was ruled by the Chola dynasty, based on its style and inscriptions in the ruins of the nearby Kodanda Ramaswamy temple.

The Chola dynasty was a Tamil empire that governed southern India until the 13th century.

In Hindu iconography, Ganesh is usually depicted with an elephant head and a stout human body with four arms.

Each appendage carries an item with ritual significance: An axe in his upper right hand, and his broken tusk, or ‘danta,’ in his lower right. (In one story, Ganesh’s tusk was broken by an axe thrown by a warrior seeking to attack his father, Shiva.) 

A noose is in his upper left hand and sweets are in the lower left. The idol was taken to the temple by the Motupalli Heritage Society, though its final disposition is unknown.

In August Reddy was part of a team of archaeologists who found a Tamil inscription in the temple dedicated to Prataparudra, emperor of the Kakatiya dynasty that supplanted the Chola.

The inscription dated to the early 14t century and registers the land as a gift ‘for the merit of the king,’ The Deccan Chronicle reported. Prataparudra was the last Kakatiya ruler: He died during a 1323 invasion that saw the kingdom annexed to the Islamic Delhi Sultanate.

1,500-Year-Old Temple Ruins Discovered in Uttar Pradesh, India

1,500-Year-Old Temple Ruins Discovered in Uttar Pradesh, India

The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has found remains of an ancient temple dating back to the Gupta Period, 5th Century CE in Bilsarh village of Uttar Pradesh’s Etah. 

At the spot, the archaeologists discovered “two decorative pillars (at the spot) close to one another, with human figurines (found earlier).”  Vasant Swarnkar, superintending archaeologist of ASI’s Agra circle said, “To understand their significance, we conducted further excavation and found the stairs,” quoted The Times of India. 

Last month, the staircase was excavated has Shankhalipi inscriptions that were ” deciphered as saying ‘Sri Mahendraditya’, which was the title of Kumaragupta I of the Gupta dynasty.” 

Shankhalipi is an ancient script that was used from the 4th to 8th centuries CE for names and signatures. 

In the 5th century CE, Kumaragupta I ruled for 40 years over what is now north-central India.

The ASI made the discovery in Etah’s Bilsarh village, which has been protected since 1928, during a routine check-up. The ASI scrubs its protected sites during monsoons. 

The Shankhalipi inscription was earlier found on a horse status found in Lakhimpur Kheri and is now at the State Museum in Lucknow, the TOI reported. 

The remains recently found in Etah are the third structural temple found so far from the Gupta period. “Before this, only two structural temples were found — Dashavatara Temple in Deogarh and Bhitargaon Temple in Kanpur Dehat.

The Etah pillars are well-sculpted, better than the earlier examples in which only the lower sections were carved. The decorative pillars and staircase are a bit more advanced than the earlier ones,” said History Professor Manvendra Pundhir of the Aligarh Muslim University.

He said, “The Guptas were the first to build structural temples for Brahminical, Buddhist and Jain followers. Prior to that, only rock-cut temples were built,” quoted TOI. 

Iron dagger with wooden handle, skeletal remains found at Konthagai, India

Iron dagger with wooden handle, skeletal remains found at Konthagai, India

The 40-cm-long weapon with a 6-cm-long wooden handle was found at a depth of 77 cm.

The sample will be sent to Beta Analytical Lab, Florida, USA, for exact dating.

An iron dagger with a wooden handle was found inside a burial urn unearthed at Konthagai village, which is part of the Keeladi cluster where the seventh phase of excavation is in full swing to establish the existence of urban civilisation in the Sangam era.

The second season of digging started in February at Konthagai where 25 burial urns have been unearthed so far and 11 of them have been opened, according to R. Kaviya, one of the four Site Archaeology Officers.

These urns measure 95 to 105 cm in height with a circumference of 80 cm. Some of the urns contained iron weapons, shaped like knives, and spears and small terracotta vessels.

The latest, a 40-cm-long iron dagger with a 6-cm-long wooden handle was found at a depth of 77 cm. The urn filled with soil sediment had the five-cm-thick dagger, associated with femur bones, a skull and an offering pot.

It is a type used by warriors belonging to the Sangam period, contemporary to Keeladi dating, according to R. Sivanandam, Director of Keeladi Excavations.

This was the first time that they had stumbled upon a weapon with a wooden handle, and it would be very useful for exact dating of the evidence found so far, he said.

Though extremely fragile, the wooden handle was preserved in rare natural phenomena and collected carefully in foil covers. The sample would be sent to Beta Analytical Lab, Florida, the USA, for an exact dating, added Mr. Sivanandam, who is also the Commissioner (FAC), Department of Archaeology.

25 burial urns have been unearthed so far in Keeladi

The skeleton samples were handed over to experts at Madurai Kamaraj University, where a DNA testing laboratory is coming up.

Ms. Kaviya said the urn was found with a disturbed lid. The broken portion of the lid was retrieved inside the urn at a depth of 80 cm.

There was a possibility that the broken portion of the urn lid fell on the iron dagger, as two urn lid pieces were found on either side of the dagger, which was also damaged.

The Keeladi excavations are being carried out by the Archaeological Survey of India under the supervision of Minister for Industries Thangam Thennarasu and B. Chandramohan, Principal Secretary, Tourism, Culture & Religious Endowments Department.

Stone Age tools, cave paintings discovered in India could be clues to ‘prehistoric factory’

Stone Age tools, cave paintings discovered in India could be clues to ‘prehistoric factory’

Mangar, Haryana: Prehistoric cave paintings belonging to the Paleolithic era, and rock shelters as well as tools and tool-making equipment, presumably dating back to the lower or early Paleolithic era have been found hiding in plain sight in the Aravallis.

A specimen of recently discovered palaeolithic cave paintings in the Aravalli Range in Haryana, India.

The palaeolithic era, or the Old Stone Age, dates back to 10,000 BC when humans still lived as hunters and gatherers. Tools belonging to the Stone Age have been found in rock shelters as well as in open-air sites, spread across nearly 5,000 hectares, Banani Bhattacharya, Deputy Director, Haryana Department of Archaeology and Museums, told ThePrint.

Located in the Aravalli hills near Mangar Bani forest along the Gurugram-Faridabad stretch in Delhi-NCR, the discovery is monumental as it changes the understanding of Haryana’s history, pushing it back further by several thousand years than we currently know.

“Haryana is known as the cradle of Indian civilisation. Earlier, 28 sites dating back to the Harappan and pre-Harappan era had been discovered in the state. However, cave paintings and rock art sprawling in such a large area have been discovered for the first time. This discovery suggests that the history here could be 1 lakh years old,” Bhattacharya said.

While the Aravalli range is known for housing pre-historic remains, the latest discovery is the first time rock paintings have been found here. While the rock art and tools are estimated to be about 1 lakh years old, the paintings might not be older than 20,000-40,000 years, according to Bhattacharya.

The estimates, though, are preliminary and need further research, documentation and carbon dating to accurately determine the exact time period this site belongs to.

Based on initial observations, Bhattacharya said, it appeared humans had settled in this area for quite some time as the archaeologists noticed that the pattern of drawing had evolved. This gives them a chance to trace how early humans developed their tool-making skills.

A specimen of the palaeolithic paintings found in the Aravallis

“Some are line drawings, which are the oldest when humans hadn’t really figured out how to draw complex patterns. Then we can see drawings of different geometric shapes, foliage, animals and human figures. We’ve found some symbols that look like cup marks, which had presumably been kept for some special purpose,” Bhattacharya said. “While most are ochre, some are white as well. Which means those particular drawings belong to the historic era.”

Bhattacharya also said this could be the biggest Paleolithic site found in the subcontinent. She said this could well be the ‘factory’ of our ancestors, where tools were made.

YouTube video leads to discovery

A YouTube video, posted in May by residents of the area, tipped the Haryana archaeological department to the site, which was discovered later in July.

“We were planning to carry out a survey in the Aravallis here. In May, a video surfaced on YouTube about these caves that villagers have been aware of. However, they never understood the value of these rock carvings and paintings, so we were never alerted earlier,” Bhattacharya said.

No elaborate archaeological survey of the Aravallis has been carried out in this area yet, which, Bhattacharya said, will be done soon. “We’re planning to map the entire Aravalli stretch.”

Another reason the paintings weren’t officially discovered so far was that it takes hiking on undefined trails to reach some of the sites. Over time, the paintings also eroded, thus escaping most untrained eyes. At some sites, dense vegetation covers up the palaeolithic art.

Bhattacharya and her team carried out a three-day survey in the last week of June, identifying several sites. With final documentation and more elaborate research pending, Bhattacharya is yet to have a final count of the number of sites discovered so far.

Wildlife researcher and conservationist Sunil Harsana, who claims he had first posted the video to YouTube, said he has been aware of the caves since his childhood but didn’t understand the significance of the paintings and didn’t know who to talk to about them.

“We had a keypad, basic phones with the bad camera till as late as 2016… so even if I had clicked a picture on them, nobody would’ve understood what I was talking about. And we didn’t know who to tell. Now, once they were put on the internet, they got the attention they deserved,” he said.

Protecting the history

Currently, the sites are exposed and vulnerable — along with what remains of the Stone Age. The trash from the current millennium — such as empty cans and bottles of beer and cola, cigarette butts, empty wrappers of snacks — can also be found here.

Harsana is wary that as more people find out about the discovery, more will come to visit these rock shelters, speeding up the deterioration.

“The site needs urgent protection. You never know who will visit the site and carve their name or ‘hearts’ alongside the prehistoric carvings, just for the fun of it,” he said. Instead, through heritage and eco-tourism, residents of the area could find employment opportunities and be able to earn some.

Both Bhattacharya and Harsana are also of the opinion that Mangar Bani and its surrounding forests on the Gurgaon-Faridabad Aravalli stretch should be declared a heritage-eco zone. This will guarantee the area is protected from illegal mining and encroachment.

“We don’t even know how many of these sites must have been destroyed because of mining and exploitation of the Aravallis. They need urgent protection. As the oldest mountain range in the world, they carry important clues to help us understand our origins and have a lot of stories to tell about the Indian subcontinent,” Bhattacharya said.

Ashok Khemka, Principal Secretary to Haryana government, told Hindustan Times earlier this month the department will be issuing orders to protect Mangar Bani under Section 4 of the Punjab Ancient and Historical Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1964, and that experts in palaeolithic cave paintings will be carrying out an extensive survey of the area.

4,000-Year-Old Settlement Unearthed in Eastern India

4,000-Year-Old Settlement Unearthed in Eastern India

In the Balasore district, the Odisha Institute of Maritime and South-East Asian Studies (OIMSEAS), an archaeological branch of the state government, found a 4,000-year-old settlement and ancient relics.

The OIMSEAS had requested permission from the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to record the site at Durgadevi village in Remuna tehsil after discovering indications of fortified early historic structures near Balasore town.

Durgadevi has located 20 km from Balasore town. According to the ASI, the site has a circular mud fortification of about 4.9 km between the Sona river to the south and the Burahabalang river on its northeastern margin.

Archaeologists have come across distinct traces of three cultural phases at the excavation site — Chalcolithic (2000 BCE to 1000 BCE), the Iron Age (1000 BCE to 400 BCE) and the Early Historic Period (400 BCE to 200 BCE).

“Two small nullas, Gangahara and Prassana, join the site on its north and south, forming a natural moat for the site, which was an ancient water management system developed at least 4,000 years back from the present,” the institute said.

The excavation was started with an aim to correlate the simultaneous growth and development of maritime activities, and urbanisation in the east coast of India, linking the Ganga valley in the north and the Mahanadi valley in central Odisha, more particularly to focus on early cultural development in northern Odisha, the institute informed.

According to the OIMSEAS, horizontal excavation was concentrated in an area of two acres of high land, where a cultural deposit of about 4 to 5 meters was seen.

Archaeologists have come across a human settlement, and artefacts belonging to the Chalcolithic period.

“The major discovery of the Chalcolithic period of Durgadevi is the base of a circular hut, black on red painted pottery, black slipped ware, red slipped ware and copper objects. The floor of the circular hut is rammed with red soil,” Sunil Kumar Pattnaik, archaeologist and Secretary, OIMSEAS.

“From the base of the circular hut and the utilitarian objects found, the lifestyle of the people has been derived. People were mostly leading a settled life and had started agriculture, and domestication of animals and fishing,” he said.

Similarly, the cultural material evidence and remains found from this phase include pottery, remains of black burnished ware, black and redware, iron objects like nails, arrowheads, and crucible and slag of various kinds belonging to the Iron Age.

“The use of iron is a landmark phase in the growth of civilisation in Odisha, particularly in north Odisha. There are several iron age sites discovered by various archaeologists in the upper and middle Mahanadi valley, but in north Odisha, this is the first site,” said Mr. Patnaik.

Cultural materials from the early historic period such as pottery specimens of redware, terracotta ear studs, bangles, beads, and some conical objects, were also discovered from the site.

“The lifestyle of the people, which is derived from the cultural materials, was very improved at that time, from an agricultural base to trade and construction of fortification around the site with a moat, which signify the emergence of urbanisation at Durgadevi around 400 BCE to 200 BCE,” said the OIMSEAS Secretary.

Did Hindu’s build Egyptian Pyramids?

Did Hindu’s build Egyptian Pyramids?

Egyptian Pyramids, Mayan Pyramid Temples, Babylonian Ziggurats (Shikara in Sanskrit) and Hindu temples—all look like a cone. The design and structure are same. Hindus were the originators. Hindus taught the world that God lives in a high place-sacred mountain MERU.

The Greeks changed the name to Mount Olympus. Hindus are the only race in the world continuing temple buildings in the same way and worshipping God in it. All others made them as museums.

We took this concept of ‘sacred mountain’ to Cambodia and built the largest temple complex in the world Angkor Wat and Borobudur in Indonesia. We used the temple for Gods, where as others used them for God like kings.

Scholars around the world knew the connection between India and Egypt from 1400 BC. That was the time Mittanni King Dasaratha wrote ten letters (it is available in all the encyclopaedias as Amarna letters) after marrying his daughter to Egyptian king Amhenotep (Sramana Dev).  Tushratta/ Dasaratha was a king who ruled Syria (now a Muslim country), but his name and his forefather names are in Sanskrit.

To confirm they are Indian Hindus we have an inscription giving the Vedic Gods Mitra, Varuna, Indra and Nasatya (Asvini Devas) in an agreement with the Hittites and a horse manual with Sanskrit numbers.

(Though all these things were in encyclopaedias from 1930s, the ruling British were very careful not to teach this or about South East Asian Hindu Empire to Indian History students. All these excavations were done by non British scholars! British were very successful in sowing the poisonous seeds of divisive Aryan Dravidian Invasion theory which is not in Sangam Tamil or Sanskrit literature.

They carefully hid facts like Tamils worshipped Indra, Varuna, Vishnu, Skanda and Durga which was found in the oldest Tamil book Tolkappiam).

Bible which was put to writing around 945 BC (Hutchinson Encyclopaedia) also gave Sanskrit words  for imports from India such as karpasa (cotton),Tuke (Siki for peacock or Suka for parrots), Kapi (monkey)etc.

But many of us do not know that the first king of Egypt was Manu, the law giver. But they were not Dasaratha of Valmiki Ramayana or Manu of Manu Dharma Sastra

Many of us do not know that the Egyptian builders used the Sanskrit word  Sutra for measurements during building Egyptian Pyramids.

Sulba Sutras are Vedic manuals giving measurements for Yaga Kundas (fire pits for sacrificial fire ceremonies). It contains Pythagorean Theorem and other Vedic mathematics. Sutra means thread/plumb line,also book of formulas.

Arta Dama, a Mittanni king, married his daughter to Egyptian king Tuthmose IV and the daughter of Sutharna was married to Amenhotep III (1390 BC). Another daughter was married to his son Akhenaten.

He was the most revolutionary king who established ONE GOD for the Egyptians. His name in Sanskrit means Eka Aten (One Aten is God). He worshiped Surya (sun).

Egyptian kings’ sun worship looks exactly like Brahmins doing Sandhyavandhana. Brahmins do it thrice a day facing sun. Egyptian kings worship the sun in the same way.

Manu=Nara Meru

In my earlier posts I have established that the big conflict between Krishna/Arjuna pair and the Nagas under the leadership of Maya Dhanava just before 3100 BC resulted in a mass exodus of Nagas to South America and Central America.

After Krishna’s burning of Naga lands (Kandava vana) in the Gangetic plains, there were continuous clashes. It was followed by the mass execution of Nagas (Sarpa Yagna) to avenge the assassination of King Parikshit by the Nagas. A Naga hid himself in the fruit basket and killed King Parikshit.

Around 3100 BC another dynasty started their rule in Egypt. Since they were Hindus, they named the first king Manu (Manes). His other name was Narmer i.e. Nara Meru, a pure Sanskrit word meaning Mountain among the Kings. Meru was the holiest and highest mountain in Hindu Mythology. Any high point was named Meru.

We have different Merus around the world. Pameru (Pamir Plateau), KuMeru (Kumari in the South of India). Su Meru (Sumerians) of the Middle East. The word Khmer of Cambodia may be related to Kumari/Ku Meru. I will write about it separately. North and South Poles were also called Merus in Hindu Mythologies (Puranas).

Menes was given a legendary date 3100 BC by the Greeks because Indian Kaliyuga Calendar begins in 3102 BC. Mayans also followed this Kali Yuga Calendar. (Full details are in my posts)

Menes (Manu) was praised the first Law Giver of Egypt by the Greek Historian Diodorous Siculus. Egyptians were just like Indian Hindus. They believed kings were half God, half man. Indian words for kings and palaces are synonymous with Gods and Temples. Diodorous links Heracles (Hercules) with Egypt and India. Hercules was one of the 12 ancient Gods of Egypt and he cleared India of wild animals, says Diodorous.

Narmer palette shows his picture as a strict man punishing the wrong ones.

( In Tamil Khon means King and God, Koil means Palace and temple, In Sanskrit Deva is used for Lord and the King). Khon became Khan in other languages like Kesari/lion gave a new word Caesar. Tele in the Ancient Middle East means temple, which is the corrupted form of Sanskrit word STHALA. Tamils changed it to Thali=temple)

Egyptian kings called themselves children of Surya/sun. This corresponds with the Surya Vamsa of Hindu scriptures. Like Indian Hindu kings, Egyptian kings had two names : 1. Name given at birth 2. Coronation name or Abisheka Nama.

Nile River (Sanskrit word)

River Nile is known as Blue Nile because of its BLUE colour. It is a Sanskrit word NILA meaning blue. If I find only one Sanskrit word from among 1000 place names in Egypt, scholars will laugh at me. But almost all ancient Egyptian names are Sanskrit names. (Just a few examples: Heliopolis= Suryapura, Thebes=Devas, Zawyet el Aryan=Arya of ?, Saqqara= Chakra, Dashuf= Dasyu or Dasa, Asyut=Achyuta, Hierakonpolis=Swarnapura, Amra, Amarna= Amara, Dishashasa=Disa,  El Badari= Badri (nath), Beni Hasan=Vani dasan,  Naj el der=Naga….?). Please note that Greek words are also in many place names.

Ramses=Rama Seshan?

Ramses is a title for at least seventeen kings in Egypt. Kanchi Paramacharya Swamiji has mentioned this is the name of Rama, Hero of Ramayana, in his 1932 Chennai lectures.

Naga on their heads

Many of the kings have Naga ( Naga gave birth to English word Snake=S+Naka) on their heads. There is no Hindu God without snake on their bodies. But Egyptian Kings look exactly like Lord Shiva of Hindu mythology. Another word for snake is Uraga=Uraes of Egypt.

Belief in Rebirth

The reason for building Pyramids was their belief in after life and rebirth. All the oriental religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism) believe in after life and Rebirth. Semitic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) don’t believe in it. This shows very clear connection with the Hindus of India. In Indian mythology we have Nimi (see the Puranas) saving his body like the Egyptians.