Bronze Age | rama toshi arya's blog

In search of the Arpauzen petroglyphs in southern Kazakhstan.

I wish I had some form of 360-degree vision and could see nature’s entire spread around me at the same go. On one side, the Prisyrdarya Karatau Mountains‘ dark craggy peaks encircled the isolated silent valley swathed in wild tulips and golden heather. On the other, colossal black chunks of rock glistening in the afternoon sun cascaded down the slopes. Pinch me, I whispered to myself. Is this really for real!

But this was all just half its magic …

“Come, look here. There are etchings of two double-humped Bactrian camels and a hunter with a bow and arrow.” My guide, Islam’s excited voice broke into my reverie, and the otherwise pin drop silence punctuated with the sound of our footsteps on crackling sun-dried tangled gorse, and neighing of wild horses grazing a mere stone’s throw away. Continue reading →

“At the height of our civilization, our technological development, our social and material complexity, all signs point to progress, we often think. And yet, all is not as it seems and once in a while it occurs to us to look into the past to discover our future.”

The above lines, read in the adjoining museum, accompany me as I walk into the majestic and isolated ruins of the 4,500 year old Harappan city of Dholavira. There is a hushed stillness all around. The only sounds I can hear are the birds chirping in some distance, and my guide’s quiet voice pointing to some detail or the other. The sun beats down on both me and the dusty stones strewn over the site, the latter telling me stories long forgotten and now valiantly being attempted to be reread and understood. I am in the north-east corner of Kutch, on the island of Khadir surrounded by the Great Rann. Continue reading →