All, I am coming back from hibernation as a silent member with a probably silly idea.. pls. bear with me.
I just finished reading a wonderful novel "Ines of my soul" by Isabel Allende, one of my favourite writers (after Kalki, of course!). I learnt a lot about the California settlement, South american history from her works. This novel is based on the exploration and conquering of Chile by Spanish adventurers from Peru.
The Spanish lords spent fortunes, bore many hardships, danger and even death to excavate and explore many areas in Latin America. They lost hundreds of soldiers in the process (and thousands of native Indian slaves.. which is yet another story). This is how they discovered hundreds of Mayan/Mapuche ruins, some famous like Machchu Pichchu and others not so famous.
Till this day, many history/archaelogy departments from US/Europe are very much involved in South American exploration. To some extent, this is also true for Egypt where there is world-wide interest.
Why is this? I wonder. And why not as much in India? (and even in China) Is the answer gold? Or the lack of it?
The motivations in the novel referred are two - to convert the native tribes to Christianity and for gold. There are all kind of legends of El Dorado, gold mines, etc in South America. In Egypt, of course, after the Carter discover of King Tut, people expected to find other pyramids bursting with gold. Is that what makes these places alluring?
If we got half as much interest in India, maybe we could turn out some fascinating discoveries in Saraswathi/Deccan, etc. I guess ASI could use some help as well.