When Time Folded Upon Itself
Preface:
This piece forms part of my continuing documentation of India’s geological heritage — a visual and interpretive chronicle of those silent sentinels of Deep Time that stand across our landscape. Among them, few are as awe-inspiring or as scientifically consequential as the Eparchaean Unconformity of Tirumala, where billions of years lie compressed in a single cliff face. Here, at the threshold between the Archaean and Proterozoic, the Earth seems to pause — and, in that pause, narrates its own rebirth.
This account also records a quiet but consequential administrative renewal — a modest act that ensured scientific accuracy and public awareness at a site too often overlooked.
"At Tirumala, the hills do not merely rise — they remember. Between two ancient worlds, a billion-year silence lies pressed into stone. Here, the Earth pauses and begins anew — the Eparchaean Unconformity, India’s quiet cathedral of Deep Time."
I. The Setting — Where Hills Whisper in Geological Tongues
The Seshachalam Hills, rising above Tirupati, form part of the Eastern Ghats — India’s most ancient mountain belt, repeatedly reshaped by tectonic convulsions and metamorphic processes.
At the base lie the Archaean granites and gneisses (circa 2,500 million years old), over which rest the Proterozoic quartzites of the Cuddapah Basin (about 1,600 million years old).
The line that separates these two — the Eparchaean Unconformity — is not a fracture, but a pause in creation: a temporal chasm spanning nearly 900 million years.
Standing before this unconformity, one doesn’t merely observe rock; one confronts the memory of a vanished world.
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II. The Geological Drama — Time, Tilt, and Transformation
The Archaean basement rocks once formed part of an ancient craton — a primordial continent battered by erosion and uplift. When the seas of the early Proterozoic returned, they deposited sediments that would later harden into the Tirupati quartzites. Over aeons, these layers tilted, faulted, and metamorphosed, sculpted by India’s restless tectonic heart.
This interface — between the gneissic basement and the overlying quartzites — is the Eparchaean Unconformity, recognised worldwide as one of the most vivid exposures of geological time. It symbolises not destruction but renewal: the world laying down new memories upon the eroded scars of its past.
The earlier GSI board — fading but faithful guardian of India’s geological memory.
III. The Monument — More Than Stone and Signboard
Long before modern instruments arrived, the Geological Survey of India (GSI) identified and protected this outcrop as a National Geological Monument, one of the earliest so declared.
For decades, a modest iron board marked the spot, its lettering faded by rain and reverence alike.
That weathered board became, for many visitors, the only human voice interpreting the mute grandeur of the hills. Its corrosion, however, mirrored the fading public awareness of geological heritage in India.
The new GSI trilingual information board (installed May 2025) — a quiet but meaningful renewal
IV. The Renewal — Science, State, and Silent Advocacy
Update – 25 May 2025:
In May 2025, the long-faded GSI board at the Eparchaean Unconformity was replaced by a new trilingual and illustrated information panel, featuring expanded geological explanation, precise coordinates, and interpretive graphics.
This much-needed renewal followed a formal escalation I made to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and the Geological Survey of India, highlighting the deterioration of the old board and the broader neglect of India’s geological heritage.
The response was swift and dignified — the new installation now does justice to the site’s magnitude, merging clarity with conservation. No publicity accompanied this correction, nor was any sought — yet such moments deserve quiet record, for they show how citizen initiative, aligned with institutional conscience, can restore both accuracy and dignity to public science.
V. The Experience — Standing Before the Abyss of Time
The Tirumala escarpment, when seen in the late afternoon sun, glows with red-gold luminescence — the upper quartzite shimmering above the sombre base of gneiss. Pilgrims ascend the hill unaware that beneath their feet lies a billion-year dialogue between fire and water, compression and erosion, creation and silence.
To the geologist, it is scripture;
to the pilgrim, sanctum;
to the poet, eternity petrified.
VI. Epilogue — Stones That Remember
Geology humbles theology, and yet the two meet here, at the same slope where belief and time coexist.
Every rock face at Tirumala is a stanza of the Earth’s autobiography — written not in language, but in structure, colour, and fracture. To preserve such sites is to preserve consciousness itself, for the story of the Earth is, ultimately, the story of us.
Field Photography & Visual Documentation
All photographs in this article — including the old and new GSI boards, the Tirumala escarpment, and the Garuda outcrop — were captured on-site by the author between 2023 and 2025.
These are reproduced here for educational and heritage-awareness purposes.
Acknowledgement
Grateful acknowledgment is extended to the Geological Survey of India, and to all those — often unnamed — who quietly uphold the fragile yet timeless bridge between science and society.
🪶 Final Copyright & Attribution Note
© Dhinakar Rajaram | 2025
Field Photography · Text & Documentation
All images and written content on this page are the result of independent fieldwork, research, and documentation by the author. Reproduction, republication, or incorporation — whether in print, web, or video — is strictly prohibited without the author’s explicit written consent. Citations for scholarly purposes may be made with proper attribution and a hyperlink to this original post.
Respect the labour of observation — and the patience of stone.
