Very early in life, Arvind Pakide realised his love for monuments and historical sites, and there has been no stopping him ever since. The 21-year-old, who hails from a village called Kanchanpalli, 40 kms away from Warangal, started his research on historical places with books and the internet during his intermediate years at Kakatiya University, Warangal.
Arvind, a farmer’s son says, “I began my explorations at Warangal. Very few people know that there are seven forts here. I would visit all of them, and the ancient temples and lakes, observe the inscriptions and gather a lot of information. I would click photos of the site and update my blog www.warangalmucchata.com. It was then that I came in touch with several archaeologists and historians,” before adding, “At the time, the ancient well in Warangal — Anthustula Bhavi — was not recognised as an archaeological monument. I worked towards bringing it to light and it became possible with the district collector’s cooperation.”
Arvind’s friends say that he has explored over a hundred sites so far and is always assigned work by archaeologists and historians. When asked about the hardships he has faced in the field, Arvind says, “Many monuments do not have good road connectivity to the city. I often take the help of the locals. I have to be prepared to walk kilometres on bad roads. It is taxing but the destination is always worth the challenge.” He continues, “Most inscriptions that I come across are in ancient script. I take pics and get them translated by epigraphists.”
He writes about everything on his blog in Telugu. Some of his writing will also form a part of Kotha Telangana, a book on the history of the state being written by S Ramoju Haragopal from Hyderabad.
To what he refers to as “my experiences during my expeditions”, Arvind narrates a few stories from his journeys, “The fort on the Malluru hillock in the Mangapet mandal, Jayashankar district is situated deep inside the forest. I came to know of its existence from the Malluru temple priest who mentioned the presence of an ancient wall on the hillock,” he explains befoe adding, “I explored the area, climbed the hillock and found an ancient wall about eight-kilometres long. I followed the wall and found a fort-like construction which is now damaged. It took me a whole day and I had no water or food to eat.”