Gazetteer (/ˌɡazɪˈtɪə/) refers to a geographical index or dictionary. The Cambridge Dictionary defines a gazetteer as a book containing a list of places’ names, usually with some extra information. In the past, India has seen many gazetteers related to districts, states, and other federal entities. While these gazetteers provide an excessive amount of information, we were lacking in a gazetteer dedicated to monuments and related heritage antiquities. Puratattva was born in 2010 to overcome this gap to provide accurate and authenticated documentation on Indian monuments. The project’s primary objective is to document all the pre-13th Century CE monuments under preservation by the Central and State archaeological departments. The pre-13th Century CE timeline is taken carefully for two reasons. First, we witness a decline in temple art forms after this period. The second is that all the post-13th Century CE monuments are well documented in various forms.

in 2021, Puratattva joined hands with the Tapesh Yadav Foundation for Indian Heritage, USA. The teams visit various heritage sites to carry out photo documentation. This photo documentation is later used to prepare a well-researched papers for each heritage site. These papers are later published on this website.

We are looking for scholars, independent researchers, or writers who are interested in documenting Indian heritage. If you have a zeal to this cause, we will be most pleased to onboard you in our team. Or, you have an idea that can help us make our offering better or in a different flavour, we are all ears. Please contact us at [email protected] and tell us how you would like to support us.