The “stone balls” that the people in a Madhya Pradesh village have long worshipped have been discovered to be fossilized dinosaur eggs. The amazing discovery was made by specialists at the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences in Lucknow, as described in a Times of India report.
Vesta Mandaloi, 40, is a resident of Padlya village in Madhya Pradesh’s Dhar district. Mandaloi’s family has reportedly been worshipping these palm-sized balls for years as “Kakar Bhairav,” or the lord of the land. The belief that the “kuldevta,” or clan deity, would safeguard the farms and cattle from harm had been a tradition that Mandaloi drove on from his forefathers.
In fact, Mandaloi’s family is not the only one who worships these stone balls in the village. Many others in the village worshipped the ‘balls’ discovered while digging in Dhar and surrounding areas.
The true nature of these holy totems was only recently revealed when experts from the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences investigated the area. When experts visited the site, they discovered that the balls were fossilized dinosaur eggs, specifically those of the Titanosaurus species.
Scientists believe the Madhya Pradesh Narmada Valley served as a dinosaur hatchery zone millions of years ago. In early 2023, as many as 256 fossilized Titanosaurus eggs were discovered in Dhar. The Titanosaurus eggs are believed to be around 70 million years old.