Mandi is a village located about 200 km northeast of Delhi in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The population was approximately 4,000 in 2000.
The village is chiefly notable for the discovery and looting of an ancient Harappa (2600-1900 BC) treasure trove by villagers on June 1, 2000.[1][2]
The treasure was discovered by three women who were removing topsoil from a mound at the edge of the village, after the landowner offered the mound soil to all takers so he could use the leveled field for sugarcane cultivation. (The property owner was away in Delhi on the day of the discovery.) As the women were digging up the topsoil and putting it in baskets for removal, they uncovered at least 500 kg of gold and gems. The sound of them fighting (over a copper urn full of necklaces, bracelets, and thin gold discs), alerted others, who beat the women and took the urn home with them. That afternoon a husband and wife dug into the mound and uncovered a large clay urn containing about 40 kg of bracelets and necklaces. Then a local thug showed up with about 8 followers, and when asked what he was doing there, he reportedly pulled a gun on the landowner's mother. This lady fled to an adjacent field and was able to observe the nine men as they bundled up and removed around 60 kg of gold and gems, as well as three copper urns, perhaps also full of treasure. Then the local transport chief and his bus driver arrived, and took away approximately 40 kg of gold. By evening most of the villagers had crowded onto the mound and were fighting over silver and gold discs from the treasure, some of it heaped into shawls and spilling out.
The discs had holes in the center and resembled sequins. Along with the gold, there were beads of onyx and agate resembling others found at known Harappa sites.[3]
Around 10 pm the police arrived, grabbed a young man and ordered him to dig. He uncovered a copper urn with 35 kg of gold and a gold scabbard for a dagger. He and the treasure were taken to Muzzafarnagar, where he was jailed on charges of vagrancy and the treasure, behind locks in the district treasury, somehow shrank from 35 kg to a mere 10 kg.
Eventually archeologists were called in to examine the site under armed guard. The survey director-general said, "We've never had a haul of Harappan jewelry, so it's very exciting for us."
Any more treasure found on the site should be transported to the National Museum in Delhi, as in India, such found items that are more than a hundred years old belong to the government.