Thuggee mines, Pankot

Fictional record. This page describes a mine from a fictional setting, not a real place. Information is based on the cited canon, with adaptations and interpretation distinguished where necessary. It is kept separate from the real MineArchive corpus — see Fictional.

Also known as	Pankot mines, Mines of the Temple of Doom
Setting	Indiana Jones (George Lucas / Steven Spielberg)
Location	Beneath Pankot Palace in the Pankot hills of northern India, below the Thuggee temple of Kali, in 1935.
Type	Slave-worked gem mine and search for the sankara stones
Worked	? – Abandoned when the children were freed and the cult broken (1935)
Extent	A deep pit ringed by concentric paths leading into narrow tunnels, with mine cars on a rail network running through the tunnels.
Controlled by	Thuggee cult (1935 (Mola Ram, high priest))

Overview

The mine under Pankot Palace in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), where the Thuggee cult of Mola Ram worked children stolen from the villages, digging for gems to fund the cult and for the last two Sankara Stones. Indiana Jones frees the children and escapes through the tunnels in a mine car.

History

Below Pankot Palace the revived Thuggee cult, led by the high priest Mola Ram, worshipped Kali and held three of the five Sankara Stones. A century earlier, the cult said, when the British raided the temple, a priest had hidden the last two stones in the catacombs below. The cult stole the children of Mayapore and other villages and set them to work in chains in the mines, dragging sacks of earth and rock out of narrow tunnels to waiting mine cars, beaten by guards. Mola Ram told Jones that they dug for gems to support the cause and searched for the last two stones. Jones, Willie and Short Round broke free, released the children and escaped through the mine railway in a runaway mine car, pursued by the guards.

Workings

A central pit with concentric paths leading into many small tunnels, children's labour hauling sacks of rock to mine cars on rails, chained cells overlooking the workings, and a rail system through the tunnels.

Closure

Abandoned after the children were freed and Mola Ram killed in 1935.

What became of it

Abandoned; later scavengers searched the mine for diamonds.

Canon & adaptations

The screenplay read is a draft whose scene numbering and details differ in places from the released film; the record uses what it shares with the film's plot as summarised on Wikipedia. The canon calls it only 'the mines' or 'the Thuggee mines', never a named mine.

Recorded claims

Each claim is marked with its basis — explicit canon, MineArchive inference, adaptation only, or fandom interpretation — and attached to the source(s) below. Where tellings disagree, both are kept.

The Thuggee cult abducted the children of Mayapore and used them as slave labour in the mine tunnels beneath Pankot Palace. (explicit canon) ^1,2
The slaves dug for gems to support the cult and searched for the last two Sankara Stones. (explicit canon) ^1,2
A century earlier, when the British raided the temple, a loyal priest hid the last two stones in the catacombs below. (explicit canon) ¹
Children dragged sacks of dirt and rock from narrow tunnels around a deep pit to mine cars on rails. (explicit canon) ¹
Jones, Willie and Short Round free the children and escape through the mines in a mine car. (explicit canon) ^1,2

Sources

(authorised secondary) Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, screenplay (IMSDb) — The Internet Movie Script Database
(interpretation) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom — Wikipedia — Wikipedia
(interpretation) Temple of Doom — Indiana Jones Wiki — Fandom (community wiki)

Record created: 9 October 2026 · Last researched: 11 October 2026