Abstract A suite of Mg–Al granulites from two new localities in the Eastern Ghats Province are investigated to put constraints on: (a) the thermal and baric evolution of these rocks; (b) the timing of high-grade metamorphisms (chemical dating of monazite); (c) the tectonic setting where the high-grade metamorphisms occurred; and (d) a possible link between India and East Antarctica during the formation of the Rodinia supercontinent. Supporting the proposition of polymetamorphism over single metamorphism, our study documents at least two distinct phases of high-grade metamorphism that occurred in two contrasting tectonic settings. Reconstructed pristine spinel composition from oxide aggregates, the Al content of coronitic orthopyroxene over sapphirine and spinel, and the constraints of the FeO–MgO–Al 2 O 3 –SiO 2 (FMAS) topology in the FMAS system document temperatures in excess of 1070°C at 8–9 kbar pressure (>1100°C GPa −1 ). This study shows that such an extreme metamorphic condition was reached along a counter-clockwise P – T trajectory presumably in an extensional setting at approximately 1.2 Ga. The eventual collision of India and East Antarctica reworked the near-isobarically cooled assemblages of the first event, and triggered exhumation of the former lower crust to the upper-crustal depth along a steeply decompressive trajectory during the formation of the Rodinia supercontinent ( c . 0.95–0.90 Ga). Supplementary material: Representative electron microprobe analyses of monazite in wt%, calculated apparent ages and ± 2σ error are available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.3771044

Abstract Understanding the evolution of the Chotanagpur Granite Gneiss Complex (CGGC) of the East Indian Shield is crucial to decipher the role of the Indian Shield in the formation of the Rodinia supercontinent. The area around Deoghar–Dumka exposes a suite of granulite-facies orthogneisses (variably retrogressed to amphibole–biotite gneiss) that enclose remnants of Palaeoproterozoic metasedimentary and meta-igneous rocks. Results from mineral chemistry, laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA ICP-MS) U–Pb dating of zircon and limited bulk-rock compositions of the studied rocks suggest that the magmatic protoliths of the felsic orthogneisses had A-type chemistry, and that these were emplaced at approximately 1450 Ma presumably in a continental rift setting. Intense deformation and metamorphism of the felsic rock culminated at approximately 9 kbar and 850°C along an apparent geothermal gradient of 26°C km −1 . These peak metamorphic conditions were successively followed by initially a steeply decompressive and then a weakly decompressive retrograde pressure–temperature path. The shape of the retrograde pressure–temperature path and the estimated geothermal gradient at the metamorphic peak are interpreted to be the products of continent–continent collision; U–Pb dates of metamorphic zircon overgrowths suggest an age of approximately 943 Ma for the collisional event. This study demonstrates that ‘Grenville-age’ orogenesis thoroughly reworked the approximately 1450 myr-old basement of the CGGC during the formation of the Rodinia supercontinent.