Nature of charnockite and Closepet granite in the Dharwar Craton: Implications for the architecture of the Archean crust

•Genetic relationship of major units in the Dharwar craton is analyzed.•Closepet granite was derived from the >2.9 Ga ancient middle crust with mantle input.•Charnockite was transformed from the relatively juvenile (<2.8 Ga) lower crust.•Dharwar craton represents a tilted trinity (‘sandwich’) Archean crustal architecture.•The ‘sandwich’ architecture indicates vertical growth of continental crust in the Archean.