varnam

The Indian History Carnival is an attempt to collect posts related to Indian history and archaeology from the blogosphere.

1. Hari ponders:  Why did the highly original Pre-Columbian empires of Mexico, Central and South America – the Aztecs and the Incas – perish so abruptly and spectacularly under European conquests, while the ancient traditions, beliefs, books and languages of the Indian subcontinent, even while suffering destructive invasions through the ages, manage to adapt and survive so successfully to the present day?

2. Writing about Wootz steel, Andrew Leonard notes how ancient globalization worked: "So Diocletian, an Illyrian commoner native to what is now Croatia, rises to absolute power over the Roman Empire and builds armament factories in Syria that employ steel from Hyderabad as the raw material for state-of-the-art weapons of individual destruction. That's globalization, old school." More information on Wootz steel can be found here, here and here.

3. Arun Gandhi recently made the comment that, "We have created a culture of violence (Israel and the Jews are the biggest players) and that Culture of Violence is eventually going to destroy humanity." Rebecca notes that Mahatma Gandhi too had similar views. David T writes that Gandhiji's principles do not work against everyone.
   

4. Kedar discovers that India was an economic super power from the 1st century till the 17th century.

5. Vinod writes about how a less known Atlantic Conference played a key role in Indian history because it was there that FDR made Indian Independence a pre-requisite to American involvement in WWII.

6. Aryaputra writes about Zamorins , the rulers of Calicut from the 14th to the 18th century.

7. Chandrahas has an interview with historian Ramachandra Guha.
   

8. The Indian Backpacker has images from Mahabalipuram: Tiger Cave,  Five Rathas, and Shore Temple

There are many history carnivals in the blogosphere like the Military History Carnival and the Asian History Carnival, but none which focuses on India. If you find any posts related to Indian history please send it to jk AT varnam DOT org or use this form