The Indian History Carnival, published on the 15th of every month, is a collection of posts related to Indian history and archaeology.

1. A recent article in The Mint by Mr. T.R.Ramaswami suggested among other things (a) there is a conspiracy to maintain that Mahābhārata war did not happen between 2500 – 1500 B.C.E (b) 18 day wars could happen only after railways came into existence (c) Valmiki could be a Russian and (d) both Mahābhārata and Rāmāyaṇa took place outside India, on the Russian steppes and were transplanted to India. Eroteme has a response. The Mint also posted a response by me.

2. Drawing heavily from Kitabu’l-Hind by Al Biruni, kupamanduka unravels the history of xenophobia in India.

3. How did the Chinese trade with the Malabaris without knowing the language. Maddy explains how fingers talked.

4. The Battle of Pratapgad was fought between the Shivaji and Afzal Khan in November 1659. Despite having fewer forces, the Marathas got their first significant victory over a regional power and Shivaji became a larger than life person. Kedar says that when people sang about his heroics, they forgot about his strategies.

5. Amardeep writes what he learned about Shivaji from James Laine’s Shivaji: Hindu King in Islamic India.

6. Law Matters writes about the administration of justice in Madras in the seventeenth century.

7. Szerlem looks past the disrepair and ASI’s disinterest in maintaining the Nizamuddin basti in Delhi and catches glimpses of an ancient past.

8. Shantanu writes about the Gandhi-Bose rivalry.

9. Pragmatic has a post about the people India and Pakistan sent to argue Kashmir in United Nations and what happened to both at the end.

10. From Kamasutra to social conservatism – Hari wonders how this change happened.

If you find any posts related to Indian history published in the past one month, please send it to jk AT varnam DOT org or use this form. Please send me links which are similar to the ones posted, in terms of content and don’t send details of your personal temple visits. The next carnival will be up on July 15th.

See Also: Previous Carnivals

(Image by Anoop HA)

The Indian History Carnival, published on the 15th of every month, is a collection of posts related to Indian history and archaeology.

1. On seeing a critical edition of Mahābhārata, Dr. Arvind Sharma notes that this Western trend is an artificial concept in the Hindu context and the misguided pursuit of Western methodology has created something which never existed.

2. Anoop has great pictures and a travelogue of Keshava temple of Somnathpur which was constructed in 1268 A.D. by Somnath, a high ranking officer under the Hoysala king Narasimha III and Nanjundeshwara temple of Nanjangud.

3. Maddy has the amazing tale of John (Joao) Da Cruz, a boy from Calicut in 16th century who achieved the following: Became Zamorin’s envoy to Lisbon, became a horse trader in Travancore, got St. Xavier to convert pearl collecting Paravas of Tuthukudi and finally accelerated the decline of Zamorin’s power.

4. On a trip to Kolar, the place where everyone used to go for gold, Anitha finds history.

5. Commenting on the decision by the Reserve Bank of India to launch a Sovereign Wealth Fund, Kiran gives an economic history of the European trade to India in the 16th and 17th centuries.

6. During the cold war era, Communists and various affiliated organizations used school text books and other literature to indoctrinate people. Nandakumar writes about hagiographies and various falsehoods taught as history. He also shows that various governments have blatantly pursued this path and blaming just one side for bias is not accurate.

7. Breaking News Online has a list on what they think are 25 “most” significant events in India (post-Independence).

If you find any posts related to Indian history published in the past one month, please send it to jk AT varnam DOT org or use this form. The next carnival will be published on June 15th.

See Also: Previous Carnivals

(Image of Sanchi stupa by spaceppl)

The Indian History Carnival, published on the 15th of every month, is a collection of posts related to Indian history and archaeology.

1. Manjunatha looks at genetic data and concludes: “This is the precise reason I believe the Dravidian languages are part of South India since the beginning.”

2. The Governments of Haryana and Rajasthan have decided to revive the Ghaggar river system. Suvrat Kher clarifies the geological understanding regarding the river Ghaggar /Saraswati.

3. Sigrid Harris writes about the rise and fall of Buddhism in India, “It flourished for centuries, but eventually, the corruption of the Sangha, the rivalries between sects, and the lack of protection from the ruling class weakened Buddhism and made it unable to compete with the reformed Hinduism. The anti-Buddhist campaigns led by the Muslims caused its final downfall, and Buddhism eventually entirely disappeared from India between 1000 and 1200 C.E.

4. BD says, “this theory that Brahmins and/or Hinduism eradicated Buddhism does not quite hold” and offers this advice: “I realize that the Buddhists and Dalits are trying to build up their own identity, but relying on wrongful views or misinterpretation of history will lead to two things. One is people chuckling at you and second is a weak identity.”

5. In our last edition, Stephanie laughed at the outrageous reports of Herodotus, especially the gold digging ants of India. Arvind Sharma asks: how is the account of gold-digging ants to be reconciled with the claims of Greek rationalism?

6. HelloJi has a detailed post about the Nizam of Hyderabad, who is Fifth on Forbes ‘All Time Wealthiest’ list.

7. According to TMMK leader M.H. Jawahirulla Aurangzeb destroyed the temple at Varanasi because the Maharani of Kutch was disrobed and insulted there. B. Shantanu finds that this is a fabrication.

8. Yossarin reminds us that Ambedkar took a strong stand against having the word “socialism” ingrained in the preamble and wonders if the intellectual pygmies who are appropriating Ambedkar’s legacy have any idea of his liberal views.

9. Maddy writes about the role of V. K. Krishna Menon in the war with China.

If you find any posts related to Indian history published in the past one month, please send it to jk AT varnam DOT org or use this form. The next carnival will be up on May 15th.

See Also: Previous Carnivals

(Crossposted at DesiPundit)

(Image by dhondusaxena)

While Buddha, Mahavira and Gosala were the famous Indian enlightened souls of the axial age, they were not the only ones. Ordinary folks had numerous options; they could believe in materialism following Ajita Kesakambali, eternalism following Pakudha Kacca-yana or become agnostic following Sañjaya Belaṭṭhaputta. It was not just a time of great material wealth, but also of a vibrant spiritual market and a common sight in those times were parivrajakas or wanderers preaching their doctrines and engaging rivals in debates in kautuhala salas built for the purpose. Philosophy was so addictive at that time that when people greeted strangers, they not only asked about their health, but also their spiritual doctrine.^[1]

Modern American religious landscape is dynamic too. According to the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, based on interviews with 35,000 people, 28% of American adults left the religion of their childhood for another one and the number becomes 44% if a switch from one version of Protestantism to another is included. The number of people unaffiliated with organized religion is 16% and this group which claims to be spiritual, but not religious has seen the largest growth. This is not just the time of the Facebook crowd, but also of the church hoppers.

The great news is that most Jehovah’s Witnesses, those irritating people who knock on your door violating laws and privacy, moved out of their faith, but unfortunately were balanced by new converts. The winners of the osmosis were the unaffiliated ones who saw a growth of 8.8% and the next came the nondenominational Protestants. The losers include Baptists (3.7%) and Methodists (2.1%), but still the biggest loser was the Catholic Church (7.5%).. The number of Catholics fell from one-third to one-fourth and a large Catholic migrant population, mainly Latinos could not put Humpty Dumpty together again.

People switched religious affiliations because they were looking for different goods depending on where they were in their life. Some wanted churches which focus on services and others wanted comfort and solace or help in raising their children the right way; a few switched for theological reasons. There are other explanations as well. During childhood, parents forced the kids to attend a religious group which was their cultural center, but as they moved out and became individualistic, they looked for religions that addressed their needs and abandoned the ones which did not.

To appreciate this religious tolerance, one has to look at the parlous time in American history when being a member of the wrong denomination could mean death. Europeans of the 17th century believed that there was one true religion and the authorities had to enforce it and punish the non-conformers. The people who faced persecution in Europe came to United States and practiced a Procrustean religious policy. The “business” of the first settlers, a Puritan minister recalled in 1681, “was not Toleration, but [they] were professed enemies of it.”

In 1658, the Massachussets legislature passed a law which allowed any constable to arrest and imprison every Quaker and banish them upon pain of death. The Boston martyrs, Marmaduke Stephenson, William Robinson and Mary Dyer were killed just because they were not Puritans.

From there we have a reached a time when non-followers of Abrahamic religions are welcomed and are able to do well in the American society. Indic religions do not have a vast following with Buddhists forming 0.7% and Hindus, 0.4%. Among the Buddhists only 32% came from Asia whereas Hindus were predominantly from Asia and four times more Hindus migrated to United States after 1989 than those that arrived before 1960.

Even with low numbers these groups reached the top of certain categories. Hindus and Buddhists lead the religious groups in terms of education and were most likely to have a post-graduate degree. In the income category, Hindus along with Jews were the toppers. Hinduism had the highest retention rate (9/10 remained Hindu) and strong marriages (5% divorce rate). 90% of the Hindus married a Hindu, thus leading that category as well.

The survey also points to an important fact — vast majority of Americans are religious and thus different from Europe and even Canada and other industrialized countries. In fact 78% of America is still Christian which in fact implies that all this religion swapping is technically denomination swapping, like switching from Theravada to Vajrayana while remaining a Buddhist. But is it really so?

Ah, but what of the big numb stunner of a number, the one that says 78 percent of Americans still identify as Christian overall, no matter if they actually pray or attend church or run for Congress or secretly snort meth and visit gay hookers as they run an evangelical megachurch in Colorado? It certainly seems like an impressive number, like no matter how you slice it and no matter how many new beliefs spring up, we are overwhelmingly, devoutly Jesus-happy.

I’m not buying it. I suspect a huge chunk of respondents merely check the “Christian” box for lack of something else, because they felt they needed to choose something, even though they don’t actually follow Scripture in the slightest, but since they’re not technically atheists and they’ve never really ventured out on a unique spiritual quest of their own, they merely choose “Christian” as the default American position, the fallback, the safe bet, sort of like checking “average” on a customer satisfaction survey or saying “fine” when your barista asks you how you’re doing today. Thoughtless, automatic, convenient. [How to abandon your God]

References:

1. Abraham Eraly, Gem in the Lotus: The Seeding of Indian Civilisation, 2005.
2. Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, “Pew Forum’s U.S. Religious Landscape Survey,”

(Buddha’s image by wicks)

Technorati Tags: Hinduism, Buddhism

(Image by backpacker)

The Indian History Carnival, published on the 15th of every month, is a collection of posts related to Indian history and archaeology written in the past 30 days.

1. Sukumar attends a lecture by Asko Parpola on the Indus Valley script which disproves the Farmer/Witzel/Sproat theory that Indus Valley Civilization was illiterate.

2. Arvind Sharma finds out what ancient Indians thought about ancient Greeks and writes about the account of an Indian meeting Socrates. He has another post about the the Greek accounts of India.

3. Stephanie laughts at the outrageous reports of Herodotus, especially the gold digging ants of India.

4. illlaaa writes about the battle in India that stopped Alexander of Macedonia.

5. Priya finds it hard to believe Asoka’s change of heart after the Kalinga war.

6. Here at varnam, we had the Spicy history of Malabar about times when Kerala was part of the global economy.

7. Manan Ahmed takes Amartya Sen to task for his “particularly cataracted vision of Indian history” and notes the similarity of thought with Karl Marx.

8. In 1750, India’s contribution to world GDP was 25% and by the time the British left we were poor. Raj says don’t the blame the British for, ” with or without the British ruling India, the former was well placed to usher in the industrial revolution and reap the full benefits.” (via DesiPundit)

9. Bala writes about the “Anti-Charitable Contributions Act of 1877”, meant to punish people for donating to the poor and the needy during famines. This resulted in the death of 10 million people. (via email from Ravages)

10. Chandrahas quotes from Iranian philosopher Ramin Jahanbegloo’s new book The Spirit of India on freedom as understood by Gandhi both in the personal and in the political sense.

11. The book that is getting lot of coverage is Ramachandra Guha’s India After Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy. Patrix has some thoughts on this 900 page book. In his notes about the book, Hari narrates the tale of how refugee farmers were resettled in Punjab.

12. Apollo writes, “He [Army Chief Gen Deepak Kapoor] doesn’t seem to realise that technically India and China do not share a border” and corrects the ignorance of the history of the India-China border issue.

13. Recently the Prince of Arcot disrupted an exhibition showing the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb’s intolerant policies against his subjects. Nitin finds that this Prince of Arcot is still recognized by the Government and has the position of a Cabinet Minister, all due to a promise given to Queen Victoria.

14. Our modern day Huen Tsang, backpakker, takes a detour and reaches Nuggehalli.

15. Rajan Srinivasan had great pictures of Erumbeeswarar Temple at Thiruverumbur which were built by the Cholas.

If you find any posts related to Indian history published in the past one month, please send it to jk AT varnam DOT org or use this form. The next carnival will be posted on April 15th.

See Also: Previous Carnivals

Technorati Tags: Indian History Carnival

Satellites are great, especially if you have modified SM-3 missile and a $60 million budget. Besides “unclassified purposes”, they have some suprising uses as well, such as finding long lost archaeological sites. Using images taken by Landsat and IKONOS of Tikal, a Mayan city in the Guatemalan rainforest, archaeologists were able to find several areas which were ancient building sites.

The same thing is happening in India.

The ISRO scientists are believed to have told the State archaeologists about a “sizeably big structure” buried about 175 to 200 metres north-east of Kirti Narayana Temple. Further study on the disclosure is in progress for authentication.

“The ISRO team strongly believes, from the images derived from the satellites, that a structure could have been buried close to the temple. They have brought satellite images of the place (where the structure might have been buried) for correlation. If the information matches with the field observations, then it could be one of the biggest achievements in the field of archaeology,” Dr. Gopal told The Hindu.[Groundbreaking: Satellite images aid archaeological excavations]

What next? Will people start using Google Maps and Google Earth to find ancient buildings?

Featured in the second Indian History Carnival was a book review of John Keay’s India Discovered.

As in a book on India’s discovery which I have read in Time Life Books series, this book also concentrates more on the visionary historians rather than on pure history, and the author too mentions this in his Introduction. Thus, William Jones’s discovery of Chandragupta Mourya, Prinsep’s decoding of Ashoka’s edicts, Alexander Cunningham’s excavations at Indus Valley and James Alexander’s visit to Ajantha caves are all presented in a dramatic way, in beautiful language, which makes this book an exciting and pleasurable one to read. Like professor V Raghunathan’s book on the current state of Indian society, I think India Discovered is also a must-read for every Indian to understand how our glorious past was discovered, studied and protected by foreigners, who didn’t always have great support from their Governments. Their passion, dedication and continuous focus on their study and quest for knowledge should hopefully inspire us.[India Discovered]

When it comes to the role of Indian historians our knowledge is not that deep and we now learn that some  people who facilitated great discoveries were not even archaeologists. In his book Finding Forgotten Cities: How the Indus Civilization was Discovered, Nayanjot Lahiri writes about the contribution of Sardar K. M. Panikkar in pushing for the discovery of Indus sites along the path of Saraswati.

It was in March 1948, less than a month before he took over as ambassador to China, that Panikkar wrote to Prime Minister Nehru about the necessity of a survey in the desert area of Bikaner and Jaisalmer. Panikkar had just finished serving Bikaner, as its Prime Minister. Incidentally, it is strange that he had no knowledge about the archaeological exploits of the late Lugi Pio Tessitori there. He had, however, met the famous archaeological explorer, Aurel Stein, who himself had undertaken field work in Rajasthan. Stein had mentioned to Panikkar that if his work was carried forward, it would show that the Indus civilisation originated in that tract. This was something that Panikkar himself wanted to undertake but owing to various difficulties had not found it possible to do so. He was, therefore, writing to Nehru to try and take this scheme forward.

Panikkar urged India’s Pm to direct the ASI to explore the possibilities of such research. As he put it, “With the separation of the Pakistan Provinces, the main sites of what was known as the Indus Valley Civilisation has gone to Pakistan. It is clearly of the utmost importance that archaeological work in connection with this early period of Indian history must be continued in India. A preliminary examination has shown that the centre of the early civilisation was not Sind or the Indus Valley but the desert area in Bikaner and Jaisalmer through which the ancient river Saraswati flowed into the gulf of Kutch at one time”.[What lies beneath]

Technorati Tags: K M Panikkar, Indus Civilization, Saraswati. John Keay