1. Are there any references in Tamil to Valmiki Ramayanam? Are there any sculptures to support it? Vijay has an analysis

The Pullamangai sculpture is part of the base stones of the Vimana and the latest date for this Vimana is 953 CE, and the portrayal clearly show the curse of Ahalya to turn to stone had taken firm root by then. Was valmiki unclear in the actual wording of the curse, did he mean that she be turned to stone as well. But one thing is clear, that she was turned to stone was part of tamil folkore as early as in the late sangam period as evidenced by the Paripadal verse.

2. Fëanor writes about the fall of Hindu Sindh at the hands of an invading Muslim army.

The first engagement of the war was the siege of Daybul. al-Thaqafi set up a large catapult, a swing-beam hand-pulled weapon, to bombard the city. The artillerymen targeted a big Buddhist stupa atop which a red flag fluttered; when it was brought down, the spirit of the defenders wilted, and the Arabs penetrated the city and slaughtered the inhabitants for three days. Dahir’s governor fled ignominiously, but hundreds of priests were murdered, and their temples laid waste.

3. Maddy has a post with the translation of the Vencaticota Ola – a manuscript describing Malabar history and the Portuguese arrival

Considering that this document has not seen light in recent times, it would surely be of some interest to history enthusiasts, buffs and Malabar specialists. I can only begin by offering a small token of thanks to today’s modern search engines like Google and the good sense of the long lost Englishman who consigned this to paper and archived it for posterity. Regrettably, our own precious original history & manuscript collections are slowly rotting away and disintegrating in Kerala, if not gone already, for lack of care & finance. 

4. Dr. Koenraad Elst writes about a painting which shows Guru Nanak wearing a Hindu-style cap and worshipping Lord Vishnu and the later events.

In 1970, he presented to the publishing unit of Punjabi University Patiala a manuscript with illustrations for a book, 100 Years Survey of Panjab Painting (1841-1941). It was eventually published by the PUP in 1975, but only in mutilated form. The Senate Board of the University objected to the inclusion of one particular painting, and threatened that if it were published, the grant for the whole publishing unit would be stopped.

5. Calicut Heritage has a brief history of those tea chests which used to come with the words E&SJCWS inscribed on them.

Starting with the business of wholesale merchanting, these CWSs expanded to cover every item of business from production to retailing. It also dabbled in banking and insurance. At one time, the English CWS owned 174 factories in different parts of England and Wales. Similarly, the Scottish CWS owned 56 factories and employed 13000 workers. In the pre-world war years these two CWSs came together to form the English and Scottish Joint Co-operative Wholesale Society (E&SJCWS). 

6. Nicole Bovin says good bye to Dr. Raymond Allchin, who died on 4th June 2010.

Raymond helped to educate and inspire numerous generations of South Asian archaeologists, including my own. I knew him only late in his career, after his retirement from the University ofCambridge, but was nonetheless struck by his intelligence and warmth. While I lived in Cambridge, our families met occasionally for tea or dinner, and I remember his lively and often humorous stories with great fondness. Also memorable was the grace that he sang at my wedding to a fellow South Asian archaeologist – in Sanskrit and, naturally, without notes.

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 send a tweet to @varnam_blog. The next carnival will be up on Aug 15th.

1. Analyzing a paper by P.A. Underhill et. al on the Indo-European migration Giacomo Benedetti writes

The mid-Holocene period is around 6000 years BP, that means that after 4000 BC we cannot suppose a migration from Europe to Central Asia and South Asia, and this refutes all the theories supposing that the Kurgan people of the Pontic region went to Afghanistan during the Bactria-Margiana civilization (III-II mill. BC) and then to India (II mill. BC).

2. Is Hinduism a missionary religion? While most people don’t think so, Arvind Sharma writes about an exception

The diffusion of Vaisnavite and Saivite ideas outside India is strong enough to show that Hinduism, too, was a missionary religion; at a very early date a Hinduist movement took root in the Hellenistic world and penetrated as far as Egypt. The decline of Hinduism after the Moslem period must not be allowed to obscure this fact.

Hinduism long ago advanced beyond the limits assigned to it by Manu, by means of conquest or peaceful absorption, by marriage, and by adoption.

3. Sandeep has a three part post (1,2,3) on his visit to Ajanta and Ellora. In his final post he laments about the state of the monuments and Hindu apathy.

This one-upmanship game is one of the chief reasons why Hindu monuments continue to languish this horribly. The other reason though is the near-complete deracination of Hindus. As I mentioned in the opening part, Ellora is simply another drop in the sea of similar monuments across the country. Take any state, city, town and village: the two magnificient Hoysala temples in Nagalapura village (in Karnataka) are orphaned but for a moronic ASI signboard. The state of most of the grand temples in Tamil Nadu evokes tears of blood.

4. Was Chola art of the 13th century influenced by Ancient Greek sculpture? Vijay has the answer.

The diagrams of the movement and flow in the Greek sculpture so closely resemble the Chola bronze. The rear view of bronze shows the exaggerated `S’ so talked off above to move in conjunction with the Contrapposto.

5. Maddy looks at the period 1732-1805 when Tipu Sultan started his conversion spree and the Zamorin went into exile. During that time two gentlemen tried to hold on to power sometimes aligning with the British and sometimes even with Tipu.

So these two will always remain as enigmas, fighters with faces unknown, and fighters with no personal life, who spent their entire youth and middle age fighting the Mysore Sultans & the British, mainly the former. The populace in the eagerness to name only the British as the oppressors and conquerors forgot the two lone fighters who fought for Malabar against both. Nevertheless, the Pazhassi raja that joined later got into the limelight mainly because his fight was against the declared invader the British and much better chronicled.

The next Carnival will be up on July 15th. You can send the nominations by e-mail to jk @ varnam dot org or as a tweet to @varnam_blog

1. As a response to the 2004 paper by  Farmer, Sproat & Witzel which argues that the Harappans were illiterate, Sukumar, Priya Raju and NK Sreedhar  have published a paper which refutes that theory.

With all due respect to FSW, we reached the conclusion that most of their arguments can be refuted. The paper can be downloaded at Response_to_FSW2_Paper_v3.1-Final .  If you are really interested in the IVC research, i strongly recommend that you read the FSW paper as well as our response to it. Please chime in with your comments.

2. Takshashila was a cosmopolitan town from where great scholarship, new styles of art form, and future emperors would emerge. It was a historic meeting place of the East and the West

.

After a 30 day rest, Alexander crossed the Indus into “the country of Indians” and on the other side he was met by an army in battle formation. This was highly unexpected. The king of Takshashila, Ambhi or Oomphis, had sent word that he would not oppose Alexander and would fight on his side. When it looked as if Ambhi had reneged on his promise, Alexander ordered his army to get ready.

3. The Hamilton bridge in Chennai: How did that name come about? Maddy explains

So is Gauri right? Was there a lord Hamilton in Madras? According to Muthiah, none. He opines however, that Madras had no Governor named Hamilton to justify the story that the bridge was named after a Governor of Madras. He adds … The only other Hamilton of any significance I’ve come across during this period is William Hamilton, a Civilian. When Major-General Archibald Campbell became Governor of Madras in 1785, he divided the administration into four Boards: Military, Hospital, Revenue and Trade. One of the four civil servants who constituted the Board of Trade was William Hamilton. That would have made him an eminent enough person to have something named after him. And why not a bridge, if he lived close-by?

4. The first train in South India ran on July 1, 1856 from Arcot for a distance of 100 KM. It reached Beypore in 1861 and till the Calicut station was opened, Beypore served as the main station for Malabar.

The Asylum for 1888, describes Beypore thus: The terminus of the line on the western coast. There is an hotel on the station premises for the accommodation of travellers. Calicut, the principal town of Malabar is 9 miles distant and the population is 57,085. The Beypore river is crossed in boats, and bullock bandies (‘vandi ‘in Malayalam!)can be obtained on the other side. Traveller to Cannanore and other places would find it most convenient to take passages in the B.I.S.N Company’s Steamers which call weekly at Beypore except during the South West Monsoon, though it is possible to make the journey by land through Calicut and Tellicherry, travelling partly by bullock cart and partly by boat on the backwaters. 

5. In 1937, Ursula Graham Bower came to India to find a husband. Instead she became a guerilla leader with a price on her head.

1942, Malaya, Singapore, and Burma had fallen to the Japanese. Guerrilla troop V Force came into being; British officers who led local tribesmen in patrolling the border. Ursula was an early recruit to the force but only ad interim until an officer could be found to replace her. She formed a band of 150 Naga warriors patrolling with her the dense jungle hills between Burma and India. Nothing came to pass in 1942 or 1943, and Ursula was still not replaced.

6. In 1942, the British discovered a lake in Roopkund filled with skeletons. It seemed as if they all died in the same manner.

However, the short deep cracks in the skulls appeared to be the result not of weapons but of something rounded. The bodies also only had wounds on their heads, and shoulders as if the blows had all come from directly above…

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 send a tweet to @varnam_blog. The next carnival will be up on June 15th.

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

1. In the debate on the origins of Indo-Aryans, is a transition happening? Giacomo Benedetti thinks so

What is particularly interesting in this conference is its opening to positions regarded as heretical by the academic establishment (also in the US); then it gives some hope for an authentic debate and for the Great Transition which various hints suggest as being underway: from the old paradigm to a new one, no more based on the aprioristic theory of the Aryan invasion or migration into India.

2. Suvrat Kher argues that the river Ghaggar, identified as the Vedic Sarasvati, did not have a glacial source.

The funny thing is, in my opinion the theory of a glacial source of Saraswati is not necessary in this debate. The Ghaggar was a wetter river before 1800 B.C. because of a generally more wetter climate. Strong summer monsoons over the Siwaliks and then spring flow would have made human settlements along its banks sustainable. A life sustaining river would have been holy to the people depending on it, regardless of whether it had a glacial origin or not.

3. Maddy has a brief history of Calico and its origins

These days you do find coarse crepe material from some remaining handloom units in Malabar but what is the real story of Calico? Did all the Calico exported to Europe get woven in Calicut? Or was it just an exporting center from historic times through its famous ports? Some of you may even believe that British renamed Kozhikode to Calicut due to the textile Calico.

4. Calicut Heritage writes about Father Giacomo Finici, the Italian Priest, who tried to convert the tribals in 1603

At the end of the trip all that Father Finicio and his team could find was a tribe of innocent Badagas and Todas who worshipped the buffalo. The pious priest stayed among the Todas for two months braving the biting cold, trying to convince the Todas on how they could be saved by becoming Christians. In return, the head priest of the Todas extolled on the virtues of the Bufalo God!

5. Here at varnam, we had a three part series (1,2,3) on the Indian Spy in Kashgar during the Great Game.
6. Fëanor writes about various titles instituted by the British for the colonies

The ruling princes were so desperate for these awards that they competed desperately amongst each other; they seemed to have completely missed the fact that being awarded something like Commander of the Order of the Star of India (CSI) or even Knight Commander of the Order of the Star of India would merely equate them to a high-court judge or a British resident; even so rich and grand a prince as the Maharaja of Mysore expected to be awarded the Knight Grand Commander of the Star of India in every generation, an award that put him at the same rank as, say, the governor-general of Bombay or Madras.

7. Murali Ramavarma displays a collection of stamp papers from Travancore and Cochin
8. Atanu Dey writes about Gandhi, Bose and few issues related to India’s Independence.

I think that Gandhi was an ego-maniac as well. I read his autobiography and that message comes across very clearly to me. He could not stand anyone who challenged his authority. Subhas Chandra Bose did not approve of Gandhi’s carefully calculated pacifism. Gandhi basically decided that Subhas is his enemy. When it comes to practical matters, I suppose Gandhi decided “love thine enemy” is not applicable, and saw to it that Subhas is buried.

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 send a tweet to @varnam_blog. The next carnival will be up on March 15th.

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

1. A podcast series which has been at the center of attention this month among bloggers has been the UCLA course:The History of India
• Anne is a Man: History of India – the search goes on
• varnam: UCLA 9A: Brahui, Vedic Women, UCLA 9A: The Gangetic Plain, UCLA 9A: Notes on Indus Valley Lectures
• Seriously Sandeep:This is What UCLA Teaches About India
2. Sarvesh writes about some of the legends associated with Bhojadeva

Many legends of rAjan bhojadeva pramAra allude to widespread erudition of the common man of his reign; many tales portray carpenters, potters, ironsmiths, tailors, field-labourers and even thieves having stunning knowledge of saMskR^ita and poetic talent.

3. When Vasco da Gama returned to Calicut in 29th October 1502 he was an angry man: angry that the locals had fooled him about their religion.

Gama’s cruelty to the people of Calicut has been characterised by the Encyclopedia Brittanica (1953 edition) as ‘savagery too horrible to describe’. He set the standards for dealing with the heathens in the name of the Chruch

4. Maddy has the fascinating tale of “Soliman the Elefant“, who went from Malabar to Lisbon to Barcelona.

The travel took the time between Summer 1551 to Spring 1552.The total distance covered would have been many thousands of miles, some 7,000 miles from Malabar to Lisbon by sea, 300 miles to Valladolid by walk, 400 miles to Barcelona again walking, 500 miles to Genova by sea and then the arduous walk through the mountains for another 650 miles. In total it covered close to 9,000 miles. The poor thing, considering the terribly difficult terrains and frugal shipping conditions those days, even if it was a gift for a king.

5. Fëanor writes about the Jutewalls: of Dundee and Calcutta

Calcutta’s first mill opened in 1855; seventy-five years later, the city was producing 70% of the world’s jute products. With a never-ending supply of raw materials right on its doorstep, it made far more economical sense to concentrate the industry in Bengal, rather than half-way around the world in Scotland.

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 send a tweet to @varnam_blog. The next carnival will be up on Feb 15th.

The Indian History Carnival, published on the 15th of every month, is a collection of posts related to Indian history and archaeology. With this post, the carnival completes two years.

1. Nikhil visited the old Chola capital and has a two part travelogue (1,2).

Inside a walled fortress, this temple will take your breath away. I stood in awe, astonishment and reverence. A standing testimony of the Chola’s opulence and vision, their architectural excellence can be seen in this structure built during the 11th century by Rajaraja Chola-I. The scale and the enormity of the deities reflect the staunch reverence of the king to lord Shiva.

2. After enthralling us with the tale of  Abraham Bin Yiju, the 12th century Jewish trader who lived in Kerala, Maddy brings us another story from the Genizah scrolls.

Youngsters are always seeking adventure, and young Allan decided that he must venture farther, to India. Arus and his partner Siba were not so happy about that, but it appears that they eventually agreed to the venture. Allan was initially provided with some goods meant for trade like Coral and Storax. His cousin Joseph was dispatched to tell him that he should not cross the oceans, but then the boy did just that and went on to become a very famous & renowned India trader, continuing to do so till late in life

3. Recently in an article Vir Sanghvi wrote that Hindu kings destroyed Buddhist monasteries which resulted in Buddhism becoming extinct in India.B Shantanu takes him to task.

Marxists cite only two other instances of Hindus having destroyed Buddhist temples. These too it turns out yield to completely contrary explanations. Again Marxists have been asked repeatedly to explain the construction they have been circulating  to no avail. Equally important, Sita Ram Goel invited them to cite any Hindu text which orders Hindus to break the places of worship of other religions  as the Bible does, as a pile of Islamic manuals does. He has asked them to name a single person who has been honoured by the Hindus because he broke such places  the way Islamic historians and lore have glorified every Muslim ruler and invader who did so. A snooty silence has been the only response.

4. Did the Peshwa accept Persian under the influence of a Muslim courtesan? Sarvesh does not think so

This is nothing short of blasphemy against the most genius Hindu Warrior and Strategist we have known since cHatrapati himself. mastAnI was a daughter of a Hindu father (some say of cHatrasAla himself) and a Moslem courtesan, married to bAjIrAv as a upapatnI by cHatrasAla, during bAjIrAva’s campaign in the region where he decisive hammered the Hyderabad Nizam in the classic battle of Bhopal, dashing his ambitions towards North for ever.

5. In 1681, Aurangzeb invaded the Maratha empire. The war lasted 27 years and Aurangzeb lost. Kedar has a seven part series (1,2,3,4,5, 6,7) on this war which is barely mentioned in our books.

For the most part, Aurangzeb was a religious fanatic. He had distanced Sikhs and Rajputs because of his intolerant policies against Hindus. After his succession to the throne, he had made life living hell for Hindus in his kingdom. Taxes like Jizya tax were imposed on Hindus. No Hindu could ride in Palanquin. Hindu temples were destroyed and abundant forcible conversions took place. Auragzeb unsuccessfully tried to impose Sharia, the Islamic law. This disillusioned Rajputs and Sikhs resulting in their giving cold shoulder to Aurangzeb in his Deccan campaign.

6. It was National Curry Week in Britain recently. But the British fascination with “curry” started much before.

It can be a surprise to see how early curry recipes begin to appear in domestic recipe books: long before Britain had a formal empire in India and long, long before mass immigration from the Subcontinent. One of the most influential early cookery books, Hannah Glasses The art of cookery, made plain and easy (1748), contains recipes for curries and pilaus:

7. 150,000-strong Indian Army took part in World War I. Fëanor writes about one India soldier — Manta Singh — who fought in France in 1914

Manta Singh had one, or possibly both his legs amputated. And then he died. His body was taken to the South Downs, one of 53 Sikh and Hindu soldiers who, having given their for King and Empire, were cremated in the open air, here, according to their beliefs. A monument to them, called the Chattri, stands on the very spot where the cremations took place. This was a remarkable act of what we would call cultural sensitivity on behalf of the British Army. Open-air cremations were illegal, and remain so to this day. But on this occasion, they were allowed.

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 send a tweet to @varnam_blog. The next carnival will be up on Jan 15th.

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

1. According to linguists, languages like Sanskrit and German are derived from proto-Indo-European and hence share similarities. An important concept in linguistics is laryngeals, which no one knows how to pronounce. In a post Jesús Sanchis says

The results are as follows: 66% of the recontructed verbs are based on words found in only one or two of the IE branches; only 34 % are attested in three or more branches. On the other hand, it is supposed that the laws governing phonetic change in IE, e.g. Grimm’s Law, should be a useful tool to determine these reconstructions. However, these laws are usually modified with a series of secondary laws or refinements, so that there is always some kind of intricately designed new parameter to explain any apparent deviation from the norm. Marcantonio has clearly shown that, when you have a PIE verbal root with forms attested in many IE branches, a high number of laws is needed to account for the whole set. In some cases, the number of rules equals the number of laws. This is how the corpus of PIE reconstructions has grown in the last 150 years: by a cumulative amount of laws, many of them designed ‘ad hoc’. What is the use of a law, e.g. Grimm’s Law, if it is immediately followed by new laws, e.g. Verner’s, to make it tenable? Marcantonio sees the adjustable parameters of PIE laws as an indication of circularity.

2. Prof. Wendy Doniger, of the RISA Lila Fame (1,2), has  a new book The Hindus : An Alternative History, in which she states that Aryans were cattle thieves. Lekhni asks

I am baffled as to why Wendy, who holds a doctorate in Sanskrit, first chooses to take the literal meaning when she must surely understand the symbolism involved, and second, why she does not even mention the alternate interpretation of the text that many historians believe.

3. Balaji did a sojourn in the Chalukyan territory

The year was AD 750. Chalukyan King Vikramaditya II and his Queen Lokadevi are visiting Pattada Kallu. Master Sculptors Anivaritha Gunda and Sarvasidhi Achari are showing off their spectacular creations to the royal couple. I can imagine the pride, happiness and gaiety that must have been in the air.

4. The Persian Sufi mystic Mansur al-Hallaj  was tortured and publicly crucified on March 26, 922 CE for proclaiming that he was God. At Jahane Rumi, Akhilesh Mittal writes

Restless in his quest for Truth Hussaiyn bin Mansour Al Hallaj set forth on his journey to India in 284 Al Hijri when he was forty years old. He returned after visiting Mansoura and Multan. As Adi Shankara had already pronounced his ‘Aham Brahmaasmi’ by this time is it possible that its Arabic echo ‘Ana’l Huqq’ arose out of the Indian experience of Al Hussaiyn?

5. Near the town of Chamba in Himachal Pradesh lies the city of the Varman kings. Feanor writes about a temple complex from that period which has survived to this day.

The intricately wrought temples in the region are reminiscent of the craft of the Gupta period, and this is not surprising. Throughout the north of India flowed ideas and techniques informing the art and architecture of Ellora and Aurangabad and Bilaspur and Sirpur. It is conjectured that itinerant sthapatis roved from town to town, sharing their knowledge and constructing temples in a singular mode.

6. While the modern Malayali is against globalization, it was not always so, writes Calicut Heritage.

The Zamorin not only encouraged the Pardesi traders to settle down but even provided them secretarial and other assistance, much like the government’s current policy of encouraging Special Economic Zones (SEZ) as enclaves of foreign capital operating under a different set of laws and protected from local threats.

7. The Malayalam movie Pazhassi Raja, based on the true life story of a prince who fought against the British from 1795 is in theaters. The man who captured Pazhassi Raja was Thomas Baber, who also was blogger Nick Balmer’s great great great great uncle. He has a series of posts about that period: A brief history of the Pazhassi Raja, Thomas Baber’s account of the death of the Pazhassi Rajah, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4. Murali writes about Pazhassi Raja based on the journal of Lachlan Macquarie (1761–1824) who participated in one of the battles.
8. Short Posts: (1) When did China first invade India? (2) Anti-Apostacy Law by the State of Bhopal, 1920

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 send a tweet to @varnam_blog. The next carnival will be up on Dec 15th.