Indian History Carnival – 24

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.