The Indian History Carnival, published on the 15th of every month, is a collection of posts related to Indian history and archaeology.
- 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
- Sarvesh writes about some of the legends associated with Bhojadeva
- 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.
- Maddy has the fascinating tale of “Soliman the Elefant“, who went from Malabar to Lisbon to Barcelona.
- Fëanor writes about the Jutewalls: of Dundee and Calcutta
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.
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
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.
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.
