- 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.
- 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
- The Hamilton bridge in Chennai: How did that name come about? Maddy explains
- 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.
- In 1937, Ursula Graham Bower came to India to find a husband. Instead she became a guerilla leader with a price on her head.
- In 1942, the British discovered a lake in Roopkund filled with skeletons. It seemed as if they all died in the same manner.
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.
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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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
