Indian History Carnival – 6

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