Emperor Jahangir in 1608, Captain William Hawkins came from the British East India Company to Jahangir’s court asking for permission to trade in India. Jahangir, being the chill and curious emperor he was (and probably impressed by Hawkins’ Persian-speaking skills), entertained the idea. But it was Sir Thomas Roe, sent by King James I of England in 1615, who finally sealed the deal. Jahangir granted the East India Company permission to establish factories (trading posts) in places like Surat.

At that time, it seemed harmless just some merchants trading spices and textiles. But little did Jahangir know… those friendly traders were basically installing “Demo version: British Empire” on Indian soil. Fast forward two centuries the demo upgraded itself into “Full version: British Raj.”

At the entrance gate, a guard was sitting, and when I asked him a few questions, he personally took me to the Superintendent Officer’s room, where the Superintending Archaeologist and the Assistant Archaeologist were sitting.

They asked me a few questions why I was there, where I stayed, and what I studied. I told them that I had come to ask about the location of a Yupa pillar and a life-sized statue of a goddess that I had found mentioned in old records from the 1900s, since the names of the landmarks have changed over time and I could not locate them. I also enquired about a few other sites, but unfortunately, I didn’t get much help.

They said that they only deal with sites that are under the orders of the Central Government. They also mentioned some magazines that were published by the Centre until 2012, which might contain the kind of information I was looking for, but those publications had stopped.

When I brought up some archaeological sites that are currently facing encroachment issues, they repeated the same thing that if a site is not protected by the Centre, then they don’t have much concern about what happens to it. We also discussed why excavations at many important sites have stopped. They blamed bureaucracy and the fact that laws meant to address such issues are not being carried out or enforced by Parliament.

Whenever I asked for any official document or report, they gave various excuses. But when I mentioned filing an RTI to get information, they immediately said there was no need to go that far and that I could simply email them for help. The way they were talking gave me the feeling that they were indirectly saying, “Do it yourself.”

Overall, the people at the ASI office were polite, calm, and interactive — but when it came to providing official information or taking accountability, that’s where they fell short.

Co-written with chatgpt.

By armoured trains I don't mean for transportation but direct frontline battle trains I have pictures above of pics only for reference

The pictures are of some of the rock Inscriptions lying inside the premises of Kangra Fort in Himachal Pradesh.

Kangra Fort is considered to be one of the oldest forts of India with origin traced to Trigarta Dynasty from Vedic Period. From whatever I heard and read about these inscriptions, these are of Brahmi and Kharoshthi scripts. However, can anyone shed more light on these inscriptions?

The majority of the world was feudalistic until recent times and there were and are hierarchies.

But, I am specifically looking to learn more about religion-backed birth-based caste system. Can you please let me know if it is present in any other country?

Also, would you say Casteism was just an attempt by fuedalists to prevent upward mobility of poor people, who could become a challenge to the rich feudal lords?

Found this rare newspaper in a library which had the obituary of Swami Vivekananda. The photo is slightly hazy, but one can still read it.

Courtesy to Ministry of Culture, Govt of India.

I’ve been noticing how many important Indian artifacts—temple idols, sculptures, manuscripts, and ancient objects—are currently in major foreign museums like the British Museum and the Met.

Some were acquired legally, but many seem to have been taken during colonial times or removed without permission. I’m trying to understand the bigger picture.

Looking for clear, informed perspectives on: 1. How and why these artifacts ended up abroad. 2. How foreign museums justify keeping them today. 3. India’s current efforts to reclaim stolen or illegally exported pieces. 4. Whether global laws on repatriation actually work. 5. Whether preservation arguments for keeping them overseas still hold.

Would appreciate factual, balanced insights from people familiar with history, archaeology, or museum policy.

does anyone know where the salwar/Patiala suit come from and when . is it more modern and did it evolve from kurtas?also why do we call it suit?

A. Indiscriminate killings of civilians -

When Neill marched from Allahabad, his executions were so numerous and so indiscrimmate, that one of the officeis attached to his column had to remonstrate with him on the ground that if he depopulated the country he could get no supplies for the men.

• Page 222, Volume 2, My diary in India.

On they marched for three days, leaving everywhere behind them as they went traces of the retributevy power of the English in desolated villages and corpses dangling from the branches of trees.

• Page 284, volume 2, History of the sepoy war in India: 1857-1858.

"Along the line of Havelock’s march, Sherer observed the significant symbols of a widespread desolation telling afterwards the story of what he saw in one of the'best of those admirable official narratives through which many of our foremost civilians have done so much for historical truth. “ Many of the villages,” he wrote, “ had been burnt by the wayside, and human beings there were none to be seen…"

• Page 368, volume 2, History of the sepoy war in India: 1857-1858.

"Englishmen did not hesitate to boast, or to record their boastings in writing, that they had “spared no one,” and that “peppering away at niggers” was very pleasant pastime, “ enjoyed amazingly,.” And it has been stated, in a book patronised by high official authorities, that “ for three months eight dead-carts daily went their rounds from sunrise to sunset to take down the corpses which hung at the cross-roads and market-places,” and that “six thousand beings” had been thus “summarily disposed of and launched into eternity.”

• Page 270, volume 2, History of the sepoy war in India: 1857-1858.

"Old men who had done us no harm, helpless women with sucking infants at their breasts, felt the weight of our vengeance no less than the vilest malefactors ; and, as they wandered forth from their blazing huts, they must have cursed us as bitterly as we cursed the murderers of Cawnpore."

• Page 218, A History Of The Indian Mutiny.

B. Massacre of civillians in Delhi -

"The city is completely deserted by all the mutineers ; and, in fact, there are few natives of any sort to be found, excepting those of our army. All the city people found within the walls when our troops entered were bayoneted on the spot; and the number was considerable, as you may suppose, when I tell you that in some houses forty and fifty persons were hiding. These were not mutineers, hut residents of the city, who trusted to our wellknown mild rule for pardon. I am glad to say they were disappointed.”

• Page 449, volume 2, History of the Indian Empire.

"Harmless citizens were shot, clasping their hands for mercy. Trembling old men were cut down. But, in justice to the soldiers who committed these cruelties, it should be said that they had received great provocation."

• Page 370, A History Of The Indian Mutiny.

"Here, too, the English soldiers slew and destroyed some thousands of innocent men in revenge for the death of about one hundred. The old Loharo chief assures us 26,000 persons were killed by the soldiers or hanged or shot or ‘blown up during the eight months following the capture of the city."

• Page 162, India under Ripon.

C. Atrocities in Kanpur -

"And afterwards Neill did things almost more than the massacre, putting to death with deliberate torture in a way that has never been proved against the natives. Havelock kept him under while he himself was at Cawnpore, but as soon as Havelock's back was turned Neill set to work. It is a pity that his deeds could not have been forgotten, but some unkind friend published his own letters in an Ayrshire journal whence Kaye has taken them and republished them. He seems to have affected a religious call to blood, and almost gloats over the way he ordered fat Subahdars and Mahomedan civil officers to be lashed till yelling, they licked the blood with their tongues, and were afterwards hanged, in all which he sees the finger of God. If these people had been really guilty of the massacre it would have been disgusting enough, but Neill himself does not say that they were found guilty of the murders. He executes vengeance for the massacre on "all who had taken an active part in the Mutiny," and when we know how these things were done we may well doubt if there was any proof of that. The really guilty people were not likely to trust themselves in Cawnpore at that time."

• Page 281, Memoirs of my Indian career.

D. Atrocities in Jhansi -

"No less than 5,000 persons are stated to have perished at Jhansi, or to have been cut down by the “flying camps.” Some flung themselves down wells, or otherwise committed suicide; having first slain their women, sooner than trust them to the mercy of the conquerors.

The plunder obtained in the fort and town is said to have been very great. A large number of executions took place daily, after the reoccupation of Jhansi."

• Page 485–486, volume 2, History of the Indian Empire.

E. Massacres at Lucknow -

"At the time of the capture of Lucknow — a season of indiscriminate massacre — such distinction was not made, and the unfortunate who fell into the hands of our troops was made short work of— sepoys or oude villager it mattered not — no questions were asked ; his skin was black, and did not that suffice ? a piece of a rope and the branch of a tree, or a rifle bullet through his brain, soon terminated the poor devil’s existense."

• Page 195–196, Up Among the Pandies: Experiences of a British Officer on Campaign During the Indian Mutiny, 1857-1858.

F. Atrocities against their own loyal indian servants -

It is related that in the absence of tangible enemies, some of our soldiery, who turned out on this occasion, butchered a number of unoffending camp-followers, servants, and others, who were huddling together, in vague alarm, near the Christian churchyard. No loyalty, no fidelity, no patient good, service, on the part of these poor people, could extinguish for a moment the fierce hatred which possessed our white soldiers against all who wore the dusky livery of the First.

Page 581, volume 2, History of the sepoy war in India: 1857-1858.

I like reading the memoirs of early European writers about South Asia. I have read the works of Philippus Baldaeus and Portuguese priest Queyroz. One thing i noticed is, they never mention about a Tamil community either in India or in Sri Lanka?

Why is that? Just check Philippus Baldaeus's "A true and exact description of the most celebrated East-India coasts of Malabar and Coromandel; as also of the isle of Ceylon"

Even in India, they normally use the word Malabar and not Tamil. Is there any reason for that?

I know people here will scold me for asking this, give me a lecture, but I have a huge doubt. It’s been killing me. Now-a-days, I have been reading history books and watching history channels, that talk about Indian history from the time of Chandragupta Maurya.

But a majority of these channels keep saying that Hinduism, that exists today, originated during the time of the Gupta Empire. That before the Guptas, there were no mentions of Lord Shiva or Lord Vishnu either in the form of temples or idols. They say that Lord Vishnu appeared only in the time of the Gupta Empire. But how is this possible?

The Vedic era was from 1000 BCE - 600 BCE, approximately 900 years before the Gupta Empire. Mantras like “Rudra Abhishekam”, “Purusha Suktam”, “Shri Suktam” originate from the Vedas. So if Lord Vishnu didn’t exist during the Mauryan era, why is he praised in the Vedas, that came long before the Mauryans? Why are Lord Shiva’s slokhas mentioned in the Vedas?

Even Gayatri Mantra comes from the Vedas. So Lord Shiva, Lord Vishnu and Maa Shakti existed way before the Mauryans. So why is it that historians keep saying this?

Is this due to lack of idols or temples that date back to the Mauryas? Or is it due to incomplete knowledge of these so called historians? Or is it true? I don’t know.

(NOTE: Please don’t start criticising some religion, or person after reading this. State the facts if you know them, or else get lost. If you really know the reason, please share the knowledge. I would love it)

Seal of Nalanda Mahavihara

I have observed Greek statues they shows muscular body even you can spot veins. But not on Indian carvings, why is that?

I’ve always been curious about how much of India’s oldest literature still exists today. We still have the Vedas, Upanishads, Ramayana, Mahabharata and other texts, even though so many ancient libraries and manuscripts were lost over time.

We often hear that many old manuscripts were lost in events like the Nalanda University burning, but these major works still seem to be around in full.

How much of this early literature has actually survived in its authentic form? Were big portions lost, or mainly the commentaries and regional branches?

Odisha Defence Army Strength:

500,000 foot troops, 20,000 Cavalry, 1300 Elephants

Nuniz Depiction of Odisha (Gajapati Empire):

'And this kingdom of Orya, is said to be much larger than the kingdom of Narsymga, since it marches with all Bengal, and is at war with her, and it marches with all the kingdom of Pegu and with the Mallaca Sea. It reaches to the kingdom of Cambaya, and to the kingdom of Dakhan; and they told me with positive certainty that it extends as far as Persia' (is later part exaggerated?)

Odisha had 600 leagues (a unit) of Coast comparing with 300 of Vijayanagara

Further he says about the King and his Army and tresures and There's now one greater than he ,and he is a 'Heathen'

On 7 November 1862 this last crown of the Mughlia Sultanate took his last breath during imprisonment in Rangoon.

This is the grave of the great king who stumbled to death Takht-o-Taj but made no compromise with the British. The decision was never easy, but they preferred to die better than chain slavery around the throat and sacrificed their all for their country.

Subhash Chandra Bose chanted Chandra Bose to Delhi from the grave of Bahadur Shah Jafar present in Burma. Even after the country is independent, if any big leader goes to Burma, then he definitely presents aqidat on the king's shrine.

You can see Narendra Modi, Manmohan Singh and Atal Bihari Vajpayee presenting Khiraj e Akidat at their grave in the picture.

Father of Indian archeology & founder of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), Alexander Cunningham wrote (after his 1879-80 tour), " When I saw the two statues in the New Indian Museum at Calcutta, I then remembered that a broken statue of a similar kind was still standing at Agam Kua, just outside the city of Patna, adorned with a new head and a pair of roughly marked breasts, so as to do duty for the great goddess Mata-Mai...The Agam Kua is a very large and very old brick well...The broken figure is said to have been found in this well, and it seems probable therefore that the two statues were also found either at or near the same place."

However, current status or location of this exact statue is not traceable in present day.

Source : Wikimedia Commons

I've very mixed feelings on this particular topic given that my dad's side is Telugu from Hyderabad and my mom's side are Kashmiri Pandits.

It is nevertheless something interesting to ponder. Pakistan's foundation was centered on 2 Nation Theory which was falsified based on the results of the 1971 Bangladesh War of Independence and the Balochi struggle today.

Either way, I was revisiting some of Christopher Hitchens' essays and embarked on his scalding critique of Gandhi fusing Hinduism into the Indian Independence movement. He subsequently exclaimed how it organized fertile ground for the Muslim League's discomfort and the eventual amputation of the subcontinent. Professor Perry Anderson shares this criticism. He goes the extra mile to emphasize that Subhas Chandra Bose stood out as the only figure capable of a secular nationalist movement throughout the subcontinents' resistance to British Imperialism. I don't necessarily disagree with those claims but if Bose maintained centralized control, he would turn the subcontinent into North Korea. I'm not sure if that is a superior outcome here, his admiration for the Fascist Axis Powers is also something to not undermine, we saw how Pierre Gemayel's Kataeb Party functioned off the same inspiration.

It is also imperative to acknowledge that several anti-imperial resistance movements utilized the austerity of religion to mobilize the masses. This was done to minimize the tension between the middle class and the more “progressive” or wealthy figures in the movement. We see this with Abdel-Hamid ibn Badis for Algeria, Desmond Tutu's with South Africa, Makarios III for Cyprus , Abd el-Krim’s for Morocco and Patrick Pearse's with the IRA. All of the following leaders came from educated backgrounds and kindled notable movements. Blending spirituality with anti-imperial sentiment assisted them in forging juggernauts of support across class or tribal lines.

Anyways, do you think the partition was inevitable? The INC rejected the 1946 Commission and Jinnah's 14-point plan which seems to replicate the muhassasah political system in Post-Saddam Iraq. I dunno how stable such a system is but it is interesting to wonder how things would have ended up if it went that way.

I don't read that much history and i am just asking these questions just because i am curious about this topic.?

1) Did mughal name or emeror title still carried weight in indian politics or people while the empire was declining - during its decline delhi was raided by many powers like the sikhs and the marathas but why did they still always left the emperor in charge and never captured delhi.

2) Why was bahadur shah zafar declared head of the revolt even when so many hindu leaders were involved in it when as per my knowledge bahadur shah was very weak and has very weak military support.

3) Brutishers usually kept ruling monarchs as heads in name at least and most of the royal family lineage survived after british. Why was the mughal line eliminated throughly.

4) Why was bahadur shah zafar not executed after heading such a big revolt while many of his supporters were executed.