Article/Essay
 3 Feb 2016 Article/Essay
Article:
Vijayanagara, earliest example of imperial city: George Michell
By Mahim Pratap Singh
The Hindu - January 21, 2014

The history of the Vijayanagar empire, ruins of which now house Hampi, is dotted with several interesting episodes, some of which were dwelt upon by renowned architect-acad... Read More
 3 Feb 2016 Article/Essay
The most exhaustive work ever undertaken on Vijayanagara yet:

VIJAYANAGARA RESEARCH PROJECT

“The city is such that the pupil of the eye has never seen a place like it, and ear of intelligence has never been informed that existed anything to equal it in the World.”
- Abdul Razaak, 1443

Link t... Read More
 2 Feb 2016 Article/Essay
Article:
In 1880s, people were coaxed to move out of city to Malleswaram, Bangalore

MALLESWARAM: Did you know that Malleswaram got its pin code 560003 because it was the third `extension' created out of the old city? Or that the temple after which it was named contains an outcrop indicating it w... Read More
 30 Jan 2016 Article/Essay
Article:
Rare Amrita Sher-Gil portrait sells for record $2.92 million
The Hindu - March 20, 2015

A self-portrait by the artist has sold for $2.92 million in Sotheby’s New York auction, setting a new record for an Indian woman artist.

A rare self-portrait by Amrita Sher-Gil has sold for $2.92 m... Read More
 7 Jan 2016 Article/Essay
Article:
The Mastani Mystery
By Mitali Parekh
Ahmedabad Mirror | Sep 13, 2015

Chitapavan brahmin Bajirao I married Mastani and they had a son named Shamsher Ali Bahadur (born Krushnarao). His descendants became the Nawabs of Banda district (in Uttar Pradesh), but lost their estate in another inc... Read More
 20 Dec 2015 Article/Essay
Article:
Vedic Cosmology: Integrating God and Physics
By Mauricio Garrido, Ph.D.
Physicist and Hindu Monk
Huffington Post - March 2014

In 2012, CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, called for a debate between scientists, philosophers and theologians to find common ground between... Read More
 20 Dec 2015 Article/Essay
Essay:
Indian Physics: Outline of Early History
By Subhash Kak
Regents professor of electrical and computer engineering at Oklahoma State University and a vedic scholar.

Historians of science are generally unaware of the contributions of Indians to physics. The main reason for this is that very ... Read More
 12 Nov 2015 Article/Essay
Essay:
Tipu Sultan in History: Revisionism Revised
By Narasingha Sil
Published in SAGE Journal - 2 April 2013

This historiographical essay seeks to chart a middle course between what may be called Tipu bashing and, to borrow an expression from Anne Buddle, “Tipu Mania,” with a view to provi... Read More
 12 Nov 2015 Article/Essay
Essay:
The Goddess and a Sultan: Hindu Coinage of Tipu Sultan
Published in The Seringapatam Times

Tipu was also a master at propaganda. Along with attempting to help the Math recover, Tipu wished to emulate the example of Karnataka’s greatest ruler, Sri Krishnadevaraya who initiated the custom o... Read More
 9 Nov 2015 Article/Essay
Article:
Tipu Sultan was a false hero
By Sandeep Balakrishna
DailyO

To claim that he fought against the British for India’s freedom ignores historical truths and defies logic.

But what is astonishing is the manner in which this myth has persisted despite the availability of copious amounts of p... Read More
 9 Nov 2015 Article/Essay
Essay:
Tipu Sultan’s dream book

One of the most intriguing items in the British Library Persian manuscripts collection is a small unexceptional looking volume which contains a personal record, written in his own hand, of 37 dreams of Tipu Sultan, Sultan of Mysore.

The manuscript was presented t... Read More
 9 Nov 2015 Article/Essay
Article:
Why we love to hate Tipu Sultan
By Vikram Sampath
LiveMint - 09 November 2015

After the storming of the fort of Srirangapatna in May 1799, which led to the annihilation of the most feared foe of the British—Tipu Sultan of Mysore—the victors found a curious toy in his chambers. “The Musi... Read More
 28 Oct 2015 Article/Essay
Article:
Leafing through the past
By Suganthy Krishnamachari
The Hindu

Maintaining a library and preserving books are not easy tasks. Dr. Perumal of the Saraswathi Mahal Library, Thanjavur, explains.

"If you see a silver fish on a wall, you can be sure there is fungus. The silver fish is our sc... Read More
 28 Oct 2015 Article/Essay
Essay:
India’s Best-Kept Secret: The Sarasvati Mahal
By Pradeep Chakravarthy
Published by India International Centre, Delhi

Read online:

http://bit.ly/20aviDq Read More
 25 Oct 2015 Article/Essay
RBSI Essay Series:

The Trading Guilds of South India and South-East Asian histories.
By Sunny Narang

We cannot understand India and South-East Asian histories without understanding the Tamil and Kalinga empires and the trading guilds of South India .

I am continually shocked at the bad and st... Read More
 25 Oct 2015 Article/Essay
Article:
Reinventing the Library
By Alberto Mangueloct
NYT - October 23, 2015

Plato, in the “Timaeus,” says that when one of the wisest men of Greece, the statesman Solon, visited Egypt, he was told by an old priest that the Greeks were like mere children because they possessed no truly ancient ... Read More
 23 Oct 2015 Article/Essay
Article:
Ancient civilization: Cracking the Indus script
By Andrew Robinson
Nature magazine - 20 October 2015

Andrew Robinson reflects on the most tantalizing of all the undeciphered scripts — that used in the civilization of the Indus valley in the third millennium bc.

The Indus civilization f... Read More
 22 Oct 2015 Article/Essay
Essay:
The Colonial History of Sculptures from the Amaravati Stūpa
By Jennifer Howes
Extract from the book: Buddhist Stupas in South Asia
Published by Oxford University Press, Delhi - 2009

The first Buddhist site to be examined and excavated in India by the British was the second- century stūpa ... Read More
 19 Oct 2015 Article/Essay
Article:
This hero stops the plunder of India's past
Rediff.com

'Imagine how secure are our seaports and airports that 10,000 objects can leave every decade and our custodians are not even aware?'

'This kind of targeted looting when thieves pick and choose the best of Indian art and steal on an... Read More
 4 Oct 2015 Article/Essay
Article:
Interview with D.N. Jha, historian of ancient India and the author of
‘The Myth of the Holy Cow'
By Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashasta
Frontline - 2012

Q: Your book ‘The Myth of the Holy Cow' dispels the impression that Muslims introduced beef-eating in the Indian subcontinent. What were the m... Read More
 2 Oct 2015 Article/Essay
Essay:
Relevance of Sanskrit in Contemporary Society
By B Mahadevan
Professor at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore in 2003

..."The first and the most important and dominant theme, in the last two to three years is that if you talk anything about Sanskrit, then it is immediately brand... Read More