Tales of the Seven Pagodas

For many centuries, there have been rumors and tales of temples submerged in the sea - of which now, just one, the Shore Temple, stands visible, lovely and lonely, gazing out to sea, its stark beauty enhanced by the barren vistas of sand and stone and wispy wind-swept casuarina all around. Marco Polo is said to have visited Santhome (in modern-day Madras) where he was regaled with tales of the lost temples of Mahabalipuram. His descriptions found their way, in part, to the Catalan Atlas of 1375. The Catalan Atlas is one of the most important atlases of the medieval era, and was put together by a Catalan Jew (from Spain) called Abraham Cresques. It shows India in peninsular form, and Mahabalipuram is mentioned there as "Setemelti", which is assumed to be an erroneous version of "Sette Templi" - or seven temples. More

Abode of the Virgin Goddess

It is impossible to write a simple and straightforward account of any place in India. ...You have mythology rubbing shoulders with history. You have to consider politics, religion, culture, science and economics, each with its attendant brood of issues and points of contention. The past and the present are inseparably intertwined. You step back and view this lively patchwork, this teeming tapestry. And you say, wow. More

The tale of Monte Cassino

A fellow blogger Abraham Tharakan steered me towards a long forgotten war where many thousands of Indians died fighting a foolish & stupid battle, the ‘Battle of Cassino’. This one took me to the Liri valley, where unfortunately over 5,000 Indians perished in a war that they had nothing much to do with, really. . .More. . .

When Rs.12 was a princely salary

Descendants of the Mughal emperors, in early 1800s, were paid their upkeep by a magnanimous British East India Company. . .More. . .

Was Md.Thuglaq really a fool ?

The Sultan was infuriated by his subjects of Delhi, who used to write abuses on a piece of paper and managed to throw the same in his palace. They were in fact annoyed by some of his policies. . . . The Sultan came to the conclusion to punish the ‘guilty’ people and he invented such a novel idea for the same. . .More. . .