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![]() Anirudh KanisettiThePrint |
The Republic of India’s understanding of religious policy should not be based only on this or that North Indian Sultan, but on a sober understanding...
About a third of all homes in Bandar Abbas belonged to Indians. There was a large temple, and Hindu processions were allowed; the Banias also paid the...
By the 18th century, Maratha dominions and other Indian states had developed fairly detailed caste enumerations, used to regulate hierarchies and...
When Alexander arrived in the Indus Valley in 326 BCE, a local Indian tribe entertained him by setting their mastiffs loose on lions.
Multiple lines of evidence show Dravidian, Austro-Asiatic and Indo-Aryan speakers migrated at various points all across the subcontinent. Prehistoric...
Sanskrit was seen as the language of divinity, thus the main current of Sanskrit knowledge tended to be conservative, resistant to new developments.
Buddhist legends, Jain stories, Shaivite rituals—everyone wanted a piece of the mythical king Vikramaditya.
Kashmiri art once outshone China, and its poets were sought after as far south as the Deccan — to say nothing of the vast reach of its textiles.
In the 11th century, Chola emperor Kulottunga I abolished all commercial tolls. His policies improved the circulation of commodities, leading to a...
We also know of generations of Deccan Muslim teachers, scholars, and rulers who were buried at Khuldabad before and after Aurangzeb. They had nothing...
The ‘eastern’ tradition of Holika-burning moved deeper into the Gangetic Plains. Gaudiya Vaishnavism, from Bengal, took root in Mughal-ruled...
Hinduism is, above all, a religion in motion. More importantly, the loud online proclamations of what Hinduism 'really' is is part of the religion’s...
After Amish Tripathi and Bhavish Aggarwal questioned the reality of sati, liberals are claiming that the ritual was endemic to Hindu society. Neither...
Sembiyan Mahadevi, a 10th-century Chola queen, reshaped Hinduism through temple patronage and art. Her vision turned Nataraja into the most iconic...
As much as kings, Tamil merchants are the unsung heroes of medieval India’s global footprint. Sometimes, cultural diasporas can achieve as much, if...
Rajaraja alone gifted 38,604 gold coins. This was more than what most European courts at the time could muster.
Historical documents suggest the Kumbh Mela is only 150 years old, but it stands as a testament to Hinduism’s amazing ability to reinvent itself...
Sanskrit poetry did not simply disappear under Sultanate rule: it continued to evolve, and was enriched by contact with Persian and Arabic...
There is nothing a premodern Muslim ruler, teacher, or devotee could ever do to be accepted as Indian by the far Right—even if premodern Hindus...
From the British perspective, Adivasi hostility to the colonial state was simply ethnic hostility from the savage against the civilised. Nothing...
Indian academia is sometimes unfairly maligned because it was not designed for the decentralised, instantaneous information transmission of the...
Americans might be puzzled as to why an autocratic strongman holds such appeal with voters. But it’s a story India has seen a thousand times in our...
Since Durga could no longer be the premier royal war-goddess in a Sultanate-dominated world, Sanskrit texts from the 15th century stopped asking...
Srivijaya today is one of Southeast Asia’s most puzzling polities. It made temple gifts from Thailand to Bengal and Tamil Nadu. And many of its...
Tirumala was once a minor shrine with only local devotees. It grew as an investment destination for Vijayanagara elites in the 16th century.
Ancient and medieval Indian theorists had a grim view of justice. Arthashastra insisted on harsh punishments—but also restrained state power in...
Even as Indian women were sold off, Central Asian, Turkic, and Caucasian women were purchased. Many medieval kings had foreign ladies in their...
Before and after 1947, Bengal experienced many episodes of religious violence, often driven more by 20th-century nationalism than by the region’s...
For over a millennia, the Bengaluru region has been the meeting-point of the Kannada, Telugu, and Tamil cultural zones.