Article/Essay
 1 May 2017 Article/Essay
Essay:
Why Does The Left Ignore India’s Indigenous Intellectual Traditions?
By David Frawley
Swarajya - Oct 04, 2016

What explains the refusal of India’s leftists to honour what is honourable in Indian history and traditions?

India has one of the greatest intellectual traditions in the world ... Read More
 30 Apr 2017 Article/Essay
Essay:
The Infamous Macaulay Speech That Never Was
By Anirban Mitra
The Wire - 19/02/2017

A quotation supposedly culled from a speech by Thomas Babington Macaulay is a staple of social media forwards and has even been quoted by senior Indian politicians. But is it authentic?

We live in times of... Read More
 30 Apr 2017 Article/Essay
Essay:
And Macaulay's Idea Of India Endures
By Ramnath Narayanswamy
Swarajya - Aug 10, 2015

The Indian Education system is still dominated by a colonial mindset. Despite the passing of more than six decades since independence, we have failed to establish a vibrant, high-quality system of primar... Read More
 6 Apr 2017 Article/Essay
Essay:
How The Classic Indian Epic Texts Continue To Shape Our Consciousness
By Subhash Kak
Swarajya - Aug 28, 2016

Classic epic texts like the Mahabharata, and those pertaining to the epic song and dance traditions, like the Natya Shastra, are explored at length in this essay.

There is a brief... Read More
 5 Apr 2017 Article/Essay
Essay:
Pondering on Ramayana - Why it is Itihaasa and not History
By Akanksha Damini Joshi

The other night i was reading one of the many Ramayanas that have come to us. It was describing the time of the birth of Rama.

The queens shone like celestials. Kaushalya gave birth to the Eternal Being i... Read More
 27 Mar 2017 Article/Essay
Essay:
Yogic Identities: Tradition and Transformation
By James Mallinson

The earliest textual descriptions of yogic techniques date to the last few centuries BCE and show their practitioners to have been ascetics who had turned their backs on ordinary society. These renouncers have been consider... Read More
 26 Mar 2017 Article/Essay
Essay:
How ascetics and yogis were depicted in Indian paintings from the Mughal era.
By J.P.Losty
Published in Scroll.in

A look at illustrated historical manuscripts and Deccani paintings from the British Library.

Being invited to give a series of three lectures on this wide-ranging topic at a ... Read More
 26 Mar 2017 Article/Essay
Article:
India's first aviator Prof.Setti's contributions hover around Mysore
By Dr.Anantha Krishnan M.
Published in Star of Mysore

Did you know that India’s first aviator was from Mysore?

In this article, Dr. Anantha Krishnan M. throws light on the contributions of Prof. Venkata Subba Setti w... Read More
 12 Mar 2017 Article/Essay
Essay:
Exploring the history of Hindu festivals: the ancient strands of Holākā
By By Manasatarangini T
Published in Indiafacts.org

In Hindu tradition there is a clear demarcation of at least three distinct classes of ritual observances: 1) The most conservative of these are the śrauta rituals... Read More
 7 Mar 2017 Article/Essay
Article:
Persian poet's 700-year-old manuscript, signed by Shah Jahan, at Asiatic Society
By Jhimli Mukherjee Pandey
Times News - Mar 6, 2017

KOLKATA: He expressed the spiritual experiences of a mystic, in love with his beloved. In his own enchanting way , he wove themes of ambiguity into his po... Read More
 7 Mar 2017 Article/Essay
Essay:

What is a Rare Book?
The Six Criteria of Rarity in Antiquarian Books
by Jeremy M. Norman

As an antiquarian bookseller, I am frequently asked to define “antiquarian” or “rare” books. To some extent these two relatively vague but omnipresent terms are used interchangeably in the tr... Read More
 5 Mar 2017 Article/Essay
Essay:
Comparing India and the West
By S.N. Balagangadhara
Universiteit Gent

During the last two decades, I have been pursuing an unorthodox way of studying cultural differences, focusing mainly on the Indian and the western cultures. Because I believe that one can answer questions about the ci... Read More
 25 Feb 2017 Article/Essay
Calligraphy in Ancient India
By Vedveer Arya
ITIHASA

Ancient Indians had developed the art of Calligraphy around post-Mauryan era. Ikshvaku kings of Andhra were probably the first who used calligraphy in their inscriptions. In fact, the so-called Siddhamatrika script is a calligraphy of Brahmi s... Read More
 24 Feb 2017 Article/Essay
Essay:
From World’s Education Capital to Depths of Illiteracy – Part III
By Sahana Singh
Indiafacts.org

This final article in our series describes the destruction of key universities and the era of darkness, which descended after aeons of learning. Even as the broken pieces were being put to... Read More
 29 Jan 2017 Article/Essay
Rani Padmini Palace, Chittorgarh

..."One such famous story is that of the Rani Padmini, who burned herself alive along with the other ladies of the court in order to protect their honour from the invading Sultan Alauddin Khilji. In 1303, Sultan Alauddin Khilji of Delhi decided to attack Chittor... Read More
 25 Jan 2017 Article/Essay
Essay:
Republics Of The Past – Part 1
By Sumedha Verma Ojha
Swarajya - Jan 20, 2017

India became a modern republic, a sovereign, democratic republic, in 1950 amidst widespread skepticism about the durability of both democracy and the republican form of government in the country. It is now 201... Read More
 20 Jan 2017 Article/Essay
Essay:
How India Went From World’s Education Capital to Depths of Illiteracy – Part II
By Sahana Singh
Indiafacts.org

We continue our series on the universities of ancient India, which imparted a multi-disciplinary education to students of advanced learning. In this second part, we look at I... Read More
 17 Jan 2017 Article/Essay
Essay:
Life is a Pongal
By Akanksha Damini Joshi

#JallikattuLearnings #LifeIsAPongal

There are two words. One is Entertainment. Another, Celebration.
Both carry a different psychological orientation.

#Entertainment You are feeling empty inside. You don't like the way it gnaws. You go for e... Read More
 16 Jan 2017 Article/Essay
Essay:
The long journey of the Brahmin Bull
By Akanksha Damini Joshi

#BosIndicusInAmerica #JallikattuLearning

The story starts in 1854. Southern America, Louisiana.
Once upon a time, 2,500,000 acres of tall wild grass, wild flowers.
Within this expanse, a small plantation town called St. Franci... Read More
 13 Jan 2017 Article/Essay
Essay:
When Did We First Celebrate Makar Sankranti?
By Raj Vedam
Swarajya - Jan 13, 2017

The widespread celebration of the Makar Sankranti festival and its many regional variations hint great antiquity. In this article, we will take a journey through time, weaving together history, astronomy, c... Read More
 13 Jan 2017 Article/Essay
Essay:
Jallikattu - its historical and cultural relevance
By Sparsh Sharma

Jalli in #Jallikattu means gold coins tied to the bulls’ horns. Kettu means to tie.

Brave matadors were eligible bachelors in the olden days. This is the reason why men used to display dare devilry.

The Spanish bullfi... Read More