The Origins of Modern Historiography in India: Antiquarianism and Philology, 1780-1880
By Rama Sundari Mantena
Published by Palgrave Studies in Cultural and Intellectual History -2012
Intellectual encounters abound in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century India comprising surveyors,...
Read More
Essay:
Kāvali Brothers and the Origins of Modern Historiography in India
By Rama Sundari Mantena
Assistant Professor of History, Department of History,
University of Illinois
I have been engaged in the study of everyday practices surrounding the acts of collecting, surveying, and antiquarianism ...
Read More
Digital Rare Book:
Biographical Sketches of Dekkan Poets: Being memoirs of the lives of several eminent Bards, both ancient and modern, who have flourished in different Provinces in the Indian Peninsula
By Cavelly Venkata Ramaswamie
Published in Calcutta - 1829
Artice:
The Second Brother
By S. Muthiah
The Hindu - 2009
I return to the Kavali family and this week recall the contribution of the second brother, Lakshmaiah, whom Colin Mackenzie described in 1808 as his “Head Interpreter and Translator.” Boraiah, who joined the Mackenzie team c.1796, di...
Read More
Article:
The earliest Indologists?
By S. Muthiah
The Hindu - 2009
Curiously, Mackenzie, who came out to Madras in 1763 as an Ensign in the Madras Engineers and died in 1821 when serving as the first Surveyor-General of India, neither spoke nor read any Indian language. His interest in inscriptio...
Read More
New Book:
Much Maligned Monsters: A History of European Reactions to Indian Art
By Partha Mitter
Publisher: University Of Chicago Press - 1992
In this fascinating study, Partha Mitter traces the history of European reactions to Indian art, from the earliest encounters of explorers with the exot...
Read More
Essay:
James Fergusson and Indian Architecture
By Takeo Kamiya
"...The revivalists such as Pugin and George Gilbert Scott (who would design the Library and Convocation Hall of Bombay University in India afterward) spread the trend of 'praise to the Middle ages' among British architects, in d...
Read More
Digital Rare Book:
Archaeology in India, with especial reference to the works of Babu Rajendralala Mitra
By James Fergusson
Published by Trubner & Co., London - 1884
Rissaldar Mohubut Khan, bahadur, 2nd Scinde Irregular Horse, 1852.
Oil on canvas by Sandor Alexander Svoboda (1826-1896), 1852.
Mohubut (sometimes Mohbut) Khan was promoted to rissaldar of the 1st Regiment Sind Irregular Horse on 17 January 1846 and later awarded the Order of British India ...
Read More
New Book Release :
LIFE AND LEGACY of COL. WILLIAM LINNAEUS GARDNER.
By Frank Gardner
Published in June 2010
Book Synopsis :
Innumerable sketches of the lives of hordes of European Military Adventurers that began arriving into Hindoostan from the late 1700’s are replete with tales of the...
Read More
At first these units were called Local Horse and were raised by Europeans from volunteers who owned their own horse and equipment and were prepared to provide for themselves in the field. This was called the sillidar system. Sometimes a local leader ...
Read More
Digital Rare Book:
Military Memoirs of Mr. GEORGE THOMAS - Who, by extraordinary talents and enterprize, rose from an obscure situation to the rank of a General in the service of Native Powers in North-West of India
By William Francklin
Published by John Stockdale, London - 1805
The son of Hercules Skinner, a Scotsman, and an Indian Rajputni. This couple had three sons and three daughters, James being the eldest. Hercules was determined to have his daughters educated even though he knew that his wife was immut...
Read More
This beautiful neck band was worn by the horse of Colonel James Skinner. Skinner was born in 1778 in Calcutta, India. His father was a Scottish officer in the Bengal Army of the East India Company. His mother was a Rajput lady. In 1803, Skinner raised a ...
Read More
Oil on canvas by John Reynolds Gwatkin (1807-1877), 1840 (c).
Men of the 1st Bengal Irregular Cavalry (Skinner's Horse) or 4th Bengal Irregular Cavalry (Baddley's Horse) display mounted combat skills, including tent-pegging.
Digital Rare Book:
Military Memoir of Lieut-Col. James Skinner, C. B.: For many years a distinguished officer commanding a corps of irregular cavalry in the service of H.E.I.C.
By James Baillie Fraser
Published by Smith, Elder & Co., London - 1851
In Two Volumes