‘Kuntaleśvaradautya’—A Study

The ambassador of an Indian Emperor is seemingly on an official visit to a kingdom south of the Vindhya-s. On reaching his destination, instead of being received with due deference, the ambassador is not even given a proper seat in the court — certainly an appalling disregard to the socio-political mores. The ‘courtiers jeer at …

Colonial Confinement of Hinduism

Before the British Crown officially took over the reins of their colonial empire in India, the preceding period of late eighteenth and early nineteenth century was defining in more ways than one. Of course, common knowledge is that these years were laying the foundation for the events of 1857, but behind the political jargon and …

The Ancient Maukharis: An Analysis

The word ancient carries a different weightage when it is used with regard to the great civilizations. The people, their customs, their rulers, and their dynasties – stretching back millennia or even more, they were the ancients. The ancient rulers loved to boast of their old aristocratic pedigree, originating from the great old families, from …

The Second Indo-Hunnic War

Ancient India in the early 6th century was riveting with socio-political and religious churning. In the political sphere, one of the catalysts for this churning were the Huns or the Hūṇa-s as they were called in India. As stated in previous post of this blog, the timeline of the Indo-Hunnic relations can be divided into …

Climatic Factors in the Gupta Decline & After

"̍..[a] history whose passage is almost imperceptible, that of a man in his relationship to the environment, a history in which all change is slow, a history of constant repetition, ever recurring cycles.." ~ Braudel, as quoted in Jha, 2014: 588 Decline of an empire is never a linear process and involves complex to and …

In Search of Pāṭaliputra

It is always surreal to remember a time when a lot of what we now know about ancient Indian history, particularly political history once belonged to the realm of obscure. We can even be accused of taking the information we possess for granted. To think when the empires of Magadha were not general knowledge, when …

The Elusive Kācha – Rāmagupta

Of the many mysteries of Indian history, the illustrious Gupta Empire can claim to have a fair share of them. One of these mysteries had been the elusive personalities of Kācha and Rāmagupta. For those who do not know about it – a quick summary is needed. Over the past century, we learned about various …

The First Indo-Hunnic War

“He (Prakāśadharman) bears the royal glory, which brings auspicious results, in order to benefit the world and not to increase (his own) pleasure...” Richard Salomon's translation of a verse from the Rīsthal Inscription of Prakāśadharman, the later Aulikara ruler, dated 515 CE.1 If we try to classify the timeline of the Indo-Hunnic relations, it can …

Guilds in Ancient India: A Study

In historical writings, any reference to ancient India usually leads to discussion of subjects like religion and philosophy. Development of statecraft has been the other favoured field of scholars. However, economy of the time never seems to have captured public interest and imagination in the same way as the other mentioned areas of study despite …

‘Nysa in India’ And Related Narratives

Alexander III of Macedon in his campaign of world conquest reached India in 327 BCE after attaining victory over the Persian Achaemenid Empire. It is reported by western classical sources that in India, the invaders stumbled on a city named Nysa and the inhabitants of the city told him that it was founded by none …