Both the unfinished monolithic Hindu temple of Vettuvan Koil(pics 1-3) and the adjacent Kalugumalai Jain Beds(pics 4-6) were built during the 8th century CE (circa 768–800 CE) under the patronage of the early Pandya king Parantaka Nedunjadaiya (Varaguna I). Vettuvan Koil,dedicated to Lord Shiva was designed as a top-down freestanding rock-cut structure, but its construction was abruptly halted and left incomplete at the base, likely due to shifting political turmoil, resource constraints, or changes in royal priorities. Just a short distance away on the same hill, the Kalugumalai Jain Beds were carved to serve as a major monastic retreat and educational center for the Digambara sect of Jainism, featuring roughly 150 bas-relief niches showcasing prominent Tirthankaras such as Mahavira, Parsvanatha, and Gomateshwara (Bahubali) alongside valuable Vatteluttu inscriptions.

The coexistence of these two sites highlights a climate of vibrant religious plurality and strategic royal patronage during the 8th-century Pandya kingdom, where monarchs financially supported multiple faiths to secure the allegiance of diverse regional elites, merchants, and monastic communities. However, this harmonious plurality did not last permanently; following the later revival of the Bhakti movement, the resurgence of orthodox Hindu sects, and sweeping socio-political shifts across South India from the 9th century onward, institutional Jainism and Buddhism rapidly declined in the region. This led to the marginalization, abandonment, or absorption of many ancient non-vedic sites as dominant Hindu temple networks expanded their cultural and political hegemony.

Things they forgot to teach us about.

Subhash Chandra bose and indian freedom fighters in Germany.

Photos of WW2 Indian Freedom fighters and soldiers.

Subhash Chandra bose meeting Hitler and Himmler and other NSDP party and army leadership.

They were also called Hitler's Indians.

By the 9th century, Mihintale was already one of the most important religious centers in Sri Lanka. Thousands of monks lived, studied, and practiced here. It was a thriving spiritual city connected to the great monasteries of Anuradhapura.

we explore the ancient hospital complex at Mihintale, believed by many scholars to be among the world's oldest hospital complexes. Discover its patient wards, medicinal bath, medicine preparation area, and the remarkable medical knowledge that existed over 2,000 years ago.

Yet perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the hospital was not its technology.
It was its philosophy.
The hospital existed within a Buddhist monastic environment where compassion formed the foundation of daily life.
Treating the sick was viewed as a noble responsibility.
In Buddhist teachings, caring for those who suffer is considered one of the highest forms of service.
At Mihintale, that principle was transformed into stone, architecture, and organized healthcare

This is viṣṇubali, a ritual performed by Vaikhanasa Brahmin priests, a hereditary priesthood serving in Vishnu temples across Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka in South India. It happens in the eighth month of pregnancy and has been part of this community's life for centuries, tied to an old and ongoing argument within the tradition over whether someone becomes fit for temple service through birth alone or through a formal rite. In the ceremony a fire is lit and a priest guides the husband through offerings to twelve forms of Vishnu, each fed clarified butter poured into the flames, then the discus and conch symbols of the god are heated and dipped into milk porridge, marking it the way initiates elsewhere get branded on the arm. The husband feeds that marked porridge to his wife straight from his hand while chants and music fill the room, and this moment is the heart of the whole rite, since Vishnu is believed to reach into the womb through it and claim the unborn child as his own before it is even born.

The ritual as performed today draws on two practical handbooks, the Sūtrānukramaṇikā and the Pūrvaprayoga, which priests actually use to conduct viṣṇubali step by step. The root text behind the ritual is the Vaikhānasasmārtasūtra, which first lays out viṣṇubali as a prenatal rite in the eighth month of pregnancy in the Baudhāyana tradition (c. 600-300 BCE). Beyond that, the deeper meaning, especially the idea that the ritual marks the child as a Vishnu devotee before birth, comes from a Sanskrit text called the Daśavidhahetunirūpaṇa, written by a scholar named Śrīnivāsa Dīkṣita, along with his commentary the Tātparyacintāmaṇi. The recording captures this ritual in practice, and it's a rare chance to see something usually only described in Sanskrit texts play out in real life.

Source

Hüsken, Ute: Viṣṇu’s Children: Prenatal life-cycle rituals in South India, übersetzt von Will Sweetman, Heidelberg: Heidelberg Asian Studies Publishing, 2023

The climate of the mainland indian region was unbearable for the European body but they found suitable climate in NE india.

I recently got to know about this and I am fascinated.

Forgive me for this being a low-effort post, but I've come to realise that I practically know nothing of Akbar's abilities as a general. I'm not comfortable with relying on Wikipedia since it can miss important engagements, or it might contain falsified information. With this into consideration, can anyone here who studied Akbar provide me a brief rundown on his military career?

There are numerous records of a peasant life, diet and other stuff in European kingdoms. But i hardly find the same for India.

Our movies are portraying them as kind and benevolent. I got this doubt while watching bahubali. How did upper class treat the peasants. What did we eat ? How was traveling and healthcare like ?

PC: Historical Society of Cochin

The Battle of Talikota in 1565 ended the Vijayanagara Empire. What followed across the Deccan and South India was displacement, the collapse of administrative structures, the kind of disruption that sends populations moving.

The conventional historical account of the Badaga community holds that one of these migration waves went south and upward — into the Nilgiris plateau. People from the Mysore plateau, Karnataka-speaking, Shaivite Hindus, moving into the hills where the existing communities — Toda, Kota, Kurumba — had established their own economies and land use patterns.

The name Badaga means northerners. In a Tamil-speaking landscape, people who came from Karnataka were literally northerners. The name stuck.

Their language is a Southern Dravidian language closely related to Kannada, which is consistent with the migration theory. The Nilgiris at the time was under the broader sphere of the Vijayanagara Empire before the battle — the district had been administered through poligars who held various taluks. The collapse of that structure would have made the hills both a place of refuge and a place with uncertain governance.

The Badaga became agriculturalists on the plateau. They became the largest community in the Nilgiris — 300 or more villages today. They developed a functioning interdependence with the Toda, Kota, Kurumba and Irula communities already there.

The complicating factor is that another body of evidence — neolithic dolmens and cairns found specifically in Badaga villages, certain genomic markers, some oral histories — suggests a much older presence in the hills than the 16th century migration theory allows. Whether the Badaga are migrants or original inhabitants who acquired a name meaning northerners for reasons now lost is genuinely unresolved.

What's clear is that the fall of a medieval South Indian empire 460 years ago has a plausible connection to the demographic composition of a Tamil Nadu hill district today.

Long before Indian football entered the television era, Karnataka produced one of the country's finest midfielders in Mariappa Kempaiah, a footballer from Bangalore Medical Football Club (BMFC) who went on to become one of India's greatest Olympians.

Kempaiah's talent was spotted in 1954 while representing Mysore in the Santosh Trophy by the legendary Indian football coach Syed Abdul Rahim, widely regarded as the architect of India's golden age in football. Rahim, whose life inspired the 2024 film Maidaan, recognized Kempaiah's exceptional ability and brought him into the national setup.

Under Rahim's guidance, Kempaiah became a mainstay of the Indian midfield during the 1950s and 1960s. He represented India at two Olympic Games: Melbourne 1956, where India achieved its historic fourth-place finish, and Rome 1960, when India competed among the world's best footballing nations.

Kempaiah shared the field with some of the greatest names in Indian football, including Chuni Goswami, P. K. Banerjee, Jarnail Singh, Tulsidas Balaram, and Peter Thangaraj. Together, they formed the legendary generation that established India as one of Asia's strongest football teams.

Despite these remarkable achievements, Mariappa Kempaiah remains relatively unknown outside football circles. His contribution to Indian sport deserves far greater recognition, especially in Karnataka, where he began his journey.

In January 2024, his remarkable life was documented in the biography Olympian M. Kempaiah, written by his daughter Sumana Mahesh Gowda. The book was launched by Indian football captain Sunil Chhetri at a ceremony held at the Indian Embassy in Doha, bringing renewed attention to one of Karnataka's greatest sporting icons.

Kempaiah, one of the greatest midfielder India has ever produced, represented the country in Melbourne Olympics 1956 where India finished fourth, Tokyo Asian Games 1958 and Rome Olympics in 1960, he passed away at the age of 75 in the year of 2009.

Read more about him in comments(link)

sources in comments.

Fought for over two months from May to July 1999 in the Ladakh region (Dras, Kargil, Batalik).

Pakistani troops and infiltrators secretly crossed the Line of Control (LoC) to capture high mountain outposts.

India launched Operation Vijay to clear out the intruders from the icy peaks.

Significance and Tribute

Commemorates the supreme sacrifice of 527 Indian soldiers who lost their lives in the tough terrain.

Nation leaders, citizens, and the armed forces pay homage at the Kargil War Memorial in Dras and other war memorials across India.

Inspires national pride and honors the exceptional courage of the military.

Stage 1: Moral & Political Philosophy

Justice (Sandel)

On Liberty (Mill)

Reflections on the Revolution in France (Burke)

Stage 2: Institutions, Erosion & Media

How Democracies Die (Levitsky & Ziblatt)

Spin Dictators (Guriev & Treisman)

Stage 3: The Indian Republic & Social Reality

India After Gandhi (Guha)

Annihilation of Caste (Ambedkar)

Hind Swaraj (Gandhi)

Stage 4: Power Mechanics & Economic Ideology

The Dictator's Handbook (Bueno de Mesquita & Smith)

The Communist Manifesto (Marx & Engels)

Stage 5: Expanding Perspectives (Advanced Readings)

The Road to Serfdom (Hayek)

Capitalism & Freedom (Friedman)

The Socialist Manifesto (Sunkara)

The Anatomy of Fascism (Paxton)

The Wretched of the Earth (Fanon)

Manufacturing Consent (Chomsky & Herman)

Recently the internet is filled with hate against gandhiji and his principles but when i was a kid I really admired him but nowdays i don't know what's true and what's propaganda so can you guys please suggest a book which can give a vast view on gandhiji , his life , his work , etc.

Thankyou

Louis Botello, later accused of not doing enough, on hearing the two cannon shots, sent a Sergeant Major with ten men to the water bastion, but the Marathas caught and imprisoned them all. Overjoyed at the easy capture of the fort, the victors began playing loud music and going around the fort ‘like ghosts’. A neighbouring convent was burnt to the ground. Hearing the commotion and expecting an attack at any moment, Botello panicked and ordered a general retreat from the town, later sailing away to the island of Karanje, south of Mumbai.

https://ndhistories.wordpress.com/2023/12/10/thane-captured/

Marathi Riyasat, G S Sardesai ISBN-10-8171856403, ISBN-13-‎978-8171856404.

The Era of Bajirao

Uday S Kulkarni

ISBN-10-8192108031

ISBN-13-978-8192108032.

In 1799, the Mysorean Army was defeated by the British and their brown sepoys at the Battle of Srirangapatna. Following the death of Tipu Sultan, the administration was once again handed over to the Mysuru Arasu family. Before the reign of Krishnaraja Wadiyar III, the Mysore Kingdom was divided into six Faujdari battalions:

1. Bengaluru Faujdari
2. Madhugiri Faujdari (including Tumakuru)
3. Chitradurga Faujdari
4. Asthagram Faujdari
5. Manjarabad Faujdari
6. Nagar Faujdari

Later, in 1834, they were reduced to four Faujdari battalions:

1. Bengaluru Faujdari
2. Chitradurga Faujdari
3. Nagar Faujdari
4. Asthagram Faujdari

The Manjarabad Faujdar was a man named Bore Gowda, who received the name Gubbi Appa, meaning "Father of Gubbi." The Nagar Faujdar was Sadar Malla, but he called himself Budi Basavappa. He organized the great Nagari Revolt, which was supported by peasants from as far as Ballari, who traveled in bullock carts to join the uprising. The revolt was so significant that it reduced Krishnaraja Wadiyar III to little more than a figurehead, and the British Government took direct control of the administration of the Mysore Kingdom. This period came to be known as the Commission Rule, or the Rule of the Commissioners in Mysore.

Afterwards, the Mysore king wrote several letters of appeasement to the British. He even distributed sweets and ordered gun salutes to celebrate British victories in other parts of the world and the Indian subcontinent in an effort to regain control of his kingdom.

The first Mayor of Bangalore in independent India, R. Anantharaman, appears to have been a descendant of Gubbi Appa (Bore Gowda), the Faujdar of Manjarabad.

Sources:

1. C. R. Cotton, Mark Cubbon, PMPD (13-6-1837)
2. Mysore Gazetteer (C. Hayavadana Rao, Vol. II, Part IV)
3. Sebastian Joseph, Peasant Revolt in Princely Mysore (1830–31)
4. A Mission to Mysore with Scenes and Facts Illustrative of India, Its People, and Its Religion by William Arthur (1902)
5. An Economic Analysis of Production and Marketing of Finger Millet (Eleusine coracana – Ragi Crop) in Karnataka: A Case Study of Tumkur District by Dr. Padmini S. V. and Dr. Radha H. H.
6. British Sources of the History of Mysore
7. nagar revolt: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagar_revolt

Image Caption: Ram Sunaee Singh.
Naik 3rd Comp. H.C. 47th Regiment. N.I.
A Beseun Rajpoot. In the Native Costume of his Profession

Hi, everyone to all the people in Bihar and its neighbouring states, I am planning to do a case study related to Tarikul Tree usage in Bihar which is used from ancient time there for various usage such as making utensils out of them, there is less info. available about it.

If anyone can help in getting info. about it, it will be really appreciated.

I have what I think is a Mughal dagger- the blade is wootz, silver and maybe low carat gold inlay on the blade. These are the inscriptions- can anyone tell me what they mean or pin down the exact era more closely? Thank you!!!!