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Monday, September 1, 2025
TopicMedieval India

Topic: Medieval India

Raising taxes was Palas’ biggest mistake—it killed 2 kings, ended their 300-yr-rule in Bengal

The Kaivartas survive today as a faint reminder: the medieval world was not a utopia, nor was it one of complete and benevolent royal domination.

Medieval Indian engineers in the 7th century built robots. Powered by water and clockwork

Using hydraulics and clockwork, engineers could make wondrous devices that are now lost. These were more credible than claims about pre-modern Indian technology such as UFOs and genetic engineering.

Yogi Adityanath isn’t the first. Shaivite monks have been in politics for 1,000 years

Like their Buddhist and Jain predecessors, medieval Shaivite monasteries used their royal connections to defeat rivals and accumulate followers.

Jaiswals, Oswals, Shahs—Gujarat’s trading families once wielded more power than medieval courts

Experts say some Oswal, Jaiswal, and Agrawal merchants still claim Kshatriya origin.

India’s Buddhist nuns you don’t hear about: Landladies, loan sharks, merchants

Voices of Buddhist women have been lost to us. But new research reveals they had brilliant commercial and religious minds, and shaped the financial fortunes of the Buddhist sangha.

Battle over history just got a giant new classroom in India—YouTube

In the age of rebuilding Ram Temple at Ayodhya, history is now everybody’s business—not just of elite scholars like Romila Thapar and Irfan Habib.

Some Hindus even praised Khilji in Sanskrit texts — Medieval India’s complex power games

When Sanskrit-speaking elites were not well-treated, Muslim kings were decried as mlecchas, accused of killing cows and persecuting Brahmins.

‘Indians never invaded’ is a myth. Guptas, Cholas, Lalitaditya Muktapida were conquerors

Rashtrakutas raided the Himalayas, Tamil Nadu; the Cholas Bengal, Indonesia; Kashmiris Punjab, Afghanistan, and Xinjiang. Medieval Indians had a big appetite for conquests.

‘Historic hurt’ is a modern phrase. Muslims were integral to South Indian gods

The legends of Vavar and other South Indian gods venerated by both Hindus and Muslims show that the Deccan's religious history in the region is far more complex.

South India challenges the notions of medieval Islam—lessons from Deccan history

It is absurd to replace modern mosques with temples—as absurd as demanding Tamilians pay reparations to Karnataka because the Cholas destroyed Kalyana in 1047.

On Camera

Essential oils aren’t just about nice smells. They can change your skincare routine

Essential oils contain powerful properties that can help address concerns like acne, aging, hydration, and inflammation.

A Rs 33,000 cr ‘banking fraud’: ED’s case against Arvind Dham, Amtek’s web of ‘500 shell companies’

ED has accused Amtek promoter Arvind Dham of controlling web of nearly 500 shell companies operating as a layered structure, with up to 15 levels of indirect ownership, to divert funds.

Ahead of SCO meet, Russia & China stage maiden joint submarine patrol in Sea of Japan, East China Sea

Joint submarine patrol ‘covered more than 2,000 nautical miles’ and was joined by Russian support vessels. Beijing maintains exercise ‘not directed against any third party’.

For Indian Mercedes, Asim Munir’s dumper truck in mirror is closer than it appears

From Munir’s point of view, a few bumps here and there is par for the course. He isn’t going to drive his dumper truck to its doom. He wants to use it as a weapon.