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Wednesday, August 12, 2026
TopicThinking Medieval

Topic: Thinking Medieval

13,000 Bhogapuram dancers wasn’t a spectacle. That’s political power since ancient India

Jatakas tell us that Siddhartha Gautama had left behind 40,001 wives when he embarked in search of enlightenment. These were not meant to be taken literally, but rather to suggest the grandeur of legendary royal figures.

Dharna was sacred even in medieval India. BJP is following the path the British created

The Arthashastra of Chanakya—the coldest manual of statecraft the Sanskritic tradition ever produced—issues a warning that the BJP’s Chanakyas might wish to heed. 

NTR Jr movie row is about 2 ideas of Murugan—mascot of Hindutva mythos vs Tamil-only icon

Two nationalisms are shouting past each other. One would dissolve Murugan into a pan-Indian Hindutva spectacle, while the other would make him an icon to be guarded against the North.

Ayodhya isn’t new. Chola kings were probing temple scams a thousand years ago

Chola inscriptions record treasure stolen by temple priests, donations used for tax evasion, and land scams that bankrupted entire villages.

How a jobs crisis helped Tibet become the centre of the Buddhist world

Once in demand as far as Japan, over the course of the 10th and 11th centuries, Indian Buddhist translators found both international and domestic opportunities drying up.

India’s water future is being built on myths about its medieval past

Outside the Vijayanagara king Krishna Raya's new city of Nagalapur, Hospet, Paes counted 15,000 or 20,000 labourers, crowding “like ants, so that you could not see the ground on which they walked."

The Netherlands is confronting its colonial history. It’s time for India to do the same

The fact remains that the VOC did not introduce debt bondage or human trafficking to the Coromandel Coast. It expanded and exploited existing systems.

Leiden Plates returned by Netherlands aren’t for ASI storerooms. They belong at Nagapattinam

The past decade under the Modi government has seen a dangerous erosion of evidence-based histories in India, owing to an ongoing neglect of both public universities and museums.

Pallavas to Mughals—a history of hero worship in medieval India

The preference for the performing ruler over the governing one is not just a pathology of today’s democracy. It has been ingrained into our politics for nearly one and a half millennia.

How pragmatic calculations shaped Mughal rule in medieval West Bengal and Tamil Nadu

In the late 18th century, Nawab Muhammad Ali Walajah shared his royal accoutrements—the markers of sovereignty—with both the Nathar Wali shrine and Srirangam in modern-day Tamil Nadu.

On Camera

Free UPI was a policy success and an economic distortion

Six years of zero MDR delivered unprecedented digital payments at the price of underinvestment, rising fraud risk, and market concentration.

Birlas to Tatas, all await West Bengal’s new industrial policy, says state BJP chief Samik Bhattacharya

In interview with ThePrint, RS MP says new policy will incentivise industry. Bengal’s industrialisation hit pause after 2008 Singur land agitation drove away Tata Nano project.

As India-China face-off in Arunachal Pradesh, MEA says state of border will reflect state of ties

Face-off happened late July when patrol parties of 2 countries came face to face in remote Taksing village. The Chinese are said to have returned in early August.

Guru RSS is cautioning shishya Modi govt. Bhagwat’s endorsement of Gen Z has an Indira lesson

It’s evident Bhagwat was watching from a distance and was worried about youth’s anger towards Modi govt. The first thing he did was to demolish any criticism of Gen Z protesters as anti-national.