The Elephanta Caves mystery has four clues, and all of them are hiding in plain sight. A god with five faces shows you only three. A stone that could have named the builder was taken away centuries ago and has … Read More
5 Senses Tours
How a Small Mosque in Pulicat Told Its Town the Time, Using Only the Sun
A town needs to agree on the time before it can pray together, trade together or do anything together. Before wristwatches and wall clocks and phones, the agreement came from the sky. In Pulicat, on the Coromandel coast north of … Read More
The Lighthouse at Pulicat Was Built to Keep Ships Away
Most lighthouses exist to bring ships in. The one at Pulicat, on the Coromandel coast north of Chennai, was raised to do the opposite. It stands over a shallow lagoon and a quiet town of fishing families, and its job … Read More
Wootz Steel: The Indian Metal That Built the Medieval World
The Crusaders called it the most terrifying metal they had ever encountered. When the armies of the First Crusade arrived in the Holy Land in 1099 CE and met the forces of the Islamic world in battle, they discovered that … Read More
The Story of Mysore Silk
What is the story of Mysore silk? The story of Mysore silk begins in the 1780s, when Tipu Sultan brought silkworm rearing to his kingdom, and reaches its royal peak in 1912, when Maharaja Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV opened a silk … Read More
Varahamihira: Ancient Astronomer Who Mapped the Comets & Predicted Earthquakes
Who was Varahamihira?Varahamihira was a 6th-century Indian astronomer, mathematician and polymath who lived and worked in Ujjain in present-day Madhya Pradesh from approximately 505 to 587 CE. He was one of the nine gems of Emperor Vikramaditya’s court and authored … Read More
Pune Ganesh Festival: The Five Pandals That Helped Birth a Nation
In 1893, the British colonial administration was watching Pune carefully. Large public gatherings were viewed with suspicion. Political meetings were monitored. Any organised assembly that could give voice to the growing feeling of nationalism was a threat to the colonial … Read More
Sushruta: The World’s First Plastic Surgeon
Modern medicine credits plastic surgery to 20th-century European surgeons. There is a Varanasi physician who performed it in 600 BCE. His name was Sushruta. He lived and taught on the banks of the Ganges in the city now known as … Read More
Malpe Fishing Community: What It Actually Takes to Bring Fish
The boats leave before you are awake. By the time visitors arrive at Malpe harbour in the morning, the day’s work has already been underway for hours. The fishing families of Malpe do not operate on tourist time. They operate … Read More
Shankarapura Mallige: The Jasmine That Wakes Before Dawn
The flowers have to come off the plants before the heat of the day. This is not a preference. It is biology. Jasmine blossoms at its most fragrant in the cool hours before sunrise, and a flower left unpicked past … Read More