History

Paleontologist Professor Sunil Bajpai, Head of Department of Earth Sciences at IIT-Roorkee, talks about the captivating story of the origin of whales in India, and how instrumental these findings truly are.

Ganjifa is an ancient Indian card game that originated in the Mughal era, popular not only among aristocrats, but also the locals. Today, the cards are made in the homes of a handful of artists, and played by even fewer people.

Anand Mahindra took over the Mahindra Group in 1997 and diversified the company into various key segments, including agribusiness, information technology, defence, aerospace, education, real estate, logistics, and retail.

Kashmiri saffron is known to provide a beautiful golden colour and pungent, aromatic flavour to food. The history of this crimson spice can be traced back to the Persians who brought it to the country from Iran.

Hiralal Kashidas Bhajiawala has been in the same place and is using exactly the same recipe - dating back to the early 1900s - to make Undhiyu, Dhokla, Fafda, Jalebi and so on.

Chandraprabha Saikiani was a freedom fighter from Assam who championed the cause of women’s education and employment, and led her life as a single mother despite societal objections.

GV Ramakrishna, a 1952-batch IAS officer of the Andhra Pradesh cadre, passed away this weekend. His legacy is marked by events like challenging the PMO during his stint as petroleum secretary and as the most effective chairman in the history of SEBI, where he oversaw the cleanup of the stock market.

The Hobson-Jobson is an encyclopedic dictionary written in late 19th century by Englishmen Sir Henry Yule and Arthur Coke Burnell. It compiles the etymology, meaning, significance, and usage of several words used in the colonial era, many of which are used in common English today.

There are no records available on whether Harrington found Bhalku first or vice versa. But what is well-known is that Bhalku joined the British team of engineers and soon became the most important man in it.

Princess Victoria Gowramma was the daughter of Chikavira Rajendra, the last King of the Kodagu (Coorg) kingdom, and was adopted as a godchild by Queen Victoria and converted to Christianity. But her diasporic story is not quite a fairytale one would hope.