Stream - Sarmaya

Eggs, salt & the delicious decades of albumen print photos

How albumen, a sticky substance found in egg whites, took the elite European hobby of photography and turned into a global phenomenon

Take The Indian Railways Quiz!

Test your knowledge about the earliest days of Indian railways and some milestone train journeys

‘A New History of India’ by Rudrangshu Mukherjee, Shobita Punja & Toby Sinclair

Song of The Palanquin-Bearers

Let’s tackle some FAQs to better appreciate this fascinating, historical mode of travel and the people who made it possible.

Object of the week: Behind-the-scenes of a royal Indian tour

By ship, by yacht, by elephant and by camel. We follow the heir to Queen Victoria on an elaborate tour of India in 1875

Object of the week: The diplomat & the dodo

Thomas Herbert’s best-selling 17th-century travelogue details an enchanting encounter with a dodo, only years before the bird went extinct

Maps of devotion – The Jain art of Shatrunjaya pata

Quiz: How well do you know the ancient caves of India?

In ancient India, cave complexes sheltered travellers and traders too besides priests and monks. Take our quiz to learn about these rock-cut rest-stops

Object of the week: A Frenchman’s view of Princely India

Over six years spent travelling around India, Louis Rousselet learned photography and captured some of the most beautiful scenes of the Subcontinent, from the Himalayas to the Nilgiris and from coast to coast

Object of the week: Jagannath’s Puri temple inspired this art form

Odisha’s Pattachitra paintings are rooted in the culture of the seaside town of Puri and, more specifically, in its legendary Jagannath temple

Pristine views of the Ganga – World Environment Day 2023

The Ganga is one of the largest contributors to plastic pollution in the world’s oceans. But this wasn’t always the case

Indian maps, myths & travel legends

In conversation with professional geographer Dr Manosi Lahiri about the ways in which travellers have helped to draw the map of India

India, G20 & the repatriation of cultural artefacts

Object of the week: Notes from a solo woman traveller in India

Fanny Parkes’s richly illustrated journals give us a sense of the freedom that the author experienced as a woman traveller in 19th-century India

Destination India, a reading list

‘Searching For Ashoka’ by Nayanjot Lahiri

Open Roads

For our 36th edition of Sarmaya Spotlight, we bring you the most picturesque destinations, thrilling travel stories and colourful souvenirs from across the Subcontinent

Object of the week: Pilgrims to Nathdwara take these paintings home

Pichwai paintings were born in the temple town of Nathdwara in Rajasthan and centre the 8-year-old deity, Shrinathji