The thrill of serendipity, the awakening of the imagination, the inevitability of being devoured heart and soul by a world you didn’t even know existed until this moment. In a way, being a student of history is like being an astronomer. Especially if the subject of study is an ancient or forgotten kingdom. Click to… Read more »
Sometimes rulers are remembered in song, sometimes in the clinking of coins. Let’s explore the empires of the Cheras and Kushans, whose greatness is echoed in the trade routes they forged
This map, whose title translates to The City of Kochi located on the coast of Malabar, was created in the early 1700s to help sea-traders travelling from other regions to Coetsjien (Kochi). The map was a hand-coloured copper engraving by Francois Valentijn, an explorer and naturalist from the Netherlands who wrote about the history of… Read more »
We’ve settled into routines now and a big part of that is just vegging out on the couch, in front of a screen or in bed with a novel. It feels like all we’ve done this lockdown is read and reread books we love and binge-watch shows on Netflix. And so we have a new… Read more »
The kingdom of Travancore was a Hindu feudal kingdom till 1858 and later an Indian princely state ruled by the lankini Travancore royal family. In ancient times, the region had been ruled by the Cheras, Cholas and briefly by the Vijayanagara dynasty, until it became an independent state in the mid-18th century. The Travancore royals… Read more »
Come with us on a journey of Kerala’s maritime history
In this painting, Dibin Thilakan is tapping into the realm between the conscious and subconscious. This painting has seven different figures, all in neatly sectioned parts of the artwork, engaging in completely different activities. This painting is almost like an aerial-view of the forest, offering a voyeuristic perspective on couples having sex, a Narcissus-like man… Read more »
When confronted with his captivating canvases, you dive head-first into the stories told by his sinewy figures, floating amidst ebullient swirls of colour
Johann Baptist Homann was a German cartographer, geographer, publisher and engraver of the mid-17th century. His family business was perhaps the most famous German map publishing firm in the world at the time. Their company, Homann Heirs, was functional till the late 1800s. Homann was also appointed Imperial Geographer by the emperor, Charles VI.
This is an engraving on Hand-made paper, after Hilippus Baldaeus (1632 – 1672). Craganor is the Anglisised name of the region of Kodungallur, a municipality in the Thissur district of Kerala. In history, the place was one of the leading ports and commercial centres of South India, also associated with the ancient port town of… Read more »
The Chera dynasty ruled in southern India during the Sangam age between 3rd Century BC and 9th Century AD. During this time, the biggest empires in the region were the Cheras, Cholas and Pandyas. The Cheras, who controlled the west Malabar coast, were the first powerful dynasty from Kerala and hence given the moniker Keralaputras,… Read more »