Take The Indian Railways Quiz!
Test your knowledge about the earliest days of Indian railways and some milestone train journeys
Travel
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
Painted on cotton and imbued with piety, Shatrunjaya patas map the physical and divine characteristics of the sacred hill in Palitana, Gujarat
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
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
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
Five books that showcase how the world once saw India
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
Object of the week: A rare photo of Dal Lake in the 1800s
On the banks of the Dal Lake with a physician-turned-photographer-turned-mountaineer
Summer Holidays: The origin of India’s hill-stations
From the Himalayas to the Nilgiris, the mountain slopes of India are home to hill-stations. Built by the British, these were sanctuaries designed to get them through sickness and long summers
Mughal Sarais, where caravans & cultures mingled
Along the ancient Silk Road and the historic Grand Trunk Road lay a series of rest-stops and inns called sarais where caravans of travellers, pilgrims and traders could break their journey
A voyage from England to India, in the year MDCCLIV
A voyage from England to India was published in the late 18th century and contains two large folding maps and 13 etched illustrations. It recollects Edward Ives’s (1719-1786) service in India with the British Army. Edward Ives was a surgeon on board the flagship Kent, commanded by Charles Watson (1714-1757). The travelogue chronicles Ives’ remarks… Read more »
Wanderings of a Pilgrim; Rarebook by Fanny Parkes Parlby
‘Wanderings of a Pilgrim, in Search of the Picturesque, During Four-and-Twenty Years in the East; With Revelations of Life in the Zenana’ was authored by Fanny Parkes Parlby. Published by P. Richardson in 1850, the rarebook includes several illustrations and offers a British female perspective on Indian life in the 19th century.
Bombaim, an island of dancing snakes & giant frogs
A sometimes quaint, sometimes bizarre view of 18th-century Bombay and its flora and fauna through our rare books collection
Banker, soldier, artist, lover
Artist Robert Melville Grindlay’s colour-drenched, soft-focus landscapes of western India point to a lifelong infatuation