Before the iron ore began to be exported from Goa the only major export from this territory, for at least a century,  was `Goans’ or `Goanese’ as the British and foreigners used to call them for reasons understandable, who perforce had to leave their homeland owing to lack of employment facilities. With no single major […]

 Great exponents of Indian music, such as Vikramaditya, Nayak Gopal, Nayak Bhishu, Bhanu, Bajiu, Raja Man Singh, Tansen, Bazbahadur and Rupmati, also belong to this state. The creative tradition has been continued in this century by such giants of North Indian mugic as the late Ustad Allauddin Khan, Shri Krishnarao shankar Pandit, Kumar Gandharva and […]

 Slightly to the north of Dargah Qutb Sahib and just outside the inhabited precincts of Mehrauli, where the no- man’s land of ruins between Mehrauli and the bypass begin, two lovely baolis (stepped wells once used as summer retreats) exist. As one comes out of the main gate of Dargah Qutb Sahib, the first baoli […]

 Karnataka’s rich landscape has been a source of inspiration to ancient poets as well as modern one, from Adi Kavi Pampa to Gopal Krishna Adiga.   The Kannadiga will recall his political, socio- religious and aesthetic heritage since the Mauryan ear to the days of Mysore rulers. He pays home to the Satavahana, the Kadamba, […]

 The struggle for European domination in Kerala is a story of sordid intrigue between the foreign powers contending for supremacy and the local rulers. Travancore became a power only in the 18th century under Martan Varma, who not only annexed to his kingdom several principalities but also defeated the Dutch in battle. Travancore and Cochin […]

 Solid as the human material has been, Maharashtra’s surroundings and settings are no less tough. Apart from the Sahydris or the Western Ghats, which run from the north to the south, close to the coast, Maharasthra has two kinds of rivers: the minor streams and tributaries, which mingle into the Arabia sea and the big, […]