All Dharma Dispatch essays on History and Historiography
As the Governor of Portuguese territories of India, Martim Afonso de Sousa launched a military campaign to loot and destroy the sacred temple of Tirumala in 1543. This is the first part of a series narrating this episode of the Christian history of India.
A charming story of how a washerman's simple poem inspired Sri Krishnadevaraya's brilliant conquest of Kalinga.
The concluding part of this series narrates the reasons why the Arthasastra became a pan-Indian work, and the lessons we can learn from his all-encompassing legacy.
The fifth part of this series examines some aspects of the philosophy of Kautilya's Taxation system and his dictum of amassing huge wealth as a source of protection.
The fourth part of this series traces Kautilya's extraordinarily enduring blueprint for village administration and how it revealed itself throughout Hindu history.
In the third part, we discuss how Kautilya's Arthasastra was a manual of empire-building and how its influence played a big role in the great Hindu Empires of India, spread over many centuries.
Only the Hindu civilisation has evolved a seamlessness between Rajadharma and Rashtradharma. This is the immortal message of Kautilya.
The first part of a series tracing the imprint of Chanakya and Kautilya on various aspects of the civilisational history of Bharatavarsha.
A short history of the 1500-year-long use of the Dramma as a unit of currency in India. Derived from the Greek Drachma, Dramma was widely adopted by almost all major Hindu empires.
The era of Hindu monarchies was one where the rulers genuinely feared and respected public opinion and conducted themselves in tune with it. In democracy, public opinion has degenerated into the sham of perception-management. We trace this downfall with concrete examples from history.