Time for another #HistoryTour to give you company as you plod through the midweek :)
Thomas Daniell, a British artist, toured India in 1794 & drew multiple paintings of landscapes across the country.
Join this tour to see what Daniell saw vs how those places look today!🖼️🎨
1/ Taj Mahal from across the Yamuna
2/ Esplanade Road in Calcutta
(Quite a bit has changed!)
3/ Ramnagar Fort on the Ganges in Varanasi
4/ Akbar Tomb in Agra
Look at how people just camped around!
Now just an ASI gated fence!
5/ Jama Masjid, Delhi
Look at the empty space outside the entrance!
Today you will have 1000 vendors in that area :)
6/ Jantar Mantar, Delhi
Skyscrapers seem to have just jutted in :)
7/ Rock Fort, Trichy, Tamilnadu
Kaveri is missing and has been taken over by houses and houses! 🤯
8/ Tirumalai Nayakar Mahal, Madurai
The modern day version is more colourful i believe :)
The roof has gone ?! 🥺
9/Mandapam in Meenakshi Temple, Madurai
Just beautiful. Then and now.
10/ Rock Rathas in Mahabalipuram
No one to take a selfie with the Lion and the elephant then!
11/ Elephanta Caves, Maharashtra
Quite surreal!
There are many more beautiful artworks. Do check them out online. Most are in Victoria & Albert Museum, London today if you want to see them in person!
Art is definitely a time travel machine!
Hope this History tour made your Tuesday a bit better
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What is happening in Manipur?
Who is fighting with whom?
Why?
The answer involves history & geography.
A simple explainer 🧵
Manipur is full of mountains. And one large valley in the middle called the Imphal Valley.
The mountains are mainly populated by the Kuki people and the Naga people.
The valley is populated by a third clan - the Meitei people.
2/n
Basis historical evidences, its the Meitei & the Naga who have lived in this area from earlier times. A large expansion of Kuki tribe happened during the British era who encouraged more Kuki settlers to balance power against other tribes as part of their 'Divide and Rule policy'
#OnThisDay July 15th, 1799 - A remarkable discovery of a single slab of stone changed our understanding of human history!
It was the finding of the 'Rosetta Stone' by Napoleon's army while trying to build a fort!
Join me on a history tour to visit this crazy story! 🧵
The story starts all the way around 3000 BC when the ancient Pharaonic Egyptian civilization started. We know the Pyramids & the Sphinx but another major relic from then are the Hieroglyphics - an advanced pictorial script that the Egyptians used in their wall inscriptions!
2/n
It was the main script for communication for those in the Nile Delta for more than 2000 years & it was mainly pictorial mixed with grammar and syllables.
But by 300 BC Egypt was under Greek rule, hieroglyphics was being slowly forgotten for the new Greek & Latin scripts 3/n
Lets say you've a simple well in your backyard. One day suddenly you find out that it's hiding a 1000 yr old historic monument!
Imagine the shock & thrill you'll feel as it unravels
Join me to hear one such actual wonder story in Ep3 of #ArtTreasuresofIndia
Rani Ki Vav! 🧵
First the story. 11thC AD. Modern day Gujarat was ruled by the Chaulukya Dynasty with Bhima I as it's king & Udayamati as it's queen. The landscape was part desert & arid like. Water management was a key priority & creating water bodies was a very royal act! 2/n
As Bhima I died, Udayamati was grieving him. It was the time when everyone built temples. But Udayamati decided to build an inverted temple of sorts. 65m long & 20m wide and 28m deep strucutre!
A step well built by the queen in memory of her king - Rani Ki Vav!
This time we travel back 1000 years ago to look at an artwork of astounding beauty commissioned by Rajendra Chola, the all conquering Chola emperor
Join me on a tour to visit the 'Chandesa Anugraha Murthi' - an Indian art marvel
🧵
First the story. In the Chola country, along the banks of the river Vanni in a small village a pious man Yajnadatta is blessed with a son who is named Vicharasarman.
Vicharasarman was very intelligent & one day he sees the village cowherd beating the cows.
2/n
Angry at him, Vicharasarman takes upon himself to tend the village's cows & his love ends up producing a bounty of milk.
Seeing the excess milk going waste, he builds a sand Linga & starts bathing it with the milk everyday & meditates upon Lord Shiva in front of it
3/n
India is facing a poor monsoon this year with many states with deficit rainfall 😰
One of the main reasons for this worrisome situation is the 'El Nino' weather system which has set in this year
Join me in this Geography Explainer on what El Nino is & how it impacts you! 🧵
First lets understand how monsoons form due to winds from the pacific ocean. The Pacific covers almost half the surface area of earth & affects global climate
In a normal year, warm winds blow across the pacific in western direction - from South America to Aus to Asia
2/n
As summer progresses, these warm winds heat up the ocean near India which leads to more evaporation in these waters & leads to formation of the monsoon cloud systems & we promptly get monsoon rains across the country at the start of June