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The Wandering Y
A Discussion on genetic deciphering to understand human migrationI have been getting into this subject and out of it so many times, so I finally decided to put down what I gleaned and be done with it,...
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The role of camels in the history of trade
Recently there has been some uproar concerning camels and the Bible and JK covered it at his nice blog Varnam. According to the report by Dr. Erez Ben-Yosef and Dr. Lidar Sapir-Hen of Tel Aviv...
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Charles (Claude) Gabriel Dellon, the Frenchman in Malabar – Part 2
His observations about Malabar circa 1668-1672In Part 1 we covered his travels around the South of India, his misfortune, the connections with the Goa Governor’s mistress and the inquisition. Just to...
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A horse, a carriage and the French Loge at Calicut
The complete account of the little ‘French Loge’ at Calicut and its impact on the mighty British establishment is a lengthy topic which I will not cover in detail here. Nevertheless, one can conclude...
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The St Katevan legend and the million dollar bone fragment
Mario, the great cartoonist and Goan resident got me started on this, with his chapter (in his book ‘Legends of Goa’) ‘An unsolved mystery’ which ended in a question about some ancient relics. Time...
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The story of Dom João de Tanur
When the Tanur king converted to ChristianityThe scene - After Vasco da Gama’s unsuccessful attempts in obtaining a foothold in Malabar to increase the pepper shipments to Lisbon and after Cabral’s...
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Gandhiji’s visit to Calicut - 1920
We talked about the salt fields and the salt march at Calicut in a previous post and the research naturally led to Gandhiji and his visits to Kerala and particularly Calicut. He came twice to the...
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Debtor’s circle
Settlement of unpaid debts – an old tradition in MalabarToday you have enforcers who are wandering round, looking for debtors on the run. There are collection agents who come and seize cars which are...
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Cheraman Perumal and the Myths
Revisiting the topic….Some years ago I wrote briefly about this interesting bloke who appears often in Kerala History. Most of the discussions from readers focus around his retirement actions where he...
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Sir John Andersson Thorne ICS, CIE, CSI, KCIE
An interesting man, a crusty old bureaucrat and a friend of MalabarSir JA Thorne (1888-1964), was a person who spent a large part of his life in India, a diminutive man in stature, who rose on to...
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The Economics of Portuguese trade
Portuguese and Malabar PepperTwo things triggered this article. One was a recipe for picked eggs from Sharaboji 2’s Tanjore kitchen, dating back to the 18thcentury which I tried recently. A very...
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The RIN Mutiny 1946
We went through events that transpired with the capture of some INA agents a few months ago and learnt of the sad fate that befell TP Kumaran Nair. In fact following those events and the wars fought in...
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1258 and Calicut
Most people will veer off in different directions seeing this title. In fact one of the possible linkages that I will introduce is somewhat new and requires to be studied in depth by those interested....
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A horse, a carriage and the French Loge at Calicut
The complete account of the little ‘French Loge’ at Calicut and its impact on the mighty British establishment is a lengthy topic which I will not cover in detail here. Nevertheless, one can conclude...
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The Kunhali Marakkar’s
A number of publications cover available information on the Kunjali’s of Malabar and many other books allude to them, some with more detail than the other. However, the versions vary greatly, some...
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Abhirami’s tale
The Ilaya Thampi’s and Marthanda Varma– Part 1I was led to this topic some months ago when Calicut heritage forum posted an interesting article on the Black hole of Attingal . In the discussions that...
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Ettuveetil Pillamar
The eight barons or the EttuveetarIn the previous article, we talked about Abhirami and her children. We read very briefly about the succession struggles between her sons and Marthanda Varma. This one...
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Ramayyan Dalawa
That crafty ministerIf you were to study the successful reign of Marthanda Varma, you will quickly notice that there was one person who faithfully tended to him and guided him through those hectic...
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The Economics of Portuguese trade
Portuguese and Malabar PepperTwo things triggered this article. One was a recipe for picked eggs from Sharaboji 2’s Tanjore kitchen, dating back to the 18thcentury which I tried recently. A very...
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Calicut of the 1880’s
From the reminiscences of an Englishmen….Let me start by outlining a charming study of Calicut in the 1880’s, extracted from a chapter on Edwin Lester Linden Arnold’s capital two volume book on coffee...
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