W’end Reading: History Special

This weekend, enjoy some history…

Start by reading about recent ISRO research that appears to confirm the presence of River Sarasvati in present-day Haryana. A brief excerpt from Sarasvati Nadi in Haryana:

Detailed studies on the status of Saraswati Nadi of northern Haryana have been carried out using multidate and multi resolution satellite images, GIS techniques and ground data. Palaeochannels have been delineated using remote sensing techniques and validated using discovered archaeological sites, sedimentological data from drilled wells and water quality data. Detailed analysis of hydrological data (rainfall and stream discharge), catchment area and petrographic analysis of rock samples have been done to decipher the dwindling state of Saraswati Nadi. Likelihood of Adi Badri as the place of origin of Saraswati Nadi and its possible linkage with the Vedic Saraswati River is discussed. Suggestions have been given for safeguarding and revival of Saraswati Nadi as a national heritage.

Next read, Varnam’s post on the Indus Silk from which some excerpts below:

…sericulture was known to other civilizations and a new paper reveals that the Indus people definitely knew about it.

The new evidence which comes from Harappa and Chanhu-daro show silk threads almost a millennium earlier than previously believed; the earliest find for silk in India was a thread found in Nevasa (1500 BCE). Now three silk fragments, which came from wild silk moth species, dated to the mature Harappan period (2600 – 1700 BCE) show that wild silk was used not just in China.

Previously it was believed that silk and the associated technologies — removing gum from silk and collecting silk strands on to a bobbin — were known only to the Chinese, but now we know that the Indus people too knew about it around the same time. The Chinese knew about silk weaving from 1600 BCE and had silk textiles a millennium back; the Indus discoveries are only few fragments used to connect copper-alloy bangles.

So for all the years of Mature Harappan, we have only three strands of silk. Does this mean that silk was not so important there or that it was not preserved well in the region or that the archaeologists were not trained to look for it specifically.? This finding, hopefully, is the beginning of new discoveries which will answer all those questions.

and finally, a 3-minute slide show by BBC on Life inside the 12th century Jaisalmer Fort – apparently the only one in the world that has been lived in continuously! (– may need broadband conenction).

Have a great weekend.

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