How do scholars today view religious conversions and temple desecrations in the city under Muslim rulers?

Led by his own curiosity, Alberuni spent 13 years studying Indian thought and society. He learned Sanskrit, studied the works of Brahminism, and sought out learned men to clarify his doubts.

This episode explores various aspects of the Vijayanagar empire, including trade, taxation, governance, policing, crime, punishment, religious landscape, courtly norms, embrace of Persianate culture, military alliances, and the reasons behind its significant defeat at the Battle of Talikota.

This episode explores French doctor François Bernier's insightful accounts on the Mughal courtly culture in Delhi, the economic condition of Indians, their science and intellectual life, and Hindu cultural and religious customs.

Taking on such charged and sensitive topics in this series also means that almost everyone will find something to dislike in it. Informed disagreement is of course fine and necessary for better scholarship.

By the early colonial period, Indians had even forgotten that a man called the Buddha had existed in their past! Only in the 19th century did Indians rediscover Nalanda and their amazing Buddhist heritage.

Discover the lost world of Khajuraho, the influence of Tantrism in early medieval India, and its decline.

More than a thousand years after the Harappans, the next cities arose in the Gangetic Plain in mid-first millennium BCE. Episode two of the series focuses on them.

From the Mauryan period, we get monumental stone art and stunning sculpture, such as of Sanchi and Bharhut stupas, some with clear continuities with pre-Aryan forms and aesthetics.

In the late first millennium BCE, a ‘cultural package’ from Aryavarta began moving south. It would radically reshape the religions, languages, and social norms of south India.

How do scholars today view religious conversions and temple desecrations in the city under Muslim rulers?

‘Dharohar Bharat Ki Punarutthaan Ki Kahani’ is nothing less than propaganda and cult worship of the Dear Leader.

Alberuni's readings of a large number of Hindu religious, philosophical and astronomical texts led him to make observations on society that hold even today.

What makes matters worse in Delhi are the incessant tide of migrants, misaligned institutional structures (unwisely split between the Centre and the quasi-state of Delhi), and BJP’s ongoing vendetta against AAP.