#Calcutta bone trade

[et-excrucior]

So I’m going to highlight something I’m not sure people who like skeletons and curiosities think about often:

the human skeletal remains you see for sale in oddities shops were invariably grave-robbed.

I worked with human remains in an academic research context in the US for more than a decade. One of the first things I tried to teach my students was respect for the remains in our collections, not only because they were people, deserving of dignity in their death, but also because most of the skeletal remains in academic teaching collections were not donated voluntarily. In most cases, we have no idea exactly where they came from or to whom they belonged.

Historically, there has been a huge international trade in human skeletal remains for teaching medical students. The trade reached its peak in the 19th Century and continued for much of the 20th, and while ostensibly the practice was banned in India in 1985, it does still exist illegally. In the US and Europe, most of the remains in teaching collections were sourced from India through bone traders. Bone traders were (are) lower caste people charged with disposing of human remains—often by cremation, but also by interring in graves—but instead of doing so, sold the remains on to medical schools in the US/Europe through the intermediary of anatomical and medical supply companies. These anatomical specimens are the remains of people who were, unknowingly and without consent of their loved ones, denied their humanity in death to satisfy the appetite of the West for anatomical specimens, despite the remains of their own people being considered largely sacrosanct.

Which leads me to my next point: this practice originated under British Colonialism in India. I hope I don’t need to draw this point out, but objectification of these remains by medical students and researchers is a furtherance of the Western colonial project and othering of people of colour. As medical students, we’re trained to divorce ourselves emotionally from the remains we learn from in the name of professionalism. Medicine can often be confronting, and it serves patients and doctors alike to be able to continue working calmly and objectively in the face of those challenges. But in a world where empires and scientific disciplines have been (and continue to be) built on a legacy of scientific racism and dehumanisation, it behooves us to consider exactly how those teaching specimens were acquired—and how they came to be for sale.

Any human skeleton or human bones you see for sale in oddity stores are invariably retired teaching specimens, or were otherwise originally purchased through an anatomical specimen supply company that leveraged bone traders for acquiring their wares. In other words, those remains were grave-robbed, or stolen from funeral pyres and morgues. It is vanishingly unlikely that they are remains of known, ethically-sourced provenance like informed donation. If they were, they would not have been relinquished to the general public to be sold for profit. There would be contractual obligations that dictate how those remains would be managed once they need to be retired from teaching/decommissioned.

Please keep this in mind when you see human remains for sale in oddity shops. Buy plastic or ceramic teaching models instead. Don’t unwittingly continue creating a market for stolen human remains.

[thetransversespectator]

The original Blavatsky device had been recovered from the Barabar Caves in Bihar; believed to have been lost when the caves were sealed following the Mahabharat War, it was later recovered by Bruno's henchmen on the eve of Siddharta's enlightenment, which they inadvertently set into motion when they traded a bushel of psychoactive mushrooms for a cauldron of mutton curry at the local market (these mushrooms later made their way into the possession of a certain Sujata, famed for her ingenious and innovative additions to the standard repertoire of kheer recipes). After the Middle Path had been enunciated and Mara defeated, the Germans packed up the device in a burlap sack and buried it next to the cave's mouth.

Centuries later, Ashoka stumbled upon it during a visit to the supposedly "cutting edge" modern cave complex, gifted to him by an obscure sect of Jain priests. He picked it up, inspected it with a widened eye and a sniff of the nose, and ordered it sent to Taxila, from where it was later transferred to Nalanda, and finally came into the possession of Mir Qasim, the Nawab of Bengal.

British interest in the device led them to Bengal, from which Qasim organized an alliance to defend the Indian subcontinent. The Ajivika-upakaraṇaṁ, as it was called back in the day, was secretly ferried from Buxar and through the Himalayas; first to Dali, then to Kengtung, and then finally into Siam, where it fell into the hands of King Taksin, who promptly succeeded in losing it, dropping it into the Chao Phraya whilst eating a papaya.

Many years later, long after the device had been trawled out of the river by a local fisherman, Allan Octavian Hume stumbled drunkenly into a dimly lit wet market in search of a feather from the fabled hatthilinga bird, perhaps the largest and most noble of the great prehistoric birds of the subcontinent. Slipping on a puddle, he fell and hit his funny bone on a strange metallic object. "What in tarnations is that?" he must have exclaimed. He was angry at this golden box, and yet equal parts intrigued. He returned to Calcutta with it, calling it his "little Siamese demon" and introducing it to friends at cocktail parties as "Ravana's abacus."

Lady Bird Johnson closed the book, resting her eyes. She took a deep, troubled breath as the President focused his eyes on her. Air Force One was silent.

“So, what did you think of the story?” Lyndon was breathless and vaguely cynical. He hadn’t expected her to read so much of the Didymus file, and had honestly given it to her as a joke. No one would ever believe something so absurd.

Lady Bird shook her head. “All of this death over what? A time machine?” Lyndon cut her off, “Not a time machine, a quantum dislocation device.” Lady Bird didn’t mince words. “Whatever, Mr. President.” She turned to the window, thinking of the countless children who had died, suffered, or even been off-worlded because of this terrible device.

“What was that about a Ruby Slipper?” She asked aloud, snapping out of her somber reverie. “A satellite, right?”

“Yep, that’s basically all we know about it.”

“All of these old, rickety satellites, and for what? To hurt children? Is that it?”

“Well, it’s more complicated than that. But yes.”

“Can’t we just make our own? Something to protect him?”

The President laughed. “Why don’t you ask the Queen for permission tomorrow at the State Dinner?” They were, after all, on their way to London, then to Windsor Castle.

“Ask the Queen?” Lady Bird laughed. “You do it yourself. You’re looking right at her, after all.”

Lady Bird wasn’t joking. She was, after all, the President’s boss.

A few short years later, the Orange Julius satellite was launched into orbit. A network of transceivers, miniaturized so as to rest comfortably inside of the corona of a daffodil, or the ovule of a lily, spread across the country, crowding the interstates and filling up countless pots and planters in the nation’s cities. JULIUS.LBJ would triangulate past, present, and future, exposing it an errant thread of hope, and express it, promulgate it, through the flowers.

Over the years, many of the transceivers fell out, or were eaten by birds. One was even carried away by an overactive bumblebee! Yet the errant thread remained, stitching an energetic lattice across America.

[almarchive]

     hello, its nora bringing yet another problematic character. this is a spoiled daddy’s bitch, raised in a farmhouse in vermont, who’s never really had to work for anything in her life and doesn’t want to. studying class civ cos she thinks it makes her sound smart, but actually hates fuckin latin and just loves learning about feckless hedonism and the festivals of bacchus. was expelled from princeton in her first year so her parents basically paid her way into lockwood. loves the smell of libraries and listening to french music from a tinny record player in knee socks. has a twin brother called otto who is basically guy bellingfield from the riot club and tbh knowing my lack of self control i‘ll probs end up bringing him here too.

bio is below the cut, like this post to be bombarded with plotting messages x

it might be HER SOPHOMORE year but I still think ALMA OLIVE PUTNAM looks exactly like ALICE PAGANI and sometimes I think the FEMALE is actually them. Of course I’m wrong, as they’re 20 and studying CLASSICAL CIVILISATION while living in AUDAX here at Lockwood. The TAURUS can be rather TENACIOUS and MAGNETIC, but also kind of FANCIFUL and DOUBLE-CROSSING. Their most played song on Spotify was LAISSE TOMBER LES FILLES by FRANCE GALL, so I think that says a lot.

THE SHORT FORM.

—  born in vermont in a big old farmhouse. her great-great-grandfather moved to america as an immagrant and worked on a plantation, made his wa up cos he could speak a lot of languages and therefore win more people over. for the last two generations, putnam men have owned the farm and do little of the dirty work. big in the meat industry.

— both her parents had Large Personalities, so alma’s never really been shy around adults, even as a kid she’d speak to them in a forthright, confident manner, and because she was always surrounded by adults, she’s always seemed a bit Wise Beyond Her Years. — very much a consolidation of every character in the secret history. has a morbid longing for the picturesque at all costs. obsessed with w.h. auden and the beat poets. — ”aestheticism is the only thing worth pursuing and even that is pointless” — is majoring in classical civilisation. can read ancient greek and latin. also speaks french. — studies hard and plays hard. she gets top marks but it’s because academia is literally her life, she loves the smell of libraries, the ancient smoke of learning, of feeling like old wine in a new bottle reincarnated from the bones of some old, dead witchy woman who invented a cure for cowpox or somethin. — isn’t a foward-planner, however. frida prefers to leave her options open, play the field, live in a spontaneous manner so her study style is mostly cramming a few days before a test, or staying up all night writing an essay on a massive adrenaline boost powered by red bull or probably adderall, scribbling (or typing) furiously into the night. — pretentious motherfucker. LOVES poetry, especially the romantics, loves morbid ones too, edgar allen poe, sylvia plath, allen ginsberg, she just loves them all. can’t get enough. her favourite films are like…. wanky artfilm independent european cinema. especially french new wave. “what do you think of goddard’s work??” while snorting a line off someone’s sink at 5am on a school night, but you can bet she’ll make it to that 9am class. — very Intelligent and Beautiful and knows both of those facts. vocal feminist. soapbox sadie. Very Passionate about Issues. plays devil’s advocate. humanitarian, vegan. — judgemental but takes great care not to appear so. — just wants to be Loved By All. a party girl ; doesn’t rlly enjoy it, jst feels she Should enjoy it. — tries to be an Enigma. wants to be mysterious and unreadable because that’s what books have taught her makes women Desirable and Interesting and Cool. — obsessively devours mystery and thriller novels. she herself is a gillian flynn book waiting to happen. — act like the flower but be the serpent under it. is a user. manipulative. leads people on. will throw another student under the bus to demonstrate her own intelligence and integrity — heavily involved in the theatre society. loves attention. — has an addictive personality. seems unable to do anything in a small dose, she has to let it utterly consume her. with sports, she’s fiercely competitive, runs track, played lacrosse at school, now is a cheerleader probably. with alcohol, it’s never a shot, it’s a whole bottle – wine or whiskey – she’ll be table dancing before the night’s up and making out with someone she’ll regret in the morning. — her clothing style is like…. vintage thrift store but make it preppy. berets and cute hats, neck scarves, large fluffy cardigans or like those leathery jackets with big suede fringes on them, mini skirts (very 70s), and knee high socks or boots. quite often she’ll be in sports kit, maybe a cute tennis skirt, n when she’s feeling casual she’ll wear like, a talking heads tshirt with a pair of mom jeans and converse, but otherwise, the library is her catwalk. — relates to ophelia from hamlet and sibyl vane in dorian gray. weirdly obsessed with women who commit suicide. loves jackson pollock paintings and abstract art. – likes old things. old books, old music, old houses, it reminds her of happier times like when she wasn’t alive. buys all her music on vinyl and has a gramphone because “The Sound quality is Better” kfdsjj.

PLOTS.

here are some generic wanted plots but by all means message me so we can flesh them out more if any strike ur interest:

study buddies !! someone who is equally unprepared and so spends all night in the library with alma before a big deadline, maybe they even met in the library

if they’re from new england or vermont, then cousins . second cousins / extended family / family friends –  probably spat volavons on your character once as children, omg childhood friends !

people who live on the same floor and only know each other from brief interactions in the lift or the canteen

frinds !! unlikely friends !! toxic friends !! former best friends separated by sporting or academic rivalries !

hockey / cheer friends who are on other teams but who she absolutely loves playin against!!!

fellow academics who like meeting up to discuss latin and greek ! gimme a secret society bonding by their love of ancient learning

i reckon she’s in a lot of societies, definitely the film club, maybe works as a projectionist at the uni cinema if they have one so give me ppl affiliated with that, give me fellow wanky pretentious art-lovers and poets and historians who will go to museums and galleries with her and listen to the velvet underground on vinyl

people she gets mortally fucked off her tits with at parties

people who think she is throwing her academic potential away by caving to hedonistic impulse

people she has drunkenly made out with, hooked up with, or regularly sleeps with casually, maybe even a friend w benefits she is repressing feelings for, i love angst,

people she used to date or unrequitedly likes, but to them it’s just a physical thing, give me all the thirsty angst plots, and maybe some softness too, i need some religion in this girls life, she is a roman catholic after all

FULL BIOGRAPHY.

alma olive putnam.

intro.

            The girl is a knife. Razor-sharp, double-edged, the bright shine of a two-faced, lovely thing. Silver like the secrets you magpie thief from other heads. You’re a scavenger of knowledge, of tidbits, of gossip to lock away for later use and late-night re-inspection. A mind is like a clock if you get to learn the pieces. Bit by bit, you dismantle the inner workings of the brains that tick around you – how easy it is to change it’s path, how words and their meanings can make a person laugh or cry in an instant. To have the power to control that is to be a God. It’s the power trip you crave wielding pom-poms in your hands; a possessive need for control that a younger you, small and weak, never had as a child. Small lips, smaller smile, a doll clutched in your too-hungry fingers, hard enough to shatter the bones of a real infant. You cut your hair with your mother’s kitchen scissors before the autumn falls, rendering you out of season, unfit for the cold weather that beats against the nape of your neck, where a stick-and-poke marks the star you were born under ; the bull. “Mama, when will I be a Queen?” As soon as they find a crown small enough not to slip from your head.

biography.

            If you get hungry enough, they say, you start eating your own heart. Hands red, stained by pomegranate seeds, the empty pulp of its shell splattered on your thighs you find yourself wondering – what would it be like to want? In the beginning, you never knew hunger. Twins, born under the same star, you first, him second -- a nuclear family. Never a sister to compete with, you were always the cherry pie of your parents’ hearts. Raven-haired, blue-eyed, beautiful baby of mine. The townhouse in Vermont and the summer house in Lyon, you wanted for nought, showered with attention, saddled with gifts - hardly a wonder you came to rely on such affection as a confirmation of your own worth.

            At eight years old you first met death, blood on a gingham-print dress, a smear of it over your cheekbone and the pulp of a mangled animal at your feet murdered by the hands of a stable boy. “Alma, my precious baby, you get away from that filth,” your Mama would cry from the upstairs balcony – cigar in one hand and a bloody Mary in the other – though whether the filth she referred to was the dead pig or the boy with a kernel of corn in his mouth, you never did find out.

            Your family earned their keeps in farming, great-grandfather Wolfgang Hildegarde a German immigrant, great-grandmother Maura Lisbon a prairie girl. They fell hopelessly in love between troughs and pig-shit, working for three dollars a day at a farm their descendants would later own, trade deals with the Indians, vacations to Calcutta, your father Todd Putnam in the kind of sheepskin coat his father’s father could only dream of owning. He worked hard so that you’d never have to. Your mama once asked – you heard it through the window, rounding cartwheels across the picket-fenced lawn – could he not find a respectable career rather than selling shrink-wrapped pork for a dime a dozen? That blood money had no business raising a child. You look far back enough, Edie, your father had said in his low, strong voice that could bring a Civil War to silence, and I think you’ll find that all money is blood money.

            Language was never fickle on your tongue, French dinner time talk by the time you were out of your Hush Puppy shoes, your mama fixing the au pair a smile as she fixed herself another martini. You learned the clarinet at four and how to dance with the grace of a swansong at six, ethereal under a spotlight, an audience captive in the palm of your hand. By eight you knew that you’d always been destined to be loved. Loved so hard they would want to taste you, bite into the soft plump of your cheek and eat you alive. That was how magnetic you wanted to feel. But mother hamsters eat their own young when penned in together too long, and soon you became too wild, too restless, another package on your father’s delivery invoice, box-shipped out to English boarding school.

            Fitting in had never been something you had to concern yourself with. You were always the shiny new toy the other girls wanted to play with, bright like a dropped coin from a magpie’s beak. Wherever you went, you seemed to leave a trail of awe, pig-tailed Harriet’s adoring you, imitating you, teachers forgiving your class-time chatter for the sake of your wild heart and the restless spirit you possessed. Tell us what it’s like in the States, Alma. They’d coo, enamoured by your Hollywood drawl. Does your father own a gun? You hardly knew. Barely even knew the colour of his hair, for the scarce amount of times he’d stoop to kiss your cheek, though you’d tell silver-tongued tales if it’d guaranteed you an audience. When you learned how to smile at the right times, and that flattery would get you everywhere, it soon became apparent that charm would pave the yellow brick road to success even when your lack of drive couldn’t.

            The road you followed – gum-snapping, roller-blading, friendship bands all up your arm – eventually led you to small-town fame. Bright-eyed and gingham skirted, you’d always known you were more. There was a hunger in you to be something extraordinary, a want so adamant to be imagined and desired that it was almost savage. In leather-bound volumes and a circle of stones, you were Helen of Troy, the girl for whom they’d launch a thousand ships. But there’s so much rage within you, collecting like sawdust in cavernous parts. Hockey helped. There was something grounding about the feeling of a stick clasped in your hands. Sweat. Stiff knuckles. Feet pounding the earth. The smash of wood against flesh in the scram of a game, passed off as mere enthusiasm. “Slipped, sorry.” Hockey is the one thing you had that was yours alone – a feral instinct that motivates you to play; something primitive within you that sparks an energy like no other. On the pitch, you feel alive.

[anamedblog]

Why turkey the bird and Turkey the country have the same name

by Ellen Mary Nye, ANAMED PhD Fellow (2019–2020)

This Thursday, November 28th is American Thanksgiving, a holiday affectionately known as “Turkey Day” thanks to the central role the bird has traditionally played on the holiday’s dinner table. 

For some, Thanksgiving is a time to reconnect with family and friends with both the usual and unusual fare. For others, it means annual arguments about politics, and for PhD students it may mean dodging questions about your graduation date... But ultimately, when historians are involved at least, the question always comes up: Why do the turkey bird and Turkey the country have the same name?

When compiling his 1755 English dictionary, Samuel Johnson defined the Turkey bird as a “large domestic fowl brought from Turkey.” But the Turkey bird is of course not from the Ottoman Empire, an empire that Europeans at the time persistently called “Turkey.”

Samuel Johnson’s famous English dictionary

Instead, its North American origins famously prompted Benjamin Franklin to suggest the Turkey, instead of the golden eagle, as the United States’ national bird.

Cave drawings of turkeys in the Canton de Chelly

Before the arrival of Europeans, native Americans on the eastern seaboard of North America hunted the wild Northern Turkey, the Meleagris gallopavo. It was widely used by the Ancestral Pueblo Native Americans. Naturally mummified turkeys have been found at sacrificial spots. Some of these turkeys were domesticated. Archaeologists have discovered evidence of pens made of sturdy sticks where domesticated turkeys were raised for their meat by at least Pueblo I times (750–900 CE). The turkey’s bright feathers were also used for ceremonial robes according to the conquistador Coronado. The bones of the turkeys were also used, carved into tools like awls. The turkey’s role in Pueblo life was central enough even to be immortalized in cave drawings in the Canyon de Chelly.

A mummified turkey in the Canyon de Chelly National Monument.

Europeans first encountered the turkey in Central America and Mexico. Hernán Cortés in his 1519 “Letters from Mexico” wrote about “Mexican” turkeys, Meleagris “Agriocharis” ocellate, common in Mexico City before sacking the city. In Columbus’ fourth voyage in 1502 to Honduras, natives presented the newcomers with turkeys which they called gallinas de la tierra, or “land chickens.” Columbus’ Moorish captain Pedro Alonso Niño is believed to have first introduced the turkey to Europe in the early 1500s. Unlike the potato or tomato, the turkey seems to have been a nearly immediate culinary success. By 1530,  enough turkeys had been shipped from the Americas to support turkey farms in Spain, Rome, and France.

Turkeys first reached England in 1524 through the endeavors of William Strictland, a Yorkshire landowner and a lieutenant on Sebastian Cabot's voyages. At least, this is a story the Strictlands were keen to promote. With the wealth from his voyages, he purchased a country manor, sat in Parliament, and, in 1550, established a family crest emblazoned with, you guessed it, a turkey! His descendants, however, continue to search for solid proof of Strictland’s celebrated involvement with the introduction of the turkey to England.

Long before Americans adopted turkey as the hallmark of the Thanksgiving feast at the end of the 18th century, the English incorporated the turkey into their own holiday repasts. By 1534, Thomas Tusser had penned verses instructing housewives to provide turkey at their Christmas feast. Henry VIII (r. 1509–1547) himself, an elaborate feaster, is fabled to have offered turkey to his Christmas guests. Archaeologists in Exeter recently dug up turkey bones from one of these early turkey dinners. By 1550 the turkey was already a popular choice for Christmas dinner, and, by 1570, it was a common Christmas dinner selection. Today, according to a recent (and admittedly cutesy) poll, 87% of U.K. residents argue that Christmas just wouldn’t be the same without the turkey.    

Yet none of these turkey tales tell us why this North American bird was called the “turkey.” There are a variety of explanations for the conundrum including the improbable and the absurd. Some speculated that the name derived from the red-colored fez even though the fez was only adopted by the Ottoman state in the 19th century.  In 1847, one commentator argued for the “resemblance between the head of the Turkey cock and helmet of a Turkish soldier.” Other explanations revolve around English stereotypes of both “Turks” and the turkey bird as proud.

Some linguists argued that the word “turkey” derives from Tamil, a language of South Asia, in which the peacock is called “toka” and reached English through the Hebrew version of the word “tukki.” They argue that Iberian Jewish merchants named the North American bird a “tukki” which through confusion became a Turkey leading people to believe it was actually from Turkey. However, there is no evidence of the involvement of the Jewish diaspora in the Iberian Turkey trade, particularly after the explosions of unconverted Jews from Spain and Portugal in 1492 and 1497.  

The most convincing explanation for calling the turkey bird a turkey actually involves another bird entirely. The guinea fowl was native to West Africa and traded by Portuguese merchants who, beginning in the late 15th century, were trading around the Cape of Good Hope and into the Indian Ocean. Through Portuguese traders passing through Guinea, the guinea fowl was introduced to the Ottoman Empire. There, at least supposedly, English Levant Company merchants purchased these brightly colored fowl and imported them back to England. They called them “Turkey birds” because they presumed they originated from the place that they first encountered them.

Once the guinea fowl and the turkey were both introduced to England, confusion reigned. Often, they were described as interchangeable. It didn’t help that the Guinea fowl was later exported to the Americas, adding another layer of confusion between the two feathered creatures. Both used the Greek and Latin name meleagris originally reserved for the guinea fowl. When Sir Thomas Elyot wrote in 1552, however, the definition of meleagris had expanded: “Meleagrides birdes, which we doo call hennes of Genny or Turkie henne.” A 1615 recipe book describes guinea fowls as “young turkeys.” As the origins of the two different birds coalesced into one bird with one origin story, the name “Turkey hen” won out. As the Mediterranean terminus of the caravan trade bringing luxury goods from Asia, “Turkey” carried a connotation of luxury and exoticism with which the name guinea fowl was unable to compete.

The bewildering story of how the Turkey bird got its name doesn’t end there. In Turkish, the bird is called hindi. The French similarly called it dinde, from poulet d’inde, “chicken of India.” Armenian, Italian, Polish, and Russian also named the bird after its supposed Indian roots. Dutch, Indonesian, Icelandic, and Lithuanian describe the turkey more specifically as a bird of Calcutta. Why did so many languages insist on the turkey’s Indian origins? Perhaps because the Portuguese traders bringing the guinea fowl to the Ottoman Empire or “Turkey” were most famous for their trade in the Indian Ocean. People just simply assumed it was from India.

To further complicate matters, in 1612, a turkey brought from Portuguese Goa was presented to the Mughal Emperor Jahangir. By the early 17th century, then, North American turkeys were in India and the Guinea fowl was roaming the Caribbean.

Together, these globetrotting birds—the North American turkey and the guinea fowl—tell a tale of early modern globalization, as more people (and birds!) travelled further and faster than ever before, and the culinary confusion that ensued!

Mughal miniature ca. 1612, attributed to Ustad Mansur.

[bigyack-com]

IIT Kharagpur researchers find archaeological remains from Dark Age - education

Indian researchers have found archaeological evidence from the Dark Age, at least 3000 years ago, from the Thar desert in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent.The artefacts—pitcher, jars, bull figurines, and animal remains like bones and teeth—were found in the uninhabited hyper-arid regions of Karim Shahi and Vigakot near the southern fringe of the Thar desert.These artefacts have helped join the missing link between the Harappan civilisation and early Iron Age, in a breakthrough, as so far the period was considered to be “Dark Age” due to the lack of archaeological remains and evidence.The findings by researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur and Deccan College, Pune, Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, University of Calcutta, and University of Kutchh have been published online in Elsevier journal Archaeological Research in Asia.“The Harappan civilisation ends about 3300 years ago and the evidence of Iron Age culture from north India from around 3000 years. But the transition period between the Bronze Age and Iron Age in India is not very well known and is called Dark Age,” said Anindya Sarkar, a professor with the department of geology and geophysics at IIT Kharagpur.“We also know that the Indus Valley civilisation settlements were moving eastward and one of the reason is that the monsoon pattern was changing,” Sarkar said.In the Kutch region, the Harappan remains were found only on rocky islands. The Rann and the Thar till now were devoid of any sign of continued human settlement. Sarkar’s team found the artefacts during a geological field investigation in the area.“Explorations in the coastal settlement of Karim Shahi region of the Rann, south of the desert, unearthed pottery and charcoal which when dated revealed active human habitation from Early Iron Age to Early Historic,” collaborator Dr Navin Juyal from Ahmedabad’s Physical Research Laboratory said in a release.This implies that after the decline of the Harappan civilisation, the Rann was still a hospitable terrain for the sustenance of human settlements’ during the Early Iron Age.The location of the find also goes on to support the theory that the human habitats shifted with the rains as the Indus Valley Civilisation declined. Sarkar’s team had earlier proven that the mass migrations coincided with changing rainfall patterns due to a shifting Holocene Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), which is a belt of a low-pressure area near the equator affecting rains and other climatic conditions.“Our findings suggest that such human migration was far more expansive than thought before. We believe that the gradual southward shift of Intertropical Convergence Zone over the last seven thousand years forced people to migrate for greener pastures. In a way, this created large scale climate refugees,” said Sarkar. “We have shown the devastating impact of the natural climate change on a civilisation. Now, we have accelerated the pace of this change, which is manifesting in the form of change in rainfall patterns, flooding, fires etc. This will lead to unprecedented migrations,” he said.The study also involved analysis of sediments, pollen and oxygen isotopes in fossil molluscan shells indicating the presence of an active river system and some rainfall that probably sustained human habitation from the Early Iron Age to medieval times.“We do not know what river systems these are and why they dried up. At nearby Motichher, we also found iron objects suggesting the first evidence of smelting,” said Sarkar.The Chinese Qingbai porcelain and Persian Sgraffito potteries found during their research suggest that Karim Shahi and Vigakot were trade centres on the long-distance trade route between West Asia and China. Source link Read the full article

[hellstate--rp-blog]

↪ b a s i c s ;

N A M E: Shantipriya Mathur A G E: 31 P L A C E   O F   O R I G I N: Brooklyn, New York ( previously New Delhi, India ) G R O U P: None F C: Deepika Padukone

❝ set your life on fire seek those who fan your flames. ❞

↪ p e r s o n a l i t y ;

P O S I T I V E   T R A I T S: open minded ; humble N E G A T I V E   T R A I T S: passive ; melodramatic

↪ b i o g r a p h y ;

L I F E   B E F O R E   T H E   O U T B R E A K:

After losing her father to cancer when she was fourteen, Shantipriya’s life had seemingly been a bit of a roller coaster. Though she remained in the family home in New Dehli, Shantipriya’s life began to change drastically after her father’s death. Her mother seemingly became a different person, going on more and more “business trips” to fancy hotels with fancy men, while her daughter was left staying at friends’ houses more than her own. Shantipriya treasured the moments she shared with her father and took his advice to heart on almost everything she put her mind too. She graduated with fair grades and moved to New York when she was seventeen. She volunteered at the local police station, falling in love with every aspect of the world of the police force. The danger, the adrenaline — it was a second nature to Shantipriya. When she was eighteen she has already on the field. What started off as a desk jocky job spiraled into a career. Despite the danger, Shantipriya loved her job — even if she was treated unfairly because of her gender. Shantipriya is a fighter and soon that passion was soon put to the test. Inevitably her family had caught up with her America and established their residency in New York as well. Shantipriya didn’t think of this as an obstacle all until she learned the true motives her family had in store for her. As a product of an arranged marriage herself it was only destined that Shantipriya should follow in the same path. Eventually a proper man was found to take Shantipriya’s hand in marriage but of course, Shantipriya wasn’t going to submit so easily. The man she met was a good man, an honest one with that too. He wasn’t much older than Shantipriya nor was he much younger. He tall but not very tall, he was smart but not that inquisitive. With every positive Shantipriya matched it with two negatives, anything to establish her distaste to be wed. She had nothing against the man but she did have something against the ideals she would be forced into if she was married. Her family never agreed with her career path because they were set on the idea that a woman’s place was to raise a family and nothing more. Sure it was desirable to live a happy life and pop out children like pills but Shantipriya knew she was destined for something, just as her father always reminded her. On the night of her wedding was the night she decided to follow her destiny. She traded in the red sari for combat boots and a camouflage suit, she enrolled into the U.S Marines without hesitation.

She wanted her skills to be applied and she believed the Marines would help her do that. Upon joining the Marines and finishing her training Shantipriya was the best in her division. Her combat skills, manipulation skills, and much more made her excel making her one of the most respected woman in the U.S Marines. Despite that Shantipriya had a never tiring and restless spirit that ached for adventure, for places she’s never been to before, for people she’s never met. During her military days she went traveling, falling in and out of love, experiencing life and sleeping under the stars. It was perfect then. What made it perfect was her partner in crime, Sonny Benson. A boy she’d never thought she’d befriend; Sonny became a crucial part in Shantipriya’s life. She earned a bond with him, a bond she’d never let go of. The relationship was nothing more than friendship to Shantipriya. Sonny was like a brother, the brother she never had the chance to grow up with. — She was twenty-four now, beautiful, pulsating with energy, in control of her life, immortal. And then it was never the same again.

Shantipriya woke up in the hospital with severe chest pain and with no recollection of what had happened. Her body ached entirely, she looked at her hands and the wires pouring out of them. The last thing she could remember was busting into a shed then her memory went black. The doctors later told her that she was the only one that had survived the hostage. They said her luck was due to the fact that she had escaped with only a mild concussion, several broken ribs and gushing wound at her side where the bone had pierced through skin. Shantipriya was told her luck had run thin when her hymen had seemed to be broken, she swore that she’d remained abstinent during her time in the Marines and she was a virgin before even enrolling into the Marine Corp. It was soon discovered that Shantipriya’s luck wasn’t strong enough to prevent her rape.  She would be fine, they said. Shantipriya didn’t think so. She was transferred to a hospital near her home in Brooklyn. While there, she was told that Sonny had been killed —- moments later, her mother was overjoyed to finally reunite with her only daughter after years. But Shantipriya wasn’t the same anymore: she was fiercely independent, stubborn and heartbroken. Everything reminded her of Sonny and what he did, and how he was, and how he squinted a little when explaining things, and she couldn’t help but feel guilty. Thoughts of ‘what if’ plagued the woman nearly every night. What if she never went into that shed, what if she just listened for once? What if she had died instead one of them? Even if she suffered the consequences of the mission she still thought it was unfair that Sonny was the one who was forced to pay the price, and Shantipriya didn’t do unfair. She was meant to be dead also. Why had she been given a second chance?

Life after the accident was harsh. She felt lost in a world that once had seemed so bright. She no longer believed that she’d live forever. She felt bitter and incomplete. Shantipriya spent most of her life on an honorable discharge in New Delhi. She lived with her mother until she finally grew the courage to live on her own again. While in New Delhi it was difficult for Shantipriya to find normalcy once again in her life. It was a chore to get out of bed, let alone changing her shirt every now and then. The depression plagued her and it seemed to be rooted deep inside her soul. It wasn’t until one of her passions from her youth rekindled with her once more. The art of classic Indian dance is something that’s been part of Shantipriya’s life ever since she could remember. Her mother was a Bollywood starlet herself and dance seemed to be the only thing the two had in common. With time Shantipriya realized that her course in life wasn’t going to return to the one she had originally planned. Though serving her country not only as a police officer but as a U.S Marine was a glorious honor, she knew she was unable to return to such a work environment without being haunted by the bitter memories she’d created. She was determined to live a long and happy life, just as her father wished her to have. She knew a life in a bustling city like Brooklyn, New York wouldn’t do so she settled to begin a life anew in Cheyenne, Wyoming where her brothers had owned some farm land.

L I F E   D U R I N G   T H E   O U T B R E A K:

As a city girl it was difficult for someone like Shantipriya to adapt to a new environment but in her heart she knew she was more than just a girl from the city. Her time in the Marines proved she belonged underneath the sun and she was always caught chasing clouds whenever her family had driven from New Delhi to Calcutta during summer vacation. She came to Cheyenne alone, opting to stay in a hotel before visiting her brothers — ones she hadn’t seen in years time. While there she learned that her trip to Cheyenne wasn’t everything she expected it to be. Eager to return home she thought it was a better option to confront her brothers before running away once more. To her relief her remaining family was just fine and swore to Shantipriya that the hype on television was nothing more than it’s current scare. Her brothers believed that it was another bullshit virus that the government made up to scare us all — she never knew her home was filled with such conspiracy theorists. She wanted to believe her brothers but her paranoia seemed to grow bigger each day. Shantipriya blamed this on her inability to properly function after her dispatch from the Marines but couldn’t shake the feeling of doubt in her gut. When the virus first attacked fear still hadn’t struck the Mathur family, no one believed that such things would happen to them — but Shantipriya did, and she urged her brothers to believe it too. She felt silly for taking whatever she heard on the news so seriously but during the time of doubt she rationed supplies, focused on water supply, and even turned one of the empty shed’s on the farm into an armory where she collected guns and ammunition for further protection. It seemed premature but with time her brothers would soon thank her for her precautions.

What started off as a slow, possibly fake virus scare spiraled into something that shook the town to it’s core. Shantipriya, of course, was ready for whatever the world decided to throw at her next. As a woman who fought in the Marines there wasn’t much that scared her — she liked to think that she’d seen it all but at the sight of the flesh melting creatures that now riddled the city she was trying to learn how to love. It shook her to her core. However, it didn’t take long for Shantipriya to adapt to it. It was a warzone now and she was more than just prepared to fight in it. But she knew that it wasn’t just her who’d be holding the gun, protecting the land, and keeping it alive — she had her brothers to fight for as well. She hoped that they, of all people, would allow Shantipriya to take initiative — she, after all, was the most qualified. But it didn’t take long for that rifle to be taken from her grasp. It didn’t hurt her feelings when her brothers had urged her to stay inside and look after the children while they did what was stereo typically the man’s role. In her heart she knew her brothers where just looking out for her, but in her mind she knew it was more important to understand and control what was going on inside then whatever was going on outside. She encountered numerous selfish lives in her time, Shantipriya knew that in times of grief selfish hearts grew ten times in size. It didn’t take long till their farm land would be comprised — but Shantipriya wasn’t expecting their lives to be compromised either. She worked out negotiations to the best of her ability but it didn’t take long for the lives of her family to be taken, one by one they fell —- until Shanti. The matriarch. Was left standing.

L I F E   A F T E R   T H E   O U T B R E A K:

It’s often joked that Shantipriya is the type of person who has lived three lives and has six more to go before she finally rests six feet into the ground. A woman of her nature had never been given the chance to adjust. The farm she now owned didn’t feel like a home anymore, pictures of her family riddled the walls —- it was too painful to live there. She decided to go home. Start another life anew and, above all, hang on to the ounce of hope she still carried within her soul. The virus didn’t change Shantipriya but taught her many things about the true nature of humanity and how selfish it could be — she promised that here on forward, she would treat others with kindness, respect — knowing that her father wouldn’t agree with his only daughter using such a sinister attitude. It was true that pieces of Shantipriya had fallen from her soul while she was recovering from the virus. She made promises to herself, knowing that she had taken too many lives to be forgiven. She wanted to save lives, instead of killing them. It was difficult for her to return home. She abandoned the farm but she couldn’t find herself sitting on a plane, walking through JFK, and returning to her one bedroom apartment in Brooklyn.  She traveled alone, hopping from various locations nearby but always returning to Cheyenne. There she found Springhill Suites, a place she’d learn to call home.

It seemed to be habit to stock up on rations and track every single necessity for survival while she lived there. She didn’t doubt her paranoia any longer and soon learned to trust herself. Quickly she grew found of the other tenants of the suites, befriending them, listening to their stories and even giving them pieces of advice and wisdom from her own experiences. It was only natural for herself to build a foundation with these people. She knew their loss and she felt their pain, she lived it all — but unlike them she had the quality to lead and the heart to be brave. She could go to war with a rusty spoon and return, victorious. It wasn’t her intellect, combat skills, or any cliche trait that made her a great leader but her heart. Shantipriya’s father always reminded her that a strong man who has known power all his life, may lose respect for that power, but a weak man knows the value of strength, and knows. compassion. — Compassion. The very thing that allowed Shantipriya to crown herself as the leader of this new community, and guide her people  — not to greatness, or power, but survival and to learn once more what it means to be a familly.

Undoubtedly Shantipriya learned the value of family and treasured her time greatly in Springhill but after the mysterious resurrection of her trusted Marine partner, Sonny she felt her world take a 360. She felt indebted to Sonny and was convinced to do whatever he wanted her to do. Even if that meant departing from the comfort Springhill provided for her. She traveled out of Cheyenne and discovered many things. She reunited with her brothers, feeling a void in her heart grow full. Even if she felt guilt for leaving Springhill behind she found light in her new life. All was well, until it wasn’t anymore. Her brothers paid the ultimate price for her foolish decision to trust Sonny. Never considering that he changed after all these years, his wrath didn’t pause on her brothers but on her as well. She lacked the courage to kill Sonny, even if she had a good reason too, she couldn’t bring herself to kill someone she loved with all her heart. She managed to escape the grip Sonny earned on her and she returned to Cheyenne. Even if one full year has past, she’s yet to build up the courage to return to Springhill, confrontation never being a strong suit of hers — she’d rather have the fire come to her.

Not much about Shantipriya has changed, she still is the bright-eyed woman with hope for the world but after her tumultuous encounter with Sonny she’s grown a skewed version of the world. She still wants to hope and to love but she can’t repair her heart once more and return to the battlefield. She’s learned her lesson and found the value in not being as compassionate as she used to be. The light she carried inside of her has dimmed and the courage she had to keep that light flickering is beginning to fade. Even if it seems that all hope is lost for Shantipriya, there just might be an ounce of it left.

[monosko]

A pair of racehorces. By Shaikh Muhammad Amir of Karraya (1830-1850). Courtesy: Christie

PRELUDE Not until the British revamped army to recapture Calcutta in 1757, horses in India had the leading role in wars, and in everyday public and private life as well. Gradually the other two robust animals, camels and elephants, were being withdrawn from military and public services. The demands for suitable horses grew manifolds, and so was the prospect of horsetrading in India that attracted horse dealers from around the world to come and stay in Bombay, Madras and Calcutta engaging themselves in all kinds of horse-related enterprises, including horse auctions, livary stable services, saddlery, fodder supply, coach building, veterinary services, equestrian schools.

HORSE IN INDIA

India had an indigenous supply of excellent elephants, but not many good horses. Yet the horse of ‘Ashwamedha’ fame served as a symbol of power and glory in Indian tradition. There are evidences of horse riding in the era of Rikveda. [Coomaraswamy] The earliest known work on veterinary science  India’s Shalihotra-sanghita, proves how seriously the fitness of horses was taken care of. Even so, India had to depend much on imported war horses since the indigenous horses were found inadequate for battlefront and their high war mortality rate. The good horses were imported to the Mughal state from Arabia, Iran, Turan, Turkey,Turkestan, Badakhshan, Shirwan, Qirghiz, Tibbet, Kashmir and other countries. Kabul and Qandhar were the major entrepots on the land-routes for the horse traders. While horses from Central Asia came to India by the overland route, Persian and Arabian horses were largely brought by the sea. [Khan] The ports of Surat, Cambay, Kutch, Thatta, Lahori Bandar and Sonargoan in Bengal were the major entrepots for the bahri horses brought for breeding. In order to establish control over the horse trade, the Mughal Emperors established friendly and diplomatic relations with the neighbouring countries. [Choudhary]

COUNTRY-BREEDS The Indian Country-bred, generally plain heads, long necks, narrow chests, strong hooves and low-set tails, archaically known as tattoo, vary from good-quality riding horses to small and poorly-conformed animals used for pack and draught work. They derive from many diverse horse breeds and types, including the small horses of the Himalayas of northern India, and the strong horses of the Punjab. Outside influences include Arab horses imported to Bombay and Veraval from the Persian Gulf, and the Australian Walers imported in very large numbers in the nineteenth century to Calcutta via Madras. The Indian Half-bred is a cross-breed between Thoroughbred stallions and local and imported mares of various types, raised mainly by the Indian Army as a cavalry mount. Apart from the regulars, the Militia Cavalry also required to be equipped with horses as well. It is also used by the Indian Police Service, as a polo pony, and for recreational and competitive riding. The most distinguished Indian high-breeds are:

Bhutia –       Like Mongolian and Tibbetian horses,

Kathiawari – Western India breed intended to be a desert war horse,

Manupuri –  Famous for their unruffled demeanour and learning ability,

Marwari –    As an ambling gait and a superior level of hardiness ,

Spiti –          A mountain-based breed,

Zaniskari –  In many respect similar to Spiti, Chmmarti – A well-muscled, can easily survive cold temperatures, and

Deccani –   Arabian and Turkic crossbreeds with local ponies; “a perfect compendium of all the qualities required in a campaigner. ”He doubted if even the war-born Arabian Badoo can be deemed the superior of the ponies bred on the banks of the Bhima and Tapti”. [Burckhardt]

  HORSES IN CALCUTTA Bengal never had any better horses than the Bhutia and the Manipuri breeds of local origin. So long the Sonargaon river port was in operation, Bengal not only received regular supplies of imported horses, but also witnessed the transportation of some of these war machines to the Deccan and China. [Chakrabarti]. The other centre was the Sonepur Cattle Fair for one month long trading of animals – the largest in Asia.

Esplanade . Artist: William Daniell (1769-1837)James Baillie Fraser.1814

Horse Bathing in Ganges near Prinsep Ghat. near

Horsemen near Old Fort (Tank Square) (now CliveStreet)_Charles D’Oyly1842. Courtesy:_BL

The emergence of Bengal as a regional political entity during the early medieval times must have increased the demand for war horses, but it was never so desperately pressing as the English felt after they lost the 1756 Battle of Calcutta. “The question of our horse supply, though primarily a military one, is far from exclusively so.” [Burckhardt] Burckhardt was right. Life in Calcutta literally depended much on horse power, otherwise Calcutta would have remained stand still even though there had been elephants, camels and bullocks roaming on roads carrying passengers and goods. None of those animals were as agile and sportive as the horses in battlefields, roads and lanes, racing grounds, or ambling for a promenade.

Since the city was rebuilt on the ashes of 1756 Battle horses were being imported in huge quantities particularly from Arabia, Britain and Australia.

A Horse and His Trader, circa 1800 Painting; Watercolor, Opaque / Artist: Bagta. Los Angeles County Museum of Art

ARAB HORSE The oldest pure breed in the world, Arab horse is actually the horse of the  the wandering Arab – the true Bedouin. The animal possesses incomparable virtue as reverend of hardship and master of abstinence. Its strength and stamina apart a particular form of elegance has made it an enviable sire to breed superior horses everywhere in the world. Either directly or indirectly, the Arabian contributed to the formation of virtually all the modern breeds of light horse. As found in some critical studies, the qualities of the Arabian horses in foreign lands considerably vary. The characteristics of the Arabian horses in India differ from those bred in Syria, Mesopotamia and Persia. [Curr]

The Arabian is a symmetrical saddle-horse, not a racer – with a bright, alert outlook and great pride of bearing. Men who look only at their stop-watches may be disappointed; but not they who love to look on horses racing. [Daumas] As the people of Persia and Arabia didn’t like mares to go out of their countries, the horses traded were invariably stallions. Over centuries of similar trading – the earlier influx was in the Mughal era – it’s thought the native horses and ponies of India thus gained a lot of Persian and Arabian horse genes. In Bombay during the British era, Arab horse dealers set up stables for selling – most held 1,000 to 1,500 horses. [Lane]

  ENGLISH HORSE The East India Company in an endeavour to improve the native breeds of horses established a special department, called ‘Stud Department’ in 1794. Both for political and economic reasons, the Company desired India should produce the horses necessary to mount both British and native cavalry, and to horse the artillery. Colonel Hallen gave a list of thirteen country-breeds of Indian horses described as ” possessing good powers of endurance, and showing thereby blood, but generally wanting in size, and many too small for the work of the Indian Army, constituted as it now is ; though some of purely local breeds can be found fit for native cavalry.” [Gilbey}

European man with a horse in India by Bourne & Shepherd, 1882. Source: Commons

Militia Cavalry of the East India Company

After four decades the British raj abandoned the project, and set up the ‘Army Remount and Horse-Breeding Departments’ in 1876 to introduce the ‘Diffused System’ , which used the Thoroughbred sires and India mares treating the thirteen different Indian breeds of horse as one, all mares being classed as ‘country-bred mares’.  The animal got by the English thoroughbred “is, as a rule, handsome in top and outlines of back, hind quarters, and carriage of head and tail, but is often shallow in girth and back rib, light in barrel, and from 70 to 8o per cent, are leggy and deficient in bone of limb. Diseases of legs are more common among thoroughbred stock. It provided no means nor machinery whereby the result of using any given stallion on any given mare can he ascertained. Sir John Watson’s gravest objection is that because of the ‘Diffused System’ there does not now exist in India even an experimental stud in which the results of different crosses can be observed. [Glibey]

AUSTRALIAN HORSE Horses first arrived in Australia in 1788, with the First Fleet of prisoners. Like the Arab and the Deccan pony, Waler owes his qualities to the conditions of life amid which he is bred and not on their stud-farms managed on English principles, but chiefly on the grasses which he can pick up for himself on Nature’s own bountiful bosom. Australian horse traders chiefly sold horses to India – where the Waler got its name picked from “New South Waler” – a horse from Australia. In India many famous men and regiments rode Walers – from the Viceroys and Rajah’s down, but pricey for common civilians, like Rudyard Kipling’s father John Kipling who always adored a Waler but could never afford to buy one. [Lane]

European man with a horse in India by Bourne & Shepherd, 1882. Source: Commons

New Mode of Shipping Horses to India.. Wood engraging. 1880. Courtesy: Waler portal

Lumsden Horse on parade.Calcutta_Bourneand shepherd_18xx. Source:AngloBoerWarMedal c 1875-6

In 1836, the first Governor of Perth city, Admiral Sir James Stirling, received an anonymous letter from Calcutta enquiring about a spot in Albany that can combine good climate and port facility for the purpose of breeding and exporting quality horses for catering the needs of the British India cavalry. A decade after The Hobart Town Courier of 30 January 1845 reported export of horses from Australia to India for the first time. The ‘Waler’ horses were exported from Sydney to the Indian Presidencies. Australia was chosen as an alternative source not only for being the closest supplier but also because of its breed of healthy horse. Horse buyers from India representing the Remount service would attend horse sales in Adelaide. Kidman’s annual horse sales held at Kapunda attracted local and Indian Army horse buyers. In turn, there were South Australians who bought horses from overseas to breed their own stock with and so improve their horses’ speed. Some horse dealers like the Pathan tribesmen from the Quetta, in Pishin district, took their horses down the Ganges Valley, most likely as far as Calcutta, where they sold some horses to Australians.’

In the end, Australia became the principal supplier to the 39 regiments of Indian Cavalry and about 7 more of the British Cavalry, each consisting of 1000 horses. The over all demand was pretty high, indeed, even without taking into account the fact that ‘people did play polo, apart from just hacks’, and horse racing became popular recreation around 1810. [Westrip]

A pair of racehorces.By Shaikh Muhammad Amir of Karraya (1830-1850). Courtesy: Christie

HORSE MARKETING IN CALCUTTA In Calcutta horse business initially started in Loll Bazaar- Cossaitollah locality then moved toward Dhurrumtollah where several horse liveries and stables grew to provide all round professional services. In Burraha Bazaar there is still having a locus called Pageya Patty, which might have been earlier a market sector for horse trading, as because the rare and homonymous Bengali word ‘pageya’ (পগেয়া) is used for a ‘breed of horse’ from a particular province’. [চৌধুরী]

The earliest livery stables, as recorded, were established adjacent to the celebrated 18th century tavern, Harmonica, by certain Mr. Meredith. The erstwhile Meredith’s Lane, which connected Bentinck Street with Chandney Choke Lane, derived its name from this Mr. Meredith’s Livery Stables. In Cossaitollah also was the shop of Mr. Oliphant ‘Coach-maker’, the rival of Messrs Steuart and Co., at Old Court House Corner. On Chitpore Road there existed a horse mart, few stables and coach-factories. With the southward expansion of the Calcutta township across Govindapore a number of new horse establishments clustered on Dhurrumtollah Street, to cater all kinds of horse related services and facilities to private and corporate clientele. The most known horse sellers and livary stable keepers among them were: TF Brown & Co. (Partner: Thomas Flitcher Brown), Cook & Co. (Partner: T. Greenhill), Hunter & Co (Partner: John Sherriff). Martin & Co. (Partner: J.P. Martin), and T. Smith & Co.  The Grand Hotel in Calcutta had a “Waler Corner” where Australian horse traders met; often after the horses were sold at the Army Remount Depot at Alipore. Some traders such as Jim Robb also stayed in Calcutta.

HORSE CULTURE IN CALCUTTA Horse induces a sense of freedom from monotony – a sportive spirit to win the best at work and leisure. In Colonial Calcutta leisure and recreation became indispensable parts of the social and cultural life of Europeans and native aristocrats. [Mukherjee] Horses have had the primary role to play in the new form of recreation culture, such as hunting, playing polo, horse racing, fencing and pleasure riding.All these were being played in India since long. Yet it was the British who brought some characteristic changes into the games by introducing new sets of rules acceptable worldwide as standards. These reinvented games, however, were meant to be played exclusively by the ‘whites’. For long, natives were not allowed to approach playgrounds, the Respondentia Walk or the King’s Bench Walk on the riverside, the Eden Gardens, and select parts of the Maidan. Mountain Police patrolled the areas to protect the white people’s privilege, besides their regular duty of escorting shipments from river-ports to the safe location. In a changed environment of collaborative Anglo-Indian enterprise, native aristocrats started taking part in all masculine brands of outdoor games.

MOUNTED GAMES

Driving tiger out of a jungle; colored sketch by Thomas Williamson. Source: East India Vade Mecum. 1810

Hunting Hunting wild beasts on horseback is an ancient frantic game that the Europeans much loved to play while in India. The practice of chasing and killing wild animals, what the food-gathering humans commonly did for their survival and defence, turned into a trigger-happy recreation for power loving civilized people. The oriental princes, British and European civilians and dignitaries were the ones most interested in the game locally known as shikar. There were wild habitats all over the country in every province. One of the most tiger-infested jungles, Sundarban was stretched up to Govindapore before the Fort William II constructed. They say, Warren Hastings had a luck to shoot a Royal Bengal tiger on the spot where the St. Paul Cathedral stands today. [Cotton] Chitah hunting at Barrackpore Park was a favourite sport for the Governors-Genral and Viceroys since Wellesley ’s time. King George V had shot no less than 39 tigers and 4 bears when he visited Nepal in 1911. After half a century, his granddaughter Queen Elizabeth when visited India, wished she had a live calf as bait in her tiger hunting expedition. The wish remained unfulfilled due to Mr. Nehru’s interference. An estimated 80,000 of tigers were killed from 1875–1925 and probably more till 1971 when hunting tigers was totally banned. In modern world the hunting has been redefined in terms of fishing, wildlife photography, birdwatching and the like sport items that do not threaten worldlife. [Dasgupta]

  Polo Polo, often referred to as ‘the game of kings’, was invented and played by the commoners of Manipore, where the world’s oldest polo-ground, Mapal Kangjeibung, still exists. From obscure beginnings in Manipore, the modern version of polo was developed and soon being played in the Maidan by two British soldiers, Captain Robert Stewart and Major General Joe Sherer.

A polo game: the dervish and the shah on the polo field from a Guy u Chawgan by Arifi (d.1449). Courtesy: Smithsonian Nat.MuseumAsian Art

Calcutta Polo Club of 1862 Drawing by unidentified artst. Source: justGo

Manipore Polo Team’s first visit to the Calcutta Polo Club in 1884. Courtesy: HindusthanTimes. Possibility photographer: Bourne. 1864

They  established the Calcutta Polo Club in 1861, and later spread the game to their peers in England. The club runs the oldest and first ever Polo Trophy, the Ezra Cup (1880). The modern Polo has been necessarily a sport meant exclusively for wealthy people capable of meeting its fabulous expenses and extensive leisure time that the heads of the princely states, high ranked British military and administrative personnel. Prominent teams of the period included the chiefs of the princely states of Alwar, Bhopal, Bikaner, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Patiala, Jodhpur, Kishengarh and Kashmir. The majority of the Cavalry regiments of the British Army and the British Indian Army also fielded teams. The civil service bureaucrats to whom the sports and pastimes peculiar to the country are accessible ‘upon a scale of magnificence and affluence unknown to the English sportsman, who ranges the fields with his gun and a brace of pointers, and seeks no nobler game than the partridge or the hare’. [Cotton] The gorgeous game of polo attracted the fanciful young minds, irrespective of financial constraints, if any. Winston Churchill loved polo and played the game vigorously. Aga Khan the celebrated racehorse owner and equestrian found in young Churchill, then an officers of the Fourth Hussars stationed at Bangalore, an irrepressible, and promising polo player. In November 1896 Churchill’s team won a silver cup worth £60. [Langworth ] “Polo became a game that in many ways, did more than ambassadors to promote goodwill in the days a man was judged by his horse…” . [Lane]

  Horse Racing Horse racing, one of the oldest of all sports, developed from a primitive contest of speed or stamina between two horses. In the modern era, horse racing developed from a diversion of the leisure class into a huge public-entertainment business.

Calcutta being the first centre of British power in India commanding large cavalry regiments, all mounted sports such as hunting, polo and racing were encouraged to be played. Organized horse races were first held in India on 16 January 1769 at Akra, near Calcutta, where they were held on a rough, narrow, temporary course for the next three decades. Lord Wellesley, as soon he arrived India in 1798, stopped horse racing and all sorts of gambling. After a lull the Calcutta Races again commenced under the patronage of Lord Moira. In 1812 the Bengal Jockey Club laid out a new course in the southwest part of the Maidan. A viewing stand was built in 1820 to watch racing horses in the  cool of mornings just after sunrise.  The Calcutta Derby Stakes began in 1842, where maiden Arabs ran over 2.5 miles. Five years after the Calcutta Turf Club was founded on 20 February 1847.  In 1856 the Calcutta Derby was replaced by the Viceroy’s Cup. In 1880 public interest in racing grew when races started to be held in the afternoons, and new stands were built.

A Grey Racehorse and a Groom. Pencil and watercolour by Sheikh Muhammad Amir. Courtesy: Christies

Race Cource Calcutta. Undated/ photographer unknown. Source: Hippostcard (New Market)

Racing becomes Calcutta’s biggest wintertime attraction, except during a Royal visit —”and then the Turf Club contrives to work the two things very much together. For months women have studied pictured lists from Piccadilly, searching for something to wear at the Races. New milliners’ signs adorn the city’s streets, as short lived as the flies, just for the Racing season. The Indian has unpacked his shawls of many colours only to sport it on the crowded course where the patterned shoulders work a mosaic that is hardly ever seen in a human picture.” Minney who visited Calcutta in early 1920s left a spectacular description of the city in sunny winter. “Gay and busy, it is a season that attracts a multitude from the world’s four comers. They come for the racing,, they come for frivolity, but they come primarily for the climate. … Calcutta would become the most coveted place in this sad globe, more cursed than blessed with climate.” [Minney]

Horse Riding The horse is a partner and friend of humans for more than 5,000 years, and the art of horseback riding, or equestrianism, took most of it to be evolved, of necessity, with maximum understanding and a minimum of interference with the horse. In Colonial Calcutta, as the contemporary narratives reveal, riding was not a monopoly of the cavalry and the rich who rode for sport, as it was the case elsewhere till the 20th century. After Plassey, in the revived Calcutta society, horse riding was regarded as a valued social asset and symbol of prestige.

Portrait of a lady rider with her horse and indian groomsman. Like the photograph taken by Thomas Alfred Rust. Courtesy: Cabinet Card Gallery

The Course at Calcutta. Drawing by ADA Claxton.c1859 Source: Alamy

Girls on horseback on Calcutta Road. Date unknown. Photographer unknown. Courtesy: Open Magazine.

The opening of many new riding clubs and stables has made riding and horsemanship accessible to a much larger segment. Calcutta then was different in too many counts, but “nothing in which we differ more remarkably from them than in the distribution of our time”. In the early days of Calcutta, the midday dinner and the afternoon siesta were recognized institutions.  “The dinner hour here is two,” wrote Mrs Fay. In the days of Warren Hastings “reposing, if not of sleeping, after dinner is so general that the streets of Calcutta are, from four to five in the afternoon, almost as empty for Europeans as if it were midnight. Next come to the evening airings on the course, where everyone goes, though sure of being half-suffocated with dust.” [Cotton] The scene here in the evening was very lively ; soldiers exercising in the square; officers riding on horseback, or driving in gigs ; the band playing on the esplanade; groups promenading. [Bellow] About this garden, as well as the Maidan and Strand Road and to the south of the Eden Garden are the places to see and to be seen, because all the grand folks of Calcutta of an evening go on foot, or riding, or in beautiful barouches, broughams, phaetons, buggies, etc., drawn by beautiful horses. [Cesry]

Good riding and driving horses may be had from 400 to 600 rupees each, Arabs for a bit more.  On setting up housekeeping in Calcutta, or in the provinces, a new recruit in civil service earning Rupees 400 a month, must provide himself with bed, tables, chairs, cooking utensils, china, plate, table linen, a buggy, and buggy horse, and a riding-horse.  The buggy being kept then principally for business, visits, and day trips, the riding-horse is requisite for morning and evening exercise. [Roberts] During the days of Cornwallis, they used to get on horseback just as the dawn of day begins to appear, ride on the same road and the same distance, pass the whole forenoon. [Bagchi] The Eden sisters, particularly Emily, was extremely fond of riding horse wherever they go.  She found riding a foot’s pace cooler than the carriage. The air she felt coming more round one on horseback than in the carriage. She had a little pony-carriage with no head to it, and wicker sides, and extremely light, and that was much the coolest conveyance they had; besides that, she says “it will go in roads which will not admit of our carriage” [Eden] After nearly four decades, in a more liberal colonial climate we find Jyotindranath Tagore along with his young wife Kadambari Devi riding on their horses down Chitpore Road to the Eden Garden for an evening prom. [Sen]

The pleasure of horse riding has been an added attraction for the European settlers in Calcutta. Except the army horsemanship, ambling or easy walking on horseback was the most popular mode of riding – a slow, four-beat, rhythmic pace of distinct successive hoof beats in an order. Alternately it may be extended walk of long, unhurried strides. One needed to undergo a systematic training to execute precisely any of a wide range of maneuvers, from the simplest riding gaits to the most intricate and difficult airs. This was true for the British and Indian soldiers as well as the civilian men and women. The first Riding school was established in Calcutta as early as in 1790s followed by more in the next century to teach whoever interested irrespective of sex and age. The untold stories behind those early Riding Schools will be posted next.

  REFERENCE

Bagchi, P. C. (1938). The Second city of the Empire. Calcutta: Indian Science Congress Assoc. Calcutta: Indian Science Congress.

Bellow, F. J. (1880). Memoirs of a griffin; or, A cadet’s first year in India. London: Allen. Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/memoirsagriffin00bellgoog/page/n5/mode/2up

Burckhardt, J. L. (1831). Notes of the Bedouine and Wahabees collected during his travel in the East;vol; vol.1(2). London: Bentley. Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/notesonbedouins00burcgoog/page/n6/mode/2up

Cesry, R. (1818). Indian Gods, sages and cities. Calcutta: Catholic Orphan Press. Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.128152

Chakravart, R. (1999). Early Medieval Bengal and the trade in horses: a note. No Title. Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient., 42(2). Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/3632335

Coomaraswamy, A. K. (1942). Horse-Riding in the Rgveda and Atharvaveda.No Title. Journal of the American Oriental Society. Vol. 62, No. 2 (Jun., 1942), Pp. 139-140. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/594467

Cotton, E. (1909). Calcutta old and new: a historical and descriptive handbook of the city. Calcutta: Newman.

Curr, E. M. (1863). Pure saddle-horses, and how to breed them in Australia. Melbourne: Wilson and Mackinnon. Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/puresaddlehorses01curr/page/n6/mode/2up

Dasgupta, R. R. (n.d.). Killing for sport: To live, we Indians need to let live too. Retrieved from https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/blogs/SilkStalkings/killing-for-sport-to-live-we-indians-need-to-let-live-too/

Daumas, E. (1863). Horses of the Sahara, and the manners of the desert. London: Allen. Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/horsesofsahara00daum/page/n7/mode/2up

Eden, E. (1872). Letters from India; vol.1. London: Bentley. Retrieved from https://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/eden/letters/letters.html

Gilbey, W. (1906). Horse breeding in England and India and army horses abroad. London: Vinton.

Jaccob, J. (1858). The Views and opinions of Brigadier-General John Jaccob. CB; (C. L. Pelly, Ed.). London: Smith & Elder. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.ao/books?id=mn9CAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&hl=pt-PT&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

Khan., I. A. (1984). The Import of Persian horses in India 13-17th centuries. In Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. (pp. 346–351). Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/i40173319

Lane, J. (2016). Buying Walers. Retrieved from https://walers.blogspot.com/2016/07/buying-walers-australian-horse-traders.html

Langworth, B. F. (n.d.). Churchill and Polo: The Hot Pursuit of His Favorite Team Sport, Part 1. Retrieved from https://winstonchurchill.hillsdale.edu/polo-churchills-favorite-team-sport/

Minney, R. (1922). Round about Calcutta. Calcutta: OUP. Retrieved from http://archive.org/details/roundaboutcalcut00minnrich

Mukherjee, S. (2011). Leisure and recreation in colonial Bengal: A sociocultural study. In IHC: Proceedings, 71st Session, 2010-11. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/44147545?seq=1

Roberts, E. (1839). The East India voyager, or, Ten minutes advice to the outward boun. London: Madden. Retrieved from https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/193246575?q&versionId=211570278

Sen, A. P. (1993). Hindu Revivalism in Bengal, 1872–1905: Some Essays in Interpretation. New Delhi: OUP. Retrieved from https://books.google.com.au/books?id=ZCwpDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT47&lpg=PT47&dq=jyotirindranath+maidan+horse&source=bl&ots=mpVG5W2xkS&sig=ACfU3U30J0X-sa2ToOMLn1AjgzWARWVcaA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjwkJOUrajoAhVaeX0KHYMGCRsQ6AEwAHoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=jyotirindranath m

Westrip, Joyce P, and P. H. (2010). Colonial Cousins: A Surprising History of Connections Between India and Australia. Kent Town: Wakefield. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.in/books?id=ALbaCwe6VHkC&pg=PR4&lpg=PR4&dq=A+surprising+history+of+connections+between+India+and+Australia+by+Joyce+Westrip+and+Peggy+Holroyde&source=bl&ots=zzor8RrxQ1&sig=ACfU3U1NylPfKTO2iTXbYFNByhjgvS-0zQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjspeP3yILnAhXs73MBHUpTCMw4ChDoATAFegQICBAB#v=onepage&q=horse&f=false

চৌধুরী, প্রমথ. (1914). চুটকি। প্রবন্ধ সংগ্রহ

https://bn.wikisource.org/wiki/%E0%A6%AA%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%A4%E0%A6%BE:%E0%A6%AA%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%A8%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%A7_%E0%A6%B8%E0%A6%82%E0%A6%97%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%B9_-_%E0%A6%AA%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%AE%E0%A6%A5_%E0%A6%9A%E0%A7%8C%E0%A6%A7%E0%A7%81%E0%A6%B0%E0%A7%80.pdf/%E0%A7%A7%E0%A7%A6%E0%A7%AA

              HORSES AND MOUNTED GAMES IN COLONIAL CALCUTTA

PRELUDE Not until the British revamped army to recapture Calcutta in 1757, horses in India had the leading role in wars, and in everyday public and private life as well.

HORSES AND MOUNTED GAMES IN COLONIAL CALCUTTA PRELUDE Not until the British revamped army to recapture Calcutta in 1757, horses in India had the leading role in wars, and in everyday public and private life as well.

[nofomoartworld]

Hyperallergic: An Archive of Early Films Offer a Glimpse of Colonial India

Still from “Panorama of Calcutta” (1899), the earliest extant film of India (screenshot via YouTube)

The British Film Institute (BFI) has digitized and uploaded a major trove of rarely seen films from India, making available for free over 250 films that depict life in its former colonies. The online archive includes the earliest extant footage of the country, dating to 1899, and spans all the way to 1947, the year India attained independence.

Launched early August, the collection is rich and varied, recording everything from scenes of domestic life to busy market streets to extravagant religious processions. Drawn from BFI’s own library, they range from travelogues to home movies to documentaries. Over 100 are on YouTube, with the rest available to viewers in the United Kingdom via BFI’s streaming service.

It’s important to note, though, that those behind the camera were largely amateur British filmmakers, including many political officers such as Basil Gould, and that many of these videos were intended for Western audiences.

“This is India seen through the eyes of the colonist and often with strongly propagandist intention,” as head curator Robin Baker writes in an extensive blog post about the collection. “There are films aimed at inculcating the one-big-happy-family notion of Empire into schoolchildren in the UK. There are newsreels that demonstrate and celebrate the pomp and bombast of British rule with the clout of a giant sledgehammer. Watching films of racing at Calcutta or Shillong you’d be excused for thinking that there were very few actual Indians in India. And there is spectacle — especially in the films of the 1911 Delhi Durbar — that leaves me both awestruck and horrified.”

Of course, there are also the images that highlight the country and its citizens as exotic, including many scenes of animals and snake charmers. The earliest known surviving film, “Panorama of Calcutta,” is a seemingly innocent recording of daily activity along the riverbank; produced by Warwick Trading Company, however, the footage of people washing clothes and bathing was marketed in a way that emphasized their “otherness.” Its title is also incorrect, as the footage was really shot in Varanasi.

There are a number of films shot by Indians, including previously unseen footage of Mahatma Gandhi, filmed by his grandnephew Kanu Gandhi, during the activist’s famous sojourn in Noakhali in 1947. Another arrives from the celebrated filmmaker Bimal Roy: “Tins for India” (1941), an early, mesmerizing documentary that centers on the manufacture of kerosene cans in a factory. It’s also one of the few uploaded films with sound.

Other recordings of note include an early stencil color film of a Delhi street scene from 1909; a film commissioned by then-Lord Erwin that shows colonizers and Indians having an awkward time at a party; and an epic view of worshippers at Lahore’s Badshahi Mosque from 1933 — filmed, according to Baker, with full approval of the mosque’s authorities.

“Cumulatively, these films offer an extraordinary social and political story of Indian history, seen through the eyes of the film-makers, and putting flesh on the bones of book facts with real people and very tangible places,” Baker said in a statement. “The potency of the films is remarkable and undeniable. They are as close as any of us are going to get to time travel.”

The collection is uploaded in partnership with the British Council as part of BFI’s contribution to the UK-India Year of Culture 2017, a bilateral, yearlong celebration of cultural exchange. Details for many of the films, such as their locations and subjects, are still missing, but Baker hopes that viewers will be able to help BFI solve some mysteries to gradually improve the collection.

The post An Archive of Early Films Offer a Glimpse of Colonial India appeared first on Hyperallergic.

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