Walking in Buchanan’s Footsteps
We recall some of our insights into lives, livelihoods and landscapes of southern India as we retrace the Journey of Francis Buchanan (1800-01). Read our piece published in Live History India in February 2019.
Read More
Choultries, Chatrams and Mantappas
Our search for Veera Perumal Pillai Choultry or what is now called Pillai Chatram on Buchanan’s route not far from Chennai (then Madras) opened up new insights into this important pre-colonial institution. Unfortunately, the condition of the two chatrams that we visited, i.e. Pillai Chatram and another at Ocheri (then Wochuru) were to put it […]
Read More
A Looming Past
“A Looming Past” weaves together a multi-layered narrative of the lives of traditional coarse blanket weavers in a small southern Indian village in Karnataka State, Yaravarahalli. Coarse blanket weaving is a traditional caste-based occupation that continues to be practiced as it has been for centuries with almost no technological encroachment. To our surprise, we found […]
Read More
A Short Journey to Ramnagara
Just 50 kilometers from Bangalore is the small town of Ramanagara. Buchanan had stoped by at this town, then a village, providing interesting details on its location, the hill adjacent to the village and the temple atop the hill. He had also recorded the existence of the Chensu tribe or Iruligars, who have now been […]
Read More
Estimating Agricultural Productivity
In 1800 and 1801 Francis Buchanan conducted one of the first agricultural surveys in the erstwhile Mysore state and its adjoining regions. By subjecting data contained in his survey to rigorous analytical study, estimates of agricultural productivity in terms of per capita grain output for two regions in Southern India; the erstwhile Mysore state and […]
Read More