Mysterious cave paintings in Chhattisgarh In 2014, archaeologist J.R. Bhagat and his team from Chhattisgarh discovered that cave paintings dating back to the same period as the paintings in Bhimbetka, in Kanker district of Bastar, depict what appear to be “aliens” and UFOs. The Chhattisgarh...
Bhimbetka, the earliest known gallery of cave paintings, in India. The rock shelters housing the Bhimbetka cave paintings are a World Heritage Site. The paintings here are the earliest known depiction of human life in India. The Bhimbetka rock shelters are believed to have been...
Shri Chitra Art Gallery The Shri Chitra Art Gallery, housed in the Government Art Museum in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, has a collection of paintings by Raja Ravi Varma, who painted Victorian-style portraits and is best known for his scenes from Indian mythology. The gallery also boasts...
Gold throne The opulence and grandeur of the Mysore palace are legendary. But the one thing that stays indelibly etched in memory is the view of the solid gold throne. Unreal as it seems in today’s world, the jewel-studded, 200 kg gold throne of the...
The tree of life Ahmedabad’s famous SidiSaiyyed mosque was built in 1571 by Ahmed Shah’s Abyssinian slave, SidiSaiyyed. The intricate stone tracery of the windows is typical of the Indo-Saracenic style. In one of the windows, the latticework depicts the tree of life, which is...
Moonrise and sunset on the same horizon The only place in India where the sun can be seen setting as the moon rises on the same horizon is at Kanyakumari on a full moon night. Kanyakumari, the southernmost tip of India, is not just well...
Rajasthan forts were declared as world heritage sites Six forts – Chittorgarh, Kumbhalgarh, Jaisalmer, Ranthambhore (Sawai Madhopur), Gagaron (Jhalawar) and Amber (Jaipur) – were recognised as World Heritage Sites in June 2013. ‘Enclosed within defensive walls are major urban centres, palaces, trading centres that often...
A game of virtues and vice The Sanskrit term for the board game, known today as SaanpSeedi or Snakes and Ladders, is Mokshapat. Originating in India centuries ago, it was played with cowries and dice. Created by the 13th-century poet-saint, Gyandev, to teach children the...
Indian private craft on the moon in 2016 Team Indus, a Delhi-based aerospace research team, was awarded $1 million in the Google Lunar XPrize, for having successfully completed a test of their landing system. It was among five out of 29 teams to be awarded...
Why do kettles whistle? It is presumed that kettles produce a ‘whistle’ because of the vibrations that are produced by built-up steam. Indian aeroacoustics scientist and a lecturer at the University of Cambridge Engineering Department, Anurag Agarwal, and his student Ross Henrywood have identified the...
