It was only very recently that the Govt. of India made it mandatory for candidates to declare their assets for standing in elections. It seems in 10th century AD in some villages in Tamil Nadu, such a system already existed.

The newly-discovered Tamil inscriptions of Parantaka Chola and Parthivendrathipathi Varman, dating back to the 10th century A.D., in a village called Pazhaiya Seevaram, show that those elected to the local assembly (called variyam in the inscriptions) had to take the oath of office and disclose their assets every year to the assembly. Besides, the accountant of the local assembly had to give a list of his assets to the assembly.
This system of local self-government in the villages is an important feature of the 10th century Chola administration. Uttiramerur, about 25 km. from in Kancheepuram, is famous for the inscriptions found there about its self-government, the election system based on ballots, qualifications for candidates and the subsequent relaxation of qualifications. The inscriptions at Uttiremerur of Parantaka Chola I (907-955 A.D.) were dated 917 A.D. and 921 A.D.
According to Dr. Rajavelu, the inscriptions belonging to the 15th regnal year of Parantaka Chola-I (922 A.D.) reveal that the assembly waselected through wards (kudumpu) of the village and through the Brahminical assembly (sabha). The members of the variyam received an annual payment of two kalanju of gold for their work as variya perumakkal. They were not to receive any other payments or concessions. They had to perform their variyam work and list their assets every year.The inscriptions at both Uttiramerur and Pazhaiya Seevram showed that there was an excellent system of self-government at the village level in Tamil Nadu in the 10th century A.D., the epigraphist said. [Declaration of assets dates back to the Cholas]

Related Link: India – Democracy and Identity

One of the monuments that survived the tsunami was the shore temple of Mahabalipuram (named after Mahabali of Onam festival or Pallava king Mamalla).

Once upon a time, in the first century A.D., it was a tiny port town bustling with life.
By the 6th century, it had become the capital of the Pallava kings who ruled these shores and built several exquisite temples to thank the deities for their thriving empire.
However, some time in the past, the town was abandoned, probably because the sea engulfed it and the temples and rock monuments were buried in heaps of sand.
It was only in the 1800s that the exquisite rock carvings and temples, said to be the oldest surviving temples on the east coast of India, about 60 km south of Chennai, were rediscovered and unearthed by British architects. [Mammoth temple that withstood tsunami]

The current temple survived because it had hard rock bases embedded very deep. But then according to local mythology there were seven temples and six of them were swallowed by the sea. Graham Hancock and team spent time doing some marine archaeology and found some structures under the ocean.

Diving in challenging conditions, the team found the “foundation of walls, broken pillars, steps, and many scattered stone blocks,” said Kamlesh Vora, a marine archaeologist with NIO.
Vora, Halls, and the rest of the team were quickly convinced that they had made a major discovery of man-made structures. “Here there would be no furrowed brows, no peering at reefs from different angles, no dusting for elusive archaeological fingerprints,” said Halls. “Here man was everywhere.”
“All structures are made of granite stone which is locally available,” Vora continued. “The archaeological and inscriptional evidence of sites on land near shore indicate a possible date of construction of these structures between 1,500 to 1,200 years before present. We now need to carry out detailed explorations and searches for datable antiquities and inscriptional evidences on the finds.”
If the Mahabalipuram ruins are found to be of the same temple complex as the shore temple, the discovery would lend credence to the local tales that outsiders have often disregarded as legend. [New Underwater Finds Raise Questions About Flood Myths]

Ancient coins belonging to the era of Hindu kings Harsha and Kalsha have been unearthed by some labourers during construction work at Watnar near Kokernag in Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir.
An earthen urn containing the copper coins weighing 16.3 kgs and dating back to at least 10 centuries were found by the labourers a few days back when they were working on the plinth for construction of a religious school, the Department of Archaeology, Archives and Museums (AAM) said here today.
Describing them as “priceless”, an AAM spokesman told reporters, “the coins are of Hindu period and were in vogue during the reign of Harsha and Kalsha.” The urn was handed over by the labourers to Deputy Commissioner Ananantag who handed them over to the department. The department did not give the actual number of coins in the urn but said research would be conducted to decipher the language inscribed on them as also to find out the exact age. [Ancient coins unearthed in J-K]

Harsha who ruled from 1089-1111 AD started as a noble king, but later as he ran into financial troubles, he started destroying temples for gold. He even had an office for the destruction of gods.

An archaeological excavation in Taxila has discovered both Buddhist and Hindu artifacts dating back to the first century AD.

The Pakistan government’s archaeology department has discovered eight antiquities dating back to the first century AD, including rare sculptures of ‘future’ Buddha, Hindu God Indra and his bodyguard from an ancient archaeological site very near to Taxila, considered as a seat of learning during the Buddhist period.

According to the Daily Times, experts from the archaeology department’s preservation and restoration team unearthed the treasures while carrying on preservation work at the world renowned Dharmarajika Stupa and monastery dating back to 3rd century BC to 5th Century AD, regarded as the epitome of the Gandhara civilization.

Archaeologists have confirmed that one of the antiquities excavated depicts in exact detail the ‘the reappearance of Buddha’ as told in Buddhist

Apart from the other discovery of Corinthian capital, which was used in Magna, Garcia and Sicily from the early third century, the statue of Indra, regarded as the rain god in Vedic mythology and another depicting the bodyguard of Indra has also interested experts to a great extent. [Buddhist antiquities unearthed near Taxila]

The Kunindas are a tribe who were dominant in Himachal Pradesh sometime between 1st century BC and 3 rd century AD. I looked up all the history books I have and none of them mention this tribe at all.

The Kunindas were dominant in Himachal Pradesh for a long time. They are mentioned in epics and puranas. In the Mahabharata they are known to have been defeated by Arjuna. In the Vishnu Purana the Kuninda territory has been named specifically as Kulindopatyaka foothills. Varahamehra also places them somewhere in the Himalayan region.

On the basis of literary sources Cunningham has identified the ancient Kulindas with the present day Kunets of Kulu and Shimla. Ptolemy believed the origin of Kuninda in the country irrigated by the river Ganga, Yamuna, Sutlej and Beas.

Incidentally most of the Kuninda coins have been found in places associated with these rivers e.g. Kashipur, Kumaon, Saharnpur, Garhwal, Haryana and Punjab. In Himachal, Kuninda coins have been found at Tappa-Mewa in Hamirpur district, Jawalamukhi and Kangra. A hoard of coins was discovered at Chakker in the Balh valley. With the study of these coins and the knowledge of the places from where the discoveries were made one can conclude that this Kuninda tribe ruled this region from 1st century B.C. to 3rd century A.D.

The Kuninda issued two types of coins. One type was issued about 1st century B.C. and the other about three centuries later. The present hoard was issued during the 1st century B.C. and bears the name Amogbhuti.

The obverse of the coin is in Brahmi and reverse in Khroshti. The obverse has a deer on the right and Lakshmi is facing it. On the reverse a five- arched hill surmounted by Nandipada, on the right a tree in the railing and on the left two swastik and Inderdhwaja. At the bottom is a wavy line representing a river. [Kuninda coins found via India Archaeology]

Amartya Sen has an article in New York Review of Books on the 2000 year old relation between China and India. Since ancient times China has exported its goods to India and India exported Buddhism and Mathematics to China.

As it happens, relations between China and India almost certainly began with trade, not with Buddhism. Some two thousand years ago the consumption habits of Indians, particularly of rich Indians, were radically influenced by innovations from China. A treatise on economics and politics by the great Sanskrit scholar Kautilya, first written in the fourth century BCE, though revised a few centuries later, gives a special place to “silk and silk-cloth from the land of China” among “precious articles” and “objects of value.” In the ancient epic Mahabharata there are references to Chinese fabric or silk (cinamsuka) being given as presents, and there are similar references in the ancient Laws of Manu.
Chinese records show that several Indian astronomers and mathematicians held high positions in the Astronomical Bureau at the Chinese capital during this period. Not only did one of them, Gautama, became president of the Board of Astronomy in China, he also produced the great Chinese compendium of astronomy, Kaiyvan Zhanjing, an eighth-century scientific classic. He adapted a number of Indian astronomical works for publication in Chinese, among them the Jiuzhi li, which draws on a particular planetary calendar in India and is clearly based on a classical Sanskrit text, produced around 550 CE by the mathematician Varahamihira. This work is mainly an algorithmic guide to computation, estimating, for example, the duration of eclipses based on the diameter of the moon and other relevant parameters. The techniques involved drew on methods established by Aryabhata in the late fifth century, and then further developed by his followers in India, including Varahamihira and Brahmagupta. [Passage to China]

One of the travelers Fax-ian who came to India in 401 AD was impressed by the medical facilities in Bihar and wrote

All the poor and destitute in the country…and all who are diseased, go to these houses, and are provided with every kind of help, and doctors examine their diseases. They get the food and medicines which their cases require, and are made to feel at ease; and when they are better, they go away of themselves.

In the 21st century Bihar both the doctors and patients are in trouble.

Sean-Paul Kelley of the Agonist has an entry on Jaisalmer, which lies in the middle of Thar Desert in Rajasthan. This was one of the major cities on the camel route to Persia before Mumbai became an important port city.

Built in 1156, the city sits along the old southern trade routes heading west out of India across Persia and into the Levant–finally the goods were shipped to Italy in exchange for European gold during the Italian Renaissance. Like the great merchants of Italy the Jains here in Jaisalmer built magnificent houses called havelis and temples intricately carved temples to rival those at Mt. Abu south of here. The city is a small oasis town amidst desert and adjacent the frontier with Pakistan.

The massive fort that looms above town was built by the Maharaja Jaisala in 1156 to ward off Muslim invaders from the West. It has 99 bastions, still holds 25% of the population and has a most stunning view from the top.

Inside the fort are two Jain temples dedicated to Rikhabdev and Sanbharanath respectively, and were built between 1156 and 1400. The Hindu temple is rather plain. Although the city is 20% Muslim I haven’t yet located the Mosque.

The city certainly isn’t as magnificent as Samarkand or Bukhara but it is a step above Dunhuang and Kashgar. [Jaisalmer]

A new paper titled Ethnic India: A genomic view with special reference to peopling and structure (via India Archaeology) reports on some interesting facts. The results are based on statistical analysis of DNA data from a large Indian population.

• There is an underlying unity of female lineages in India indicating that the initial number of female settlers may have been small.
• The studies support the hypothesis that Austro-Asiatic tribals are the earliest inhabitants of India.
• In most cases we speak of immigration to India via the Afghanistan-Pakistan-Indus Valley route, the paper says that the Northeastern corridor also served as a passage to India. It suggests prot-Tibeto-Burman people leaving their homeland in the Yellow River basin and crossing the Himalayas to India.
• The paper also comes up with data supporting the thesis that Dravidian speakers were widespread throughout India and when Indo-European language speaking people entered India and created the caste system, the Dravidian speakers would have retreated southwards.
• Central Asia is supposed to have contributed in a major way to the Indian gene pool. Populations of North India are genetically closer to Central Asia. South Indians share less similarity and Northeast Indians share the least.

The most important immigration to India is that of the so called Aryans who came via the Pakistan-Afghanistan route. There was another wave of immigration via the northeast border though not much is mentioned about it. It has been proved that some people of Mizoram are related to Jews and belong to one of the Lost Tribes and they entered India via Burma. But that was only 300 years back.
Another point is that if South Indias share less similarity with Central Asians then the assertion that Thiyyas came from Kyrgistan may not be true.

Remember the Lake Palace in Udaipur, the place where James Bond met Octopussy. Now if you go there, you will be able to see the palace, but the lake is slowly disappearing.

The people of Udaipur are only now beginning to understand how the lake is more than just a beauty spot. In fact, it is part of a highly sophisticated rainwater catchment system planned in the 16th century. When the then Maharana of Mewar laid out the city as his new capital, he built dams to create Lake Pichola as part of a series of artificial lakes he constructed around the city. They are strategically placed so that if the monsoon fails over one lake, another will catch rainwater from the other side of the watershed that runs near Udaipur, and the lakes are interconnected.

But the state government is now, at last, taking steps in the right direction, say the people of Udaipur. They have started a major programme of reforestation for the denuded hills. Refilling Lake Pichola has been made the top priority, and the authorities have pledged to remove any villagers’ dams that are blocking the flow of water. They have also pledged to stop pumping drinking water out of the lake until it is restored to its former level.

Riding on horseback over the green lake-bed, Mr Joseph, the executive at the Lake Palace, says: “You know, some guests have told me Udaipur doesn’t need its lake. It still has so much to offer.” He points to the wild horses grazing. “You would never see them if the lake was full. They wouldn’t come down from the hills. The palace still has so much to offer.” And he is right. Even as he speaks, a traditional musical troupe is preparing to use the dry lake- bed as a performance area to entertain the guests. [Heat and dust consume India’s City of the Lakes via India Archaeology]

Udaipur was named so in 1572 in the name of Udai Singh who founded the place. From there the house of Mewar defied the might of the Mughal empire and was the base of the Rajputs. Udaipur is also the home of Bagheera, the panther in Jungle Book.

The mythologies are filled with people of superhuman powers. So in Ramayana we have Ravan with 10 heads and Hanuman who could fly from Lanka to the Himalayas. The fact is if such people existed, how come we don’t have 10 headed people now ? A Berkeley Professor has got interested in finding the truth behind all these symbols.

Ten-headed demon king Ravana of the Hindu epic Ramayana actually had one head and the other nine were its reflection on the nine large polished gems that he wore around his neck, an American scholar of Sanskrit has reasoned.

In a lecture in New Delhi titled, “How fast do monkeys fly? How long do demons sleep?” where he read commentaries on Sanskrit epic poetry, Goldman said ancient scholars like Nagoji Bhatta, Govindaraja, Maheshwara Teertha, Satyateertha and Madhava Yogendra tried to “track down the narrative” and explain through “scientific reasoning” the seeming exaggerations in the works. [Hanuman flew at 660 km per hour]

How will gems around the neck reflect the head ? And the “scientific” explanation is not on how monkeys could fly, but on how fast he could fly. I wonder what this professor teaches.