At Rakhigarhi in Haryana, archaeologists uncovered the 4500-year-old skeleton of a middle-aged woman from the Harappan period. Scientists recovered ancient DNA from her remains;
A casket within a casket… within another. Buried beneath centuries of earth at Lalitgiri, archaeologists uncovered a remarkable series of nested caskets in 1985.
It was because of the system of matrilineal succession in Kerala that Sethu Lakshmi Bayi became the queen, even though she wasn’t born into the ruling dynasty. But as fate would have it, she was the one who paved the way for the end of the practice. This is the fascinating story of one of the most dynamic rulers of the Travancore kingdom.