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Watch short videos featuring the hidden stories of India.

Ancient Burial Practices in Tamil Nadu | Keeladi

Burial sites are among the most important sources of information for archaeologists. The excavations at Keeladi, Adichanallur, Korkai and other places in Tamil Nadu have thrown up a host of burial urns, skeletal remains and other grave goods. These finds reveal much about the oldest settlements in south India through the ways in which they dealt with death. This video, the latest in our series around the Keeladi excavations, explores the different burial rites and practices of ancient Tamils and how they help us understand our history and cultures of the past better.
The oldest settlements in south India

The Oldest Settlements in South India: The Keeladi Excavations

How old are the oldest settlements in south India? This video explores the story of the recent excavations at Keeladi, which revealed the existence of a sophisticated Tamil civilisation dating back at least to the 6th century BCE. But did you know that archaeological digs carried out over a 100 years earlier at sites like Adichanallur and Pallavaram had already hinted at human habitation sites in Tamil Nadu dating back thousands of years? How have these path-breaking excavations changed our understanding of ancient south Indian history?
Story of Indian scripts

The Story of Indian Scripts – Part 2 | The Potshard Inscriptions of Keeladi

What can a few fragments of pottery tell us about how people wrote 5000 years ago? Quite a lot, as it turns out. The Keeladi excavations of 2015 pointed to the existence of a literate ancient Tamil civilisation that could go as far back as 800 BCE. Among the most significant finds was a series of potshards with different inscriptions, which offered many fascinating insights about the evolution of scripts in India.
Atiranachanda cave inscriptions

The Story of Indian Scripts – Part 1 | The cave inscriptions of Mamallapuram

Which are the oldest languages and scripts in India? Is there a mother of all scripts, in a land that is as diverse and variegated as India? What similarities or differences exist between the south Indian scripts, and do they have anything in common with the ones used in north India? The first of this two-part video story explores these fascinating questions and more as it traces the evolution of Indian scripts over the last 2500 years.

A Story of Two Indian Festivals

The Varaha Mandapa, a 7th century rock-cut cave temple in Mamallapuram, is home to many fascinating tales set in stone. One of the most spectacular panels in the cave features the Trivikrama or Vamana avatar of Vishnu, in which he defeats the demon king Mahabali. This epic tale also happens to be the origin story of Onam, the harvest festival of Kerala.

The Buddhist Relics of Amaravati | Egmore Museum, Chennai

The 2000 year old Amaravati marbles at the Egmore Museum in Chennai are the remnants of a Buddhist stupa built by the mighty Satavahana kings. Who were these Hindu kings that created such beautiful Buddhist art? What does a small statue of Hercules sitting amidst Buddhist relics at the Museum tell us about the evolution of Buddhism? Watch this video to know all this and more!

What date is it really? The Hindu Calendar

When is New Year's day? Well, that depends on who you ask. For many in the north, Diwali is New Year's day. But it falls on different days each year. The Tamil, Malayalees, Punjabis and Assamese celebrate their New Year on 14 April. But the Telugus, Kannadigas and Maharashtrians celebrate their New Year on different dates. How are these dates determined and why are calendars so different for people in the same country? This story will you through time of how calendars evolved, how ancient Indians and people across the world measured time.

The triumphs and tragedies of Shah Jahan | Taj Mahal, Agra

The Mughal succession wars were brutal; princes killed their own siblings, and family ties were broken in a mad scramble for the throne. The mighty emperor Shah Jahan was no exception. This is the story of an unforgiving system that catapulted Shah Jahan to the throne of the richest kingdom in the world, but reduced his personal life to a terribly tragic one.