Swaveda
Indian history, plainly written.
A short daily post on Indian history — archaeology, genetics, historical linguistics, and the texts. Plus side-by-side translations of public-domain primary works. Plain language; no chest-thumping in either direction.
Plain language
Aimed at any curious reader, not the seminar room. Sanskrit / Pali / Tamil terms get a gloss on first use.
Tradition ≠ evidence
“The Mahabharata describes…” and “the Mahabharata war happened in…” are different sentences, and we don’t silently merge them.
Readers can edit
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Latest articles
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The Elamite Frontier: High-Precision Radiocarbon Dates from Tol-e Qaleh Re-Anchor Middle Bronze Age Trade Networks
New absolute radiocarbon dates from Tol-e Qaleh in Iran offer a precise timeline for the Elamite period, reshaping how archaeologists track Middle Bronze Age trade between Mesopotamia, the Gulf, and the Indus.
Vikram Joshi · Oct 28, 2026
The Buried Crucible: Stratigraphy and Radiocarbon Dates at Kodumanal
Industrial hearths and radiocarbon dates from Kodumanal trace South Indian crucible steel production into the mid-first millennium BCE, anchoring regional craft networks in soil and charcoal rather than literary tradition.
Rohan Bhattacharya · Oct 27, 2026
The Western Heaven: How Medieval Chinese Pilgrims Re-Centered World Geography Around India
Between the 4th and 7th centuries, Chinese monks like Faxian and Xuanzang challenged Sinocentric cosmology by declaring India, not China, to be the true sacred center of the world.
Dr. Anil Patel · Oct 27, 2026
The Glass Beads of Ahichchhatra: What Pyrotechnology Reveals About Iron Age Gangetic Sites
Compositional analyses of Iron Age glass beads from Ahichchhatra establish clear timelines for Gangetic pyrotechnology, offering an empirical frame for references to glass in the Mahabharata.
Vikram Joshi · Oct 27, 2026
The Mud-Brick Chronology: What C-14 Dates at Rakhigarhi Reveal About Early Harappan Urbanization
Radiocarbon recalibrations and stratigraphic sections at Rakhigarhi’s lowest levels expose the slow, local assembly of Early Harappan mud-brick architecture in the Ghaggar-Hakra basin.
Rohan Bhattacharya · Oct 26, 2026
Recent translations
All texts →Sanskrit
Arthashastra
Chapter 150 · Book 15, Chapter 1: Paragraphical Divisions of This Treatise
Updated Jul 26, 2026
Sanskrit
Arthashastra
Chapter 149 · Book 14, Chapter 4: Remedies against the Injuries of One's Own Army
Updated Jul 26, 2026
Sanskrit
Arthashastra
Chapter 148 · Book 14, Chapter 3: The Application of Medicines and Mantras
Updated Jul 26, 2026
A note on tone
Swaveda is curious, careful, and dry. There’s no civilizational chest-thumping in either direction here — no “Vedic India invented everything,” no “everything came from outside.” If we get something wrong, tell us. We fix it visibly, with a dated note.