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 Imperial Quarter: How Akbar’s Shaitanpura Reshaped the Mughal Urban Economy
Beyond high-status courtesans, Mughal Emperor Akbar segregated and regulated ordinary sex work in state-managed quarters named Shaitanpura, transforming urban morality into a bureaucratized system of tax and control.
Kavya Sharma · Oct 31, 2026
The Genomic Divergence of Zebu and Water Buffalo: How Early Holocene South Asian Herders Domesticated Indigenous Bovids
Genomic and zooarchaeological records show South Asia was an independent bovid domestication hub. Early Holocene herders domesticated indigenous wild aurochs and wild buffalo into zebu and river buffalo lineages.
Dr. Anil Patel · Oct 31, 2026
The Philology of Forbidden Kinship: What Sanskrit Dharmaśāstras Reveal About Exogamy Boundaries
Sanskrit Dharmaśāstras constructed detailed exogamy rules through gotra and sapiṇḍa. Indological analysis shows how classical texts defined forbidden unions and how scholars debate their historical reality.
Meera Iyer · Oct 31, 2026
Coins as Evidence of Conflict: How Roman Hoards and Epigraphy Map Ancient Piracy in the Arabian Sea
Physical Roman coin hoards and Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions offer hard evidence of how ancient Indian Ocean trade networks defended against high-seas violence along the Malabar Coast.
Devika Menon · Oct 31, 2026
The Weaver’s Loom in the Lexicon: What Austroasiatic Substrate Words in Vedic Sanskrit Reveal About Early Gangetic Textile Trade
Comparative linguistics and archaeobotany reveal how Austroasiatic substrate loanwords in Vedic Sanskrit track the Bronze and Iron Age adoption of cotton processing in the Gangetic plain.
Asha Naidu · Oct 31, 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.