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 Potsherds of Quseir al-Qadim: What Tamil-Brahmi Graffiti on Red Sea Amphorae Reveals About Early Indo-Roman Merchant Guilds
Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions on 1st-century CE pottery fragments at the Egyptian port of Quseir al-Qadim offer physical evidence of early South Indian merchants operating within the Roman Red Sea trade networks.
Rohan Bhattacharya · Aug 26, 2026
The Barley of Burzahom: What New Paleobotanical Analyses Reveal About Neolithic Kashmir
A re-examination of soil flotation samples from the Kashmir Valley's earliest Neolithic levels challenges long-held assumptions about early crop choices, pointing to a localized preference for hardy barley.
Rohan Bhattacharya · Aug 25, 2026
The Pottery of Tepe Sadegh: What Bronze Age Ceramics Reveal About Helmand-Harappan Trade
New chemical and stylistic analysis of Bronze Age pottery from Tepe Sadegh in Iran maps the overland trade networks connecting the Helmand civilization with early Indus Valley settlements.
Vikram Joshi · Aug 25, 2026
The Smelters of Naikund: What Slag Micromorphology in Vidarbha Reveals About Early Deccan Iron Logistics
Recent analyses of iron smelting furnaces and tap slag at Naikund reveal a highly organized regional production and distribution network in the early Deccan Iron Age.
Rohan Bhattacharya · Aug 24, 2026
The Bronze of Brahmagiri: What Lead Isotope Ratios Reveal About Early Deccan Metallurgy
Archaeometallurgical analysis of Western Deccan bronzes challenges old assumptions of southern Indian resource self-sufficiency, revealing complex medieval trade networks for copper and tin.
Rohan Bhattacharya · Aug 23, 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.