With the increasing British involvement in Indian affairs in the 18 century, several civil and military officers of the east India company started taking an interest in the scientific investigation of local fauna, particularly birds. Most of them were amateur bird-watchers who spent their leisure moments observing birds. This satisfying hobby soon became a passion resulting in scholarly papers and books with coloured plates, thus laying the scientific foundation ...
The Ganga occupies an unrivalled position among the rivers of the world. No other river is so closely identified with a country as the Ganga is with India. Nor has any river elsewhere in the world influenced to a greater extent the life of the country through which it flows. Cities and pilgrimage centers teeming with temples and shrines have sprung up all along its course – milestones in the history of the land and the growth of Indian civilization. The ...
Starting with the Greek Megasthenes who noticed the Indians worshipping the Ganga in 302 B.C. and ending with the New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillay who led a jet boat expedition up the river in 1977, travelers of different nationalities and religions have left absorbing accounts of life along the Ganga through the ages. The information provided b them is vast and varied, and we find detailed and delightful descriptions of social customs and ceremonies, periodical ...
One of the oldest inhabited cities in the world and the holiest in India, Varanasi has attracted pilgrims from all over India for over 2500 years. No account of the travels of Indian visitors and pilgrims to the city, however, is available because of the non-existence of the tradition of recording impressions of such visits by Indians. Nor is there any record of foreign travellers visiting Varanasi until four centuries ago. It was then that travellers from ...