Blog Posts by Indu Sundaresan

American History American Civil War, Appomattox Court House, End of the Civil War, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant

The end of the American Civil War–Appomattox Court House–All About Robert E. Lee–Part 3

by Indu Sundaresan April 22, 2024 No Comments

Part 3 of 5 (Part 1 here; Part 2 here)

If Robert E. Lee had written his own memoir, he might well have started it with the same phrase Ulysses S. Grant used in his, “My family is American. . .”

In the America of the late nineteenth century of Grant and Lee—after enormous tracts had been released by the Louisiana Purchase and Lewis & Clark had gone on their expedition of exploration of the wild, wild west—there was a strong movement westward to fill in the spaces, and not enough people to populate them. So, began another wave of immigration into the U.S.

I suppose then it became a matter to pride to distinguish yourself from the new Americans, which was why Grant emphatically used that curious phrase.

American History American Civil War, Appomattox Court House, End of the Civil War, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant

The end of the American Civil War—Appomattox Court House—All About Ulysses S. Grant–Part 2

by Indu Sundaresan February 13, 2024 3 Comments

(Part 2 of 5); Part 1 here

The American Civil War ended in the village of Appomattox Court House, bringing to a culmination four long years of hardship, privation, and a vast destruction of life and property.

A civil war—and I’d made the comparison of it with a fierce family conflict—is fought between people who have. . .connections, either some point of contact somewhere in the past, or childhood tussles, or familial links, or even long adult friendships.

Most of the officers on both sides were West Point graduates, which meant four years of study, and four overlapping graduating classes, and so, they most of them knew each other from college. The ones who stayed on in the army after graduating had further associations, either serving below or above their antagonists in this American Civil War.

Interestingly enough, the two generals who commanded the opposing armies—despite their both being military men, both graduates of West Point, part of the army family—had come across each other only once. This was during the Mexican War (1846-48) when Lee was Chief of Staff for General Scott, who was directing the U.S. Army, and Grant a mere lieutenant. It was a. . .non-meeting, really.

American History American Civil War, Appomattox Court House, End of the Civil War, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant

The end of the American Civil War—Appomattox Court House—A village steeped in history–Part 1

by Indu Sundaresan January 28, 2024 7 Comments

(Part 1 of 5)

https://youtube.com/shorts/8ASkwqPqrLY

We’re on a long drive from…well, one place to another this past summer, and I’m bored and swiping on the map on my phone for somewhere to stop and stretch our legs. A name pops up. Appomattox. Appo-ma-ttox. Appo—

My kid, in the back seat (who’s obviously been paying attention in history class) pipes up, and fixes my memory into place.

We redirect the GPS, and we’re off. It’s a good thirty miles aslant of our intended route, but what matter, when there are such riches to be met at the end of it!

India Ancient India, Ancient Indian History, Chola Dynasty, History, South India

Ancient India–The Airavateshwar Temple–Legacy in Stone–Part 3

by Indu Sundaresan October 29, 2023 5 Comments

Part 1 here; Part 2 here

We just left the thriving Chola dynasty of ancient India extinguished at the end of the 4^th Century CE. All of a sudden, and with no seeming explanation.

And then, for three centuries there was nothing out of southern India. It was as though entire existence had been wiped out. Because there’s nothing to tell us of which dynasties ruled, who they fought, who they married, what they built, or whom they patronized.

By the 6^th Century, one of the other kingdoms of ancient India (who had ruled alongside the Early Cholas) emerged in power, along with another two.

And, still, no Cholas.

India Ancient India, Ancient Indian History, Chola Dynasty, History, South India, Temples

Ancient India–The Airavateshwar Temple–Legacy in Stone–Part 2

by Indu Sundaresan October 10, 2023 4 Comments

Part 1 here

We’re on our (somewhat leisurely, I know!) way to the Airavateshwar Temple in Kumbakonam in southern India, built by the Later Cholas who ruled from the ninth to the thirteenth century. Later, because yes, there were the Early Cholas in ancient India from the first to the fourth centuries, and a gap between these two during which the entire dynasty disappears from all historical story line.

In the first post, I introduced the Early Cholas, because their reign—even that far back—is surprisingly well documented in more than two thousand poems written on palm-leaf manuscripts. (This is the oldest known history of south India.)

We visited the Early Chola King Karikala’s capital city at Kaveripattinam in the modern-day state of Tamilnadu, flitted through his palace, wandered down streets, stood at the docks at mouth of the Kaveri River, and marveled at the brisk trade and the mammoth ships from other parts of India and from Egypt.

India Ancient India, Ancient Indian History, Chola Dynasty, History, South India, Temples

Ancient India–The Airavateshwar Temple–Legacy in Stone—Part 1

by Indu Sundaresan August 15, 2023 13 Comments

Kumbakonam is a city in southern India where God dwells. In plenty. There are some 200 temples, most dedicated to Shiva, some to Vishnu and one of the very few places of worship to Brahma.

That is not all. Drive outside the city limits, and you will invariably glimpse the gopurams—the entrance stupas—of hundreds more etched against the sky. That is because the city is itself of great antiquity, inhabited since pre-Vedic times in ancient India, although most of the existing temples are either of more recent construct or date back to the 7^th Century or so.

England Bath, Bath Abbey, Churches, England, History

Bath Abbey–A Storied History–Part 2

by Indu Sundaresan July 28, 2023 2 Comments

Part 1 here

My kingdom for a wife (and an heir):

In the early 16^th Century, Bath Abbey and England had a new king, desperate for an heir, married to a woman who could not give him a son.

Henry VIII, who had not expected the throne, was a carousing, hard-living man, tilting in yards, hunting, drinking and eating until late hours. And, he had a roving eye. Eventually, he decided that the first wife would not do, and to divorce her, he toppled the entire religious establishment in England.

Ultimately, Henry would have six wives, with a ditty to immortalize their fates: ‘Died, beheaded, died. Died, beheaded, alive.’

England Bath, Bath Abbey, Churches, England, History

Bath Abbey–A Storied History–Part 1

by Indu Sundaresan July 17, 2023 3 Comments

Economics at Bath:

What, you might ask, does the church of Bath Abbey have to do with the study of economics? Follow me here for a bit, please.

Take an Economics 101 class, and you will learn that Adam Smith is the ‘father’ of modern economics. If Smith’s the father, then Thomas Malthus, with his theory on food production and population growth, is surely the ‘son’ of. I’m muddling around here a bit, but what I mean to say is that both Smith and Malthus were hugely influential in their economic philosophies.

The economist, Thomas Malthus, is buried at Bath Abbey — **Thomas Robert Malthus.** Source.

I write fiction now, but I do have three degrees in economics, and when I heard that Thomas Malthus was buried at Bath Abbey, I had to go pay my respects at his memorial.

Malthus’ theory of population explosion is simple and reasonable enough. If food production grows, then it doesn’t necessarily, over time, lead to a better standard of living, because the population growth will eventually eat up all the food surplus.

England Bath, England, History, Jane Austen, Roman Baths

The Roman Baths at Bath–Healing Waters—Part 2

by Indu Sundaresan June 15, 2019 3 Comments

The Roman Baths that were:

The Roman Baths today don’t any longer function as usable baths. Waters are still pumped through ancient lead pipes into the bath, but they’re green with algae (pretty, actually!)–a sign that it’s not a good idea to try drinking it, or even trailing your fingers through it.

**Early excavations unearthed the Great Bath (right) and the circular Cold Water Pool (left).**
Source: *Outlines of European History* by James Henry Breasted. 1914.

England Bath, England, History, Roman Baths

The Roman Baths at Bath–Healing Waters—Part 1

by Indu Sundaresan April 10, 2019 4 Comments

But…not all the credit goes to the Romans, surely:

Before the Romans came to England and built the Roman Baths at Bath, there was good king Lud Hudibras. He ruled over England sometime in the 7^th or 8^th Century BCE, and had both a great sorrow and a terrible dilemma. His son had leprosy, a devastating disease, with no cure in the times in which he lived. Otherwise, this boy, Bladud, was a fine, stalwart young man, engaging of manner, fine of face and form, a splendid heir to a vast kingdom.

But, Bladud could not live at the English court anymore. Over time, this dreaded illness would eat away at his extremities, turning his hands and feet into stumps, causing everyone to recoil from him in disgust. What sort of a future king would Bladud make?