Time Travel with Francis Buchanan
The Crucible of Indian Iron & Steel
Our research on
traditional iron and steel smelting began when we visited Channarayanadurga in
Tumakuru District, Karnataka, many years ago, while retracing Buchanan’s Journey. It was a fascinating exploration locating
what could have been the very sites that Buchanan had visited. More significantly, however, it led to a
startling “discovery”: the environmental consequences of this activity that was
not just some small village activity but actually one that was carried out on
an industrial scale.
In this article published in the Times of India we
summarize some of our earlier research findings.
Click below to
view our documentary report as well as read our more academic research on the
subject.
Two Hundred Years of Solitude
Two Hundred Years of Solitude attempts
to capture a small slice of the life of a Goala, Hanumantharayappa. It
felt as though life had never really changed since Buchanan had visited
Medighesi more than two hundred years ago.
Postcards from Midighesi
On 8th August, 1800, Buchanan had visited
Medighesi (Buchanan called it ‘Madigheshy’) and its neighbouring villages to
inquire into the activities of cattle breeders or Goala. More than 200 years later, we visited
Midighesi to capture Buchanan’s mundane descriptions of landscapes of
landscapes and his records of people through photographs.
Read more about it in Live History India
The Eighth Plague: When Locust Swarms Overran Karnataka
In this article,
Lingaraj G. Jayaprakash and Sashi Sivramkrishna draw upon Buchanan’s
description of the havoc caused by locusts near Mandya in Karnataka, while
describing the recent return of locusts across the Indian subcontinent.
- Map
- Article
- Gallery
- Documentary
- Other
