Scrolls & Leaves

In the treacherous Great Basses Reef in Sri Lanka, renowned author Arthur C. Clarke finds a submerged treasure ship with hordes of silver coins

From the mountains of Central Asia comes a musical form that borrows from Nature. Ft. Saylyk Ommun. A Bello Collective "100 Outstanding Podcasts From 2021" favorite.

India's medicinal plants drove exploration, empires and conquest in their transformation from Ayurveda to the bedrock of the modern pharmaceutical industry

In the 1800s, more than a million Indian indentured labourers migrated to British colonies like Fiji, Guyana and South Africa to work on plantations

The world's borders are clamping down for un-vaccinated people, most of whom are poor and/or from the Global South. This echoes events following a 19th century pandemic of cholera which killed millions of people worldwide

Season 1, Episode 3 The Curse of the Kohinoor The ‘Curse of the Kohinoor' is this: Any man who wears the diamond will suffer a terrible fate. But is this true? Or was this simply a story that conveniently allowed the British Empire to justify the colonial appropriation of the diamond?  Maharaja Ranjit Singh was the last Indian owner of the Kohinoor diamond. He was a fair and secular king of Punjab, the Land of Five Rivers, with Lahore as the capital. He was chosen as the greatest ruler of all time by the BBC World Histories Magazine in 2020. When he died in 1839, his 9-year-old son Duleep Singh took over the throne. The British East India Company was watching like a vulture, and conquered the Sikh Empire through treachery. Its representatives plundered the immense wealth of the kingdom and unravelled the socioeconomic fabric of the state in just 6 months.  The Earl of Dalhousie, who was the governor general at the time, further wanted to destroy all symbols of Sikh power. And to this end, he separated the 9-year-old Duleep Singh from his mother, who was jailed for most of her life. And Dalhousie presented both Duleep and the Kohinoor as trophies to Queen Victoria.  That's when news of the terrible curse of the Kohinoor began making the rounds even as the diamond made it onto British shores. Even today, only women in the British Royal family wear the diamond. But is there really a curse? And should the diamond be returned? This episode reveals the true history of the Kohinoor that is conveniently forgotten by the British. Time Markers (mins: sec) 00:24 - Prologue - visit to Lahore Fort 03:35 - Intro - What the episode is about 08:33 - Chapter 1 - A Fair King 13:29 - Chapter 2 - Funeral of a King 16:37 - Chapter 3 - A Boy King 20:29 - Chapter 4 - Plunder 30:48 - Chapter 5 -  Reshaped 39:58 - Credits Podcast Guests Gurinder Singh Mann Friederike Voigt Singing by Deepthi Bhaskar Resources Transcript Reading Suggestions Share Episode Twitter Facebook WhatsApp  Sign up for updates     EMAIL Reading List Amini, I. The Koh-i-noor diamond. (Roli, 2004). “Casualty of War: A Portrait of Maharaja Duleep Singh.” National Museums Scotland, https://www.nms.ac.uk/explore-our-collections/stories/world-cultures/india-in-our-collections Dalrymple, W. & Anand, A. Kohinoor: the story of the world's most infamous diamond. (Juggernaut Books, 2016). The East India Company: The original corporate raiders | William Dalrymple. the Guardian http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/04/east-india-company-original-corporate-raiders (2015). The jewel in the crown: The curse of Koh-i-Noor. The Independent https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/jewel-crown-curse-koh-i-noor-5331805.html (2006). Kinsey, D. C. Koh-i-Noor: Empire, Diamonds, and the Performance of British Material Culture. J. Br. Stud. 48, 391–419 (2009). Nast, C. Why the British Crown Jewels still fascinate today. Vogue Paris https://www.vogue.fr/jewelry/article/crown-jewels-united-kingdom-royal-british (2021). See the Crown Jewels. Historic Royal Palaces https://www.hrp.org.uk/tower-of-london/whats-on/the-crown-jewels/. Sheikh, M. Emperor of the five rivers: the life and times of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. (I.B. Tauris, 2017). Victoria and Albert Museum, O. M. The Court of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/t/the-court-of-maharaja-ranjit-singh/ (2011).  Voigt, Friederike. Mementoes of Power and Conquest: Sikh Jewellery in the Collection of National Museums Scotland. Manchester University Press, 2020. www.manchesterhive.com, https://www.manchesterhive.com/view/9781526139214/9781526139214.00022.xml Voigt,

The Jewels of the Maharajas symbolized power and a connection with the divine. Anyone who wanted to be a greater ruler would want one of them. This is the first of a two-part series on the Kohinoor diamond.

For more than a decade, archaeologists have been searching for the lost port of Muziris on the southwest coast of India. Incredible finds point to maritime trade and links with many ancient cultures, including the Roman Empire: amphorae, semi-precious stones and beads, intaglios, and pottery from throughout the Indian Ocean world. Join us on a visit to a sleepy village in Kerala to learn more about these artifacts and whether this site really is the lost port of Muziris.

In Season 1, Trade Winds, each episode tells a story set on the Indian Ocean as global civilizations connect with South Asia.

Indigenous knowledge protects biodiversity. There are three reasons why scientists should speak to traditional communities and learn from them

A Sanskrit scholar narrates a pandemic story from an ancient Ayurveda text warning about the perils of polluting nature and human health

How indigenous residential schools erased identities and subjected children to horrific abuse across countries and centuries

Anthropologist Nayanika Mathur discusses why there's human animal conflict in India and the importance of non-expert voices

British scientist Sir Ronald Ross tries to stops a deadly cholera outbreak in 1895 Bangalore. He applies learnings from the new field of epidemiology

We revisit a favorite episode about the intersection of traditional and allopathic medicines, with biologist Annamma Spudich

Season 1 We're Going on a Brief Hiatus It goes without saying, this is a difficult time in India, as we cope with the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, among the sadness, anger, and pain, there is also hope. For ourselves, we have found hope in creating this podcast, and learning how history can offer us some guidance in our current times. As we prepare to roll out fresh binaural narrative episodes in Season 1 of Scrolls & Leaves, we are taking a short break. In this episode, we tell you why. And we also have on the show two of our avid listeners for our first-ever Scrolls & Leaves quiz! Resources Transcript Attributions Share Episode Twitter Facebook WhatsApp  Sign up for updates   EMAIL Hey you! Have you signed up for our free letter? This *isn't* a marketing email! We'll send you additional content and links for each episode, and updates about our podcast. Do you prefer episode subscriptions via WhatsApp? Find other ways to follow us here Music "60's Quiz Show" Podington Bear (freemusicarchive.com) Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA  https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Podington_Bear#contact-artist "Lost My Mind (Good Riddance)" Siddhartha Corsus (freemusicarchive.com) Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA  https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Siddhartha#contact-artist

Arghya Manna is a cartoonist who communicates the history of Indian science through comics. He discusses art and famine

From the mountains of Central Asia comes a musical form that borrows from Nature. Ft. Saylyk Ommun.

A painting of a Maharajah by the Singh Twins complicates the Western narrative of a faithful British subject

From the mines of South America, tons of silver travel to Mughal India to fill the coffers of Emperors

The rise of Desi Hip Hop is the result of the South Asian diaspora looking for ways to express their identity. It's spread across the world.

The appearance of severed breasts on a windowsill reveals lessons about the perils of harsh policing

The British took Indians to Fiji to work on plantations. There, they would sing bidesia, lamenting for a lost homeland.

The influx of technology such as pocket watches beginning in the 1860s transformed India's traditional medical systems

Indians are sharing space with predators and wild animals, with deadly consequences. How can we co-exist? Ft. Nayanika Mathur

In India, each illness was assigned a Disease Goddess who was believed to both cause and protect from the disease

British scientist Sir Ronald Ross tries to stops a deadly cholera outbreak in 1895 Bangalore. He applies learnings from the new field of epidemiology

A Sanskrit scholar narrates a tale from one of the oldest Ayurvedic texts, Charaka-samhita, that has surprising resonance with our current lives

A public health vacuum left by governments over decades is being filled by tech companies, which have increased surveillance as a response to Covid-19

Can the great divide between traditional medicine like Ayurveda and allopathic medicines ever be bridged? We look at the evidence with biologist Annamma Spudich

A history of colonial neglect in Calcutta has led to an unusual mode of water delivery. Historian Pratik Chakrabarti also discusses pandemics and discrimination

Folk Healing is the most ancient form of medicine. G. Hariramamurthi has visited more than 12,000 villages across India to document folk medicine practices

Season 1, Episode 2 Healing Plants Use headphones for immersive audio   We know plants are healers, of course. But they're also so much more. They have shaped our history. Just a few centuries ago, they drove exploration, started wars, transformed economies. Today, they are the bedrock of big pharma and traditional medicine empires. We can't fault the modern life-saving drugs that Western medicine has given us. But we wonder if something effervescent doesn't get lost when plants become pills? Perhaps the traditional and holistic healing framework that medicinal plants once belonged to? Time Markers (mins: sec) 0:28 - Murder on the Karakoram Pass 6:00 - Overview of the episode 7:34 - Chapter 1: Plants as healers 12:00 - Chapter 2: Plants as drivers of Empire 19:00 - The story of healer Itty Achuden 22:23 - Chapter 3: Plants as commodities 23:40 - A visit to a Madras bazaar with a British surgeon 29:16 - Chapter 4: Agents of conquest Guests Pratik Chakrabarti Annamma Spudich Dominik Wujastyk Ines Županov Resources Transcript References Share Episode Twitter Facebook WhatsApp  Sign up for updates   EMAIL Chatroom Episodes Bonus Episode: Ayurveda & Science Jun 30, 2021We revisit a favorite episode about the intersection of traditional and allopathic medicines, with biologist Annamma Spudich 11: When Technology Meets Ayurveda Feb 3, 2021The influx of technology such as pocket watches beginning in the 1860s transformed India's traditional medical systems 9: Disease Goddesses and Scapegoats Jan 6, 2021In India, each illness was assigned a Disease Goddess who was believed to both cause and protect from the disease 7: An Ancient Pandemic Story Dec 2, 2020A Sanskrit scholar narrates a tale from one of the oldest Ayurvedic texts, Charaka-samhita, that has surprising resonance with our current lives 5: Ayurveda Vs. Science: The Matchup Nov 4, 2020Can the great divide between traditional medicine like Ayurveda and allopathic medicines ever be bridged? We look at the evidence with biologist Annamma Spudich 3: The Most Ancient Medicine Oct 7, 2020Folk Healing is the most ancient form of medicine. G. Hariramamurthi has visited more than 12,000 villages across India to document folk medicine practices References Bower, H. A Trip to Turkistan. The Geographical Journal 5, no. 3: 240-57; 1895. doi:10.2307/1773933. Chakrabarti, Pratik. “Neither of meate nor drinke, but what the Doctor alloweth”: Medicine amidst War and Commerce in Eighteenth-Century Madras. Bull Hist Med. 2006 Spring; 80(1): 1–38. doi: 10.1353/bhm.2006.0009 Freedman, Paul. Search for Flavors Influenced Our World. Yale Center for the Study of Globalization; 2003. https://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/search-flavors-influenced-our-world. Accessed Sept. 12, 2020. Ghanapatigal, Govind Prakash Bhat and Bhat, Satyanarayana; audio production K. Suresh. Powerful Mantra for Medicinal Healing, Oshadhaya Suktam, Yajur Veda. https://youtu.be/AE2RD07FXE0; 2020. More info at https://ghanapati.com/ Gottardi, Davide; Bukvicki, Danka; Prasad, Sahdeo, Tyagi, Amit K. Beneficial Effects of Spices in Food Preservation and Safety. Frontiers in Microbiology, Vol. 7. https://www.

An old draconian law from 1897, when plague hit Bombay, has been reinstated for Covid-19. Interview with historian Tarangini Sriraman

What should nations dowhen a pandemic hits? Historian Alison Bashford talks about the various kinds of borders that define pandemics and immigration

Season 1, Episode 1 Pandemics & Borders Use headphones for immersive audio   We are policing ourselves and our neighbors these days… our governments are certainly tracking us! States are closing national borders. We stay at home waiting for permission to leave. We mull over the loss of civil liberties under the guise of the pandemic. And to understand these responses, we learn about a devastating  pandemic from the 1800s. In 1817, cholera broke out in Bengal and became a pandemic. Millions died. Europeans were ruling most of Asia, and they imposed restrictions on movement that've persisted to this day. Guests David Arnold Alison Bashford Pratik Chakrabarti Martin French Projit Mukharji Tarangini Sriraman Resources Transcript References Share Episode Twitter Facebook WhatsApp  Sign up for updates   EMAIL Bonus Episodes 8: A Disease Sleuth in Bangalore Dec 16, 2020British scientist Sir Ronald Ross tries to stops a deadly cholera outbreak in 1895 Bangalore. He applies learnings from the new field of epidemiology 6: You're being tracked – Pandemic capitalism Nov 18, 2020A public health vacuum left by governments over decades is being filled by tech companies, which have increased surveillance as a response to Covid-19 4: Why Do Colonial Cities Have Bad Water? Oct 21, 2020A history of colonial neglect in Calcutta has led to an unusual mode of water delivery. Historian Pratik Chakrabarti also discusses pandemics and discrimination 2: When Plague Hit Bombay Sep 17, 2020An old draconian law from 1897, when plague hit Bombay, has been reinstated for Covid-19. Interview with historian Tarangini Sriraman 1: Medicine at the Border Sep 2, 2020What should nations dowhen a pandemic hits? Historian Alison Bashford talks about the various kinds of borders that define pandemics and immigration References About IHR. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/ihr/about/en/. Published October 4, 2017. Accessed July 13, 2020. Arnold D. Colonizing the Body: State Medicine and Epidemic Disease in Nineteenth-Century India. Berkeley: University of California Press; 2002. Arnold D. The Indian Ocean as a disease zone, 1500–1950.†. South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies. 1991;14(2):1-21. doi:10.1080/00856409108723152 Bynum W. F. (1993). Policing hearts of darkness: aspects of the international sanitary conferences. History and philosophy of the life sciences, 15(3), 421–434. Frerichs RR. John Snow and the Broad Street Pump: On the Trail of an Epidemic. https://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow/snowcricketarticle.html. Published 2003. Accessed July 13, 2020. Harrison M. A Dreadful Scourge: Cholera in early nineteenth-century India. Modern Asian Studies. 2019;54(2):502-553. doi:10.1017/s0026749x17001032 Huber V. The Unification Of The Globe By Disease? The International Sanitary Conferences On Cholera, 1851–1894. The Historical Journal. 2006;49(2):453-476. doi:10.1017/s0018246x06005280 Low MC. Empire And The Hajj: Pilgrims, Plagues, And Pan-Islam Under British Surveillance, 1865–1908. International Journal of Middle East Studies. 2008;40(2). doi:10.1017/s0020743808080884 Mishra S. Pilgrimage, Politics, and Pestilence: the Haj from the Indian Subcontinent, 1860-1920. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2011.

Season 1 Trailer Visit Muziris, a port on the Malabar coast, described by ancient poets and captured in a trade document called the Muziris Papyrus. Then, hear the co-hosts describe Season 1. Resources Transcript  Share Trailer Twitter Facebook WhatsApp