Calicut and the Discovery of Brazil

Bringing vibrancy to Kerala’s temples is the ‘Kerala Mural’, an ancient painting tradition also seen in churches and palaces in the southern state. Catch the story of these fantastic but fragile art works, considered iconic in India’s rich artistic tradition.

The earliest mosque, church and synagogue - all can be found here! Kerala’s Malabar Coast may be a popular tourist destination today but it was once a melting pot of traders, travellers and pilgrims. Join us as we hunt down the ancient port of Muziris, the key to why this coastal strip was a confluence of many faiths

How is the great Egyptian Pharaoh Ramesses II connected to present day Kerala? A small stretch of land, in a sleepy town in Kerala hides secrets to a past when this was an international trading hub. We travel through the deep South of India to find some buried treasures.

Visit the Thrikkakara Vamanamoorthy Temple in Kochi, home of the festival of Onam and the legend behind it

Rubber is one of Kerala’s more high-profile cash crops and its plantations are a way of life for hundreds of thousands of people. Catch the story of J J Murphy, an adventurous Irish planter and entrepreneur who kicked off the rubber revolution in Kerala

What is the connection between the first European factory in India and the discovery of Brazil?

Go down south, along the tail end of the western ghats - mountains that hug the Arabian Sea coast in India and you will come across a site that bears testimony to one of the most spectacular continental drifts on Earth.

The origins of the fabulous wealth of the Padmanabhaswamy Temple are intertwined with the fortunes of the Travancore kingdom and its greatest ruler Martanda Varma

As recent judgement by the Supreme Court brings curtains down on the dispute over the Padmanabhaswamy temple and its treasures, we look at what actually lies hidden in the temple’s vaults and some issues that it raises for the future.

Just what explains the single-minded pursuit of the calico cloth by the Portuguese, British and the Dutch?

The Zamorins of Calicut lorded over the spice trade in Kerala for 500 years. But a certain Zamorin will always be remembered for snubbing one of the greatest European explorers of all time. Catch the saga of the Zamorins, the secret of their success, and their abrupt and dramatic end

Catch the story of the warrior king of Malabar whom even the famous Duke of Wellington, who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo, could not vanquish.

She was one of the earliest feminists of Kerala and the first Indian woman to become a judge, across the entire British Commonwealth. She also fought fiercely for women’s rights and against patriarchy

Tucked away in coastal Kerala is a mosque that may have been built during the lifetime of the Prophet himself! Almost 500 years older than any mosque in North India, this is the oldest mosque in India!

While we know of the princely states of Hyderabad and Junagadh refusing to join the Indian Union, few remember that the tiny state of Travancore also wanted to remain independent - the reason was a treasure that lay under its sands

Salvaging India’s film heritage from crumbling celluloid reels, hunting down prints in cowsheds and attics, and making iconic Indian and world cinema accessible to all was his life’s mission. Catch the story of pioneering film archivist P K Nair and his priceless body of work

Bringing vibrancy to Kerala’s temples is the ‘Kerala Mural’, an ancient painting tradition also seen in churches and palaces in the southern state. Catch the story of these fantastic but fragile art works, considered iconic in India’s rich artistic tradition.

The earliest mosque, church and synagogue - all can be found here! Kerala’s Malabar Coast may be a popular tourist destination today but it was once a melting pot of traders, travellers and pilgrims. Join us as we hunt down the ancient port of Muziris, the key to why this coastal strip was a confluence of many faiths

How is the great Egyptian Pharaoh Ramesses II connected to present day Kerala? A small stretch of land, in a sleepy town in Kerala hides secrets to a past when this was an international trading hub. We travel through the deep South of India to find some buried treasures.

Visit the Thrikkakara Vamanamoorthy Temple in Kochi, home of the festival of Onam and the legend behind it

Rubber is one of Kerala’s more high-profile cash crops and its plantations are a way of life for hundreds of thousands of people. Catch the story of J J Murphy, an adventurous Irish planter and entrepreneur who kicked off the rubber revolution in Kerala

What is the connection between the first European factory in India and the discovery of Brazil?

Go down south, along the tail end of the western ghats - mountains that hug the Arabian Sea coast in India and you will come across a site that bears testimony to one of the most spectacular continental drifts on Earth.

The origins of the fabulous wealth of the Padmanabhaswamy Temple are intertwined with the fortunes of the Travancore kingdom and its greatest ruler Martanda Varma

As recent judgement by the Supreme Court brings curtains down on the dispute over the Padmanabhaswamy temple and its treasures, we look at what actually lies hidden in the temple’s vaults and some issues that it raises for the future.

Just what explains the single-minded pursuit of the calico cloth by the Portuguese, British and the Dutch?

The Zamorins of Calicut lorded over the spice trade in Kerala for 500 years. But a certain Zamorin will always be remembered for snubbing one of the greatest European explorers of all time. Catch the saga of the Zamorins, the secret of their success, and their abrupt and dramatic end

Catch the story of the warrior king of Malabar whom even the famous Duke of Wellington, who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo, could not vanquish.

She was one of the earliest feminists of Kerala and the first Indian woman to become a judge, across the entire British Commonwealth. She also fought fiercely for women’s rights and against patriarchy

Tucked away in coastal Kerala is a mosque that may have been built during the lifetime of the Prophet himself! Almost 500 years older than any mosque in North India, this is the oldest mosque in India!

While we know of the princely states of Hyderabad and Junagadh refusing to join the Indian Union, few remember that the tiny state of Travancore also wanted to remain independent - the reason was a treasure that lay under its sands

Salvaging India’s film heritage from crumbling celluloid reels, hunting down prints in cowsheds and attics, and making iconic Indian and world cinema accessible to all was his life’s mission. Catch the story of pioneering film archivist P K Nair and his priceless body of work