305: Statue in Bihar. Who does it honour? 304: Taxila

304: What site? 303: China is supposed to have built a 1:500 scale model of the disputed territory Aksai Chin in order to train its army. Details here.

303: What is the amusing / alarming story behind these two visuals? 302: The Zero Mile Marker in Nagpur. Supposed to signify Nagpur’s claim to being the geographical center of India.

302: Where would you find this? What is this supposed to commemorate? 301: The Jnanpith – the highest literary honour in India.

301: Identify the award. 300: A rare Tamil inscription found in the port city Chuan Chou, 500 miles north of Canton. It dates back to Kublai Khan and mentions him by name. Details here.

300: Rare inscription. What is unique about it? 299: The Nizams of Hyderabad – Asaf Jah I and Asaf Jah VIII.

299: I on the left. VIII on the right. Who? 298: Viswanatha Satyanarayana (Kavi Samraat), K.V. Putappa (Kuvempu), R.K. Narayan and Ashok Banker – these contemporary writers have created prose versions of the Ramayana. (Kavi Samraat and Kuvempu in Telugu and Kannada respectively and Narayan and Banker in English.)

298: Connect. 297: Statue of Chinese Buddhist monk and traveller Xuanzang. (Hsüan-tsang) He is remembered for his seventeen year overland trip to India and back that brought up interaction between China and India. His travels provided inspiration for the 16th century epic Chinese novel “Journey to the West”. “Monkey: Journey to the West”, a stage…

297: Connect. 296: The connection is the Airavata, the elephant of Lord Indra in Hindu myth. The river in Myanmar, Irrawaddy supposedly derives from Airavata or Iravati, the mother of Airavata. The Airavateswara temple in Darasuram, Tamil Nadu, a world heritage monument, supposedly houses the lingam worshipped by Airavata and hence named for it.

296: Identify and connect. (The two photographs are of the same temple and can be considered as one entity.) 295: The Manikodi writers – Tamil literary magazine Manikodi spawned a generation of writing talent which was known by this adage. Writers featured in the visual – Pudumai Pithan, La Sa Ra, Si Su Chellappa and…