This month US Americans got a small glimpse of what a coup might feel like, and they are rightly outraged. One might hope this would provoke some reflection on the *actual* coups that the US itself has perpetrated around the world. Here are some of them:

THE BATTLE OF TALIKOTA and the destruction of Vijaynagar (Hampi)
26 January 1565

A tale of valor, deception and decimation.

A grim reminder that if we fail to protect our heritage, it will eventually crumble under the onslaught of "forces of anarchy".
(Elaborate thread)

This decisive battle was fought between the Vijayanagara empire and the Deccan sultanates resulting in a rout of Vijayanagara and ending the last major medieval era Hindu kingdom in south India.(1)

The seeds of 1565 encounter were sown more than 250 years earlier when the forces of the Delhi Sultanate, during the time of Alauddin Khilji and later Md Bin Tughlaq swept through southern India in an expansion spree.(2)

By middle of the 14th century, facing rebellions, Tughlaq withdrew to Delhi, leaving behind 2 empires, Bahmani, which ruled the Deccan from Kalaburagi, and Vijayanagara, which ruled most south India with its capital at Vijayanagar.(3)

The Raichur Doab, between the Krishna and Tungabhadra rivers, existed as a natural boundary between these two kingdoms, with wars often breaking out over control of this territory.(4)

Following the demolition of Babri Masjid by 150,000 kar sevaks of RSS, BJP and VHP in 1992, there were a number of mosques which were closed down across India after the Sang Parivar threatened to demolish them as well. The names of those mosques are enlisted in this thread:

Punjab
1. Masjid Dakan Sahay Jalandhar
2. Masjid Noor Saray Noor Mehal

Rajasthan
1. Ahya-Din ka Jhonpra, Ajmer Sharif
2. Jamia Masjid, Tambir

Tamil Nadu
1. Masjid Krishnagri
2. Masjid Arkat
3. Purani Masjid of Kila Dhelore
4. Internal Masjid of Kila Dhelore

[1]

5. Masjid Saadatullah Khan Gajni
6. Two mosques of Injin Gri Kila
7. Masjid Shams ud Din Vilaporam
8. Jamia Masjid Vilaporam

Uttar Pradesh
1. Purani Nawabi Masjid, Faizabad
2. Masjid of Haji Iqbal’s Courtyard, Faizabad
3. Jamia Masjid, Banda

4. Inner Mosque of Kila, Jonpur
5. Atla’s Masjid, Jonpur
6. Jamia Masjid, Jonpur
7. Lal Masjid, Lal Darwaza
8. Jhunjari Masjid, Lal Darwaza
9. Char Ungli Masjid, Lal Darwaza
10. Masjid Sheikh Burhan Zafar Abad, District Jonpur
11. Dhara Masjid, Waransi

12. Masjid Asauli, Waransi
13. Nagina Masjid Agra, Qila Agra
14. Akbri Masjid, Agra
15. New Masjid, Agra
16. Moti Masjid, Agra
17. Inner Mosque of Feroz Shah Tomb
18. Masjid of Tomb Jafar Khan
19. Masjid near ROza Diwali Begum
20. Masjid Fateh Pur, Taj Mehal Agra

Remembering Colonel Anil Kaul, VrC (Retd) on his 3rd Death Anniversary.

“It was October 12, 1987, exactly 5:55 pm as I was… coming out of the cupola of my T-72 tank on a steamy evening in an unknown place called Kokkuvil in the Jaffna district of Northern Sri Lanka.+

I froze in that confined space at what I saw. An LTTE militant stood at 60 meters aiming his rocket-propelled gun at my tank.

In a flash he fired. Probably having lost his nerve he aimed too low. The projectile hit the left mudguard of the tank, but for some inexplicable reason+

did not explode. It then hit the side of the main gun and then exploded on top of the turret, all in a fraction of a second. Before I knew, it seemed I had received a straight right punch so to say to my chin. I saw some blood appear on my left hand and there was a sharp drop in+

my eyesight.

Lt Colonel (now Lt Gen) Dalbir Singh, then Commanding Officer of 10 Para Commando, who was standing on the engine deck said to me, “Yaar what a close shave.”

He suddenly saw me and the look on his face told me that something was very very wrong with me. In that+

fraction of a second, as if it was a rewind of my entire life, thoughts raced through my life as to how and when I had landed myself in such a situation…

I asked my gunner to pull out a first field dressing (FFD) which is standard equipment in a first aid box carried in each+

To India! We go together with one of the most original minds of the late antique and early medieval world: Cosmas Indicopleustes. Cosmas thought that the world was a box. He thought that god resided in its lid. But he also travelled a large part of that box! 1/ #medievaltwitter

Cosmas was born at the end of the fifth or the beginning of the sixth century probably in Alexandria, the great city of Roman Egypt. We actually don’t know his real name, Cosmas the India-Sailor is a monicker he got around 9th century. 2/

We know though that he became a merchant in Constantinople. From there he traveled south to Egypt and then to the kingdom of Aksum, modern day Ethiopia. He is best informed about the topography of the region and there is little doubt that he visited it in person. 3/

He is called the India-Sailor because of his description of the current-day Malabar coast and Sri Lanka. But has he made it that far? Was it even viable in the sixth century? 4/

Cosmas does mention detailed descriptions of the South Asian fauna and flora like the hog-deer which he has “seen and eaten”. He also knows coconuts and pepper and seems to have understood if not witnessed how they were harvested. 5/