Most
people think that a book on history is a surefire way to guarantee yourself a
good snooze. We beg to differ. Excavating History is our attempt to make
sure that you are awakened and refreshed and excited by history and archaeology.
Researched and written by archaeologist and writer Devika Cariapa
and illustrated by Ashok Rajagopalan, this book packs in nearly 2
million years of human history discovered through archaeological artefacts
and stories in only 160 pages!
Excavating History is a genre-bending work that is
not only a reference book but also a fun-to-dip-into book, a fun-to-read book
and an illustrated history book. Now, how many
of these have you come across lately?
The
inspiration
 |
| Devika Cariapa |
The author Devika Cariapa explains what inspired her to
write the book: “When I was doing my Masters in Archaeology, I was fascinated
that something as tiny and innocuous as a small piece of stone, a shard of
pottery or a few random scribbled letters from the alphabet could have a tale
from the past hidden in them. Also, so many of the stories of how our history
was pieced together read like exciting mysteries or detective stories and I
thought that children, especially, would
enjoy them.”
A diamond in the making
Out of such musings grew the kernel of the book. It was like
a diamond in the rough. With the editorial team at Tulika the manuscript was
developed to the book that you see today. The entire process from the
fascinating first draft to the final book took two whole years.
The editors at Tulika, Radhika Menon and Deeya Nayar, say that
the idea was to keep the chatty tone which is the writer’s USP. So this was a
focal point while editing the book. Deeya adds, “It is the most immersing and rewarding
book I have worked on.”
Next, a lot of editorial attention was paid to the format. In
Devika’s words, “Right from the start, the team at Tulika and I agreed on the
rather unique format of an illustrated resource book. That meant we had to …
strike the right balance between all the elements — text, illustrations,
photos, maps.”
One
look at the book and you know it looks quite unlike any other book. A timeline
appears at the top of the beginning of every chapter indicating the period to
which it belongs. Then, there are these boxes which either give you more
information or add a different perspective to the point.
If
you skim through the book, these fact boxes are your best friends. Your eye
will be drawn to another element on the page — the beautiful maps — which show
the presence of prehistoric cultures, trade routes or the extent of empires.
Telling a story
One of the reasons it is not a snooze-inducing book is that
it tells a story while juggling facts. For example: the reason why the capital
of Delhi in its many avatars kept shifting a
few miles here and there. This is fascinating because this was not usually how
capitals behaved. They generally stayed put next to rivers. Historically, capitals
were built next to rivers because people needed rivers for water and transport.
So one theory is that ‘Delhi’ kept shifting its place because the river kept
changing its course! (For the curious, this story appears on page 148.)
Overcoming challenges
Of course, like any worthy endeavour, there were challenges.
The format alone involved several rounds of discussion. Deciding what to retain and what to leave out
was equally if not more tricky. Devika says, “The greatest challenge was to
know what to leave out! Too much information would have had the kids reeling in
boredom. But at the same time, I didn't want to miss out on interesting
details.”
Delightful cartoons
No description of the book can be complete without a word
about Ashok Rajagopalan’s delightfully whimsical cartoons that pepper the
pages. Of the elements in the book — the text proper, the fact boxes,
photographs of prehistoric places or illustrated maps — the cartoons give the book
such levity. They reimagine for us what life would have been back then. More
importantly they appear to humorously comment on the story being told much like
R.K. Laxman’s Common Man. What a delight!
Response in the media
By writing this book, the author Devika Cariappa wanted to
write “a fun book that children would pick up without any prompting, dip in and
out of, and not feel that they were reading a text book—something they would
enjoy for the sake of it.”
From the responses in the media, we think this has been
accomplished to a large extent. Anu Kumar’s review
in www.scroll.in says, “For its part, India
Through Archaeology brings alive in a vividly direct way, the magic, the mystery,
and the many methods that make archaeology key to understanding history, the
past, and thus, our own stories.” To quote the review by Geeta
Doctor in The Wire, “…Devika Cariapa has used
a rich repertoire of images and anecdotes to tempt her audience to follow her
into the rabbit hole of history. She digs through mud, stone and brick to bring
alive the story of the people of India by the material remains of their cities
and settlements.” Blogger and writer Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan in The Hindu BLink review mentions,
“It’s not often that a children’s book gets taken seriously, but this one
deserves all the attention it has been getting. Excavating History is a history
of India, but a scientific and comprehensive volume, using archaeological finds
to do a quick rundown of what’s been going on in the subcontinent from the
Stone Age downwards.”
By creating Excavating History we have tried to get
two birds with one stone (no pun intended) — offer the child an introduction to
archaeology and pack in enough to delight the adult.
***
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