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This morning I woke up to the images of the grand festival of Kallazhagar descending on to Vaigai River in Madurai. Lakhs gather for days at Madurai celebrating first the wedding of Meenakshi and Sundareswarar, Meenakshi’s coronation and their chariot ride and then the Lord of Thirumalirumsolai, Sundararajan, Azhagan visiting Maduari after making a long detour and back to his abode Azhagar Koil. Then one was reminded that it is also Chitra Pournami, and Buddha Purnima. As usual I wanted to pick up one of the Buddha images from my archives and post them – but decided not to do that as my mind was still lingering on the readings of India’s maritime history. Himanshu Prabha Ray’s ‘Beyond Trade: Cultural Roots of India’s Ocean’ has a topic dedicated to the famous port of Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu. Over 250 Buddha bronzes were discovered over a period of 50 years from late 19 th century to early parts of 20 th century and were distributed across museums, the chapter said. Photo...