In his Brihat Samhita, Varahamihira asserts that sweet ground water will be found near termite mounds located east of a jambu tree at a specific distance and a specific depth of 15 ft to the south of the tree.
Rukmini Devi Arundale, famed danseuse and founder of Kalakshetra, turned down an offer to become the President of India in 1977 because she would not have been able to walk barefoot in the corridors of the Rashtrapathi Bhavan and could not bear security guards.
Dum-dums are bullets which are designed to expand upon impact. They are so called because they were first produced by the British Indian Army at the Dum Dum arsenal in Calcutta.
Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini used Hindi as his pen name when he composed ghazals. His grandfather, Seyyed Ahmad Musavi Hindi, emigrated from India to Khomein in Iran in the 1830s.
The Tamil slang for something free of charge, oasi, is derived from the abbreviation, OC, which expands to On Company's Service. The company in question was the British East India Company which stamped its official mail with these letters to avoid having to pay postage.
The family name of the Nehru family is actually Kaul. A Kashmiri ancestor of Jawaharlal Nehru named Raj Kaul came to be called Raj Kaul Nehru as his jagir was situated along the banks of a canal (a Nahar). The Kaul was later dropped.
Ledikeni, a Gulab Jamun-like Bengali sweet, was named after Lady Canning, the popular wife of Governor General Canning. It is apparently a slightly larger version of the Pantua.
Griddhraj Parvat or Vulture Peak in Madhya Pradesh was the final destination of the classic Chinese epic, Journey to the West. Hieun Tsang and his companions travel from China to a temple on Vulture Peak to retrieve Buddhist sutras in order to enlighten their country.
