Creative History

History first recorded the existence of the Indian state of Kerala in the third century BCE.  The name originally appeared, chiseled in stone, on an inscription left to posterity by the great Mauryan emperor Ashoka.  Ashoka reigned for more than two decades and in his lifetime he presided over an empire that encompassed nearly the entire Indian subcontinent. Before the birth of Christ in the last century BCE the Roman historian Pliny the Elder as well as many other ancient travelers made note of Kerala as the Roman world’s leading exporter of spices.   Located on the west coast of India, Kerala or the place that westerners once referred to as the Malabar Coast after it was “discovered” by Portuguese explorers looking for a quicker passage to the Spice Islands of the east in the late 15th century CE is today one of India’s wealthiest provinces.  It is a province that contains lush verdant tropical jungles, as well as some of the most beautiful beaches in the wo...

  December 29, 1170 Canterbury Cathedral. Four heavily armed and armored knights dismount their horses outside the large oak and iron reinforced doors that lead into the heart of the church. They burst inside with swords drawn and shout, “Where is Thomas Becket, traitor to King and country?” The man named Thomas Becket who the four knights are so zealously seeking is the Archbishop of Canterbury Cathedral.  He is just over fifty years of age and he is a devout and holy monk whose piety and patriotism, up until that very moment at least, have always been without question.  In the years immediately following his death, Pope Alexander III will canonize Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterbury Cathedral and make him a Saint and a Martyr.  He will go on to be one of the most widely revered and adored Saints in all of Europe during the High Middle Ages--but all of that remains, for the time being anyway, in the not too distant future. For now, four heavily armed knights are ...