Chapter 1: Invisible Men

On page 6, China is referred to as the Middle Kingdom. The Chinese adopted the name of Zhongguo, "Central Kingdom" (or "Middle Kingdom") over 2,000 years ago. It's far from the only country that has considered itself the "central kingdom" throughout history!

Page 6 states that China has taken the German possessions of Chan-tong, close to T'ien-tsin. Chan-tong is a province of China that was in the possession of the Germans just prior to WWI. T'ien-tsin is a Chinese coastal municipality.

Also on page 6, Indy spies his father with his nose immersed in his Baedeker. Baedeker guides are travel books for countries all around the world that have been published since the 1830s.

Dennis Thornton is Henry, Sr.'s friend from their days attending Oxford University.

Page 8 remarks that Henry Sr.'s original reason for visiting China was in search of the six-century-old diary of the explorer Marco Polo, but violence in the country had sidetracked the Jones'. This refers to events in Face of the Dragon.

Page 10 states that Professor Jones had collected a number of documents in Beijing that he considered precious to his research.

The company Thornton works for is the Hungerford Company, run by Amos Hungerford. Hungerford Company appears to be fictitious for the time, but there are a couple of companies by that name operating in the U.S. now.

Chapter 2: The War of the Worlds

On page 14, Hungerford uses the exclamation, "By Jove!" "Jove" was an alternate name used by the Romans for the god Jupiter. Romans would swear by Jove in courts of law when giving testimony and the expression evolved into an exclamation in the centuries since.

Hungerford calls the large machine gun mounted on his yacht the Lumberjack because he saw its inventor Hiram Maxim saw a tree down with it with a single strip of cartridges. Hiram Maxim (1840-1916) was a real world inventor who invented the first automatic machine gun in 1884. The "Lumberjack" name appears to be just a moniker given it by Hungerford, not one used at the time; it was generally called the Maxim gun.

On pages 17-18, Hungerford explains to Indy that he gave the idea to Maxim that led to the invention of the Maxim gun, saying, "Invent something that helps the Europeans to kill each other, they only want that! That is what I told him, and he had the good sense to listen to me." Maxim himself is said to have claimed to have met an American (unnamed) in Vienna in 1882 who said, "Hang your chemistry and electricity! If you want to make a pile of money, invent something that will enable these Europeans to cut each others' throats with greater facility." Apparently, in the Indiana Jones universe, that man was the fictitious Amos Hungerford!

On page 22, Professor Jones remarks on his teaching position at Princeton University, one of the most highly rated universities in America.

On pages 22-23, Hungerford is described as "Hungerford the Hun" and the "Attila of Antiques". Attila the Hun was a notorious and brutal 5th Century warlord.

Chapter 3: The Time Machine

On page 25, Indy learns that one of the Panther yacht's crewmen is Sarik, a lascar. Lascar is a term for sailors from the Indian and Asian continents used from the 16th to about the middle of the 20th centuries.

Sarik refers to his employer as sahib Hungerford. Sahib is an Arabic word, essentially meaning "friend" in modern parlance, which has passed into numerous other languages. 

The Panther soon arrives in Chittagong, a large city on the coast of Bangladesh, in order to head up through Bengal to the Indian state of Killahabad. Killahabad appears to be a fictitious state of India.

On page 27, Palmerston greets Hungerford aboard the Panther, telling him he is the representative of the viceroy of India. The viceroy of India (also called the Governor-General of India) was the United Kingdom's representative to colonial India from 1773-1950. At the time of this story, the viceroy was Lord Hardinge of Penshurst (1858-1944).

On page 29, Palmerston uses the term mofussil. This is a Pakistani word that has come to mean the country districts of India, that is, towns set away from the larger cities.

On page 30, Hungerford makes a joke about travelling in the time machine of Mr. H.G. Wells after the birth of the Buddha and becoming the Buddha himself. He refers to the time machine of the 1895 novel The Time Machine by H.G. Wells and to Buddha,  the Indian spiritual teacher Siddhārtha Gautama whose teachings began the Buddhist religion around the 4th to 5th century BCE. 

Chapter 4: The Prince

On page 35, Hungerford compares himself to Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Morgan. These were real world business tycoons and multi-millionaires at the time.

On page 36, Bill Alden shouts, "Koi hai?" as the cart carrying the Joneses, Hungerford, and Thornton arrives at the dak bungalow. "Koi hai?" is Bengalese for "What's happening?"

On page 37, Bill orders the manservant to bring chota pegs for Professor Jones and Thornton and a lemonade for Indy. A chota peg is an Indian term for a small glass of liquor.

Also on page 37, Alden tells Hungerford and the others he will take them to visit the nawab tomorrow. Nawab is a Bengali term for the ruler of a state.

The description of Savile Row on page 39 is accurate, as a street in the Mayfair district of London known for its custom tailoring shops.

On page 39, Kasim exclaims, "I fall from the clouds!" This is a French idiom meaning a moment when one is forced to face reality.

Kasim refers to his father as pater. This is Latin for "father".

Page 41 describes the crowd of workers waiting to see the raja parting like the Red Sea for Moses for Alden and his party. This, of course, is a reference to the flight of the Israelites from Egypt across the Red Sea in the Biblical Book of Exodus.

After learning of the man-eating tiger in the area on page 44, Kasim remarks that he never came across one at Brazenose College in Oxford. Brasenose College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford.

Chapter 5: Tigers Eye and Evil Eye

When Kasim suggests to Indy that they saddle up right away to investigate the tiger reports, Indy enthusiastically thinks, La Palice couldn't have said it better! He is referring to the French term lapalissade, meaning "an obvious truth", derived from the name of the French noble Jacques de La Palice (1470-1525), whose epitaph on his tombstone was misread as "Here lies the Seigneur de La Palice: If he weren't dead, he would still be alive," (actually reading "...he would still be envied").

On page 49, Indy says, "Gna-gna-gna!" This is a French expression meaning "big trouble".

On page 50, Indy meets the Sikh, Ranjit Singh, and he reflects on how Sikh warriors led the resistance against Moghal invaders in the 15th Century. Actually, the Moghal invasion of India and South Asia is generally considered to have begun in the 16th Century. Sikhs did stand against them, largely in the 17th Century.

The five Ks of Sikhism are as described in the book, kesh, kangha, kara, kachera, and kirpan.

Ranjit's description of nagas as demonic beings who could look like animals is essentially correct. The nagas are part of the belief systems of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism.

Chapter 6: Screams and Sanskrit

Indy's description of tiger's eye quartz on page 60 is accurate.

Chapter 7: Who is the Death Knell For?

On page 70, Ranjit refers to Indy as Feringhi. This is a Hindu term for Germanic or, more generally, European people.

Chapter 8: Ali Baba's Cave

On page 74, nawab-zada means "the ruler's son".

Kasim remarks that the cellar of the fort once held the booty of the founder of his dynasty and calls it "a real cave of Ali Baba." Ali Baba was the protagonist of the story "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" from the Arabic story collection One Thousand and One Nights, believed to have originated around the 8th Century AD. In the story, Ali Baba discovers the treasure cave of a group of thieves.

On page 83, Thornton remarks on a cylinder seal of a hunchbacked cow and other markings, suggesting a Hindu origin. In the Hindu religion, cows are an important symbol of giving and tolerance. Brahman cows, native to India, have a hunch on their backs.

Also on page 83, Kasim mentions Emperor Asoka. Asoka the Great was an emperor of the Maurya Dynasty, who ruled India from about 268 to 232 BCE.

Thornton says he knows Pali. Pali is an Indian liturgical language that originated around the 3rd Century BCE.

On page 84, Thornton says the cylinder seal originated in Mohenjo-Daro, near the Indus. Mohenjo-Daro is an archaeological site in the Sindh province of Pakistan. The Indus River now forms the border between Pakistan and India.

Chapter 9: Indy Goes "Ivory" Closer!

Just as stated in the book, "Iskander" is the Indian version of Alexander, particularly in reference to Alexander the Great. Alexander the Great (356-323 BC) was a Macedonian king who ruled one of the largest empires of the ancient world and was never defeated in battle. The history of Alexander given on page 87 is accurate.

On page 93, the reference to Indy's father warning him to give him a little more respect when they were in Tientsin is a reference to events in Face of the Dragon.

Indy's father states that he is 42 years old. Since the story is said to take place in November 1914, it is implied that Henry Jones, Sr. was born in 1872, probably before November. But the book Indiana Jones: The Ultimate Guide states that Henry, Sr. was born December 12 of that year, making him still only 41 years old.

On page 95, someone in the fort shouts "Bagh! Boro boro bagh!" This is Bengali for "Tiger! Big tiger!"

Chapter 10: Ivory Towers

A lakh is 100,000 units in Indian numbering, just as stated on page 101.

On page 101, Bagh Khan tells that his great-great-great-grandfather had served under the great Alivari Khan around the time of the great Delhi massacre of 1739. Alivari Khan toppled the Nasiri dynasty of Bengal in 1740 and became nawab of Bengal from then until his death in 1756. The massacre in Delhi likely refers to the Battle of Karnal, north of Delhi, in which the ruling Mughal Empire lost a 3-hour battle against a numerically inferior Iranian army led by Nader Shah.

On page 102, Bagh Khan states that the successor to Alivari Khan was paid by the British, but research does not appear to bear this out. Alivari's successor, Siraj ud-Daulah, was his grandson, and he despised the influence and power of the British East India Company in the country. Siraj ud-Daulah's successor, Mir Jafar, worked with the British East India Company to end ud-Daulah's rule and take over himself in an allegiance with the company.

Bagh Khan complains that the famous "raja of Bhurundar" is nothing but a zamindar. As he states on page 102, zamindar is a Bengali term for a landowner. However, I've not been able to find a region called Bhurundar for a raja to lord over.

On page 103, Bagh Khan and Kasim explain about the revolt of the Cipayes. Cipaye (or sepoy) is an Indian term for a private in the army. The Cipaye Mutiny took place in 1857-58.

Crore is the Indian numerical unit for 10 million, just as stated on page 104.

On page 105, as they play chess, Kasim tells Indy the game was invented in India. This is more-or-less true. Modern chess evolved from the ancient Indian game chaturanga which uses a similar board and pieces.

Chapter 11: The Prince of Animals

Indy gathers the chowkidars of the fort to confront whoever has slipped into the ivory vault in the middle of the night. Chowkidar is an Indian term for "night watchman".

On page 117, Ranjit explains to Indy that they are approaching a courtyard of the fort that is a zenana, reserved for women. Zenana means "of the women" in Persian. The term is used to denote a living area that is reserved for the use of the women of the house.

Chapter 12: The Truth Comes Out of the Well

The title of this chapter is based on the 1896 painting Truth coming from the well armed with her whip to chastise mankind by French artist Jean-Léon Gérôme.

On page 125, Bagh Khan announces that some shikaris have spotted the tiger's den in the hills. Shikari is an Indian term for "hunter". On page 127, Kasim refers to the shikaris as touts. A tout is someone who sells their services in an incessant and annoying manner.

Chapter 13: Consciousness

On page 141, Thornton compares himself to Cain after he killed his brother in Victor Hugo's poem "La Conscience". "La Conscience" is a poem about Cain's murder of his brother Abel in the Bible. Hugo (1802-1885) was a French poet, playwright, and novelist.

Chapter 14: Like at the Parade

On page 146, Thornton reveals that Bill Alden has offered him a job at the Lucknow Museum.

On page 152, the Indian term mahout is the name for one who rides or trains elephants.

Chapter 15: A Disconcerting Concert

No notes.

Chapter 16: Who is Who?

No notes.

Chapter 17: Price: One Lakh

Hungerford is said to have stolen relics from people in a number of Asian cities, including Jakarta.

Epilogue

No notes.