Indian History

The method of decorating the walls with floral designs studded with semi-precious stones is called pietra dura. Itmad- ud- Daulah’s tomb at Agra is one of the earliest buildings in which pietra dura was used. Itmad- ud- Daulah’s tomb was built by Nur Jahan , wife of Jahangir, for her father Mirza Ghiyas Beg, who was given the title of Itmad- ud- Daulah (pillar of the state). Pietra dura is also used on a large scale in the Taj Mahal.

Ganesha or Ganapati is one of the most popular gods in Hinduism. He is the son of Shiva and Parvati. He has an elephant’s head with one broken tusk and a fat paunch. Ganesha rides on a rat and is the “Lord of Obstacles” (Vighneshwara). Ganesha is worshipped at the beginning of all undertakings to remove snags and hindrances. He is particularly interested in literary and educational activities, and is the patron of grammarians. Manuscripts, Hindu marriage cards and printed books often begin with the auspicious formula Sri-Ganeshaya namah,” Reverence to Lord Ganesha.” Benevolent Ganehsa is often depicted in cheerful disposition. He is revered by every Hindu, whether Vaisnavite or Shaivite.

Farrukhsiyar was the Mughal Emperor of India from 1713-19. He was the second son of Azim al-Shan , brother of Jahandar Shah who became the Mughal Emperor after the death of his father Bahadur Shah I who ruled from 1707-12. Azim al-Shan was killed in the war of succession that took place among the sons of Bahadur Shah I. Farrukhsiyar deposed Jahandar Shah and became the Mughal Emperor in 1713. Farrukhsiyar owed his accession to the Mughal throne to powerful Saiyid Brothers . In return for their services, Saiyid Abdullah Khan and his younger brother Hussain Ali Khan were appointed as Wazir and Mir Bakshi (Commander in Chief) respectively. They came to be known as "king-makers" due to their dubious king making role during the period of the later Mughals. In order to make his position supreme, Farrukhsiyar indulged in intrigues but ultimately failed in his endeavour. He was finally deposed and murdered in April 1717 by Saiyid Brothers who were assisted by Ajit Singh of

Asvaghosha was a great Buddhist Scholar who was a contemporary of the great Kushan ruler Knishka. Asvaghosha has been described as “poet, musician, preacher, moralist, philosopher, playwright, tale-teller… an inventor in all these arts…he recalls Milton, Goethe, Kant and Voltaire.” Asvaghosha is the author of the famous Buddhist tract, Vajrasuchi (Diamond needle). Buddhacharita, the earliest surviving classical Sanskrit work written in verse, is also ascribed to him. Ashvaghosha was part of the fourth Buddhist Council. 

A great revolutionary from Punjab, Madan Lal Dhingra (1887-1909) went to England in 1906 to pursue higher education in Engineering. In England he came in close contact with the Indian revolutionary leaders like Shyamji Krishna Varma and VD Savarkar. He was also associated with the Indian Home Rule Society, the Abhinav Bharat Society and the India House in London. To avenge the atrocities committed by the British in India, he shot dead Curzon Wyllie, an Advisor to the Secretary of the state of India, and Cowas Lalcaca at the meeting of the Indian National Assocaition in London on July 1, 1909. During his trial he owned the responsibility for murdering Wyllie. When the death-sentence was pronounced on him, he told the Judge: “I am proud to have the honour of laying down my humble life…A son like myself has nothing else to offer to the mother, but his own blood, and so I have sacrificed the same on her life: “The Only lesson required in India at present is to learn how to die and the o

Today India is celebrating 64th anniversary of its Independence, it is time to bow our head to those who laid down their lives for the cause of Indian Independence. One such name is Khudiram Bose [1889-1908], a revolutionary from Bengal born in the Midnapore district of West Bengal.  One of India’s earliest revolutionaries to die on the gallows on August 11, 1908, Khudiram Bose was member of the revolutionary society the Yugantar of Barindra Ghosh. He along with Prufulla Chaki threw a bomb at the carriage of Kingsford, an English Judge at Muzaffarpur in Bihar. He was arrested in the Muzaffarpur Conspiracy case and sentenced to death at the young age of 18.

As we celebrate our 65th Independence Day today, I am posting this poem of Sir Walter Scot that is poignant with emotion and passion that is in short supply among the so called masters of Indian destiny: Breathes there the man, with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, 'This is my own, my native land!' Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned, As home his footsteps he hath turned, From wandering on a foreign strand! If such there breathe, go, mark him well; For him no Minstrel raptures swell; High though his titles, proud his name, Boundless his wealth as wish can claim; Despite those titles, power, and pelf, The wretch, concentred all in self, Living, shall forfeit fair renown, And, doubly dying, shall go down To the vile dust, from whence he sprung, Unwept, unhonoured, and unsung. Happy Indian I ndependence Day

Lord Ellenborough brought the Afghan War to an end and the honour and might of the British were vindicated by a successful expedition to Kabul. His short regime was marked by two high-handed acts of injustice, namely, the annexation of Sindh and the coercion of Sindhia into a humiliating treaty. On account of his defiance of the orders of the court of directors of the East India Company, he was recalled in 1848.

The political space after the decline of the Pala power in Bengal was occupied by the Senas whose king Vijayasena succeeded in conquering a large part of Pala territory. The Senas were the supporters of orthodox Hinduism. The dynasty traces ts origin to the South, to the Chalukyas . The founder of the Sena rule was Samantasena who described himself as a kshatriya of Karnata and born in a family of “Brahma-Kshatriya" at a place called Radha in West Bengal. The title Brahma-Kshatriya indicates that Samantasena was a Brahmin but his successors called themselves simply Kshatriyas. He himself states that he fought the outlaws of Karnata and later turned an ascetic. Samantasena was succeeded by Vijayasena who consolidated the Sena power. According to the Deopara inscription composed by the poet Dhoyi , Vijayasena is credited with defeating “Navya (ruler of Mithila and Nepal) and Vira. The Gauda kingdom was attacked by him who also humbled the ruler of Kamrupa . He also defeated

Yama was one of the earlier Indian gods. As the death god of the Vedas, he was one of the Lokapalas, or Guardian of the Universe. He was the Lokpala of southern quarter. In the Vedic period he was the lord of the dead and Guardian of the World of the Fathers, where he blessed the dead. At the approach of the medieval period , his role began to get somewhat altered for he was no longer the cheerful lord of paradise, but the stern judge of the dead, ruling over the purgatories where the wicked suffered until their rebirth. The idea of a divine judge, theoretically unnecessary according to the doctrine of karma, may have been imported from the west, where it was known in many cults. Sometimes Yama, aided by his clerk Chitragupta, is described as weighing the deeds of the souls of the dead in a balance, rather like the Egyptian Throth.

Lingayat or Virashaivas was an important Shaivite sect, founded by Basava, a minister of King Bijala Kalchuri who usurped the throne of the Chalukyas of Kalyani in A. D. 1156. This sect is famous more for its cult and social doctrines than for its theology, which is a “qualified monism” with few striking features. Basava opposed idolatry. In Lingayatism the only scared symbol is the linga of Shiva, a specimen of which is always carried on the person of the believer. Radical in his view, Basava completely rejected the Vedas and authority of the Brahmin class, and priesthood-the jangamas. Apart from opposing pilgrimage and sacrifice he instituted complete equality among his followers, even to the equality of women who were permitted to remarry on the death of their husbands. Among other Aryan practices which Basava condemned was cremation, and his followers are still buried. It is possible that he was influenced by what he had heard of Islam. The Lingayats still retain their individualit

Earlier of the two great Sanskrit epics of India, the Mahabharata (other being the Ramayana ) is written earlier than the other. Considered to be the longest single poem in the world literature, the epic is traditionally ascribed to the sage Vyasa , though it incorporated many episodes in the later centuries. As the poem stands today, it contains about 90, 000 stanzas, most of them of thirty two syllables. The central story of the Mahabharata concerns a great civil war fought among cousins and brothers for the succession of the throne of the Kuru Kingdom, in the region of the modern delhi, then known as Kurukshetra.