Skip to main content

Champa: Important port of Ancient India

Situated in Bhagalpur district of Bihar, Champa was the capital of ancient Anga in the sixth century BC. It was of great commercial importance. It was a river port from which ships world said down the Ganga and coast to south India and Sri Lanka. These ships returned with jewels and spices which were much in demand in the north India. From Champa seafaring merchants went to distant islands. Champa was also a place of pilgrimage for the Buddhists and the Jaina alike. At a time of the Buddha’s great decease, known as Mahaparinirvana in Buddhist phraseology, Ananda, one of the most famous disciples, said that he regretted that his master was to die in so small a town as Kushinagar and mentioned Champa as one of the six places (others being Sravasti, Rajagriha, Saketa, Kausambi and Kasi) where he considered important enough for his master to die in. This proves that Champa was evidently one of the greatest cities of the 5th century BC.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Matangini Hazra

Matangini Hazra was a woman revolutionary and brave freedom fighter who fought for the independence of India from the British and laid down her life for it.  She was from a small village called Hogla located near Tamluk, the headquarters of the Purba Medinipur district in West Bengal. Hazra was born on October 19, 1870. Matangini Hazra was one of the protagonists of the Tamralipta Jatiya Sarkar (Tamralipta National Government), a parallel government established during the Quit India Movement.  Matangini Hazra was shot dead by the police in front of the Tamluk Police Station on 29 September 1942.  Matangini Hazra was  affectionately known as Gandhi buri, Bengali for old lady Gandhi.  The famed Hazra Road in Kolkata is also named after her. 

Muhammad Shah Rangila

Aurangzeb, the last great Mughal emperor, died in 1707. Muhammad Shah became Mughal emperor in 1719. During the interregnum, Bahadur Shah I , Jahandar Shah, Farrukhsiyar, Rafi-ud-Darajat and Rafi-ud-Daula ascended the Mughal throne. Jahandar Shah was murdered on the orders of Farrukhsiyar who had the support of the two powerful Mughal nobles Sayyid Abdullah and his brother Sayyid Husain Ali at that time. They are famous in history as Sayyid brothers, the King-makers. In 1719, Farrukhsiyar were murdered in utter disregard of a Mughal emperor by Sayyid brothers. Rafi-ud-Darajat died of consumption in a few months. Rafi-ud-Daula was addicted to opium and died in 4 months. Sayyid brothers now chose Raushan Akhtar, a son of Jahan Shah (the fourth son of Bahadur Shah I), to be the emperor. Raushan Akhtar ascended the throne under the title of Muhamamd Shah in September 1719. In the beginning Muhammad Shah was a puppet in the hands of Sayyid brothers who soon began to lose their gri...

Minhaj-us-Siraj: Author of Tabaqat-i-Nasiri

Minhaj-ud-din Abu Uraar bin Siraj-ud-din al-Juzjani, popularly known as Minhaj-us-Siraj,  was a medieval historian who was patronized by Slave Sultan Nasir-ud-din Mahmud to whom he had dedicated his magnum opus Tabaqat-i-Nasiri . Since Siraj held the high office of the Chief Qazi of Delhi to which he was appointed by Nasir-ud-din Mahmud, it is natural that Tabaqat-i-Nasiri gives a first hand account of the historical events from the conquest of Delhi by Muhammad of Ghur up to the year 1260 AD. Siraj was temporarily removed from the post of Chief Qazi from 1253 to 1255 when a section of nobles induced the Sultan to send his prime minister Balban into exile.  Tabaqat-i-Nasiri has been translated into English by Raverty .   -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This page was last edited on 24 July 2021