Indian History

1662   - Birth of  Balaji Vishwanath on  1 January 1662 .  Balaji Vishwanath was the first Peshwa of the Maratha kingdom. He is called the  Second Founder of the Maratha State.    1877 - The first Delhi Durbar, also known as the Imperial Durbar, was held on 1st January 1877.  Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom is proclaimed Empress of India. 1894 – Satyendra Nath Bose, Indian physicist and mathematician, was born on 1st January.  1923 - The Swaraj Party or the Congress-Khilafat Swaraj Party was formed on 1st January 1923 by Chittaranjan Das (C R Das) and Motilal Nehru. Chittaranjan Das had defended Aurobindo Ghosh in the Alipur Bomb Conspiracy case. The Alipore Bomb case conspiracy, also known as the Manicktolla bomb conspiracy or Muraripukar conspiracy, was a criminal trial took place in 1908. C R Das had presided the annual session of the Indian National Congress in 1922. 1978 – On 1 January 1978, Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747, c...

 In 1600, the British East India Company was incorporated by an English royal charter on December 31.

  Manimekalai is an epic  which is a sequel to an earlier text called Silappadikaram, which was a love story. This text was composed in around the 6th century.

1906:  The All India Muslim League is founded in Dacca which later laid down the foundations of Pakistan. 1943 –  Subhash Chandra Bose raises the flag of Indian independence at Port Blair  

Jivaka Cintamani (also known as Civaka Cintamani) is a Tamil poem written by a Jain ascetic Tiruttakrdeva in the 10th century. This Jain epic is considered one of the five classic Tamil epics. The poem means “fabulous gem” and is also known as Mana Nool (Book of Marriages). According to the experts, Jivaka Cintamani served as a poetic model for Kamban's Ramayana, the first Tamil Ramayana.

Caeser Frederick or Caesaro Federici was a Venetian traveller who had visited the Vijayanagara empire just after the Battle of Rakshasa Tangadi or Talikota in 1565, in which Vijayanagar army was defeated by the combined forces of the five Muslim Sultanates of Deccan. After this battle the  Vijayanagara kingdom lost its grandeur and glory. During his travel to the Vijayanagara  empire Sadasiva Raya was the ruler of this Hindu Kingdom in South India.  Caeser Frederick had visted the Sandwip island (now near Barisal in Bangladesh) which he found densely  inhabited. He mentioned that Sandwip was famous for its salt and ship-building manufacturing.  From Bengal Frederick journeyed to Pegu (Myanmar) and a number of other places before returning to Venice in 1581.

  December 29, 1844 Womesh Chunder Bonnerjee or Umesh Chandra Banerjee, the first president of Indian National Congress in 1885, is born in Calcutta. He was also the first Indian to fight the election to British Parliament.

Ruins of Nalanda Established in 5th century AD by Gupta ruler Kumara Gupta I (reigned 415-455 AD), Nalanda was a centre of scholarship in ancient India. During the rule of Harsha, the fame of Nalanda university reached far and wide. Under the Pala ruler Dharampal, the glory of the university reached its zenith.  During its heyday, the Mahavihara used to accommodate over 10,000 students and over 2000 teachers.  Given the Nalanda University's standing in the world of education, it’s no wonder that it had some of the most famous alumni and teachers throughout history.  Here is a look at some of the most notable Nalanda Monastery alumni and teachers and what they have accomplished. Nagarjuna, a famous 2nd century AD Buddhist philosopher who was an authority on the Mahayana form of Buddhism, had studied at Nalanda. He propounded the world famous Buddhist philosophy of Sunyata (the Void). He wrote Madhyamika Karika which forms the basic text of the Madhyamika (Intermediate), o...

  Image Credit:  Wikimedia Commons December 28 1885 The Indian National Congress (INC) is Founded by A.O. Hume in Mumbai.  First session of INC was held in Mumbai from 28 –31 December in 1885. Indian industrialist and philanthropist Ratan Tata was born on 28 December , 1937

Three decades before renowned Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama landed at Calicut in India, Afanasy Nikitin or Athanasius Nikitin journeyed to India in 1469, becoming the first Russian traveller to do so. He came to India for trade.  A monument to Afanasy Nikitin has been erected in Chaul (now called Revdanda) near Alibagh in Maharashtra to commemorate his extraordinary journey from Russia. Nikitin had reached Chaul from Persia. Then from Chaul he travelled to the Bahmani Kingdom which was then ruled by Muhammad Shah III. Afanasy Nikitin spent four years in Bidar from 1470 to 74 and his minute observations include details of courtly life, army, trade activities, the customs and condition of the general populace under the Bahmani rule.  Nikitin has referred to the sanguinary wars that took place between the Bahmani Sultanate and the Vijayanagar Empire at regular intervals.  A film, titled Pardeshi in Hindi, based on his life was made in 1956.   Born in 1433 in Tv...

The famous Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib during the Mughal period was born in Agra on 27 December 1797. Today is Ghalib's 227th birth anniversary.

Today is 125th birth anniversary of  Udham Singh, an Indian freedom fighter with association with Ghadar Party, a political movement founded by expatriate Indians to overthrow British rule in India.  Born on 26th December in Sunam Village in Sangrur district of the north-western Indian state of Punjab, Udham Singh is known for avenging the infamous Jalianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar by murdering Michael O’Dwyer after 21 years. Michael O’Dwyer , who was the Lieutenant Governor of Punjab in 1919 when Brigadier General Reginald Dyer, the military commander of Amritsar, had ordered the firing on the innocent people who have gathered here to protest the arrest of Congress leaders Dr. Saifuddin Kitchlew and Dr. Satya Pal under Rowlatt Act. 1919 soldiers of the British Army in India had opened fire on the crowd in a walled public garden and killed over 1,000 of them. This became known variously as the Amritsar Massacre or the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. The bloodbath was endorsed by...

World map by Cosmas Indicopleustes /  Image Credit: upload.wikimedia.org Cosmas Indicopleustes (literally: "who sailed to India") was a 6th-century merchant and geographer who sailed to India and traded as far as Sri Lanka. His work Topographia Christiana or Christian Topography provides an invaluable description of the India and Sri Lanka in the sixth century. This geographer from Alexandria in Egypt had visited the Kingdom of AxumOffsite Link in modern Ethiopia and Eritrea, India and Sri Lanka.  The author  Topographia Christiana  provides a description of India and Sri LankaOffsite Link during of the 6th century. According to Cosmas Indikopliustes, the world was flat as opposed to Ptolemy and pre-Christian geographer who believed that the earth is spherical.    

December 23 is the death anniversary of Swami Shraddhanand , a pioneer of Indian culture and nationalism. Born on February 22, 1856 at Talwan village in Jalandhar district in Punjab province, Shraddhanand has left an indelible mark on India’s culture which will continue to inspire future generations. Shraddhanand was a courageous social reformer who opposed illiteracy, the prevailing caste system, untouchability, and advocated widow remarriage, national unity and integrity. On 4th April, 1919, he delivered a speech on the Hindu Muslim unity from the pulpit of Jama Masjid in Delhi.   To B R Ambedkar, Shraddhanand was ‘the greatest and most sincere champion of the Untouchables”. In 1923, Swami Shraddhanand founded the Bharatiya Hindu Shuddhi Mahasabha (Indian Hindu Purification Council) with a view to converting the Muslims in the western United Provinces, particularly the Malkana Rajputs.  In Haridwar, Shraddhanand laid the foundation of Gurukul Kangri University whic...

Jean-Baptiste Tavernier  (1605–1689)  was a French traveller and a merchant in gems who made six voyages to India between 1630 and 1668 during the reign of Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb. Being a dealer of diamonds made him well equipped to elaborately discuss about diamonds and diamond mines of India.  His travel account, entitled Travel in India, first appeared in 1676. His another book Le Six Voyages de J. B. Tavernier- The Six Voyages of J. B. Tavernier was also published in 1676, and translated into English by Dr. C. V. Ball in 1889.  The gem-studded Peacock Throne (Takht-i-Taoos), commissioned by Shah Jahan and housed in the Diwan-i-Khas in the Red Fort of Delhi, was described by Tavernier as “the richest and most superb throne which has ever been seen in the world.” The Peacock Throne was taken to Persia by Nadir Shah who invaded India during the reign of Raushan Akhtar who ascended the Mughal throne under the title of Muhammad Shah in 1719.  Tavernier died in...

Bughra Khan was the second son of Balban of the Slave dynasty of the Delhi Sultunate. During his father's reign, Bughra Khan was placed in charge of the territories of Samana and Sunam. He and his elder brother Muhammad Khan were successfully to keep the Mongols at bay but in A.D. 1285 Muhammad was killed during his fight against the Mongols.  When Balban proceeded towards Bengal in 1281 to crush the rebellion of Tughral Tughan Khan (Governor of Bengal) he took Bughra Khan with him. The rebellion was suppressed and Tughril Khan was killed. Bughra Khan was appointed governor of the Bengal province. When Balban died in 1287 pleasure loving Bughra Khan declined to be the Delhi Sultan and instead became an independent ruler of Bengal. So Balban was succeeded by Bughra Khan's son Kaiqubad on the throne of Delhi Sultanate.  Written in verse in 1289, Qiran-us-sadin (the first historical masnavi of Amir Khusrau, the mediaeval Sufi mystic and poet) describes the much talked about meeti...

Pietro della Valle was an Italian traveler to India who reached Surat in 1623 and extensively travelled through the coastal regions of India.  He has given a detailed description of Sati, the traditional Hindu practice of self-immolation by a widow on her husband's funeral pyre. 

B. R. Ambedkar plaque. 10 King Henry Road, Chalk Farm, London Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar who was a leader of the depressed classes throughout his life. He worked for the moral and material progress of the 'untouchables'. B. R. Ambedkar was born on 14 April 1891 in Mhow (now officially known as Dr Ambedkar Nagar) in Madhya Pradesh. He belonged to the 'untouchable' Mahar caste. Ambedkar was a great scholar who studied economics at Columbia University and the London School of Economics.  In 1924 Ambedkar founded the Depressed Classes Institute (Bahishkrit Hitkarni Sabha) in Bombay. Three years later in 1927 he established the Samaj Samta Sangh to propagate the gospel of social equality between caste Hindus and worked for the uplift of the 'untouchables'. In December 1927, he led a satyagraha in Mahad to fight for the rights of the 'untouchables' to draw water from public wells and tanks. In 1928 he organized temple entry movement named  Parvati temple satyagraha...

Born in 1311 AD, Abdul Malik Isami had written a political history called Futuh–us-Salatin which he dedicated to the founder of the Bahmani kingdom, Alauddin Hasan Bahman Shah (reigned 1347 – 1358). He had accompanied his grandfather to Devagiri when the populace of Delhi was ordered by Muhammad Bin Tugglaq to leave for Deogiri or Devagiri which the Tughlaq Sultan named Daulatabad. However, his old grandfather died on the way before reaching the destination.  Composed in Persian in the form of an epic, Futuh –us-Sulatin ("Gifts of the Sultans") begins with the rise of the Ghaznavi dynasty and concludes with the reign of Sultan Muhamamd bin Tughlaq. Futuh-us-Salatin was completed in 1350 AD.   According to Isami, Balban became the ruler of the Slave dynasty by murdering his predecessor and son-in-law Nasir-ud-din Mahmud. Regarding the rationale of shifting his capital from Delhi to Deogir (Daultabad) in the Deccan by Muhamamd bin Tughlaq,  this fourteen century historian s...

Ludovico di Varthema and King of Khambat / Image Credit   Ludovico di Varthema  was an Italian traveller, adventurer and soldier who came to India via Alexandria, Cairo, Damascus, Mecca, Aden and Hormuz. He has left behind a vivid account of the cities and customs and manners of the people  Apart from visiting the Adil Shahi capital of Bijapur in South India, Varthema visited the mighty Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagar. His description of the  Vijayanagar  city contains very interesting and valuable information. His voluminous travel account, The Itinerary of Ludovico di Varthema, provides a detailed account of Goa, Calicut and other ports on the west coast of India. Ludvico Di Varthema was knighted by the Portuguese for joining their services in India. According to him,  Gujarat's  Muzaffarid dynasty ruler  Mahmud Shah (1459-1511), also known as Mahmud Begada, had a long beard that reached his girdle, and he tied his very long moustaches behind his h...

Grand Anicut / Image Credit Cholas were one of the three major ruling dynasties of the Tamil Country during the Sangam period  (between the 3rd century B.C. and 3rd century A.D.). They ruled over an area known as Tondaimandalam or Cholamandalam. The most celebrated ruler of the Sangam Cholas was Karikalan who made a grand anicut at Kaveri and laid the foundation of the capital of Kaveripattinam, also known as Puhar. Kaveripattinam, now a non-descript fishing village silted up by the river mud, had an artificial harbour which was built by prisoners of war who were obtained by him following his successful raid on Sri Lanka. Before Kaveripattinam, Uraiyur was the capital of the Chola kingdom.   Karikalan' father was the son of Ilanjetcenni who was a valiant and brave ruler. Karikalan, which means man with a charred leg, was so named because his leg was caught in flames when the prison, in which he was incarcerated after being kidnapped by his enemies, was set on fire. He, ho...

December 16 is celebrated to commemorate the defeat of the Pakistani troops in the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971 and the emergence of an independent Bangladesh. On this day Pakistani army surrendered to Lt. General Jagjit Singh Aurora , the chief Commander of the Joint military command of India and Bangladesh. The day is celebrated as Victory Day or Bijoy Dibosh . Recently the iconic statue at the 1971 Shaheed Memorial Complex in Bangladesh, depicting the Pakistan Army's surrender, was vandalised amid the attacks on the Hindu population in the country.  The emergence of Bangladesh as a sovereign country in 1971 is an important event in the world history. At the time of Indian independence in 1947 Bangladesh was a part of newly created nation of Pakistan. Since then, (it is still the case) Pakistan had been carrying their hate India campaign since its creation. It was nor ready (is still not ready) to understand that the future of India and Pakistan depends on peace and coopera...

  Original image  by  W.Taylo The First Anglo-Afghan War (1838-42) was fought between the British East India Company (EIC) and, the Emirate of Afghanistan.  The war caused the greatest misfortune that ever befell the British army and dealt a severe blow to their prestige in India. With the fall of Napoleonic France in 1814, Russia had emerged as Britain’s potential rival by 1830s. India was the prized possession of the British Empire at that time. Russia has made its Asiatic ambitions clear. But to realize its ambition it would have to gain a diplomatic and military foothold in Afghanistan, an insignificant and impoverished tribal society in the early 19th century. Instead of entering into an alliance with Afghanistan’s ruler, Dost Mohammad, Britain chose to back Shah Shuja, the deposed ruler of Afghanistan, who had been living in exile in India for three decades. In 1837, Alexander Burnes, an envoy sent by  George Eden (Lord Auckland), the then Governor-Genera...

Terracotta head of Buddha Devnimori Excavations at Devni Mori, 2 km from Shamlaji in  the Aravalli district in northern Gujarat, have revealed a treasure trove of architecturally and sculpturally rich Buddhist remains that include a Buddhist monastery dating back to 3rd-4th century AD. The excavations at this archaeological importance also yielded various artifacts, such as terracotta statues, inscribed caskets, pottery, and  coins.  Devni Mori has been submerged under  the waters of the Meshwo reservoir since the 1970s. Today,  a Buddhist flag is hoisted on a pole in the middle of the reservoir which came into being due to the construction of the  Meshvo dam in the late 1960s. The flag  marks the location where the stupa once stood.     The excavation at the site was carried between 1960 and 1963 under the supervision of R N Mehta,  S. N. Chaudhary and B Subbharao. The relic casket of Devnimor The discovery of the stupa in Shamlaji is a...

46km from Bhopal in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh is situated the world famous Buddhist site of Sanchi the remains of which are among the finest relics of early Buddhism dating from 3nd century BC . The Great stupa at Sanchi is hailed as the crowning achievement of early north Indian sculpture. Today the Great Sanchi Stupa survives to be awe-inspiring spectacles for the pilgrims and tourists who throng to them. It is a massive hemisphere of about 120 feet in diameter.  Towards the end of the 1st century BC four glorious gateways ( torana ) were added at the four cardinal points. The stupa was enlarged to twice its original size in the 2nd century AD. Lesser stupas and monastic buildings surround the great stupa.  The Sanchi gateways, carved with great skill, are more remarkable for their carved ornamentation than their architecture. Carved with a several figures and reliefs, each gateway consists of two square columns, above which are three architraves supported by mass...

Japanese Peace Pagoda, Darjeeling Located on the slopes of the Jalapahar hills of Darjeeling,  the glistening, white-domed Peace Pagoda has been a landmark in Darjeeling since 1992. The edifice was built in by monks and nuns belonging to the Nipponzan Myohoji sect of Nichiren Buddhism. Nichidatsu Fujii (1885–1985), who founded the religious movement of Nipponzan Myohoji which means "Japanese Mountain Dharma Temple", laid the foundation stone of the pagoda in 1972. Nipponzan Myohoji has constructed more than 70 peace pagodas in different parts of the world. They exist all around the world mostly in Asia but also in Europe and North America. Born in 1885, Nichidatsu Fujii founded Nipponzan Myohoji in 1924.  The Darjeeling Japanese Peace Pagoda which is 28.5 metre high has the four incarnations of the Buddha including the Maitreya (the future) Buddha.

According to the Union Ministry of Culture and Tourism steps are afoot to bring back to India an 11th century charter of Chola ruler Rajendra Chola from Universiteit Leiden (University of Leiden) in the Netherlands. The charter inscribed on 21 copper plates and held together by a massive bronze ring fastened with the seal of Rajendra Chola found its way to the Netherlands in the 18th century. The copper plates speak of the genealogy of Raja Raja Chola and his contribution for building a Buddhist vihara in Nagapattinam (in Tamil Nadu). Known for his religious tolerance, Rajaraja gave a helping hand to the Sailendra ruler of the Srivijaya Empire, Mara Vijayottunggavarman in building a Buddhist monastery in  Nagapattinam. The monastery was known Chudamani Vihara after Cudamanivarman, father of Mara Vijayottunggavarman. Srivijaya Empire was in what is now Indonesia and much of the Malay Archipelago. 

Atala Mosque / Image Credit    In May 2024 a petition was filed in a local court in Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh that the 14th-century Atala Mosque be declared a “Atala Devi Mandir”. The mosque was built by Ibrahim Shah Sharqi (1401-1408). Petitioners say that according to historical records the mosque was built on the site of a temple of Atala Devi.   Who was Ibrahim Shah Sharqi? Ibrahim Shah Sharqi was a ruler of the Sharqi dynasty of Jaunpur, north of Varanasi in the present Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. This dynasty was founded by Malik Sarwar, a eunuch belonging to Sultan Firuz Tughluq. Malik Sarwar’s astonishingly fast rise to power can be attributed to the chaos that ruled supreme after the death of Firuz in 1388. He was made wazir of the Delhi sultanate by Firuz’s younger son, Muhammad Shah (1390-93) who conferred on him the title of Sultanush-Sharq (Ruler of the Eastern Kingdom).  Malik Sarwar’s rise continued and in 1394 was appointed governor of Jaunpur,...

Rohtas Fort Jhelum Punjab / Image Credit Located near Dina city in the Jhelum district in Pakistan, Rohtas Fort (also called Qila Rohtas) was built in the 16th century on the instructions of Afghan ruler Sher Shah Suri who did not live longer to see its completion which was overseen in the later years by his son Islam Shah, popularly known as Salim Shah.  The construction of Rohtas Fort started in 1541 under the supervision of Sher Shah's official Todar Mal who later on joined the Mughal Empire under Akbar as its finance minister. The construction of this gigantic fort was undertaken by Sher Shah to keep the refractory tribes of Gakkhars in check and guard the northern frontier boundary of Sur Empire. The fort was named by him after his famous strong fortress of the same name in Bihar. Qila Rohtas was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997.  The Gakkhars ruled in the mountainous region between the upper courses of the Jhelum and the Indus. 

Grave of Muhammad Ghori / Image Credit After Mahmud of Ghazni, the next prominent invader on India was Muhammad Ghori, who took the title of Mu'izzuddin Muhammad ibn Sam after he became sultan.  The actual name of Muhammad Ghori was Shahab-ud-din. The dynasty to which he belonged was Ghurid dynasty which supplanted the Ghaznavids in Afghanistan when he conquered the last Ghaznavid principality of Lahore in 1186 by defeating its ruler, Khusrau Malik, who was executed in 1191. His dynasty was so named as his family belonged to the territory of Ghor in Afghanistan. He conquered several territories but remained a loyal subordinate  to his brother Ghiyas-ud-din, the Ghur Sultan,  until the latter's death in 1202 after which he became the Sultan and ruled until his murder in 1206. Muizuddin  made his first Indian expedition in 1175 AD. these invasions were on the Muslim states of Multan and the fortress of Uch. During the reign of Chalukya or Solanki ruler Bhima II (1178-...

Jama Masjid Shamsi, Badaun / Image Credit Today, Budaun may be a non- descript town in the district of the same name in the western Uttar Pradesh, history weighs heavily on it.  About 235 km from Delhi, Budaun came into prominence when it became a centre of power during the reign of  Iltutmish  of the Slave Dynasty of Delhi Sultanate. Iltutmish, who ruled from AD 1210 to 1236, served as the governor of Badaun under the Delhi Sultan Qutab ud-din Aibak before becoming the Sultan. It was at Badaun where Tajuddin Yalduz, successor of Muhammad of Ghor in Ghazni and a rival of Iltutmish, was beheaded on the instruction of the latter in 1216. The imposing Shamsi mosque in the town was commissioned by Iltutmish.  Budaun was the birthplace of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya (1236-1325), one of the most famous Sufi saints of Chisti order. His Dargah in Delhi attracts a large number of visitors.  Alauddin Alam Shah , the last ruler of Sayyid Dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate, found ...