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.
This blog is a comprehensive and in-depth guide to the events, people and places throughout the history of India
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Asvaghosha: Buddhist poet and Philosopher
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.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Madan Lal Dhingra: Real Hero of India
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 only way to teach it is by dying ourselves. Therefore, I die and glory in my martyrdom.”
Monday, August 15, 2011
Khudiram Bose, Great Hero of India
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.
Happy 65th Indian Independence Day
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 Independence Day
Monday, August 8, 2011
Lord Ellenborough (1842-44)
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Sena Dynasty of Bengal
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 many minor kings and is said to have dispatched his fleet along the course of the Ganga.” Vijayasena established tow capitals, Vikrampura in East Bengal and Vijayapuri in West Bengal.
After the death of Vijayasena, Ballalsena (1165-85) ascended the throne. The literary texts Ballalacharita and Laghubharata, Mithala formed part of the Sena kingdom as the fifth province. Varendra, Vagdi, Radha and Vanga were the other four provinces. Ballalsena was a man of literary taste. He is said to have authored Adbhutasagara, a work on astronomy, and Danasagara, a work on Smriti. Ballalsena is known to have started a social movement known as Kulinism by which the nobility of birth and purity of blood were carefully protected.
Ballalsena was succeeded by Lakshmana Sena who surrendered meekly to the Turkish invader Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khalji and escaped for his life by flight in 1194. Lakshmanasena fled the Sena capital at Nadia (renamed Lakhnauti or Lakshmanavati) and took refuge at Vikrampura in East Bengal where his sons Visvarupasena and Kesavasena continued to rule. Visvarupasena ruled for fourteen years while Kesavasena for three years.
Though politically an effete, Lakshmanasena, however, was a patron of great literary minds of the day. Jayadev, author of Gita Govinda, Halayudha Mishra, the linguist, and Dhoyi, author of Pavanadutam, adorned his court.
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Yama: the God of Death
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.
Cosmas Indicopleustes
World map by Cosmas Indicopleustes / Image Credit: upload.wikimedia.org Cosmas Indicopleustes (literally: "who sailed to India") ...
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Books Authors Abhigyan Shakuntalam (Recognition of Shakuntala) Kalidasa Aihole ...
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Amir-i-Chahalgani, known variously as Turkan-i-Chahalgani and Chalisa (The Forty), was a group of 40 faithful slaves which came into existen...
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Women occupied a very honourable position in the Viajayanagr society. Some of them were very learned and were eminent litterateurs. Monogamy...