Saturday, January 12, 2013

Great Pallavas of Kanchi

The Goddess Durga (Mahishasuramardini) destorying the Buffalo Demon, Mahisha, Mamallapuram. 7th century / Image Credit

Today, the seaside village of Mamallapuram in Chengalpattu district of Tamil Nadu is witness to some of brilliant works of architecture by the Pallavas who ruled from A.D. 300-900 in the region south of Krishna-Tungbhadra rivers. Kanchi (modern Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu) was the capital of their Kingdom.

Pallava dynasty was one of the most powerful and famous kingdoms of South India. The rulers of this dynasty are known to be the creators of one of most exquisite pieces of temple architecture in India. During the rule of the Pallavas, Hinduism was in a state of flourish and they are responsible for introducing Aryan institutions in South India to a great measure.

Early Pallavas
Nothing much can be said with certainty about the early history of the Pallavas.  We learn that in about the middle of the 4th century AD a Pallava king named Vishnugopa was captured and then set free by the great Gupta ruler Samudragupta. Siva-Skandavarman was another famous Pallava ruler who is said to have performed the Aswamedha (Horse-sacrifice). He assumed the pontifical title of “righteous king of great kings”. According to the Jaina text Lokavibhaga, a Pallava king named Simhavarman IV ascended the throne in A.D. 436.

Later Pallavas
It was, however, in the 6th century AD that Pallavas rose into prominence. It was from the reign of Simhavishnu Avanisimha, who ascended the throne in about AD 575, that the history of Pallava dynasty emerged into clarity and becomes more definite.  Simhavishnu is considered to be the real founder of the Pallava power. He was a fierce militarist and is credited with having defeated his southern adversaries including Ceylon. After his death his son Mahedravikramavarman, famously known as MahendravarmanI, ascended the throne. A man of versatile genius, he is known for his play Mattavilasa Prahasana.   

Mahendravarman I was succeeded by his son Narasimhavarman I who defeated Chalukya king Pulakesin II who was earlier having an upper hand in his battles with the Pallavas. The battle between the Pallavas and the Chalukyas became frequent with the passage of time.

Nandivarman II Pallavamalla (reigned 735-797) was one of the last great kings of the Pallava dynasty. He was chosen by an assembly of nobles and ministers to ascend the throne as the previous Pallava monarch Paramesvaravarman II died issueless. He is credited with the construction of the Mukteshwar Temple and Baikunth Perumal temple at Kanchi. He was a contemporary of great saint scholar Tirumala Alavar.

After Nandivarman II the Pallava rulers had to face the repeated invasions of the Pandyas, the Gangas and the Rashtrakutas. The fortunes of the kingdom were now on a declining mode. At the end of the 9th century (c AD 893) the Chola ruler Aditya I, who was a feudatory of the Pallava rulers, defeated and killed Aprajita, the last Pallava ruler. Thus came the end of the Pallavas who were supplanted by the Cholas of Thanjavur (Tanjore). 

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Indian History Trivia


image source: incredibleindia.org

The Great Rashtrakuta emperor Amoghavarsha I cut off the fingers of his left hand as a sacrifice to the Goddesses Mahalakshmi of Kolhapur to avert the calamites being faced his kingdom.

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Jamadagni

Image Source: Wikipedia
An ancient rishi (sage), Jamadagni was the father of Parashurama (Rama with the axe), the sixth Avatar (“Descent”) or Incarnation of Vishnu. Once Jamadagni was robbed by the wicked King Kartavirya, the most famous of the Haihaya kings. As a result, Parashurama killed Kartavirya. Jamadagni was in turn killed by the sons of Kartavirya. This enraged Parashurama who exterminated all the males of the Kshatriya caste with the axe given to him by Shiva twenty-one times in succession.
Some accounts say that Jamadagni was killed by Kartavirya himself.
Jamadagni’s wife was Renuka who is known for her wifely fidelity.

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Presidents of Indian National Congress

Year Location of Session President
1885 Bombay Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee
1886 Calcutta Dadabhai Naoroji
1887 Madras Badruddin Tyabji
1888 Allahabad George Yule
1889 Bombay William Wedderburn
1890 Calcutta Pherozeshah Mehta
1891 Nagpur P. Ananda Charlu
1892 Allahabad Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee
1893 Lahore Dadabhai Naoroji
1894 Madras Alfred Webb
1895 Poona Surendranath Banerjea
1896 Calcutta Rahimtulla M. Sayani
1897 Amraoti C. Sankaran Nair
1898 Madras Ananda Mohan Bose
1899 Lucknow Romesh Chunder Dutt
1900 Lahore Narayan Ganesh Chandavarkar
1901 Calcutta Dinshaw Edulji Wacha
1902 Ahmedabad Surendranath Banerjea
1903 Madras Lalmohan Ghosh
1904 Bombay Henry Cotton
1905 Benares Gopal Krishna Gokhale
1906 Calcutta Dadabhai Naoroji
1907 Surat Rashbihari Ghosh
1908 Madras Rashbihari Ghosh
1909 Lahore Madan Mohan Malaviya
1910 Allahabad William Wedderburn
1911 Calcutta Bishan Narayan Dar
1912 Bankipur Rao Bahadur Raghunath Narasinha Mudholkar
1913 Karachi Nawab Syed Mohammad Bahadur
1914 Madras Bhupendra Nath Bose
1915 Bombay Satyendra Prasanna Sinha
1916 Lucknow Ambica Charan Mazumdar
1917 Calcutta Annie Besant
1918 Bombay Syed Hasan Imam
1918 Delhi Madan Mohan Malaviya
1919 Amritsar Motilal Nehru
1920 Calcutta Lala Lajpat Rai
1920 Nagpur C. Vijayaraghavachariar
1921 Ahmedabad Hakim Ajmal Khan
1922 Gaya Chittaranjan Das
1923 Cocanada Maulana Mohammad Ali
1923 Delhi Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
1924 Belgaum Mahatma Gandhi
1925 Kanpur Sarojini Naidu
1926 Gauhati S. Srinivasa Iyengar
1927 Madras Mukhtar Ahmad Ansari
1928 Calcutta Motilal Nehru
1929 Lahore Jawaharlal Nehru
1931 Karachi Vallabhbhai Patel
1932 Delhi Madan Mohan Malaviya
1933 Calcutta Nellie Sen Gupta/Madan Mohan Malaviya
1934 Bombay Rajendra Prasad
1935 Lucknow Jawaharlal Nehru
1936 Faizpur Jawaharlal Nehru
1938 Haripura Subhas Chandra Bose
1939 Tripuri Subhas Chandra Bose
1940 Ramgarh Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
1946 Meerut J. B. Kripalani
1948 Jaipur Pattabhi Sitaramayya
1950 Nashik Purshottam Das Tandon
1951 New Delhi Jawaharlal Nehru
1953 Hyderabad Jawaharlal Nehru
1954 Kalyani Jawaharlal Nehru
1955 Avadi (Madras) U. N. Dhebar
1956 Amritsar U. N. Dhebar
1957 Indore U. N. Dhebar
1958 Gauhati U. N. Dhebar
1959 Nagpur U. N. Dhebar
1960 Bangalore Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy
1961 Bhavnagar Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy
1962 Patna Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy
1964 Bhubaneswar K. Kamaraj
1965 Durgapur K. Kamaraj
1966 Jaipur K. Kamaraj
1968 Hyderabad S. Nijalingappa
1969 Faridabad S. Nijalingappa
1969 Bombay Jagjivan Ram
1972 Calcutta Shankar Dayal Sharma
1975 Chandigarh Dev Kanta Borooah
1978 New Delhi Indira Gandhi
1983 Calcutta Indira Gandhi
1985 Bombay Rajiv Gandhi
1992 Tirupati P. V. Narasimha Rao
1997 Calcutta Sitaram Kesri

Today in India History (29th December)



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.

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Today in India History (28th December)




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.

Today in India History (27th December)





·         The famous Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib during the Mughal period was born in Agra on 27 December 1797. Today is Ghalib's 215th birth anniversary.


Cosmas Indicopleustes

World map by Cosmas Indicopleustes /  Image Credit: upload.wikimedia.org Cosmas Indicopleustes (literally: "who sailed to India") ...