Purushottam Das Tandon

As was only to be hoped that being a British colony India was slowly gearing to the adoption of English as the national language during the pre-Independent era. Even after the attainment of freedom by India in 1947, Hindi has having a tough time in achieving its due place in the country. Against this backdrop, Purushottam Das Tandon, also known as Rajarshi, is remembered for his yeomen’s service in the achievement by Hindi its due place as the National Language.

Sometimes his enthusiasm for Hindi was resented by some who accused him being communal and chauvinistic. It was by his efforts that Hindi began to be written in Devanagari script.   

One of the foremost leaders during India’s struggle for independence, Purushottam Das Tandon was also a journalist, orator and social worker. He was born on 2^nd August, 1882, at Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh. After receiving his primary education in the local City Anglo Vernacular School, he got a degree in law and started practising in the Allhabad High court. 

(Source: The Times Of India Group)

During his student days he joined Indian National congress in 1899. After being expelled from Mayor Central College of the Allahabad University for his revolutionary activities, he completed his studies in 1903 from a different college in Allahabad. He was one of the members of Congress Party Committee formed to look into the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. Responding to the call of Mahatma Gandhi, he joined the freedom struggle by giving up his law practice in 1921. 

In 1946, Purushottam Das Tandon was elected to the Constituent Assembly that drafted the Indian constitution. He served as the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Uttar Pradesh and remained in the post for thirteen years.

Though Tandon contested unsuccessfully against Pattabhi Sitaramayya for the position of the President of Congress in 1948 but was able to defeat Jivatram Bhagwandas Kripalani popularly known as Acharya Kriplani, in 1950 to be the president of Nagpur session. Jawaharlal Nehru was opposed to the candidacy of Tandon and he even threatened to resign. During his tenure there was a lack of co-ordination between the party and the government. Since then it has been the norm in the Congress party to have the same person as the president and head of the government or at least a pliable candidate for the post of either of the two. Purushottam Das Tandon won the Lok Sabha poll in 1952 and went to the Rajya Sabha in 1956.

On 23rd April, 1961, Purushottam Das Tandon was awarded Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian award. He breathed his last on 1st July 1962.

Ashvamedha: Royal Horse Sacrifice

Ashvamedha, or horse sacrifice, was one of the main royal sacrifices in ancient India, performed to enhance the power and glory of the king. Naturally, it was the ambition of every king to conduct this sacrifice, though it can be performed only by the mighty monarchs. Apart from glorifying the king, the rite also was instrumental in bringing the prosperity and fertility to the kingdom.

As the name suggests, a stallion marked with king's name was set free to wander at will for a year. The rulers and the chieftains of the territories on which the horse, followed by a chosen bans of warriors, roamed had to either accept the suzerainty of the king or defeat the accompanying warriors in the battle.

When after a period of one year the horse returned to the kingdom accompanied by the kings of the territories where it entered, it was sacrificed. Sometimes scores of other animals were sacrificed with the horse. This elaborate sacrificial ritual, participated in by the priest, the king and the queen, was held at a great public ceremony characterized by celebration and feasting. During the ceremony, the queen had to spend one night near the dead horse.

The ritual has been described at great length in several texts, chief among them being the Shatapatha Brahmana, a text on sacrificial ritual. An interesting element in the rite was that during the ceremony, the queen had to spend one night beside the dead stallion.

Pushyamitra Sunga, the founder of the Sunga dynasty, performed this sacrifice after usurping the Mauryan throne signaling the restoration of the Vedic sacrificial rituals which went into disuse during the Mauryan period. Samudra Gupta and Kumara Gupta (c 415-454) of the Gupta dynasty, the golden period of Hinduism, performed this sacrifice.  Adityasena Gupta of the second Gupta dynasty performed this sacrifice in the latter half of the 7th century AD.  After the Gupta period, the horse sacrifice became rare and the last famous instance of this sacrifice was that was performed in the mighty south Indian empire of the Cholas. 

Ashvins, Vedic Twin Gods

Ashvins (horsemen) were the twin gods in the Vedic period. Also known as Nasatyas, they are described as driving across the sky in their three-wheeled golden chariot drawn by horses. The chariot was sometimes drawn by birds, buffaloes, deer, birds, or a single ass.

The state of Ashvins being twins connects them with the Greek Dioscuri and twin gods of pre-Christian Baltic mythology. Ashvins are shown as helpers of men in distress. Apart from providing artificial legs for the maimed, they had rescued shipwrecked mariners and found spouses for the old maids.

Ashvins were married to Surya, who was the sun-god’s daughter.

Sunga Dynasty

The founder of the Sunga dynasty was Pushyamitra, a Brahman general of Brihadratha, the last Mauryan emperor. The ease with which he overthrew Brihadratha by way of a palace revolution in about 183 BC is testimony to the weakness and inefficiency of the later Mauryas who were unable to repulse the foreign invasion. According to the Puranas, religious texts dating from the Gupta period onwards, the event took place in 187 BC.

Being a Brahman, Pushyamitra is credited with the restoration of the orthodox Hinduism and performed horse-sacrifice. He has been portrayed as a persecutor of the Buddhism which saw its hey-day during the Mauryan rule. However, the remains of the large Buddhist stupa at Bharhut built in the second century BC belie this.

During his reign apart from Patliputra, Vidisa emerged as another centre of power where the crown prince Agnimitra, hero of Kalidasa’s famous drama Malavikagnimitra, held his court.

Pushyamitra, who did not take regal titles, ruled for thirty-six years. After him, nine other rulers belonging to the Shunga dynasty ascended the throne. Prominent among them were Agnimitra, Vasumitra, Bhagvata and Devabhuti. Pushyamitra was succeeded by his son Agnimitra.

According to the Mālavikāgnimitram (Malavika and Agnimitra), Vasumitra defeated the Greeks. The Besanager inscription records that a Sunga king Bhagabhadra received an ambassador named Heliodorus from a Greek king of Taxila, Antialcidas.

After that power of the Sungas began to decline and the later rulers are mere names recorded. Devabhuti (83 to 73 BC) was the last ruler of Sunga dynasty. History repeated itself when he was killed by his minister Vasudeva Kanva who, like the founder of the Shunga dynasty, went on to establish a new dynasty, Kanva dynasty.

Foods in Ancient India

Today, Indian cooking offers a wide array of foods.  The incredible richness of the Indian foods is the result of thousands of years of cooking, and eating.

Foods of ancient India are as popular today but many of them as eaten today and widespread in modern Indian cooking were imported from Americas. Chili, or red pepper, so important part of South Indian cookery arrived in India only by the Portuguese from Americas after the latter’s discovery in the 15th century. Same is the case with the brinjal, potatoes, sweet corn or maize.

Fruits and sweetmeats of ancient India were similar to those of the present day but did not include some that have become widespread as Indian sweets such as the jalebi, which was imported by the Muslims. 

According to early fifth century Chinese traveler Fa-hsein, only people of low castes ate meat. This may not be wholly true but by the time of his visit vegetarianism was the norm for the Hindus of the higher classes. The non- vegetarianism in the Vedic period has given way to vegetarianism in the Gupta period. During the Vedic period, large number of animals were sacrificed and consequently eaten.

However, by the days of the Upanishads, which stressed the doctrine of non-violence, vegetarianism began to come into vogue. It also got impetus with the rise of Buddhism and Jainism.  The Mauryan Emperor Ashoka, who took initiatives for the spread of the Buddhism as a world religion, became enamoured of vegetarian food when he came under the influence of Buddhism and as such he forbade killing of many animals in the royal kitchen. But the Arthashastra, written in the Mauryan period, does not consider anything but normal. This treatise on statecraft lays down rules for the management of slaughterhouse and the maintenance of the purity of the meat. 

Even though the growth of Mahayana Buddhism and new Hinduism contributed to the growth of strict vegetarianism, meat eating was taken recourse to by members of tantric cults of Buddhism ad Hinduism. 

Swayamvara: Marriage by Choice of the Bride

In ancient India, Swayamvara was a form of marriage in which the girl after attaining puberty chose her husband from among the assembled suitors. This type of marriage was particularly prevalent among the kshatriyas, the warrior and ruling class. Ancient law books lay down that in the case of parents not been able to marry their daughters, they can choose their own husband. 

Epic literature is full of instances which show that Swayamvara marriage took place in good numbers in ancient times. Though this marriage by choice used to be conducted at a chosen venue, sometimes other means were also taken recourse to choose the partner. In order to find her soul mate, Princess Savitri toured the country in chariot, until she found Satyavan, the son of a king turned woodcutter.

In the longest narrative episode in the Mahabharata it has been described how Princess Damayanti chose her husband Nala at a grand ceremony. Nala , who has long parted from his wife, is reunited with her only when Damayanti plans to hold a second Swayamvara.

While Princes Draupady was won by Arjuna, one of the five Pandavas, Rama won the hands of Sita at a Swayamvara, at which she chose him because he won the contest in which he was the only contestant who was able to lift the Shivа Dhanushа (Lord Shiva's Bow).

Swayamvara marriage had been conducted in ancient India as late as the 11^th century. Vikramaditya VI (c. 1075- 1127), the great Chalukyan king, is said to have won the hands of his brides by this method.

Gesudaraz Syed Muhamad Husayni (1321 A.D. - 1422A.D): Famous Sufi Saint of Deccan

A famous Sufi saint of Chisti order, Gesudaraz Syed Muhamad Husayni is credited with the spread of Chisti order in South India. A disciple of Chirag-i-Delhi, he left Delhi in 1398 and went to Gulbarga in Karnataka where he was well received by the Bahmani Sultan Firoz Shah Bahmani. Gulbarga was the capital of the Bahmani kingdom until its transfer to Bidar in 1428. 

Author of a large number of books on Tasawwuf (mysticism), he was a scholar of great repute and well versed in Quranic verses. Popular with the masses, he had deep compassion for the poor and the impoverished and this earned him the title of Bandanawaz (benefactor of the creatures of God).

A linguist with extensive knowledge of several languages, Gesudaraz was one of the early poets and writers who wrote in Urdu that came into being as a result of the mingling the Persian, Turkish and Arabic words accompanied by concepts of Sanskritic origin.

In the later years, the relation between Gesudaraz and Firoz Bahmani became strained as Sufi saint threw his weight to Bahmani Sultan's brother Ahmad to succeed the throne.

Gesudaraz died at Gulbarga and is buried there.