Bipin Chandra Pal, Father of Revolutionary Thoughts

One of the famous triumvirate called “Lal-Bal-Pal”, Bipin Chandra Pal is known as "Father of Revolutionary Thoughts" in India. He was born in 1858 in Sylhet (now in Bangladesh).   

Bipin Chandra Pal joined Indian National Congress in 1886.

He started newspapers with a view to educating public opinion. He was the founder editor of Paridarshak, a weekly, and later worked as assistant editor of the Bengal Public Opinion and the Tribune.

Nationalist to the core, Bipin Chandra Pal was an exponent of concept of Indian Swaraj and Swadeshi. He vehemently opposed the partition of Bengal announced in 1905. He was a noted writer and a powerful speaker. His most famous work was Memories and My Life and Times (in two volumes).

He also launched English newspaper Bande Mataram of which the revolutionary and later a mystic Aurobindo Ghose became an editor. In 1907, he was convicted for six months following publication of seditious views in the paper.

Bipin Chandra Pal worked for Association for the Advancement of Scientific and Industrial Education of India which was set up during the Swadeshi Movement for the dissemination of scientific and industrial education.

Critical of Mahatma  Gandhi, he retired from active politics in 1920. He continued to publish in retirement till his death on May 20, 1932. 

Ashtadhyayi of Panini

Ashtadhyayi is a treatise on grammar composed in the 4th century B.C. by Panini. The work is the most detailed and scientific grammar composed before the 19th century in any part of the world. 

Consisting of over 4000 grammatical rules, Panini’s grammar is one of the greatest intellectual achievements of any ancient civilization. 

Later Indian grammars such as Mahabhasya of Patanjali and Kasika Vrtti of Jayaditya and Vamana are commentaries on Panini.

Panini was associated the ancient university of Taxila or Takshashila.  

Reference:

The Wonder that was India by A. L. Basham 

Aihole Prasasti of Ravikirti

                                Aihole inscription of Ravi Kirti/Wikimedia Commons

Aihole Prasasti (Inscription) is a panegyric of Pulakesin II, the greatest king of Chalukya Dynasty, which ruled from Vatapi (now called Badami) in Karnataka. Pulakesin II reigned from 610 to 642 CE. 

Dated A.D. 634, Aihole Inscription was composed by his Jain court poet, Ravikirti, who claimed equal status with poets Kalidasa and Bharavi as a result of his composition. Engraved on the walls of Meguti temple at Aihole, the inscription gives a detailed account of his victories. 

Jain Maguti Temple

Jain Meguti Temple is the only dated architectural monument in Aihole. 

Mirat-i-Ahmadi

Written by Diwan Ali Muhammad Khan in 1750s, Mirat-i-Ahmadi is a rare piece of history writing in Persian. It gives statistical information on the history of Gujarat from the beginning of the Muslim rule. 

Mirat-i-Ahmadi was translated into English by James Bird. It was translated into Gujarati by Nizamuddin Faruqi in 1913. 

Mirat-i-Sikanderi by Sikander bin Muhammad Manzu

Mirat-i-Sikandari is a Persian work describing the political history of Gujarat from the inception of the Muzaffarid dynasty by Muzaffar Shah (Jafar Khan). The work was composed by Sikander bin Muhammad Manzu and completed in 1611.

Sikander bin Muhammad Manzu served in the army of Aziz Koka, a leading noble and Mughal Subahdar of Gujarat.

Mirat-i-Sikandari also describes the cultural and social life of Gujarat.

Mulla Abdul Qadir Badayuni, Mughal Court historian

Born in 1540, Mulla Abdul Qadir Badauni, also spelt Badayuni, was a contemporary historian of Akbar in the Mughal empire. He had entered his court in 1574. 

Badauni had studied together with Abdul Fazi and both had been trained by Abul Fazal’s father, Shaykh Mubarak. He had joined Man Singh’s army against Maharana Pratap in the Battle of Haldighati in 1576.

A Sunni Muslim, he was an inveterate enemy of Akbar.  He had charged Akbar of working against Islam.

His most important work was Tarikh-e Badauni (“Badauni’s History”), also called the Muntakhab al-Tawarikh (“Selection from History”). It is a general history of India from the time of the the Ghaznavids to the 40th year of Akbar’s reign (1595-96). He also wrote Kitāb al-Ḥadīth (“Book of Ḥadīth”), the tradition of the Prophet Muhammad. . 

Tarikh-i-Alfi (“History of Thousand Years”) is another famous work by Badauni who is also credited with the translation of Singhasan Battisi, Ramayana and Mahabharata into Persian.

Hoshang Shah: Sultan of Malwa

                                                Hoshang Shah's Tomb|Wikimedia Commons

Hoshang Shah or Hushang Shah was the second ruler (first independent ruler) of the Sultanate of Malwa. (Importance of Malwa’s geographical situation in Medieval times can be ascertained from the fact that it commanded the trunk routes from Gujarat and South India to North India). 

Hoshang Shah was known as Alp Khan before his accession to the throne in 1406. He was the son of Husain Ghuri on whom Tughlaq Sultan, Firuz Shah Tughlaq, had bestowed the title of Dilawar Khan and appointed him a noble. 

Hoshang Shah ruled for thirty years. After his accession, he had to face invasion from Sultan Muzaffar Shah (reigned 1407-1411) of Muzaffarid dynasty of Gujarat. In medieval times, Malwa was the bitterest rival of the Gujarat Sultanate. The invasion resulted in the defeat of Hoshang Shah and he was taken prisoner by Muzaffar Shah who, however, restored the kingdom to him. Back in his kingdom, Hoshang Shah shifted his capital from Dhar to Mandu. 

Hoshang Shah invaded Narsingh Rai of Kherla, a vassal of the Bahmani ruler Ahmad Shah (1422-35), and killed him. He forced Muzaffarid Sultan Shihabuddin Ahmad Shah to retreat from Mandu. He besieged the Gagron Fort (in the Jhalawar district of Rajasthan). 

However, his attempt to conquer Gwalior was met with failure when Mubarak Shah, the second ruler of the Sayyid Dynasty, relieved the besieged fort. 

Hoshang Shah died in 1435 and is buried in his tomb at Mandu. 

Hoshangabad city in the state of Madhya Pradesh, named after Hoshang Shah, will be now called Narmadapuram.

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