Located in Amruthapura, around 67 kilometres north of Chikmagalur, the Amrutesvara Temple was built in 1196 CE by the commander Amrutheshwara Dandanayaka, during the rule of Veera Ballala II (r. 1173–1220 CE), the Hoysala King.
Located near the reservoir of the Bhadra River, this 12th century temple is a fine specimen of Hoysala architecture.
Located close to Hoysaleshwara temple at Halebid in Karnataka, Hucheshwara temple is a Hoysala period shrine. As the temple is crumbling the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is carrying out conservation and maintenance work.
The founder of the Chisti Sufi order in India, Muinud-din-Chisti was also known as Khwaja Ajmeri. Headquartered in Ajmer in Rajasthan, Chisti Sufi order attracted devotees from both Muslims and Hindus and continue to do so. Moinuddin Chishti came from Sistan with the Muslim invasion, eventually arriving in Ajmer where he died in 1236.
Thousands of Sufi devotees travel to the shrine of Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer for the annual Urs.
Disciples of Moinuddin Chisti
Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki
The most important disciple of Moinuddin Chisti, Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki popularized the Chisti order in Delhi. He had come to Delhi some time after 1221. He died in 1235. His tomb is in Mehrauli in Delhi and it is said that Qutub Minar takes its name from this Sufi saint.
Hamiduddin Nagauri
Another prominent disciple of Moinuddin Chisti, Hamiduddin Nagauri was instrumental in initiating Chisti order in Nagaur in Rajasthan.
This year marks the 555th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak [1469-1539], the founder of Sikhism, a monotheistic religion born in 15th-century. Guru Nanak preached harmony between Hinduism and Islam.
The followers of Sikhisism must carry five articles all the time. They are known as the Five Ks: the Kesh (uncut hair), Kara (a steel bracelet), Kanga (a wooden comb), Kaccha (cotton underwear), and Kirpan (a curved dagger).
Guru Nanak is the first Sikh Guru. Nine gurus followed him and there is no living human successor, but the Sikh holy book Guru Granth Sahib is considered the 11th and eternal.
Guru Nanak was born in a Khatri family in 1469 during the rule of Bahlul Khan Lodi, founder of the Lodi dynasty. His birth took place at the village of Talwandi ((now called Nankana Sahib), thirty-five miles south-west of Lahore and situated in the Nankana Sahib district in the Punjab province of Pakistan.
Nanak's father was a Patwari (accountant). Nanak was given formal education and employed as an assistant to his brother-in-law, Jai Rama, who was in the service of Daulat Khan Lodi, governor of Lahore, at Sultanpur Lodi in Punjab.
At Sultanpur Lodi Nanak began his religious career preaching a faith based on equality and one God. He wandered over the country and even beyond as far as Makkah and Medina. He died in 1539 in Kartarpur in Pakistan.
Nanak had married, lived the life of a householder and had two sons. He believed that married life was not a bar to spiritual progress. He preached the gospel of universal toleration and opposed caste-based distinctions and religious fanaticism. His message was one of unity of God and personal love for him. Both Hindu and Muslim were among his disciples. He nominated Angada, one of his disciples as his successor who gave unity and organisation to his followers. Gradually they became known as the Sikhs.
A native of sanxi (Shansi), Fa-hsien, also known as Faxian, was a Chinese monk who came to India on a pilgrimage tour during the reign of Chandra Gupta II ((reigned c 376-415). His motive for coming to India was to acquire authentic copies of the Buddhist scriptures and to visit the places associated with the Buddha. After his return to China he translated into Chinese the large number of Sanskrit Buddhist texts he had brought from India.
He had recorded his observations in a travelogue titled Fo-Kwo-Ki (Travels of Fa-Hien).
Being of religious nature, he gives information about temples and monasteries and the state of Buddhism in India at that time. He was so engrossed in the religious pursuits that he even doesn’t mention the name of Chandra Gupta II (376-415) of the Gupta empire though he spent some six years in India during the latter’s reign. The Buddhist canon Samyutta Nikata was translated into Chinese about 440 AD from a manuscript obtained by the pilgrim in Sri Lanka in 411. Fa-hsien was the earliest to refer to “pollution on approach” in regard to the untouchables.
Fa-hsien traveled in India, particularly the Buddhist centres, extensively. He visited Kapilvastu (Lumbini), Bodh Gaya in Bihar, Benares (Varanasi), Kushinagar and Shravasti, all linked to events in Buddha's life. His observations are of great importance to an understanding of the period.
In 411 AD he travelled from Tamralipti (modern West Bengal) to Sri Lanka
Some of the important statements made by Fa-hsien about India are:
After Muhammad Shah's death in A.D. 1445, his son, Alauddin Alam Shah (reigned 1445–51), succeeded him to the throne of the Sayyid Dynasty, the fourth in the line of five dynasties that comprised Delhi Sultanate that ruled from 1206 to 1526.
Alauddin Alam Shah was more inefficient than his father. Such was his fondness for gratification and aversion to work that he abdicated the throne in favour of Afghan Buhlul Khan Lodi (reigned 1451–89), the governor of Lahore and Sirhind, in 1451 and retired to Badaun (now in Uttar Pradesh), where he died in 1478.
Alam Shah’s only claim to fame lies in the field of architecture. He constructed his father’s tomb which is located in the Lodhi Gardens in central Delhi.
He lies buried in a tomb in Badaun in Uttar Pradesh where his mother was also buried. The tombs of Alam Shah and his mother are an Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) protected monument.
Vardhamana, known to his followers as Mahavira, was the last of the 24 Tirthankaras (Ford-makers), saviors and spiritual teachers of the dharma, in Jainism. He is regarded as the founder of Jainism.
A contemporary of The Buddha, Mahavira was born in village Kundandagrama near Vaishali in Bihar in a kshatriya (the warrior class) family about 599 BC. His father Siddhartha was the chief of the Jnatrikas clan and his mother Trishala was sister of Chetaka, the Licchavis king of Vaishali. Mahavira was also related to Bimbisara, the ruler of Magadha, who was married to Chellana, the daughter of Chetaka. Mahavira was married to Yashoda and had a daughter whose husband, Jamali, became the first disciple of Mahavira.
Though Mahavira was educated in all branches of knowledge he shied away from materialistic life. At the age of 30, when his parents were dead, he renounced his family, became an ascetic, and proceeded in search of truth. For over twelve years, he went from one place to another and led a life of torture by subjecting his body to all kinds of hardships but it was of no avail. During this period he met another ascetic, Gosala Maskariputra, who later founded the sect of Ajivikas. The Ajivika sect enjoyed its heydays during the Mauryan rule under Ashoka and his successor Dasharatha. It, however, survived until fourteenth century in south India.
In the thirteenth year of his asceticism on the tenth of Vaishakha, outside the town of Jrimbhikgrama he found full enlightenment and Nirvana. From now onwards he was called Jaina or Jitendriya (one who has conquered his senses), Nirgranthas (“Free from Bonds”) and Mahavira (the brave) and his followers were named Jain.
For the remaining thirty years Mahavira moved from one place to another in the Gangetic kingdoms and preached his religion. At the age of 72 he breathed his last at Pava, near the Magadhan capital Rajagrha in 527 BC.
World map by Cosmas Indicopleustes / Image Credit: upload.wikimedia.org Cosmas Indicopleustes (literally: "who sailed to India") ...
