Indian History

Atala Mosque / Image Credit    In May 2024 a petition was filed in a local court in Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh that the 14th-century Atala Mosque be declared a “Atala Devi Mandir”. The mosque was built by Ibrahim Shah Sharqi (1401-1408). Petitioners say that according to historical records the mosque was built on the site of a temple of Atala Devi.   Who was Ibrahim Shah Sharqi? Ibrahim Shah Sharqi was a ruler of the Sharqi dynasty of Jaunpur, north of Varanasi in the present Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. This dynasty was founded by Malik Sarwar, a eunuch belonging to Sultan Firuz Tughluq. Malik Sarwar’s astonishingly fast rise to power can be attributed to the chaos that ruled supreme after the death of Firuz in 1388. He was made wazir of the Delhi sultanate by Firuz’s younger son, Muhammad Shah (1390-93) who conferred on him the title of Sultanush-Sharq (Ruler of the Eastern Kingdom).  Malik Sarwar’s rise continued and in 1394 was appointed governor of Jaunpur,...

Rohtas Fort Jhelum Punjab / Image Credit Located near Dina city in the Jhelum district in Pakistan, Rohtas Fort (also called Qila Rohtas) was built in the 16th century on the instructions of Afghan ruler Sher Shah Suri who did not live longer to see its completion which was overseen in the later years by his son Islam Shah, popularly known as Salim Shah.  The construction of Rohtas Fort started in 1541 under the supervision of Sher Shah's official Todar Mal who later on joined the Mughal Empire under Akbar as its finance minister. The construction of this gigantic fort was undertaken by Sher Shah to keep the refractory tribes of Gakkhars in check and guard the northern frontier boundary of Sur Empire. The fort was named by him after his famous strong fortress of the same name in Bihar. Qila Rohtas was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997.  The Gakkhars ruled in the mountainous region between the upper courses of the Jhelum and the Indus. 

Grave of Muhammad Ghori / Image Credit After Mahmud of Ghazni, the next prominent invader on India was Muhammad Ghori, who took the title of Mu'izzuddin Muhammad ibn Sam after he became sultan.  The actual name of Muhammad Ghori was Shahab-ud-din. The dynasty to which he belonged was Ghurid dynasty which supplanted the Ghaznavids in Afghanistan when he conquered the last Ghaznavid principality of Lahore in 1186 by defeating its ruler, Khusrau Malik, who was executed in 1191. His dynasty was so named as his family belonged to the territory of Ghor in Afghanistan. He conquered several territories but remained a loyal subordinate  to his brother Ghiyas-ud-din, the Ghur Sultan,  until the latter's death in 1202 after which he became the Sultan and ruled until his murder in 1206. Muizuddin  made his first Indian expedition in 1175 AD. these invasions were on the Muslim states of Multan and the fortress of Uch. During the reign of Chalukya or Solanki ruler Bhima II (1178-...

Jama Masjid Shamsi, Badaun / Image Credit Today, Budaun may be a non- descript town in the district of the same name in the western Uttar Pradesh, history weighs heavily on it.  About 235 km from Delhi, Budaun came into prominence when it became a centre of power during the reign of  Iltutmish  of the Slave Dynasty of Delhi Sultanate. Iltutmish, who ruled from AD 1210 to 1236, served as the governor of Badaun under the Delhi Sultan Qutab ud-din Aibak before becoming the Sultan. It was at Badaun where Tajuddin Yalduz, successor of Muhammad of Ghor in Ghazni and a rival of Iltutmish, was beheaded on the instruction of the latter in 1216. The imposing Shamsi mosque in the town was commissioned by Iltutmish.  Budaun was the birthplace of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya (1236-1325), one of the most famous Sufi saints of Chisti order. His Dargah in Delhi attracts a large number of visitors.  Alauddin Alam Shah , the last ruler of Sayyid Dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate, found ...

Samprati A grandson of 3rd Mauryan Emperor Ashoka ,  Samprati (r. 224 – 215 BCE) was a Mauryan Emperor. He was the son of Kunala who was blind by birth.  After Asoka's death in 232 BC, the territory of Mauryan empire was divided into the eastern and western parts. Sampriti and Dasaratha succeeded Asoka in the western and eastern parts respectively. Samprati had embraced Jainism. He was converted to the religion by Jain monk Suhastin. His contribution to Jainism is similar to that of Asoka to Buddhism. After a rule of nine years Samprati was followed by his son Salisuka who ruled for 13 years. 

Junagadh inscription of Rudradaman / Image Credit The Junagadh rock inscription of the Saka ruler Rudradaman is a eulogy inscribed on a rock located near Girnar hill near Junagadh in Gujarat. Composed in about 150 AD, the inscription,  which is the earliest inscription written in Sanskrit prose, refers to his reconstruction of a great dam or Sudarshan reservoir for irrigation which was excavated by Pushyagupta, the provincial governor (rashtriya) of Chandragupta Maurya in the provinces of Anarta and Saurashtra (Gujarat).  Written in the Brahmi script , this inscription is engraved on a rock which contains one of the fourteen Asokan Major Rock edicts and another inscription of the Gupta ruler Skandagupta. The inscription was first translated in 1837 by scholar and Orientalist James Prinsep, an official of the Calcutta Mint and secretary of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.  

                                         Maurya Empire, c.250 BCE /  Wikimedia Commons Ruling from 324 to 297 BCE , Chandragupta Maurya was the founder of the first and one of the greatest empires that appeared in Indian subcontinent.  The scarcity of sources dealing with the military conquests of Chandragupta Maurya makes it difficult for us to ascertain whether he first overthrew Mahapadma Nanda , the unpopular last Nanda ruler, or drove out the Greeks from the North-West part of India. From the inferences from the Jaina and Greek sources, it seems that liberation of Punjab was the first military activity by Chandragupta Maurya who felt emboldened by the confusion in the Greek empire that followed Macedonian ruler Alexander ’s sudden death in 323 BC in Babylon. Greek writer Justin writes about the prevailing condition of the time, “India, after the de...