1.
Region
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In geography, regions are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics, human impact characteristics, and the interaction of humanity and the environment. Apart from the continental regions, there are also hydrospheric and atmospheric regions that cover the oceans. The land and water global regions are divided into subregions geographically bounded by large geological features that influence large-scale ecologies, such as plains and features. As a way of describing spatial areas, the concept of regions is important and widely used among the branches of geography. For example, ecoregion is a used in environmental geography, cultural region in cultural geography, bioregion in biogeography. The field of geography that studies regions themselves is called regional geography, where human geography is concerned, the regions and subregions are described by the discipline of ethnography. A region has its own nature that could not be moved, the first nature is its natural environment. The second nature is its physical elements complex that were built by people in the past, the third nature is its socio-cultural context that could not be replaced by new immigrants. Global regions distinguishable from space, and are clearly distinguished by the two basic terrestrial environments, land and water. However, they have generally recognised as such much earlier by terrestrial cartography because of their impact on human geography. They are divided into largest of land regions, known as continents, there are also significant regions that do not belong to either classification, such as archipelago regions that are littoral regions, or earthquake regions that are defined in geology. Continental regions are based on broad experiences in human history. As such they are conceptual constructs, usually lacking distinct boundaries, oceanic division into maritime regions are used in conjunction with the relationship to the central area of the continent, using directions of the compass. To a large extent, major continental regions are mental constructs created by considering an efficient way to large areas of the continents. For the most part, the images of the world are derived as much from academic studies and they are a matter of collective human knowledge of its own planet and are attempts to better understand their environments. Regional geography is a branch of geography that studies regions of all sizes across the Earth and it has a prevailing descriptive character. The main aim is to understand or define the uniqueness or character of a particular region, attention is paid also to regionalization, which covers the proper techniques of space delimitation into regions. Regional geography is considered as a certain approach to study in geographical sciences
2.
Pakistan
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Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a federal parliamentary republic in South Asia on the crossroads of Central Asia and Western Asia. It is the sixth-most populous country with a population exceeding 200 million people, in terms of area, it is the 33rd-largest country in the world with an area covering 881,913 square kilometres. It is separated from Tajikistan by Afghanistans narrow Wakhan Corridor in the north, Pakistan is unique among Muslim countries in that it is the only country to have been created in the name of Islam. As a result of the Pakistan Movement led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah and it is an ethnically and linguistically diverse country, with a similarly diverse geography and wildlife. Initially a dominion, Pakistan adopted a constitution in 1956, becoming an Islamic republic, an ethnic civil war in 1971 resulted in the secession of East Pakistan as the new country of Bangladesh. The new constitution stipulated that all laws were to conform to the injunctions of Islam as laid down in the Quran. Pakistan has an economy with a well-integrated agriculture sector. The Pakistani economy is the 24th-largest in the world in terms of purchasing power and it is ranked among the emerging and growth-leading economies of the world, and is backed by one of the worlds largest and fastest-growing middle classes. The post-independence history of Pakistan has been characterised by periods of military rule, the country continues to face challenging problems such as illiteracy, healthcare, and corruption, but has substantially reduced poverty and terrorism and expanded per capita income. It is also a member of CERN. Pakistan is a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol, the Paris Agreement, the name Pakistan literally means land of the pure in Urdu and Persian. It is a play on the word pāk meaning pure in Persian and Pashto, the letter i was incorporated to ease pronunciation and form the linguistically correct and meaningful name. Some of the earliest ancient human civilisations in South Asia originated from areas encompassing present-day Pakistan, the earliest known inhabitants in the region were Soanian during the Lower Paleolithic, of whom stone tools have been found in the Soan Valley of Punjab. The Vedic Civilization, characterised by Indo-Aryan culture, laid the foundations of Hinduism, Multan was an important Hindu pilgrimage centre. The Vedic civilisation flourished in the ancient Gandhāran city of Takṣaśilā, the Indo-Greek Kingdom founded by Demetrius of Bactria included Gandhara and Punjab and reached its greatest extent under Menander, prospering the Greco-Buddhist culture in the region. Taxila had one of the earliest universities and centres of education in the world. At its zenith, the Rai Dynasty of Sindh ruled this region, the Pala Dynasty was the last Buddhist empire, which, under Dharampala and Devapala, stretched across South Asia from what is now Bangladesh through Northern India to Pakistan. The Arab conqueror Muhammad bin Qasim conquered the Indus valley from Sindh to Multan in southern Punjab in 711 AD, the Pakistan governments official chronology identifies this as the time when the foundation of Pakistan was laid
3.
Iran
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Iran, also known as Persia, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, is a sovereign state in Western Asia. Comprising a land area of 1,648,195 km2, it is the second-largest country in the Middle East, with 82.8 million inhabitants, Iran is the worlds 17th-most-populous country. It is the country with both a Caspian Sea and an Indian Ocean coastline. The countrys central location in Eurasia and Western Asia, and its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran is the countrys capital and largest city, as well as its leading economic and cultural center. Iran is the site of to one of the worlds oldest civilizations, the area was first unified by the Iranian Medes in 625 BC, who became the dominant cultural and political power in the region. The empire collapsed in 330 BC following the conquests of Alexander the Great, under the Sassanid Dynasty, Iran again became one of the leading powers in the world for the next four centuries. Beginning in 633 AD, Arabs conquered Iran and largely displaced the indigenous faiths of Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism by Islam, Iran became a major contributor to the Islamic Golden Age that followed, producing many influential scientists, scholars, artists, and thinkers. During the 18th century, Iran reached its greatest territorial extent since the Sassanid Empire, through the late 18th and 19th centuries, a series of conflicts with Russia led to significant territorial losses and the erosion of sovereignty. Popular unrest culminated in the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1906, which established a monarchy and the countrys first legislative body. Following a coup instigated by the U. K. Growing dissent against foreign influence and political repression led to the 1979 Revolution, Irans rich cultural legacy is reflected in part by its 21 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the third-largest number in Asia and 11th-largest in the world. Iran is a member of the UN, ECO, NAM, OIC. Its political system is based on the 1979 Constitution which combines elements of a democracy with a theocracy governed by Islamic jurists under the concept of a Supreme Leadership. A multicultural country comprising numerous ethnic and linguistic groups, most inhabitants are Shia Muslims, the largest ethnic groups in Iran are the Persians, Azeris, Kurds and Lurs. Historically, Iran has been referred to as Persia by the West, due mainly to the writings of Greek historians who called Iran Persis, meaning land of the Persians. As the most extensive interactions the Ancient Greeks had with any outsider was with the Persians, however, Persis was originally referred to a region settled by Persians in the west shore of Lake Urmia, in the 9th century BC. The settlement was then shifted to the end of the Zagros Mountains. In 1935, Reza Shah requested the international community to refer to the country by its native name, opposition to the name change led to the reversal of the decision, and Professor Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, propagated a move to use Persia and Iran interchangeably
4.
Afghanistan
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Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located within South Asia and Central Asia. It has a population of approximately 32 million, making it the 42nd most populous country in the world. It is bordered by Pakistan in the south and east, Iran in the west, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan in the north and its territory covers 652,000 km2, making it the 41st largest country in the world. The land also served as the source from which the Kushans, Hephthalites, Samanids, Saffarids, Ghaznavids, Ghorids, Khiljis, Mughals, Hotaks, Durranis, the political history of the modern state of Afghanistan began with the Hotak and Durrani dynasties in the 18th century. In the late 19th century, Afghanistan became a state in the Great Game between British India and the Russian Empire. Following the Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919, King Amanullah unsuccessfully attempted to modernize the country and it remained peaceful during Zahir Shahs forty years of monarchy. A series of coups in the 1970s was followed by a series of wars that devastated much of Afghanistan. The name Afghānistān is believed to be as old as the ethnonym Afghan, the root name Afghan was used historically in reference to a member of the ethnic Pashtuns, and the suffix -stan means place of in Persian. Therefore, Afghanistan translates to land of the Afghans or, more specifically in a historical sense, however, the modern Constitution of Afghanistan states that he word Afghan shall apply to every citizen of Afghanistan. An important site of historical activities, many believe that Afghanistan compares to Egypt in terms of the historical value of its archaeological sites. The country sits at a unique nexus point where numerous civilizations have interacted and it has been home to various peoples through the ages, among them the ancient Iranian peoples who established the dominant role of Indo-Iranian languages in the region. At multiple points, the land has been incorporated within large regional empires, among them the Achaemenid Empire, the Macedonian Empire, the Indian Maurya Empire, and the Islamic Empire. Archaeological exploration done in the 20th century suggests that the area of Afghanistan has been closely connected by culture and trade with its neighbors to the east, west. Artifacts typical of the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze, urban civilization is believed to have begun as early as 3000 BCE, and the early city of Mundigak may have been a colony of the nearby Indus Valley Civilization. More recent findings established that the Indus Valley Civilisation stretched up towards modern-day Afghanistan, making the ancient civilisation today part of Pakistan, Afghanistan, in more detail, it extended from what today is northwest Pakistan to northwest India and northeast Afghanistan. An Indus Valley site has found on the Oxus River at Shortugai in northern Afghanistan. There are several smaller IVC colonies to be found in Afghanistan as well, after 2000 BCE, successive waves of semi-nomadic people from Central Asia began moving south into Afghanistan, among them were many Indo-European-speaking Indo-Iranians. These tribes later migrated further into South Asia, Western Asia, the region at the time was referred to as Ariana
5.
Ethnic group
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An ethnic group or ethnicity is a category of people who identify with each other based on similarities, such as common ancestral, language, social, cultural or national experiences. Unlike other social groups, ethnicity is often an inherited status based on the society in which one lives, in some cases, it can be adopted if a person moves into another society. Ethnic groups, derived from the historical founder population, often continue to speak related languages. By way of language shift, acculturation, adoption and religious conversion, it is possible for individuals or groups to leave one ethnic group. Ethnicity is often used synonymously with terms such as nation or people. In English, it can also have the connotation of something exotic, generally related to cultures of more recent immigrants, the largest ethnic groups in modern times comprise hundreds of millions of individuals, while the smallest are limited to a few dozen individuals. Conversely, formerly separate ethnicities can merge to form a pan-ethnicity, whether through division or amalgamation, the formation of a separate ethnic identity is referred to as ethnogenesis. The term ethnic is derived from the Greek word ἔθνος ethnos, the inherited English language term for this concept is folk, used alongside the latinate people since the late Middle English period. In Early Modern English and until the mid-19th century, ethnic was used to mean heathen or pagan, as the Septuagint used ta ethne to translate the Hebrew goyim the nations, non-Hebrews, non-Jews. The Greek term in antiquity could refer to any large group, a host of men. In the 19th century, the term came to be used in the sense of peculiar to a race, people or nation, the abstract ethnicity had been used for paganism in the 18th century, but now came to express the meaning of an ethnic character. The term ethnic group was first recorded in 1935 and entered the Oxford English Dictionary in 1972, depending on the context that is used, the term nationality may either be used synonymously with ethnicity, or synonymously with citizenship. The process that results in the emergence of an ethnicity is called ethnogenesis, the Greeks at this time did not describe foreign nations but had also developed a concept of their own ethnicity, which they grouped under the name of Hellenes. Herodotus gave an account of what defined Greek ethnic identity in his day, enumerating shared descent. Whether ethnicity qualifies as a universal is to some extent dependent on the exact definition used. Many social scientists, such as anthropologists Fredrik Barth and Eric Wolf and they regard ethnicity as a product of specific kinds of inter-group interactions, rather than an essential quality inherent to human groups. According to Thomas Hylland Eriksen, the study of ethnicity was dominated by two distinct debates until recently, one is between primordialism and instrumentalism. In the primordialist view, the participant perceives ethnic ties collectively, as a given, even coercive
6.
Baloch people
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They mainly speak the Balochi language, a branch of Northwestern Iranian languages, and are an Iranic people. About 50% of the total Baloch population live in Balochistan, a province of Pakistan, 40% of Baloch are settled in Sindh. They make up nearly 3. 6% of the Pakistani population, about 2% of Irans population, prominent Baloch people in Pakistan include former Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali and former President Asif Ali Zardari who is an ethnic Baloch from Sindh. Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry born in Quetta, is the longest-serving Chief Justice of Pakistan is another prominent Baloch personality, the son of Benazir Bhutto, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is the Chief of the Baloch Zardari tribe. Farooq Leghari was the first ever ethnic Baloch to be elected President, the exact origin of the word Baloch is unclear. Rawlinson believed that it is derived from the name of the Babylonian king, dames believed that it is derived from the Persian term for cockscomb, said to have been used as a crest on the helmets of Baloch troops in 6th century BCE. Herzfeld proposed that it is derived from the Median term brza-vaciya, the remnants of the original name such as Balochuk and Balochiki are said to be still used as ethnic names in Balochistan. Some writers suggest a derivation from Sanskrit words bal, meaning strength, the army in question is that of the Umayyad Caliphate after the conquest of Sindh. According to Baloch lore, their ancestors hail from Aleppo in what is now Syria and they are descendants of Hazrat Ameer Hamza, uncle of the prophet Muhammad, who settled in Halab. and they fled to the Sistan region. They allegedly remained there for nearly 500 years until they fled following a deception against the Sistan leader Badr-ud-Din to the Makran region, the Baloch began migrating towards the east in the late Sasanian period. The cause of the migration is unknown but may have been as a result of the unstable conditions in the Caspian area. The migrations occurred over several centuries and this brought them into conflict with the Buyids, and later the Ghaznavids and the Seljuqs. Adud al-Dawla of the Buyid dynasty launched a campaign against them. By the 13/14th centuries waves of Baloch were moving into Sindh, according to Dr. Akhtar Baloch, Professor at University of Karachi, the Balochis migrated from Balochistan during the Little Ice Age and settled in Sindh and Punjab. The Little Ice Age is conventionally defined as an extending from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries, or alternatively. Although climatologists and historians working with local records no longer expect to agree on either the start or end dates of this period, which varied according to local conditions. According to Professor Baloch, the climate of Balochistan was very cold, the area where the Baloch tribes settled was disputed between the Persian Safavids and the Mughal emperors. Although the Mughals managed to some control over the eastern parts of the area, by the 17th century
7.
Balochi language
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Balochi is a Northwestern Iranian language. It is the language of the Baloch people. The Balochi vowel system has at least eight vowels, five long vowels, the long vowels are /aː/, /eː/, /iː/, /oː/, and /uː/. The short vowels are /a/, /i/ and /u/, the short vowels have more centralized phonetic qualities than the long vowels. Southern Balochi also has nasalized vowels, most importantly /ẽː/ and /ãː/, the following consonants are common to both Western Balochi and Southern Balochi. The place of articulation of the consonants /s/, /z/, /n/, /ɾ/ and /l/ is claimed to be alveolar in Western Balochi, the stops /t/ and /d/ are claimed to be dental in both dialects. Notes In addition, /f/ is listed for Southern Balochi, but is found in few words, /x/ in some loanwords in Southern Balochi corresponding to /χ/ in Western Balochi, and /ɣ/ in some loanwords in Southern Balochi corresponding to /ʁ/ in Western Balochi. The normal word order is subject–object–verb, like many other Indo-Iranian languages, Balochi has split ergativity. In the present tense or future tense, the subject is marked as nominative, in the past tense, however, the subject of a transitive verb is marked as oblique, and the verb agrees with the object. There are two main dialects among the Balochi language, one with the Mandwani or northern tribes and the other with the Mazaris or southern tribes, the grammatical terminations by the northern tribes are less full and distinct than those in the southern tribes. Before the 19th century, Balochi was an unwritten language, the official written language was Persian, although Balochi was still spoken at the Baloch courts. British linguists and political historians wrote from with the Latin script, the first collection of poetry in Balochi, Gulbang by Mir Gul Khan Nasir was published in 1951 and incorporated the Urdu Arabic Script. But it was later that Sayad Zahurshah Hashemi wrote a comprehensive guidance on the usage of Urdu Arabic script. This earned Sayad Hashemi the title of the Father of Balochi, sayads guidances are widely used in Eastern and Western Balochistan. In Afghanistan, however, Balochi is written in a modified Arabic script based on what is used for Persian. The same alphabet was published in his article Balochki Mundh Likh in the monthly Balochi Nama, Dera Ghazi Khan, August–September 1991, Vol.1, issue 1, the following Latin-based alphabet was adopted by the International Workshop on Balochi Roman Orthography. A grammar, phrase book and vocabulary of Baluchi, a sketch of the northern Balochi language, containing a grammar, vocabulary and specimens of the language. Baluchi glossary, a Baluchi-English glossary, elementary level
8.
Urdu
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Urdu is a persianized standard register of the Hindustani language. It is the language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also one of the 22 official languages recognized in the Constitution of India, hyderabad, Rampur, Bhopal and Lucknow are noted Urdu-speaking cities of India. Urdu is historically associated with the Muslims of the northern Indian subcontinent, apart from specialized vocabulary, Urdu is mutually intelligible with Standard Hindi, another recognized register of Hindustani. Urdu, like Hindi, is a form of Hindustani, Urdu developed under the influence of the Persian and Arabic languages, both of which have contributed a significant amount of vocabulary to formal speech. Around 99% of Urdu verbs have their roots in Sanskrit and Prakrit, Urdu words originating from Chagatai and Arabic were borrowed through Persian and hence are Persianized versions of the original words. For instance, the Arabic ta marbuta changes to he or te, nevertheless, contrary to popular belief, Urdu did not borrow from the Turkish language, but from Chagatai. Urdu and Turkish borrowed from Arabic and Persian, hence the similarity in pronunciation of many Urdu, Arabic influence in the region began with the late first-millennium Arab invasion of India in the 7th century. The Persian language was introduced into the subcontinent a few centuries later by various Persianized Central Asian Turkic and Afghan dynasties including that of the Delhi Sultanate. With the advent of the British Raj, Persian was no longer the language of administration but Hindustani, still written in the Persian script, the name Urdu was first used by the poet Ghulam Hamadani Mushafi around 1780. From the 13th century until the end of the 18th century Urdu was commonly known as Hindi, the language was also known by various other names such as Hindavi and Dehlavi. The communal nature of the language lasted until it replaced Persian as the language in 1837 and was made co-official. Urdu was promoted in British India by British policies to counter the previous emphasis on Persian and this triggered a Brahman backlash in northwestern India, which argued that the language should be written in the native Devanagari script. At independence, Pakistan established a highly Persianized literary form of Urdu as its national language, English has exerted a heavy influence on both as a co-official language. Owing to interaction with other languages, Urdu has become localized wherever it is spoken, similarly, the Urdu spoken in India can also be distinguished into many dialects like Dakhni of South India, and Khariboli of the Punjab region since recent times. Because of Urdus similarity to Hindi, speakers of the two languages can understand one another if both sides refrain from using specialized vocabulary. The syntax, morphology, and the vocabulary are essentially identical. Thus linguists usually count them as one language and contend that they are considered as two different languages for socio-political reasons
9.
Turbat
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Turbat, is a city located in southern Balochistan, a province of Pakistan. The town is the administrative centre oif Kech District and Turbat Tehsil, the town is located in southern Balochistan province in Pakistan. It is situated on the bank of the Kech River. The Makran Range to the north and east descends to coastal plains in the south, the town is a marketplace for dates grown in the surrounding region and has a date-processing factory. Jowar, barley, wheat, and rice are also grown, koh-e-Murad is a shrine located in Turbat. This is a place for Zikris where they believe that Muhammad Jaunpuri. The followers of Zikri sect gather here annually on the night of 27th Ramadan for a visit to this shrine. The town has a place in Baloch folklore and literature, it is the home of Punnu. The remains of Punnus fort can still be seen at Turbat, atta Shad who is considered as one of the greatest poets of Balochi literature was also born in Singanisar, a town in Turbat city. He not only versatile in Balochi poetry but he was greatly appreciated for his contribution in Urdu poetry. He was unique in his diction and style and he is credited to have written four books that include two Balochi books Rochgir and Shap sahar indem, and two Urdu books Singaab and Barfag. He died on 13 February 1998 in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, Turbat is the birthplace of Qadir Bukhsh Rind Baloch alias Kadu Makrani was a 19th-century archetypal figure who was born and brought up in Makran, Balochistan. He rose as an insurgent in Kathiawar, Gujarat, martyred and buried in Karachi and his final resting place in Mewah Shah Graveyard which has become the center of inspiration today. He is also remembered as the eastern Robin Hood, is a Holy Place, its mountainous range stretches more than 15–25 km from main Kech City. Where you find many picnic points as there are natural water reservoirs. In koh-e-imam there are centuries old tombs we call them DAMD in Balochi Language. They are mysterious in a sense that people dont find facts about the tombs aside of the river which is almost more than 100 km. Turbat was ruled since ancient times by the Gichki Tribes of Makran and it was then the headquarters of the Makran State and the Nawab of Makran resided in Shahi Tump near Turbat
10.
Zahedan
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At the 2006 census, its population was 552,706, in 109,488 families. Zahedan is the plural of the Arabic word zahed meaning pious, Zahedan has a hot desert climate with hot summers and cool winters. Precipitation is very low, and mostly falls in winter, Zahedan is the home of the Islamic Azad University of Zahedan, the Zahedan University of Medical Sciences and the University of Sistan and Baluchestan. Besides, the largest Sunni seminary, Darululoom Zahedan, is located in Zahedan, there are some other religious Sunni schools in the city and the vicinity. The Demographics of Zahedans inhabitants are largely ethnic Baluchi who speak the Baluchi language and Sistanis who speak Persian Sistani, Yazdi, there are also smaller numbers of Pashtuns and Kurds. Zahedan lies east of the Kavir-e Loot desert, the city was part of the historic region of Sistan, situated today on the borders of southeastern Iran and southwestern Afghanistan. One portion is part of the Iranian province of Sistan and Baluchestan, the other portion is part of the Nimruz Province of Afghanistan. The name Sistan comes from Sakastan, of which Sistan was once the westernmost part, the Saffarids, one of the early Iranian dynasties of the Islamic era, were originally rulers of Sistan. In the Shahnameh, Sistan is also referred to as Zabulistan, after Zabol, in Ferdowsis epic, Zabulistan is in turn described to be the homeland of the mythological hero-king Rostam. Zahedan and the area of Sistan has a strong connection with Zoroastrianism. The most famous site in Sistan is on Kuh-e Khwajeh. Zahedan is a centre for Sunni Muslims in Baluchistan, the Makki mosque and its madrasa play an important role in Baluchistans society. Shaikh Abdolhamid Ismaeelzahi is the main and most influential religious and Sunni community leader in Iran that is heading Makki mosque, Zahedan also has a Friday mosque for Shiite and a Jame mosque, where many members of the community gather to worship on Fridays. A colorful bazaar, Rasouli Bazaar, can also be found in the city, about 100 km south of Zahedan is an intermittently active volcano, Taftan, which rises abruptly 4,042 m from the surrounding plain. Although the surrounding area has many ancient sites, Zahedan itself developed mainly in the 20th century, before being chosen as the provincial administrative center in the 1930s, Zahedan was a small village. Its population reached 17,500 by 1956 and increased more than fivefold to 93,000 by 1976. After 1980, large numbers of refugees fleeing the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan helped triple the population of Zahedan to more than 281,000 by 1986, before the rise of Reza Shah Pahlavi in 1923, the city of Zahedan was known as Dozz-aap. That name was in turn derived from the Persian Dozd-aab, literally meaning water thief and this is the name given to a sandy land formation that quickly swallows up any water that falls on it, be it rain or irrigation water
11.
Zabol
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Zabol pronunciation is a city in and the capital of Zabol County, Sistan and Baluchestan Province, Iran. Zabol lies on the border with Afghanistan, referred to as Sistan until the late 1920s, the city was renamed Zabol by Reza Shah Pahlavi. At the 2006 census, its population was 130,642, Zabol is located near Lake Hamun and the region is irrigated by the Hirmand River. Lake Hamun is a lake that is often dry. The city is home to Zabol University, the largest university in the city, Zabol is connected by road to Zaranj across the border in Afghanistan. The Delaram-Zaranj Highway provides road connectivity to the rest of Afghanistan, Zabol thus provides Afghanistan access to the Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf via the Port of Chabahar. The Zabol area is known for its 120-day wind, a highly persistent dust storm in the summer which blows from north to south. A2017 study in the journal Preventive Medicine suggested that the harm from 30 minutes of cycling outdoors in Zabols polluted air would outweigh the benefits of the exercise, media related to Zabol at Wikimedia Commons
12.
Iranshahr (city)
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Iranshahr is a city in and capital of Iranshahr County, Sistan and Baluchestan Province, Iran. As of 2010 the population of Iranshahr was 100,000, the city is predominantly inhabited by ethnic Baloch speaking the Balochi language. Before 1935 the city was called Pahrah, also spelt Poora, Poorah, the name was changed to Iranshahr by Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi in about 1937. Pahrah is the site where Alexander the Great celebrated and regrouped his troops after his Indian conquests, the city used to be the center of the government of Balochistan and has been invaded and conquered numerous times during the course of its history. Bampur, where the ancient Bampur fort is located, is nearby, Iranshahr has a hot desert climate with extremely hot summers and mild winters. Precipitation is very low, and mostly falls in winter
13.
Chabahar
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Chābahār pronunciation is a city in and capital of Chah Bahar County, Sistan and Baluchestan Province, Iran. Chabahar is a port on the coast of the Gulf of Oman. At the 2014 census, its population was 120,000, Chabahar is situated on the Makran Coast of the Sistan and Baluchestan province of Iran and is officially designated as a Free Trade and Industrial Zone by Irans government. Due to its free zone status, the city has increased in significance in international trade. The overwhelming majority of the inhabitants are ethnic Baluch who speak the Baluchi language. The name bases on Persian char that means four and bahar that means Spring, hence, it means a place that all four seasons of the year are Spring time. There is a village and former port named Tis in Chabahars neighborhood. In addition, in his book Aqd al-Ala lel-Moghefe al Ahla, Afdhal al-Din abu Hamid Kermani wrote in 584 A. H. about the port of Tiz and its commerce and trade. According to the scholar and historian, Alberuni, author of a work on India called Tarikh Al-Hind. Tis was formerly a commercial port, and was destroyed by the Mongols. There are still some ruins in the village, the Portuguese were the first colonial country to attack the Makran Sea. The Portuguese forces under Afonso de Albuquerque gained control of Chabahar and Tis, the British, and later the Portuguese in the 17th century AC, entered this region. Modern Chabahar dates back to around 1970, when it was declared a municipality, a modern naval and air base was established as part of the Shahs policy of making Iran into a dominant power in the Indian Ocean. At that time these and other development projects in and around Chabahar involved the participation of foreign companies. After the 1979 revolution the foreign companies left the projects and Iranian public companies linked to the Ministry of Jahad-e Sazandegi took them over, the Iraq-Iran war caused Chabahar to gain in logistical and strategic importance. War brought insecurity to the Strait of Hormuz and ships were unable to enter the Persian Gulf, accordingly, Chabahar became a major port during the war. The establishment of the Chabahar Free Trade-Industrial Zone in 1992 resulting from the EAD Scheme brought development, Chabahar is Irans closest and best access point to the Indian Ocean. The hope is that with the development of transit routes, and better security and transit services, Chabahars economic sectors are fish industries and commercial sector, fishery sectors with the largest amount of countrys fish catch, mainly located out of the Chabahar Free Trade-Industrial Zone
14.
Zaranj
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Zaranj or Zarang is a city in southwestern Afghanistan, near the border with Iran, which has a population of 160,902 people as of 2015. It is the capital of Nimruz province and is linked by highways with Lashkar Gah to the east, Farah to the north and the Iranian city of Zabol to the west. Zaranj serves as the crossing between Afghanistan and Iran, which is of significant importance to the trade-route between Central Asia and South Asia with the Middle East. Zaranj is a Trading and Transit Hub in western Afghanistan, on the border with Iran, there are 17,878 residential dwellings in Zarat and 1,759 hectares of agricultural land. Commercial land use is clustered on the road to Iran. Modern Zaranj bears the name of an ancient city whose name is attested in Old Persian as Zranka. In Greek, this word became Drangiana, other historical names for Zaranj include Zirra, Zarangia, Zarani etc. Ultimately the word Zaranj is derived from the ancient Old Persian word zaranka, the region of Drangiana where the Helmand or the Hindmand meets Hamun-e-helmand and creates a fertile inland delta was known in Sassanid times as kuchak hind or little India. Achaemenid Zranka, the capital of Drangiana, was almost certainly located at Dahan-e Gholaman, medieval Zaranj is located at Nād-i Alī,4.4 km north of the modern city of Zaranj. According to the Arab geographers, prior to medieval Zaranj, the capital of Sistan was located at Ram Shahristan. Ram Shahristan had been supplied water by a canal from the Helmand River, but its dam broke, the area was deprived of water. This Zaranj appears on the Peutinger Map of late Antiquity, the area came under Muslim rule in 652, when Zaranj surrendered to the governor of Khurāsān, it subsequently became a base for further caliphal expansion in the region. In 661, a small Arab garrison reestablished its authority in the region after having temporarily lost control due to skirmishes, a Nestorian Christian community is recorded in Zaranj in the sixth century, and by the end of the eighth century there was a Jacobite diocese of Zaranj. In the 9th century Zaranj was the capital of the Saffarid dynasty, whose founder was the local coppersmith turned warlord and it became part of the Ghaznavids, Ghorids, Trimurids, Safavids and others. Defeated by the Samanids in 900, the Saffarids sank to a position of regional importance, subsequently, Zaranj served as the capital of the Nasrid and Mihrabānid maliks of Nīmrūz. In the early 18th century, the city part of the Afghan Hotaki dynasty until they were removed from power in 1738 by Nader Shah of Khorasan. By 1747, Ahmad Shah Durrani made it part of modern Afghanistan after he united all the different tribes, under the modern Afghan governments, the area was known as Farah-Chakansur Province until 1968, when it was separated to form the provinces of Nimruz and Farah. The city of Zaranj became the capital of Nimroz province, on the occasion, Karzai said, the completion of the project is a message to those who want to stop cooperation between India and Afghanistan
15.
Gwadar
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Gwadar is a port city on the southwestern coast of Balochistan, Pakistan. The city is located on the shores of the Arabian Sea, approximately 700 kilometres to the west of Pakistans largest city, Gwadar is near the border with Iran, and is located to the east of the Persian Gulf and opposite Oman. Gwadar and its region were overseas possessions of the Sultanate of Muscat. Pakistan assumed control of the territory on December 8,1958, for most of its history, Gwadar was a small to medium-sized settlement with an economy largely based on artisanal fishing. The areas potential to be a deep water port remained untapped under successive Pakistani governments until 2001. The first phase was inaugurated by General Parvez Musharraf in 2007 at a total cost of $248 million, in April 2015, Pakistan and China announced their intention to develop the $46 billion China–Pakistan Economic Corridor, which in turn forms part of Chinas ambitious One Belt, One Road. Gwadar features heavily in CPEC, and is envisaged to be the link between the One Belt, One Road and Maritime Silk Road project. $1.153 billion worth of projects will be invested into the city as part of CPEC, with the aim of linking northern Pakistan. The city will also be the site of a liquefied natural gas facility that will be built as part of the larger $2.5 billion Gwadar-Nawabshah segment of the Iran–Pakistan gas pipeline project. In September 2016 the Gwadar Development Authority published a request for tenders for the preparation of expropriation, the word Gwadar is a combination of two Balochi words - Gwat meaning wind and Dar meaning Gateway, thus Gwadar means The Gateway of wind. A different theory is that the name is derived from the ancient name of Baluchistan, Gedrosia, inhabitation of Gwadar, like most areas of Balochistan, appears to be ancient. The area shows inhabitation as early as the Bronze age with settlements around some of the areas oases and it is from this settlement pattern that word Makran, the original name of Balochistan, is derived. For a period, it was a region of the Achaemenid Persian Empire and it is believed to have been conquered by the founder of the Persian Empire, Cyrus the Great. The capital of the satrapy of Gedrosia was Pura, which is thought to have located near the modern Bampūr. After the collapse of Alexanders empire the area was ruled by Seleucus Nicator, the region then reverted to Indian rule around about 303 BC after Seleucus made peace with Emperor Chandragupta and ceded the territory to the Indian Empire. This was then followed by almost two centuries of rule by the various Baloch tribes. The city was visited by Ottoman Admiral Seydi Ali Reis in the 1550s, according to Seydi Ali Reis, the inhabitants of Gwadar were Baloch and their chief was Malik Jelaleddin, son of Malik Dinar. In the 15th century the Portuguese conquered many parts of India and they planned to proceed with annexation of the coastal area of Makran
16.
Arid
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A region is arid when it is characterized by a severe lack of available water, to the extent of hindering or preventing the growth and development of plant and animal life. Environments subject to arid climates tend to lack vegetation and are called xeric or desertic, most arid climates surround the equator, these places include most of Africa and parts of South America, Central America and Australia. The distribution of aridity observed at any one point in time is largely the result of the circulation of the atmosphere. The latter does change significantly over time through climate change, for example, temperature increase across the Nile Basin over the next 30–40 years could change the region from semi-arid to arid, resulting in a significant reduction in agricultural land. In addition, changes in use can result in greater demands on soil water. Durrenberger, R. W. Arid Climates, article in The Encyclopedia of Climatology, p. 92-101, Edited by J. E. Oliver and R. W. Fairbridge, Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, New York, ISBN 0-87933-009-0. J Aridity Indexes, article in The Encyclopedia of Climatology, p. 102-107, Edited by J. E. Oliver and R. W. Fairbridge, Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, New York, blue Peace for the Nile Report,2009, Strategic Foresight Group
17.
Desert
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A desert is a barren area of land where little precipitation occurs and consequently living conditions are hostile for plant and animal life. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to the processes of denudation, about one third of the land surface of the world is arid or semi-arid. This includes much of the regions where little precipitation occurs. Deserts can be classified by the amount of precipitation falls, by the temperature that prevails. Deserts are formed by weathering processes as large variations in temperature between day and night put strains on the rocks which consequently break in pieces, although rain seldom occurs in deserts, there are occasional downpours that can result in flash floods. Rain falling on hot rocks can cause them to shatter and the resulting fragments and this picks up particles of sand and dust and wafts them aloft in sand or dust storms. Wind-blown sand grains striking any solid object in their path can abrade the surface, rocks are smoothed down, and the wind sorts sand into uniform deposits. The grains end up as level sheets of sand or are piled high in billowing sand dunes, other deserts are flat, stony plains where all the fine material has been blown away and the surface consists of a mosaic of smooth stones. These areas are known as desert pavements and little further erosion takes place, other desert features include rock outcrops, exposed bedrock and clays once deposited by flowing water. Temporary lakes may form and salt pans may be left when waters evaporate, there may be underground sources of water in the form of springs and seepages from aquifers. Where these are found, oases can occur, plants and animals living in the desert need special adaptations to survive in the harsh environment. Plants tend to be tough and wiry with small or no leaves, water-resistant cuticles, some annual plants germinate, bloom and die in the course of a few weeks after rainfall while other long-lived plants survive for years and have deep root systems able to tap underground moisture. Animals need to cool and find enough food and water to survive. Many are nocturnal and stay in the shade or underground during the heat of the day and they tend to be efficient at conserving water, extracting most of their needs from their food and concentrating their urine. Some animals remain in a state of dormancy for long periods and they then reproduce rapidly while conditions are favorable before returning to dormancy. People have struggled to live in deserts and the surrounding lands for millennia. Nomads have moved their flocks and herds to wherever grazing is available, the cultivation of semi-arid regions encourages erosion of soil and is one of the causes of increased desertification. Many trade routes have been forged across deserts, especially across the Sahara Desert, large numbers of slaves were also taken northwards across the Sahara
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South Asia
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Topographically, it is dominated by the Indian Plate, which rises above sea level as Nepal and northern parts of India situated south of the Himalayas and the Hindu Kush. South Asia is bounded on the south by the Indian Ocean and on land by West Asia, Central Asia, East Asia, the current territories of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka form the countries of South Asia. The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation is an economic cooperation organisation in the region which was established in 1985, South Asia covers about 5.1 million km², which is 11. 51% of the Asian continent or 3. 4% of the worlds land surface area. The population of South Asia is about 1.749 billion or about one fourth of the worlds population, overall, it accounts for about 39. 49% of Asias population and is home to a vast array of peoples. The area of South Asia and its extent is not clear cut as systemic. Aside from the region of South Asia, formerly part of the British Empire, there is a high degree of variation as to which other countries are included in South Asia. Modern definitions of South Asia are consistent in including Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar is included by some scholars in South Asia, but in Southeast Asia by others. Some do not include Afghanistan, others question whether Afghanistan should be considered a part of South Asia or the Middle East, the mountain countries of Nepal and Bhutan, and the island countries of Sri Lanka and Maldives are generally included as well. Myanmar is often added, and by various deviating definitions based on often substantially different reasons, the British Indian Ocean Territory, the common concept of South Asia is largely inherited from the administrative boundaries of the British Raj, with several exceptions. The Aden Colony, British Somaliland and Singapore, though administered at various times under the Raj, have not been proposed as any part of South Asia. Additionally Burma was administered as part of the Raj until 1937, the 562 princely states that were protected by but not directly ruled by the Raj became administrative parts of South Asia upon joining Union of India or Dominion of Pakistan. China and Myanmar have also applied for the status of members of SAARC. This bloc of countries include two independent countries that were not part of the British Raj – Nepal, and Bhutan, Afghanistan was a British protectorate from 1878 until 1919, after the Afghans lost to the British in the Second Anglo-Afghan war. The United Nations Statistics Divisions scheme of sub-regions include all eight members of the SAARC as part of Southern Asia, population Information Network includes Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Burma, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka as part of South Asia. Maldives, in view of its characteristics, was admitted as a member Pacific POPIN subregional network only in principle, the Hirschman–Herfindahl index of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific for the region includes only the original seven signatories of SAARC. The British Indian Ocean Territory is connected to the region by a publication of Janes for security considerations, the inclusion of Myanmar in South Asia is without consensus, with many considering it a part of southeast Asia and others including it within South Asia. Afghanistan was of importance to the British colonial empire, especially after the Second Anglo-Afghan War over 1878–1880, Afghanistan remained a British protectorate until 1919, when a treaty with Vladimir Lenin included the granting of independence to Afghanistan. Following Indias partition, Afghanistan has generally included in South Asia
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Western Asia
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Western Asia, West Asia, Southwestern Asia or Southwest Asia is the westernmost subregion of Asia. The concept is in limited use, as it overlaps with the Middle East. The term is used for the purposes of grouping countries in statistics. The total population of Western Asia is an estimated 300 million as of 2015, in an unrelated context, the term is also used in ancient history and archaeology to divide the Fertile Crescent into the Asiatic or Western Asian cultures as opposed to ancient Egypt. As a geographic concept, Western Asia almost always includes the Levant, Mesopotamia, the term is used pragmatically and has no correct or generally agreed-upon definition. In contrast to this definition, the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation in its 2015 yearbook also includes Armenia and Azerbaijan, unlike the UNIDO, the United Nations Statistics Division excludes Iran from Western Asia and include Turkey, Georgia, and Cyprus in the region. These four countries are listed in the European category of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, the Olympic Council of Asias multi-sport event West Asian Games are contested by athletes representing these thirteen countries. Among the regions sports organisations are the West Asia Basketball Association, West Asian Billiards and Snooker Federation, West Asian Football Federation, Western Asia was in use as a geographical term in the early 19th century, even before Near East became current as a geopolitical concept. Use of the term in the context of contemporary geopolitics or world economy appears to date from the 1960s, Western Asia is located directly south of Eastern Europe. The region is surrounded by seven major seas, the Aegean Sea, the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Arabian Sea, the Red Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea. The Dasht-e Kavir and Dasht-e Lut deserts in eastern Iran naturally delimit the region somewhat from Asia itself, three major tectonic plates converge on Western Asia, including the African, Eurasian, and Arabian plates. The boundaries between the plates make up the Azores-Gibraltar Ridge, extending across North Africa, the Red Sea. The Arabian Plate is moving northward into the Anatolian plate at the East Anatolian Fault, several major aquifers provide water to large portions of Western Asia. In Saudi Arabia, two large aquifers of Palaeozoic and Triassic origins are located beneath the Jabal Tuwayq mountains and areas west to the Red Sea. Cretaceous and Eocene-origin aquifers are located beneath large portions of central and eastern Saudi Arabia, including Wasia, flood or furrow irrigation, as well as sprinkler methods, are extensively used for irrigation, covering nearly 90,000 km² across Western Asia for agriculture. Western Asia is primarily arid and semi-arid, and can be subject to drought, the region consists of grasslands, rangelands, deserts, and mountains. Water shortages are a problem in parts of West Asia, with rapidly growing populations increasing demands for water. Major rivers, including the Tigris and Euphrates, provide sources for water to support agriculture
20.
Balochistan, Pakistan
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Balochistan, is one of the four provinces of Pakistan, located in the southwestern region of the country. Its provincial capital and largest city is Quetta and it shares borders with Punjab and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas to the northeast, Sindh to the southeast, the Arabian Sea to the south, Iran to the west, and Afghanistan to the north. The name Balochistan means the land of the Baloch in many regional languages, although largely underdeveloped, the provincial economy is dominated by natural resources, especially its natural gas fields, which supply the entire country. Gwadar Port also plays a significant role in the development of the province. Balochistan is noted for its culture and extremely dry desert climate. Baloch people practice Islam and are predominantly Sunni, similar to the rest of Pakistan, Balochistan marked the westernmost extent of the Indus Valley Civilisation. Centuries before the arrival of Islam in the 7th Century, parts of Balochistan was ruled by the Paratarajas, at certain times, the Kushans also held political sway in parts of Balochistan. With time, Baloch tribes linguistically absorbed all the people in Makran, southern Sistan. By 654, the whole of what is now Balochistan was controlled by the Rashidun Caliphate, however, this town was later conquered during the reign of Caliph Ali. Abdulrehman ibn Samrah made Zaranj his provincial capital and remained governor of these areas from 654 to 656. During the Caliphate of Ali, revolt broke out in southern Balochistans Makran region. Due to civil war in the Rashidun Caliphate, Ali was unable to deal with these areas until 660, Haris ibn Marah Abdi arrived in Makran and conquered it by force, and then moved northward to north-eastern Balochistan and reconquered Qandabil. Finally, he moved south and conquered Kalat after a fierce battle, Muslim forces later regained control of the area during the Umayyad reign. It also remained a part of the Abbasid Caliphate, ahmad Shah Durrani, founder of the Afghan Empire, also won the allegiance of that areas rulers. Most of the area would revert to local Baloch control, after Afghan rule. During the period of the British Raj, there were four Princely States in Balochistan, Makran, Kharan, Las Bela and Kalat. After the Second Afghan War was ended by the Treaty of Gandamak in May 1879, on 1 April 1883, the British took control of the Bolan Pass, south-east of Quetta, from the Khan of Kalat. In 1887, small areas of Balochistan were declared British territory
21.
Sistan and Baluchestan Province
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Sistan and Baluchestan Province is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. It is in the southeast of the country, bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan, the province is the largest in Iran, with an area of 181,785 km² and a population of 2.5 million. The counties of the province are Chabahar, Qasar-qand, Dalgan, Hirmand, Iranshahr, Khash, Konarak, Nikshahr, Saravan, Sarbaz, Soran, Zabol, Zaboli, Zahedan and Zehak. The population comprises the Baluch who form a majority in the province, followed by the large minority. Smaller communities of Kurds, the expatriate Brahui, and other resident and itinerant ethnic groups such as the Gypsies are also found in the province, the province comprises two sections, Sistan in the north and Baluchestan in the south. In the south, east and west of Sistān and Balūchestān, in the far north of Sistān and Balūchestān, the people are mostly Persians and speak a dialect of the Persian language known as Sistani/Seestani, similar to the Dari Persian language in Afghanistan. Many scholars, orators, and literary personalities have sprung up from this part of Iran, amongst which are Farrukhi Sistani, Yaqub bin Laith as-Saffar, ayatollah Sistani is also from Sistān, though he currently resides in Najaf, Iraq. In the epigraphs of Bistoon and Persepolis, Sistan is mentioned as one of the territories of Darius the Great. The name Sistan, as mentioned above, is derived from Saka, during the Arsacid Dynasty, the province became the seat of Suren-Pahlav Clan. From the Sassanid period till the early Islamic period, Sistan flourished considerably, during the reign of the second caliph of Islam, Omar ibn Al-Khattab, this territory was conquered by the Arabs and an Arab commander was assigned as governor. The famous Persian ruler Yaqub-i Laith Saffari, whose descendants dominated this area for many centuries, in 916 CE, Baluchestan was ruled by the Daylamids and thereafter the Seljuqids, when it became a part of Kerman. Dynasties such as the Saffarids, Samanids, Qaznavids, and Seljuqids, in 1508 CE, Shah Ismail I of the Safavid dynasty conquered Sistan, and during the reign of Nader Shah there was further turmoil. The province today is the most underdeveloped, desolate, and poorest of Irans provinces, the government of Iran has been trying to reverse this situation by implementing new plans such as creating the Chabahar Free Trade-Industrial Zone. It has weekly trains for Kovaitah, recently a railway from Bam, Iran to Zahedan has been inaugurated. There may be plans to build lines from Zahedan to Chabahar. Sistan Province has two passenger airports, Zahedan Airport Chabahar Airport Port of Chabahar in South of province is the main port to be connected by a new railway to Zahedan in future. Industry is new to the province, efforts have been done and tax, customs and financial motivations have caused more industrial investment, new projects, new producing jobs and improvement of industry. The most important factories are, – Khash cement factory with production of 2600 tons cement daily, factories under construction, – Cotton cloth and fishing net weaving factories and the brick factory can be named as well
22.
Balochistan, Afghanistan
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Balochistan is an arid desert and mountainous region in south-western Asia. It comprises the Pakistani province of Balochistan, Iranian province of Sistan and Baluchestan, Balochistan borders the Pashtun region to the north, Sindh to the east, Punjab to the northeast, and Persian regions to the west and northwest. South of its coastline, including the Makran Coast, are the Arabian Sea. The name Balochistan is generally believed to derive from that of the Baloch people, the term Baloch does not appear in pre-Islamic sources. It is likely that the Balochs were known by other name at their place of origin. The Suffix -stān is a Persian word meaning place, johan Hansman relates the term Baloch to Meluḫḫa, the name by which the Indus Valley Civilisation is believed to have been known to the Sumerians and Akkadians in Mesopatamia. Meluḫḫa disappears from the Mesopotamian records at the beginning of the second millennium B. C, however, Hansman states that a trace of it in a modified form, as Baluḫḫu, was retained in the names of products imported by the Assyrians. Al-Muqaddasī, who visited the capital of Makran Bannajbur, states that it was populated by people called Balūṣī, leading Hansman to postulate Baluch as a modification of Meluḫḫa and Baluḫḫu. Asko Parpola relates the name Meluḫḫa to Indo-Aryan words mleccha and milakkha/milakkhu etc. which do not have an Indo-European etymology even though they were used to refer to non-Aryan people. Taking them to be proto-Dravidian in origin, he interprets the term as meaning either a proper name milu-akam or melu-akam, meaning high country, historian Romila Thapar also interprets Meluḫḫa as a proto-Dravidian term, possibly mēlukku, and suggests the meaning western extremity. A literal translation into Sanskrit, aparānta, was used to describe the region by the Indo-Aryans. During the time of Alexander the Great, the Greeks called the land Gedrosia and its people Gedrosoi, the earliest evidence of human occupation in what is now Balochistan is dated to the Paleolithic era, represented by hunting camps and lithic scatters, chipped and flaked stone tools. The earliest settled villages in the date to the ceramic Neolithic. These villages expanded in size during the subsequent Chalcolithic, when interaction was amplified and this involved the movement of finished goods and raw materials, including chank shell, lapis lazuli, turquoise, and ceramics. By 2500 BCE, the now known as Pakistani Balochistan had become part of the Harappan cultural orbit. From the 1st century to the 3rd century CE, the region was ruled by the Pāratarājas, the dynasty of the Pāratas is thought to be identical with the Pāradas of the Mahabharata, the Puranas and other vedic and Iranian sources. These coins are found in Loralai in todays western Pakistan. Herodotus in 450 BCE described the Paraitakenoi as a tribe ruled by Deiokes, arrian describes how Alexander the Great encountered the Pareitakai in Bactria and Sogdiana, and had them conquered by Craterus
23.
Nimruz Province
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Nimruz is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the southwestern part of the country. It lays to the east of the Sistan and Baluchestan Province of Iran, the province contains five districts, encompassing about 649 villages, and roughly 156,600 settled people. The city of Zaranj serves as the capital and Zaranj Airport. The name Nimruz means mid-day or half-day in Persian and Balochi, the name is believed to indicate that the meridian cutting the old world in half passes through this region. It is the most sparsely populated province in the country, located in the Sistan Basin, a substantial part of the province is the desert area of Dashti Margo. The region became part of the Saffarid dynasty in 860 CE with its capital at Zaranj and its founder Yaqub Saffari was born and raised in this region. The territory became part of the Ghaznavids followed by the Ghurids, Timurids, in the early 18th century, the region fell to the Afghan Hotaki dynasty until they were removed from power in 1738 by Nader Shah. By 1747, Ahmad Shah Durrani made it part of Afghanistan after he conquered the territory from northeastern Iran to Delhi in India. Under the modern Afghan governments, the province was known as Chakhansur Province until 1968, the city of Zaranj became the capital of Nimroz province at that time. During the Soviet war in Afghanistan, Nimruz province was used by crossing back. It was also used by Afghan refugees escaping the war as well as by smugglers, however, the Taliban advanced on Nimruz only days later, and the mujahideen under command of Abdul Karim Brahui fled to Iran. Following US-led invasion in October 2001, the Taliban began losing control of the province to the new Afghan government under President Hamid Karzai, the area is historically known for drugs and weapons smuggling between Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan. Many foreign militants also use the province to go back and forth between the 3 nations. The Delaram–Zaranj Highway was built by the Indian government in 2009, since 2002, members of the U. S. Marine Corps were present in the province. When the International Security Assistance Force arrived to Kandahar, Nimruz province became part of the Regional Command Southwest, the local Afghan National Security Forces are being trained by these forces. ISAF is also involved in development activities, the current governor is Mohammad Samiullah. His predecessor was Amir Muhammad Akhundzada, all law enforcement activities throughout the province are managed by the Afghan National Police. The borders with neighboring Iran and Pakistan are monitored by the Afghan Border Police, a provincial police chief is assigned to lead both the ANP and the ABP
24.
Helmand Province
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Helmand or Hillmand The ancient names of of Helmand were is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, in the south of the country. It is the largest province by area, covering 58,584 square kilometres area, the province contains 13 districts, encompassing over 1,000 villages, and roughly 879,500 settled people. Lashkar Gah serves as the provincial capital, Helmand was part of the Greater Kandahar region until made into a separate province by the Afghan government in the 20th century. The province has an airport, in the city of Lashkar Gah. The British Camp Bastion and U. S, Camp Leatherneck are a short distance southwest of Lashkar Gah. The Helmand River flows through the desert region of the province. The Kajaki Dam, which is one of Afghanistans major reservoirs, is located in the Kajaki district, Helmand is believed to be one of the worlds largest opium-producing regions, responsible for around 42% of the worlds total production. This is believed to be more than the whole of Burma, which is the second largest producing nation after Afghanistan. The region also produces tobacco, sugar beets, cotton, sesame, wheat, mung beans, maize, nuts, sunflowers, onions, potato, tomato, cauliflower, peanut, apricot, grape, and melon. Helmand culture of western Afghanistan was a Bronze Age culture of the 3rd millennium BC and it is exemplified by such major sites as Shahr-i Sokhta, Mundigak, and Bampur. The term Helmand civilization was proposed by M. Tosi and this civilization flourished between 2500 BC and 1900 BC, and may have coincided with the great flourishing of the Indus Valley Civilisation. This was also the phase of Periods III and IV of Shahr-i Sokhta. Jiroft culture is related to Helmand culture. Jiroft culture flourished in the eastern Iran, and the Helmand culture in western Afghanistan at the same time, in fact, they may represent the same cultural area. Mehrgarh culture, on the hand, is far earlier. Some Vedic scholars also believe the Helmand valley corresponds to the Sarasvati area mentioned in the Rig Veda as the homeland for the Indo-Aryan migrations into India, helmland was inhabited by ancient peoples and governed by the Medes before falling to the Achaemenids. Later, the area was part of the ancient Arachosia polity, and a frequent target for conquest because of its location in Asia. The Helmand river valley is mentioned by name in the Avesta as Haetumant, one of the centers of the Zoroastrian faith
25.
Kandahar Province
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Kandahar / is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan, located in the southern part of the country next to Pakistan. It is surrounded by Helmand in the west, Uruzgan in the north and its capital is the city of Kandahar, which is located on the Arghandab River. The province contains about 18 districts, over 1,000 villages, and approximately 1,151,100 people, which is mostly tribal and a rural society. The main inhabitants of Kandahar province are the native ethnic Pashtuns, although smaller communities of Tajiks, Hazaras, Uzbeks, the current governor of the province is Humayoon Azizi. There is speculation about the origin of the name Kandahar and it is believed that Kandahar bears Alexanders name, and derives from the Pashto rendering of Iskandariya or Alexandria. A temple to the deified Alexander as well as an inscription in Greek and Aramaic by the emperor Ashoka, deh Morasi Ghundai, the first prehistoric site to be excavated in Afghanistan, lies 27 km southwest of Kandahar. Another Bronze Age village mound site with multiroomed mud-brick buildings dating from the same period sits nearby at Said Qala, Bronze Age pottery, copper and bronze horse trappings and stone seals were found in the lowermost levels in the nearby cave called Shamshir Ghar. In the Seistan, southwest of these Kandahar sites, two teams of American archaeologists discovered sites relating to the 2nd millennium B. C. The area was called Arachosia and was a frequent target for conquest because of its location in Asia. It was part of the Medes territory before falling to the Achaemenids, in 330 BC it was invaded by Alexander the Great and became part of the Seleucid Empire following his death. Later it came under the influence of the Indian emperor Ashoka, the territory was ruled by the Zunbils before Arabs of the Umayyad Caliphate arrived in the 7th century. The Arabs advanced through Sistan and conquered Sindh early in the eighth century, even then a Hindu dynasty the Hindushahis, held Gandhara and eastern borders. The greatest of the Ghaznavids was Mahmud, who ruled between 998 and 1030 and he expelled the Hindus from Ghandhara. Mahmud of Ghazni made the part of the Ghaznavids in the 10th century. After the destructions caused by Genghis Khan in the 13th century, from about 1383 until his death in 1407, Kandahar was governed by Pir Muhammad, a grandson of Timur. By the early 16th century, it fell to Babur briefly and he rebelled against the Safavids and established the Hotaki dynasty which became a powerful Afghan empire until 1729 when Nader Shah declared war on the Ghilzai rulers. By 1738 the last Hotaki ruler Shah Hussain was defeated in what is now Old Kandahar, ahmad Shah Durrani, the founding father of Afghanistan, gained control of the province in 1747 and made the city of Kandahar the capital of his new Afghan Empire. In the 1770s, the capital of the empire was transferred to Kabul, ahmad Shah Durranis mausoleum is located in the center of the city
26.
Pashtunistan
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Pashtunistan is the geographic region inhabited by the indigenous Pashtun people of modern-day Afghanistan and Pakistan. Alternative names historically used for the region included Afghānistān and Pashtūnkhwā, Pashtunistan borders Punjab to the east, Persian and Turkic speaking regions to the west and north, Kashmir to the northeast, and Balochistan to the south. For administrative division in 1893, Mortimer Durand drew the Durand Line and this porous line that runs through the center of the Pashtun region forms the modern border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Thus it is clear that for this reason the people of the call their home in their own language Afghánistán. But it occurs to me, that when, under the rule of Muhammadan sovereigns, Musulmáns first came to the city of Patná, and dwelt there, the very concept of Pakhtunistan was taken from the old word Pakhtunkhwa. The British were using Pathanistan for Pakhtunistan in the beginning, depending on the source, the ethnic Pashtuns constitute 42-60% of the population of Afghanistan. In neighboring Pakistan they constitute 15.42 percent of the 190 million population, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan, Pashto speakers constitute above 73 percent of the population as of 1998. In recent age, people of the Western world have explored the area. Arab Muslims arrived in the 7th century and began introducing Islam to the native Pashtun people, some of the Arabs settled in the Sulaiman Mountains, the Pashtunistan area later fell to the Turkish Ghaznavids whose main capital was at Ghazni, with Lahore serving as the second power house. The Ghaznavid Empire was then taken over by the Ghorids from todays Ghor, the army of Genghis Khan arrived in the 13th century and began destroying Persian-speaking cities in the north while the Pashtun territory was defended by the Khilji dynasty of Delhi. In the 14th and 15th century, the Timurid dynasty was in control of the cities and towns. During the Delhi Sultanate era, the region was ruled by Turkic dynasties from Delhi, an early Pashtun nationalist was the warrior-poet Khushal Khan Khattak, who was imprisoned by the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb for trying to incite the Pashtuns to rebel against the rule of the Mughals. However, despite sharing a language and believing in a common ancestry. The eastern parts of Pashtunistan was ruled by the Mughal Empire, during the early 18th century, Pashtun tribes led by Mirwais Hotak successfully revolted against the Safavids in the city of Kandahar. In a chain of events, he declared Kandahar and other parts of what is now southern Afghanistan independent, by 1738 the Mughal Empire had been crushingly defeated and their capital sacked and looted by forces of a new Iranian ruler, the military genius and commander Nader Shah. Besides Persian, Turkmen, and Caucasian forces, Nader was also accompanied by the young Ahmad Shah Durrani, and 4,000 well trained Pashtun troops from what is now Afghanistan and North-west Pakistan. The famous couplet by Ahmad Shah Durrani describes the association the people have with the city of Kandahar. Translation, I forget the throne of Delhi when I recall the mountain peaks of my beautiful Pukhtunkhwa, the last Afghan Empire was established in 1747 and united all the different Pashtun tribes as well as many other ethnic groups
27.
Sindh
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Sindh /sɪnd/ is one of the four provinces of Pakistan, in the southeast of the country. Historically home to the Sindhi people, it is locally known as the Mehran. It was formerly known as Sind until 1956, Sindh is the third largest province of Pakistan by area, and second largest province by population after Punjab. Sindh is bordered by Balochistan province to the west, and Punjab province to the north, Sindh also borders the Indian states of Gujarat and Rajasthan to the east, and Arabian Sea to the south. Sindhs climate is noted for hot summers and mild winters, the provincial capital of Sindh is Pakistans largest city and financial hub, Karachi. Sindh has Pakistans second largest economy with Karachi being its capital hosts the headquarters of several multinational banks. Sindh is home to a portion of Pakistans industrial sector. The remainder of Sindh has an agriculture based economy, and produces fruit, food consumer items, Sindh is also the centre of Pakistans pharmaceutical industry. Sindh is known for its culture which is strongly influenced by Sufism. Several important Sufi shrines are located throughout the province which attract millions of annual devotees, Sindh also has Pakistans highest percentage of Hindu residents. Karachi and other centres of Sindh have seen ethnic tensions between the native Sindhis and the Muhajirs boil over into violence on several occasions. Sindh is home to two UNESCO World Heritage Sites - the Historical Monuments at Makli, and the Archaeological Ruins at Moenjodaro, the word Sindh is derived from the Sanskrit language and is adapted from the Sanskrit term Sindhu which literally means river hence a reference to Indus River. Spelling of its name as Sind was discontinued in 1988 by an amendment passed in Sindh Assembly. The Greeks who conquered Sindh in 325 BC under the command of Alexander the Great rendered it as Indós, the ancient Iranians referred to everything east of the river Indus as hind from the word Sindh. When the British arrived in the 17th century in India, then ruled by the Maratha Empire, they applied the Greek version of the name Sindh to all of South Asia, calling it India. The name of Pakistan is actually an acronym in which the letter s is derived from the first letter in Sindh, Sindhs first known village settlements date as far back as 7000 BCE. Permanent settlements at Mehrgarh, currently in Balochistan, to the west expanded into Sindh and this culture blossomed over several millennia and gave rise to the Indus Valley Civilization around 3000 BCE. The primitive village communities in Balochistan were still struggling against a difficult highland environment and this was one of the most developed urban civilizations of the ancient world
28.
Punjab
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The Punjab, also spelled Panjab, panj-āb, land of five rivers, is a geographical and cultural region in the northern part of South Asia, comprising areas of eastern Pakistan and northern India. Not being a unit, the extent of the region is the subject of debate. The foreign invaders mainly targeted the most productive region of the Punjab known as the Majha region. The people of the Punjab today are called Punjabis and their language is called Punjabi. The main religions of the Punjab region are Islam, Sikhism and Hinduism, other religious groups are Christianity, Jainism and Buddhism. The name of the region is a compound of two Persian words Panj and āb and was introduced to the region by the Turko-Persian conquerors of India, Punjab literally means Five Waters referring to the rivers, Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Sutlej, and Beas. All are tributaries of the Indus River, the Chenab being the largest, there are two main definitions of the Punjab region, the 1947 definition and the older 1846–1849 definition. The third definition incorporates both the 1947 and the definitions but also includes northern Rajasthan on a linguistic basis. 1947 definition The 1947 definition defines the Punjab region with reference to the dissolution of British India whereby the then British Punjab Province was partitioned between India and Pakistan, in Pakistan, the region now includes the Punjab province and Islamabad Capital Territory. In India, it includes the Punjab state, Chandigarh, Haryana, Using the 1947 definition, the Punjab region borders Kashmir to the north, Sindh and Rajasthan to the south, the Pashtun region and Balochistan to the west, and the Hindi belt to the east. Accordingly, the Punjab region is diverse and stretches from the hills of the Kangra Valley to the plains. Present day maps Major cities Using the 1947 definition of the Punjab region, some of the cities of the area include Lahore, Faisalabad. Older 1846–1849 definition The older definition of the Punjab region focuses on the collapse of the Sikh Empire, According to this definition, the Punjab region incorporates, in Pakistan, Azad Kashmir including Bhimber and Mirpur and parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In India the wider definition includes parts of Delhi and Jammu Division, the formation of the Himalayan Range of mountains to the east and north-east of the Punjab is the result of a collision between the north-moving Indo-Australian Plate and the Eurasian Plate. The plates are moving together, and the Himalayas are rising by about 5 millimetres per year. The upper regions are snow-covered the whole year, Lower ranges of hills run parallel to the mountains. The Lower Himalayan Range runs from north of Rawalpindi through Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, the mountains are relatively young, and are eroding rapidly. The Indus and the five rivers of the Punjab have their sources in the range and carry loam, minerals and silt down to the rich alluvial plains
29.
Geography of Iran
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Geographically, Iran is located in West Asia and borders the Caspian Sea, Persian Gulf, and Gulf of Oman. Its mountains have helped to both the political and the economic history of the country for several centuries. The mountains enclose several broad basins, on which major agricultural, until the 20th century, when major highways and railroads were constructed through the mountains to connect the population centers, these basins tended to be relatively isolated from one another. Typically, one major town dominated each basin, and there were complex economic relationships between the town and the hundreds of villages surrounded it. There are no river systems in the country, and historically transportation was by means of caravans that followed routes traversing gaps. The mountains also impeded easy access to the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea, with an area of 1,648,000 square kilometres, Iran ranks eighteenth in size among the countries of the world. Iran shares its borders with three post-Soviet states, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan. These borders extend for more than 2,000 kilometres, including nearly 650 kilometres of water along the shore of the Caspian Sea. Irans western borders are with Turkey in the north and Iraq in the south, the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman littorals form the entire 1,770 kilometres southern border. To the east lie Afghanistan on the north and Pakistan on the far south, Irans diagonal distance from Azerbaijan in the northwest to Sistan and Baluchestan Province in the southeast is approximately 2,333 kilometres. The topography of Iran consists of rugged, mountainous rims surrounding high interior basins, the main mountain chain is the Zagros Mountains, a series of parallel ridges interspersed with plains that bisect the country from northwest to southeast. Many peaks in the Zagros exceed 3,000 metres above sea level, as the Zagros continue into southeastern Iran, the average elevation of the peaks declines dramatically to under 1,500 metres. Rimming the Caspian Sea littoral is another chain of mountains, the narrow but high Alborz Mountains. Volcanic Mount Damavand,5,610 metres, located in the center of the Alborz, is not only the countrys highest peak, the center of Iran consists of several closed basins that collectively are referred to as the Central Plateau. The average elevation of this plateau is about 900 metres, the eastern part of the plateau is covered by two salt deserts, the Dasht-e Kavir and the Dasht-e Lut. Except for some scattered oases, these deserts are uninhabited, parts of northwestern Iran are part of the Armenian highlands, which adjoins it topographically with other parts of neighbouring Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. Iran has only two expanses of lowlands, the Khuzestan Plain in the southwest and the Caspian Sea coastal plain in the north, the former is a roughly triangular-shaped extension of the Mesopotamia plain and averages about 160 kilometres in width. It extends for about 120 kilometres inland, barely rising a few meters above sea level, much of the Khuzestan plain is covered with marshes
30.
Makran
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Makran is a semi-desert coastal strip in Balochistan, in Pakistan and Iran, along the coast of the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. The name Makran derives from Maka, borne by an overlapping satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire, another, older derivation is from the Makar, or sea dragon, after the humpback whales or whale sharks that abound in the north Arabian Sea. The word Maka later became Makran, as it is common in closely related ancient Avestan, the southern part of Balochistan is called Kech Makran on Pakistani side and Makran on the Iranian side which is also the name of a former Iranian province. Prior to that, in Achaeminid times, the name Maka was used for the region, the Sumerian trading partners of Magan are identified with Makran. In Varahamihiras Brihat Samhita, there is a mention of a tribe called Makara inhabiting the lands west of India, arrian used a derivation of Makran from the Persian term mahi khoran, meaning fish eaters for Baluchi inhabitants of coastal areas, but this is considered erroneous. Maka was an important early eastern satrapy of Cyrus the Great and it corresponded to modern day Bahrain, Qatar, and United Arab Emirates, plus the northern half of Oman, as well as Balochistan and the Sindh province of Pakistan. The Babylonians had made voyages using Maka to communicate with India, after Cyrus death, Darius I of Persia succeeded his throne, and, according to Greek historian Herodotus, wanted to know more about Asia. He wished to know where the Indus emptied itself into the sea, after the fall of the Achaemenid Empire, Alexander the Great also crossed Maka in his campaign of conquest. His army marched through a harsh desert path in Makran, where he lost a significant number of soldiers due to the desert conditions. Herodotus on several occasions mentions the contributions of the Mykians, who inhabited the portion of the Achaemenid Empire. They are mentioned as the men from Maka in daiva inscriptions, the Daiva inscription is one of the most important of all Achaemenid inscriptions. The Mykians served in the army of Xerxes the Great at the battle of Thermopylae and they are also thought to be responsible for inventions such as qanats and underground drainage galleries that bring water from an aquifer on the piedmont to gardens or palm groves on the plains. These inventions were very important reasons behind the success of the empire, the reasons for this may have been the arguably unjust rule of Xerxes. Abū Rayḥān Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad Al-Bīrūnī, states in his book India that the coast of India begins with Tiz the capital of Makran. According to historian Andre Wink, Further evidence in the Chachnama makes perfectly clear that areas of Makran as of Sindh had a largely Buddhist population. The Buddhist chief offered his alligience to Chach when the latter was on his way to Kirman in 631, there is thus very wide extension of Indian cultural forms in Makran in the seventh century, even in the period when it fell under Persian sovereignty. By comparison in more recent times the last place of Hindu pilgrimage in Makran was Hinglaj,256 km west of present day Karachi in Las Bela. D. In late 644 AD Caliph Umar dispatched an army under the command of Hakam ibn Amr for the invasion of Makkuran
31.
Arabian Sea
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The Arabian Sea is a region of the northern Indian Ocean bounded on the north by Pakistan and Iran, on the west by northeastern Somalia and the Arabian Peninsula, and on the east by India. Historically the sea has been known by names including the Erythraean Sea. Its total area is 3,862,000 km2 and its depth is 4,652 metres. The Gulf of Aden is in the southwest, connecting the Arabian Sea to the Red Sea through the strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, the Arabian Sea has been crossed by important marine trade routes since the third or second millennium BCE. Major seaports include Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Mumbai, the Port of Karachi and the Gwadar Port in Pakistan, other important ports include in India, Kandla Port, and Mormugao in Goa. The largest islands in the Arabian Sea include Socotra, Masirah Island, Astola Island, the Arabian Seas surface area is about 3,862,000 km2. The maximum width of the Sea is approximately 2,400 km, the biggest river flowing into the Sea is the Indus River. There are also the gulfs of Khambhat and Kutch on the Indian coast, the countries with coastlines on the Arabian Sea are Somalia, Djibouti, Yemen, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Iran, Pakistan, India and the Maldives. There are several cities on the seas coast including Mumbai, Surat, Karachi, Gwadar, Pasni, Ormara, Aden, Muscat, Keti Bandar, Salalah, Duqm. International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Arabian Sea as follows, the Eastern limit of the Gulf of Aden. A line joining Ràs al Hadd, East point of Arabia, a line running from the South extremity of Addu Atoll, to the Eastern extreme of Ràs Hafun. The Western limit of the Laccadive Sea, by the time of Julius Caesar, several well-established combined land-sea trade routes depended upon water transport through the Sea around the rough inland terrain features to its north. Each major route involved transhipping to pack animal caravan, travel through country and risk of bandits. Later the kingdom of Axum arose in Ethiopia to rule a mercantile empire rooted in the trade with Europe via Alexandria, Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Mumbai is the largest port in the Arabian Sea, and the largest container port in India. The Port of Karachi is Pakistans largest and busiest seaport, handling about 60% of the nations cargo and it is located between the Karachi towns of Kiamari and Saddar, close to the main business district and several industrial areas. The geographic position of the places it in close proximity to major shipping routes such as the Strait of Hormuz. The history of the port is intertwined with that of the city of Karachi, several ancient ports have been attributed in the area including Krokola, Morontobara, Barbarikon (the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, and Debal. It warns sailors about whirlpools and advises them to safety in Kaurashi harbour if they found themselves drifting dangerously
32.
Gulf of Oman
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The Gulf of Oman or Sea of Oman is a strait that connects the Arabian Sea with the Strait of Hormuz, which then runs to the Persian Gulf. It borders Pakistan and Iran on the north, Oman on the south, Iran Oman Pakistan United Arab Emirates Gulf of Oman desert and semi-desert The Book of Duarte Barbosa by Duarte Barbosa, Mansel Longworth Dames. ISBN 81-206-0451-2 The Natural History of Pliny. by Pliny, Henry Thomas Riley, P.117 The Countries and Tribes of the Persian Gulf by Samuel Barrett Miles -1966. P.148 The Life & Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York, P.279 The Outline of History, Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind. by Herbert George Well. The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge by Johann Jakob Herzog, Philip Schaff, Albert Hauck
33.
-stan
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The suffix -stan is Persian for place of or country. It appears in the names of regions, especially in Central and South Asia. English state originates from the root, through Old French estat, from Latin status. In Polish and Ukrainian, stan means state or condition, while in Serbo-Croatian it translates as apartment in its modern usage, in Czech and Slovak, it means tent or, in military terms, headquarters. Also in Germanic languages, the root can be found in Stand, the suffix -stan is analogous to the suffix -land, present in many country and location names. It is also a noun meaning county in Persian, used for the counties of Iran. Kabulistan – a historical name of the territory centered around present-day Kabul Province of Afghanistan Kafiristan – historic region in Afghanistan until 1896, a similarly-named region exists in north Pakistan. Kohistan – several regions of this name exist Kurdistan – Kurdish region Lazistan – Persian name of Lazica, maronistan – a proposed name for Maronite state in Lebanon during the Lebanese Civil War. Sunnistan, Shiastan and Kurdistan – a proposed division of Syria, adjikistan – a fictional central Asian country in the videogame SOCOM U. S. Navy SEALs, Combined Assault. Aldastan – a fictional central Asian country consisting of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, from Command & Conquer, avgatiganistan – a pun of Afghanistan, it means Fried eggs in Greek. Fictional country by author Eugene Trivizas, azadistan – a fictional kingdom from the anime Mobile Suit Gundam 00, It means free land. Azmanastan – a fictional country and region in the film The Expendables 3, Bangistan – a fictional country in the Bollywood movie Bangistan starring Riteish Deshmukh and Pulkit Samrat. Bazrakhistan – a fictional former Soviet republic in the movie Act of War starring Jack Scalia, belgistan – fictional Middle Eastern country in the anime Gasaraki. Berzerkistan – a fictional republic run by genocidal terrorist godhead and President for Life Trff Bmzklfrpz, brajikistan – a fictional country from season 2 of the teen sitcom Wingin It. Derkaderkastan – fictional Middle Eastern country in Team America, World Police, franistan – fictional country referred to in the television show I Love Lucy. Helmajistan – fictional area from the anime Full Metal Panic, howduyustan – fictional country from Uncle Scrooge comic book stories. Iranistan – an oriental region of Hyborea, istan – a fictional island state in the online role-playing game, Guild Wars Nightfall. Kamistan – a fictional Middle Eastern country featured in the television series 24, kehjistan – the state of the eastern jungles in the game Diablo II
34.
Sanskrit
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Sanskrit is the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, a philosophical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, and a literary language and lingua franca of ancient and medieval South Asia. As a result of transmission of Hindu and Buddhist culture to Southeast Asia and parts of Central Asia, as one of the oldest Indo-European languages for which substantial written documentation exists, Sanskrit holds a prominent position in Indo-European studies. The body of Sanskrit literature encompasses a rich tradition of poetry and drama as well as scientific, technical, philosophical, the compositions of Sanskrit were orally transmitted for much of its early history by methods of memorization of exceptional complexity, rigor, and fidelity. Thereafter, variants and derivatives of the Brahmi script came to be used, Sanskrit is today one of the 22 languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India, which mandates the Indian government to develop the language. It continues to be used as a ceremonial language in Hindu religious rituals and Buddhist practice in the form of hymns. The Sanskrit verbal adjective sáṃskṛta- may be translated as refined, elaborated, as a term for refined or elaborated speech, the adjective appears only in Epic and Classical Sanskrit in the Manusmṛti and the Mahabharata. The pre-Classical form of Sanskrit is known as Vedic Sanskrit, with the language of the Rigveda being the oldest and most archaic stage preserved, Classical Sanskrit is the standard register as laid out in the grammar of Pāṇini, around the fourth century BCE. Sanskrit, as defined by Pāṇini, evolved out of the earlier Vedic form, the present form of Vedic Sanskrit can be traced back to as early as the second millennium BCE. Scholars often distinguish Vedic Sanskrit and Classical or Pāṇinian Sanskrit as separate dialects, although they are quite similar, they differ in a number of essential points of phonology, vocabulary, grammar and syntax. Vedic Sanskrit is the language of the Vedas, a collection of hymns, incantations and theological and religio-philosophical discussions in the Brahmanas. Modern linguists consider the metrical hymns of the Rigveda Samhita to be the earliest, for nearly 2000 years, Sanskrit was the language of a cultural order that exerted influence across South Asia, Inner Asia, Southeast Asia, and to a certain extent East Asia. A significant form of post-Vedic Sanskrit is found in the Sanskrit of Indian epic poetry—the Ramayana, the deviations from Pāṇini in the epics are generally considered to be on account of interference from Prakrits, or innovations, and not because they are pre-Paninian. Traditional Sanskrit scholars call such deviations ārṣa, meaning of the ṛṣis, in some contexts, there are also more prakritisms than in Classical Sanskrit proper. There were four principal dialects of classical Sanskrit, paścimottarī, madhyadeśī, pūrvi, the predecessors of the first three dialects are attested in Vedic Brāhmaṇas, of which the first one was regarded as the purest. In the 2001 Census of India,14,035 Indians reported Sanskrit to be their first language, in India, Sanskrit is among the 14 original languages of the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution. The state of Uttarakhand in India has ruled Sanskrit as its official language. In October 2012 social activist Hemant Goswami filed a petition in the Punjab. More than 3,000 Sanskrit works have been composed since Indias independence in 1947, much of this work has been judged of high quality, in comparison to both classical Sanskrit literature and modern literature in other Indian languages
35.
Indus River
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The Indus River, also called Sindhū or Abāsīn, is a major south-flowing river in South Asia. The total length of the river is 3,180 km which makes it one of the longest rivers in Asia and it is the longest river and national river of Pakistan. The river has a drainage area exceeding 1,165,000 km2. Its estimated annual flow stands at around 207 km3, making it the twenty-first largest river in the world in terms of annual flow, the Zanskar is its left bank tributary in Ladakh. In the plains, its left tributary is the Chenab which itself has four major tributaries, namely, the Jhelum, the Ravi, the Beas. Its principal right tributaries are the Shyok, the Gilgit, the Kabul, the Gomal. Beginning in a spring and fed with glaciers and rivers in the Himalayas. The Indus forms the delta of present-day Pakistan mentioned in the Vedic Rigveda as Sapta Sindhu, the river has been a source of wonder since the Classical Period, with King Darius of Persia sending his Greek subject Scylax of Caryanda to explore the river as early as 510 BC. In Pali, Síndhu means river, stream and refers to the Indus River in particular, the word Indus is the romanised form of the ancient Greek word Indós, borrowed from the old Persian word Hinduš which is in turn borrowed from the Sanskrit word Sindhu. Megastheness book Indica derives its name from the rivers Greek name, Indós, the ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indói, literally meaning the people of the Indus. The country of India and the Pakistani province of Sindh owe their names to the river, Rigveda also describes several mythical rivers, including one named Sindhu. The Rigvedic Sindhu is thought to be the present-day Indus river and is attested 176 times in its text –95 times in the plural, more often used in the generic meaning. In the Rigveda, notably in the hymns, the meaning of the word is narrowed to refer to the Indus river in particular. The Rigvedic hymns apply a feminine gender to all the rivers mentioned therein, Sindhu is seen as a strong warrior amongst other rivers which are seen as goddesses and compared to cows and mares yielding milk and butter. The Indus River provides key resources for Pakistans economy – especially the breadbasket of Punjab province, which accounts for most of the nations agricultural production. The word Punjab means land of five rivers and the five rivers are Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej, the Indus also supports many heavy industries and provides the main supply of potable water in Pakistan. The ultimate source of the Indus is in Tibet, the river begins at the confluence of the Sengge Zangbo and Gar Tsangpo rivers that drain the Nganglong Kangri, the Indus then flows northwest through Ladakh and Baltistan into Gilgit, just south of the Karakoram range. The Shyok, Shigar and Gilgit rivers carry glacial waters into the main river and it gradually bends to the south, coming out of the hills between Peshawar and Rawalpindi
36.
Indus Valley Civilisation
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The Indus Valley Civilisation was a Bronze Age civilisation mainly in the northwestern regions of South Asia, extending from what today is northeast Afghanistan to Pakistan and northwest India. Along with ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia it was one of three early civilisations of the Old World, and of the three, the most widespread, at its peak, the Indus Civilisation may have had a population of over five million. Inhabitants of the ancient Indus river valley developed new techniques in handicraft, the Indus cities are noted for their urban planning, baked brick houses, elaborate drainage systems, water supply systems, and clusters of large non-residential buildings. The discovery of Harappa, and soon afterwards, Mohenjo-Daro, was the culmination of work beginning in 1861 with the founding of the Archaeological Survey of India in the British Raj, excavation of Harappan sites has been ongoing since 1920, with important breakthroughs occurring as recently as 1999. This Harappan civilisation is called the Mature Harappan culture to distinguish it from the cultures immediately preceding and following it. The early Harappan cultures were preceded by local Neolithic agricultural villages, as of 1999, over 1,056 cities and settlements had been found, of which 96 have been excavated, mainly in the general region of the Indus and Ghaggar-Hakra Rivers and their tributaries. Among the settlements were the urban centres of Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, Dholavira, Ganeriwala in Cholistan. The Harappan language is not directly attested and its affiliation is uncertain since the Indus script is still undeciphered, a relationship with the Dravidian or Elamo-Dravidian language family is favoured by a section of scholars. Recently, Indus sites have been discovered in Pakistans northwestern Frontier Province as well, other IVC colonies can be found in Afghanistan while smaller isolated colonies can be found as far away as Turkmenistan and in Maharashtra. The largest number of colonies are in the Punjab, Sindh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Indus Valley sites have been found most often on rivers, but also on the ancient seacoast, for example, Balakot, and on islands, for example, Dholavira. There is evidence of dry river beds overlapping with the Hakra channel in Pakistan, many Indus Valley sites have been discovered along the Ghaggar-Hakra beds. Among them are, Rupar, Rakhigarhi, Sothi, Kalibangan, Harappan Civilisation remains the correct one, according to the common archaeological usage of naming a civilisation after its first findspot. John wrote, I was much exercised in my mind how we were to get ballast for the line of the railway and they were told of an ancient ruined city near the lines, called Brahminabad. Visiting the city, he found it full of hard well-burnt bricks, and, convinced there was a grand quarry for the ballast I wanted. These bricks now provided ballast along 93 miles of the track running from Karachi to Lahore. In 1872–75, Alexander Cunningham published the first Harappan seal and it was half a century later, in 1912, that more Harappan seals were discovered by J. J. H. MacKay, and Marshall. By 1931, much of Mohenjo-Daro had been excavated, but excavations continued, such as that led by Sir Mortimer Wheeler, director of the Archaeological Survey of India in 1944. Among other archaeologists who worked on IVC sites before the independence in 1947 were Ahmad Hasan Dani, Brij Basi Lal, Nani Gopal Majumdar, and Sir Marc Aurel Stein
37.
Early Dynastic Period (Mesopotamia)
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The first settlement in southern Mesopotamia was Eridu. The Sumerians claimed that their civilization had been brought, fully formed, to the city of Eridu by their god Enki or by his advisor, Adapa U-an. The first people at Eridu brought with them the Samarran culture from northern Mesopotamia and are identified with the Ubaid period, the Sumerian king list is an ancient text in the Sumerian language listing kings of Sumer, including a few foreign dynasties. The best-known dynasty, that of Lagash, is omitted from the kinglist, dates are approximate, consult particular article for details Uruk III = Jemdet Nasr period Permanent year-round urban settlement may have been prompted by intensive agricultural practices. The work required in maintaining irrigation canals called for, and the surplus food enabled. The centres of Eridu and Uruk, two of the earliest cities, had successively elaborated large temple built of mudbrick. The development and system of administration led to the development of archaic tablets around 3500 BC-3200 BC, while there is no evidence they ever reigned as such, the Sumerians purported them to have lived in the mythical era before the Flood. Throughout its Bronze Age existence, the document evolved into a political tool, the SKL blends prehistorical, presumably mythical pre-dynastic rulers enjoying implausibly lengthy reigns with later, more plausibly historical dynasties. Although the primal kings are historically unattested, this does not preclude their possible correspondence with historical rulers who were later mythicized, some Assyriologists view the predynastic kings as a later fictional addition. Only one ruler listed is known to be female, Kug-Bau, “the tavern-keeper, the earliest listed ruler whose historicity has been archaeologically verified is Enmebaragesi of Kish, c.2600 BCE. Reference to both Enmebaragesi of Kish and his successor in the Epic of Gilgamesh has led to speculation that Gilgamesh himself may have been a king of Uruk. Lagash in particular is directly from archaeological artifacts dating from c.2500 BCE. The SKL is important to the Bronze Age chronology of the ancient near east, however, the fact that many of the dynasties listed reigned simultaneously from varying localities makes it difficult to reproduce a strict linear chronology. The following extant ancient sources contain the SKL, the Apkullu-list, Babyloniaca, Dynastic Chronicle, Scheil dynastic tablet, California Tablet, WB62, the last two sources are a part of the “Weld-Blundell collection” donated by Herbert Weld Blundell to the Ashmolean Museum. WB62 is a clay tablet, inscribed only on the obverse. It is the oldest dated source containing the list, WB444 in contrast is a unique inscribed vertical prism, dated c.1817 BCE, although some scholars prefer c.1827 BCE. The mythological antediluvian section of the SKL has the following entry, shea suggests that Alulim was a contemporary of the Biblical figure Adam (whose name and character may have been derived from Adapa of ancient Mesopotamian religion. In a chart of antediluvian generations in both Babylonian and Biblical traditions, professor William Wolfgang Hallo associated Alulim with Adapa, the earliest known use of the name Adam as a genuine name in historicity is Adamu
38.
Akkadian Empire
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The empire united all the Akkadian and Sumerian speakers under one rule. The Akkadian Empire controlled Mesopotamia, the Levant, and eastern and southern parts of Anatolia and Iran, sending military expeditions as far south as Dilmun and Magan in the Arabian Peninsula. During the 3rd millennium BC, there developed an intimate cultural symbiosis between the Sumerians and the Akkadians, which included widespread bilingualism. Akkadian gradually replaced Sumerian as a spoken language somewhere between the 3rd and the 2nd millennia BC, the Akkadian Empire reached its political peak between the 24th and 22nd centuries BC, following the conquests by its founder Sargon of Akkad. Under Sargon and his successors, the Akkadian language was imposed on neighboring conquered states such as Elam. Akkad is sometimes regarded as the first empire in history, though there are earlier Sumerian claimants, the Bible refers to Akkad in Genesis 10,10, which states that the beginning of Nimrods kingdom was in the land of Akkad. Nimrod is a Hebrew name not attested in Mesopotamians sources, many have pointed out similarities with the legend of Gilgamesh who founded Uruk, which is said to be the city Nimrod came to power. Today, some 7,000 texts from the Akkadian period alone are known, many later texts from the successor states of Assyria and Babylonia also deal with the Akkadian Empire. Understanding of the Akkadian Empire continues to be hampered by the fact that its capital Akkad has not yet been located, likewise, material that is thought to be Akkadian continues to be in use into the Ur III period. Many of the recent insights on the Akkadian Empire have come from excavations in the Upper Khabur area in modern northeastern Syria which was to become a part of Assyria after the fall of Akkad. For example, excavations at Tell Mozan brought to light a sealing of Taram-Agade, an unknown daughter of Naram-Sin. The excavators at nearby Tell Leilan have used the results from their investigations to argue that the Akkadian Empire came to an end due to a sudden drought, the so-called 4.2 kiloyear event. The impact of this event on Mesopotamia in general, and on the Akkadian Empire in particular. The Akkadian Period is contemporary with, EB IV, EB IVA and EJ IV, the absolute dates of their reigns are approximate. The Akkadian Empire takes its name from the region and city of Akkad, although the city of Akkad has not yet been identified on the ground, it is known from various textual sources. Among these is at least one text predating the reign of Sargon, together with the fact that the name Akkad is of non-Akkadian origin, this suggests that the city of Akkad may have already been occupied in pre-Sargonic times. Sargon of Akkad defeated and captured Lugal-Zage-Si in the Battle of Uruk, the earliest records in the Akkadian language date to the time of Sargon. Sargon was claimed to be the son of Laibum or Itti-Bel, a humble gardener, One legend related of Sargon in Assyrian times says that My mother was a changeling, my father I knew not
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Mesopotamia
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In the Iron Age, it was controlled by the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Empires. The Sumerians and Akkadians dominated Mesopotamia from the beginning of history to the fall of Babylon in 539 BC. It fell to Alexander the Great in 332 BC, and after his death, around 150 BC, Mesopotamia was under the control of the Parthian Empire. Mesopotamia became a battleground between the Romans and Parthians, with parts of Mesopotamia coming under ephemeral Roman control. In AD226, eastern part of it fell to the Sassanid Persians, division of Mesopotamia between Roman and Sassanid Empires lasted until the 7th century Muslim conquest of Persia of the Sasanian Empire and Muslim conquest of the Levant from Byzantines. A number of primarily neo-Assyrian and Christian native Mesopotamian states existed between the 1st century BC and 3rd century AD, including Adiabene, Osroene, and Hatra, Mesopotamia is the site of the earliest developments of the Neolithic Revolution from around 10,000 BC. The regional toponym Mesopotamia comes from the ancient Greek root words μέσος middle and ποταμός river and it is used throughout the Greek Septuagint to translate the Hebrew equivalent Naharaim. In the Anabasis, Mesopotamia was used to designate the land east of the Euphrates in north Syria, the Aramaic term biritum/birit narim corresponded to a similar geographical concept. The neighbouring steppes to the west of the Euphrates and the part of the Zagros Mountains are also often included under the wider term Mesopotamia. A further distinction is made between Northern or Upper Mesopotamia and Southern or Lower Mesopotamia. Upper Mesopotamia, also known as the Jazira, is the area between the Euphrates and the Tigris from their sources down to Baghdad, Lower Mesopotamia is the area from Baghdad to the Persian Gulf and includes Kuwait and parts of western Iran. In modern academic usage, the term Mesopotamia often also has a chronological connotation and it is usually used to designate the area until the Muslim conquests, with names like Syria, Jazirah, and Iraq being used to describe the region after that date. It has been argued that these later euphemisms are Eurocentric terms attributed to the region in the midst of various 19th-century Western encroachments, Mesopotamia encompasses the land between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, both of which have their headwaters in the Armenian Highlands. Both rivers are fed by tributaries, and the entire river system drains a vast mountainous region. Overland routes in Mesopotamia usually follow the Euphrates because the banks of the Tigris are frequently steep and difficult. The climate of the region is semi-arid with a vast desert expanse in the north which gives way to a 15,000 square kilometres region of marshes, lagoons, mud flats, in the extreme south, the Euphrates and the Tigris unite and empty into the Persian Gulf. In the marshlands to the south of the area, a complex water-borne fishing culture has existed since prehistoric times, periodic breakdowns in the cultural system have occurred for a number of reasons. Alternatively, military vulnerability to invasion from marginal hill tribes or nomadic pastoralists has led to periods of trade collapse and these trends have continued to the present day in Iraq
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Neo-Assyrian Empire
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The Neo-Assyrian Empire was an Iron Age Mesopotamian empire, in existence between 911 and 612 BC. The Assyrians perfected early techniques of imperial rule, many of which became standard in later empires, the Neo-Assyrian Empire succeeded the Old Assyrian Empire, and the Middle Assyrian Empire of the Late Bronze Age. During this period, Aramaic was also made a language of the empire. Upon the death of Ashurbanipal in 627 BC, the empire began to due to a brutal. In 616 BC, Cyaxares king of the Medes and Persians made alliances with Nabopolassar ruler of the Babylonians and Chaldeans, Assyria was originally an Akkadian kingdom which evolved in the 25th to 24th centuries BC. The urbanised Akkadian speaking nation of Assyria emerged in the mid 21st century BC, during the 20th century BC, it established colonies in Asia Minor, and under the 20th century BC King Ilushuma, Assyria conducted many successful raids against the states of the south. Ashur-uballit extended Assyrian control over the farming lands of Nineveh. Tiglath-Pileser controlled the caravan routes that crossed the fertile crescent from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf. Much campaigning by Tiglath-Pileser and succeeding kings was directed against Aramaean pastoralist groups in Syria, by the end of the 2nd millennium BC, the Aramaean expansion had resulted in the loss of much Assyrian territory in Upper Mesopotamia. After the death of Tiglath-Pileser I in 1076 BC, Assyria was in decline for the next 150 years. The period from 1200 BC to 900 BC was an age for the entire Near East, North Africa, Caucasus, Mediterranean and Balkan regions, with great upheavals. Adad-nirari II and his successors campaigned on a basis for part of every year with an exceptionally well-organized army. He subjugated the areas previously under only nominal Assyrian vassalage, conquering and deporting Aramean and Hurrian populations in the north to far-off places. Adadinirari II then twice attacked and defeated Shamash-mudammiq of Babylonia, annexing an area of land north of the Diyala river. He made further gains over Babylonia under Nabu-shuma-ukin I later in his reign and he was succeeded by Tukulti-Ninurta II in 891 BC, who further consolidated Assyrias position and expanded northwards into Asia Minor and the Zagros Mountains during his short reign. The next king, Ashurnasirpal II, embarked on a vast program of expansion, during his rule, Assyria recovered much of the territory that it had lost around 1100 BC at the end of the Middle Assyrian period. Ashurnasirpal II also campaigned in the Zagros Mountains in modern Iran, repressing a revolt against Assyrian rule by the Lullubi, the Assyrians began boasting in their ruthlessness around this time. Ashurnasirpal II also moved his capital to the city of Kalhu, the palaces, temples and other buildings raised by him bear witness to a considerable development of wealth and art
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Asko Parpola
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Asko Parpola is a Finnish Indologist and Sindhologist, current professor emeritus of Indology and South Asian Studies at the University of Helsinki. He specializes in the Indus script, Parpola is a brother of the Akkadian language epigrapher Simo Parpola. He is married to Marjatta Parpola, who has authored a study on the traditions of Keralas Nambudiri Brahmins, according to Parpola the Indus script and Harappan language are most likely to have belonged to the Dravidian family. Parpola led a Finnish team in the 1960s-80s that vied with Knorozovs Soviet team in investigating the inscriptions using computer analysis, based on a proto-Dravidian assumption, they proposed readings of many signs, some agreeing with the suggested readings of Heras and Knorozov but disagreeing on several other readings. A comprehensive description of Parpolas work until 1994 is given in his book Deciphering the Indus Script, Asko Parpola received the Kalaignar M. Karunanidhi Classical Tamil Award for 2009 on June 23,2010 at the World Classical Tamil Conference at Coimbatore. In, Airāvati, Felicitation volume in honour of Iravatham Mahadevan, Asko Parpola at Harappa. com Publications of Asko Parpola in the Tuhat Research Database of the University of Helsinki. Kimmo 60 years at the Wayback Machine
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Sanskrit language
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Sanskrit is the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, a philosophical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, and a literary language and lingua franca of ancient and medieval South Asia. As a result of transmission of Hindu and Buddhist culture to Southeast Asia and parts of Central Asia, as one of the oldest Indo-European languages for which substantial written documentation exists, Sanskrit holds a prominent position in Indo-European studies. The body of Sanskrit literature encompasses a rich tradition of poetry and drama as well as scientific, technical, philosophical, the compositions of Sanskrit were orally transmitted for much of its early history by methods of memorization of exceptional complexity, rigor, and fidelity. Thereafter, variants and derivatives of the Brahmi script came to be used, Sanskrit is today one of the 22 languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India, which mandates the Indian government to develop the language. It continues to be used as a ceremonial language in Hindu religious rituals and Buddhist practice in the form of hymns. The Sanskrit verbal adjective sáṃskṛta- may be translated as refined, elaborated, as a term for refined or elaborated speech, the adjective appears only in Epic and Classical Sanskrit in the Manusmṛti and the Mahabharata. The pre-Classical form of Sanskrit is known as Vedic Sanskrit, with the language of the Rigveda being the oldest and most archaic stage preserved, Classical Sanskrit is the standard register as laid out in the grammar of Pāṇini, around the fourth century BCE. Sanskrit, as defined by Pāṇini, evolved out of the earlier Vedic form, the present form of Vedic Sanskrit can be traced back to as early as the second millennium BCE. Scholars often distinguish Vedic Sanskrit and Classical or Pāṇinian Sanskrit as separate dialects, although they are quite similar, they differ in a number of essential points of phonology, vocabulary, grammar and syntax. Vedic Sanskrit is the language of the Vedas, a collection of hymns, incantations and theological and religio-philosophical discussions in the Brahmanas. Modern linguists consider the metrical hymns of the Rigveda Samhita to be the earliest, for nearly 2000 years, Sanskrit was the language of a cultural order that exerted influence across South Asia, Inner Asia, Southeast Asia, and to a certain extent East Asia. A significant form of post-Vedic Sanskrit is found in the Sanskrit of Indian epic poetry—the Ramayana, the deviations from Pāṇini in the epics are generally considered to be on account of interference from Prakrits, or innovations, and not because they are pre-Paninian. Traditional Sanskrit scholars call such deviations ārṣa, meaning of the ṛṣis, in some contexts, there are also more prakritisms than in Classical Sanskrit proper. There were four principal dialects of classical Sanskrit, paścimottarī, madhyadeśī, pūrvi, the predecessors of the first three dialects are attested in Vedic Brāhmaṇas, of which the first one was regarded as the purest. In the 2001 Census of India,14,035 Indians reported Sanskrit to be their first language, in India, Sanskrit is among the 14 original languages of the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution. The state of Uttarakhand in India has ruled Sanskrit as its official language. In October 2012 social activist Hemant Goswami filed a petition in the Punjab. More than 3,000 Sanskrit works have been composed since Indias independence in 1947, much of this work has been judged of high quality, in comparison to both classical Sanskrit literature and modern literature in other Indian languages
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