1.
Egmore
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Egmore is a neighbourhood of Chennai, India. Situated on the banks of the Coovum River, Egmore is an important residential area as well as a commercial. The Egmore Railway Station was the terminus of the Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway and later. It continues to be an important railway junction, the Government Museum, Chennai is also situated in Egmore. Other important institutions based in Egmore include the Government Women and Childrens Hospital, the Tamil Nadu State Archives, the Wesley Church, Egmore is the oldest church of the region. An inscription of the Nellore Chola king Vijaya Kanda Gopal dated 2 September 1264 speaks of a village in Elumur-Tudarmuni Nadu in Pulal Kottam, a Vijayanagar period inscription of Sriranganatha Yadavaraya records an endowment to a monastery in Thiruvottriyur by a resident of Serruppedu in Elumur-Tudarmuni Nadu. Egmore is the Anglicised form of Ezhumbur, the name of a pre-British era village situated on the banks of the River. The Egmore Museum was one of the first notable monuments to be constructed here, the construction of this famous landmark was undertaken immediately after the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857. The Connemara Library was created as a housing the Museums vast book collection. Egmore, in 1796, was the site of the Military Male Orphan Asylum near Madras and this asylum was headed by Andrew Bell, who invented the Madras System for schooling there. Chennai Egmore railway station Office of the commissioner of Greater Chennai Police department, the church was established and consecrated in 1905 on the site of a garden house purchased by the Mission in 1892. Other than barely losing to Congress in 1962 election, it has voted for DMK. However it is worth noting, that recently the Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, have made significant in-grounds, like they have in many localities around Chennai, Egmore is also 1 of the two total constituents won by DMK in 1991 election. This constituent is reserved for scheduled caste and this is also the first MLA seat held by K Anbazhagan, when he won it in 1957 election. The Janaki faction got 4,293, which is about 5. 6% of the voters, Egmore assembly constituency is part of Chennai Central. Egmore Railway Station is the second most important in the state of Tamil Nadu after the Chennai Central Railway Station and it was constructed in 1908 and functioned as the headquarters of the now defunct Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway till 1951. Egmore is well connected to parts of the city. Many of the state-run Metropolitan Transport Corporation buses run through Egmore, Egmore has its own suburban train station on the Chennai Beach - Tambaram railway line, which connects it to other parts of the city
2.
Chennai
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Chennai /ˈtʃɛnnaɪ/, formerly known as Madras /məˈdrɑːs/ or /-ˈdræs/) is the capital of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal, it is one of the biggest cultural, economic, according to the 2011 Indian census, it is the sixth-largest city and fourth-most populous urban agglomeration in India. The city together with the adjoining regions constitute the Chennai Metropolitan Area, Chennai is among the most visited Indian cities by foreign tourists. It was ranked 43rd most visited city in the world for year 2015, the Quality of Living Survey rated Chennai as the safest city in India. Chennai attracts 45 percent of tourists visiting India, and 30 to 40 percent of domestic health tourists. As such, it is termed Indias health capital, as a growing metropolitan city in a developing country, Chennai confronts substantial pollution and other logistical and socio-economic problems. Chennai has the third-largest expatriate population in India at 35,000 in 2009,82,790 in 2011, tourism guide publisher Lonely Planet named Chennai as one of the top ten cities in the world to visit in 2015. Chennai is ranked as a city in the Global Cities Index and was ranked the best city in India by India Today in the 2014 annual Indian city survey. In 2015 Chennai was named the hottest city by the BBC, National Geographic ranked Chennais food as second best in the world, it was the only Indian city to feature in the list. Chennai was also named the ninth-best cosmopolitan city in the world by Lonely Planet, the Chennai Metropolitan Area is one of the largest city economies of India. Chennai is nicknamed The Detroit of India, with more than one-third of Indias automobile industry being based in the city, in January 2015, it was ranked third in terms of per capita GDP. Chennai has been selected as one of the 100 Indian cities to be developed as a city under PM Narendra Modis flagship Smart Cities Mission. The name Madras originated even before the British presence was established in India, the name Madras is said to have originated from a Portuguese phrase mae de Deus which means mother of god, due to Portuguese influence on the port city. According to some sources, Madras was derived from Madraspattinam, a north of Fort St George. However, it is whether the name was in use before the arrival of Europeans. The British military mapmakers believed Madras was originally Mundir-raj or Mundiraj, Madras might have also been derived from the word Madhuras meaning juice of honey or sugarcane in Sanskrit. The nativity of name Chennai, being of Telugu origin is clearly proved by the historians. The first official use of the name Chennai is said to be in a deed, dated 8 August 1639
3.
Tamil Nadu
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Tamil Nadu is one of the 29 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai, Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Puducherry and the South Indian states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh. The state shares a border with the nation of Sri Lanka. Tamil Nadu is the eleventh-largest state in India by area and the sixth-most populous, the state was ranked sixth among states in India according to the Human Development Index in 2011, with the second-largest state economy after Maharashtra. Tamil Nadu is the second largest state economy in India with ₹13,842 billion in gross domestic product after Maharashtra. Tamil Nadu was ranked as one of the top seven developed states in India based on a Multidimensional Development Index in a 2013 report published by the Reserve Bank of India and its official language is Tamil, which is one of the longest-surviving classical languages in the world. Tamil Nadu is home to natural resources. In addition, its people have developed and continue classical arts, classical music, historic buildings and religious sites include Hindu temples of Tamil architecture, hill stations, beach resorts, multi-religious pilgrimage sites, and eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Archaeological evidence points to this area being one of the longest continuous habitations in the Indian peninsula, the ASI archaeologists have proposed that the script used at that site is very rudimentary Tamil Brahmi. Adichanallur has been announced as a site for further excavation. About 60 per cent of the epigraphical inscriptions found by the ASI in India are from Tamil Nadu. A Neolithic stone celt with the Indus script on it was discovered at Sembian-Kandiyur near Mayiladuthurai in Tamil Nadu, according to epigraphist Iravatham Mahadevan, this was the first datable artefact bearing the Indus script to be found in Tamil Nadu. Mahadevan claimed that the find was evidence of the use of the Harappan language, the date of the celt was estimated at between 1500 BCE and 2000 BCE. The early history of the people and rulers of Tamil Nadu is a topic in Tamil literary sources known as Sangam literature, numismatic, archaeological and literary sources corroborate that the Sangam period lasted for about six centuries, from 300 BC to AD300. Three dynasties, namely the Chera, Chola and Pandya, ruled the area of present-day Tamil Nadu, the Chera ruled the whole of present-day Kerala and parts of western Tamil Nadu comprising Coimbatore, Dharmapuri, Karur, Salem and Erode districts from the capital of Vanchi Muthur. The Chola dynasty ruled the northern and central parts of Tamil Nadu from their capital, Uraiyur, All three dynasties had extensive trade relationships with Rome, Greece, Egypt, Ceylon, Phoenicia, Arabia, Mesopotamia and Persia. Trade flourished in commodities such as spices, ivory, pearls, beads, Chera traded extensively from Muziris on the west coast, Chola from Arikamedu and Puhar and Pandya through Korkai port. A Greco-Roman trade and travel document, the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea gives a description of the Tamil country, besides these three dynasties, the Sangam era Tamilakam was also divided into various provinces named nadu, meaning country
4.
India
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India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and it is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast. It shares land borders with Pakistan to the west, China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast, in the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Indias Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a border with Thailand. The Indian subcontinent was home to the urban Indus Valley Civilisation of the 3rd millennium BCE, in the following millennium, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism began to be composed. Social stratification, based on caste, emerged in the first millennium BCE, early political consolidations took place under the Maurya and Gupta empires, the later peninsular Middle Kingdoms influenced cultures as far as southeast Asia. In the medieval era, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived, much of the north fell to the Delhi sultanate, the south was united under the Vijayanagara Empire. The economy expanded in the 17th century in the Mughal empire, in the mid-18th century, the subcontinent came under British East India Company rule, and in the mid-19th under British crown rule. A nationalist movement emerged in the late 19th century, which later, under Mahatma Gandhi, was noted for nonviolent resistance, in 2015, the Indian economy was the worlds seventh largest by nominal GDP and third largest by purchasing power parity. Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the major economies and is considered a newly industrialised country. However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, corruption, malnutrition, a nuclear weapons state and regional power, it has the third largest standing army in the world and ranks sixth in military expenditure among nations. India is a constitutional republic governed under a parliamentary system. It is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society and is home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats. The name India is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindu, the latter term stems from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, which was the historical local appellation for the Indus River. The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi, which translates as The people of the Indus, the geographical term Bharat, which is recognised by the Constitution of India as an official name for the country, is used by many Indian languages in its variations. Scholars believe it to be named after the Vedic tribe of Bharatas in the second millennium B. C. E and it is also traditionally associated with the rule of the legendary emperor Bharata. Gaṇarājya is the Sanskrit/Hindi term for republic dating back to the ancient times, hindustan is a Persian name for India dating back to the 3rd century B. C. E. It was introduced into India by the Mughals and widely used since then and its meaning varied, referring to a region that encompassed northern India and Pakistan or India in its entirety
5.
Chennai Egmore railway station
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Chennai Egmore is a railway station in Egmore, Chennai, South India. The station acts as the arrival and departure point for trains connecting Chennai and southern, central Tamil Nadu and this is one of the two main railway terminals in the city along with Chennai Central, which serves the north and west bound trains from the city. However, some trains to the north-east and eastern parts of the country also start from/pass through here, the Chennai Beach—Tambaram suburban railway line also passes through the station. The building of the station with decorative domes is one of the prominent landmarks of Chennai. This station is known in Tamil as Ezhumbur, the station was apparently constructed from 1906 on land purchased from Pulney Andy, The building is built in the Gothic style of architecture with imposing domes and corridors. It is one of the prominent landmarks of the city of Chennai, the recently opened northern entrance to this railway station is on the arterial Poonamalee High road in Chennai city. History says that the station was actually a fort, called the Egmore Redoubt, similar to Leith Castle and it is said that the station came up in a place that once used to store ammunition for the British. However, the South Indian Railway Company, which was then operating train services to the south, persuaded him to sell the land, for which Andy claimed ₹1 lakh as compensation. After acquiring the land, the SIR invited Henry Irwin, CIE, who did much of latter day Indo-Saracenic in Madras, Bird, company architect, to design a building to suit the traffic need. After several alterations in the plan, the work began in September 1905 and was completed in 1908. It was constructed by contractor T. Samynada Pillai of Bangalore at a cost of ₹17 lakh, the station was officially opened on 11 June 1908. There was initially a demand that the station be named after Clive, when the station was opened there was no electricity connection and a generator was used. The station became the major terminal for Chennai after the formation of Southern Railway in 1951. Irwin and Bird worked on the design of the building, which was added to in the 1930s and 1980s. In the 1990s it was converted into a broad gauge terminal. Earlier cars used to come inside the platform itself, which was only in this station. The signal cabin at the station was opened in 1935, when the line between Madras Beach and Tambaram was electrified. The signalling of the station is controlled from Siemens all-electric power frame of 1935, a new suburban station building was opened in November 2004 when the Tambaram-Beach broad gauge section became fully operational
6.
Museum
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Most large museums are located in major cities throughout the world and more local ones exist in smaller cities, towns and even the countryside. Museums have varying aims, ranging from serving researchers and specialists to serving the general public, the goal of serving researchers is increasingly shifting to serving the general public. There are many types of museums, including art museums, natural history museums, science museums, war museums, the city with the largest number of museums is Mexico City with over 128 museums. According to The World Museum Community, there are more than 55,000 museums in 202 countries, the English museum comes from the Latin word, and is pluralized as museums. The first museum/library is considered to be the one of Plato in Athens, however, Pausanias gives another place called Museum, namely a small hill in Classical Athens opposite to the Akropolis. The hill was called Mouseion after Mousaious, a man who used to sing on the hill, the purpose of modern museums is to collect, preserve, interpret, and display items of artistic, cultural, or scientific significance for the education of the public. The purpose can also depend on ones point of view, to a family looking for entertainment on a Sunday afternoon, a trip to a local history museum or large city art museum could be a fun, and enlightening way to spend the day. To city leaders, a healthy museum community can be seen as a gauge of the health of a city. To a museum professional, a museum might be seen as a way to educate the public about the museums mission, Museums are, above all, storehouses of knowledge. In 1829, James Smithsons bequest, that would fund the Smithsonian Institution, stated he wanted to establish an institution for the increase, Museums of natural history in the late 19th century exemplified the Victorian desire for consumption and for order. Gathering all examples of classification of a field of knowledge for research. As American colleges grew in the 19th century, they developed their own natural history collections for the use of their students, while many large museums, such as the Smithsonian Institution, are still respected as research centers, research is no longer a main purpose of most museums. While there is a debate about the purposes of interpretation of a museums collection, there has been a consistent mission to protect. Much care, expertise, and expense is invested in efforts to retard decomposition in aging documents, artifacts, artworks. All museums display objects that are important to a culture, as historian Steven Conn writes, To see the thing itself, with ones own eyes and in a public place, surrounded by other people having some version of the same experience can be enchanting. Museum purposes vary from institution to institution, some favor education over conservation, or vice versa. For example, in the 1970s, the Canada Science and Technology Museum favored education over preservation of their objects and they displayed objects as well as their functions. One exhibit featured a printing press that a staff member used for visitors to create museum memorabilia
7.
Indian Museum
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The Indian Museum is the largest and oldest museum in India and has rare collections of antiques, armour and ornaments, fossils, skeletons, mummies, and Mughal paintings. It was founded by the Asiatic Society of Bengal in Kolkata, India, the founder curator was Nathaniel Wallich, a Danish botanist. It has six sections comprising thirty five galleries of cultural and scientific artifacts namely Art, Archaeology, Anthropology, Geology, Zoology and Economic Botany. At present, it includes six cultural and scientific sections, viz. Art, Archaeology, Anthropology, geology, zoology and economic botany, with a number of galleries under each section. Many rare and unique specimens, both Indian and trans-Indian, relating to humanities and natural sciences, are preserved and displayed in the galleries of these sections, the administrative control of the Cultural sections, viz. The museum Directorate has eight co-ordinating service units, Education, Preservation, publication, presentation, photography, medical, modelling and this multipurpose Institution with multidisciplinary activities is being included as an Institute of national importance in the seventh schedule of the Constitution of India. It is one of oldest museums in the world and this is an autonomous organization under Ministry of Culture, Government of India. The present Director of the Indian Museum is B, the museum was closed to visitors due to massive restoration and upgrades from 1 September 2013 to 3 February 2014. The Indian Museum originated from the Asiatic Society of Bengal which was created by Sir William Jones in 1784, the concept of having a museum arose in 1796 from members of the Asiatic Society as a place where man-made and natural objects could be collected, cared for and displayed. The objective began to look achievable in 1808 when the Society was offered suitable accommodation by the Government of India in the Chowringhee-Park Street area, the Museum was created, with Wallich named the Honorary Curator and then Superintendent of the Oriental Museum of the Asiatic Society. Wallich also donated a number of specimens to the museum from his personal collection. After the resignation of Wallich, curators were paid salaries ranging from Rs 50 to Rs 200 a month. Until 1836 this salary was paid by the Asiatic Society but in that year its bankers, Palmer and Company became insolvent and the Government began to pay from its public funds. In 1840, the Government took a keen interest in the geology and mineral resources, a new building became a need and this was designed by Walter R Granville and completed in 1875 for the cost of Rs 1,40,000. In 1879 it received a portion of the collection from the India Museum when that collection was dispersed, the Zoological and Anthropological sections of the museum gave rise to the Zoological Survey of India in 1916, which in turn gave rise to the Anthropological Survey of India in 1945. It currently occupies a resplendent mansion, and exhibits among others, the heart is placed in special chambers. The body was then massaged with salt and oil, the Indian Museum is also regarded as the beginning of a significant epoch initiating the socio-cultural and scientific achievements of the country. It is otherwise considered as the beginning of the modernity and the end of mediaeval era by UZER Places, official Website History of Indian Museum Indian Museum Kolkata at Google Cultural Institute Don Bosco Museum The Indian Museum Completes 200 Years by Shakunt Pandey
8.
Kolkata
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Kolkata /koʊlˈkɑːtɑː/ is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. In 2011, the city had a population of 4.5 million, while the population of the city and its suburbs was 14.1 million, making it the third-most populous metropolitan area in India. Recent estimates of Kolkata Metropolitan Areas economy have ranged from $60 to $150 billion making it third most-productive metropolitan area in India, after Mumbai, in the late 17th century, the three villages that predated Calcutta were ruled by the Nawab of Bengal under Mughal suzerainty. After the Nawab granted the East India Company a trading licence in 1690, Nawab Siraj ud-Daulah occupied Calcutta in 1756, and the East India Company retook it the following year. In 1793 the East India company was enough to abolish Nizamat. Calcutta was the centre for the Indian independence movement, it remains a hotbed of contemporary state politics, following Indian independence in 1947, Kolkata, which was once the centre of modern Indian education, science, culture, and politics, suffered several decades of economic stagnation. Many people from Kolkata—among them several Nobel laureates—have contributed to the arts, the sciences, Kolkata culture features idiosyncrasies that include distinctively close-knit neighbourhoods and freestyle intellectual exchanges. Though home to major cricketing venues and franchises, Kolkata differs from other Indian cities by giving importance to association football, there are several explanations about the etymology of this name, The term Kolikata is thought to be a variation of Kalikkhetrô, meaning Field of Kali. Similarly, it can be a variation of Kalikshetra, alternatively, the name may have been derived from the Bengali term kilkila, or flat area. The name may have its origin in the words khal meaning canal, followed by kaṭa, according to another theory, the area specialised in the production of quicklime or koli chun and coir or kata, hence, it was called Kolikata. The discovery and archaeological study of Chandraketugarh,35 kilometres north of Kolkata, Kolkatas recorded history began in 1690 with the arrival of the English East India Company, which was consolidating its trade business in Bengal. The area occupied by the city encompassed three villages, Kalikata, Gobindapur, and Sutanuti. Kalikata was a village, Sutanuti was a riverside weavers village. They were part of an estate belonging to the Mughal emperor and these rights were transferred to the East India Company in 1698. In 1712, the British completed the construction of Fort William, facing frequent skirmishes with French forces, the British began to upgrade their fortifications in 1756. The Nawab of Bengal, Siraj ud-Daulah, condemned the militarisation and his warning went unheeded, and the Nawab attacked, he captured Fort William which led to the killings of several East India company officials in the Black Hole of Calcutta. A force of Company soldiers and British troops led by Robert Clive recaptured the city the following year, declared a presidency city, Calcutta became the headquarters of the East India Company by 1772. In 1793, ruling power of the Nawabs were abolished and East India company took control of the city
9.
Europe
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Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, yet the non-oceanic borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary. Europe covers about 10,180,000 square kilometres, or 2% of the Earths surface, politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states of which the Russian Federation is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a population of about 740 million as of 2015. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast, Europe, in particular ancient Greece, was the birthplace of Western civilization. The fall of the Western Roman Empire, during the period, marked the end of ancient history. Renaissance humanism, exploration, art, and science led to the modern era, from the Age of Discovery onwards, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers controlled at times the Americas, most of Africa, Oceania. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to economic, cultural, and social change in Western Europe. During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the west and the Warsaw Pact in the east, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1955, the Council of Europe was formed following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill and it includes all states except for Belarus, Kazakhstan and Vatican City. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, the EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The European Anthem is Ode to Joy and states celebrate peace, in classical Greek mythology, Europa is the name of either a Phoenician princess or of a queen of Crete. The name contains the elements εὐρύς, wide, broad and ὤψ eye, broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it. For the second part also the divine attributes of grey-eyed Athena or ox-eyed Hera. The same naming motive according to cartographic convention appears in Greek Ανατολή, Martin Litchfield West stated that phonologically, the match between Europas name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor. Next to these there is also a Proto-Indo-European root *h1regʷos, meaning darkness. Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to the continent, in some Turkic languages the originally Persian name Frangistan is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa
10.
The National Art Gallery (Chennai)
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The National Art Gallery situated in Egmore, Chennai, is one of the oldest art galleries in India. The Gallery has remained closed since 2002, as part of the structure suffered damage, the National Art Gallery was built during the celebration of Queen Victorias Golden Jubilee in Indo-Saracenic style, designed by architect Henry Irwin. The Gallery has been identified as a Heritage site by the CMDA, as of 2002 the gallery has been closed for tourists, due to several building flaws and structural instability, which triggered severe criticism from art critics. However, several proposals for renovation are underway, the gallery contains several Mugul paintings and rare works of Raja Ravi Varma. It also has various Tanjore Paintings, portraits of various British officers such as Lord Connemara and Lord William Bentinck are also present. The art gallery also included miniature paintings depicting court and battle scenes. In 2013, the Gallery was set for a face lift with Chief Minister Dr. J. Jayalalithaa allocating ₹110 million for repairs. Government Museum, Chennai Heritage structures in Chennai
11.
Indo-Saracenic Revival architecture
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The Indo-Saracenic Revival was an architectural style movement by British architects in the late 19th century in British India. It drew elements from native Indo-Islamic and Indian architecture, and combined it with the Gothic revival and Neo-Classical styles favoured in Victorian Britain. The style gained momentum in the west with the publication of the views of India by William Hodges. Saracenic was a used by the ancient Romans to refer to a people who lived in desert areas in and around the Roman province of Arabia. The first Indo-Saracenic building is said to be the Chepauk Palace, located in the neighbourhood of Chepauk, in present-day Chennai. Chennai is said to many buildings of this architecture, some of which are the Victoria Public Hall, Madras High Court, Senate House of the University of Madras, Chennai Central station. Confluence of different architectural styles had been attempted before during the mainly Turkic, Delhi Sultanate, Turkic and Mughal conquest in the Indian subcontinent, introduced new concepts in the already rich architecture of India. The prevailing style of architecture was trabeate, employing pillars, beams, after the disintegration of the Turkic Delhi Sultanate, rulers of individual states established their own rule and hence their own architectural styles, which was heavily influenced by local styles. Examples of these are the Bengal and the Gujarat schools, the Mughal style was conceived by Akbar the Great, the third Mughal emperor and also the architect of the Mughal empire. This Akbari Style was an amalgam of earlier Timurid, Persian and this style was further consolidated by his grandson and fellow architecture enthusiast, Shah Jahan. Some of the significant architectural legacies of the Mughals are Humayuns Tomb, the Taj Mahal, the Forts of Agra and Lahore, Shah Jahan was succeeded by his puritanical son, Aurangzeb, who had no soft spot for art and architecture. As a result, Mughal architecture suffered, with all artisans migrating to work under the patronage of local rulers, with no major architectural projects undertaken, the Mughal style rapidly declined. This decline was evident in such as Bibi Ka Maqbara, built by Azam Shah. However, local rulers embraced the style, as they had emulated it during the reigns of Jahangir. The last architectural marvel produced during this period of Mughal rule was Safdarjungs Tomb. By the early 19th century, the British had made themselves the masters of the Indian Subcontinent. In 1803, their control was strengthened with the defeat of the Marathas under Daulatrao Scindia. They legitimized their rule by taking the then weak Mughal Emperor, Shah Alam II under their protection, however, this uprising was doomed from the start, and was crushed by the British with ferocity, marking the end of the Mughal Empire
12.
Raja Ravi Varma
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Raja Ravi Varma was a celebrated Indian painter and artist. He is considered among the greatest painters in the history of Indian art for a number of aesthetic, firstly, his works are held to be among the best examples of the fusion of European techniques with a purely Indian sensibility. While continuing the tradition and aesthetics of Indian art, his paintings employed the latest European academic art techniques of the day. Secondly, he was notable for making affordable lithographs of his paintings available to the public, indeed, his lithographs increased the involvement of common people with fine arts and defined artistic tastes among common people for several decades. Raja Ravi Varma was closely related to the family of Travancore of present day Kerala state in India. Raja Ravi Varma was born M. R. Ry, the title Raja was conferred as a personal title by the Viceroy and Governor-General of India. Ravi Varma was the son of Ezhumavil Neelakanthan Bhattatiripad and Umayamba Thampurratti and his mother, Uma Ambabayi Thampuratty, belonged to the baronial family which ruled the Kilimanoor feudal estate within the kingdom of Travancore. She was a poet and writer of talent, whose work Parvati Swayamvaram was published by Varma after her death. Ravi Varmas father, Ezhumavil Neelakanthan Bhattatiripad, was a scholar of Sanskrit, Ravi Varma had three siblings, a sister named Mangala Bayi, and two brothers named Goda Varma and Raja Varma. The last-named was also a painter and worked closely with Ravi Varma all his life, in 1866, at the age of 18, Varma was married to 12-year-old Bhageerthi Bayi of the royal house of Mavelikkara, another major fief of Travancore kingdom. Notably, the house of Mavellikara was a branch of the Royal House of Travancore, Bhageerthi was the youngest of three sisters, and both of her elder sisters had been adopted into the royal family of Travancore in 1857, in order to carry on the lineage. They were known as the Senior and Junior Rani of Attingal, therefore, Ravi Varmas connection to the royal family became very close due to his marriage with Bhageerthi. Indeed, his children would be royal by birth, the marriage, which was arranged by their parents in the proper Indian manner, was harmonious and successful. The couple were blessed with five children, being two sons and three daughters and their elder son, Kerala Varma was of an excessively spiritual temperament. He never married and eventually renounced the world, leaving home for good in 1912, the younger son, Rama Varma, inherited his fathers artistic talent and studied at the JJ School of Arts, Mumbai. He was married to Gowri Kunjamma, sister of Dewan PGN Unnithan and it was however Ravi Varmas daughters who were singled out by destiny for greatness, although not in the field of art, and not personally but through their daughters. The three daughters of Ravi Varma and Bhageerthi Bayi were Mahaprabha Amma, Uma Amma and Cheria Kochamma, in 1900 CE, the Royal House of Travancore once again faced a succession crisis. Bhageerthis two elder sisters, who had adopted in order to carry forward the lineage, had failed to produce the desired heirs
13.
Nungambakkam
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Nungambakkam is a locality in Chennai, Indias fourth largest metropolitan city. Nungambakkam is also a residential area in Chennai. The adjoining regions of Nungambakkam include Egmore, Chetput, T. Nagar, Kodambakkam, Choolaimedu, Nungambakkam is one of the oldest parts of Chennai. It formed the western limits of Madras until the 1960s, ramans The Early History of the Madras Region, Nungambakkam features in an 11th-century copper plate pertaining to Rajendra Chola. According to the Chennai Corporations records, Nungambakkam village, which was under a Mughal firman, was handed over to the British along with four villages in 1708. These five villages were hence known as the Five New Towns. Since then, Nungambakkam has been a part of Madras city, public buildings and colleges rose in the 1850s. In the early part of the 20th century, Nungambakkam rose as one of the upper-class European residential areas, housing civil servants, the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica records the presence of vast empty spaces and parks in Nungambakkam. Most of Nungambakkams principal lanes, such as College Road, Haddows Road and Sterling Road, are over 100 years old, Sterling Road consists of trees in both the sides, which is very rare to see in the heart of a metropolitan city. Pizza Hut, Pizza Corner, Coffee day Lounge, World of Titan, KFC, Reebok, NIKE, ADIDAS, Marrybrown, Just Born, Chicking, traffic is very high in Nungambakkam during peak hours due to various road junctions which connects some important places in Chennai city. There are a lot of ATMs and branches of international banks such as Standard Chartered. The Womens Christian College was established in 1915, the Good Shepherd Convent later known as the Good Shephered Higher Secondary Matriculation School was established in 1925. Loyola College was established as a college in 1925. The subdivisions of Nungambakkam include Mahalingapuram, Lake area, Village road, Sterling road, College road, Shenoy road, three out of the citys four prime residential areas, Wallace Gardens, Khader Nawaz Khan Road and Kothari Road, are in Nungambakkam. The SDAT stadium hosts the long-running ATP event, the Chennai Open, valluvar Kottam, dedicated to the Tamil Saint-Poet Thiruvalluvar, is a popular tourist attraction in Chennai. Nungambakkam is also the Occidental cultural district of Chennai, being home to the Alliance Française and it is also home to many expensive western fashion boutiques and malls. The Regional Passport Office of Chennai is located on Haddows Road and this office issues passports to half of Tamil Nadu. Nungambakkam is also home to the Austrian, Canadian and South Korean consulates in Chennai as well as the British Deputy High Commission, about four decades ago, there existed in the Chennai Metropolis no temple dedicated exclusively to Lord Ayyappa
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Connemara Public Library
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Connemara Public Library at Egmore in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, is one of the four National Depository Libraries which receive a copy of all books, newspapers and periodicals published in India. Established in 1890, the library is a repository of publications, wherein lie some of the most respected works. It also serves as a library for the UN. The librarys beginnings go back to 1860, when Captain Jesse Mitchell set up a library as part of the Madras Museum in Madras. Hundreds of books had been found to be surplus in the libraries of Haileybury College and these were sent to the Madras Government and it opened in 1896 and was named after Lord Connemara, an Anglo-Irish nobleman. The library was indeed essentially free, A small deposit had to be paid and this is one of the Asias largest libraries. The library was as part of a complex that grew in the grounds of what was once called The Pantheon. Efforts are on to fully computerise the library database, which could ensure easy access to books, the library has a collection of over 600,000 books. In 1981 the central government ordered that the library one of the four national depository libraries. The library, however, is not a member of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. The library, along with the Madras museum, benefited greatly from the effects of the Madras Literary Society, the Oriental Manuscripts Library and the Records Office. Under the provision of Delivery of Books and Newspapers Act 1954, apart from this a good number of publications and periodicals of UN and its specialized organs and Asian Development Bank were also received. Furthermore, several books were added every year by purchasing from the funds available by the state government budget. Edgar Thurston J. R. Henderson F. H. Gravely R. Janarthanam Naidu K. Govinda Menon K. Rajagopalan Ve
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Teak
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Teak is a tropical hardwood tree species placed in the flowering plant family Lamiaceae. Tectona grandis is a large, deciduous tree that occurs in mixed hardwood forests and it has small, fragrant white flowers and large papery leaves that are often hairy on the lower surface. It is sometimes known as the Burmese teak, Teak wood has a leather-like smell when it is freshly milled. It is particularly valued for its durability and water resistance, and is used for building, exterior construction, veneer, furniture, carving, turnings. Myanmars teak forests account for half of the worlds naturally occurring teak. Molecular studies show there are two centres of genetic origin of teak, one in India and the other in Myanmar. CP teak is a description of teak from the states of India. Nagpur teak is another regional Indian teak and it produces small, white flowers arranged in dense clusters at the end of the branches. Flowers contain both types of reproductive organs The word teak comes from, Tamil tekku, Malayalam word thekku, the plant is known as Thekka in Sinhala by Sri Lankan people. Teak is a large, deciduous tree up to 40 m tall with gray to grayish brown branches, leaves are ovate-elliptic to ovate, 15–45 cm long by 8–23 cm wide, and are held on robust petioles that are 2–4 cm long. Fragrant white flowers are borne on 25–40 cm long by 30 cm wide panicles from June to August, the corolla tube is 2. 5–3 mm long with 2 mm wide obtuse lobes. Tectona grandis sets fruit from September to December, fruits are globose and 1. 2-1.8 cm in diameter, flowers are weakly protandrous in that the anthers precede the stigma in maturity and pollen is shed within a few hours of the flower opening. The flowers are entomophilous, but can occasionally be anemophilous. A1996 study found that in its range in Thailand. Heartwood is brownish red in colour, sometimes there are dark patches on it. There is a scent in newly cut wood. Sapwood is whitish to yellowish brown in colour. It can easily separate from heartwood, wood texture is hard and ring porous
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Fort St. George, India
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Fort St George is the name of the first English fortress in India, founded in 1644 at the coastal city of Madras, the modern city of Chennai. The construction of the fort provided the impetus for further settlements and trading activity, thus, it is a feasible contention to say that the city evolved around the fortress. The fort currently houses the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly and other official buildings, the fort is one of the 163 notified areas in the state of Tamil Nadu. The East India Company, which had entered India around 1600 for trading activities, had begun licensed trading at Surat, the fort was completed on 23 April 1644 at a cost of £3000, coinciding with St Georges Day, celebrated in honour of the patron saint of England. The fort, hence christened Fort St George, faced the sea and some fishing villages and it gave birth to a new settlement area called George Town, which grew to envelop the villages and led to the formation of the city of Madras. It also helped to establish English influence over the Carnatic and to keep the kings of Arcot and Srirangapatna, as well as the French forces based at Pondichéry, at bay. In 1665, after the EIC received word of the formation of the new French East India Company, according to the 17th century traveller Thomas Bowrey, Fort St. to be yearly transported to England. The Fort is a stronghold with 6 metres high walls that withstood a number of assaults in the 18th century. It briefly passed into the possession of the French from 1746 to 1749, but was restored to Great Britain under the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, the Fort Museum contains many relics of the Raj era, including portraits of many of the Governors of Madras. The fort is maintained and administered by the Archaeological Survey of India as a ticketed monument, St Marys Church is the oldest Anglican church in India. It was built between 1678 and 1680 on the orders of the then Agent of Madras Streynsham Master, the tombstones in its graveyard are the oldest English or British tombstones in India. This ancient prayer house solemnised the marriages of Robert Clive and Governor Elihu Yale, the Fort Museum exhibits many items of the period of English and later British rule. This building was completed in 1795 and first housed the office of the Madras Bank, the hall upstairs was the Public Exchange Hall and served as a place for public meetings, lottery draws and occasional entertainment. These relics are reminders of British rule in India, the objects on display in the museum are the weapons, coins, medals, uniforms and other artefacts from England, Scotland, France and India dating back to the colonial period. Original letters written by Clive and Cornwallis make fascinating reading, one set of quaint period uniforms is displayed for viewing, as well. However, the piece de resistance is a statue of Lord Cornwallis. The first ever flown flag after the independence is stored in 3rd floor of the museum, Public are allowed to see but not to touch or take photographs. The museum is mentioned in the novel The Museum of Innocence, the first floor of the building includes the Banqueting Hall, which holds paintings of the Governor of the Fort and other high officials of the Regime
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Edward Balfour
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Edward Green Balfour was a Scottish surgeon, orientalist and pioneering environmentalist in India. He founded museums at Madras and Bangalore, a garden in Madras and was instrumental in raising awareness on forest conservation. He published a Cyclopaedia of India, several editions of which were published after 1857, translated works on health into Indian languages, Balfour was the second son of Captain George Balfour of the East India Company marine service and Susan Hume. His elder brother was Sir George Balfour who was later a liberal MP for Kincardineshire and he was educated at Montrose Academy then he studied surgery at Edinburgh University and joined the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1833. A family friend arranged his commission as an assistant surgeon in the Madras medical service in India, on the way he visited Mauritius where he witnessed ecological destruction about which he had read in the works of Bernardin de Saint-Pierre and Jean-Baptiste Boussingault. This created a lifelong interest in change and environmental problems. On arrival in India in 1836 he was attached to a European regiment as an assistant surgeon and he was in medical charge of European and native artillery, native cavalry, Madras and Bombay infantry divisions until 1862. He served as a staff-surgeon at Ahmednagar and at Bellary, and his ability with languages particularly Hindi and later Persian helped his transfer into a sepoy regiment. This led him to be posted to smaller areas and he spent the ten years travelling around southern India. He was often sought by the government as a translator of Hindustani, in 1848 Balfour returned to Madras and he was given medical charge of the governors bodyguard. This gave him time to writing and other interests and he also took up additional appointments as agent to the court of the nawab of the Carnatic. From 1858 to 1861 he served on a commission to look into the debts of the nawab, in 1850, he also served as assistant assay master at the Madras mint. In 1852 he became a surgeon and on 24 May he married Marion Matilda Agnes Gilchrist. He served as deputy Surgeon-General in Burma and the Straits Settlements, the Andamans, from 1871 to 1876 he was Surgeon-General and headed the Madras Medical Department. Balfours wife, Marion, would help in the proof-reading of Balfours encyclopaedia, at the age of seven Marion had been to St. Helena where she happened to see the body of Napoleon. Balfour had seen environmental damage in Mauritius and was interested in the effect of climate on human health, during his travels he collected information on health and environmental issues. In 1849, he wrote On the Influence exercised by Trees on the Climate of a Country in the Madras Journal of Literature, the medical training in Edinburgh had an emphasis on the importance of water in human health. Balfour recognized that since water was finite in supply, that this was a health problem
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George Bidie
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Surgeon General George Bidie CIE was a British physician who worked in India in the Madras Medical Service. He was also Superintendent of the Government Museum, Chennai from 1872 to 1885, Bidie was born in Buckies, Banffshire, United Kingdom on 3 April 1830. He studied at Edinburgh and the University of Aberdeen and received an MD degree from Marischal College, in 1853 he received the FRCS from Edinburgh and joined the Indian Medical Service as an Assistant Surgeon on 20 February 1856. Bidie joined the Madras Medical Service in 1856 and served with the Hyderabad contingent during the 1857 rebellion and received a medal. He was a Civil Surgeon at Guntur during 1859 and between 1867 and 1868, served on duty in Mysore and Coorg to investigate the stem borer. He was a Professor of Botany at the Madras Medical College and he helped introduce humane practises for the treatment of the insane as well as medical inspections in schools. During this period he took an interest in the deforestation-desiccation debate and wrote about the effects of deforestation in Coorg. He rose through the ranks becoming Surgeon, Surgeon-Major, Brigade Surgeon and he became a Fellow of Madras University in 1879. He also worked on sanitation, becoming Sanitary Commissioner of the Madras Presidency and was a delegate in the International Congress on Hygiene, while at the Madras Museum, he wrote on a wide range of subjects including natural history, numismatics and archaeology. He was elected a Fellow of the Zoological Society of London in 1890, Bidie was instrumental in setting up laws for the protection of wild birds in India. He was a member of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. Francis Day named a species of fish after him as Caranx bidii, Bidie married Isabella, daughter of Alexander Wiseman of Banchory, Aberdeenshire on 11 July 1854. They had five daughters and four sons among whom one who was also named George Bidie, became a Lieutenant-Colonel and his estate was valued at £2943 at the time of his death. Works by or about George Bidie at Internet Archive George Bidie at Find a Grave
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Edgar Thurston
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Edgar Thurston CIE was a superintendent at the Madras Government Museum who contributed to studies in the zoology, ethnology and botany of India and published works related to his work at the museum. Thurston was educated in medicine and lectured in anatomy at the Madras Medical College while also holding his position at the museum and his early works were on numismatics and geology and these was followed by researches in anthropology and ethnography. He succeeded Frederick S. Mullaly as the superintendent of ethnography for the Madras Presidency, Edgar Thurston was the son of Charles Bosworth Thurston of Kew, London. Schooled at Eton College, he studied medicine at Kings College, London. He worked as a officer in Kent County Lunatic Asylum. He believed that intelligence was inversely proportional to the breadth of the nose, in 1901, Thurston was appointed to the Ethnographic Survey of India project, established at that time following the success of Herbert Hope Risleys Ethnographic Survey of Bengal. Risley was an adherent to the theories of racism and had been appointed as director of Ethnology in India. Thurston worked as a part of project to collect accurate anthropometric measurements. These included a number of measurements of the skull and derived indices or proportions such as the nasal index, among other published works, Thurston wrote the seven volumes of Castes and Tribes of Southern India, published in 1909 as part of the Ethnographic Survey of India. In that work he was assisted by K. Rangachari, a colleague from the Madras museum who had assisted him in a 1906 ethnographic study. Rangachari had supplied most of the forty photographs used in this earlier study, the September 1910 edition of Nature described the 1909 publication as a monumental record of the varied phases of south Indian tribal life, the traditions, manners and customs of people. Kavita Philip describes it as combining a textbook style account of physical and cultural geography with ethnographic detail on habits, customs, Thurston made numerous collections of plant and animals specimens, many of which were sent to the British Museum. In the late 1880s he was involved in studies on pearl fishing in the Gulf of Mannar, on a visit to Europe he sought to find electric lights that would work at a depth of 20 fathoms so as to assist in pearl harvesting. Some species have been named him, including the marine organisms Manaria thurstoni, Sepia thurstoni, Mobula thurstoni. Also, a species of Indian snake, Gerrhopilus thurstoni, is named in his honor, the standard author abbreviation E. Thurst. is used to indicate this individual as the author when citing a botanical name. Thurston was awarded the Kaisar-i-Hind, first class, on 26 June 1902 and he was made C. I. E. in 1909. He retired to England and spent his winters at Penzance where he studied the local plants and he died on 12 October 1935 at Penzance. Catalogue of the Batrachia, Salientia and Apoda of Southern India, history of the coinage of the territories of the East India company in the Indian peninsula and catalogue of the coins in the Madras museum
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J. R. Sakuragi
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J. R. Sakuragi, born Milton J. R. Henderson, is an American-Japanese professional basketball player. Raised in Bakersfield, Sakuragi played college basketball at University of California, Los Angeles, on the NCAA championship team in his freshman year, Sakuragi was named the teams most valuable freshman along with Toby Bailey. He was named to the All-Pac-10 first team during his sophomore and senior seasons and he averaged 14.2 points per game in his four-year career at the school. He was selected by the Vancouver Grizzlies in the 2nd round of the 1998 NBA Draft where he played one season, Sakuragi played the next two years for teams in Las Vegas and France and summer-league teams in Puerto Rico and the Philippines. In 2001, he moved to Japan to play for the Aisin Seahorses of the JBL Super League, sakuragis application to become a Japanese citizen cleared on July 2,2007, and he changed his name from J. R. Henderson to J. R. Sakuragi. He chose his new name for two reasons, firstly, he thought a Japanese name would speed up the naturalization, and it also corresponded to the name of Hanamichi Sakuragi, the protagonist of the popular basketball manga Slam Dunk. Sakuragi played for the Japan national basketball team as they competed in the 2007 FIBA Asia Championship, to comply with Japanese naturalization requirements, Sakuragi taught himself to read, speak and write Japanese at a rudimentary level. He plans to stay in Japan and has no intention of returning to the U. S. soon
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F. H. Gravely
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Gravely was born in 1885 in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, England to Arthur Frederic Gravely and Margaret Hutchinson, the eldest of four children. He studied at the University of Manchester, when working as Assistant Superintendent at the Indian Museum, Calcutta, Dr. Gravely conducted pioneering classification work on the family Passalidae. Dr. Gravely became the Superintendent of the Government Museum of Madras in 1920 and his work on Arachnida and Mollusca significantly enhanced the collections of the museum in the two zoological groups. He was also responsible for enlarging the collection, particularly of Invertebrates. Dr. Gravely contributed to the development of the museum as well. He, along with the Curator Dr. C, sivaramamurti, ensured in 1938 that the antiquities and industrial art collected by the Museum was organized effectively, into a collection that exists even today. The most important of Dr. Gravelys many contributions to the subject was the monograph he collaborated on with T. N. Ramachandran on the basis for identifying the period of metal images. Dr. Gravely also donated a variety of sculptures, carvings and bronzes to other institutions, including the Prince of Wales Museum, Dr. Gravely, and P V Mayuranathan considerably enhanced the Herbarium and the botanical collections of the museum. Dr. Gravely pioneered the preservation of bronzes collected by the Museum and he initiated the electrolytic restoration process which has helped preserve not only bronze objects, but also ethnological, pre-historic and numismatic collections. He also built a separate Chemical Conservation Laboratory, the one of its kind at the time. He was one of the Foundation Fellows of the National Institute of Sciences of India, now the scientific body in the country. He also served as the Secretary to the Asiatic Society in the period 1915-18 and his insect and spider collection is in the Indian Museum, Calcutta. It notably contain insects, Arachnida and Myriapoda from limestone caves in Burma and he married Laura Balling, and they had one daughter and one son
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A. Aiyappan
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Ayinapalli Aiyappan was an museologist who served as Superintendent of the Government Museum, Madras from 1940 to 1960. He was the first Indian to occupy the post, Aiyappan was also an amateur archaeologist who did pioneering excavations on the archaeological site at Arikamedu. Aiyappan was born into the Ezhava community and he obtained an MA in economics from the University of Madras in 1927, and in 1929 he joined the Government Museum, Madras. He continued to study, taking a PhD in 1937 after being a student of Raymond Firth at the London School of Economics and he became head of the museum in 1940 and continued there until 1958, whilst also being a visiting professor at Cornell University during 1954–1956. He became professor and head of the Department of Anthropology at Utkal University in 1958, in 1969 he was appointed vice-chancellor of Kerala University, a post in which he stayed for either 18 months or until 1972, dependent on the source selected. In 1970 he became a founder and first chairman of the Centre for Development Studies. He was also a founder and director of the Tribal Research Bureau of Odisha. Aiyappan was involved in the reorganisation of the Odisha Museum as a museum with the addition of natural history, mining and geology. He was awarded the Saratchandra Roy Gold Medal of the Asiatic Society in Bengal and he was also an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute. Iravas and Cultural Change Social Revolution in a Kerala Village Nayads of Kerala The Personality of Kerala Physical Anthropology of the Nayadis of Malabar Bharathappazhama Notes Citations
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Archaeology
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Archaeology, or archeology, is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, Archaeology can be considered both a social science and a branch of the humanities. In North America, archaeology is considered a sub-field of anthropology, archaeologists study human prehistory and history, from the development of the first stone tools at Lomekwi in East Africa 3.3 million years ago up until recent decades. Archaeology as a field is distinct from the discipline of palaeontology, Archaeology is particularly important for learning about prehistoric societies, for whom there may be no written records to study. Prehistory includes over 99% of the human past, from the Paleolithic until the advent of literacy in societies across the world, Archaeology has various goals, which range from understanding culture history to reconstructing past lifeways to documenting and explaining changes in human societies through time. The discipline involves surveying, excavation and eventually analysis of data collected to learn more about the past, in broad scope, archaeology relies on cross-disciplinary research. Archaeology developed out of antiquarianism in Europe during the 19th century, Archaeology has been used by nation-states to create particular visions of the past. Nonetheless, today, archaeologists face many problems, such as dealing with pseudoarchaeology, the looting of artifacts, a lack of public interest, the science of archaeology grew out of the older multi-disciplinary study known as antiquarianism. Antiquarians studied history with attention to ancient artifacts and manuscripts. Tentative steps towards the systematization of archaeology as a science took place during the Enlightenment era in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, in Europe, philosophical interest in the remains of Greco-Roman civilization and the rediscovery of classical culture began in the late Middle Age. Antiquarians, including John Leland and William Camden, conducted surveys of the English countryside, one of the first sites to undergo archaeological excavation was Stonehenge and other megalithic monuments in England. John Aubrey was a pioneer archaeologist who recorded numerous megalithic and other monuments in southern England. He was also ahead of his time in the analysis of his findings and he attempted to chart the chronological stylistic evolution of handwriting, medieval architecture, costume, and shield-shapes. Excavations were also carried out in the ancient towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum and these excavations began in 1748 in Pompeii, while in Herculaneum they began in 1738. The discovery of entire towns, complete with utensils and even human shapes, however, prior to the development of modern techniques, excavations tended to be haphazard, the importance of concepts such as stratification and context were overlooked. The father of archaeological excavation was William Cunnington and he undertook excavations in Wiltshire from around 1798, funded by Sir Richard Colt Hoare. Cunnington made meticulous recordings of neolithic and Bronze Age barrows, one of the major achievements of 19th century archaeology was the development of stratigraphy. The idea of overlapping strata tracing back to successive periods was borrowed from the new geological and paleontological work of scholars like William Smith, James Hutton, the application of stratigraphy to archaeology first took place with the excavations of prehistorical and Bronze Age sites
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Numismatics
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Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, and related objects. Early money used by people is referred to as Odd and Curious, the Kyrgyz people used horses as the principal currency unit and gave small change in lambskins, the lambskins may be suitable for numismatic study, but the horse is not. Many objects have been used for centuries, such as shells, precious metals, cocoa beans, large stones. Today, most transactions take place by a form of payment with either inherent, standardized, Numismatic value may be used to refer to the value in excess of the monetary value conferred by law, which is known as the collector value. Economic and historical studies of use and development are an integral part of the numismatists study of moneys physical embodiment. First attested in English 1829, the word comes from the adjective numismatic. It was borrowed in 1792 from French numismatiques, itself a derivation from Late Latin numismatis, genitive of numisma, throughout its history, money itself has been made to be a scarce good, although it does not have to be. Many materials have been used to form money, from naturally scarce precious metals and cowry shells through cigarettes to entirely artificial money, called fiat money, many complementary currencies use time as a unit of measure, using mutual credit accounting that keeps the balance of money intact. Modern money is essentially a token – an abstraction, paper currency is perhaps the most common type of physical money today. However, goods such as gold or silver retain many of the properties of money, such as volatility. However, these goods are not controlled by one single authority, coin collecting may have existed in ancient times. Caesar Augustus gave coins of every device, including old pieces of the kings, petrarch, who wrote in a letter that he was often approached by vinediggers with old coins asking him to buy or to identify the ruler, is credited as the first Renaissance collector. Petrarch presented a collection of Roman coins to Emperor Charles IV in 1355, the first book on coins was De Asse et Partibus by Guillaume Budé. During the early Renaissance ancient coins were collected by European royalty and nobility, Numismatics is called the Hobby of Kings, due to its most esteemed founders. Professional societies organized in the 19th century, the Royal Numismatic Society was founded in 1836 and immediately began publishing the journal that became the Numismatic Chronicle. The American Numismatic Society was founded in 1858 and began publishing the American Journal of Numismatics in 1866, in 1931 the British Academy launched the Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum publishing collections of Ancient Greek coinage. The first volume of Sylloge of Coins of the British Isles was published in 1958, after World War II in Germany a project, Fundmünzen der Antike was launched, to register every coin found within Germany. This idea found successors in many countries, in the United States, the US mint established a coin Cabinet in 1838 when chief coiner Adam Eckfeldt donated his personal collection
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Zoology
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The term is derived from Ancient Greek ζῷον, zōion, i. e. animal and λόγος, logos, i. e. knowledge, study. The history of zoology traces the study of the kingdom from ancient to modern times. This ancient work was developed in the Middle Ages by Muslim physicians. During the Renaissance and early period, zoological thought was revolutionized in Europe by a renewed interest in empiricism. Microscopy revealed the unknown world of microorganisms, laying the groundwork for cell theory. The growing importance of natural theology, partly a response to the rise of mechanical philosophy, over the 18th and 19th centuries, zoology became an increasingly professional scientific discipline. Naturalists began to reject essentialism and consider the importance of extinction, cell theory provided a new perspective on the fundamental basis of life. These developments, as well as the results from embryology and paleontology, were synthesized in Charles Darwins theory of evolution by natural selection. In 1859, Darwin placed the theory of evolution on a new footing, by his discovery of a process by which organic evolution can occur. Darwin gave new direction to morphology and physiology, by uniting them in a biological theory. The end of the 19th century saw the fall of spontaneous generation, cell biology studies the structural and physiological properties of cells, including their behavior, interactions, and environment. This is done on both the microscopic and molecular levels, for single-celled organisms such as bacteria as well as the cells in multicellular organisms such as humans. Understanding the structure and function of cells is fundamental to all of the biological sciences, the similarities and differences between cell types are particularly relevant to molecular biology. Anatomy considers the forms of macroscopic structures such as organs and organ systems and it focuses on how organs and organ systems work together in the bodies of humans and animals, in addition to how they work independently. Anatomy and cell biology are two studies that are related, and can be categorized under structural studies. Physiology studies the mechanical, physical, and biochemical processes of living organisms by attempting to understand how all of the function as a whole. The theme of structure to function is central to biology, for example, what is learned about the physiology of yeast cells can also apply to human cells. The field of animal physiology extends the tools and methods of physiology to non-human species
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Natural history
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Natural history is the research and study of organisms including animals, fungi and plants in their environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. It encompasses scientific research but is not limited to it, with articles nowadays more often published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the sciences, natural history is the systematic study of any category of natural objects or organisms. That is a broad designation in a world filled with many narrowly focused disciplines. For example, geobiology has a strong multi-disciplinary nature combining scientists, a person who studies natural history is known as a naturalist or natural historian. The English term natural history is a translation of the Latin historia naturalis and its meaning has narrowed progressively with time, while the meaning of the related term nature has widened. In antiquity, it covered essentially anything connected with nature or which used materials drawn from nature. For example, Pliny the Elders encyclopedia of this title, published circa 77 to 79 AD, covers astronomy, geography, man and his technology, medicine and superstition as well as animals and plants. Medieval European academics considered knowledge to have two divisions, the humanities and divinity, with science studied largely through texts rather than observation or experiment. In modern terms, natural philosophy roughly corresponded to modern physics and chemistry, natural history had been encouraged by practical motives, such as Linnaeus aspiration to improve the economic condition of Sweden. Similarly, the Industrial Revolution prompted the development of geology to help find useful mineral deposits, the astronomer, William Herschel was also a natural historian. Instead of working with plants or minerals he worked with the stars and he spent his time building telescopes to see the stars and the rest of the time watching the stars. In the beginning, he believed there to be a known as a nebulae. Herschel can be considered a natural historian because he observed the natural world, in the process he made charts of all the stars and kept records of all that he saw. S. Wilcove and T. Eisner, The close observation of organisms—their origins, their evolution, their behavior and it encompasses changes in internal states insofar as they pertain to what organisms do. Some definitions go further, focusing on observation of organisms in their environment. Bartholomew, A student of history, or a naturalist, studies the world by observing plants. A common thread in many definitions of natural history is the inclusion of a component, as seen in a recent definition by H. W. Greene
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Sculpture
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Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. It is one of the plastic arts, a wide variety of materials may be worked by removal such as carving, assembled by welding or modelling, or molded, or cast. However, most ancient sculpture was painted, and this has been lost. Those cultures whose sculptures have survived in quantities include the cultures of the ancient Mediterranean, India and China, the Western tradition of sculpture began in ancient Greece, and Greece is widely seen as producing great masterpieces in the classical period. During the Middle Ages, Gothic sculpture represented the agonies and passions of the Christian faith, the revival of classical models in the Renaissance produced famous sculptures such as Michelangelos David. Relief is often classified by the degree of projection from the wall into low or bas-relief, high relief, sunk-relief is a technique restricted to ancient Egypt. Relief sculpture may also decorate steles, upright slabs, usually of stone, techniques such as casting, stamping and moulding use an intermediate matrix containing the design to produce the work, many of these allow the production of several copies. The term sculpture is used mainly to describe large works. The very large or colossal statue has had an enduring appeal since antiquity, another grand form of portrait sculpture is the equestrian statue of a rider on horse, which has become rare in recent decades. The smallest forms of life-size portrait sculpture are the head, showing just that, or the bust, small forms of sculpture include the figurine, normally a statue that is no more than 18 inches tall, and for reliefs the plaquette, medal or coin. Sculpture is an important form of public art, a collection of sculpture in a garden setting can be called a sculpture garden. One of the most common purposes of sculpture is in form of association with religion. Cult images are common in cultures, though they are often not the colossal statues of deities which characterized ancient Greek art. The actual cult images in the innermost sanctuaries of Egyptian temples, of which none have survived, were rather small. The same is true in Hinduism, where the very simple. Some undoubtedly advanced cultures, such as the Indus Valley civilization, appear to have had no monumental sculpture at all, though producing very sophisticated figurines, the Mississippian culture seems to have been progressing towards its use, with small stone figures, when it collapsed. Other cultures, such as ancient Egypt and the Easter Island culture, from the 20th century the relatively restricted range of subjects found in large sculpture expanded greatly, with abstract subjects and the use or representation of any type of subject now common. Today much sculpture is made for intermittent display in galleries and museums, small sculpted fittings for furniture and other objects go well back into antiquity, as in the Nimrud ivories, Begram ivories and finds from the tomb of Tutankhamun
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Manuscript
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A manuscript is any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to being mechanically printed or reproduced in some automated way. More recently, it is understood to be a written, typed, or word-processed copy of a work. Before the arrival of printing, all documents and books were manuscripts, manuscripts are not defined by their contents, which may combine writing with mathematical calculations, maps, explanatory figures or illustrations. Manuscripts may be in form, scrolls or in codex format. Illuminated manuscripts are enriched with pictures, border decorations, elaborately embossed initial letters or full-page illustrations. The traditional abbreviations are MS for manuscript and MSS for manuscripts, while the forms MS. ms or ms. for singular, and MSS. mss or mss. for plural are also accepted. The second s is not simply the plural, by an old convention, it doubles the last letter of the abbreviation to express the plural, just as pp. means pages. Before the invention of printing in China or by moveable type in a printing press in Europe. Historically, manuscripts were produced in form of scrolls or books, manuscripts were produced on vellum and other parchment, on papyrus, and on paper. In Russia birch bark documents as old as from the 11th century have survived, in India, the palm leaf manuscript, with a distinctive long rectangular shape, was used from ancient times until the 19th century. Paper spread from China via the Islamic world to Europe by the 14th century, when Greek or Latin works were published, numerous professional copies were made simultaneously by scribes in a scriptorium, each making a single copy from an original that was declaimed aloud. Manuscripts in Tocharian languages, written on leaves, survived in desert burials in the Tarim Basin of Central Asia. Volcanic ash preserved some of the Roman library of the Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum, ironically, the manuscripts that were being most carefully preserved in the libraries of antiquity are virtually all lost. Originally, all books were in manuscript form, in China, and later other parts of East Asia, woodblock printing was used for books from about the 7th century. The earliest dated example is the Diamond Sutra of 868, in the Islamic world and the West, all books were in manuscript until the introduction of movable type printing in about 1450. Manuscript copying of books continued for a least a century, as printing remained expensive, private or government documents remained hand-written until the invention of the typewriter in the late 19th century. In the Philippines, for example, as early as 900AD, specimen documents were not inscribed by stylus and this type of document was rare compared to the usual leaves and bamboo staves that were inscribed. However, neither the leaves nor paper were as durable as the document in the hot
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Amravati
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Amravati pronunciation also known as Ambanagari is a city in the state of Maharashtra, India. It is the 8th most populous area in the state. It is the headquarters of the Amravati district. It is also the headquarters of the Amravati Division which is one of the six divisions of the state, among the historical landmarks in the city are the temples of Amba, Shri Krishna and Shri Venkateshwara. The ancient name of Amravati is Audumbaravati, in prakrut, Umbravati, the variant Amravati is the presently accepted name. It is said that Amravati is named for its ancient Ambadevi temple, a mention of Amravati can be found on a stone inscription on the base of the marble statue of God Adinath Rhishabhnath. The statues date back to the year 1097, govind Maha Prabhu visited Amravati in the 13th century, when Wardha was under the rule of Deogiris Hindu King. In the 14th century, there was drought and famine in Amravati, so people abandoned Amravati and left for Gujrat, though some locals returned after several years, this resulted in a scanty population. In the 17th century, Magar Aurangpura was allotted for a Jama Masjid by Mughal Aurangzeb and this indicates the existence of a Muslim population. In 1722, Chhattrapati Shahu presented Amravati and Badnera to Ranoji Bhosle, the city was reconstructed and developed by Ranoji Bhosle after the treaty of Devgaon and Anjangaon Surji and victory over Gavilgad. The British general and author Wellesly camped in Amravati, the place is known as the camp. Amravati city was founded towards the end of the 18th century, the Union state of Nizam and Bhosle ruled Amravati. They appointed an officer but neglected defence. The Gavilgad fort was conquered by the British on 15 December 1803, under to the Deogaon treaty, Warhad was presented as a token of the friendship to the Nizam. Warhad was ruled by the Nizams thereafter, around 1805, the Pendharies attacked Amravati city. The Sahukars of Amravati saved Amravati by presenting seven lakh rupees to Chittu Pendhari, the Nizam ruled for a more than half century. From 1859 to 1871, many government buildings were constructed by the British, the Railway Station was constructed in 1859, the Commissioner Bungalow in 1860, the Small Causes Court in 1886, the Tahsil Office & the Main Post Office were built in 1871. The Central Jail, Collectors Office, the Rest House and Cotton Market were also built, during 1896, Dadasaheb Khaparde, Raghunath Narasinha Mudholkar, Sir Moropant Joshi, Pralhad Pant Jog were prominent men in Amravati
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Italianate architecture
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The Italianate style of architecture was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. The style of architecture that was created, though also characterised as Neo-Renaissance, was essentially of its own time. The Italianate style was first developed in Britain about 1802 by John Nash and this small country house is generally accepted to be the first Italianate villa in England, from which is derived the Italianate architecture of the late Regency and early Victorian eras. The Italianate style was developed and popularised by the architect Sir Charles Barry in the 1830s. Barrys Italianate style drew heavily for its motifs on the buildings of the Italian Renaissance, the style was not confined to England and was employed in varying forms, long after its decline in popularity in Britain, throughout Northern Europe and the British Empire. From the late 1840s to 1890 it achieved popularity in the United States. A late intimation of Nashs development of the Italianate style was his 1805 design of Sandridge Park at Stoke Gabriel in Devon. Later examples of the Italianate style in England tend to take the form of Palladian-style building often enhanced by a belvedere complete with Renaissance-type balustrading at the roof level. Sir Charles Barry, most notable for his works on the Tudor, unlike Nash he found his inspiration in Italy itself. Barry drew heavily on the designs of the original Renaissance villas of Rome, the Lazio and his most defining work in this style was the large Neo-Renaissance mansion Cliveden. Thomas Cubitt, a London building contractor, incorporated simple classical lines of the Italianate style as defined by Sir Charles Barry into many of his London terraces. Following the completion of Osborne House in 1851, the became a popular choice of design for the small mansions built by the new. These were mostly built in cities surrounded by large but not extensive gardens, on occasions very similar, if not identical, designs to these Italianate villas would be topped by mansard roofs, and then termed chateauesque. However, after a modest spate of Italianate villas, and French chateaux by 1855 the most favoured style of an English country house was Gothic, the Italianate style came to the small town of Newton Abbot in Devon, with Isambard Brunels atmospheric railway pumping houses. An example that is not very known, but a clear example of Italianate architecture, is St. Christophers Anglican church in Hinchley Wood, Surrey. When the Ottomans exiled Fakhreddine to Tuscany in 1613, he entered an alliance with the Medicis, upon his return to Lebanon in 1618, he began modernising Lebanon. He developed an industry, upgraded olive-oil production, and brought with him numerous Italian engineers who began the construction of mansions. The cities of Beirut and Sidon were especially built in the Italianate style, the influence of these buildings, such as the ones in Deir el Qamar, influenced building in Lebanon for many centuries and continues to the present time
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United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
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England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
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Shakespeare
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William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the worlds pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called Englands national poet, and the Bard of Avon and his extant works, including collaborations, consist of approximately 38 plays,154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright, Shakespeare was born and brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children, Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a career in London as an actor, writer. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, at age 49, Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories, which are regarded as some of the best work ever produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, in his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and it was prefaced with a poem by Ben Jonson, in which Shakespeare is hailed, presciently, as not of an age, but for all time. In the 20th and 21st centuries, his works have been adapted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship. His plays remain highly popular and are studied, performed. William Shakespeare was the son of John Shakespeare, an alderman and a successful glover originally from Snitterfield, and Mary Arden and he was born in Stratford-upon-Avon and baptised there on 26 April 1564. His actual date of birth unknown, but is traditionally observed on 23 April. This date, which can be traced back to an 18th-century scholars mistake, has proved appealing to biographers because Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616 and he was the third child of eight and the eldest surviving son. At the age of 18, Shakespeare married 26-year-old Anne Hathaway, the consistory court of the Diocese of Worcester issued a marriage licence on 27 November 1582. The next day, two of Hathaways neighbours posted bonds guaranteeing that no lawful claims impeded the marriage, twins, son Hamnet and daughter Judith, followed almost two years later and were baptised 2 February 1585. Hamnet died of unknown causes at the age of 11 and was buried 11 August 1596, after the birth of the twins, Shakespeare left few historical traces until he is mentioned as part of the London theatre scene in 1592. The exception is the appearance of his name in the bill of a law case before the Queens Bench court at Westminster dated Michaelmas Term 1588 and 9 October 1589
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Cuddalore Government Museum
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The Government Museum, Manjakuppam, Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu, India, was established in the year 1989. This museum collection represents history, culture, flora and fauna of the district, natural History specimens include South Indian Timbers, Fibres, Swan, Bear, Lizard and Snakes. Wood fossils and Ammonite fossils are also on display, in this sculpture garden Sivalinga, Nandhi, Vishnu, monkey sculptures, Narashima, Surya and Chandikeswara are displayed. The development of Tamil script, dinosaur model and a model of Kali sculpture made of Fibre glass are kept in the entrance of the building. The stone sculptures like Subramanya, Surya, Navanitha Krishna, Dakshinamurthi, Bhairava, Virabhadra, Bronze images of Ganesa, Vishnu, Nataraja, Somaskanda, Krishna are displayed in the Bronze Gallery. In the first floor Kattunaickkan tribal materials, stone age tools, musical instruments, Government Museum 19 Hospital Road Cuddalore –607001
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Government Museum, Pudukkottai
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This Government Museum is a museum located in the town of Pudukkottai of Pudukkottai District. This is the second largest museum of Tamil Nadu after Government Museum, the museum is divided into sections convering zoology, geology, paintings, anthropology, epigraphy. Rare ancient stone and Bronze sculptures are found here
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Government Museum, Tiruchirappalli
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Rani Mangamma Mahal was built by Chokkanatha Nayak, the then ruler of Madurai. It was also known as the Durbar Hall of the Madurai Nayaks when Tiruchirapally was their capital, from 1616 to 1634, the museum contains array of exhibits relating to geology, zoology, paintings, anthropology, epigraphy and history. This museum was established in 1983 by the State Department of Museums at Cantonment after Salem and Madurai and it was later moved to Rani Mangammal Darbar Hall during 1997, which is within Town Hall Complex. The museum is maintained by the Public Works Department, the museum has both indoor and outdoor exhibits of up to 2000 objects. The stone idols in the park forms the outdoor exhibits. The park opened on 17 April 2012 has about 45 Hindu sculptures of gods and goddesses dating 13th century to 18th century including sacrificial altar, stone nandhis, the museum also has an ecology section which houses a collection of rare insects, birds and mammals. It is open throughout the year
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Heritage structures in Chennai
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Chennai, with historically rich records dating from the British era, houses 2,467 heritage buildings within its metropolitan area, the highest within any Metropolitan Area limit in India. Most of these buildings are around 200 years old and older, some of them are Chennai Central, Chennai Egmore, Ripon Building, Bharat Insurance Building, and so forth. Chennai is home to the second largest collection of buildings in the country. The official list of buildings was compiled by the Justice E. Padmanabhan committee. Heritage buildings are defined as notified structures of historical, architectural, the heritage activism in the city began with the erstwhile Moore Market building fire in 1985. In 1997, the government initiated action to conserve heritage buildings. After the second plan for the city was approved by the government on 2 September 2008. A 17-member Heritage Commission was set up on May 2012 to maintain these structures, after a accident in Kalas Mahal. As per the Commissions mandate, heritage buildings that are listed will get incentives, such as exemption from payment of taxes, in 2012, a list of heritage buildings was released by the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority under the heritage conservation committees supervision. By February 2013, the CMDA is expected to clear the first list of 70 heritage buildings compiled by the HCC, of the structures/precincts that figure on the list,42 are government buildings and the remaining are private ones. Theosophical Society is one of the premises that are expected to get listed as a heritage structure. When a building is notified as a structure, the onus of repair. The structures will be categorised into three grades, namely, Grades I, II, and III, Grade I structures will be prime landmarks upon which no alterations will be permitted. Under Grade II, external changes on structures will be subject to scrutiny, buildings under Grade III may be changed for adaptive reuse with suitable internal and external changes
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Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority
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The Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority, formerly known as Madras Metropolitan Development Authority is the nodal planning agency within the Chennai Metropolitan Area. It is headquartered at Thaalamuthu Natarajan Building at Egmore, the MMDA was constituted as an ad hoc body in 1972 under the Tamil Nadu Town and Country Planning Act 1971. It was formed as the nodal Town planning authority for the city of Madras and its suburbs and it is headed by minister for housing as its chairman. In January 2013, CMDA was recognised as a centre by the Centre for Research. CHENNAI METROPOLITAN AREA - PROFILE Chennai, the city of Tamil Nadu is the fourth largest metropolitan city in India. The Chennai Metropolitan Area Chennai corporation limit comprises the city of Chennai,16 Municipalities,20 Town Panchayats and 214 Village Panchayats in 10 Panchayat Unions, the extent of CMA is 1189 km2. The setting of Chennai is presented in the figure, the CMDA falls in three districts of Tamil Nadu namely Chennai district, part of Thiruvallur district and part of Kancheepuram district. In Kancheepuram District out of 4433 km2,376 again fall under the CMA. in Tambaram, Sriperumbudur and Chengalpattu Taluks fall in the Metropolitan area. In Thiruvallur District out of district area of 3427 km2,637 km2 falls under the CMA. in Ambattur. Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority was constituted as a body in 1972 and become statutory body in 1974 vide the Tamil Nadu Town. It was established under the sub-section 1 of the section 9 –A of the Act and consists of the following members, hon’ble Minister for Housing and Urban Development Chairman 2. Vice- Chairman, CMDA Vice Chairman 3, secretary to Government H&UD Member 5. Commissioner, Corporation of Chennai Member 9, managing Director CMWSS Board Member 10. Director, Town & Country Planning Member 11, chief Urban Planner, CMDA Member 12. Chief Engineer, Highways & Rural Works Department Member 13, chief Architect to Government Member 14. Joint Director, Town & Country Planning Member 15, Chairman, Tamil Nadu Housing Board Member 16. Chairman Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board Member 17, Member of the State Legislative Assembly 2 Members 18. Representatives of Local Bodies in CMA4 Members 19, member-Secretary Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board Special Invitee FUNCTIONS The functions of the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority are, i
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Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
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History of Chennai
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Chennai, formerly known as Madras, is the capital of the state of Tamil Nadu and is Indias fourth largest city. It is located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal, with an estimated population of 8.9 million, the 400-year-old city is the 31st largest metropolitan area in the world. Chennai boasts of a history from the English East India Company, through the British Raj to its evolution in the late 20th century as a services. Additionally, the pre-city area of Chennai has a history within the records of South Indian Empires. Chennai, originally known as Madraspatnam was located in the province of Tondaimandalam, the capital of the province was Kancheepuram. Tondaimandalam was ruled in the 2nd century by Tondaiman Ilam Tiraiyan and it is believed that Ilam Tiraiyan must have subdued the Kurumbas, the original inhabitants of the region and established his rule over Tondaimandalam. The Chola occupation of Tondaimandalam was put to an end by the Andhra Satavahana incursions from the north under their King Pulumayi II and they appointed chieftains to look after the Kanchipuram region. Bappaswami, who is considered as the ruler to rule from Kanchipuram, was himself a chieftain at Kanchipuram under the Satavahana empire in the beginning of the 3rd century, the Pallavas who had so far been merely viceroys, then became independent rulers of Kanchipuram and its surrounding areas. The Pallavas held sway over this region from the beginning of the 3rd century to the years of the 9th century. The Pallavas were defeated by the Cholas under Aditya I by about 879, the Pandyas under Jatavarman Sundara Pandyan rose to power and the region was brought under the Pandya rule by putting an end to Chola supremacy in 1264. The present day city of Chennai started as an English settlement known as Fort St. George, the region was then a part of Vijayanagara Empire, then headquartered at Chandragiri in present-day Andhra Pradesh. The Vijayanagar rulers who controlled the area, appointed chieftains known as Nayaks who ruled over the different regions of the province almost independently, the region was under the control of the Damerla Venkatadri Nayakudu, a Padma Velama Nayak chieftain of Srikalahasti and Vandavasi. On this piece of land was founded Fort St. George, a fortified settlement of British merchants, factory workers. Upon this settlement the English expanded their colony to include a number of other European communities, new British settlements and it in honor of the later village upon which the British named the entire colony and the combined city Madras. Controversially, in an attempt to revise history and justify renaming the city as Chennai, however, it is widely recorded that while the official centre of the present settlement was designated Fort St. Thiruvotriyur is historically important port city, now forms part of north chennai. Modern Chennai had its origins as a city and its initial growth was closely tied to its importance as an artificial harbour. When the Portuguese arrived in 1522, they built a port and named it São Tomé, after the Christian apostle St. Thomas, the region then passed into the hands of the Dutch, who established themselves near Pulicat just north of the city in 1612. By 1612, the Dutch established themselves in Pulicat to the north, in the 17th century when the English East India Company decided to build a factory on the east coast and in 1626 selected as its site Armagon, a village some 35 miles north of Pulicat
41.
Sangam period
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Sangam period is the period in the history of ancient Tamil Nadu spanning from c. 4th century BC to c. It is named after the famous Sangam academies of poets and scholars centered in the city of Madurai, according to Tamil legends, there were three Sangam periods, namely Head Sangam, Middle Sangam and Last Sangam period. Historians use the term Sangam period to refer the last of these, so it is also called Last Sangam period, or Third Sangam period. The Sangam literature is thought to have produced in three Sangam academies of each period. The evidence on the history of the Tamil kingdoms consists of the epigraphs of the region, the Sangam literature. Approximately during the period between 400 BC to AD200, Tamilakam was ruled by the three Tamil dynasties of Pandya, Chola and Chera, and a few independent chieftains, the Velir. There is a wealth of sources detailing the history, socio-political environment and cultural practices of ancient Tamilakam, including volumes of literature, tamilakams history is split into three periods, prehistoric, classical and medieval. A vast array of literary, epigraphical and inscribed sources from around the world provide insight into the socio-political and cultural occurrences in the Tamil nation. The religion of the ancient Tamils closely follow roots of nature worship, in the ancient Sangam literature, Sivan was the supreme God, and Murugan was the one celebrated by the masses, both of them were sung as deified Tamil poets ascending the Koodal academy. The Tamil landscape was classified into five categories, thinais, based on the mood, the season, other ancient works refer to Maayon and Vaali. The most popular deity was Murugan, who has from an early date been identified with Karthikeya. Kannagi, the heroine of the Silappatikaram, was worshiped as Pathini by many Tamils, there were also many temples and devotees of Thirumaal, Siva, Ganapathi, and the other common Hindu deities. The year was made up of twelve months and every two months constituted a season, with the popularity of Mazhai vizhavu, traditionally commencement of Tamil year was clubbed on April 14, deviating from the astronomical date of vadavazhi vizhavu. Pongal, பொங்கல் the festival of harvest and spring, thanking Lord Indiran and Lord El and this day comes on April 14/15. Mazhai Vizhavu, aka Indhira Vizha, the festival for want of rain, celebrated for one month starting from the full moon in Ootrai சித்திரை. It is epitomised in the epic Cilapatikaram in detail, soornavai Vizha, the slaying of legendary Kadamba Asura king Surabadma, by Lord, comes on the sixth day after new moon in Itrai. It is sung about in Thirumurugatrupadai and Purananuru anthology, vaadai Vizha or Vadavazhi Vizha, the festival of welcoming the Lord Surya back to home, as He turns northward, celebrated on December 21/22. It is sung about in Akanauru anthology, aathi Irai min means the star of the God on the Bull
42.
Thomas the Apostle
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Thomas the Apostle was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ, according to the New Testament. He is informally called doubting Thomas because he doubted Jesus resurrection when first told, followed later by his confession of faith, My Lord and my God, on seeing Jesus wounded body. According to undocumented traditions, the Apostle reached Muziris, in AD52 and baptized several people, after his death, the reputed relics of Saint Thomas the Apostle were enshrined as far as Mesopotamia in the 3rd century, and later moved to various places. In 1258, some of the relics were brought to Abruzzo in Ortona, Italy and he is often regarded as the Patron Saint of India, and the name Thoma remains quite popular among Saint Thomas Christians of India. Today scholars say the legends are no more possible for there is no written claim before centuries later. Thomas first speaks in the Gospel of John, in John 11,16, when Lazarus had recently died, the apostles do not wish to go back to Judea, where some Jews had attempted to stone Jesus. Thomas says, Let us also go, that we may die with him and he speaks again in John 14,5. There, Jesus had just explained that he was going away to prepare a heavenly home for his followers, Thomas reacted by saying, Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way. But when Jesus appeared later and invited Thomas to touch his wounds and behold him, Thomas showed his belief by saying, My Lord and my God. Jesus then said, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed, blessed they that have not seen, and have believed. The name Thomas given for the apostle in the New Testament is derived from the Aramaic or Syriac, ܬܐܘܡܐ Toma, equivalently from Hebrew Teom, the equivalent term for twin in Greek, which is also used in the New Testament, is Δίδυμος Didymus. The Nag Hammadi copy of the Gospel of Thomas begins, These are the sayings that the living Jesus spoke. Early Syrian traditions also relate the apostles full name as Judas Thomas, some have seen in the Acts of Thomas an identification of Saint Thomas with the apostle Judas, brother of James, better known in English as Jude. However, the first sentence of the Acts follows the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles in distinguishing the apostle Thomas, when the feast of Saint Thomas was inserted in the Roman calendar in the 9th century, it was assigned to 21 December. 3 July was the day on which his relics were translated from Mylapore, traditionalist Roman Catholics and many Anglicans, still celebrate his feast day on 21 December. However, most modern liturgical calendars prefer 3 July, the Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic churches celebrate his feast day on 6 October. Thomas is commemorated in common with all of the apostles on 30 June. He is also associated with the Arabian icon of the Theotokos, the Malankara Orthodox church celebrates his feast on three days,3 July,18 December, and 21 December
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Pallava dynasty
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The Pallava dynasty was a South Indian dynasty that existed from 275 CE to 897 CE, ruling a portion of what is today southern India. They gained prominence after the eclipse of the Satavahana dynasty, whom the Pallavas served as feudatories, Pallavas are most noted for their patronage of architecture, the finest example being the Shore Temple, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Mahabalipuram. The Pallavas, who left behind magnificent sculptures and temples, established the foundations of medieval South Indian architecture and they developed the Pallava script from which Grantha ultimately descended. The Pallava script gave rise to other southeast Asian scripts. Chinese traveller Hiuen Tsang visited Kanchipuram during Pallava rule and extolled their benign rule, the Pallavas themselves claimed to descend from Brahma and Ashvatthama. Though Manimekalai posits Ilam Tiriyan as a Chola, not a Pallava, thence, came into existence the race of Pallavas. Vīrakūrcha, of celebrated name, who simultaneously with the daughter of the chief of serpents grasped also the insignia of royalty. The Proceedings of the First Annual Conference of South Indian History Congress also notes, The word Tondai means a creeper, historian K. R. Subramanian says the Pallavas were originally a Telugu power rather than a Tamil one. Telugu sources know of a Trilochana Pallava as the earliest Telugu king, the first Chalukya king is said to have been met, repulsed and killed by the same Trilochana near Mudivemu. A Buddhist story describes Kala the Nagaraja, resembling the Pallava Kalabhartar as a king of the region near Krishna district, the Pallava Bogga may be identified with the kingdom of Kala in Andhra which had close and early maritime and cultural relations with Ceylon. K. A. K. P. Jayaswal also proposed a North Indian origin, the Pallavas captured Kanchi from the Cholas as recorded in the Velurpalaiyam Plates, around the reign of the fifth king of the Pallava line Kumaravishnu I. Thereafter Kanchi figures in inscriptions as the capital of the Pallavas, the Cholas drove the Pallavas away from Kanchi in the mid-4th century, in the reign of Vishugopa, the tenth king of the Pallava line. The Pallavas re-captured Kanchi in the century, possibly in the reign of Simhavishnu, the fourteenth king of the Pallava line. Thereafter the Pallavas held on to Kanchi until the 9th century, until the reign of their last king, the Pallavas were in conflict with major kingdoms at various periods of time. A contest for political supremacy existed between the early Pallavas and the Kadambas, numerous Kadamba inscriptions provide details of Pallava-Kadamba hostlities. During the reign of Vishnugopavarman II, political convulsion engulfed the Pallavas due to the Kalabhra invasion of the Tamil country, towards the close of the 6th century, the Pallava Simhavishnu stuck a blow against the Kalabhras. Thereafter the Tamil country was divided between the Pallavas in the north with Kanchipuram as their capital, and Pandyas in the south with Madurai as their capital, the royal custom of using a series of descriptive honorific titles, Birudas, was particularly prevalent among the Pallavas. The birudas of Mahendravarman I are in Sanskrit, Tamil and Telugu, the Telugu birudas show Mahendravarmans involvement with the Andhra region continued to be strong at the time he was creating his cave-temples in the Tamil region
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Chola dynasty
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The Chola dynasty was one of the longest-ruling dynasties in the history of southern India. The earliest datable references to this Tamil dynasty are in inscriptions from the 3rd century BCE left by Ashoka, as one of the Three Crowned Kings of Tamilakam, the dynasty continued to govern over varying territory until the 13th century CE. The whole country south of the Tungabhadra was united and held as one state for a period of two centuries and more, the Chola fleet represented the zenith of ancient Indian sea power. During the period 1010–1200, the Chola territories stretched from the islands of the Maldives in the south to as far north as the banks of the Godavari River in Andhra Pradesh. Rajaraja Chola conquered peninsular South India, annexed parts of which is now Sri Lanka, Rajendra Chola sent a victorious expedition to North India that touched the river Ganges and defeated the Pala ruler of Pataliputra, Mahipala. He also successfully invaded cities of Srivijaya of Malaysia and Indonesia, the Chola dynasty went into decline at the beginning of the 13th century with the rise of the Pandyan Dynasty, which ultimately caused their downfall. The Cholas left a lasting legacy and their patronage of Tamil literature and their zeal in the building of temples has resulted in some great works of Tamil literature and architecture. The Chola kings were avid builders and envisioned the temples in their kingdoms not only as places of worship and they pioneered a centralised form of government and established a disciplined bureaucracy. The Chola school of art spread to Southeast Asia and influenced the architecture, the Cholas are also known as the Choda. There is very little available in regarding their origin. Its antiquity is evident from the mentions in ancient Tamil literature, Later medieval Cholas also claimed a long and ancient lineage. Mentions in the early Sangam literature indicate that the earliest kings of the dynasty antedated 100 CE, Cholas were mentioned in Ashokan Edicts of 3rd Century BCE as one of the neighboring countries existing in the South. A commonly held view is that Chola is, like Chera and Pandya, the annotator Parimelazhagar said, The charity of people with ancient lineage are forever generous in spite of their reduced means. Other names in use for the Cholas are Killi, Valavan and Sembiyan. Killi perhaps comes from the Tamil kil meaning dig or cleave and this word often forms an integral part of early Chola names like Nedunkilli, Nalankilli and so on, but almost drops out of use in later times. Valavan is most probably connected with valam – fertility and means owner or ruler of a fertile country, in Tamil lexicon Chola means Soazhi or Saei denoting a newly formed kingdom, in the lines of Pandya or the old country. There is very little evidence available of the Cholas prior to the 7th century. Historic records exist thereafter, including inscriptions on temples, the main source for the available information of the early Cholas is the early Tamil literature of the Sangam Period
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Vijayanagara Empire
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The Vijayanagara Empire was based in the Deccan Plateau region in South India. It was established in 1336 by Harihara I and his brother Bukka Raya I of Sangama Dynasty, the empire rose to prominence as a culmination of attempts by the southern powers to ward off Islamic invasions by the end of the 13th century. It lasted until 1646, although its power declined after a military defeat in 1565 by the Deccan sultanates. The empire is named after its city of Vijayanagara, whose ruins surround present day Hampi, now a World Heritage Site in Karnataka. The writings of medieval European travelers such as Domingo Paes, Fernão Nunes, and Niccolò Da Conti, Archaeological excavations at Vijayanagara have revealed the empires power and wealth. The empires legacy includes many monuments spread over South India, the best known of which is the group at Hampi, the previous temple building traditions in South India came together in the Vijayanagara Architecture style. The mingling of all faiths and vernaculars inspired architectural innovation of Hindu temple construction, first in the Deccan, efficient administration and vigorous overseas trade brought new technologies such as water management systems for irrigation. The empires patronage enabled fine arts and literature to new heights in Kannada, Telugu, Tamil. The Vijayanagara Empire created an epoch in South Indian history that transcended regionalism by promoting Hinduism as a unifying factor, differing theories have been proposed regarding the origins of the Vijayanagara empire. Others claim that they were Telugu people, first associated with the Kakatiya Kingdom, irrespective of their origin, historians agree the founders were supported and inspired by Vidyaranya, a saint at the Sringeri monastery to fight the Muslim invasion of South India. He created the Kampili kingdom, but this was a short lived kingdom during this period of wars, Kampili existed near Gulbarga and Tungabhadra river in northeastern parts of the present-day Karnataka state. It ended after a defeat by the armies of Delhi Sultanate, the triumphant army led by Malik Zada sent the news of its victory, over Kampili kingdom, to Muhammad bin Tughluq in Delhi by sending a straw-stuffed severed head of the dead Hindu king. Within Kampili, on the day of certain defeat, the populace committed a jauhar in 1327/28 CE, eight years later, from the ruins of the Kampili kingdom emerged the Vijayanagara Kingdom in 1336 CE. In the first two decades after the founding of the empire, Harihara I gained control over most of the south of the Tungabhadra river. The original capital was in the principality of Anegondi on the banks of the Tungabhadra River in todays Karnataka. The next ruler, Deva Raya I, emerged successful against the Gajapatis of Odisha, italian traveler Niccolo de Conti wrote of him as the most powerful ruler of India. Deva Raya II succeeded to the throne in 1424 and was possibly the most capable of the Sangama dynasty rulers and he quelled rebelling feudal lords as well as the Zamorin of Calicut and Quilon in the south. He invaded the island of Lanka and became overlord of the kings of Burma at Pegu, the Sultanate invaded Vijayanagara in 1417 when the latter defaulted in paying the tribute
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Chandragiri
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Chandragiri is a village in Chittoor district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is the headquarters of Chandragiri mandal in Tirupati revenue division. It also falls in the limit of Tirupati Urban Development Authority. Chandragiri is now famous for the fort, built in the 11th century. The fort encircles eight ruined temples of saivite and vaishnavite pantheons, Raja Mahal, Rani Mahal, the Raja Mahal Palace is now an archaeological museum. The fort and palace are in the care of the Archaeological Survey of India, the palace is open to the public, but the fort is closed. The palace is an example of Indo-Sarcen architecture of Vijayanagar period. The palace was constructed using stone, brick, lime mortar, the crowning towers represents the Hindu architectural elements. Chandragiri was under the rule of Vijayanagar from 1367 and it came into prominence during Saluva Narasimha Rayalu. Chandragiri was the 4th capital of Vijayanagar Empire, rayas shifted their capital to here when Golconda sultans attacked Penukonda. In 1646, the fort was annexed to the Golkonda territory and it went into oblivion from 1792 onward
