1.
Naminatha
Naminatha was the twenty-first tirthankara of the present half time cycle, Avsarpini. He was born to the King Vijaya and Queen Vipra of the Ikshvaku dynasty, King Vijaya was the ruler of Mithila at that time. When Naminatha was in his mothers womb, Mihila was attacked by a group of powerful kings, the aura of Naminatha forced all the kings to surrender to King Vijaya. Naminatha was born on the 8th day of Shravan Krishna of the lunisolar Jain calendar and he attained Kevala Jnana under a Bakula tree. He had 17 Ganadhara, Suprabha being the leader, according to Jain tradition, he liberated his soul by destroying all of his karma and attained Moksha from Sammed Shikhar nearly 50,000 years before Neminatha
2.
Suparshvanatha
Suparśvanātha was the seventh Jain Tīrthankara of the present age. He was born to King Pratistha and Queen Prithvi at Varanasi on 12 Jestha Shukla in the Ikshvaku clan and he is said to have attained moksha at Śikharji on the sixth day of the dark half of the month of Phālguna. Suparśvanātha was the seventh Jain Tīrthankara of the present age and he was born to King Pratistha and Queen Prithvi at Varanasi on 12 Jestha Shukla in the Ikshvaku clan. He is said to have attained moksha at Śikharji on the day of the dark half of the month of Phālguna. Nine months before the birth of Suparśvanātha, Queen Prithivī dreamt the sixteen most auspicious dreams, Suparśvanātha spent 5 lakh pūrva as youth and ruled His kingdom for 14 lakh pūrva and 20 pūrvāṇga. The Yajurveda is said to have mentioned the name of Suparśvanātha and it is an epithet of God which means All-Pure Lord. The Mahavagga book of the Khandhaka, a Buddhist text, mentions a temple of Suparśvanātha situated at Rajgir in the time of Gautama Buddha, at Mathura, there is an old stupa with the inscription of 157 CE.
This inscription records that an image of the tīrthankara Aranatha was set up at the built by the gods. Svayambhūstotra by Acharya Samantabhadra is the adoration of twenty-four Tīrthankaras and its five slokas are dedicated to Tīrthankara Suparśvanātha. As an inanimate equipment requires an animate being for its operation, so does the body, the body is repugnant, foul-smelling, and a source of anxiety and, therefore, it is futile to have attachment towards it. O Lord Suparśvanātha, this is your benign precept, suparshvanatha is associated with Nandyavartha & Svastika emblem, Sirisa tree, Varanandin & Matanga Yaksha and Kali & Santa Yakshi
3.
Naigamesha
Naigamesha, known as Harinegameshi, is a goat-headed or deer-headed deity, associated with children. He appears in Jain as well as Hindu traditions, associated with the war-god Kartikeya, Naigamesha is known by a variety of names, Nemesha, Negamesi, Harinegameshi. The last is translated as Negamesi, the general of Hari, another interpretation says that it is derived from harina and mesha. Naigamesha is the benefactor and protector of children in Jainism, while the Greek satyr Pan is depicted with the lower body of a goat, Naigamesha has a goat head, in both cultures, the goat denotes fertility. He is worshipped to beget children, other texts portray Satyabhama praying to the deity. In Hinduism, Naigamesha is associated with Kartikeya, the god of war, Naigamesha is an epithet and a form of Kartikeya, where he is generally depicted goat-headed. In other instances, Naigamesha is described as the son or brother of the war god, Hindu texts like the Brahmanas, the Grihya sutras and medicinal texts mention a similar deity with a ram head.
As a fearsome follower of Kartikeya, Naigamesha was feared and worshipped to ward off evil, later, he evolved into the patron of childbirth. Depictions of Naigamesha are rare and are confined to North India. They are many depictions of the deity found in the region around Mathura, terracotta figurines of Naigamesha from 2nd century BCE to 4th century CE are been discovered. In a 1st–3rd century depiction from Kankali Tila near Mathura, Naigamesha is depicted with a head and short, backward turning horns. Another sculpture from the 10th–13th century depicts him in the company of Hindu deities, the group of seven Hindu mother-goddesses, the Saptamatrika – who are associated with children – are surrounded by their usual companions Shiva and Ganesha as well as Naigamesha. The goat-features mirror the earlier depiction, besides his goat-head, Naigamesha may be shown having a deer head and may be depicted transferring the embryo of Mahavira in narrative panels. He is depicted as seated on a throne, flanked by children on his lap or shoulders, female attendants or a goat-headed woman sometimes accompany the god.
Alexandra Anna Enrica van der Geer, animals in Stone, Indian Mammals Sculptured Through Time
4.
Kanishka
Kanishka I, or Kanishka the Great, was the emperor of the Kushan dynasty in the second century. He is famous for his military and spiritual achievements, a descendant of Kushan empire founder Kujula Kadphises, Kanishka came to rule an empire in Bactria extending from Turfan in the Tarim Basin to Pataliputra on the Gangetic plain. The main capital of his empire was located at Puruṣapura in Gandhara and his conquests and patronage of Buddhism played an important role in the development of the Silk Road, and the transmission of Mahayana Buddhism from Gandhara across the Karakoram range to China. Earlier scholars believed that Kanishka ascended the throne in 78 CE, this date is not now regarded as the historical date of Kanishkas accession. Kanishka is estimated to have accessed to the throne in AD127 by Falk, Kanishka was a Kushan of probable Yuezhi ethnicity. However, this was adopted by the Kushans to facilitate communication with local subjects. It is not certain, what language the Kushan elite spoke among themselves, Kanishka was the successor of Vima Kadphises, as demonstrated by an impressive genealogy of the Kushan kings, known as the Rabatak inscription.
Knowledge of his hold over Central Asia is less well established. The Book of the Later Han, Hou Hanshu, states that general Ban Chao fought battles near Khotan with a Kushan army of 70,000 men led by an otherwise unknown Kushan viceroy named Xie in 90 AD. Though Ban Chao claimed to be victorious, forcing the Kushans to retreat by use of a scorched-earth policy, the region fell to Kushan forces in the early 2nd century. As a result, for a period the territory of the Kushans extended for a period as far as Kashgar and Yarkand. Several coins of Kanishka have been found in the Tarim Basin, controlling both the land and sea trade routes between South Asia and Rome seems to have been one of Kanishkas chief imperial goals. Kanishkas coins portray images of Indian, Greek and even Sumero-Elamite divinities, Kanishkas coins from the beginning of his reign bear legends in Greek language and script and depict Greek divinities. Later coins bear legends in Bactrian, the Iranian language that the Kushans evidently spoke, and Greek divinities were replaced by corresponding Iranian ones.
All of Kanishkas coins – even ones with a legend in the Bactrian language – were written in a modified Greek script that had one additional glyph to represent /š/, as in the word Kushan and Kanishka. On his coins, the king is depicted as a bearded man in a long coat and trousers gathered at the ankle. He wears large rounded boots, and is armed with a sword similar to a scimitar as well as a lance. He is frequently seen to be making a sacrifice on a small altar, a few coins at the beginning of his reign have a legend in the Greek language and script, ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΝ ΚΑΝΗϷΚΟΥ, basileus basileon kaneshkou of Kanishka, king of kings
5.
Kushan Empire
The Kushan Empire was a syncretic empire, formed by Yuezhi, in the Bactrian territories in the early 1st century. Emperor Kanishka was a patron of Buddhism, however, as Kushans expanded southward. The Kushans were one of five branches of the Yuezhi confederation, the Kushans possibly used the Greek language initially for administrative purposes, but soon began to use Bactrian language. Kanishka sent his armies north of the Karakoram mountains, capturing territories as far as Kashgar and Yarkant, in the Tarim Basin of modern-day Xinjiang, China. A direct road from Gandhara to China remained under Kushan control for more than a century, encouraging travel across the Karakoram, the Kushan dynasty had diplomatic contacts with the Roman Empire, Sasanian Persia, Aksumite Empire and Han China. The Kushan empire fragmented into semi-independent kingdoms in the 3rd century AD, in the 4th century, the Guptas, an Indian dynasty pressed from the east. The last of the Kushan and Sasanian kingdoms were overwhelmed by invaders from the north.
Historian H. G. Rawlinson states that the Kushana Period is a prelude to the age of Guptas. Chinese sources describe the Guishuang, i. e, as the historian John E. Hill has put it, For well over a century. There have been arguments about the ethnic and linguistic origins of the Da Yuezhi and the Tochari. The five tribes constituting the Yuezhi are known in Chinese history as Xiūmì, Guìshuāng, Shuāngmǐ, Xìdùn, the Yuezhi reached the Hellenic kingdom of Greco-Bactria around 135 BC. The displaced Greek dynasties resettled to the southeast in areas of the Hindu Kush, some traces remain of the presence of the Kushans in the area of Bactria and Sogdiana. Archaeological structures are known in Takht-I-Sangin, Surkh Kotal, and in the palace of Khalchayan, various sculptures and friezes are known, representing horse-riding archers, and significantly men with artificially deformed skulls, such as the Kushan prince of Khalchayan. The Chinese first referred to people as the Yuezhi and said they established the Kushan Empire.
On the ruins of ancient Hellenistic cities such as Ai-Khanoum, the Kushans are known to have built fortresses, the earliest documented ruler, and the first one to proclaim himself as a Kushan ruler, was Heraios. He calls himself a tyrant on his coins, and exhibits skull deformation and he may have been an ally of the Greeks, and he shared the same style of coinage. Heraios may have been the father of the first Kushan emperor Kujula Kadphises, Ban Gus Book of Han tells us the Kushans divided up Bactria in 128 BC. He invaded Anxi, and took the Gaofu region and he defeated the whole of the kingdoms of Puda and Jibin
6.
Odisha
Odisha (/ɒˈrɪsə, ɔː-, oʊ-/, is one of the 29 states of India, located in the eastern coast. It is surrounded by the states of West Bengal to the north-east, Jharkhand to the north, Chhattisgarh to the west and north-west, Odisha has 485 kilometres of coastline along the Bay of Bengal on its east, from Balasore to Malkangiri. It is the 9th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population and it is the 3rd most populous state of India in terms of tribal population. Odia is the official and most widely spoken language, spoken by 33.2 million according to the 2001 Census. The ancient kingdom of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Mauryan emperor Ashoka in 261 BCE resulting in the Kalinga War, the modern state of Orissa was established on 1 April 1936, as a province in British India, and consisted predominantly of Odia-speaking regions. April 1 is celebrated as Odisha Day, the region is known as Utkala and is mentioned in Indias national anthem, Jana Gana Mana. Cuttack was made the capital of the region by Anantavarman Chodaganga in c,1135, after which the city was used as the capital by many rulers, through the British era until 1948.
Thereafter, Bhubaneswar became the capital of Odisha, the term Odisha is derived from the ancient Prakrit word Odda Visaya as in the Tirumalai inscription of Rajendra Chola I, which is dated to 1025. Sarala Das, who translated the Mahabharata into the Odia language in the 15th century, calls the region Odra Rashtra, the inscriptions of Kapilendra Deva of the Gajapati Kingdom on the walls of temples in Puri call the region Odisha or Odisha Rajya. After a brief debate, the house, Lok Sabha, passed the bill. On 24 March 2011, Rajya Sabha, the house of Parliament, passed the bill. Prehistoric Acheulian tools dating to Lower Paleolithic era have been discovered in places in the region. Kalinga has been mentioned in ancient texts like Mahabharata, Vayu Purana, the Sabar people of Odisha have been mentioned in the Mahabharata. Baudhayana mentions Kalinga as not yet being influenced by Vedic traditions, Ashoka of the Mauryan dynasty conquered Kalinga in the bloody Kalinga War in 261 BCE, which was the eighth year of his reign.
According to his own edicts, in that war about 100,000 people were killed,150,000 were captured, the resulting bloodshed and suffering of the war is said to have deeply affected Ashoka. He turned into a pacifist and converted to Buddhism, by c.150 CE, emperor Kharavela, who was possibly a contemporary of Demetrius I of Bactria, conquered a major part of the Indian sub-continent. He built the monastery atop the Udayagiri hill, the region was ruled by monarchs, such as Samudragupta and Shashanka. It was a part of Harshas empire, the kings of the Somavamsi dynasty began to unite the region
7.
India
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 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 peninsular Middle Kingdoms influenced cultures as far as southeast Asia. In the medieval era, Zoroastrianism 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, 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 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 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 and its meaning varied, referring to a region that encompassed northern India and Pakistan or India in its entirety
8.
Rishabhanatha
Rishabhanatha Ṛṣabhadeva, Rishabhadeva, or Ṛṣabha is the first Tirthankara of the present half cycle of time in Jainism. The word Tīrthankara signifies the founder of a tirtha which means a fordable passage across a sea, the Tirthankara shows the fordable path across the sea of interminable births and deaths. Rishabhanatha is known as Ādinātha which translates into First Lord and he was born to King Nabhi and Queen Marudevi in Ayodhya. He is associated with his Bull emblem, the Nyagrodha tree, Gomukha Yaksha and he had two wives and Sumangala. Sumangala was the mother of sons and one daughter, Brahmi. Sunanda was the mother of Bahubali and Sundari, the sudden fatal death of Nilanjana, one of the dancers of Indra, reminded him of the worlds transitory nature and he developed a desire for renunciation. After being initiated as a Digambara monk, he is said to have wandered without food for a whole year, the day on which he got his first ahara, is celebrated as Akshaya Tritiya by Jains. He is said to have attained Moksha from Mount Kailash, adi Purana contains the information over legends related to Rishabhanatha.
His colossal statues include Statue of Ahimsa and those erected in Gopachal hill, Jain cosmology divides the Worldly Time cycle into two halves with six aras in each half. Twenty-four Tirthankaras grace this part of the universe in the period, known as duşamā-suşamā. The present half cycle being a case, the first tīrthaṅkara was born at the end of the third period itself. This cycle will start reversing at the onset of utsarpinī kāl with the Dukhama-dukhamā being the first period, according to Jain texts, Rishabhanatha was born in the age when there was happiness all around with no work for men to do. Gradually as the cycle moved, and Kalpavriksha disappeared, people rushed to their King for help, Rishabhanatha is said to have taught the men six main professions. These were, Masi, Vidya, Vanijya, in other words, he is credited with introducing karma-bhumi by teaching these professions to householders to enable them to earn a livelihood. The institution of marriage is said to have come into existence after he married to set an example for humans to follow.
In total, Rishabhanatha is said to have taught seventy-two sciences which include, the plastic and visual arts, Jain chronology places the date of Rishabhanatha at an almost immeasurable antiquity in the past. Rishabhanatha is said to be the founder of Jainism in the present half cycle, there is no doubt that Jainism prevailed even before Vardhamāna or Pārśvanātha. The Yajurveda mentions the name of three Tīrthaṅkaras - Ṛṣabha, Ajitnātha and Ariṣṭanemi, the Bhāgavata Purāṇa endorses the view that Ṛṣabha was the founder of Jainism
9.
Mathura
Mathura is a city in the North Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is located approximately 50 kilometres north of Agra, and 145 kilometres south-east of Delhi, about 11 kilometres from the town of Vrindavan and it is the administrative centre of Mathura District of Uttar Pradesh. During the ancient period, Mathura was a hub, located at the junction of important caravan routes. The 2011 census of India estimated the population of Mathura to be 441,894, Mathura is believed to be the birthplace of Krishna which is located at the centre of Braj or Brij-bhoomi, called Shri Krishna Janma-Bhoomi, Lord Krishnas birthplace. It is one of the seven cities considered holy by Hindus, the Keshav Dev Temple was built in ancient times on the site of Krishnas birthplace. Mathura was the capital of the Surasena Kingdom, ruled by Kansa the maternal uncle of Krishna, Mathura has been chosen as one of the heritage cities for HRIDAY - Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana scheme of Government of India.
Mathura has an ancient history and homeland and birthplace of Krishna who was born in Yadu dynasty, according to the Archaeological Survey of India plaque at the Mathura Museum, the city is mentioned in the oldest Indian epic, the Ramayana. In the epic, the Ikshwaku prince Shatrughna slays a demon called Lavanasura, the place came to be known as Madhuvan as it was thickly wooded and Mathura. In the 6th century BCE Mathura became the capital of the Surasena mahajanapada, the city was ruled by the Maurya empire. Megasthenes, writing in the early 3rd century BCE, mentions Mathura as a city under the name Μέθορα. It seems it never was under the control of the following Shunga dynasty as not a single archaeological remain of a Shunga presence were ever found in Mathura. However, this corresponds to the presence of the native Mitra dynasty, in Mathura. After a period of rule, Mathura was conquered by the Indo-Scythians during the 1st century BCE. The Indo-Scythian satraps of Mathura are sometimes called the Northern Satraps, as opposed to the Western Satraps ruling in Gujarat, mathuran art and culture reached its zenith under the Kushan dynasty which had Mathura as one of their capitals, the other being Purushapura.
The city was sacked and many of its temples destroyed by Mahmud of Ghazni in 1018 CE and again by Sikandar Lodhi, sikander Lodhi earned the epithet of Butt Shikan, the Destroyer of Hindu deities. The Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, built the Shahi-Eidgah Mosque during his rule, in 2016,24 people including 2 police officers were killed in the Jawahar Bagh clash, when the police tried to evict a large number of squatters from the public park. Mathura is located at 27. 28°N77. 41°E /27.28,77.41 and it has an average elevation of 174 metres. The 2011 census of India estimates the population of Mathura to be 441,894, males account for 54% and females for 46% of this population
10.
Greco-Buddhist art
It is a strong example of cultural syncretism between eastern and western traditions. The influence of Greco-Buddhist art spread northward towards Central Asia, strongly affecting the art of the Tarim Basin, and ultimately the arts of China and Japan. The clearest examples of Hellenistic art are found in the coins of the Greco-Bactrian kings of the period, fortified Greek cities, such as Sirkap in northern Pakistan, were established. Architectural styles used Hellenistic decorative motifs such as fruit garland and scrolls, stone palettes for aromatic oils representing purely Hellenistic themes such as a Nereid riding a Ketos sea monster are found. In Hadda, Hellenistic deities, such as Atlas are found, wind gods are depicted, which will affect the representation of wind deities as far as Japan. Dionysiac scenes represent people in Classical style drinking wine from amphoras and this artistic trend developed for several centuries and seemed to flourish further during the Kushan Empire from the 1st century AD.
Greco-Buddhist art depicts the life of the Buddha in a manner, probably by incorporating the real-life models. The Bodhisattvas are depicted as bare-chested and jewelled Indian princes, the buildings in which they are depicted incorporate Greek style, with the ubiquitous Indo-Corinthian capitals and Greek decorative scrolls. Surrounding deities form a pantheon of Greek and Indian gods, stucco as well as stone was widely used by sculptors in Gandhara for the decoration of monastic and cult buildings. Stucco provided the artist with a medium of great plasticity, enabling a high degree of expressiveness to be given to the sculpture, sculpting in stucco was popular wherever Buddhism spread from Gandhara - India, Central Asia and China. It lost this sophisticated realism, becoming progressively more symbolic, the style is Greek, adorned with Corinthian columns in excellent Hellenistic execution. Later in Hadda, the Greek divinity Atlas is represented holding Buddhist monuments with decorated Greek columns, the motif was adopted extensively throughout the Indian sub-continent, Atlas being substituted for the Indian Yaksa in the monuments of the Shunga Empire around the 2nd century BC.
Sometime between the 2nd century BC and the 1st century AD, the first anthropomorphic representations of the Buddha were developed. These were absent from earlier strata of Buddhist art, which preferred to represent the Buddha with symbols such as the stupa, the Bodhi tree, the empty seat, the wheel, or the footprints. But the innovative anthropomorphic Buddha image immediately reached a high level of sculptural sophistication. Most of the images of the Buddha are anepigraphic, which makes it difficult to have a definite dating. The next Greco-Buddhist findings to be strictly datable are rather late, AD120 Kanishka casket and Kanishkas Buddhist coins. These works at least indicate though that the representation of the Buddha was already extant in the 1st century AD
11.
Mathura district
Mathura district situated along the banks of the river Yamuna is a district of Uttar Pradesh state of northern India. The historic town of Mathura is the district headquarters, the District is part of Agra division. Mathura is bounded on the northeast by Aligarh District, on the southeast by Hathras District, on the south by Agra District, Mathura district is an important pilgrimage centre of Hindus. According to the Archaeological Survey of India plaque at the Mathura Museum, the city is mentioned in the oldest Indian epic, in the epic, the Ikshwaku prince Shatrughna slays a demon called Lavanasura and claims the land. Afterwards, the place came to be known as Madhuvan as it was wooded, Madhupura. In the 6th century BCE Mathura became the capital of the Surasena mahajanapada. The city was ruled by the Maurya empire. It may have come under the control of Indo-Greeks some time between 180 BCE and 100 BCE and it reverted to local rule before being conquered by the Indo-Scythians during the 1st century BCE.
Mathuran art and culture reached its zenith under the Kushan dynasty which had Mathura as one of their capitals, the dynasty had kings with the names of Kujula Kadphises, Kanishka and Vasudeva I. Megasthenes, writing in the early 3rd century BCE, mentions Mathura as a city under the name Μέθορα. The Indo-Scythians conquered the area of Mathura over Indian kings around 60 BCE, the findings of ancient stone inscriptions in Maghera, a town 17 kilometres from Mathura, provide historical artifacts giving more details on this era of Mathura. The opening of the 3 line text of these inscriptions are in Brahmi script and were translated as, the Indo-Scythian satraps of Mathura are sometimes called the Northern Satraps, as opposed to the Western Satraps ruling in Gujarat and Malwa. Mathura served as one of the Kushan Empires two capitals from the first to the third centuries, the city was sacked and many of its temples destroyed by Mahmud of Ghazni in 1018 and again by Sikandar Lodhi, who ruled the Sultanate of Delhi from 1489 to 1517.
Sikander Lodhi earned the epithet of But Shikan, the Destroyer of Hindu deities, the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, built the citys Jami Masjid. According to the 2011 census Mathura district has a population of 2,541,894 and this gives it a ranking of 167th in India. The district has a density of 761 inhabitants per square kilometre. Its population growth rate over the decade 2001-2011 was 22. 53%, Mathura has a sex ratio of 858 females for every 1000 males, and a literacy rate of 72. 65%. Mathura is a Jat dominated region with around 5.30 lakh Jat, Mathura receives a large number of daily visitors besides pilgrims who stay for an average of 3 days. Mathura’s urban areas floating population on normal days is between 100,000 to 125,000 per day, whereas on festive and auspicious days it is twice the population of urban area
12.
Queen Victoria
Victoria was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she adopted the title of Empress of India. Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, both the Duke of Kent and King George III died in 1820, and Victoria was raised under close supervision by her German-born mother Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. She inherited the throne aged 18, after her fathers three brothers had all died, leaving no surviving legitimate children. The United Kingdom was already a constitutional monarchy, in which the sovereign held relatively little direct political power. Privately, Victoria attempted to influence government policy and ministerial appointments, Victoria married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in 1840. Their nine children married into royal and noble families across the continent, tying them together, after Alberts death in 1861, Victoria plunged into deep mourning and avoided public appearances.
As a result of her seclusion, republicanism temporarily gained strength and her Golden and Diamond Jubilees were times of public celebration. Her reign of 63 years and seven months is known as the Victorian era and it was a period of industrial, political and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. She was the last British monarch of the House of Hanover and her son and successor, Edward VII, belonged to the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the line of his father. Victorias father was Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, until 1817, Edwards niece, Princess Charlotte of Wales, was the only legitimate grandchild of George III. Her death in 1817 precipitated a crisis that brought pressure on the Duke of Kent. In 1818 he married Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, a widowed German princess with two children—Carl and Feodora —by her first marriage to the Prince of Leiningen and her brother Leopold was Princess Charlottes widower.
The Duke and Duchess of Kents only child, was born at 4.15 a. m. on 24 May 1819 at Kensington Palace in London. Victoria was christened privately by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Charles Manners-Sutton, on 24 June 1819 in the Cupola Room at Kensington Palace and she was baptised Alexandrina, after one of her godparents, Emperor Alexander I of Russia, and Victoria, after her mother. Additional names proposed by her parents—Georgina and Augusta—were dropped on the instructions of the Dukes eldest brother, the Duke of Clarence and the Duke of Kent married on the same day in 1818, but both of Clarences daughters died as infants. Victorias father died in January 1820, when Victoria was less than a year old, a week her grandfather died and was succeeded by his eldest son, George IV. The Duke of York died in 1827, when George IV died in 1830, he was succeeded by his next surviving brother, William IV, and Victoria became heir presumptive
,_tirthankara_parshvanatha,_II_sec.JPG)
