1.
Greek language
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Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any living language, spanning 34 centuries of written records and its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the major part of its history, other systems, such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary, were used previously. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic and many other writing systems. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world, during antiquity, Greek was a widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world and many places beyond. It would eventually become the official parlance of the Byzantine Empire, the language is spoken by at least 13.2 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey, and the Greek diaspora. Greek roots are used to coin new words for other languages, Greek. Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, the earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the worlds oldest recorded living language. Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now extinct Anatolian languages, the Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods, Proto-Greek, the unrecorded but assumed last ancestor of all known varieties of Greek. The unity of Proto-Greek would have ended as Hellenic migrants entered the Greek peninsula sometime in the Neolithic era or the Bronze Age, Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Mycenaean civilisation. It is recorded in the Linear B script on tablets dating from the 15th century BC onwards, Ancient Greek, in its various dialects, the language of the Archaic and Classical periods of the ancient Greek civilisation. It was widely known throughout the Roman Empire, after the Roman conquest of Greece, an unofficial bilingualism of Greek and Latin was established in the city of Rome and Koine Greek became a first or second language in the Roman Empire. The origin of Christianity can also be traced through Koine Greek, Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, the continuation of Koine Greek in Byzantine Greece, up to the demise of the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century. Much of the written Greek that was used as the language of the Byzantine Empire was an eclectic middle-ground variety based on the tradition of written Koine. Modern Greek, Stemming from Medieval Greek, Modern Greek usages can be traced in the Byzantine period and it is the language used by the modern Greeks, and, apart from Standard Modern Greek, there are several dialects of it. In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia, the historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of the Greek language is often emphasised. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than a foreign language and it is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, Homeric Greek is probably closer to demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English, Greek is spoken by about 13 million people, mainly in Greece, Albania and Cyprus, but also worldwide by the large Greek diaspora. Greek is the language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population
2.
Ancient Greece
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Ancient Greece was a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th-9th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and this was followed by the period of Classical Greece, an era that began with the Greco-Persian Wars, lasting from the 5th to 4th centuries BC. Due to the conquests by Alexander the Great of Macedonia, Hellenistic civilization flourished from Central Asia to the end of the Mediterranean Sea. Classical Greek culture, especially philosophy, had a influence on ancient Rome. For this reason Classical Greece is generally considered to be the culture which provided the foundation of modern Western culture and is considered the cradle of Western civilization. Classical Antiquity in the Mediterranean region is considered to have begun in the 8th century BC. Classical Antiquity in Greece is preceded by the Greek Dark Ages and this period is succeeded, around the 8th century BC, by the Orientalizing Period during which a strong influence of Syro-Hittite, Jewish, Assyrian, Phoenician and Egyptian cultures becomes apparent. The end of the Dark Ages is also dated to 776 BC. The Archaic period gives way to the Classical period around 500 BC, Ancient Periods Astronomical year numbering Dates are approximate, consult particular article for details The history of Greece during Classical Antiquity may be subdivided into five major periods. The earliest of these is the Archaic period, in which artists made larger free-standing sculptures in stiff, the Archaic period is often taken to end with the overthrow of the last tyrant of Athens and the start of Athenian Democracy in 508 BC. It was followed by the Classical period, characterized by a style which was considered by observers to be exemplary, i. e. classical, as shown in the Parthenon. This period saw the Greco-Persian Wars and the Rise of Macedon, following the Classical period was the Hellenistic period, during which Greek culture and power expanded into the Near and Middle East. This period begins with the death of Alexander and ends with the Roman conquest, Herodotus is widely known as the father of history, his Histories are eponymous of the entire field. Herodotus was succeeded by authors such as Thucydides, Xenophon, Demosthenes, Plato, most of these authors were either Athenian or pro-Athenian, which is why far more is known about the history and politics of Athens than those of many other cities. Their scope is limited by a focus on political, military and diplomatic history, ignoring economic. In the 8th century BC, Greece began to emerge from the Dark Ages which followed the fall of the Mycenaean civilization, literacy had been lost and Mycenaean script forgotten, but the Greeks adopted the Phoenician alphabet, modifying it to create the Greek alphabet. The Lelantine War is the earliest documented war of the ancient Greek period and it was fought between the important poleis of Chalcis and Eretria over the fertile Lelantine plain of Euboea. Both cities seem to have suffered a decline as result of the long war, a mercantile class arose in the first half of the 7th century BC, shown by the introduction of coinage in about 680 BC
3.
Indian philosophy
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Indian philosophy comprises the ancient philosophical traditions of the Indian subcontinent. There are six schools of orthodox Hindu philosophy—Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Samkhya, Yoga, Mīmāṃsā and Vedanta. However, there are methods of classification, Vidyaranya for instance identifies sixteen schools of Indian philosophy by including those that belong to the Śaiva. The main schools of Indian philosophy were formalised chiefly between 1000 BCE to the centuries of the Common Era. Competition and integration between the schools was intense during their formative years, especially between 800 BCE and 200 CE. Some schools like Jainism, Buddhism, Yoga, Śaiva and Advaita Vedanta survived, ancient and medieval era texts of Indian philosophies include extensive discussions on Ontology, reliable means of knowledge, value system and other topics. They differ in their assumptions about the nature of existence as well as the specifics of the path to the ultimate liberation and their ancient doctrines span the diverse range of philosophies found in other ancient cultures. These are often coupled into three groups for both historical and conceptual reasons, Nyaya-Vaishesika, Samkhya-Yoga, and Mimamsa-Vedanta. The Vedanta school is divided into six sub-schools, Advaita, also includes the concept of Ajativada, Visishtadvaita, Dvaita, Dvaitadvaita, Suddhadvaita. This orthodox-heterodox terminology is a construct of Western languages, and lacks scholarly roots in Sanskrit, Cārvāka is a materialistic and atheistic school of thought and, is noteworthy as evidence of a materialistic movement within Hinduism. Several Śramaṇic movements have existed before the 6th century BCE, notable philosophies that arose from Śramaṇic movement were Jainism, early Buddhism, Cārvāka, Ajñana and Ājīvika. Jainism, like Buddhism, is a religion and rejected the authority of the Vedas. However, like all Indian religions, it shares the core such as karma, ethical living, rebirth, samsara. Jainism places strong emphasis on asceticism and ahimsa as a means of spiritual liberation, Buddhist philosophy is a system of thought which started with the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, or awakened one. Buddhism and Hinduism mutually influenced each other and shared concepts, states Paul Williams, however it is now difficult to identify. The influence of 3rd-century CE Buddhist Tathagatagarbha Sutras on the Advaita Vedanta Hindu scholar Gaudapada – a major school of thought within Hinduism, is clear, Buddhism rejected the Vedic concepts of Brahman and Atman at the foundation of Hindu philosophies. A major departure from Hindu and Jain philosophy is the Buddhist rejection of a soul in favour of anatta. The philosophy of Ājīvika was founded by Makkhali Gosala, it was a Śramaṇa movement, Ājīvikas were organised renunciates who formed discrete monastic communities prone to an ascetic and simple lifestyle
4.
Asceticism
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Asceticism is a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from worldly pleasures, often for the purpose of pursuing spiritual goals. Asceticism is classified into two types, Asceticism has been historically observed in many religious traditions, including Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Jainism and Judaism. Mainstream Islam has lacked asceticism, except for its minority Sufi sect whose long tradition has included strict asceticism, the practitioners of these religions eschewed worldly pleasures and led an abstinent lifestyle, in the pursuit of redemption, salvation or spirituality. Asceticism is seen in the ancient theologies as a journey towards spiritual transformation, where the simple is sufficient, the bliss is within, the adjective ascetic derives from the ancient Greek term askēsis, which means training or exercise. The original usage did not refer to self-denial, but to the training required for athletic events. Its usage later extended to rigorous practices that are used in all religious traditions, in varying degrees to attain redemption. Asceticism has been classified into natural and unnatural forms of asceticism, natural asceticism is defined as a lifestyle where material aspects of life are reduced to utmost simplicity and minimum. This may include minimal, simple clothing, sleeping on floor or caves, natural asceticism, state Wimbush and Valantasis, does not include maiming the body or harsher austerities that make the body suffer. Self-discipline and abstinence in some form and degree are parts of religious practice within many religious, ascetic lifestyle is associated particularly with monks, nuns, fakirs in Abrahamic religions, and bhikkhus, munis, sannyasis, yogis in Indian religions. Christian authors of antiquity such as Origen, St. Jerome, St. Ignatius, John Chrysostom. Scriptural examples of asceticism could be found in the lives of John the Baptist, Jesus, the twelve apostles, the Dead Sea Scrolls revealed ascetic practices of the ancient Jewish sect of Essenes who took vows of abstinence to prepare for a holy war. An emphasis on a religious life was evident in both early Christian writings and practices. Other Christian practitioners of asceticism include individuals such as Simeon Stylites, Saint David of Wales, according to Richard Finn, much of early Christian asceticism has been traced to Judaism, but not to traditions within Greek asceticism. Some of the thoughts in Christianity nevertheless, Finn states, have roots in Greek moral thought. Virtuous living is not possible when an individual is craving bodily pleasures with desire, the deserts of the Middle East were at one time inhabited by thousands of Christian hermits including St. Anthony the Great, St. Mary of Egypt, and St. Simeon Stylites. In 963 CE, an association of monasteries called Lavra was formed on Mount Athos and this became the most important center of orthodox Christian ascetic groups in the centuries that followed. In the modern era, Mount Athos and Meteora have remained a significant center, sexual abstinence such as those of the Encratites sect of Christians was only one aspect of ascetic renunciation, and both natural and unnatural asceticism have been part of Christian asceticism. The natural ascetic practices have included simple living, begging, fasting and ethical practices such as humility, compassion, patience, such ascetic practices were linked to the Christian concepts of sin and redemption
5.
Ethiopia
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Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north and northeast, Djibouti and Somalia to the east, Sudan and South Sudan to the west, and Kenya to the south. With nearly 100 million inhabitants, Ethiopia is the most populous landlocked country in the world and it occupies a total area of 1,100,000 square kilometres, and its capital and largest city is Addis Ababa. Some of the oldest evidence for modern humans has been found in Ethiopia. It is widely considered as the region from modern humans first set out for the Middle East. According to linguists, the first Afroasiatic-speaking populations settled in the Horn region during the ensuing Neolithic era, tracing its roots to the 2nd millennium BC, Ethiopia was a monarchy for most of its history. During the first centuries AD, the Kingdom of Aksum maintained a unified civilization in the region, subsequently, many African nations adopted the colors of Ethiopias flag following their independence. It was the first independent African member of the 20th-century League of Nations, Ethiopias ancient Geez script, also known as Ethiopic, is one of the oldest alphabets still in use in the world. The Ethiopian calendar, which is seven years and three months behind the Gregorian calendar, co-exists alongside the Borana calendar. A slight majority of the population adheres to Christianity, while around a third follows Islam, the country is the site of the Migration to Abyssinia and the oldest Muslim settlement in Africa at Negash. A substantial population of Ethiopian Jews, known as Bete Israel, resided in Ethiopia until the 1980s, Ethiopia is a multilingual nation with around 80 ethnolinguistic groups, the four largest of which are the Oromiffa, Amhara, Somali, and Tigrayans. Most people in the country speak Afroasiatic languages of the Cushitic or Semitic branches, additionally, Omotic languages are spoken by ethnic minority groups inhabiting the southern regions. Nilo-Saharan languages are spoken by the nations Nilotic ethnic minorities. Ethiopia is the place of origin for the coffee bean which originated from the place called Kefa and it is a land of natural contrasts, with its vast fertile West, jungles, and numerous rivers, and the worlds hottest settlement of Dallol in its north. The Ethiopian Highlands are Africas largest continuous mountain ranges, and Sof Omar Caves contain Africas largest cave, Ethiopia has the most UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Africa. Ethiopia is one of the members of the UN, the Group of 24, the Non-Aligned Movement, G-77. In the 1970s and 1980s, Ethiopia suffered from civil wars, the country has begun to recover recently however, and now has the largest economy in East Africa and Central Africa. According to Global Fire Power, Ethiopia has the 42nd most powerful military in the world, the origin of the word Ethiopia is uncertain
6.
Plutarch
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Plutarch was a Greek biographer and essayist, known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia. He is classified as a Middle Platonist, Plutarchs surviving works were written in Greek, but intended for both Greek and Roman readers. Plutarch was born to a prominent family in the town of Chaeronea, about 80 km east of Delphi. The name of Plutarchs father has not been preserved, but based on the common Greek custom of repeating a name in alternate generations, the name of Plutarchs grandfather was Lamprias, as he attested in Moralia and in his Life of Antony. His brothers, Timon and Lamprias, are mentioned in his essays and dialogues. Rualdus, in his 1624 work Life of Plutarchus, recovered the name of Plutarchs wife, Timoxena, from internal evidence afforded by his writings. A letter is still extant, addressed by Plutarch to his wife, bidding her not to grieve too much at the death of their two-year-old daughter, interestingly, he hinted at a belief in reincarnation in that letter of consolation. The exact number of his sons is not certain, although two of them, Autobulus and the second Plutarch, are often mentioned. Plutarchs treatise De animae procreatione in Timaeo is dedicated to them, another person, Soklarus, is spoken of in terms which seem to imply that he was Plutarchs son, but this is nowhere definitely stated. Plutarch studied mathematics and philosophy at the Academy of Athens under Ammonius from 66 to 67, at some point, Plutarch took Roman citizenship. He lived most of his life at Chaeronea, and was initiated into the mysteries of the Greek god Apollo. For many years Plutarch served as one of the two priests at the temple of Apollo at Delphi, the site of the famous Delphic Oracle, twenty miles from his home. By his writings and lectures Plutarch became a celebrity in the Roman Empire, yet he continued to reside where he was born, at his country estate, guests from all over the empire congregated for serious conversation, presided over by Plutarch in his marble chair. Many of these dialogues were recorded and published, and the 78 essays, Plutarch held the office of archon in his native municipality, probably only an annual one which he likely served more than once. He busied himself with all the matters of the town. The Suda, a medieval Greek encyclopedia, states that Emperor Trajan made Plutarch procurator of Illyria, however, most historians consider this unlikely, since Illyria was not a procuratorial province, and Plutarch probably did not speak Illyrian. Plutarch spent the last thirty years of his serving as a priest in Delphi. He thus connected part of his work with the sanctuary of Apollo, the processes of oracle-giving
7.
Alexander the Great
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Alexander III of Macedon, commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon and a member of the Argead dynasty. He was born in Pella in 356 BC and succeeded his father Philip II to the throne at the age of twenty and he was undefeated in battle and is widely considered one of historys most successful military commanders. During his youth, Alexander was tutored by Aristotle until the age of 16, after Philips assassination in 336 BC, he succeeded his father to the throne and inherited a strong kingdom and an experienced army. Alexander was awarded the generalship of Greece and used this authority to launch his fathers Panhellenic project to lead the Greeks in the conquest of Persia, in 334 BC, he invaded the Achaemenid Empire and began a series of campaigns that lasted ten years. Following the conquest of Anatolia, Alexander broke the power of Persia in a series of battles, most notably the battles of Issus. He subsequently overthrew Persian King Darius III and conquered the Achaemenid Empire in its entirety, at that point, his empire stretched from the Adriatic Sea to the Indus River. He sought to reach the ends of the world and the Great Outer Sea and invaded India in 326 BC and he eventually turned back at the demand of his homesick troops. Alexander died in Babylon in 323 BC, the city that he planned to establish as his capital, without executing a series of planned campaigns that would have begun with an invasion of Arabia. In the years following his death, a series of civil wars tore his empire apart, resulting in the establishment of several states ruled by the Diadochi, Alexanders surviving generals, Alexanders legacy includes the cultural diffusion which his conquests engendered, such as Greco-Buddhism. He founded some twenty cities that bore his name, most notably Alexandria in Egypt, Alexander became legendary as a classical hero in the mold of Achilles, and he features prominently in the history and mythic traditions of both Greek and non-Greek cultures. He became the measure against which military leaders compared themselves, and he is often ranked among the most influential people in human history. He was the son of the king of Macedon, Philip II, and his wife, Olympias. Although Philip had seven or eight wives, Olympias was his wife for some time. Several legends surround Alexanders birth and childhood, sometime after the wedding, Philip is said to have seen himself, in a dream, securing his wifes womb with a seal engraved with a lions image. Plutarch offered a variety of interpretations of dreams, that Olympias was pregnant before her marriage, indicated by the sealing of her womb. On the day Alexander was born, Philip was preparing a siege on the city of Potidea on the peninsula of Chalcidice. That same day, Philip received news that his general Parmenion had defeated the combined Illyrian and Paeonian armies, and it was also said that on this day, the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, burnt down. This led Hegesias of Magnesia to say that it had burnt down because Artemis was away, such legends may have emerged when Alexander was king, and possibly at his own instigation, to show that he was superhuman and destined for greatness from conception
8.
Indus River
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The Indus River, also called Sindhū or Abāsīn, is a major south-flowing river in South Asia. The total length of the river is 3,180 km which makes it one of the longest rivers in Asia and it is the longest river and national river of Pakistan. The river has a drainage area exceeding 1,165,000 km2. Its estimated annual flow stands at around 207 km3, making it the twenty-first largest river in the world in terms of annual flow, the Zanskar is its left bank tributary in Ladakh. In the plains, its left tributary is the Chenab which itself has four major tributaries, namely, the Jhelum, the Ravi, the Beas. Its principal right tributaries are the Shyok, the Gilgit, the Kabul, the Gomal. Beginning in a spring and fed with glaciers and rivers in the Himalayas. The Indus forms the delta of present-day Pakistan mentioned in the Vedic Rigveda as Sapta Sindhu, the river has been a source of wonder since the Classical Period, with King Darius of Persia sending his Greek subject Scylax of Caryanda to explore the river as early as 510 BC. In Pali, Síndhu means river, stream and refers to the Indus River in particular, the word Indus is the romanised form of the ancient Greek word Indós, borrowed from the old Persian word Hinduš which is in turn borrowed from the Sanskrit word Sindhu. Megastheness book Indica derives its name from the rivers Greek name, Indós, the ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indói, literally meaning the people of the Indus. The country of India and the Pakistani province of Sindh owe their names to the river, Rigveda also describes several mythical rivers, including one named Sindhu. The Rigvedic Sindhu is thought to be the present-day Indus river and is attested 176 times in its text –95 times in the plural, more often used in the generic meaning. In the Rigveda, notably in the hymns, the meaning of the word is narrowed to refer to the Indus river in particular. The Rigvedic hymns apply a feminine gender to all the rivers mentioned therein, Sindhu is seen as a strong warrior amongst other rivers which are seen as goddesses and compared to cows and mares yielding milk and butter. The Indus River provides key resources for Pakistans economy – especially the breadbasket of Punjab province, which accounts for most of the nations agricultural production. The word Punjab means land of five rivers and the five rivers are Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej, the Indus also supports many heavy industries and provides the main supply of potable water in Pakistan. The ultimate source of the Indus is in Tibet, the river begins at the confluence of the Sengge Zangbo and Gar Tsangpo rivers that drain the Nganglong Kangri, the Indus then flows northwest through Ladakh and Baltistan into Gilgit, just south of the Karakoram range. The Shyok, Shigar and Gilgit rivers carry glacial waters into the main river and it gradually bends to the south, coming out of the hills between Peshawar and Rawalpindi
9.
Pyrrho
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Pyrrho, was a Greek philosopher of Classical Antiquity and is credited as being the first Greek skeptic philosopher. Pyrrho was from Elis, on the Ionian Sea, Diogenes Laertius, quoting from Apollodorus of Athens, says that Pyrrho was at first a painter, and that pictures by him were exhibited in the gymnasium at Elis. Later he was diverted to philosophy by the works of Democritus and his doctrines were recorded in the writings of his pupil Timon of Phlius. Unfortunately these works are mostly lost, today Pyrrhos ideas are known mainly through the book Outlines of Pyrrhonism written by the Greek physician Sextus Empiricus. Pyrrho is renowned for creating the first formal approach to skepticism in Western Philosophy, Pyrrho summarized his philosophy as follows, Whoever wants to live well must consider these three questions, First, how are pragmata by nature. Secondly, what attitude should we adopt towards them, thirdly, what will be the outcome for those who have this attitude. Pyrrhos answer is that As for pragmata they are all adiaphora, astathmēta, therefore, neither our sense-perceptions nor our doxai tell us the truth or lie, so we certainly should not rely on them. Rather, we should be adoxastous, aklineis, and akradantous, pyrrhonians can be subdivided into those who are ephectic, zetetic, or aporetic. Callisthenes Greco-Buddhism Nausiphanes This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh. Algra, K. Barnes, J. Mansfeld, J. and Schofield, the Cambridge History of Hellenistic Philosophy, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press,1999. Annas, Julia and Barnes, Jonathan, The Modes of Scepticism, Ancient Texts and Modern Interpretations, Pyrrhos Encounter with Early Buddhism in Central Asia, Princeton University Press, Princeton and Oxford,2015. Bett, Richard, Aristocles on Timon on Pyrrho, The Text, Its Logic and its Credibility Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 12, bett, Richard, What did Pyrrho Think about the Nature of the Divine and the Good. Bett, Richard, Pyrrho, His Antecedents, and His Legacy, burnyeat, Myles, The Skeptical Tradition, Berkeley, University of California Press,1983. Burnyeat, Myles and Frede, Michael, The Original Sceptics, A Controversy, Indianapolis, doomen, Jasper, The Problems of Scepticism Logical Analysis and History of Philosophy 10, 36-52. Halkias, Georgios, The Self-immolation of Kalanos and other Luminous Encounters among Greeks, journal of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies, Vol. VIII,2015, 163-186. Kuzminski, Adrian, Pyrrhonism, How the Ancient Greeks Reinvented Buddhism, Lanham, Hellenistic Philosophy, Stoics, Epicureans, Sceptics, University of California Press,1986. Long, A. A. and Sedley, David, The Hellenistic Philosophers, Striker, Gisela, On the difference between the Pyrrhonists and the Academics in G. Striker, Essays on Hellenistic Epistemology and Ethics, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press,1996, 135-149. Striker, Gisela, Sceptical strategies in G. Striker, Essays on Hellenistic Epistemology and Ethics, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press,1996, 92-115
10.
Strabo
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Strabo was a Greek geographer, philosopher, and historian who lived in Asia Minor during the transitional period of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. Strabo was born to an affluent family from Amaseia in Pontus, Strabos life was characterized by extensive travels. He journeyed to Egypt and Kush, as far west as coastal Tuscany and as far south as Ethiopia in addition to his travels in Asia Minor and the time he spent in Rome. Travel throughout the Mediterranean and Near East, especially for scholarly purposes, was popular during this era and was facilitated by the relative peace enjoyed throughout the reign of Augustus. He moved to Rome in 44 BC, and stayed there, studying and writing, in 29 BC, on his way to Corinth, he visited the island of Gyaros in the Aegean Sea. Around 25 BC, he sailed up the Nile until reaching Philae and it is not known precisely when Strabos Geography was written, though comments within the work itself place the finished version within the reign of Emperor Tiberius. Some place its first drafts around 7 BC, others around 17 or 18 AD, the latest passage to which a date can be assigned is his reference to the death in AD23 of Juba II, king of Maurousia, who is said to have died just recently. He probably worked on the Geography for many years and revised it steadily, on the presumption that recently means within a year, Strabo stopped writing that year or the next, when he died. The first of Strabos major works, Historical Sketches, written while he was in Rome, is completely lost. Strabo studied under several prominent teachers of various specialties throughout his life at different stops along his Mediterranean travels. His first chapter of education took place in Nysa under the master of rhetoric Aristodemus, Strabo was an admirer of Homers poetry, perhaps a consequence of his time spent in Nysa with Aristodemus. At around the age of 21, Strabo moved to Rome, where he studied philosophy with the Peripatetic Xenarchus, despite Xenarchuss Aristotelian leanings, Strabo later gives evidence to have formed his own Stoic inclinations. In Rome, he learned grammar under the rich and famous scholar Tyrannion of Amisus. Although Tyrannion was also a Peripatetic, he was more relevantly a respected authority on geography, the final noteworthy mentor to Strabo was Athenodorus Cananites, a philosopher who had spent his life since 44 BC in Rome forging relationships with the Roman elite. Athenodorus endowed to Strabo three important items, his philosophy, his knowledge, and his contacts, moreover, from his own first-hand experience, Athenodorus provided Strabo with information about regions of the empire which he would not otherwise have known. Strabo is most notable for his work Geographica, which presented a history of people. Although the Geographica was rarely utilized in its antiquity, a multitude of copies survived throughout the Byzantine Empire. It first appeared in Western Europe in Rome as a Latin translation issued around 1469, the first Greek edition was published in 1516 in Venice
11.
Brahmin
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Brahmin is a varna in Hinduism specialising as priests of sacred learning across generations. However, Indian texts suggest that Brahmins were often agriculturalists in medieval India, the Gautama Dharmasutra states in verse 10.3 that it is obligatory on a Brahmin to learn and teach the Vedas. The text forbids a Brahmin from engaging in the trade of animals for slaughter, meat, medicines, the Apastamba Dharmasutra asserts in verse 1.20.10 that trade is generally not sanctioned for Brahmins, but in the times of adversity he may do so. The chapter 1.20 of Apastamba, states Olivelle, forbids the trade of the following under any circumstances, human beings, meat, skins, weapons, barren cows, sesame seeds, pepper, and merits. The 1st millennium CE Dharmasastras, that followed the Dharmasutras contain similar recommendations on occupations for a Brahmin, both in prosperous or normal times, and in the times of adversity. The widely studied Manusmriti, for example, states, Except during a time of adversity and he should gather wealth just sufficient for his subsistence through irreproachable activities that are specific to him, without fatiguing his body. –4. 2–4.3 He must never follow a worldly occupation for the sake of livelihood, one who seeks happiness should become supremely content and self controlled, for happiness is rooted in contentment and its opposite is the root of unhappiness. –4. 11–4.12 The Manusmriti recommends that a Brahmins occupation must never involve forbidden activities such as producing or trading poison, weapons, meat, trapping birds and others. It also lists six occupations that it deems proper for a Brahmin, teaching, studying, offering yajna, officiating at yajna, giving gifts, of these, states Manusmriti, three which provide a Brahmin with a livelihood are teaching, officiating at yajna, and accepting gifts. The text states that teaching is best, and ranks the accepting of gifts as the lowest of the six, in the times of adversity, Manusmriti recommends that a Brahmin may live by engaging in the occupations of the warrior class, or agriculture or cattle herding or trade. Of these, Manusmriti in verses 10. 83–10, the term Brahmin in Indian texts has signified someone who is good and virtuous, not just someone of priestly class. Both Buddhist and Brahmanical literature, states Patrick Olivelle, repeatedly define Brahmin not in terms of family of birth and these virtues and characteristics mirror the values cherished in Hinduism during the Sannyasa stage of life, or the life of renunciation for spiritual pursuits. Brahmins, states Olivelle, were the class from which most ascetics came. The earliest inferred reference to Brahmin as a social class is in the Rigveda, occurs once. Ancient texts describing community-oriented Vedic yajna rituals mention four to five priests, the hotar, the adhvaryu, the udgatar, the functions associated with the priests were, The Hotri recites invocations and litanies drawn from the Rigveda. The Adhvaryu is the assistant and is in charge of the physical details of the ritual like measuring the ground. The Udgatri is the chanter of hymns set to melodies and music drawn from the Samaveda, the udgatar, like the hotar, chants the introductory, accompanying and benediction hymns. The Brahmin recites from the Atharvaveda, the Ritvij is the chief operating priest
12.
Megasthenes
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The Afridi is a Karlani Pashtun tribe present in Pakistan, with substantial numbers in Afghanistan. Their territory includes the Khyber Pass and Maidan in Tirah, Afridi migrants are also found in India, mostly in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jammu and Kashmir. The Afridis are historically known for the location they inhabit and their belligerence against outside forces. The later clashes against British expeditions comprised the most savage fighting of the Anglo-Afghan Wars, after the independence of Pakistan, Afridi tribesmen also helped attack Jammu and Kashmir for Pakistan during the Indo-Pakistani war of 1947. Today, Afridis make use of their dominant social position in FATA and areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by controlling transport and various businesses, including trade in arms, munitions, and other goods. The Afridi are Pashtuns, part of the Karlani tribal confederacy, the British frequently classified the peoples that they conquered with fixed personality or “racial” traits and regarded the Pashtun Afridi tribesmen as “warlike” peoples and one of the Martial Race. Different Afridi clans cooperated with the British forces in exchange for subsidies, and some served with the Khyber Rifles. The Afridis, classically called the Abaörteans, have their homeland in the Spin Ghar. According to Pashtun folklore, the Afridi tribe traces its origin back to the ancestor of all Pashtuns, Qais Abdur Rashid, through his youngest son. Thus, the Afridi tribe are one of the Karlani tribes, in fact, the great Pushtun tribe Burki is the sub-caste of it. Herodotus mentions a tribe of the Pactyans as Aparytai, scholars Grierson, Stein and Olaf Caroe equate these with modern Afridis on the basis of linguistic and geographic analysis. The Afridis and other Pashtuns of Afghanistan and Pakistan have also alleged to be the descendants of the lost Jewish tribes such as the Efraim. However, DNA and other research towards validating such claims has been inconclusive, the Malikdin Khel live in the centre of the Tirah and hold Bagh, the traditional meeting place of Afridi jirgas or assemblies. The Aka Khel are scattered in the south of Jamrud. All of this area is included in the Khyber Agency, the Adam Khel live in the hills between Peshawar and Kohat. The Burki live in Kanigoram Valley, Waziristan and Peshawar and their preserve is the Kohat Pass in which several of the most important Afridi gun factories are located. Their conversion to Islam is attributed to Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni by sources such as Ibbetson and Haroon Rashid, the Afridis and their allies Khalils were first mentioned in the memoirs of Mughal Emperor Babar as violent tribes in need of subduing. The Afridi tribes controlled the Khyber Pass, which has served as a corridor connecting the Indian subcontinent with Afghanistan and its strategic value was not lost on the Mughals to whom the Afridis were implacably hostile
13.
Philo
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Philo of Alexandria, also called Philo Judaeus, was a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria, in the Roman province of Egypt. Philo used philosophical allegory to attempt to fuse and harmonize Greek philosophy with Jewish philosophy and his method followed the practices of both Jewish exegesis and Stoic philosophy. His allegorical exegesis was important for several Christian Church Fathers, and he believed that literal interpretations of the Hebrew Bible would stifle humanitys view and perception of a God too complex and marvelous to be understood in literal human terms. Some scholars hold that his concept of the Logos as Gods creative principle influenced early Christology, other scholars, however, deny direct influence but say both Philo and Early Christianity borrow from a common source. The few biographical details known about Philo are found in his own works, the only event in his life that can be decisively dated is his participation in the embassy to Rome in 40 CE. He represented the Alexandrian Jews before Roman Emperor Caligula because of civil strife between the Alexandrian Jewish and Greek communities, Philo was probably born with the name Julius Philo. His ancestors and family were contemporaries to the rule of the Ptolemaic dynasty, although the names of his parents are unknown, Philo came from a family which was noble, honourable and wealthy. It was either his father or paternal grandfather who was granted Roman citizenship from Roman dictator Gaius Julius Caesar, Philo had two brothers, Alexander the Alabarch and Lysimachus. His ancestors and family had social ties and connections to the priesthood in Judea, the Hasmonean Dynasty, the Herodian Dynasty, Philo visited the Temple in Jerusalem at least once in his lifetime. Philo would have been a contemporary to Jesus of Nazareth and his Apostles, Philo along with his brothers received a thorough education. Philo, through his brother Alexander, had two nephews Tiberius Julius Alexander and Marcus Julius Alexander, Marcus Julius Alexander was the first husband of the Herodian Princess Berenice. We find a reference to Philo by the 1st-century Jewish historian Josephus. In Antiquities of the Jews, Josephus tells of Philos selection by the Alexandrian Jewish community as their principal representative before the Roman emperor Gaius Caligula. He says that Philo agreed to represent the Alexandrian Jews in regard to civil disorder that had developed between the Jews and the Greeks in Alexandria, Egypt. Josephus also tells us that Philo was skilled in philosophy, according to Josephus, Philo and the larger Jewish community refused to treat the emperor as a god, to erect statues in honor of the emperor, and to build altars and temples to the emperor. Josephus says Philo believed that God actively supported this refusal, many of these severe things were said by Apion, by which he hoped to provoke Gaius to anger at the Jews, as he was likely to be. Our remaining information about Philo is based upon his own writings, Philo himself claims in his Embassy to Gaius to have been part of an embassy sent by the Alexandrian Jews to the Roman Emperor Caligula. Philo says he was carrying a petition which described the sufferings of the Alexandrian Jews, Philo says he was regarded by his people as having unusual prudence, due to his age, education, and knowledge
14.
Kalanos
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Kalanos, also spelled Calanus was a gymnosophist, a philosopher from Taxila who accompanied Alexander the Great to Persis and later committed suicide by self-immolation. It was from Kalanos that Alexander came to know of Dandamis, the leader of their group, plutarch indicates his real name was Sphínēs and that he was from Taxila, but since he greeted people with the word Kalē. - perhaps kallāṇa Greetings - the Greeks called him Kalanos, Kalanos lived at Taxila and led an austere life. Kalanos refused the gifts offered by Alexander saying that mans desire cannot be satisfied by such gifts. They believed that, even if Alexander killed them, they would be delivered from the body of flesh now afflicted with age, Alexanders representative Onesicritus had a discussion with several sages and Alexander was attracted by the criticism on Greek Philosophy by Kalanos. Alexander persuaded Kalanos to accompany him to Persis and stay with him as one of his teachers, Kalanos lived as a teacher to Alexander and represented eastern honesty and freedom. He was seventy-three years of age at time of his death, when the Persian weather and travel had weakened him, he informed Alexander that he would prefer to die rather than live as an invalid. He decided to take his life by self-immolation, although Alexander tried to dissuade him from this course of action, upon Kalanos insistence the job of building a pyre was entrusted to Ptolemy. Kalanos is mentioned also by Alexanders admirals, Nearchus and Chares of Mytilene, the city where this immolation took place was Susa in the year 323 BC. Kalanos distributed all the gifts he got from the king to the people and wore just a garland of flowers. He presented his horse to one of his Greek pupils named Lysimachus and he did not flinch as he burnt to the astonishment of those who watched. Although Alexander was not personally present at time of his immolation and he is said to have prophesied the death of Alexander in Babylon, even though at the time of death of Kalanos, Alexander did not have any plans to go to Babylon. A letter written by Kalanos to Alexander is preserved by Philo
15.
Clement of Alexandria
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Titus Flavius Clemens, known as Clement of Alexandria to distinguish him from the earlier Clement of Rome, was a Christian theologian who taught at the Catechetical School of Alexandria. A convert to Christianity, he was a man who was familiar with classical Greek philosophy. As his three works demonstrate, Clement was influenced by Hellenistic philosophy to a greater extent than any other Christian thinker of his time, and in particular by Plato. His secret works, which exist only in fragments, suggest that he was familiar with pre-Christian Jewish esotericism and Gnosticism. In one of his works he argued that Greek philosophy had its origin among non-Greeks, among his pupils were Origen and Alexander of Jerusalem. Clement is usually regarded as a Church Father and he is venerated as a saint in Coptic Christianity, Ethiopian Christianity and Anglicanism. He was previously revered in the Roman Catholic Church, but his name was removed from the Roman Martyrology in 1586 by Pope Sixtus V on the advice of Baronius, neither Clements birthdate or birthplace is known with any degree of certainty. It is conjectured that he was born in around 150, according to Epiphanius Scholasticus, he was born in Athens, but there is also a tradition of an Alexandrian birth. His parents were pagans, and Clement was a convert to Christianity, in the Protrepticus he displays an extensive knowledge of Greek mythology and mystery religions, which could only have arisen from the practice of his familys religion. Having rejected paganism as a man due to its perceived moral corruption, he travelled in Greece, Asia Minor, Palestine. Clements journeys were primarily a religious undertaking, in around 180, Clement reached Alexandria, where he met Pantaenus, who taught at the Catechetical School of Alexandria. Eusebius suggests that Pantaenus was the head of the school, Clement studied under Pantaenus, and was ordained to the priesthood by Pope Julian before 189. Otherwise, virtually nothing is known of Clements life in Alexandria and he may have been married, a conjecture supported by his writings. During the Severian persecutions of 202–203, Clement left Alexandria, in 211, Alexander of Jerusalem wrote a letter commending him to the Church of Antioch, which may imply that Clement was living in Cappadocia or Jerusalem at that time. The date and location of his death are unknown, three of Clements major works have survived in full, and they are collectively referred to as the trilogy, the Protrepticus – written c. The Stromata – written c.198 – c, the Protrepticus is, as its title suggests, an exhortation to the pagans of Greece to adopt Christianity, and within it Clement demonstrates his extensive knowledge of pagan mythology and theology. It is chiefly important due to Clements exposition of religion as an anthropological phenomenon, after a short philosophical discussion, it opens with a history of Greek religion in seven stages. Clement suggests that at first, men believed the Sun
16.
Ancient Egypt
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Ancient Egypt was a civilization of ancient Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. It is one of six civilizations to arise independently, Egyptian civilization followed prehistoric Egypt and coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh Narmer. In the aftermath of Alexander the Greats death, one of his generals, Ptolemy Soter and this Greek Ptolemaic Kingdom ruled Egypt until 30 BC, when, under Cleopatra, it fell to the Roman Empire and became a Roman province. The success of ancient Egyptian civilization came partly from its ability to adapt to the conditions of the Nile River valley for agriculture, the predictable flooding and controlled irrigation of the fertile valley produced surplus crops, which supported a more dense population, and social development and culture. Its art and architecture were widely copied, and its antiquities carried off to far corners of the world and its monumental ruins have inspired the imaginations of travelers and writers for centuries. The Nile has been the lifeline of its region for much of human history, nomadic modern human hunter-gatherers began living in the Nile valley through the end of the Middle Pleistocene some 120,000 years ago. By the late Paleolithic period, the climate of Northern Africa became increasingly hot and dry. In Predynastic and Early Dynastic times, the Egyptian climate was less arid than it is today. Large regions of Egypt were covered in treed savanna and traversed by herds of grazing ungulates, foliage and fauna were far more prolific in all environs and the Nile region supported large populations of waterfowl. Hunting would have been common for Egyptians, and this is also the period when many animals were first domesticated. The largest of these cultures in upper Egypt was the Badari, which probably originated in the Western Desert, it was known for its high quality ceramics, stone tools. The Badari was followed by the Amratian and Gerzeh cultures, which brought a number of technological improvements, as early as the Naqada I Period, predynastic Egyptians imported obsidian from Ethiopia, used to shape blades and other objects from flakes. In Naqada II times, early evidence exists of contact with the Near East, particularly Canaan, establishing a power center at Hierakonpolis, and later at Abydos, Naqada III leaders expanded their control of Egypt northwards along the Nile. They also traded with Nubia to the south, the oases of the desert to the west. Royal Nubian burials at Qustul produced artifacts bearing the oldest-known examples of Egyptian dynastic symbols, such as the crown of Egypt. They also developed a ceramic glaze known as faience, which was used well into the Roman Period to decorate cups, amulets, and figurines. During the last predynastic phase, the Naqada culture began using written symbols that eventually were developed into a system of hieroglyphs for writing the ancient Egyptian language. The Early Dynastic Period was approximately contemporary to the early Sumerian-Akkadian civilisation of Mesopotamia, the third-century BC Egyptian priest Manetho grouped the long line of pharaohs from Menes to his own time into 30 dynasties, a system still used today
17.
Chaldea
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Chaldea or Chaldaea was a Semitic nation which existed between the late 10th or early 9th and mid-6th centuries BC, after which it and its people were absorbed and assimilated into Babylonia. It was located in the land of the far southeastern corner of Mesopotamia. The earliest waves consisted of Suteans and Arameans, followed a century or so later by the Kaldu and these migrations did not affect the powerful kingdom of Assyria in the northern half of Mesopotamia, which repelled these incursions. The short-lived 11th dynasty of the Kings of Babylon is conventionally known to historians as the Chaldean Dynasty, although the last rulers, Nabonidus and these nomad Chaldeans settled in the far southeastern portion of Babylonia, chiefly on the right bank of the Euphrates. The names Chaldea and Chaldaea are latinizations of the Greek Khaldaía, the name appears in Hebrew in the Bible as Kaśdim and in Aramaic as Kaldo. At some point after the Chaldean tribes settled in the region it became called mat Kaldi land of Chaldeans by the native Mesopotamians. The expression mat Bit Yakin is also used, apparently synonymously, Bit Yakin was likely the chief or capital city of the land. The king of Chaldea was also called the king of Bit Yakin, just as the kings of Babylonia and Assyria were regularly styled simply king of Babylon or Assur, the capital city in each case. In the same way, what is now known as the Persian Gulf was sometimes called the Sea of Bit Yakin, the boundaries of the early lands settled by Chaldeans in the early 800s BC have not been identified with precision by historians. Chaldea generally referred to the low, marshy, alluvial land around the estuaries of the Tigris and Euphrates, the Old Testament book of the prophet Habakkuk describes the Chaldeans as a bitter and swift nation. The ancient Chaldeans seem to have migrated into Mesopotamia sometime between c, 940–860 BC, a century or so after other new Semitic arrivals, the Arameans and the Suteans, appeared in Babylonia, c.1100 BC. They first appear in record in the annals of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III during the 850s BC. This was a period of weakness in Babylonia, and its ineffectual native kings were unable to prevent new waves of foreign peoples from invading and settling in the land. The Chaldeans were rapidly and completely assimilated into the dominant Assyro-Babylonian culture, as was the case for the earlier Amorites, Kassites, the Chaldeans originally spoke a West Semitic language similar to but distinct from Aramaic. However, they adopted the Akkadian language of the Assyrians and Babylonians. During the Assyrian Empire, the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III introduced an Eastern Aramaic dialect as the lingua franca of his empire in the mid 8th century BC. One form of this once widespread language is used in Daniel and Ezra, but the use of the name Chaldee to describe it, first introduced by Jerome, is linguistically incorrect and a misnomer. In the Hebrew Bible, the prophet Abraham is stated to have come from Ur of the Chaldees
18.
Assyrian people
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Assyrian people, or Syriacs, are an ethnic group indigenous to the Middle East. Some of them self-identify as Chaldeans, or as Arameans and they speak modern Aramaic, whose subdivisions include Northeastern, Central, and Western Neo-Aramaic, as well as another language, dependent on the country of residence. The Assyrians are typically Syriac-speaking Christians who claim descent from Assyria, one of the oldest civilizations in the world, the areas that form the Assyrian homeland are parts of present-day northern Iraq, southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran and northeastern Syria. The majority have migrated to regions of the world, including North America, the Levant, Australia, Europe, Russia. Assyrians are predominantly Christian, mostly adhering to the East and West Syrian liturgical rites of Christianity, whereas the churches of the West Syrian rite, the Syriac Orthodox Church and Syriac Catholic Church, mostly speak the Central and Western branches. According to a 2013 report by a Chaldean Syriac Assyrian Popular Council official, in prehistoric times, the region that was to become known as Assyria was home to Neanderthals such as the remains of those which have been found at the Shanidar Cave. The earliest Neolithic sites in Assyria belonged to the Jarmo culture c.7100 BC and Tell Hassuna, the history of Assyria begins with the formation of the city of Assur perhaps as early as the 25th century BC. The Assyrian king list records kings dating from the 25th century BC onwards, the earliest being Tudiya, who was a contemporary of Ibrium of Ebla. However, many of early kings would have been local rulers. In the traditions of the Assyrian Church of the East, they are descended from Abrahams grandson, however, there is no historical basis for the biblical assertion whatsoever, there is no mention in Assyrian records. The Assyrian people, after the fall of their empire, fell under foreign domination ever since, the Persian Empire was founded, which consumed the entire Neo-Babylonian or Chaldean Empire in 539 BC. Assyrians became front line soldiers for the Persian Empire under Xerxes I, the Assyrian army accounted for three legions of the Roman army, defending the Parthian border. In the 1st century, it was the Assyrian army that enabled Vespasians coup, from the later 2nd century, the Roman Senate included several notable Assyrians, including Tiberius Claudius Pompeianus and Avidius Cassius. From the 1st century BC, Assyria was the theatre of the protracted Roman–Persian Wars and it would become a Roman province from 116 to 363 AD. Despite the influx of foreign elements, the presence of Assyrians is confirmed by the worship of the god Ashur, the Greeks, Parthians, and Romans had a rather low-level of integration with the local population in Mesopotamia, which allowed their cultures to survive. The Assyrians were Christianized in the first to third centuries in Roman Syria, the population of the Sasanian province of Asōristān was a mixed one, composed of Assyrians, Arameans in the far south and the western deserts, and Persians. The Greek element in the cities, still strong during the Parthian Empire, the majority of the population were Eastern Aramaic speakers. Along with the Arameans, Armenians, Greeks, and Nabataeans, the Council of Seleucia of ca.325 dealt with jurisdictional conflicts among the leading bishops
19.
Druid
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A druid was a member of the high-ranking professional class in ancient Celtic cultures. While perhaps best remembered as religious leaders, they were also legal authorities, adjudicators, lorekeepers, medical professionals and they are however attested in some detail by their contemporaries from other cultures, such as the Romans. The earliest known references to the date to the fourth century BCE. Later Greco-Roman writers also described the Druids, including Cicero, Tacitus, in about 750 CE the word druid appears in a poem by Blathmac, who wrote about Jesus, saying that he was. Better than a prophet, more knowledgeable than every druid, a king who was a bishop, the druids then also appear in some of the medieval tales from Christianized Ireland like the Táin Bó Cúailnge, where they are largely portrayed as sorcerers who opposed the coming of Christianity. In the wake of the Celtic revival during the 18th and 19th centuries, fraternal and neopagan groups were founded based on ideas about the ancient druids, many popular notions about druids are based on the misconceptions of 18th century scholars. These have been superseded by more recent study. The modern English word druid derives from the Latin druides, which was considered by ancient Roman writers to come from the native Celtic Gaulish word for these figures, other Roman texts also employ the form druidae, while the same term was used by Greek ethnographers as δρυΐδης. Based on all forms, the hypothetical proto-Celtic word may then be reconstructed as *dru-wid-s meaning oak-knower. The two elements go back to the Proto-Indo-European roots *deru- and *weid- to see, the sense of oak-knower is supported by Pliny the Elder, who in his Natural History considered the word to contain the Greek noun drýs, oak-tree and the Greek suffix -idēs. The modern Irish word for Oak is Dair, which occurs in anglicized placenames like Derry – Doire, there are many stories about saints, heroes, and oak trees, and also many local stories and superstitions about trees in general, which still survive in rural Ireland. Both Old Irish druí and Middle Welsh dryw could also refer to the wren, sources by ancient and medieval writers provide an idea of the religious duties and social roles involved in being a druid. One of the few things that both the Greco-Roman and the vernacular Irish sources agree on about the druids is that played an important part in pagan Celtic society. He also claimed that they were exempt from service and from the payment of taxes. Pomponius Mela is the first author who says that the instruction was secret and was carried on in caves. Druidic lore consisted of a number of verses learned by heart. What was taught to Druid novices anywhere is conjecture, of the oral literature, not one certifiably ancient verse is known to have survived. All instruction was communicated orally, but for ordinary purposes, Caesar reports, in this he probably draws on earlier writers, by the time of Caesar, Gaulish inscriptions had moved from the Greek script to the Latin script
20.
Galatia
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Ancient Galatia was an area in the highlands of central Anatolia in modern Turkey. Galatia was named for the immigrant Gauls from Thrace, who settled here and became its ruling caste in the 3rd century BC and it has been called the Gallia of the East, Roman writers calling its inhabitants Galli. Galatia was bounded on the north by Bithynia and Paphlagonia, on the east by Pontus and Cappadocia, on the south by Cilicia and Lycaonia, the Galatians originated as a part of the great Celtic migration, which invaded Macedon, led by Brennus. The original Celts who settled in Galatia came through Thrace under the leadership of Leotarios and Leonnorios c and these Celts consisted of three tribes, the Tectosages, the Trocmii, and the Tolistobogii. Brennus invaded Greece in 281 BC with a war band. At the same time, another Gaulish group of men, women and this had split off from Brennus people in 279 BC, and had migrated into Thrace under its leaders Leonnorius and Lutarius. The invaders came at the invitation of Nicomedes I of Bithynia, three tribes crossed over from Thrace to Asia Minor. They numbered about 10,000 fighting men and about the number of women and children. They were eventually defeated by the Seleucid king Antiochus I, in a battle where the Seleucid war elephants shocked the Celts, while the momentum of the invasion was broken, the Galatians were by no means exterminated. Instead, the led to the establishment of a long-lived Celtic territory in central Anatolia, which included the eastern part of ancient Phrygia. There they ultimately settled, and strengthened by fresh accessions of the clan from Europe, they overran Bithynia. The Gauls invaded eastern Phrygia on at least one occasion and it is likely it was a sacred oak grove, since the name means sanctuary of the oaks. These Celtic warriors were respected by Greeks and Romans and they were often hired as mercenary soldiers, sometimes fighting on both sides in the great battles of the times. For years, the chieftains and their war bands ravaged the western half of Asia Minor, as allies of one or other of the warring princes, without any serious check. This ended when they sided with the renegade Seleucid prince Antiochus Hierax ruling in Asia Minor, who tried to defeat Attalus, the theme of the Dying Gaul remained a favorite in Hellenistic art for a generation. Their right to the district was formally recognized, each of the twelve tetrarchs had under him a judge and a general. A council of the nation consisting of the tetrarchs and three hundred senators was periodically held at Drynemeton, the king of Attalid Pergamon hired Galatians in the increasingly devastating wars of Asia Minor. One of the tribes in his service, the Aigosages, refused to obey after an eclipse on 1 September 218 BC
21.
Bactria
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Bactria or Bactriana was the name of a historical region in Central Asia. Bactria was located between the Hindu Kush mountain range and the Amu Darya river, covering the region that straddles modern-day Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The English name Bactria is derived from the Ancient Greek, Βακτριανή, analogous names include the Pashto and Persian, باختر, translit. Bākhtar, Uzbek, Балх, Tajik, Бохтар, Chinese, 大夏, pinyin, Dàxià and this region played a major role in Central Asian history. At certain times the political limits of Bactria stretched far beyond the frame of the Bactrian plain. The Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex is the modern designation for a Bronze Age culture of Central Asia. 2200–1700 BC, located in present-day eastern Turkmenistan, northern Afghanistan, southern Uzbekistan and western Tajikistan, centred on the upper Amu Darya and its sites were discovered and named by the Soviet archaeologist Viktor Sarianidi. The early Greek historian Ctesias, c.400 BC, alleged that the legendary Assyrian king Ninus had defeated a Bactrian king named Oxyartes in ca.2140 BC, or some 1000 years before the Trojan War. Since the decipherment of cuneiform in the 19th century, however, according to some writers, Bactria was the homeland of Indo-Iranian tribes who moved south-west into Iran and into north-western India around 2500–2000 BC. Later, it became the province of the Persian Empire in Central Asia. It was in these regions, where the soil of the mountainous country is surrounded by the Turanian desert. After Darius III had been defeated by Alexander the Great, the satrap of Bactria, Bessus attempted to organise a resistance but was captured by other warlords. He was then tortured and killed, however, in the south, beyond the Oxus, he met strong resistance. After two years of war and an insurgency campaign, Alexander managed to establish little control over Bactria. After Alexanders death, Diodorus Siculus tells us that Philip received dominion over Bactria, at the Treaty of Triparadisus, both Diodorus Siculus and Arrian agree that the satrap Stasanor gained control over Bactria. Eventually, Alexanders empire was divided up among the generals in Alexanders army, Bactria became a part of the Seleucid Empire, named after its founder, Seleucus I. The Macedonians, especially Seleucus I and his son Antiochus I, established the Seleucid Empire, the Greek language became dominant for some time there. The paradox that Greek presence was more prominent in Bactria than in areas far closer to Greece can possibly be explained by past deportations of Greeks to Bactria
22.
Celts
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The history of pre-Celtic Europe remains very uncertain. According to one theory, the root of the Celtic languages, the Proto-Celtic language, arose in the Late Bronze Age Urnfield culture of Central Europe. Thus this area is called the Celtic homeland. The earliest undisputed examples of a Celtic language are the Lepontic inscriptions beginning in the 6th century BC. Continental Celtic languages are attested almost exclusively through inscriptions and place-names, Insular Celtic languages are attested beginning around the 4th century in Ogham inscriptions, although it was clearly being spoken much earlier. Celtic literary tradition begins with Old Irish texts around the 8th century, coherent texts of Early Irish literature, such as the Táin Bó Cúailnge, survive in 12th century recensions. Between the 5th and 8th centuries, the Celtic-speaking communities in these Atlantic regions emerged as a cohesive cultural entity. They had a linguistic, religious and artistic heritage that distinguished them from the culture of the surrounding polities. By the 6th century, however, the Continental Celtic languages were no longer in wide use, Insular Celtic culture diversified into that of the Gaels and the Celtic Britons of the medieval and modern periods. A modern Celtic identity was constructed as part of the Romanticist Celtic Revival in Great Britain, Ireland, today, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, and Breton are still spoken in parts of their historical territories, and Cornish and Manx are undergoing a revival. The first recorded use of the name of Celts – as Κελτοί – to refer to a group was by Hecataeus of Miletus, the Greek geographer, in 517 BC. In the fifth century BC Herodotus referred to Keltoi living around the head of the Danube, the etymology of the term Keltoi is unclear. Possible roots include Indo-European *kʲel ‘to hide’, IE *kʲel ‘to heat’ or *kel ‘to impel’, several authors have supposed it to be Celtic in origin, while others view it as a name coined by Greeks. Linguist Patrizia De Bernardo Stempel falls in the group. Yet he reports Celtic peoples in Iberia, and also uses the ethnic names Celtiberi and Celtici for peoples there, as distinct from Lusitani, pliny the Elder cited the use of Celtici in Lusitania as a tribal surname, which epigraphic findings have confirmed. Latin Gallus might stem from a Celtic ethnic or tribal name originally and its root may be the Proto-Celtic *galno, meaning “power, strength”, hence Old Irish gal “boldness, ferocity” and Welsh gallu “to be able, power”. The tribal names of Gallaeci and the Greek Γαλάται most probably have the same origin, the suffix -atai might be an Ancient Greek inflection. Proto-Germanic *walha is derived ultimately from the name of the Volcae and this means that English Gaul, despite its superficial similarity, is not actually derived from Latin Gallia, though it does refer to the same ancient region
23.
Magi
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Magi denotes followers of Zoroastrianism or Zoroaster. The earliest known use of the word Magi is in the inscription written by Darius the Great. Old Persian texts, pre-dating the Hellenistic period, refer to a Magus as a Zurvanic, the plural magi entered the English language from Latin around 1200, in reference to these. The singular appears considerably later, in the late 14th century, the Avestan word magâunô, i. e. the religious caste of the Medes, seems to be the origin of the term. The term only appears twice in Iranian texts from before the 5th century BCE and this one instance occurs in the trilingual Behistun inscription of Darius the Great, and which can be dated to about 520 BCE. In this trilingual text, certain rebels have magian as an attribute, the meaning of the term in this context is uncertain. The other instance appears in the texts of the Avesta, i. e. in the literature of Zoroastrianism. In this instance, which is in the Younger Avestan portion, an unrelated term, but previously assumed to be related, appears in the older Gathic Avestan language texts. A description of the rituals that Heraclitus refers to has not survived, better preserved are the descriptions of the mid-5th century BCE Herodotus, who in his portrayal of the Iranian expatriates living in Asia minor uses the term magi in two different senses. In the first sense, Herodotus speaks of the magi as one of the tribes/peoples of the Medes, in another sense, Herodotus uses the term magi to generically refer to a sacerdotal caste, but whose ethnic origin is never again so much as mentioned. Their influence was widespread throughout Asia Minor. It is, therefore, quite likely that the caste of the Magi was distinct from the Median tribe of the same name. Other Greek sources from before the Hellenistic period include the gentleman-soldier Xenophon, in his early 4th century BCE Cyropaedia, Xenophon depicts the magians as authorities for all religious matters, and imagines the magians to be responsible for the education of the emperor-to-be. Victor H. Mair provides archaeological and linguistic evidence suggesting that Chinese wū was maybe a loanword from Old Persian *maguš magician and it is especially interesting that one of the figurines bears on the top of his head the clearly incised graph ☩ which identifies him as a wu. These figurines, which are dated circa 8th century BCE, were discovered during a 1980 excavation of a Zhou Dynasty palace in Fufeng County, compared with the linguistic reconstructions of many Indo-European languages, the current reconstruction of Old Chinese is more provisional. This velar final -g in Mairs *myag is evident in several Old Chinese reconstructions, as early as the 5th century BCE, Greek magos had spawned mageia and magike to describe the activity of a magus, that is, it was his or her art and practice. But almost from the outset the noun for the action and the noun for the actor parted company, the early Greek texts typically have the pejorative meaning, which in turn influenced the meaning of magos to denote a conjurer and a charlatan. Already in the mid-5th century BC, Herodotus identifies the magi as interpreters of omens, once the magi had been associated with magic—Greek magikos—it was but a natural progression that the Greeks image of Zoroaster would metamorphose into a magician too
24.
Persian people
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The Persians are an Iranian ethnic group that make up over half the population of Iran. They share a cultural system and are native speakers of the Persian language. The ancient Persians were originally a branch of the ancient Iranian population who entered modern-day Iran by the early 10th century BC. The English term Persian derives from Latin Persia, itself deriving from Greek Persís, in the Bible, it is referred to as Parás —sometimes Paras uMadai —within the books of Esther, Daniel, Ezra and Nehemya. Although Persis was originally one of the provinces of ancient Iran, varieties of this term were adopted through Greek sources, thus, in the Western world, the term Persian came to refer to all inhabitants of the country. 10th-century Iraqi historian Al-Masudi refers to Pahlavi, Dari and Azari as dialects of the Persian language, in 1333, medieval Moroccan traveler and scholar Ibn Battuta, referred to the people of Kabul as a specific sub-tribe of Persians. Lady Mary Sheil, in her observation of Iran during the Qajar era, describes Persians, Kurds and Leks to identify themselves as descendants of the ancient Persians. On March 21,1935, the king of Iran, Reza Shah Pahlavi, issued a decree asking the international community to use the term Iran. However, the term Persian is still used to designate the predominant population of the Iranian peoples living in the Iranian cultural continent. The earliest known written record attributed to the Persians is from the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III, the inscription mentions Parsua as a tribal chiefdom in modern-day western Iran. The ancient Persians were originally a branch of the Iranian population that, in the early 10th century BC. They were initially dominated by the Assyrians for much of the first three centuries after arriving in the region, however, they played a role in the downfall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The Medes, another branch of population, founded the unified empire of Media as the regions dominant cultural and political power in c.625 BC. Meanwhile, the Persian dynasty of the Achaemenids formed a state to the central Median power. In c.552 BC, the Achaemenids began a revolution which led to the conquest of the empire by Cyrus II in c.550 BC. They spread their influence to the rest of what is called the Iranian Plateau, at its greatest extent, the Achaemenid Empire stretched from parts of Eastern Europe in the west, to the Indus Valley in the east, making it the largest empire the world had yet seen. The Achaemenids developed the infrastructure to support their growing influence, including the creation of Pasargadae and its legacy and impact on the kingdom of Macedon was also notably huge, even for centuries after the withdrawal of the Persians from Europe following the Greco-Persian Wars. The empire collapsed in 330 BC following the conquests of Alexander the Great, until the Parthian era, the Iranian identity had an ethnic, linguistic, and religious value, however, it did not yet have a political import
25.
Judea
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Judea or Judæa is the ancient Hebrew and Israelite biblical, the exonymic Roman/English, and the modern-day name of the mountainous southern part of Canaan-Israel. As a consequence of the Bar Kokhba revolt, in 135 CE the region was renamed and merged with Roman Syria to form Syria Palaestina by the victorious Roman Emperor Hadrian, a large part of Judea was included in Jordanian West Bank between 1948 and 1967. The name Judea is a Greek and Roman adaptation of the name Judah, nimrud Tablet K.3751, dated c.733 BCE, is the earliest known record of the name Judah. Judea was sometimes used as the name for the entire region, in 200 CE Sextus Julius Africanus, cited by Eusebius, described Nazara as a village in Judea. Judea was the used by English-speakers until the Jordanian occupation of the area in 1948. Jordan called the area ad-difa’a al-gharbiya, yehuda is the Hebrew term used for the area in modern Israel since the region was captured and occupied by Israel in 1967. The classical Roman-Jewish historian Josephus wrote, In the limits of Samaria and Judea lies the village Anuath and this is the northern boundary of Judea. The southern parts of Judea, if they be measured lengthways, are bounded by a village adjoining to the confines of Arabia, however, its breadth is extended from the river Jordan to Joppa. The city Jerusalem is situated in the middle, on which account some have, with sagacity enough. This country begins at Mount Libanus, and the fountains of Jordan, and reaches breadthways to the lake of Tiberias and its inhabitants are a mixture of Jews and Syrians. And thus have I, with all possible brevity, described the country of Judea, Judea is a mountainous region, part of which is considered a desert. It varies greatly in height, rising to an altitude of 1,020 m in the south at Mount Hebron,30 km southwest of Jerusalem, and descending to as much as 400 m below sea level in the east of the region. The climate, accordingly, moves between Mediterranean in the west and desert climate in the east, with a strip of steppe climate in the middle, major urban areas in the region include Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Gush Etzion, Jericho and Hebron. Geographers divide Judea into several regions, the Hebron hills, the Jerusalem saddle, the Bethel hills and the Judean desert east of Jerusalem, the hills are distinct for their anticline structure. In ancient times the hills were forested, and the Bible records agriculture, animals are still grazed today, with shepherds moving them between the low ground to the hilltops as summer approaches, while the slopes are still layered with centuries-old stone terracing. The Jewish Revolt against the Romans ended in the devastation of vast areas of the Judaean countryside, regardless, the Northern Kingdom was conquered into the Neo-Assyrian Empire in 720 BCE. Judea is central to much of the narrative of the Torah, with the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, the Babylonian Empire fell to the conquests of Cyrus the Great in 539 BCE. Judea lost its independence to the Romans in the 1st century BCE, by becoming first a tributary kingdom, then a province, queen Alexandra Salome had recently died, and a civil war broke out between her sons, Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II
26.
Taxila
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The town lies 549 metres above sea level. It is the headquarters of the Taxila Tehsil in the Rawalpindi district, ancient Taxila was situated at the pivotal junction of South Asia and Central Asia. The origin of Taxila as a city back to c.1000 BCE. Some ruins at Taxila date to the time of the Achaemenid Empire in the 6th century BCE, followed successively by Mauryan Empire, Indo-Greek, Indo-Scythian, owing to its strategic location, Taxila has changed hands many times over the centuries, with many empires vying for its control. When the great ancient trade routes connecting these regions ceased to be important, the renowned archaeologist Sir Alexander Cunningham rediscovered the ruins of Taxila in the mid-19th century. In 1980, Taxila was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in 2006 it was ranked as the top tourist destination in Pakistan by The Guardian newspaper. By some accounts, Taxila was considered to be one of the earliest universities in the world, Hindu mythology has it that Taxila derived its name from Takṣa, who was the son of Bharata, the brother of the Hindu deity Rama. Takṣas kingdom was called Takṣa Khanda and its capital that he founded was named Taxila, as per another version, Takshaka was one of the Nagas mentioned in the Hindu epic Mahābhārata. Traditionally, it is believed that the Mahabharata was first recited at Taxila by Vaisampayana, student of Vyasa at the behest of the seer Vyasa himself, scattered references in historical works indicated that Taxila may have dated back to at least the 8th century BCE. Historically, Taxila lay at the crossroads of three ancient trade routes. Owing to this location, Taxila has changed hands many times over the centuries. Archaeological excavations later showed that the city may have grown significantly during the Achaemenid Empire of the 6th century BCE, in 516 BC, Darius I embarked on a campaign to Central Asia, Ariana and Bactria and then marched into Afghanistan to Hindush in modern Pakistan. Darius spent the winter of 516-515 BCE in Gandhara, preparing to conquer the Indus Valley, Darius conquered the Indus in 515 BCE. He controlled the Indus Valley from Gandhara to modern Karachi and appointed the Greek Scylax of Caryanda to explore the Indian Ocean from the mouth of the Indus to the Suez, Darius then marched through the Bolan Pass and returned through Arachosia and Drangiana back to Persia. Taxila is also described in detail in the Buddhist Jataka tales. The Jataka literature mentions it as the capital of the kingdom of Gandhara, Greek invaders arrived during the 4th century BCE. According to Joseph Needham, When the men of Alexander the Great came to Taxila. In about the 1st century BCE or 1st century CE, an Indo-Scythian king named Azilises had three mints, one of which was at Taxila, and struck coins with legends in Greek
27.
Vedas
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The Vedas are a large body of knowledge texts originating in the ancient Indian subcontinent. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature, Hindus consider the Vedas to be apauruṣeya, which means not of a man, superhuman and impersonal, authorless. Vedas are also called śruti literature, distinguishing them from religious texts. The Veda, for orthodox Indian theologians, are considered revelations seen by ancient sages after intense meditation, in the Hindu Epic the Mahabharata, the creation of Vedas is credited to Brahma. The Vedic hymns themselves assert that they were created by Rishis, after inspired creativity. There are four Vedas, the Rigveda, the Yajurveda, the Samaveda, each Veda has been subclassified into four major text types – the Samhitas, the Aranyakas, the Brahmanas, and the Upanishads. Some scholars add a fifth category – the Upasanas, the various Indian philosophies and denominations have taken differing positions on the Vedas. Schools of Indian philosophy which cite the Vedas as their authority are classified as orthodox. Other śramaṇa traditions, such as Lokayata, Carvaka, Ajivika, Buddhism and Jainism, despite their differences, just like the texts of the śramaṇa traditions, the layers of texts in the Vedas discuss similar ideas and concepts. The Sanskrit word véda knowledge, wisdom is derived from the root vid- to know and this is reconstructed as being derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *u̯eid-, meaning see or know. The noun is from Proto-Indo-European *u̯eidos, cognate to Greek εἶδος aspect, not to be confused is the homonymous 1st and 3rd person singular perfect tense véda, cognate to Greek οἶδα oida I know. Root cognates are Greek ἰδέα, English wit, etc, the Sanskrit term veda as a common noun means knowledge. The term in some contexts, such as hymn 10.93.11 of the Rigveda, means obtaining or finding wealth, property, a related word Vedena appears in hymn 8.19.5 of the Rigveda. It was translated by Ralph T. H. Griffith as ritual lore, as studying the Veda by the 14th century Indian scholar Sayana, as bundle of grass by Max Müller, Vedas are called Maṛai or Vaymoli in parts of South India. Marai literally means hidden, a secret, mystery, in some south Indian communities such as Iyengars, the word Veda includes the Tamil writings of the Alvar saints, such as Divya Prabandham, for example Tiruvaymoli. The Vedas are among the oldest sacred texts, the Samhitas date to roughly 1700–1100 BC, and the circum-Vedic texts, as well as the redaction of the Samhitas, date to c. 1000-500 BC, resulting in a Vedic period, spanning the mid 2nd to mid 1st millennium BC, or the Late Bronze Age, Michael Witzel gives a time span of c.1500 to c. Witzel makes special reference to the Near Eastern Mitanni material of the 14th century BC the only record of Indo-Aryan contemporary to the Rigvedic period
28.
Jainism
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Jainism, traditionally known as Jain Dharma, is an ancient Indian religion belonging to the śramaṇa tradition. The central tenet is non-violence and respect all living beings. The three main principles of Jainism are ahimsa, anekantavada and aparigraha, followers of Jainism take five main vows, ahimsa, satya, asteya, brahmacharya and aparigraha. Jain monks and nuns observe these vows absolutely whereas householders observe them within their practical limitations, self-discipline and asceticism are thus major focuses of Jainism. The word Jain derives from the Sanskrit word jina, a human being who has conquered all inner passions like attachment, desire, anger, pride, greed, etc. is called Jina. Followers of the path practiced and preached by the jinas are known as Jains, Parasparopagraho Jivanam is the motto of Jainism. Jains trace their history through a succession of teachers and revivers of the Jain path known as Tirthankaras. In the current era, this started with Rishabhdeva and concluded with Mahavira, Jains believe that Jainism is eternal and while it may be forgotten, it will be revived from time to time. The majority of Jains reside in India, with 6-7 million followers, Jainism is smaller than many other major world religions. Outside of India, some of the largest Jain communities are present in Canada, Europe, Kenya, the UK, Suriname, Fiji, contemporary Jainism is divided into two major sects, Digambara and Śvētāmbara. Namokar Mantra is the most common and basic prayer in Jainism, major Jain festivals include Paryushana and Daslakshana, Mahavir Jayanti, and Diwali. The principle of ahimsa is the most fundamental and well-known aspect of Jainism, the everyday implementation of the principle of non-violence is more comprehensive than in other religions and is the hallmark for Jain identity. Jains believe in avoiding harm to others thoughts, speech. According to the Jain text, Purushartha Siddhyupaya, killing any living being out of passions is hiṃsā, Jains extend the practice of nonviolence and kindness not only towards other humans but towards all living beings. For this reason, vegetarianism is a hallmark of Jain identity, if there is violence against animals during the production of dairy products, veganism is encouraged. Jainism has an elaborate framework on types of life and includes life-forms that may be invisible. Therefore, after humans and animals, insects are the living being offered protection in Jain practice. For example, insects in the home are often escorted out instead of killed, Jainism teaches that intentional harm and the absence of compassion make an action more violent
29.
Buddhism
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Buddhism is a religion and dharma that encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs and spiritual practices largely based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. Buddhism originated in India sometime between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE, from where it spread through much of Asia, two major extant branches of Buddhism are generally recognized by scholars, Theravada and Mahayana. Buddhism is the worlds fourth-largest religion, with over 500 million followers or 7% of the global population, Buddhist schools vary on the exact nature of the path to liberation, the importance and canonicity of various teachings and scriptures, and especially their respective practices. In Theravada the ultimate goal is the attainment of the state of Nirvana, achieved by practicing the Noble Eightfold Path, thus escaping what is seen as a cycle of suffering. Theravada has a following in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. Mahayana, which includes the traditions of Pure Land, Zen, Nichiren Buddhism, Shingon, rather than Nirvana, Mahayana instead aspires to Buddhahood via the bodhisattva path, a state wherein one remains in the cycle of rebirth to help other beings reach awakening. Vajrayana, a body of teachings attributed to Indian siddhas, may be viewed as a branch or merely a part of Mahayana. Tibetan Buddhism, which preserves the Vajrayana teachings of eighth century India, is practiced in regions surrounding the Himalayas, Tibetan Buddhism aspires to Buddhahood or rainbow body. Buddhism is an Indian religion attributed to the teachings of Buddha, the details of Buddhas life are mentioned in many early Buddhist texts but are inconsistent, his social background and life details are difficult to prove, the precise dates uncertain. Some hagiographic legends state that his father was a king named Suddhodana, his mother queen Maya, and he was born in Lumbini gardens. Some of the stories about Buddha, his life, his teachings, Buddha was moved by the innate suffering of humanity. He meditated on this alone for a period of time, in various ways including asceticism, on the nature of suffering. He famously sat in meditation under a Ficus religiosa tree now called the Bodhi Tree in the town of Bodh Gaya in Gangetic plains region of South Asia. He reached enlightenment, discovering what Buddhists call the Middle Way, as an enlightened being, he attracted followers and founded a Sangha. Now, as the Buddha, he spent the rest of his teaching the Dharma he had discovered. Dukkha is a concept of Buddhism and part of its Four Noble Truths doctrine. It can be translated as incapable of satisfying, the unsatisfactory nature, the Four Truths express the basic orientation of Buddhism, we crave and cling to impermanent states and things, which is dukkha, incapable of satisfying and painful. This keeps us caught in saṃsāra, the cycle of repeated rebirth, dukkha
30.
Digambara
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Digambara is one of the two major schools of Jainism, the other being Śvētāmbara. The word Digambara is a combination of two words, dig and ambara, referring to those whose garments are of the element that fills the four quarters of space, Digambara monks do not wear any clothes. The monks carry picchi, a made up of fallen peacock feathers, kamandalu. One of the most important scholar-monks of Digambara tradition was Kundakunda and he authored Prakrit texts such as the Samayasāra and the Pravacanasāra. Other prominent Acharyas of this tradition were, Virasena, Samantabhadra, the Satkhandagama and Kasayapahuda have major significance in the Digambara tradition. The word Digambara is a combination of two Sanskrit words, dik and ambara, referring to those whose garments are of the element that fills the four quarters of space. Digambara monks do not wear any clothes as it is considered to be parigraha, a Digambara monk has 28 mūla guņas. These are, five mahāvratas, five samitis, pañcendriya nirodha, Şadāvaśyakas, the monks carry picchi, a broom made up of fallen peacock feathers for removing small insects without causing them injury, Kamandalu and shastra. The head of all monastics is called Āchārya, while the saintly preceptor of saints is the upādhyāya, the Āchārya has 36 primary attributes in addition to the 28 mentioned above. The monks perform kayotsarga daily, in a rigid and immobile posture, with the arms held stiffly down, knees straight, female monastics in Digambara tradition are known as aryikas. According to Digambara texts, after liberation of the Lord Mahavira, during the next hundred years, five Āchāryas had complete knowledge of the scriptures, as such, called Śruta Kevalīs, the last of them being Āchārya Bhadrabahu. Spiritual lineage of heads of orders is known as Pattavali. Relics found from Harrapan excavations like seals depicting Kayotsarga posture, idols in Padmasana, the presence of gymnosophists in Greek records as early as the fourth century BC, supports the claim of the Digambaras that they have preserved the ancient Śramaṇa practice. The Digambara Jains worship completely nude idols of tirthankaras and siddha, the tirthankara is represented either seated in yoga posture or standing in the Kayotsarga posture. The truly sky-clad Jaina statue expresses the perfect isolation of the one who has stripped off every bond and his is an absolute abiding in itself, a strange but perfect aloofness, a nudity of chilling majesty, in its stony simplicity, rigid contours, and abstraction. The Digambara sect of Jainism rejects the authority of the texts accepted by the other major sect, according to the Digambaras, Āchārya Dharasena guided two Āchāryas, Pushpadanta and Bhutabali, to put the teachings of Mahavira in written form,683 years after the nirvana of Mahavira. The two Āchāryas wrote Ṣaṭkhaṅḍāgama on palm leaves which is considered to be among the oldest known Digambara texts, Āchārya Bhutabali was the last ascetic who had partial knowledge of the original Jain Agamas. Later on, some learned Āchāryas started to restore, compile and put into words the teachings of Lord Mahavira
31.
Calanus of India
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Kalanos, also spelled Calanus was a gymnosophist, a philosopher from Taxila who accompanied Alexander the Great to Persis and later committed suicide by self-immolation. It was from Kalanos that Alexander came to know of Dandamis, the leader of their group, plutarch indicates his real name was Sphínēs and that he was from Taxila, but since he greeted people with the word Kalē. - perhaps kallāṇa Greetings - the Greeks called him Kalanos, Kalanos lived at Taxila and led an austere life. Kalanos refused the gifts offered by Alexander saying that mans desire cannot be satisfied by such gifts. They believed that, even if Alexander killed them, they would be delivered from the body of flesh now afflicted with age, Alexanders representative Onesicritus had a discussion with several sages and Alexander was attracted by the criticism on Greek Philosophy by Kalanos. Alexander persuaded Kalanos to accompany him to Persis and stay with him as one of his teachers, Kalanos lived as a teacher to Alexander and represented eastern honesty and freedom. He was seventy-three years of age at time of his death, when the Persian weather and travel had weakened him, he informed Alexander that he would prefer to die rather than live as an invalid. He decided to take his life by self-immolation, although Alexander tried to dissuade him from this course of action, upon Kalanos insistence the job of building a pyre was entrusted to Ptolemy. Kalanos is mentioned also by Alexanders admirals, Nearchus and Chares of Mytilene, the city where this immolation took place was Susa in the year 323 BC. Kalanos distributed all the gifts he got from the king to the people and wore just a garland of flowers. He presented his horse to one of his Greek pupils named Lysimachus and he did not flinch as he burnt to the astonishment of those who watched. Although Alexander was not personally present at time of his immolation and he is said to have prophesied the death of Alexander in Babylon, even though at the time of death of Kalanos, Alexander did not have any plans to go to Babylon. A letter written by Kalanos to Alexander is preserved by Philo
32.
Babylon
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Babylon was a major city of ancient Mesopotamia in the fertile plain between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The city was built upon the Euphrates and divided in parts along its left and right banks. Babylon was originally a small Semitic Akkadian city dating from the period of the Akkadian Empire c.2300 BC, the town attained independence as part of a small city-state with the rise of the First Amorite Babylonian Dynasty in 1894 BC. Babylon grew and South Mesopotamia came to be known as Babylonia, the empire quickly dissolved after Hammurabis death and Babylon spent long periods under Assyrian, Kassite and Elamite domination. After being destroyed and then rebuilt by the Assyrians, Babylon became the capital of the Neo-Babylonian Empire from 609 to 539 BC, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. After the fall of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, the city came under the rule of the Achaemenid, Seleucid, Parthian, Roman, and Sassanid empires. It has been estimated that Babylon was the largest city in the world from c.1770 to 1670 BC and it was perhaps the first city to reach a population above 200,000. Estimates for the extent of its area range from 890 to 900 hectares. The remains of the city are in present-day Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq, about 85 kilometres south of Baghdad, comprising a large tell of broken mud-brick buildings, the English Babylon comes from Greek Babylṓn, a transliteration of the Akkadian Babili. The Babylonian name in the early 2nd millennium BC had been Babilli or Babilla, by the 1st millennium BC, it had changed to Babili under the influence of the folk etymology which traced it to bāb-ili. The Gate of God or Gate of El being from the Aramaic Hebrew Bab for Gate and El for God and this being similar to the Hebrew word for confusion Balal. In the Bible, the name appears as Babel, interpreted in the Hebrew Scriptures Book of Genesis to mean confusion, the modern English verb, to babble, or to speak meaningless words, is popularly thought to derive from this name, but there is no direct connection. The remains of the city are in present-day Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad, comprising a large tell of broken mud-brick buildings and debris. The site at Babylon consists of a number of mounds covering an area of about 2 by 1 kilometer, oriented north to south, along the Euphrates to the west. Originally, the river roughly bisected the city, but the course of the river has since shifted so that most of the remains of the western part of the city are now inundated. Some portions of the city wall to the west of the river also remain, remains of the city include, Kasr—also called Palace or Castle, it is the location of the Neo-Babylonian ziggurat Etemenanki and lies in the center of the site. Amran Ibn Ali—the highest of the mounds at 25 meters, to the south and it is the site of Esagila, a temple of Marduk which also contained shrines to Ea and Nabu. Homera—a reddish colored mound on the west side, most of the Hellenistic remains are here
33.
Porphyry (philosopher)
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Porphyry of Tyre was a Neoplatonic philosopher who was born in Tyre, in the Roman Empire. He edited and published the Enneads, the collection of the work of his teacher Plotinus. His commentary on Euclids Elements was used as a source by Pappus of Alexandria and he also wrote many works himself on a wide variety of topics. His Isagoge, or Introduction, is an introduction to logic and philosophy, under Longinus he studied grammar and rhetoric. In 262 he went to Rome, attracted by the reputation of Plotinus, at one point he became suicidal. On the advice of Plotinus he went to live in Sicily for five years to recover his mental health, on returning to Rome, he lectured on philosophy and completed an edition of the writings of Plotinus together with a biography of his teacher. Iamblichus is mentioned in ancient Neoplatonic writings as his pupil, the two men differed publicly on the issue of theurgy. In his later years, he married Marcella, a widow with seven children, little more is known of his life, and the date of his death is uncertain. Porphyry is best known for his contributions to philosophy, in medieval textbooks, the all-important Arbor porphyriana illustrates his logical classification of substance. To this day, taxonomy benefits from concepts in Porphyrys Tree, the Introduction was translated into Arabic by Abd-Allāh Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ from a Syriac version. With the Arabicized name Isāghūjī it long remained the standard introductory text in the Muslim world and influenced the study of theology, philosophy, grammar. Besides the adaptations and epitomes of this work, many independent works on logic by Muslim philosophers have been entitled Isāghūjī, Porphyrys discussion of accident sparked a long-running debate on the application of accident and essence. There is debate as to whether it was written in his youth or closer in time to the persecutions of Christians under Diocletian, whether or not Porphyry was the pagan philosopher opponent in Lactantius Divine Institutes, written at the time of the persecutions, has long been discussed. The fragments of the Philosophy from Oracles are only quoted by Christians, especially Eusebius, Theodoret, Augustine, the fragments contain oracles identifying proper sacrificial procedure, the nature of astrological fate, and other topics relevant for Greek and Roman religion in the third century. Whether this work contradicts his treatise defending vegetarianism, which warned the philosopher to avoid animal sacrifice, is disputed among scholars. During his retirement in Sicily, Porphyry wrote Against the Christians which consisted of fifteen books, Porphyry acknowledged Jesus Christ only as an outstanding philosopher. Some thirty Christian apologists, such as Methodius, Eusebius, Apollinaris, Augustine, Jerome, in fact, everything known about Porphyry’s arguments is found in these refutations, largely because Theodosius II ordered every copy burned in A. D.435 and again in 448. Porphyry became one of the most able pagan adversaries of Christianity of his day and his aim was not to disprove the substance of Christianity’s teachings but rather the records within which the teachings are communicated
34.
Historical Vedic religion
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The religion of the Vedic period was the religion of the Indo-Aryans of northern India. It is a predecessor of modern Hinduism, though significantly different from it. The Vedic liturgy is conserved in the portion of the four Vedas. The religious practices centered on a clergy administering rites, the complex Vedic rituals of Śrauta continue in coastal Andhra. The commonly proposed period of earlier Vedic age is dated back to 2nd millennium BCE, the Vedic religion was the religion of the Indo-Aryans, and existed in northern India from c.1750 to 500 BCE. The Indo-Aryans were a branch of the Indo-European language family, which originated in the Kurgan culture of the Central Asian steppes, the Vedic beliefs and practices of the pre-classical era were closely related to the hypothesised Proto-Indo-European religion, and the Indo-Iranian religion. According to Anthony, the Old Indic religion probably emerged among Indo-European immigrants in the zone between the Zeravshan River and Iran. It was a mixture of old Central Asian and new Indo-European elements. At least 383 non-Indo-European words were borrowed from this culture, including the god Indra, Indra was the subject of 250 hymns, a quarter of the Rig Veda. He was associated more than any other deity with Soma, a stimulant drug probably borrowed from the BMAC religion and his rise to prominence was a peculiar trait of the Old Indic speakers. The oldest inscriptions in Old Indic, the language of the Rig Veda, are not in northwestern India and Pakistan, but in northern Syria. The Mitanni kings took Old Indic throne names, and Old Indic technical terms were used for horse-riding and chariot-driving, the Old Indic term rta, meaning cosmic order and truth, the central concept of the Rig Veda, was also employed in the Mitanni kingdom. Old Indic gods, including Indra, were known in the Mitanni kingdom. David Gordon White cites three other scholars who have emphatically demonstrated that Vedic religion is partially derived from the Indus Valley Civilizations. Texts dating to the Vedic period, composed in Vedic Sanskrit, are mainly the four Vedic Samhitas, the Vedas record the liturgy connected with the rituals and sacrifices performed by the 16 or 17 Śrauta priests and the purohitas. According to traditional views, the hymns of the Rigveda and other Vedic hymns were divinely revealed to the rishis, in addition the Vedas are said to be apauraṣaya, a Sanskrit word meaning uncreated by man and which further reveals their eternal non-changing status. The mode of worship was worship of the elements like fire and rivers, worship of gods like Indra, chanting of hymns. The priests performed the rituals for the noblemen and wealthy commoners Vaishyas
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Jain monasticism
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Jain monasticism refers to the order of monks and nuns in the Jain community. The term nirgrantha was used for Jain monks in the past, the monastic practices of two major sects vary greatly, but the major principles of both are identical. Digambaras use the word muṇi for male monastics and aryika for female monastics, Digambara monks are also called nirgrantha. Buddhist texts refer to Mahavira, the last Tirthankara, as Nigaṇṭha Jñātaputta, Nigaṇṭha means without knot, tie, or string, Jñātaputta refers to his clan of origin, Jñāta or Naya. Śvētāmbaras use the word sadhvis for female monastics, historians believe that a united Jain sangha existed before 367 BCE, about 160 years after the moksha of Mahavira. The community then gradually divided into two denominations, the Digambara and the Śvētāmbara, acharya Kundakunda is the most revered acharya of the Duḥṣamā period of the present avasarpiṇī era. Five mahāvratas, from Mahaviras teachings, are followed by all Jain ascetics, although Jain householders are also required to observe them, ascetics are bound more strictly. Digambara monks follow 28 vratas, five mahāvratas, five samitis, the control of the senses, six Şadāvaśyakas. A Śvētāmbara initiation involves a procession in which the initiate symbolically disposes of his material wealth and this is followed by another ritual in which the initiate receives an ogho from their mentor as a symbol of welcome into the monastic order. The initiate then puts on monastic clothing and pluck out hairs by hand, further rituals formally initiate them into the monastic order. The Śvētāmbara Terapanth sect requests written permission from a persons parents before initiating them into the ascetic order, the earliest known texts often ask for ascetics to be in complete solitude, identifying the isolation of soul and non-soul. However, soon after Mahaviras death ascetics organized themselves into groups, a few examples of ascetics living in complete solitude are found in the Digambara sect. Jain ascetics are detached from social and worldly activities, all activities are aimed at self-purification for self-realization and they follow established guidelines for daily worship and austerity. The monks daily routine is broadly structured by three ideological formulae, the five vows, the eight matrices of doctrine, and the six obligatory actions. The first two are restrictions, and the third is positively framed in what the monk is encouraged to do daily, ascetics do not have a home or possessions. They choose austerity, avoid services such as telephones and electricity, Monks engage in activities such as meditation, seeking knowledge and acquiring self-discipline. The Yati of the sect and the Bhattaraka of the Digambara Terapanth do not wander, they usually live in temples. The monks rise before dawn, most around 5,00 a. m. in observance of utsarg-samiti, defecation takes place in the open where feces not harm living creatures, urination is into a shallow pan, which is emptied onto a dry patch of ground
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Zarmanochegas
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He is estimated to have died c. Nicolaus of Damascus describes an embassy sent by the Indian king Porus to Caesar Augustus, the embassy traveled with a diplomatic letter on a skin in Greek. One of its members was a sramana who burned himself alive in Athens to demonstrate his faith, nicholas of Damascus met the embassy at Antioch and this is related by Strabo and Dio Cassius. The monks self-immolation made a sensation and was quoted by Strabo, if the Sramana timed his death to match the arrival of Augustus in Athens then the date would be the winter of 22/21 BC when Augustus crossed from Sicily to Greece to visit Athens. In support of this Priaulx notes that the poet Horace alludes to an Indian mission, Priaulx also notes that later writers such as Florus and Suetonius refer to this Indian mission. Augustus in his Ancyra inscription notes that to me were sent embassies of kings from India, a tomb was made to the sramana, still visible in the time of Plutarch, which bore the mention ΖΑΡΜΑΝΟΧΗΓΑΣ ΙΝΔΟΣ ΑΠΟ ΒΑΡΓΟΣΗΣ. Strabos account at Geographia xv, i,4 is as follows, From one place in India, with the ambassadors came the Indian Gymnosophist, who committed himself to the flames at Athens, like Calanus, who exhibited the same spectacle in the presence of Alexander. Strabo adds To these accounts may be added that of Nicolaus Damascenus and this writer states that at Antioch, near Daphne, he met with ambassadors from the Indians, who were sent to Augustus Caesar. It appeared from the letter that several persons were mentioned in it, the rest had died chiefly in consequence of the length of the journey. Eight naked servants, with girdles round their waists, and fragrant with perfumes, presented the gifts which were brought. The presents were a Hermes born without arms, whom I have seen, large snakes, a serpent ten cubits in length and they were accompanied by the person, it is said, who burnt himself to death at Athens. This is the practice with persons in distress, who escape from existing calamities. On his tomb was this inscription, ZARMANOCHEGAS, AN INDIAN, A NATIVE OF BARGOSA, HAVING IMMORTALIZED HIMSELF ACCORDING TO THE CUSTOM OF HIS COUNTRY, HERE LIES. The Eleusinian Mysteries were initiation ceremonies of pre-historic antiquity focused on immortality and held in honour of Demeter, Augustus became an initiate in 22/21BC and again in 19BC. The later Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius also was initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries in Athens, charles Eliot in his Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch considers that the name Zarmanochegas perhaps contains the two words Sramana and Acarya. McCrindle infers from this that Zarmanochegas was a Buddhist priest or ascetic, groskurd refers to Zarmanochegas as Zarmanos Chanes and as an Indian wiseman. Priaulx translates the name in Sanskrit as çramanakarja and adds which points him out as of the Buddhist faith and a priest, and, as his death proves, halkias situates Zarmanochegas within a lineage of Buddhist sramanas who had adopted the custom of setting themselves on fire. And of these there are two classes, some of them called Sarmanæ and others Brahmins
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Sadhu
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In Hinduism, a sādhu is a religious ascetic or holy person. It literally means one who practises a ″sadhana″ or keenly follows a path of spiritual discipline. Although the vast majority of sādhus are yogīs, the sādhu is solely dedicated to achieving mokṣa, the fourth and final aśrama, through meditation and contemplation of Brahman. Sādhus often wear saffron-coloured clothing, symbolising their sannyāsa and this way of life is open to women, the female form of the word is sādhvī. The Sanskrit terms sādhu and sādhvī refer to renouncers who have chosen to live apart from or on the edges of society to focus on their own spiritual practices. The words come from the root sādh, which means reach ones goal, make straight, the same root is used in the word sādhanā, which means spiritual practice. It literally means one who practises a ″sadhana″ or a path of spiritual discipline, there are 4 to 5 million sadhus in India today and they are widely respected for their holiness. It is also thought that the practices of the sadhus help to burn off their karma. Thus seen as benefiting society, sadhus are supported by donations from many people, however, reverence of sadhus is by no means universal in India. Historically and contemporarily, sadhus have often been viewed with a degree of suspicion. Today, especially in popular pilgrimage cities, posing as a sadhu can be a means of acquiring income for non-devout beggars, there are naked sadhus who wear their hair in thick dreadlocks called jata. Aghori sadhus may claim to keep company with ghosts and live in cemeteries as part of their holy path, indian culture tends to emphasise an infinite number of paths to God, such that sadhus, and the varieties of tradition they continue, have their place. The plant is used during the celebration of Maha Shivaratri. Sadhus engage in a variety of religious practices. Some practice extreme asceticism while others focus on praying, chanting or meditating, less numerous are Shakta sadhus, who are devoted to Shakti. Within these general divisions are numerous sects and subsects, reflecting different lineages and philosophical schools, the Dashanami Sampradaya are Smartists, sadhus in the sect take one of the ten names as an appellation upon initiation. The sect is said to have formed by the philosopher and renunciant Adi Shankara, believed to have lived in the 8th century CE. Among them are the Naga, naked sadhu known for carrying weapons like tridents, swords, canes, said to have once functioned as an armed order to protect Hindus from the Mughal rulers, they were involved in a number of military defence campaigns. Generally in the ambit of non-violence at present, some sections are known to practice wrestling and their retreats are still called chhaavni or armed camps, and mock duels are still sometimes held between them
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Gymnosophists". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the