1.
Virupaksha Temple
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Virupaksha Temple is located in Hampi 350 km from Bangalore, in the state of Karnataka in southern India. It is part of the Group of Monuments at Hampi, designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Virupaksha is a form of Shiva and has other temples dedicated to him, notably at the Group of Monuments at Pattadakal, another World Heritage Site. The temple was built by Lakkana Dandesha, a chieftain under the ruler Deva Raya II of the Vijayanagara Empire, Hampi, capital of the Vijayanagara empire, sits on the banks of the Tungabhadra River. Virupaksha Temple is the center of pilgrimage at Hampi, and has been considered the most sacred sanctuary over the centuries. It is intact among the ruins and is still used in worship. The temple is dedicated to Lord Shiva, known here as Virupaksha, there is also a Virupakshini Amma temple in a village called Nalagamapalle, Chittoor district, Andhra Pradesh, approximately 100 km from Tirupati. The temples history is uninterrupted from about the 7th century, the Virupaksha-Pampa sanctuary existed well before the Vijayanagara capital was located here. Inscriptions referring to Shiva date back to the 9th and 10th centuries, what started as a small shrine grew into a large complex under the Vijayanagara rulers. Evidence indicates there were made to the temple in the late Chalukyan and Hoysala periods. The huge temple building was built by Lakkana Dandesha, a chieftain under the ruler Deva Raya II of the Vijayanagara Empire, under the Vijayanagara rulers, in the middle of the 14th century, there began a flowering of native art and culture. When the rulers were defeated by Muslim invaders in the 16th century, most of the wonderful decorative structures, the religious sect of Virupaksha-Pampa did not end with the destruction of the city in 1565. Worship there has persisted throughout the years, at the beginning of the 19th century there were major renovations and additions, which included ceiling paintings and the towers of the north and east gopura. At present, the temple consists of a sanctum, three ante chambers, a pillared hall and an open pillared hall. A pillared cloister, entrance gateways, courtyards, smaller shrines, the nine-tiered eastern gateway, which is the largest at 50 meters, is well-proportioned and incorporates some earlier structures. It has a superstructure and a stone base. It gives access to the court containing many sub-shrines. The smaller eastern gateway leads to the court with its numerous smaller shrines. Another gopuram towards north known as the Kanakagiri gopura, leads to an enclosure with subsidiary shrines
Virupaksha Temple
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The Virupaksha or the Pampapathi temple
Virupaksha Temple
Virupaksha Temple
Virupaksha Temple
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Virupaksha Temple as seen from above
2.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
Geographic coordinate system
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Longitude lines are perpendicular and latitude lines are parallel to the equator.
3.
India
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India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and it is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast. It shares land borders with Pakistan to the west, China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast, in the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Indias Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a border with Thailand. The Indian subcontinent was home to the urban Indus Valley Civilisation of the 3rd millennium BCE, in the following millennium, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism began to be composed. Social stratification, based on caste, emerged in the first millennium BCE, early political consolidations took place under the Maurya and Gupta empires, the later peninsular Middle Kingdoms influenced cultures as far as southeast Asia. In the medieval era, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived, much of the north fell to the Delhi sultanate, the south was united under the Vijayanagara Empire. The economy expanded in the 17th century in the Mughal empire, in the mid-18th century, the subcontinent came under British East India Company rule, and in the mid-19th under British crown rule. A nationalist movement emerged in the late 19th century, which later, under Mahatma Gandhi, was noted for nonviolent resistance, in 2015, the Indian economy was the worlds seventh largest by nominal GDP and third largest by purchasing power parity. Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the major economies and is considered a newly industrialised country. However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, corruption, malnutrition, a nuclear weapons state and regional power, it has the third largest standing army in the world and ranks sixth in military expenditure among nations. India is a constitutional republic governed under a parliamentary system. It is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society and is home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats. The name India is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindu, the latter term stems from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, which was the historical local appellation for the Indus River. The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi, which translates as The people of the Indus, the geographical term Bharat, which is recognised by the Constitution of India as an official name for the country, is used by many Indian languages in its variations. Scholars believe it to be named after the Vedic tribe of Bharatas in the second millennium B. C. E and it is also traditionally associated with the rule of the legendary emperor Bharata. Gaṇarājya is the Sanskrit/Hindi term for republic dating back to the ancient times, hindustan is a Persian name for India dating back to the 3rd century B. C. E. It was introduced into India by the Mughals and widely used since then and its meaning varied, referring to a region that encompassed northern India and Pakistan or India in its entirety
India
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Flag
India
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The granite
tower of
Brihadeeswarar Temple in
Thanjavur was completed in 1010 CE by
Raja Raja Chola I.
India
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Writing the will and testament of the Mughal king court in Persian, 1590–1595
4.
States and territories of India
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India is a federal union comprising twenty-nine states and seven union territories. The states and union territories are further subdivided into districts and further into smaller administrative divisions, the Constitution of India distributes the sovereign executive and legislative powers exercisable with respect to the territory of any State between the Union and that State. The Indian subcontinent has been ruled by different ethnic groups throughout its history. Between 1947 and 1950, the territories of the states were politically integrated into the Indian Union. The new Constitution of India, which came into force on 26 January 1950, the new republic was also declared to be a Union of States. The nine Part A states were Assam, Bihar, Bombay, Madhya Pradesh, Madras, Orissa, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal. The eight Part B states were former princely states or groups of states, governed by a rajpramukh, who was usually the ruler of a constituent state. The rajpramukh was appointed by the President of India, the Part B states were Hyderabad, Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Bharat, Mysore, Patiala and East Punjab States Union, Rajasthan, Saurashtra, and Travancore-Cochin. The ten Part C states included both the former chief commissioners provinces and some states, and each was governed by a chief commissioner appointed by the President of India. The Part C states were Ajmer, Bhopal, Bilaspur, Coorg, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Cutch, Manipur, Tripura, the only Part D state was the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which were administered by a lieutenant governor appointed by the central government. The Union Territory of Puducherry was created in 1954 comprising the previous French enclaves of Pondichéry, Karaikal, Yanam, Andhra State was created on 1 October 1953 from the Telugu-speaking northern districts of Madras State. The States Reorganisation Act of 1956 reorganised the states based on linguistic lines resulting in the creation of the new states, as a result of this act, Madras State retained its name with Kanyakumari district added to from Travancore-Cochin. Andhra Pradesh was created with the merger of Andhra State with the Telugu-speaking districts of Hyderabad State in 1956, kerala was created with the merger of Malabar district and the Kasaragod taluk of South Canara districts of Madras State with Travancore-Cochin. The Laccadive Islands which were divided between South Canara and Malabar districts of Madras State were united and organised into the territory of Lakshadweep. Bombay State was enlarged by the addition of Saurashtra State and Kutch State, Rajasthan and Punjab gained territories from Ajmer and Patiala and East Punjab States Union respectively and certain territories of Bihar was transferred to West Bengal. Bombay State was split into the states of Gujarat and Maharashtra on 1 May 1960 by the Bombay Reorganisation Act. Nagaland was formed on 1 December 1963, the Punjab Reorganisation Act of 1966 resulted in the creation of Haryana on 1 November and the transfer of the northern districts of Punjab to Himachal Pradesh. The act also designated Chandigarh as a territory and the shared capital of Punjab
States and territories of India
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Hyderabad state in 1909
5.
Karnataka
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Karnataka is a state in south western region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, originally known as the State of Mysore, it was renamed Karnataka in 1973. The capital and largest city is Bangalore, the state covers an area of 191,976 square kilometres, or 5.83 percent of the total geographical area of India. It is the seventh largest Indian state by area, with 61,130,704 inhabitants at the 2011 census, Karnataka is the eighth largest state by population, comprising 30 districts. Kannada, one of the languages of India, is the most widely spoken. Most of these rivers flow out of Karnataka eastward into the Bay of Bengal, though several etymologies have been suggested for the name Karnataka, the generally accepted one is that Karnataka is derived from the Kannada words karu and nādu, meaning elevated land. Karu nadu may also be read as karu, meaning black, the British used the word Carnatic, sometimes Karnatak, to describe both sides of peninsular India, south of the Krishna. With an antiquity that dates to the paleolithic, Karnataka has been home to some of the most powerful empires of ancient, the philosophers and musical bards patronised by these empires launched socio-religious and literary movements which have endured to the present day. Karnataka has contributed significantly to both forms of Indian classical music, the Carnatic and Hindustani traditions, Karnatakas pre-history goes back to a paleolithic hand-axe culture evidenced by discoveries of, among other things, hand axes and cleavers in the region. Evidence of neolithic and megalithic cultures have also found in the state. Gold discovered in Harappa was found to be imported from mines in Karnataka, prior to the third century BCE, most of Karnataka formed part of the Nanda Empire before coming under the Mauryan empire of Emperor Ashoka. Four centuries of Satavahana rule followed, allowing them to large areas of Karnataka. The decline of Satavahana power led to the rise of the earliest native kingdoms, the Kadambas, the Kadamba Dynasty, founded by Mayurasharma, had its capital at Banavasi, the Western Ganga Dynasty was formed with Talakad as its capital. These were also the first kingdoms to use Kannada in administration, as evidenced by the Halmidi inscription, the Western Chalukyas patronised a unique style of architecture and Kannada literature which became a precursor to the Hoysala art of 12th century. Parts of modern-day Southern Karnataka were occupied by the Chola Empire at the turn of 11th century, the Cholas and the Hoysalas fought over the region in the early 12th century before it eventually came under Hoysala rule. At the turn of the first millennium, the Hoysalas gained power in the region, literature flourished during this time, which led to the emergence of distinctive Kannada literary metres, and the construction of temples and sculptures adhering to the Vesara style of architecture. The expansion of the Hoysala Empire brought minor parts of modern Andhra Pradesh, in the early 14th century, Harihara and Bukka Raya established the Vijayanagara empire with its capital, Hosapattana, on the banks of the Tungabhadra River in the modern Bellary district. The empire rose as a bulwark against Muslim advances into South India, in 1565, Karnataka and the rest of South India experienced a major geopolitical shift when the Vijayanagara empire fell to a confederation of Islamic sultanates in the Battle of Talikota
Karnataka
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Mallikarjuna temple and Kashi Vishwanatha temple at
Pattadakal, Karnataka, built successively by the kings of the
Chalukya Empire and
Rashtrakuta Empire is a
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Karnataka
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Map of Karnataka
Karnataka
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Hoysala Empire sculptural articulation in
Belur.
Karnataka
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Shilabalika sculpture at the Chennakeshva Temple in Belur
6.
List of districts of India
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A district is an administrative division of an Indian state or territory. In some cases districts are subdivided into sub-divisions, and in others directly into tehsils or talukas. As of 2016 there are a total of 707 districts, up from the 640 in the 2011 Census of India, mahe of Puducherry is the smallest district of India by area while Kutch of Gujarat is the largest district of India by area. The majority of districts are named after their administrative centre, some are referred to by two names, a traditional one and one that uses the name of the town that is the headquarters. Since most of the districts are named after a town, the district is appended to distinguish between the town and the district. Official websites very often use District with a capital D in this context, the names of the 687 districts are mostly unique. The following tables list the details of various states
List of districts of India
–
Districts of India
7.
Kannada
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The language has roughly 40 million native speakers who are called Kannadigas, and a total of 50.8 million speakers according to a 2001 census. It is one of the languages of India and the official. The Kannada language is written using the Kannada script, which evolved from the 5th-century Kadamba script, Kannada is attested epigraphically for about one and a half millennia, and literary Old Kannada flourished in the 6th-century Ganga dynasty and during the 9th-century Rashtrakuta Dynasty. Kannada has a literary history of over a thousand years. Based on the recommendations of the Committee of Linguistic Experts, appointed by the ministry of culture, in July 2011, a centre for the study of classical Kannada was established as part of the Central Institute of Indian Languages at Mysore to facilitate research related to the language. Kannada is a Southern Dravidian language, and according to Dravidian scholar Sanford B, steever, its history can be conventionally divided into three periods, Old Kannada from 450–1200 CE, Middle Kannada from 1200–1700, and Modern Kannada from 1700 to the present. Kannada is influenced to an extent by Sanskrit. Influences of other such as Prakrit and Pali can also be found in the Kannada language. Literary Prakrit seems to have prevailed in Karnataka since ancient times, the vernacular Prakrit-speaking people may have come into contact with Kannada speakers, thus influencing their language, even before Kannada was used for administrative or liturgical purposes. Kannada phonetics, morphology, vocabulary, grammar and syntax show significant influence from these languages, some examples of naturalised words of Prakrit origin in Kannada are, baṇṇa derived from vaṇṇa, hunnime from puṇṇivā. Examples of naturalized Sanskrit words in Kannada are, varṇa, arasu from rajan, paurṇimā, Kannada has numerous borrowed words such as dina, kopa, surya, mukha, nimiṣa and anna. Pre-old Kannada was the language of Banavasi in the early Common Era, the Ashoka rock edict found at Brahmagiri has been suggested to contain words in identifiable Kannada. According to Jain tradition, Brahmi, the daughter of Rishabhadeva, the first Tirthankara of Jainism, invented 18 alphabets, including Kannada, which points to the antiquity of the language. Supporting this tradition, an inscription of about the 9th century CE, containing specimens of different alphabets and it has been claimed that the Greek dramatists of the 5th–4th century BCE were familiar with the Kannada country and language. This would show a far more intimate contact of the Greeks with Kannada culture than with Indian culture elsewhere, the palm manuscripts contained texts written not only in Greek, Latin and Hebrew, but also in Sanskrit and Kannada. In the 150 CE Prakrit book Gaathaa Saptashati, written by Haala Raja, Kannada words like tIr, tuppa, on the Pallava Prakrit inscription of 250 CE of Hire Hadagalis Shivaskandavarman, the Kannada word kOTe transforms into koTTa. In the 350 CE Chandravalli Prakrit inscription, words of Kannada origin like punaaTa, in one more Prakrit inscription of 250 CE found in Malavalli, Kannada towns like vEgooraM, kundamuchchaMDi find a reference. Pliny the Elder was a naval and army commander in the early Roman Empire and he writes about pirates between Muziris and Nitrias
Kannada
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The
Halmidi inscription at
Halmidi village, in old-Kannada, is usually dated to AD 450 (
Kadamba Dynasty)
Kannada
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Distribution of native Kannada speakers in India
Kannada
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Old-Kannada inscription dated AD 578 (Badami Chalukya dynasty) at
Badami cave temple no.3
Kannada
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Old-Kannada inscription of c. AD 726, discovered in
Talakad, from the rule of King Shivamara I or Sripurusha (
Western Ganga Dynasty)
8.
Indian Standard Time
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Indian Standard Time is the time observed throughout India and Sri Lanka, with a time offset of UTC+05,30. India does not observe daylight saving time or other seasonal adjustments, in military and aviation time IST is designated E*. Indian Standard Time is calculated on the basis of 82.30 E longitude, in Shankargarh Fort, in the tz database, it is represented by Asia/Kolkata. The Central observatory was moved from Chennai to a location at Shankargarh Fort Allahabad district, daylight Saving Time was used briefly during the China–Indian War of 1962 and the Indo–Pakistani Wars of 1965 and 1971. Inhabitants of the states have to advance their clocks with the early sunrise. In the late 1980s, a team of researchers proposed separating the country two or three time zones to conserve energy. The binary system that they suggested involved a return to British–era time zones, in 2001, the government established a four–member committee under the Ministry of Science and Technology to examine the need for multiple time zones and daylight saving. In Assam, tea gardens follow a separate time zone, known as the Chaibagaan or Bagan time, still Indian Standard Time remains the only officially used time. The filmmaker Jahnu Barua has been campaigning for a time zone for the past 25 years. In 2010, he suggested creating a time zone for the Development of Northeastern Region. In 2014, Chief Minister of Assam Tarun Gogoi started campaigning for another time zone for Assam, however, the proposal would need to be cleared by the Central Government of India. Official time signals are generated by the Time and Frequency Standards Laboratory at the National Physical Laboratory in New Delhi, the signals are based on atomic clocks and are synchronised with the worldwide system of clocks that support the Coordinated Universal Time. IST is taken as the time as it passes through almost the centre of India. To communicate the exact time to the people, the time is broadcast over the state-owned All India Radio. Telephone companies have dedicated phone numbers connected to mirror time servers that also relay the precise time, another increasingly popular means of obtaining the time is through Global Positioning System receivers
Indian Standard Time
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IST in relation with the bordering nations
9.
Hospet
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Hospet or Hosapete is a city in the Bellary District in central Karnataka, India. It is located on the Tungabhadra River,12 km from Hampi, Hampi is a World Heritage site containing the ruins of the medieval city Vijayanagara, the former capital of the Vijayanagara Empire. Hospet was built in 1520 AD by Krishna Deva Raya, one of the rulers of Vijayanagara and he built the city to honour the memory of his mother Nagalambika. The city was originally named Nagalapura, however, people referred to the city as Hosa Pete, the area between Hampi and Hospet is still called Nagalapura. This was the entrance to the city of Vijayanagara for travellers coming from Goa. The current MLA for this area is Anand Singh, the government approved a request to rename the city in October 2014, and Hospet was renamed Hosapete on 1 November 2014. Hospet is well connected to important cities in India. Bellary, the capital, is located approximately 60 km away from Hospet. Hosapete Junction railway station lies on Hubbali-Guntakal railway line, in addition, the city has a well-developed market area. Hospet is a well-known tourist destination, mainly due to the proximity of Hampi, Tungabhadra Dam is another asset that makes Hospet a popular destination for tourists. Hospet is also notable for its iron ore mining and steel plants, according to the 2011 census, the total population of Hospet was 206,159. The town has an literacy rate of 80%, with male literacy at 85%. In Hospet, 12% of the population is under 6 years of age
Hospet
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60 years for T.B DAM
Hospet
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hosapete city municipal council 100 years celebration
Hospet
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new city bus green
Hospet
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jsw vijayanagara bus terminal hosapete
10.
World Heritage Site
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A World Heritage Site is a landmark which has been officially recognized by the United Nations, specifically by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Sites are selected on the basis of having cultural, historical, scientific or some form of significance. UNESCO regards these sites as being important to the interests of humanity. The programme catalogues, names, and conserves sites of outstanding cultural or natural importance to the common culture, under certain conditions, listed sites can obtain funds from the World Heritage Fund. The program was founded with the Convention Concerning the Protection of the Worlds Cultural and Natural Heritage, since then,192 state parties have ratified the convention, making it one of the most adhered to international instruments. As of July 2016,1052 sites are listed,814 cultural,203 natural, in 1959, the governments of Egypt and Sudan requested UNESCO to assist their countries to protect and rescue the endangered monuments and sites. In 1960, the Director-General of UNESCO launched an appeal to the Member States for an International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia, the campaign, which ended in 1980, was considered a success. The project cost $80 million, about $40 million of which was collected from 50 countries, the projects success led to other safeguarding campaigns, saving Venice and its lagoon in Italy, the ruins of Mohenjo-daro in Pakistan, and the Borobodur Temple Compounds in Indonesia. UNESCO then initiated, with the International Council on Monuments and Sites, the United States initiated the idea of cultural conservation with nature conservation. The International Union for Conservation of Nature developed similar proposals in 1968, the Convention came into force on 17 December 1975. As of June 2016, it has been ratified by 192 states, including 188 UN member states plus the Cook Islands, the Holy See, Niue, a country must first list its significant cultural and natural sites, the result is called the Tentative List. A country may not nominate sites that have not been first included on the Tentative List, next, it can place sites selected from that list into a Nomination File. The Nomination File is evaluated by the International Council on Monuments and Sites and these bodies then make their recommendations to the World Heritage Committee. There are ten selection criteria – a site must meet at least one of them to be included on the list, up to 2004, there were six criteria for cultural heritage and four criteria for natural heritage. In 2005, this was modified so there is now only one set of ten criteria. Nominated sites must be of outstanding value and meet at least one of the ten criteria. Thus, the Geneva Convention treaty promulgates, Article 53, PROTECTION OF CULTURAL OBJECTS AND OF PLACES OF WORSHIP. There are 1,052 World Heritage Sites located in 165 States Party, of these,814 are cultural,203 are natural and 35 are mixed properties
World Heritage Site
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Site #252:
Taj Mahal, an example of cultural heritage site
World Heritage Site
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Logo of the
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
World Heritage Committee
World Heritage Site
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Site #156:
Serengeti National Park, an example of natural heritage site
World Heritage Site
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Site #274:
Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu, an example of mixed heritage site
11.
List of World Heritage in Danger
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Entries in the list are threatened World Heritage Sites for the conservation of which major operations are required and for which assistance has been requested. The list is intended to increase awareness of the threats. Threats to a site can be either proven imminent threats or potential dangers that could have effects on a site. Potential dangers for both cultural and natural sites include development projects, armed conflicts, insufficient management systems or changes in the protective status of the properties. In the case of sites, gradual changes due to geology. The final decision about inscription is made by the committee, financial support from the World Heritage Fund may be allocated by the committee for listed properties. Of the two Former UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the Dresden Elbe Valley was delisted after placement on the List of World Heritage in Danger while the Arabian Oryx Sanctuary was directly delisted, as of 2016, there are 55 entries on the List of World Heritage in Danger. Some sites have been designated as World Heritage Sites and World Heritage in Danger in the year, such as the Church of the Nativity. Arranged by the UNESCO regions 21 of the sites are located in the Arab States,17 in Africa,7 in Latin America and the Caribbean,6 in Asia and the Pacific. The majority of the natural sites are located in Africa. Despite this, the list itself and UNESCOs implementation of it have been the focus of criticism, in particular, States Parties and other stakeholders of World Heritage Sites have questioned the authority of the Committee to declare a site in danger without their consent. The Union also argues that keeping a site listed as endangered over a period is questionable. The Everglades National Park was listed from 1993 to 2007 and again since 2010, both are therefore included in the list of currently listed sites. Citations General World Heritage in Danger, A compendium of key decisions on the conservation of natural World Heritage properties via the List of World Heritage in Danger, chape, Stuart, Spalding, Mark, Jenkins, Martin. The worlds protected areas, status, values and prospects in the 21st century, timothy, Dallen J. Nyaupane, Gyan P. Cultural heritage and tourism in the world, a regional perspective. Contemporary geographies of leisure, tourism and mobility, UNESCO World Heritage Sites, official site UNESCO World Heritage Centre – World Heritage in Danger List, official site UNESCO Heritage Centre – World Heritage List, official site
List of World Heritage in Danger
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The
Church of the Nativity, traditionally considered the birthplace of
Jesus, is one of several sites to have been designated as
World Heritage Sites and World Heritage in Danger in the same year.
List of World Heritage in Danger
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Abu Mena
List of World Heritage in Danger
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Air and Ténéré Natural Reserves
List of World Heritage in Danger
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Ancient City of Aleppo
12.
UNESCO
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The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations based in Paris. It is the heir of the League of Nations International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, UNESCO has 195 member states and nine associate members. Most of its offices are cluster offices covering three or more countries, national and regional offices also exist. UNESCO pursues its objectives through five major programs, education, natural sciences, social/human sciences, culture and it is also a member of the United Nations Development Group. UNESCO and its mandate for international cooperation can be traced back to a League of Nations resolution on 21 September 1921, on 18 December 1925, the International Bureau of Education began work as a non-governmental organization in the service of international educational development. However, the work of predecessor organizations was largely interrupted by the onset of World War II. On 30 October 1943, the necessity for an organization was expressed in the Moscow Declaration, agreed upon by China, the United Kingdom, the United States. This was followed by the Dumbarton Oaks Conference proposals of 9 October 1944, a prominent figure in the initiative for UNESCO was Rab Butler, the Minister of Education for the United Kingdom. At the ECO/CONF, the Constitution of UNESCO was introduced and signed by 37 countries, the Preparatory Commission operated between 16 November 1945, and 4 November 1946—the date when UNESCOs Constitution came into force with the deposit of the twentieth ratification by a member state. The first General Conference took place between 19 November to 10 December 1946, and elected Dr. Julian Huxley to Director-General and this change in governance distinguished UNESCO from its predecessor, the CICI, in how member states would work together in the organizations fields of competence. In 1956, the Republic of South Africa withdrew from UNESCO claiming that some of the organizations publications amounted to interference in the racial problems. South Africa rejoined the organization in 1994 under the leadership of Nelson Mandela, UNESCOs early work in the field of education included the pilot project on fundamental education in the Marbial Valley, Haiti, started in 1947. This project was followed by missions to other countries, including, for example. In 1948, UNESCO recommended that Member States should make free primary education compulsory, in 1990, the World Conference on Education for All, in Jomtien, Thailand, launched a global movement to provide basic education for all children, youths and adults. Ten years later, the 2000 World Education Forum held in Dakar, Senegal, UNESCOs early activities in culture included, for example, the Nubia Campaign, launched in 1960. The purpose of the campaign was to move the Great Temple of Abu Simbel to keep it from being swamped by the Nile after construction of the Aswan Dam, during the 20-year campaign,22 monuments and architectural complexes were relocated. This was the first and largest in a series of campaigns including Mohenjo-daro, Fes, Kathmandu, Borobudur, the organizations work on heritage led to the adoption, in 1972, of the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. The World Heritage Committee was established in 1976 and the first sites inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1978, since then important legal instruments on cultural heritage and diversity have been adopted by UNESCO member states in 2003 and 2005
UNESCO
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UNESCO offices in
Brasília
UNESCO
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UNESCO
UNESCO
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UNESCO Institute for Water Education in
Delft
UNESCO
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The Garden of Peace, UNESCO headquarters, Paris. Donated by the Government of Japan, this garden was designed by American-Japanese sculptor artist Isamu Noguchi in 1958 and installed by Japanese gardener Toemon Sano.
13.
Vijayanagara
–
Vijaya Nagara was the capital city of the historic Vijayanagara Empire which extended over South India. The citys ruins, surrounding the village of Hampi, are in Ballari district. Most of the city lies on the bank of the Tungabhadra River. The city was built around the center of the Virupaksha temple complex at Hampi. Other holy places lie within its environs, including the site that legend calls as Kishkindha, which includes the historically important Hanuman temple and it is known to house the cave home of Sugriva, the monkey king in the Hindu epic Ramayana. The city at its greatest extent was considerably larger than the described here. The central areas of the city, which include what are now called the Royal Centre and it includes the modern village of Hampi. Another village, Kamalapura, lies just outside the old walled city, surrounded by ruins, the nearest town and railway is in Hospet, about 13 kilometres by road. Hosapete lies within the extents of the old city, though most of the items of interest are walking distance of Hampi. The natural setting for the city is a landscape, dotted with granite boulders. The Tungabhadra river runs through it and provides protection from the north, beyond the hills, on the south bank on which the city was built, a plain extended further the south. Large walls and fortifications of hewn granite defended the centre of the city, the name translates as City of Victory, from vijaya and nagara. As the prosperous capital of the largest and most powerful kingdom of its time in all of India, after Timurs sack of Delhi, North India remained weak and divided up. South India was better off, and the largest and most powerful of the kingdoms was Vijayanagar. This state and city attracted many of the Hindu refugees from the north, the whole city was full of gardens, and because of them, as an Italian visitor in 1420, Nicolo Conti writes, the circumference of the city was sixty miles. A later visitor was Paes, a Portuguese who came in 1522 after having visited the Italian cities of the Renaissance. The city of Vijayanagar, he says, is as large as Rome and very beautiful to the sight, it is full of charm and wonder with its lakes and waterways. It is the city in the world and everything abounds
Vijayanagara
–
A view of the Virupaksha complex from Hemakuta hill
Vijayanagara
–
"Ancient City of Beejnuggur: Ruins near Camalapore", photo circa 1865-1871
Vijayanagara
–
Virupaksha Temple
14.
Vijayanagara Empire
–
The Vijayanagara Empire was based in the Deccan Plateau region in South India. It was established in 1336 by Harihara I and his brother Bukka Raya I of Sangama Dynasty, the empire rose to prominence as a culmination of attempts by the southern powers to ward off Islamic invasions by the end of the 13th century. It lasted until 1646, although its power declined after a military defeat in 1565 by the Deccan sultanates. The empire is named after its city of Vijayanagara, whose ruins surround present day Hampi, now a World Heritage Site in Karnataka. The writings of medieval European travelers such as Domingo Paes, Fernão Nunes, and Niccolò Da Conti, Archaeological excavations at Vijayanagara have revealed the empires power and wealth. The empires legacy includes many monuments spread over South India, the best known of which is the group at Hampi, the previous temple building traditions in South India came together in the Vijayanagara Architecture style. The mingling of all faiths and vernaculars inspired architectural innovation of Hindu temple construction, first in the Deccan, efficient administration and vigorous overseas trade brought new technologies such as water management systems for irrigation. The empires patronage enabled fine arts and literature to new heights in Kannada, Telugu, Tamil. The Vijayanagara Empire created an epoch in South Indian history that transcended regionalism by promoting Hinduism as a unifying factor, differing theories have been proposed regarding the origins of the Vijayanagara empire. Others claim that they were Telugu people, first associated with the Kakatiya Kingdom, irrespective of their origin, historians agree the founders were supported and inspired by Vidyaranya, a saint at the Sringeri monastery to fight the Muslim invasion of South India. He created the Kampili kingdom, but this was a short lived kingdom during this period of wars, Kampili existed near Gulbarga and Tungabhadra river in northeastern parts of the present-day Karnataka state. It ended after a defeat by the armies of Delhi Sultanate, the triumphant army led by Malik Zada sent the news of its victory, over Kampili kingdom, to Muhammad bin Tughluq in Delhi by sending a straw-stuffed severed head of the dead Hindu king. Within Kampili, on the day of certain defeat, the populace committed a jauhar in 1327/28 CE, eight years later, from the ruins of the Kampili kingdom emerged the Vijayanagara Kingdom in 1336 CE. In the first two decades after the founding of the empire, Harihara I gained control over most of the south of the Tungabhadra river. The original capital was in the principality of Anegondi on the banks of the Tungabhadra River in todays Karnataka. The next ruler, Deva Raya I, emerged successful against the Gajapatis of Odisha, italian traveler Niccolo de Conti wrote of him as the most powerful ruler of India. Deva Raya II succeeded to the throne in 1424 and was possibly the most capable of the Sangama dynasty rulers and he quelled rebelling feudal lords as well as the Zamorin of Calicut and Quilon in the south. He invaded the island of Lanka and became overlord of the kings of Burma at Pegu, the Sultanate invaded Vijayanagara in 1417 when the latter defaulted in paying the tribute
Vijayanagara Empire
–
Map of South India in 15th century
Vijayanagara Empire
–
Extent of Vijayanagara Empire, 1446, 1520 CE
Vijayanagara Empire
–
Virupaksha Temple,
Hampi
Vijayanagara Empire
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Natural fortress at
Vijayanagara
15.
Tungabhadra River
–
In the epic Ramayana, the Tungabhadra River was known by the name of Pampa. The Tungabhadra River is formed by the confluence of the Tunga River, the Bhadra river flows through the industrial city Bhadravathi. More than 100 tributaries, streams, creeks, rivulets and the like contribute to the two rivers and it is a confluence of both the Dwaitha and the Adwaitha philosophies. Many rivulets and streams join these tributaries, there are many holy places all along the rivers, primarily temples of Saiva Cult on the banks of the Bhadra and all the cults on the banks of the Tunga. Sringeri, Sarada Petham established by the Adi Shankaracharya is the most famous one on the bank of the Tunga. There is a cluster of Nava Brahma temples constructed by the early Chalukyas, an important feature of the river banks is the flood protection walls all along the rivers, constructed by Sri Krishna Devaraya between 1525 and 1527 AD. You find them there is a possibility of land erosion during the floods. It starts at Sringeri and ends at Kurnool, just few kilometers from its mouth and they are stone constructions and still intact. Huge boulders of 3 x 4 x 5 are also used in its construction and it then takes a northeasterly direction through rugged ridges formed by boulders piled on ancient granite outcroppings over the elevated plateau that dominates peninsular India, the Deccan Plateau. Piles of granite in varying shades of grey, ochre and pink dominate the landscape, the river has cut through weaker rocky substrata of the Hampi landscape and created a narrow gorge where granite hills confine the river in a deep ravine. The Tungabhadra Dam was constructed at Hosapete in the middle of the 20th century to harness the water, aiding the growth of agriculture. The Tungabhadra River then flows east, joining the Krishna along the border of Andhra Pradesh, from here the Krishna continues east to empty into the Bay of Bengal. The wedge of land that lies north of the Tungabhadra River, shringeri Sharadamba Temple is on the banks of the Tunga River in Chikmagalur District, Karnataka. There are a number of ancient and holy sites on the banks of the Tungabhadra River, at Harihara there is a temple dedicated to Harihareshwara. Surrounding the modern town of Hampi are the ruins of Vijayanagara, the site, including the Vijayanagara temple complex ruins, are being restored. The Nava Brahma Temples complex is one of the earliest models of architecture in India. The Moola Brindavana of Guru Raghavendra is located on the banks of the Tungabhadra at Mantralayam, about 15 km upstream from Shimoga at Gajanur across the River Tunga, a dam was constructed. At Lakkavalli about 15 km upstream of Bhadravati across the Bhadra a dam was constructed and they are multipurpose dams and irrigate lands in Shimoga, Chikkamagalur, Davanagere and Haveri
Tungabhadra River
–
Tungabhadra River at
Hampi
Tungabhadra River
–
The Two Coracles
Tungabhadra River
–
Contemplating the river, in Hampi
Tungabhadra River
–
Near Hampi
16.
Ashoka
–
Ashoka was an ancient Indian emperor of the Maurya Dynasty who ruled almost all of the Indian subcontinent from c. 268 to 232 BCE. One of Indias greatest emperors, Ashoka reigned over a realm that stretched from the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan to the state of Bangladesh in the east. It covered the entire Indian subcontinent except parts of present-day Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, the empires capital was Pataliputra, with provincial capitals at Taxila and Ujjain. In about 260 BCE, Ashoka waged a destructive war against the state of Kalinga. He conquered Kalinga, which none of his ancestors had done and he embraced Buddhism after witnessing the mass deaths of the Kalinga War, which he himself had waged out of a desire for conquest. Ashoka reflected on the war in Kalinga, which reportedly had resulted in more than 100,000 deaths and 150,000 deportations, Ashoka converted gradually to Buddhism beginning about 263 BCE. He was later dedicated to the propagation of Buddhism across Asia, Ashoka regarded Buddhism as a doctrine that could serve as a cultural foundation for political unity. Ashoka is now remembered as a philanthropic administrator, in the Kalinga edicts, he addresses his people as his children, and mentions that as a father he desires their good. Ashokas name Aśoka means painless, without sorrow in Sanskrit, in his edicts, he is referred to as Devānāmpriya, and Priyadarśin. His fondness for his names connection to the Saraca asoca tree, along with the Edicts of Ashoka, his legend is related in the 2nd-century CE Ashokavadana, and in the Sri Lankan text Mahavamsa. The emblem of the modern Republic of India is an adaptation of the Lion Capital of Ashoka, Ashoka was born to the Mauryan emperor, Bindusara and a relatively lower ranked wife, Subhadrangī. Ashoka became a great emperor despite having an appearance that was unfavorable to his father. He was the grandson of Chandragupta Maurya, founder of the Mauryan dynasty, since, according to Roman historian Appian, Ashokas grandfather Chandragupta had made a marital alliance with Seleucus, there is a possibility that Ashoka had a Seleucid Greek grandmother. The Avadana texts mention that his mother was queen Subhadrangī, according to the Ashokavadana, she was the daughter of a Brahmin from the city of Champa. Though a palace intrigue kept her away from the emperor, this eventually ended and it is from her exclamation I am now without sorrow, that Ashoka got his name. The Divyāvadāna tells a story, but gives the name of the queen as Janapadakalyānī. Ashoka had several siblings, all of whom were his half-brothers from the other wives of Bindusara. His fighting qualities were apparent from an age and he was given royal military training
Ashoka
–
A c. 1st century BCE/CE relief from
Amaravati,
Andhra Pradesh (India). The figure in the centre may represent Ashoka.
Ashoka
–
A c. 1910 painting by
Abanindranath Tagore (1871–1951) depicting Ashoka's queen standing in front of the railings of the Buddhist monument at
Sanchi (
Raisen district,
Madhya Pradesh).
Ashoka
–
A similar four "
Indian lion "
Lion Capital of Ashoka atop an intact
Ashoka Pillar at Wat U Mong near Chiang Mai, Thailand showing another larger
Dharma Chakra /
Ashoka Chakra atop the four lions.
Ashoka
–
Ashokan Pillar at
Vaishali
17.
List of Edicts of Ashoka
–
The following is an overview of Edicts of Ashoka, and where they are located. The translating of these pillars was a point in history. New York, United States, Harper Collins Publishers, chapter 7, Power and Piety, The Maurya Empire, c. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India, From the Stone Age to the 12th Century, the Geographical Locations of The Rock Edicts of Asoka
List of Edicts of Ashoka
–
Distribution of the Edicts of Ashoka
18.
Bellary
–
Bellary is a historic city in Ballari district in Karnataka state, India. It is 306 kilometres from Bangalore, the state capital, There are several legends explaining how Ballari got its name. The first is that a few devout travelling merchants halting in Ballari and they then installed a balla upside down as a Shiva Linga and worshiped it. Eventually, that place was turned into a dedicated to Balleshwara or Shiva, which became distorted to Malleshwara. The second legend is that the city is named after Indra, the king of Gods, the third legend derives the citys name from the old Kannada word Vallari and Vallapuri. The Union Ministry of Home Affairs of the Government of India approved a proposal to rename the city in October 2014, numerous neolithic archaeological sites have been discovered around Ballari, such as the ash mounds at Sanganakallu, Budhihal, Kudithini, Tekkalakote, Hiregudda and Kupgal. The Sanganakallu settlement, spread over an area of 1,000 acres, is one of the largest neolithic complexes known around Ballari. After the Sevuna Yadavas and the Hoysalas were defeated by the Islamic sultanates of Delhi, the Vijayanagara Empire arose under Harihara I and Bukka I, Ballari itself was ruled by the family of Hande Hanumappa Nayaka, a Palayagara of the Vijayanagara rulers. The Hande Nayakas ceased to be rulers of Ballari after Major Thomas Munro disposed of the palayagars of the ceded districts, in 1808 AD, the ceded districts were split into the Ballari and Kadapa districts, and in 1867 AD the Ballari Municipal Council was created. Further, in 1882 AD, Anantapuram district was carved out of the Ballari District, the Maratha princely state of Sandur was surrounded by Ballari district. The industries in the town included a distillery and two steam cotton presses. The steam cotton-spinning mill established in 1894 had 17,800 spindles, on 1 October 1953 AD, the Ballari district of Madras Presidency was divided on a linguistic basis. Areas with a significant Kannada speaking population were transferred to Mysore state, the Ballari city municipal council was upgraded to a city corporation in 2004. Granite rocks and hills form a prominent feature of Bellary, the city is spread mainly around two hills of granite composition, the Ballari Gudda and the Kumbara Gudda. These two hills are dominant features and visible from every part of the city. Ballari Gudda has a circumference of nearly 2 miles and a height of 480 feet, the length of this rock from north-east to south-west is about 1,150 ft. To the east and south lies an irregular heap of boulders, to the west there is a monolith. When viewed from the south-east it looks like the profile of a face and is therefore also known as Face Hill. Bellary is located at 15. 15°N76. 93°E /15.15,76.93 and it has an average elevation of 495 meters
Bellary
–
Ballari Fort
Bellary
–
The main entrance to the Upper Fort at Bellary.
Bellary
–
Mantapam inside the Upper Fort.
Bellary
–
Borey fruit
19.
Maurya Empire
–
The Maurya Empire was a geographically extensive Iron Age historical power founded by Chandragupta Maurya which dominated ancient India between c. 322 and 187 BCE. Originating from the kingdom of Magadha in the Indo-Gangetic Plain in the side of the Indian subcontinent. The empire was the largest to have existed in the Indian subcontinent. By 316 BCE the empire had fully occupied Northwestern India, defeating and conquering the satraps left by Alexander, Chandragupta then defeated the invasion led by Seleucus I, a Macedonian general from Alexanders army, gaining additional territory west of the Indus River. The Maurya Empire was one of the largest empires of the world in its time and it declined for about 50 years after Ashokas rule ended, and it dissolved in 185 BCE with the foundation of the Shunga dynasty in Magadha. After the Kalinga War, the Empire experienced nearly half a century of peace, Mauryan India also enjoyed an era of social harmony, religious transformation, and expansion of the sciences and of knowledge. Ashoka sponsored the spreading of Buddhist ideals into Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia, West Asia, the population of the empire has been estimated to be about 50–60 million, making the Mauryan Empire one of the most populous empires of Antiquity. Archaeologically, the period of Mauryan rule in South Asia falls into the era of Northern Black Polished Ware, the Arthashastra and the Edicts of Ashoka are the primary sources of written records of Mauryan times. The Lion Capital of Ashoka at Sarnath has been made the national emblem of India, the Maurya Empire was founded by Chandragupta Maurya, with help from Chanakya, at Takshashila. Chanakya swore revenge and vowed to destroy the Nanda Empire, meanwhile, the conquering armies of Alexander the Great refused to cross the Beas River and advance further eastward, deterred by the prospect of battling Magadha. Alexander returned to Babylon and re-deployed most of his troops west of the Indus River, soon after Alexander died in Babylon in 323 BCE, his empire fragmented, and local kings declared their independence, leaving several smaller disunited satraps. Chandragupta Mauryas rise to power is shrouded in mystery and controversy, on one hand, a number of ancient Indian accounts, such as the drama Mudrarakshasa by Vishakhadatta, describe his royal ancestry and even link him with the Nanda family. A kshatriya clan known as the Mauryas are referred to in the earliest Buddhist texts, however, any conclusions are hard to make without further historical evidence. Chandragupta first emerges in Greek accounts as Sandrokottos, as a young man he is said to have met Alexander. He is also said to have met the Nanda king, angered him, Chanakyas original intentions were to train a guerilla army under Chandraguptas command. The Mudrarakshasa of Vishakhadatta as well as the Jaina work Parishishtaparvan talk of Chandraguptas alliance with the Himalayan king Parvatka, Chanakya encouraged Chandragupta Maurya and his army to take over the throne of Magadha. These men included the general of Taxila, accomplished students of Chanakya, the representative of King Porus of Kakayee, his son Malayketu. The Macedonians may then have participated, together with other groups, the Mudrarakshasa of Visakhadutta as well as the Jaina work Parisishtaparvan talk of Chandraguptas alliance with the Himalayan king Parvatka, often identified with Porus
Maurya Empire
–
Aśoka pillar at Sarnath. ca. 250 BCE.
Maurya Empire
–
Maurya Empire at its maximum extent
Maurya Empire
–
Ashoka pillar at
Vaishali
Maurya Empire
–
Bas relief at
Sanchi Stupa, 3rd century BCE.
20.
Common Era
–
Common Era or Current Era is a year-numbering system for the Julian and Gregorian calendars that refers to the years since the start of this era, i. e. since AD1. The preceding era is referred to as before the Common or Current Era, the Current Era notation system can be used as a secular alternative to the Dionysian era system, which distinguishes eras as AD and BC. The two notation systems are equivalent, thus 2017 CE corresponds to AD2017 and 400 BCE corresponds to 400 BC. The year-numbering system for the Gregorian calendar is the most widespread civil calendar used in the world today. For decades, it has been the standard, recognized by international institutions such as the United Nations. The expression has been traced back to Latin usage to 1615, as vulgaris aerae, the term Common Era can be found in English as early as 1708, and became more widely used in the mid-19th century by Jewish academics. He attempted to number years from a reference date, an event he referred to as the Incarnation of Jesus. Dionysius labeled the column of the table in which he introduced the new era as Anni Domini Nostri Jesu Christi, numbering years in this manner became more widespread in Europe with its usage by Bede in England in 731. Bede also introduced the practice of dating years before what he supposed was the year of birth of Jesus, in 1422, Portugal became the last Western European country to switch to the system begun by Dionysius. The first use of the Latin term vulgaris aerae discovered so far was in a 1615 book by Johannes Kepler, Kepler uses it again in a 1616 table of ephemerides, and again in 1617. A1635 English edition of that book has the title page in English – so far, a 1701 book edited by John LeClerc includes Before Christ according to the Vulgar Æra,6. A1716 book in English by Dean Humphrey Prideaux says, before the beginning of the vulgar æra, a 1796 book uses the term vulgar era of the nativity. The first so-far-discovered usage of Christian Era is as the Latin phrase aerae christianae on the page of a 1584 theology book. In 1649, the Latin phrase æræ Christianæ appeared in the title of an English almanac, a 1652 ephemeris is the first instance so-far-found for English usage of Christian Era. The English phrase common Era appears at least as early as 1708, a 1759 history book uses common æra in a generic sense, to refer to the common era of the Jews. The first-so-far found usage of the phrase before the era is in a 1770 work that also uses common era and vulgar era as synonyms. The 1797 edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica uses the terms vulgar era, the Catholic Encyclopedia in at least one article reports all three terms being commonly understood by the early 20th century. Thus, the era of the Jews, the common era of the Mahometans, common era of the world
Common Era
–
Key concepts
21.
Colin Mackenzie
–
Colonel Colin Mackenzie was Scottish army officer in the British East India Company who later became the first Surveyor General of India. He was a collector of antiquities and an orientalist, Mackenzie was born in Stornoway on the Island of Lewis, Outer Hebrides, Scotland, the second son of merchant Murdoch Mackenzie and Barbara around 1753 or 1754. In his youth he had an interest in mathematics possibly fostered by his schoolmaster, Lord Kenneth Mackenzie and Francis sought his help in preparing a biography of John Napier and his work on logarithms. When Lord Napier died in 1773, Kenneth Mackenzie helped Colin to obtain commission with the British East India Company to join the Madras Army, when he arrived in Madras on 2 September 1783 he was thirty and was never to return home again. He joined as a Cadet in the Infantry division but was transferred in 1786 as a Cadet of Engineers, arriving in India he first met the daughter of Lord Francis Napier, Hester. Hester was married to Samuel Johnston who worked as a servant at Madurai. Hester introduced Mackenzie to some Brahmins to obtain information on Hindu mathematical traditions as part of the memoir on Napier. The biography project appears to have subsequently dropped but Colin continued to take an interest in antiquities. For the first thirteen years in India, he was busy with military duties and he began in Coimbatore and Dindigul around 1783 followed by engineering duties in Madras, Nellore and Guntur and during the campaign against Mysore from 1790 to 1792. In 1793 he saw action in the Siege of Pondicherry and he was posted as a commanding engineer to Ceylon and returned in 1796. He rose in rank starting from a lieutenant on 16 May 1783, first lieutenant on 6 March 1789. Major by 1 Jan 1806 rising on to become a colonel on 12 August 1819 and it was after his return from Ceylon that he was able to follow his interest in antiquities. In 1799, Mackenzie was part of the British force in the Battle of Seringapatam, where Tipu Sultan, Maharaja of Mysore was defeated. After the defeat of Tipu, he led the Mysore survey between 1799 and 1810 and one of the aims was to establish the boundaries of the state as well as the territories ceded by the Nizam. The survey consisted of interpreters, a team of draftsmen and illustrators who collected material on the history, geography, architecture, history, customs. When he began the survey, he was concerned that he had no skills and was more appalled by the lack of British competence in south Indian languages. Around the same time, the survey was proposed by William Lambton. Mackenzie was told that his survey was not to be military or geographical information
Colin Mackenzie
–
Painting by
Thomas Hickey (1816). From left to right: Dhurmia, a Jain pandit holding a
palm-leaf manuscript, C. Venkata Lechmiah, a Telugu Brahmin pandit, Colin Mackenzie in the red uniform of the East India Company and Kistnaji holding a telescope. The background was said by early commentators to be the statue of
Gomateshwara at
Shravanabelagola but Howes (2010) identifies it as
Karkala.
Colin Mackenzie
–
Watercolour from the Mackenzie collection showing
Nandidrug in October 1791 with the batteries firing. The positions of the batteries was decided by Mackenzie and Lord Cornwallis commended Mackenzie for his role in the victory over Tipu Sultan.
Colin Mackenzie
–
Mackenzie's map of southern India (1808)
Colin Mackenzie
–
Inscriptions in
Mudgeri and at Amaravati (1809)
22.
Archaeological Survey of India
–
It was founded in 1861 by Alexander Cunningham who also became its first Director-General. The first systematic research into Indias history was conducted by the Asiatic Society, based in Calcutta, the society promoted the study of ancient Sanskrit and Persian texts and published an annual journal titled Asiatic Researches. Notable among its members was Charles Wilkins who published the first English translation of the Bhagavad Gita in 1785 with the patronage of the then Governor-General of India. However, the most important of the achievements was the decipherment of the Brahmi script by James Prinsep in 1837. This successful decipherment inaugurated the study of Indian palaeography, armed with the knowledge of Brahmi, Alexander Cunningham, a protégé of Prinsep, carried out a detailed survey of the Buddhist monuments which lasted for over half a century. Inspired by early amateur archaeologists like the Italian military officer, Jean-Baptiste Ventura, the survey was suspended briefly between 1865 and 1871 due to lack of funds but restored by Lord Lawrence the then Viceroy of India. In 1871, the Survey was revived as a separate department, to this day, Alexander Cunningham is revered as the Father of Indian Archaeology. Cunningham retired in 1885 and was succeeded as Director General by James Burgess, Burgess launched a yearly journal The Indian Antiquary and an annual epigraphical publication Epigraphia Indica as a supplement to the Indian Antiquary. The post of Director General was permanently suspended in 1889 due to a crunch and was not restored until 1902. In the interim period, conservation work in the different circles was carried out by the superintendents of the individual circles, the post of Director General was restored by Lord Curzon in 1902. Breaking with tradition, Curzon chose a 26-year-old professor of classical studies at Cambridge named John Marshall to head the survey. Marshall served as Director General for a quarter of a century and during his long tenure, Marshall established the post of Government epigraphist and encouraged epigraphical studies. The most significant event of his tenure was, however, the discovery of the Indus Valley Civilization at Harappa, the success and scale of the discoveries made ensured that the progress made in Marshalls tenure would remain unmatched. Marshall was succeeded by Harold Hargreaves in 1928, Hargreaves was succeeded by Daya Ram Sahni, supervisor of Marshalls excavation of Harappa in 1921−22, who in 1931, became the first Indian Director General of the survey. Sahni was succeeded by J. F. Blakiston and K. N. Dikshit both of whom had participated in the excavations at Harappa and Mohenjodaro, in 1944, a British archaeologist and army officer, Mortimer Wheeler took over as Director General. Wheeler served as Director General till 1948 and during this period he excavated the Iron Age site of Arikamedu, Wheeler was succeeded by N. P. Chakravarti in 1948. The National Museum was inaugurated in New Delhi on August 15,1949 to house the artifacts displayed at the Indian Exhibition in the United Kingdom, madho Sarup Vats and Amalananda Ghosh succeeded Chakravarti. Ghoshs tenure which lasted until 1968 is noted for the excavations of Indus Valley sites at Kalibangan, Lothal, the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act was passed in 1958 bringing the archaeological survey under the aegis of the Ministry of Culture
Archaeological Survey of India
–
Archaeological Survey of India
Archaeological Survey of India
–
Alexander Cunningham
23.
Bangalore
–
Bangalore /bæŋɡəˈlɔːr/, officially known as Bengaluru, is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of about 8.42 million and a population of about 8.52 million, making it the third most populous city. It is located in southern India on the Deccan Plateau and its elevation is over 900 m above sea level, the highest of Indias major cities. In 1638, the Marāthās conquered and ruled Bangalore for almost 50 years, after which the Mughals captured and it was captured by the British after victory in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War, who returned administrative control of the city to the Maharaja of Mysore. The old city developed in the dominions of the Maharaja of Mysore and was capital of the Princely State of Mysore. In 1809, the British shifted their cantonment to Bangalore, outside the old city, and a grew up around it. Following Indias independence in 1947, Bangalore became the capital of Mysore State, the two urban settlements of Bangalore – city and cantonment – which had developed as independent entities merged into a single urban centre in 1949. The existing Kannada name, Bengalūru, was declared the name of the city in 2006. Bangalore is sometimes referred to as the Silicon Valley of India because of its role as the leading information technology exporter. Indian technological organisations ISRO, Infosys, Wipro and HAL are headquartered in the city, a demographically diverse city, Bangalore is the second fastest-growing major metropolis in India. Numerous state-owned aerospace and defence organisations, such as Bharat Electronics, Hindustan Aeronautics, the city also houses the Kannada film industry. The name Bangalore represents a version of the Kannada language name. It is the name of a village near kodegehalli and was copied by Kempegowda to the city of Bangalore, Bangalore was built on a venue earlier called as Shivanasamudram in the 16th century. The earliest reference to the name Bengalūru was found in a ninth-century Western Ganga Dynasty stone inscription on a vīra gallu, in this inscription found in Begur, Bengalūrū is referred to as a place in which a battle was fought in 890 CE. It states that the place was part of the Ganga Kingdom until 1004 and was known as Bengaval-uru, an apocryphal story recounts that the 12th century Hoysala king Veera Ballala II, while on a hunting expedition, lost his way in the forest. Tired and hungry, he came across an old woman who served him boiled beans. The grateful king named the place benda-kaal-uru, which evolved into Bengalūru. On 11 December 2005, the Government of Karnataka announced that it had accepted a proposal by Jnanpith Award winner U. R. Ananthamurthy to rename Bangalore to Bengalūru, on 27 September 2006, the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike passed a resolution to implement the proposed name change
Bangalore
–
Clockwise from top:
UB City,
Infosys, Glass house at
Lal Bagh,
Vidhana Soudha,
Shiva statue,
Bagmane Tech Park ii
Bangalore
–
The Begur
Nageshwara Temple was built in Bangalore around c. 860, during the reign of the
Western Ganga Dynasty.
Bangalore
–
Someshwara Temple dates from the
Chola era
24.
Hosapete
–
Hospet or Hosapete is a city in the Bellary District in central Karnataka, India. It is located on the Tungabhadra River,12 km from Hampi, Hampi is a World Heritage site containing the ruins of the medieval city Vijayanagara, the former capital of the Vijayanagara Empire. Hospet was built in 1520 AD by Krishna Deva Raya, one of the rulers of Vijayanagara and he built the city to honour the memory of his mother Nagalambika. The city was originally named Nagalapura, however, people referred to the city as Hosa Pete, the area between Hampi and Hospet is still called Nagalapura. This was the entrance to the city of Vijayanagara for travellers coming from Goa. The current MLA for this area is Anand Singh, the government approved a request to rename the city in October 2014, and Hospet was renamed Hosapete on 1 November 2014. Hospet is well connected to important cities in India. Bellary, the capital, is located approximately 60 km away from Hospet. Hosapete Junction railway station lies on Hubbali-Guntakal railway line, in addition, the city has a well-developed market area. Hospet is a well-known tourist destination, mainly due to the proximity of Hampi, Tungabhadra Dam is another asset that makes Hospet a popular destination for tourists. Hospet is also notable for its iron ore mining and steel plants, according to the 2011 census, the total population of Hospet was 206,159. The town has an literacy rate of 80%, with male literacy at 85%. In Hospet, 12% of the population is under 6 years of age
Hosapete
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60 years for T.B DAM
Hosapete
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hosapete city municipal council 100 years celebration
Hosapete
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new city bus green
Hosapete
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jsw vijayanagara bus terminal hosapete
25.
Agriculture
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Agriculture is the cultivation and breeding of animals, plants and fungi for food, fiber, biofuel, medicinal plants and other products used to sustain and enhance human life. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of human civilization. The study of agriculture is known as agricultural science, the history of agriculture dates back thousands of years, and its development has been driven and defined by greatly different climates, cultures, and technologies. Industrial agriculture based on large-scale monoculture farming has become the dominant agricultural methodology, genetically modified organisms are an increasing component of agriculture, although they are banned in several countries. Agricultural food production and water management are increasingly becoming global issues that are fostering debate on a number of fronts, the major agricultural products can be broadly grouped into foods, fibers, fuels, and raw materials. Specific foods include cereals, vegetables, fruits, oils, meats, fibers include cotton, wool, hemp, silk and flax. Raw materials include lumber and bamboo, other useful materials are also produced by plants, such as resins, dyes, drugs, perfumes, biofuels and ornamental products such as cut flowers and nursery plants. The word agriculture is a late Middle English adaptation of Latin agricultūra, from ager, field, Agriculture usually refers to human activities, although it is also observed in certain species of ant, termite and ambrosia beetle. To practice agriculture means to use resources to produce commodities which maintain life, including food, fiber, forest products, horticultural crops. This definition includes arable farming or agronomy, and horticulture, all terms for the growing of plants, even then, it is acknowledged that there is a large amount of knowledge transfer and overlap between silviculture and agriculture. In traditional farming, the two are often combined even on small landholdings, leading to the term agroforestry, Agriculture began independently in different parts of the globe, and included a diverse range of taxa. At least 11 separate regions of the Old and New World were involved as independent centers of origin, wild grains were collected and eaten from at least 105,000 years ago. Pigs were domesticated in Mesopotamia around 15,000 years ago, rice was domesticated in China between 13,500 and 8,200 years ago, followed by mung, soy and azuki beans. Sheep were domesticated in Mesopotamia between 13,000 and 11,000 years ago. From around 11,500 years ago, the eight Neolithic founder crops, emmer and einkorn wheat, hulled barley, peas, lentils, bitter vetch, chick peas and flax were cultivated in the Levant. Cattle were domesticated from the aurochs in the areas of modern Turkey. In the Andes of South America, the potato was domesticated between 10,000 and 7,000 years ago, along with beans, coca, llamas, alpacas, sugarcane and some root vegetables were domesticated in New Guinea around 9,000 years ago. Sorghum was domesticated in the Sahel region of Africa by 7,000 years ago, cotton was domesticated in Peru by 5,600 years ago, and was independently domesticated in Eurasia at an unknown time
Agriculture
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Agriculture
Agriculture
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Fields in
Záhorie (
Slovakia) - a typical Central European agricultural region.
Agriculture
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Domestic sheep and a
cow (heifer) pastured together in
South Africa.
Agriculture
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A
Sumerian harvester's sickle made from baked clay (ca. 3000 BC).
26.
Tourism
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Tourism is travel for pleasure or business, also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. Tourism may be international, or within the travellers country, Tourism can be domestic or international, and international tourism has both incoming and outgoing implications on a countrys balance of payments. Today, tourism is a source of income for many countries. International tourism receipts grew to US$1.03 trillion in 2011, the ITB Berlin is the worlds leading tourism trade fair. The word tourist was used by 1772 and tourism by 1811. It is formed from the tour, which is derived from Old English turian, from Old French torner, from Latin tornare, to turn on a lathe. Tourism is an important, even vital, source of income for many regions and it also creates opportunities for employment in the service sector of the economy associated with tourism. This is in addition to goods bought by tourists, including souvenirs, in 1936, the League of Nations defined a foreign tourist as someone traveling abroad for at least twenty-four hours. Its successor, the United Nations, amended this definition in 1945 and it includes movements for all purposes. In 1981, the International Association of Scientific Experts in Tourism defined tourism in terms of particular activities chosen and undertaken outside the home, in this context, travel has a similar definition to tourism, but implies a more purposeful journey. The terms tourism and tourist are sometimes used pejoratively, to imply a shallow interest in the cultures or locations visited, by contrast, traveler is often used as a sign of distinction. The sociology of tourism has studied the values underpinning these distinctions. International tourist arrivals reached 1.035 billion in 2012, up from over 996 million in 2011, the World Tourism Organization reports the following ten destinations as the most visited in terms of the number of international travellers in 2016. International tourism receipts grew to US$1.2 trillion in 2014, based upon air traffic, the MasterCard Global Destination Cities Index reports the following cities as the top ten most popular destinations of international tourism worldwide. MasterCard reports the following cities as the top ten biggest earners on international tourism worldwide in 2015, as early as Shulgi, however, kings praised themselves for protecting roads and building waystations for travelers. During the Roman Republic, spas and coastal resorts such as Baiae were popular among the rich, pausanias wrote his Description of Greece in the 2nd century AD. In ancient China, nobles sometimes made a point of visiting Mount Tai and, on occasion, the Islamic hajj is still central to its faith and Chaucers Canterbury Tales and Wu Chengens Journey to the West remain classics of English and Chinese literature. The 10th- to 13th-century Song dynasty also saw secular travel writers such as Su Shi, under the Ming, Xu Xiake continued the practice
Tourism
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A tourist taking photographs and video at archaeological site
Tourism
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Backpacking tourists in Vienna
Tourism
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1922 postcard of tourists in the
High Tatras,
Slovakia.
Tourism
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Strandkorb chairs on
Usedom Island, Germany. Not only the service sector grows thanks to tourism, but also local
manufacturers (like those producing the strandkorb),
retailers, the
real estate sector and the general
image of a location can benefit a lot.
27.
Government of Karnataka
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The Government of Karnataka is a democratically elected body with the governor as the constitutional head. The governor who is appointed for five years appoints the chief minister, Karnataka State has been divided into four revenue divisions,49 sub-divisions,30 districts,176 taluks and 747 hoblies/revenue circles and 5628 gram panchayats for administrative purposes. The state has 281 towns and 7 municipal corporations, Bangalore is the fifth largest urban agglomeration out of 23 metropolis, urban agglomerations and cities in India. It is among the fastest growing cities in the world, Karnataka took its present shape in 1956, when the states of Mysore and Coorg were merged with the Kannada-speaking districts of the former states of Bombay and Hyderabad, and Madras. The state legislature is bicameral and consists of the Legislative Assembly, the Legislative Assembly consists of 224 members with one member nominated by the governor to represent the Anglo-Indian community. The term of office of the members is five years and the term of an elected to the council is six years. The Legislative Council is a permanent body with one-third of its members retiring every two years, the government is headed by the governor who appoints the chief minister and his council of ministers. The governor is appointed for five years and acts as the head of the state. The secretariat headed by the secretary to the governor assists the council of ministers, the council of ministers consists of cabinet ministers, ministers of state and deputy ministers. The chief minister is assisted by the secretary, who is the head of the administrative services. As of 2012, the Government of Karnataka consists of 30 ministers, the present Chief Minister of Karnataka is Siddaramaiah. List of Chief Ministers of Karnataka |- Housing M. Krishnappa is a system in the state with elected bodies at the village, taluk. It ensures greater participation of people and more implementation of rural development programmes. There will be a Grama Panchayat for a village or group of villages, a taluk level, all the three institutions will have elected representatives and there is no provision for nomination by the government to any of these councils. S the first in the country to enact new Panchayat Raj Act incorporating all provisions of 73rd Amendment to the Constitution, in 2014 Karantaka State Grama Panchayats Delimitation committee constituted By govt. of Karnataka. Chairmen S G Nanjaiahna mutt and 6 members, joint secretory of the committee Dr. Revaiah Odeyar. This report implemented 2015 Gram Panchayath Elections, a district of an Indian state is an administrat, headed by a deputy commissioner or district magistrate, an officer belonging to the Indian Administrative Service. The district magistrate or the deputy commissioner is assisted by a number of officers belonging to Karnataka Civil Service, a Deputy Commissioner of Police, an officer belonging to the Indian Police Service is entrusted with the responsibility of maintaining law and order and related issues of the district
Government of Karnataka
–
The
Vidhana Soudha
Government of Karnataka
–
Government of Karnataka
28.
Manganese
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Manganese is a chemical element with symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is not found as an element in nature, it is often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese is a metal with important industrial metal alloy uses, particularly in stainless steels, by the mid-18th century, Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele had used pyrolusite to produce chlorine. Scheele and others were aware that pyrolusite contained a new element, johan Gottlieb Gahn was the first to isolate an impure sample of manganese metal in 1774, which he did by reducing the dioxide with carbon. Manganese phosphating is used for rust and corrosion prevention on steel, ionized manganese is used industrially as pigments of various colors, which depend on the oxidation state of the ions. The permanganates of alkali and alkaline earth metals are powerful oxidizers, Manganese dioxide is used as the cathode material in zinc-carbon and alkaline batteries. In biology, manganese ions function as cofactors for a variety of enzymes with many functions. Manganese enzymes are essential in detoxification of superoxide free radicals in organisms that must deal with elemental oxygen. Manganese also functions in the complex of photosynthetic plants. The element is a trace mineral for all known living organisms but is a neurotoxin. In larger amounts, and apparently with far greater effectiveness through inhalation, Manganese is a silvery-gray metal that resembles iron. It is hard and very brittle, difficult to fuse, Manganese metal and its common ions are paramagnetic. Manganese tarnishes slowly in air and oxidizes like iron in water containing dissolved oxygen, naturally occurring manganese is composed of one stable isotope, 55Mn. Eighteen radioisotopes have been isolated and described, the most stable being 53Mn with a half-life of 3.7 million years, 54Mn with a half-life of 312.3 days, and 52Mn with a half-life of 5.591 days. All of the radioactive isotopes have half-lives of less than three hours, and the majority of less than one minute. Manganese also has three meta states, Manganese is part of the iron group of elements, which are thought to be synthesized in large stars shortly before the supernova explosion. 53Mn decays to 53Cr with a half-life of 3.7 million years, because of its relatively short half-life, 53Mn is relatively rare, produced by cosmic rays impact on iron. Manganese isotopic contents are combined with chromium isotopic contents and have found application in isotope geology
Manganese
–
Manganese, 25 Mn
Manganese
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Electrolytically refined manganese chips and 1 cm 3 cube
Manganese
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Manganese(II) chloride crystals – the pale pink color of Mn(II) salts is due to a spin-forbidden 3d transition.
Manganese
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Aqueous solution of KMnO 4 illustrating the deep purple of Mn(VII) as it occurs in permanganate
29.
Tungabhadra Dam
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In the epic Ramayana, the Tungabhadra River was known by the name of Pampa. The Tungabhadra River is formed by the confluence of the Tunga River, the Bhadra river flows through the industrial city Bhadravathi. More than 100 tributaries, streams, creeks, rivulets and the like contribute to the two rivers and it is a confluence of both the Dwaitha and the Adwaitha philosophies. Many rivulets and streams join these tributaries, there are many holy places all along the rivers, primarily temples of Saiva Cult on the banks of the Bhadra and all the cults on the banks of the Tunga. Sringeri, Sarada Petham established by the Adi Shankaracharya is the most famous one on the bank of the Tunga. There is a cluster of Nava Brahma temples constructed by the early Chalukyas, an important feature of the river banks is the flood protection walls all along the rivers, constructed by Sri Krishna Devaraya between 1525 and 1527 AD. You find them there is a possibility of land erosion during the floods. It starts at Sringeri and ends at Kurnool, just few kilometers from its mouth and they are stone constructions and still intact. Huge boulders of 3 x 4 x 5 are also used in its construction and it then takes a northeasterly direction through rugged ridges formed by boulders piled on ancient granite outcroppings over the elevated plateau that dominates peninsular India, the Deccan Plateau. Piles of granite in varying shades of grey, ochre and pink dominate the landscape, the river has cut through weaker rocky substrata of the Hampi landscape and created a narrow gorge where granite hills confine the river in a deep ravine. The Tungabhadra Dam was constructed at Hosapete in the middle of the 20th century to harness the water, aiding the growth of agriculture. The Tungabhadra River then flows east, joining the Krishna along the border of Andhra Pradesh, from here the Krishna continues east to empty into the Bay of Bengal. The wedge of land that lies north of the Tungabhadra River, shringeri Sharadamba Temple is on the banks of the Tunga River in Chikmagalur District, Karnataka. There are a number of ancient and holy sites on the banks of the Tungabhadra River, at Harihara there is a temple dedicated to Harihareshwara. Surrounding the modern town of Hampi are the ruins of Vijayanagara, the site, including the Vijayanagara temple complex ruins, are being restored. The Nava Brahma Temples complex is one of the earliest models of architecture in India. The Moola Brindavana of Guru Raghavendra is located on the banks of the Tungabhadra at Mantralayam, about 15 km upstream from Shimoga at Gajanur across the River Tunga, a dam was constructed. At Lakkavalli about 15 km upstream of Bhadravati across the Bhadra a dam was constructed and they are multipurpose dams and irrigate lands in Shimoga, Chikkamagalur, Davanagere and Haveri
Tungabhadra Dam
–
Tungabhadra River at
Hampi
Tungabhadra Dam
Tungabhadra Dam
–
The Two Coracles
Tungabhadra Dam
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Contemplating the river, in Hampi
India
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