1.
Prithvi Narayan Shah
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Prithvi Narayan Shah, King of Gorkha was the first King of unified Nepal. He is credited for starting the campaign for a unified Nepal and he was the ninth generation descendant of Dravya Shah, the founder of the ruling house of Gorkha. Prithvi Narayan Shah succeeded his father, King Nara Bhupal Shah, to the throne of the Gorkha Kingdom in 1743, Prithvi Narayan Shah was born as a prince in the Gorkha Kingdom. Chandra Pravawati raised him, although his mother was Kaushalyavati Devi. From a young age, he took interest in the affairs of his fathers state, Prithivi Narayan Shah had an early dream of conquering Nuwakot, partially as his father had lost it to the Mallas of Kathmandu in an earlier war. After the death of his father in 1743, Prithivi Narayan Shah ascended to the throne of Gorkha at the age of 20, as king, he valued his people and enjoyed talking to his subjects about their general concerns. This practice helped him to build a rapport with his people, King Shah sealed his borders and maintained a peaceful environment except for distant relations with the British, who were refusing to trade with Nepal at the time. Prithvi Narayaṇ was succeeded by his son, Pratap Singh, King Prithvi Narayan Shahs reign began with an immediate military defeat, his invasion of Nuwakot in 1743 CE failed. Conquering Nuwakot was essential for the unification, as it lay between Kathmandu and the Gorkha District, making it a trading route to Tibet. However, he successfully conquered Nuwakot in a subsequent attack in 1744 CE, after capturing Nuwakot, he took possession of the strategic locations in the hills surrounding the Kathmandu Valley. The valley was cut off from the outside world and was controlled solely by Shah. He also occupied the Kuti Pass in c.1756 CE, halting all trade through the pass, after two humiliating defeats in Kirtipur, King Prithvi Narayan conquered the ancient city on his third attempt. Consequently, Jaya Prakash Malla of Kathmandu fled with his wife and took asylum in Patan and he eventually began to unify his conquered lands. King Prithvi Narayaṇ Shah was ultimately able to capture small principalities and this expansion was crucial as the British colonial forces had already begun colonizing the small kingdoms that form present-day India. Shah was convinced that the British forces would eventually approach his kingdom and he believed that 50 small principalities would easily be conquered by the British as part of their colonization strategy. Expanding his kingdom made it difficult for British forces to make their move. His expansion campaign was very ambitious, especially as he was the king of a small kingdom surrounded by strong. In January 1775, at the age of 52, Prithvi Narayan Shah died before he could organise the administration of his new country at Devighat
2.
Government of India
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It is located in New Delhi, the capital of India. There is a bicameral Parliament with the Lok Sabha as a lower house, the judicial branch systematically contains an apex Supreme Court,24 high courts, and several district courts, all inferior to the Supreme Court. Similar to the government, individual state governments each consist of executive, legislative. The legal system as applicable to the federal and individual state governments is based on the English Common, the full name of the country is the Republic of India. No other name appears in the Constitution, and this is the name appears on legal banknotes, in treaties. The Union Government, Central Government or Government of India are often used in an official and unofficial capacity to refer to the Government of India, because the seat of government is in New Delhi, New Delhi is commonly used as a metonym for the Central Government. Legislative branch in India is exercised by the Parliament and a legislature consisting of the Rajya Sabha. The latter is considered the house or the House of the people. The Parliament does not have control and sovereignty, as its laws are subject to judicial review by the Supreme Court of India. However, it does exercise some control over the executive branch, the members of the cabinet, including the prime minister and the Council of Ministers, are either chosen from parliament or elected there to within six months of assuming office. The cabinet as a whole is responsible to the Lok Sabha, the Lok Sabha is a temporary house and can only be dissolved when the party in power loses the support of the majority of the house. Whereas the Rajya Sabha is a permanent house which can never be dissolved though the members of the Rajya Sabha who are elected for a six-year term, the Executive Branch of government is the one that has sole authority and responsibility for the daily administration of the state bureaucracy. The division of power into separate branches of government is central to the idea of the separation of powers. The executive power is vested mainly in the President of India, the President has all constitutional powers and exercises them directly or through officers subordinate to him as per the aforesaid Article 53. The President is to act in accordance with aid and advice tendered by the Prime Minister, the Council of Ministers remains in power during the pleasure of the President. However, in practice, the Council of Ministers must retain the support of the Lok Sabha, if a President were to dismiss the Council of Ministers on his or her own initiative, it might trigger a constitutional crisis. Thus, in practice, the Council of Ministers cannot be dismissed as long as it holds the support of a majority in the Lok Sabha, the President is responsible for making a wide variety of appointments. His/Her work is to facilitate smooth transaction of business in Ministries/ Departments of the Government, the President is de jure the Commander in Chief of the Indian Armed Forces
3.
Bali
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Bali is an island and province of Indonesia. The province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan and it is located at the westernmost end of the Lesser Sunda Islands, between Java to the west and Lombok to the east. Its capital, Denpasar, is located in the part of the island. With a population of 3,890,757 in the 2010 census, and 4,225,000 as of January 2014, the island is home to most of Indonesias Hindu minority. According to the 2010 Census,83. 5% of Balis population adhered to Balinese Hinduism, followed by 13. 4% Muslim, Christianity at 2. 5%, Bali is a popular tourist destination, which has seen a significant rise in tourists since the 1980s. Tourism-related business makes up 80% of its economy and it is renowned for its highly developed arts, including traditional and modern dance, sculpture, painting, leather, metalworking, and music. The Indonesian International Film Festival is held every year in Bali, in March 2017, Tripadvisor named the island the worlds top destination in its Travelers choice award. Bali is part of the Coral Triangle, the area with the highest biodiversity of marine species, in this area alone over 500 reef building coral species can be found. For comparison, this is about 7 times as many as in the entire Caribbean, most recently, Bali was the host of the 2011 ASEAN Summit,2013 APEC and Miss World 2013. Bali is the home of the Subak Irrigation System, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Bali was inhabited around 2000 BC by Austronesian people who migrated originally from Southeast Asia and Oceania through Maritime Southeast Asia. Culturally and linguistically, the Balinese are closely related to the people of the Indonesian archipelago, Malaysia, stone tools dating from this time have been found near the village of Cekik in the islands west. In ancient Bali, nine Hindu sects existed, namely Pasupata, Bhairawa, Siwa Shidanta, Waisnawa, Bodha, Brahma, Resi, Sora, each sect revered a specific deity as its personal Godhead. Inscriptions from 896 and 911 dont mention a king, until 914 and they also reveal an independent Bali, with a distinct dialect, where Buddhism and Sivaism were practiced simultaneously. Mpu Sindoks great-granddaughter, Mahendradatta, married the Bali king Udayana Warmadewa around 989 and this marriage also brought more Hinduism and Javanese culture to Bali. Suradhipa reigned from 1115 to 1119, and Jayasakti from 1146 until 1150, jayapangus appears on inscriptions between 1178 and 1181, while Adikuntiketana and his son Paramesvara in 1204. Balinese culture was influenced by Indian, Chinese, and particularly Hindu culture. The name Bali dwipa has been discovered from inscriptions, including the Blanjong pillar inscription written by Sri Kesari Warmadewa in 914 AD. It was during this time that the people developed their complex irrigation system subak to grow rice in wet-field cultivation, some religious and cultural traditions still practiced today can be traced to this period
4.
Hinduism in Indonesia
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Hinduism in Indonesia is practised by 1. 7% of the total population, and by 83. 5% of the population in Bali as of the 2010 census. Hinduism is one of the six official religions of Indonesia, in 2010, there were an estimated total of over 4 million Hindus in Indonesia according to Indonesian census. The Parisada Hindu Dharma Indonesia disputed the methodology, and estimated 18 million Hindus lived in Indonesia in 2005. The natives of Indonesian Archipelago practiced indigenous animism and dynamism, beliefs common to the Austronesian people, native Indonesians venerated and revered ancestral spirit, they also believed that some spirits may inhabit certain places such as large trees, stones, forests, mountains, or any sacred place. This unseen spiritual entity that has supernatural power is identified by ancient Javanese, Sundanese and Balinese as hyang that can mean either divine or ancestral, in modern Indonesian, hyang tends to be associated with God. Hindu influences reached the Indonesian Archipelago as early as the first century, historical evidence is unclear about the diffusion process of cultural and spiritual ideas from India. Java legends refer to Saka-era, traced to 78 AD, stories from the Mahabharata Epic have been traced in Indonesian islands to the 1st century, however, the versions mirror those found in southeast Indian peninsular region. Indonesian islands adopted both Hindu and Buddhist ideas, fusing them with pre-existing native folk religion and Animist beliefs. In the 4th century, the kingdom of Kutai in East Kalimantan, Tarumanagara in West Java, excavations between 1950 and 2005, particularly at the Cibuaya and Batujaya sites, suggests that Tarumanagara revered deity Wisnu of Hinduism. Ancient Hindu kingdoms of Java built many temples, named rivers on the island as Gomati and Ganges. Hinduism along with Buddhism spread across the archipelago, numerous sastras and sutras of Hinduism were translated into the Javanese language, and expressed in art form. The Hindu-Buddhist ideas reached the peak of their influence in the 14th century, the last and largest among the Hindu-Buddhist Javanese empires, Majapahit, influenced the Indonesian archipelago. Sunni Muslim traders of the Shafii fiqh, as well as Sufi Muslim traders from India, Oman and Yemen brought Islam to Indonesia. The earliest known mention of a small Islamic community midst the Hindus of Indonesia is credited to Marco Polo, about 1297 AD, four diverse and contentious Islamic Sultanates emerged in north Sumatra, south Sumatra, west and central Java, and in southern Borneo. These Sultanates declared Islam as their religion and pursued war against each other as well as the Hindus. For example, Jizya was imposed on unbelievers of Islam in Sumatra, in some regions, Indonesian people continued their old beliefs and adopted a syncretic version of Islam. In other cases, Hindus and Buddhists left and concentrated as communities in islands that they could defend, Hindus of western Java, for example, moved to Bali and neighboring small islands. While this era of conflict and inter-Sultanate warfare was unfolding
5.
Nyepi
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Nyepi is a Balinese Day of Silence that is commemorated every Isakawarsa according to the Balinese calendar. It is a Hindu celebration mainly celebrated in Bali, Indonesia, Nyepi, a public holiday in Indonesia, is a day of silence, fasting and meditation for the Balinese. The day following Nyepi is also celebrated as New Years Day, on this day, the youth of Bali practice the ceremony of Omed-omedan or The Kissing Ritual to celebrate the new year. The same day celebrated in India as ugadi, observed from 6 a. m. until 6 a. m. the next morning, Nyepi is a day reserved for self-reflection, and as such, anything that might interfere with that purpose is restricted. The main restrictions are no lighting fires, no working, no entertainment or pleasure, no traveling, and, for some, no talking or eating at all. The effect of these prohibitions is that Balis usually bustling streets and roads are empty, there is little or no noise from TVs and radios, and few signs of activity are seen even inside homes. The only people to be seen outdoors are the Pecalang, traditional security men who patrol the streets to ensure the prohibitions are being followed, although Nyepi is primarily a Hindu holiday, non-Hindu residents and tourists are not exempt from the restrictions. Although they are free to do as they wish inside their hotels, no one is allowed onto the beaches or streets, the only exceptions granted are for emergency vehicles responding to life-threatening conditions and women about to give birth. First, The Melasti Ritual is performed 3–4 days beforehand and it is dedicated to Sanghyang Widhi Wasa. The ritual is performed in Pura near the sea and meant to purify Arca, Pratima, second, The Bhuta Yajna Ritual is performed in order to vanquish the negative elements and create a balance with God, Mankind, and Nature. The ritual is meant to appease Batara Kala by Pecaruan offering. Devout Hindu Balinese villages usually make ogoh-ogoh, demonic statues made of richly painted bamboo and styrofoam symbolizing negative elements or malevolent spirits. After the ogoh-ogoh have been paraded around the village, the Ngrupuk ritual takes place, fifth, the Ngembak Agni/Labuh Brata Ritual is performed for all Hindus to forgive each other and to welcome the new days to come. Sixth and finally, The Dharma Shanti Rituals is performed all the Nyepi rituals are finished. Many Hindus on the Indian subcontinent observe the day as new year. For example, the Hindus of Maharashtra term the same festival, observed on the same day, the Sindhis, people from Sindh, celebrate the same day as Cheti Chand, which is the beginning of their calendar year. Manipuris also celebrate their New Year asSajibu Nongma Panba on the same day, the Hindus of Andhra Pradesh also celebrate their new year on the same day as Ugadi. Security is provided by the usual hansip, while the pecalang are redirected into security roles from their usual mundane tasks like traffic coordination to beef up the local security
6.
Nepal Sambat
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Nepal Era is the national lunar calendar of Nepal. The era started on 20 October 879 AD and was in use for all daily purposes until the beginning of the 20th century when it came under official disapproval. Nepal Sambat appeared on coins, stone and copper inscriptions, royal decrees, chronicles, Hindu and Buddhist manuscripts, legal documents. Today, it is used for purposes and to determine the dates to celebrate religious festivals and commemorate birthdays. The year 2013-14 AD corresponds to 1134 in Nepal Sambat and 2070-71 in the Bikram Sambat or Vikram Samvat calendar, following a century of official neglect and even suppression, Nepal Sambat has been revived as a symbol of Nepals glory and national unity. In 2008, the government named it a national era, on 25 October 2011, the government decided to bring Nepal Sambat into use as the countrys national calendar, and formed a taskforce to make recommendations on its implementation. However, no action has taken after that to bring the era into practice. Nepal Sambat was replaced as the calendar in Rana period of Nepal. The victory of the Gorkha Kingdom resulted in the end of the Malla dynasty, however, Nepal Sambat remained in official use for a time even after the coming of the Shahs. For example, the treaty with Tibet signed during the reign of Pratap Singh Shah is dated Nepal Sambat 895, in 1903, Saka Sambat in turn was superseded by Bikram Sambat as the official calendar. However, the government continued to use Saka Sambat on gold, despite the loss of legal recognition for Nepal Sambat, many people in the Kathmandu Valley and other parts of the country have continued using the calendar for ceremonial purposes. It is used to date manuscripts, books and inscriptions, birth and death anniversaries, and almost all the religious festivals, are observed according to the lunar calendar. Horoscopes are also based on the lunar calendar, the government moved to restore the national status of Nepal Sambat following prolonged lobbying by cultural and social organizations, most prominently by Nepal Bhasa Manka Khala. All the major newspapers now print Nepal Sambat along with dates on their mastheads. New Years Day celebrations have spread from the Kathmandu Valley to other towns in Nepal as well as abroad. New Years Day falls on the first day of the moon during the Swanti festival. Traditionally, traders used to close their ledgers and open new account books on the first day of Nepal Sambat, newars observe New Years Day by performing Mha Puja, a ritual to purify and empower the soul for the coming New Year besides praying for longevity. During this ceremony, family members sit cross-legged in a row on the floor in front of mandalas drawn for each person
7.
Philippines
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The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is a sovereign island country in Southeast Asia situated in the western Pacific Ocean. It consists of about 7,641 islands that are categorized broadly under three main geographical divisions from north to south, Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, the capital city of the Philippines is Manila and the most populous city is Quezon City, both part of Metro Manila. The Philippines has an area of 300,000 square kilometers, and it is the eighth-most populated country in Asia and the 12th most populated country in the world. As of 2013, approximately 10 million additional Filipinos lived overseas, multiple ethnicities and cultures are found throughout the islands. In prehistoric times, Negritos were some of the archipelagos earliest inhabitants and they were followed by successive waves of Austronesian peoples. Exchanges with Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Islamic nations occurred, then, various competing maritime states were established under the rule of Datus, Rajahs, Sultans or Lakans. The arrival of Ferdinand Magellan in Homonhon, Eastern Samar in 1521 marked the beginning of Hispanic colonization, in 1543, Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos named the archipelago Las Islas Filipinas in honor of Philip II of Spain. With the arrival of Miguel López de Legazpi from Mexico City, in 1565, the Philippines became part of the Spanish Empire for more than 300 years. This resulted in Roman Catholicism becoming the dominant religion, during this time, Manila became the western hub of the trans-Pacific trade connecting Asia with Acapulco in the Americas using Manila galleons. Aside from the period of Japanese occupation, the United States retained sovereignty over the islands until after World War II, since then, the Philippines has often had a tumultuous experience with democracy, which included the overthrow of a dictatorship by a non-violent revolution. It is a member of the United Nations, World Trade Organization, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. It also hosts the headquarters of the Asian Development Bank, the Philippines was named in honor of King Philip II of Spain. Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos, during his expedition in 1542, named the islands of Leyte, eventually the name Las Islas Filipinas would be used to cover all the islands of the archipelago. Before that became commonplace, other such as Islas del Poniente. The official name of the Philippines has changed several times in the course of its history, during the Philippine Revolution, the Malolos Congress proclaimed the establishment of the República Filipina or the Philippine Republic. From the 1898 Treaty of Paris, the name Philippines began to appear, since the end of World War II, the official name of the country has been the Republic of the Philippines. The metatarsal of the Callao Man, reliably dated by uranium-series dating to 67,000 years ago is the oldest human remnant found in the archipelago to date and this distinction previously belonged to the Tabon Man of Palawan, carbon-dated to around 26,500 years ago. Negritos were also among the archipelagos earliest inhabitants, but their first settlement in the Philippines has not been reliably dated, there are several opposing theories regarding the origins of ancient Filipinos
8.
Hindu
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Hindu refers to any person who regards themselves as culturally, ethnically, or religiously adhering to aspects of Hinduism. It has historically used as a geographical, cultural, or religious identifier for people indigenous to South Asia. The historical meaning of the term Hindu has evolved with time, by the 16th century, the term began to refer to residents of India who were not Turks or Muslims. The historical development of Hindu self-identity within the Indian population, in a religious or cultural sense, is unclear, competing theories state that Hindu identity developed in the British colonial era, or that it developed post-8th century CE after the Islamic invasion and medieval Hindu-Muslim wars. A sense of Hindu identity and the term Hindu appears in texts dated between the 13th and 18th century in Sanskrit and regional languages. The 14th- and 18th-century Indian poets such as Vidyapati, Kabir and Eknath used the phrase Hindu dharma, the Christian friar Sebastiao Manrique used the term Hindu in religious context in 1649. In the 18th century, the European merchants and colonists began to refer to the followers of Indian religions collectively as Hindus, in contrast to Mohamedans for Mughals, scholars state that the custom of distinguishing between Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs is a modern phenomenon. Hindoo is a spelling variant, whose use today may be considered derogatory. At more than 1.03 billion, Hindus are the third largest group after Christians. The vast majority of Hindus, approximately 966 million, live in India, according to Indias 2011 census. After India, the next 9 countries with the largest Hindu populations are, in decreasing order, Nepal, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, United States, Malaysia, United Kingdom and Myanmar. These together accounted for 99% of the worlds Hindu population, the word Hindu is derived from the Indo-Aryan and Sanskrit word Sindhu, which means a large body of water, covering river, ocean. It was used as the name of the Indus river and also referred to its tributaries, the Punjab region, called Sapta Sindhava in the Vedas, is called Hapta Hindu in Zend Avesta. The 6th-century BCE inscription of Darius I mentions the province of Hidush, the people of India were referred to as Hinduvān and hindavī was used as the adjective for Indian in the 8th century text Chachnama. The term Hindu in these ancient records is an ethno-geographical term, the Arabic equivalent Al-Hind likewise referred to the country of India. Among the earliest known records of Hindu with connotations of religion may be in the 7th-century CE Chinese text Record of the Western Regions by the Buddhist scholar Xuanzang, Xuanzang uses the transliterated term In-tu whose connotation overflows in the religious according to Arvind Sharma. The Hindu community occurs as the amorphous Other of the Muslim community in the court chronicles, wilfred Cantwell Smith notes that Hindu retained its geographical reference initially, Indian, indigenous, local, virtually native. Slowly, the Indian groups themselves started using the term, differentiating themselves, the poet Vidyapatis poem Kirtilata contrasts the cultures of Hindus and Turks in a city and concludes The Hindus and the Turks live close together, Each makes fun of the others religion
9.
Meghnad Saha
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Meghnad Saha FRS was an Indian astrophysicist best known for his development of the Saha ionization equation, used to describe chemical and physical conditions in stars. Meghnad Saha was born in Shaoratoli village near Dhaka, British India, son of Jagannath Saha, Meghnad Saha belonged to a poor family and struggled to rise in life. During his early schooling he was forced to leave Dhaka Collegiate School because he participated in the Swadeshi movement and his Indian School Certificate was earned from Dhaka College. He became Fellow of the Royal Society in 1927 and he was president of the 21st session of the Indian Science Congress in 1934. Saha was fortunate to have brilliant teachers and class fellows, in his student days, Jagadish Chandra Bose, Sarada Prasanna Das and Prafulla Chandra Ray were at the pinnacle of their fame. Amongst his class fellows were Satyendra Nath Bose, Jnan Ghosh, in later life he was close to Amiya Charan Banerjee, a renowned mathematician at Allahabad University. On his religious views, Saha was an atheist, Saha died on 16 February 1956. Meghnad Sahas best-known work concerned the thermal ionisation of elements, by studying the spectra of various stars, one can find their temperature and from that, using Sahas equation, determine the ionisation state of the various elements making up the star. This work was extended by Ralph H. Fowler and Edward Arthur Milne. Saha had previously reached the conclusion on the subject. It will be admitted from what has gone before that the plays the leading role in determining the nature of the stellar spectrum. Too much importance must not be attached to the figures given and he founded the journal Science and Culture and was the editor until his death. A lasting memorial to him is the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Saha was the chief architect of river planning in India and prepared the original plan for the Damodar Valley Project. But science and technology are as important for administration now-a-days as law, I have gradually glided into politics because I wanted to be of some use to the country in my own humble way. The first time, in 1929, Saha was nominated for the Physics Nobel Prize for the year 1930 by D. M, the Nobel Committee evaluated Sahas work. It was seen as an application, but not a discovery. Thus he was not awarded the Prize, Saha was nominated again for the Prize in 1937 and 1940 by A. H. Compton, and in 1939,1951 and 1955 by S. K. Mitra. The Nobel Committee remained to its previous decision, Meghnad Saha’s ionization equation, which opened the door to stellar astrophysics” was one of the top ten achievements of 20th century Indian science could be considered in the Nobel Prize class
10.
Jawaharlal Nehru
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Jawaharlal Nehru was the first Prime Minister of India and a central figure in Indian politics before and after independence. He is considered to be the architect of the modern Indian nation-state, a sovereign, socialist, secular and he was also known as Pandit Nehru due to his roots with the Kashmiri Pandit community while many Indian children knew him as Chacha Nehru. The son of Motilal Nehru, a prominent lawyer and nationalist statesman and Swaroop Rani, Nehru was a graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge and the Inner Temple, where he trained to be a barrister. Upon his return to India, he enrolled at the Allahabad High Court, and took an interest in national politics, a committed nationalist since his teenage years, he became a rising figure in Indian politics during the upheavals of the 1910s. He became the prominent leader of the factions of the Indian National Congress during the 1920s. As Congress President in 1929, Nehru called for independence from the British Raj. Nehru and the Congress dominated Indian politics during the 1930s as the country moved towards independence, but these achievements were seriously compromised in the aftermath of the Quit India Movement in 1942, which saw the British effectively crush the Congress as a political organisation. The Muslim League under his old Congress colleague and now bête noire, negotiations between Nehru and Jinnah for power sharing failed and gave way to the independence and bloody partition of India in 1947. As Prime Minister, he set out to realise his vision of India, the Constitution of India was enacted in 1950, after which he embarked on an ambitious program of economic, social and political reforms. Chiefly, he oversaw Indias transition from a colony to a republic, while nurturing a plural, in foreign policy, he took a leading role in Non-Alignment while projecting India as a regional hegemon in South Asia. Under Nehrus leadership, the Congress emerged as a party, dominating national and state-level politics and winning consecutive elections in 1951,1957. He remained popular with the people of India in spite of troubles in his final years. In India, his birthday is celebrated as Childrens Day, Jawaharlal Nehru was born on 14 November 1889 in Allahabad in British India. His father, Motilal Nehru, a barrister who belonged to the Kashmiri Pandit community. His mother, Swaruprani Thussu, who came from a well-known Kashmiri Brahmin family settled in Lahore, was Motilals second wife, Jawaharlal was the eldest of three children, two of whom were girls. The elder sister, Vijaya Lakshmi, later became the first female president of the United Nations General Assembly, the youngest sister, Krishna Hutheesing, became a noted writer and authored several books on her brother. Nehru described his childhood as a sheltered and uneventful one and he grew up in an atmosphere of privilege at wealthy homes including a palatial estate called the Anand Bhawan. His father had him educated at home by governesses and tutors
11.
New Year's Day
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New Years Day, also called simply New Years or New Year, is observed on January 1, the first day of the year on the modern Gregorian calendar as well as the Julian calendar. In pre-Christian Rome under the Julian calendar, the day was dedicated to Janus, god of gateways and beginnings, other global New Years Day traditions include making New Years resolutions and calling ones friends and family. Mesopotamia instituted the concept of celebrating the new year in 2000 BC, celebrated new year around the time of the vernal equinox, the early Roman calendar designated March 1 as the new year. The calendar had just ten months, beginning with March and that the new year once began with the month of March is still reflected in some of the names of the months. September through December, our ninth through twelfth months, were positioned as the seventh through tenth months. Roman legend usually credited their second king Numa with the establishment of the months of January and February and these were first placed at the end of the year, but at some point came to be considered the first two months instead. The January Kalends came to be celebrated as the new year at some point after it became the day for the new consuls in 153 BC. Romans had long dated their years by these consulships, rather than sequentially, still, private and religious celebrations around the March new year continued for some time and there is no consensus on the question of the timing for January 1s new status. Once it became the new year, however, it became a time for family gatherings, in AD567, the Council of Tours formally abolished January 1 as the beginning of the year. These days were also astronomically and astrologically significant since, at the time of the Julian reform, March 25 had been understood as the spring equinox and December 25 as the winter solstice. Medieval calendars nonetheless often continued to display the months running from January to December, among the 7th century pagans of Flanders and the Netherlands, it was the custom to exchange gifts on the first day of the new year. This custom was deplored by Saint Eligius, who warned the Flemish and Dutch, make vetulas, little deer or iotticos or set tables at night or exchange New Year gifts or supply superfluous drinks. Because of the leap year error in the Julian calendar, the date of Easter had drifted backward since the First Council of Nicaea decided the computation of the date of Easter in 325, by the sixteenth century, the drift from the observed equinox had become unacceptable. In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII declared the Gregorian calendar widely used today, the Gregorian calendar reform also restored January 1 as New Years Day. Although most Catholic countries adopted the Gregorian calendar almost immediately, it was gradually adopted among Protestant countries. The British, for example, did not adopt the reformed calendar until 1752, until then, the British Empire – and its American colonies – still celebrated the new year on 25 March. Most nations of Western Europe officially adopted 1 January as New Years Day somewhat before they adopted the Gregorian Calendar, in Tudor England, New Years Day, along with Christmas Day and Twelfth Night, was celebrated as one of three main festivities among the twelve days of Christmastide. There, until the adoption of the Gregorian Calendar in 1752, Pope Gregory acknowledged 1 January as the beginning of the new year according to his reform of the Catholic Liturgical Calendar
12.
Malayalam
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Malayalam /mʌləˈjɑːləm/ is a language spoken in India, predominantly in the state of Kerala. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and was designated as a Classical Language in India in 2013 and it was developed to the current form mainly by the influence of the poet Thunchaththu Ezhuthachan in the 16th century. Malayalam has official status in the state of Kerala and in the union territories of Lakshadweep. It belongs to the Dravidian family of languages and is spoken by some 38 million people, according to one theory, Malayalam originated from Middle Tamil in the 7th century. However, the current understanding proposes the separation of Malayalam from Proto-Dravidian in the pre-historic era, Malayalam incorporated many elements from Sanskrit through the ages. Before Malayalam came into being, Old Tamil was used in literature and courts of a region called Tamilakam, including present day Kerala state, silappatikaramit was written by Chera prince Ilango Adigal from Chunkaparra, and is considered a classic in Sangam literature. Modern Malayalam still preserves many words from the ancient Tamil vocabulary of Sangam literature, the earliest script used to write Malayalam was the Vatteluttu alphabet, and later the Kolezhuttu, which derived from it. As Malayalam began to borrow words as well as the rules of grammar from Sanskrit. This developed into the modern Malayalam script, many medieval liturgical texts were written in an admixture of Sanskrit and early Malayalam, called Manipravalam. The oldest literary work in Malayalam, distinct from the Tamil tradition, is dated from between the 9th and 11th centuries, the first travelogue in any Indian language is the Malayalam Varthamanappusthakam, written by Paremmakkal Thoma Kathanar in 1785. Due to its lineage deriving from both Tamil and Sanskrit, the Malayalam script has the largest number of letters among the Indian language orthographies, the Malayalam script includes letters capable of representing almost all the sounds of all Indo-Aryan and Dravidian languages. Malayalam serves as a language on the islands including the Mahl-dominated Minicoy Island. The word Malayalam originated from the Sanskrit resp, Malayalam words malai or mala, meaning hill, and elam, meaning region. Malayalam thus translates as hill region and used to refer to the land of the Chera dynasty, the language Malayalam is alternatively called Alealum, Malayalani, Malayali, Malean, Maliyad, and Mallealle. The word Malayalam originally meant only for the name of the region, Malayanma or Malayayma represented the language. With the emergence of modern Malayalam language, the name of the language started to be known by the name of the region, hence now, the word Malayanma is considered by some to represent the olden Malayalam language. The language got the name Malayalam during the mid 19th century, the origin of Malayalam, an independent offshoot of the proto-Dravidian language, has been and continues to be an engaging pursuit among comparative historical linguists. Together with Tamil, Toda, Kannada and Tulu, Malayalam belongs to the group of Dravidian languages
