1.
Sanskrit language
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Sanskrit is the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, a philosophical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, and a literary language and lingua franca of ancient and medieval South Asia. As a result of transmission of Hindu and Buddhist culture to Southeast Asia and parts of Central Asia, as one of the oldest Indo-European languages for which substantial written documentation exists, Sanskrit holds a prominent position in Indo-European studies. The body of Sanskrit literature encompasses a rich tradition of poetry and drama as well as scientific, technical, philosophical, the compositions of Sanskrit were orally transmitted for much of its early history by methods of memorization of exceptional complexity, rigor, and fidelity. Thereafter, variants and derivatives of the Brahmi script came to be used, Sanskrit is today one of the 22 languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India, which mandates the Indian government to develop the language. It continues to be used as a ceremonial language in Hindu religious rituals and Buddhist practice in the form of hymns. The Sanskrit verbal adjective sáṃskṛta- may be translated as refined, elaborated, as a term for refined or elaborated speech, the adjective appears only in Epic and Classical Sanskrit in the Manusmṛti and the Mahabharata. The pre-Classical form of Sanskrit is known as Vedic Sanskrit, with the language of the Rigveda being the oldest and most archaic stage preserved, Classical Sanskrit is the standard register as laid out in the grammar of Pāṇini, around the fourth century BCE. Sanskrit, as defined by Pāṇini, evolved out of the earlier Vedic form, the present form of Vedic Sanskrit can be traced back to as early as the second millennium BCE. Scholars often distinguish Vedic Sanskrit and Classical or Pāṇinian Sanskrit as separate dialects, although they are quite similar, they differ in a number of essential points of phonology, vocabulary, grammar and syntax. Vedic Sanskrit is the language of the Vedas, a collection of hymns, incantations and theological and religio-philosophical discussions in the Brahmanas. Modern linguists consider the metrical hymns of the Rigveda Samhita to be the earliest, for nearly 2000 years, Sanskrit was the language of a cultural order that exerted influence across South Asia, Inner Asia, Southeast Asia, and to a certain extent East Asia. A significant form of post-Vedic Sanskrit is found in the Sanskrit of Indian epic poetry—the Ramayana, the deviations from Pāṇini in the epics are generally considered to be on account of interference from Prakrits, or innovations, and not because they are pre-Paninian. Traditional Sanskrit scholars call such deviations ārṣa, meaning of the ṛṣis, in some contexts, there are also more prakritisms than in Classical Sanskrit proper. There were four principal dialects of classical Sanskrit, paścimottarī, madhyadeśī, pūrvi, the predecessors of the first three dialects are attested in Vedic Brāhmaṇas, of which the first one was regarded as the purest. In the 2001 Census of India,14,035 Indians reported Sanskrit to be their first language, in India, Sanskrit is among the 14 original languages of the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution. The state of Uttarakhand in India has ruled Sanskrit as its official language. In October 2012 social activist Hemant Goswami filed a petition in the Punjab. More than 3,000 Sanskrit works have been composed since Indias independence in 1947, much of this work has been judged of high quality, in comparison to both classical Sanskrit literature and modern literature in other Indian languages
2.
Hinduism
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Hinduism is a religion, or a way of life, found most notably in India and Nepal. Hinduism has been called the oldest religion in the world, and some practitioners and scholars refer to it as Sanātana Dharma, scholars regard Hinduism as a fusion or synthesis of various Indian cultures and traditions, with diverse roots and no founder. This Hindu synthesis started to develop between 500 BCE and 300 CE following the Vedic period, although Hinduism contains a broad range of philosophies, it is linked by shared concepts, recognisable rituals, cosmology, shared textual resources, and pilgrimage to sacred sites. Hindu texts are classified into Shruti and Smriti and these texts discuss theology, philosophy, mythology, Vedic yajna, Yoga, agamic rituals, and temple building, among other topics. Major scriptures include the Vedas and Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, prominent themes in Hindu beliefs include the four Puruṣārthas, the proper goals or aims of human life, namely Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha, karma, samsara, and the various Yogas. Hindu practices include such as puja and recitations, meditation, family-oriented rites of passage, annual festivals. Some Hindus leave their world and material possessions, then engage in lifelong Sannyasa to achieve Moksha. Hinduism prescribes the eternal duties, such as honesty, refraining from injuring living beings, patience, forbearance, self-restraint, Hinduism is the worlds third largest religion, with over one billion followers or 15% of the global population, known as Hindus. The majority of Hindus reside in India, Nepal, Mauritius, the Caribbean, the word Hindu is derived from the Indo-Aryan/Sanskrit word Sindhu, the Indo-Aryan name for the Indus River in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent. The term Hindu in these ancient records is a geographical term, the Arabic term al-Hind referred to the people who live across the River Indus. This Arabic term was taken from the pre-Islamic Persian term Hindū. By the 13th century, Hindustan emerged as an alternative name of India. It was only towards the end of the 18th century that European merchants and colonists began to refer to the followers of Indian religions collectively as Hindus. The term Hinduism, then spelled Hindooism, was introduced into the English language in the 18th-century to denote the religious, philosophical, because of the wide range of traditions and ideas covered by the term Hinduism, arriving at a comprehensive definition is difficult. The religion defies our desire to define and categorize it, Hinduism has been variously defined as a religion, a religious tradition, a set of religious beliefs, and a way of life. From a Western lexical standpoint, Hinduism like other faiths is appropriately referred to as a religion, in India the term dharma is preferred, which is broader than the western term religion. Hindu traditionalists prefer to call it Sanatana Dharma, the study of India and its cultures and religions, and the definition of Hinduism, has been shaped by the interests of colonialism and by Western notions of religion. Since the 1990s, those influences and its outcomes have been the topic of debate among scholars of Hinduism, Hinduism as it is commonly known can be subdivided into a number of major currents
3.
Buddhism
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Buddhism is a religion and dharma that encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs and spiritual practices largely based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. Buddhism originated in India sometime between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE, from where it spread through much of Asia, two major extant branches of Buddhism are generally recognized by scholars, Theravada and Mahayana. Buddhism is the worlds fourth-largest religion, with over 500 million followers or 7% of the global population, Buddhist schools vary on the exact nature of the path to liberation, the importance and canonicity of various teachings and scriptures, and especially their respective practices. In Theravada the ultimate goal is the attainment of the state of Nirvana, achieved by practicing the Noble Eightfold Path, thus escaping what is seen as a cycle of suffering. Theravada has a following in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. Mahayana, which includes the traditions of Pure Land, Zen, Nichiren Buddhism, Shingon, rather than Nirvana, Mahayana instead aspires to Buddhahood via the bodhisattva path, a state wherein one remains in the cycle of rebirth to help other beings reach awakening. Vajrayana, a body of teachings attributed to Indian siddhas, may be viewed as a branch or merely a part of Mahayana. Tibetan Buddhism, which preserves the Vajrayana teachings of eighth century India, is practiced in regions surrounding the Himalayas, Tibetan Buddhism aspires to Buddhahood or rainbow body. Buddhism is an Indian religion attributed to the teachings of Buddha, the details of Buddhas life are mentioned in many early Buddhist texts but are inconsistent, his social background and life details are difficult to prove, the precise dates uncertain. Some hagiographic legends state that his father was a king named Suddhodana, his mother queen Maya, and he was born in Lumbini gardens. Some of the stories about Buddha, his life, his teachings, Buddha was moved by the innate suffering of humanity. He meditated on this alone for a period of time, in various ways including asceticism, on the nature of suffering. He famously sat in meditation under a Ficus religiosa tree now called the Bodhi Tree in the town of Bodh Gaya in Gangetic plains region of South Asia. He reached enlightenment, discovering what Buddhists call the Middle Way, as an enlightened being, he attracted followers and founded a Sangha. Now, as the Buddha, he spent the rest of his teaching the Dharma he had discovered. Dukkha is a concept of Buddhism and part of its Four Noble Truths doctrine. It can be translated as incapable of satisfying, the unsatisfactory nature, the Four Truths express the basic orientation of Buddhism, we crave and cling to impermanent states and things, which is dukkha, incapable of satisfying and painful. This keeps us caught in saṃsāra, the cycle of repeated rebirth, dukkha
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Monarchy
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The actual power of the monarch may vary from purely symbolic, to partial and restricted, to completely autocratic. Traditionally and in most cases, the monarchs post is inherited and lasts until death or abdication, occasionally this might create a situation of rival claimants whose legitimacy is subject to effective election. Finally, there have been cases where the term of a reign is either fixed in years or continues until certain goals are achieved. Thus there are widely divergent structures and traditions defining monarchy, Monarchy was the most common form of government until the 19th century, but it is no longer prevalent. Currently,47 sovereign nations in the world have monarchs acting as heads of state,19 of which are Commonwealth realms that recognise Queen Elizabeth II as their head of state. The monarchs of Cambodia, Japan, and Malaysia reign, the word monarch comes from the Greek language word μονάρχης, monárkhēs which referred to a single, at least nominally absolute ruler. In current usage the word usually refers to a traditional system of hereditary rule. Depending on the held by the monarch, a monarchy may be known as a kingdom, principality, duchy, grand duchy, empire, tsardom, emirate, sultanate, khaganate. The form of societal hierarchy known as chiefdom or tribal kingship is prehistoric, the Greek term monarchia is classical, used by Herodotus. The monarch in classical antiquity is often identified as king, the Chinese, Japanese and Nepalese monarchs continued to be considered living Gods into the modern period. Since antiquity, monarchy has contrasted with forms of democracy, where power is wielded by assemblies of free citizens. In antiquity, monarchies were abolished in favour of such assemblies in Rome, much of 19th century politics was characterised by the division between anti-monarchist Radicalism and monarchist Conservativism. Many countries abolished the monarchy in the 20th century and became republics, advocacy of republics is called republicanism, while advocacy of monarchies is called monarchism. In the modern era, monarchies are more prevalent in small states than in large ones, most monarchs, both historically and in the modern day, have been born and brought up within a royal family, the centre of the royal household and court. Growing up in a family, future monarchs are often trained for the responsibilities of expected future rule. Different systems of succession have been used, such as proximity of blood, primogeniture, and agnatic seniority. While most monarchs have been male, many female monarchs also have reigned in history, rule may be hereditary in practice without being considered a monarchy, such as that of family dictatorships or political families in many democracies. The principal advantage of hereditary monarchy is the continuity of leadership
5.
Rajatarangini
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Rajatarangini is a metrical legendary and historical chronicle of the north-western Indian subcontinent, particularly the kings of Kashmir. It was written in Sanskrit by Kashmiri historian Kalhana in the 12th century CE, the work consists of 7826 verses, which are divided into eight books called Tarangas. The Rajataringini provides the earliest source on Kashmir that can be labeled as a text on this region. Little is known about the author Kalhana, apart from what is written in the book and his father Champaka was the minister in the court of Harsha of Kashmir. In the first Taranga of Rajatarangini, Kalhana expresses his dissatisfaction with the historical books. Fairness, That noble-minded author is alone worthy of praise whose word, like that of a judge, suvratas poem, though it has obtained celebrity, does not show dexterity in the exposition of the subject-matter, as it is rendered troublesome by misplaced learning. Owing to a want of care, there is not a single part in Ksemendras List of Kings free from mistakes. Eleven works of former scholars containing the chronicles of the kings, I have inspected, despite these stated principles, Kalhanas work is also full of legends and inconsistencies. The kings of Kashmir described in the Rajatarangini are given below, notes in parentheses refer to a book and verse. Thus is Book IV verse 678, the summary is from J. C. Dutts translation. Kalhanas work uses Kali and Laukika calendar eras, the year in CE. Kalhana mentions that Gonanda I ascended the throne in 653 Kali calendar era, according to Jogesh Chander Dutts calculation, this year corresponds to 2448 BCE. The total reign of the kings is mentioned as 1266 years. The Gonanditya dynasty ruled Kashmir for 1002 years, no kings mentioned in this book have been traced in any other historical source. These kings ruled Kashmir for 192 years, Kalhana was an educated and sophisticated Sanskrit scholar, well-connected in the highest political circles. His writing is full of literary devices and allusions, concealed by his unique, despite the value that historians have placed on Kalhanas work, there is little evidence of authenticity in the earlier books of Rajatarangini. For example, Ranaditya is given a reign of 300 years, toramana is clearly the Huna king of that name, but his father Mihirakula is given a date 700 years earlier. Even where the mentioned in the first three books are historically attested, Kalhanas account suffers from chronological errors
6.
Medieval history
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In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or Medieval Period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance, the Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history, classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is subdivided into the Early, High. Population decline, counterurbanisation, invasion, and movement of peoples, the large-scale movements of the Migration Period, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the seventh century, North Africa and the Middle East—once part of the Byzantine Empire—came under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate, although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break with classical antiquity was not complete. The still-sizeable Byzantine Empire survived in the east and remained a major power, the empires law code, the Corpus Juris Civilis or Code of Justinian, was rediscovered in Northern Italy in 1070 and became widely admired later in the Middle Ages. In the West, most kingdoms incorporated the few extant Roman institutions, monasteries were founded as campaigns to Christianise pagan Europe continued. The Franks, under the Carolingian dynasty, briefly established the Carolingian Empire during the later 8th, the Crusades, first preached in 1095, were military attempts by Western European Christians to regain control of the Holy Land from Muslims. Kings became the heads of centralised nation states, reducing crime and violence, intellectual life was marked by scholasticism, a philosophy that emphasised joining faith to reason, and by the founding of universities. Controversy, heresy, and the Western Schism within the Catholic Church paralleled the conflict, civil strife. Cultural and technological developments transformed European society, concluding the Late Middle Ages, the Middle Ages is one of the three major periods in the most enduring scheme for analysing European history, classical civilisation, or Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Modern Period. Medieval writers divided history into periods such as the Six Ages or the Four Empires, when referring to their own times, they spoke of them as being modern. In the 1330s, the humanist and poet Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times as antiqua, leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodisation in his History of the Florentine People. Bruni and later argued that Italy had recovered since Petrarchs time. The Middle Ages first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas or middle season, in early usage, there were many variants, including medium aevum, or middle age, first recorded in 1604, and media saecula, or middle ages, first recorded in 1625. The alternative term medieval derives from medium aevum, tripartite periodisation became standard after the German 17th-century historian Christoph Cellarius divided history into three periods, Ancient, Medieval, and Modern. The most commonly given starting point for the Middle Ages is 476, for Europe as a whole,1500 is often considered to be the end of the Middle Ages, but there is no universally agreed upon end date. English historians often use the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 to mark the end of the period
7.
Afghanistan
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Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located within South Asia and Central Asia. It has a population of approximately 32 million, making it the 42nd most populous country in the world. It is bordered by Pakistan in the south and east, Iran in the west, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan in the north and its territory covers 652,000 km2, making it the 41st largest country in the world. The land also served as the source from which the Kushans, Hephthalites, Samanids, Saffarids, Ghaznavids, Ghorids, Khiljis, Mughals, Hotaks, Durranis, the political history of the modern state of Afghanistan began with the Hotak and Durrani dynasties in the 18th century. In the late 19th century, Afghanistan became a state in the Great Game between British India and the Russian Empire. Following the Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919, King Amanullah unsuccessfully attempted to modernize the country and it remained peaceful during Zahir Shahs forty years of monarchy. A series of coups in the 1970s was followed by a series of wars that devastated much of Afghanistan. The name Afghānistān is believed to be as old as the ethnonym Afghan, the root name Afghan was used historically in reference to a member of the ethnic Pashtuns, and the suffix -stan means place of in Persian. Therefore, Afghanistan translates to land of the Afghans or, more specifically in a historical sense, however, the modern Constitution of Afghanistan states that he word Afghan shall apply to every citizen of Afghanistan. An important site of historical activities, many believe that Afghanistan compares to Egypt in terms of the historical value of its archaeological sites. The country sits at a unique nexus point where numerous civilizations have interacted and it has been home to various peoples through the ages, among them the ancient Iranian peoples who established the dominant role of Indo-Iranian languages in the region. At multiple points, the land has been incorporated within large regional empires, among them the Achaemenid Empire, the Macedonian Empire, the Indian Maurya Empire, and the Islamic Empire. Archaeological exploration done in the 20th century suggests that the area of Afghanistan has been closely connected by culture and trade with its neighbors to the east, west. Artifacts typical of the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze, urban civilization is believed to have begun as early as 3000 BCE, and the early city of Mundigak may have been a colony of the nearby Indus Valley Civilization. More recent findings established that the Indus Valley Civilisation stretched up towards modern-day Afghanistan, making the ancient civilisation today part of Pakistan, Afghanistan, in more detail, it extended from what today is northwest Pakistan to northwest India and northeast Afghanistan. An Indus Valley site has found on the Oxus River at Shortugai in northern Afghanistan. There are several smaller IVC colonies to be found in Afghanistan as well, after 2000 BCE, successive waves of semi-nomadic people from Central Asia began moving south into Afghanistan, among them were many Indo-European-speaking Indo-Iranians. These tribes later migrated further into South Asia, Western Asia, the region at the time was referred to as Ariana
8.
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
9.
South Asian Stone Age
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The South Asian Stone Age covers the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic periods in South Asia. Evidence for the most ancient anatomically modern Homo sapiens in South Asia has been found in the sites of Batadombalena and Belilena in Sri Lanka. In Mehrgarh, in what is today western Pakistan, the Neolithic began c.7000 BCE and lasted until 3300 BCE and the first beginnings of the Bronze Age. In South India, the Mesolithic lasted until 3000 BCE, the Iron Age began roughly simultaneously in North and South India, around 1200 to 1000 BCE. Homo erectus lived on the Pothohar Plateau, in upper Punjab, soanian sites are found in the Sivalik region across what are now India, Pakistan and Nepal. Biface handaxes and cleaver traditions may have originated in the middle Pleistocene, the beginning of the use of Acheulian and chopping tools of the lower Paleolithic may also be dated to approximately the middle Pleistocene. Analysis of mitochondrial DNA dates the immigration of Homo sapiens to South Asia to 75,000 to 50,000 years ago, an analysis of Y chromosome haplogroups found one man in a village west of Madurai to be a direct descendant of these migrators. These populations spread further to Southeast Asia, reaching Australia by 40,000 years ago, cave sites in Sri Lanka have yielded the earliest non-mitochondrial record of modern Homo sapiens in South Asia. They were dated to 34,000 years ago, for finds from the Belan in southern Uttar Pradesh, radiocarbon data have indicated an age of 18-17kya. At the Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka humans lived throughout the Upper Paleolithic, chert, jasper and quartzite were often used by humans during this period. The aceramic Neolithic lasts c.7000 -5500 BCE, the ceramic Neolithic lasts up to 3300 BCE, blending into the Early Harappan period. One of the earliest Neolithic sites in India is Lahuradewa in the Middle Ganges region and Jhusi near the confluence of Ganges and Yamuna rivers, in South India the Neolithic began by 3000 BCE and lasted until around 1400 BCE. South Indian Neolithic is characterized by Ashmounds since 2500 BCE in the Andhra-Karnataka region that later into Tamil Nadu. Comparative excavations carried out in Adichanallur in the Thirunelveli District and in Northern India have provided evidence of a migration of the Megalithic culture. Archaeologists have made plans to return to Adhichanallur as a source of new knowledge in the future
10.
Soanian
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The Soanian is an archaeological culture of the Lower Paleolithic in Pakistan. Contemporary to the Acheulean, it is named after the Soan Valley in Pakistan, Soanian sites are found along the Sivalik region in present-day India, Nepal and Pakistan. The term Soan Culture was first used by Hellmut De Terra in 1936, further archaeological research was conducted by Stephen Lycett in order to determine the morphometric assessment of the Soanian techno-complex. The result of this experiment concluded that the Soanian techno-complex contains a Mode 3 Levallois technique core component, on Adiyala and Khasala, about 16 km from Rawalpindi terrace on the bend of the river, hundreds of edged pebble tools were discovered. At Chauntra in Himachal Pradesh, hand axes and cleavers were found, tools up to two million years old have been recovered. In the Soan River Gorge, many fossil bearing rocks are exposed on the surface,14 million year old fossils of gazelle, rhinoceros, crocodile, giraffe and rodents have been found there. Some of these fossils are on display at the Pakistan Museum of Natural History in Islamabad, madrasian Culture Synoptic table of the principal old world prehistoric cultures V. A. Ranov, D. Dorj, Lu Zün-E. History of civilizations of Central Asia, early man, as depicted by leading authorities at the International symposium, the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, March 1937. Ayer Publishing, Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, the Middle Pleistocene Pebble Tool Site of Durkadi in Central India. The Emergence of the Handaxe Tradition in Asia, with Special Reference to India, in V. N. Misra, Peter S. Bellwood. Recent advances in Indo-Pacific prehistory, proceedings of the symposium held at Poona. A Decade of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Archaeology in India, 1951-1960
11.
Mehrgarh
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Mehrgarh, sometimes anglicized as Mehergarh or Mehrgar, is a Neolithic site located near the Bolan Pass on the Kacchi Plain of Balochistan, Pakistan, to the west of the Indus River valley. The earliest settlement at Mehrgarh, in the northeast corner of the 495-acre site, was a farming village which was inhabited from circa 6500 BCE. It is one of the earliest sites with evidence of farming and herding in South Asia, archaeological material has been found in six mounds, and about 32,000 artifacts have been collected. Mehrgarh is now seen as a precursor to the Indus Valley Civilization, displaying the whole sequence from earliest settlement, jean-Francois Jarrige argues for an independent origin of Mehrgarh. But given the originality of Mehrgarh, Jarrige concludes that Mehrgarh has a local background. Gallego Romero notes that Indians who are lactose-tolerant show a genetic pattern regarding this tolerance which is characteristic of the common European mutation. According to Romero, this suggests that the most common lactose tolerance mutation made a migration out of the Middle East less than 10,000 years ago. They further note that he earliest evidence of cattle herding in south Asia comes from the Indus River Valley site of Mehrgarh and is dated to 7,000 YBP, Archaeologists divide the occupation at the site into eight periods. The Mehrgarh Period I was Neolithic and aceramic, without the use of pottery, the earliest farming in the area was developed by semi-nomadic people using plants such as wheat and barley and animals such as sheep, goats and cattle. The settlement was established with simple mud buildings and most of them had four internal subdivisions, ornaments of sea shell, limestone, turquoise, lapis lazuli and sandstone have been found, along with simple figurines of women and animals. Sea shells from far sea shore and lapis lazuli found as far away as present-day Badakshan, Afghanistan shows good contact with those areas, a single ground stone axe was discovered in a burial, and several more were obtained from the surface. These ground stone axes are the earliest to come from a context in the South Asia. Periods I, II and III are contemporaneous with another site called Kili Gul Mohammed, in April 2006, it was announced in the scientific journal Nature that the oldest evidence for the drilling of human teeth in vivo was found in Mehrgarh. According to the authors, their discoveries point to a tradition of proto-dentistry in the farming cultures of that region. Here we describe eleven drilled molar crowns from nine adults discovered in a Neolithic graveyard in Pakistan that dates from 7,500 to 9,000 years ago and these findings provide evidence for a long tradition of a type of proto-dentistry in an early farming culture. The Mehrgarh Period II and Merhgarh Period III were ceramic Neolithic, using pottery, Period II is at site MR4 and Period III is at MR2. Much evidence of manufacturing activity has been found and more advanced techniques were used, glazed faience beads were produced and terracotta figurines became more detailed. Figurines of females were decorated with paint and had diverse hairstyles, two flexed burials were found in Period II with a red ochre cover on the body
12.
Chalcolithic
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The Copper Age was originally defined as a transition between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age. The archaeological site of Belovode on the Rudnik mountain in Serbia contains the worlds oldest securely dated evidence of copper smelting from 5000 BCE, the multiple names result from multiple recognitions of the period. Originally, the term Bronze Age meant that either copper or bronze was being used as the hard substance for the manufacture of tools. In 1881, John Evans, recognizing that the use of copper often preceded the use of bronze and he did not include the transitional period in the tripartite system of Early, Middle and Late Bronze Age but placed it at the beginning outside of it. He did not, however, present it as a fourth age, in 1884, Gaetano Chierici, perhaps following the lead of Evans, renamed it in Italian as the Eneo-litica, or Bronze-stone transition. The phrase was never intended to mean that the period was the one in which both bronze and stone were used. The Copper Age features the use of copper, excluding bronze, moreover, litica simply names the Stone Age as the point from which the transition began and is not another -lithic age. Subsequently, British scholars used either Evanss Copper Age or the term Eneolithic, around 1900, many writers began to substitute Chalcolithic for Eneolithic, to avoid the false segmentation. It was then that the misunderstanding began among those who did not know Italian, the -lithic was seen as a new -lithic age, a part of the Stone Age in which copper was used, which may appear paradoxical. Today Copper Age, Eneolithic and Chalcolithic are used synonymously to mean Evanss original definition of Copper Age, there was an independent invention of copper and bronze smelting first by Andean civilizations in South America extended later by sea commerce to the Mesoamerican civilization in West Mexico. The literature of European archaeology, in general, avoids the use of Chalcolithic, the Copper Age in the Middle East and the Caucasus began in the late 5th millennium BCE and lasted for about a millennium before it gave rise to the Early Bronze Age. The transition from the European Copper Age to Bronze Age Europe occurs about the same time, an archaeological site in Serbia contains the oldest securely dated evidence of coppermaking from 7,500 years ago. In Serbia, an axe was found at Prokuplje, which indicates that humans were using metals in Europe by 7,500 years ago. Knowledge of the use of copper was far more widespread than the metal itself, the European Battle Axe culture used stone axes modeled on copper axes, even with imitation mold marks carved in the stone. Ötzi the Iceman, who was found in the Ötztal Alps in 1991, examples of Chalcolithic cultures in Europe include Vila Nova de São Pedro and Los Millares on the Iberian Peninsula. Pottery of the Beaker people has found at both sites, dating to several centuries after copper-working began there. The Beaker culture appears to have copper and bronze technologies in Europe. The term Chalcolithic is not generally used by British prehistorians, who disagree whether it applies in the British context, in Bhirrana, the earliest Indus civilization site, copper bangles and arrowheads were found
13.
Jorwe
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Jorwe is a village and an archaeological site located on the Pravara, a tributary of the Godavari River in Sangamner taluka of Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra state in India. This site was excavated in 1950-51 under the direction of Hasmukh Dhirajlal Sankalia and it has historical background in Indian independence movement. Bhausaheb Thorat, known freedom fighter and milestone of Late Bhausaheb Thorat Sahakari Sakhar Karkhana Ltd, as in the preceding culture, it was characterised by a distinct type of painted pottery, a blade-flake industry of chalcedony, as well as tools and ornaments of copper. However, due to the scarcity of the metal, copper was used sparingly and their mixed economy was based on agriculture, stock-raising, hunting and fishing. They cultivated a variety of crops, including cereals and they practised crop rotation because it gave them the facility of irrigation - clear evidence of that has been unearthed at Inamgaon, near Pune. The people of Jorwe lived in rectangular houses with wattle and daub walls. They stored grain in bins and pit silos, cooked food in two armed chulas inside the house and roasted animals in a fire pit in the courtyard. They worshipped a goddess associated with fertility and another headless deity. They believed in life after death, and therefore interred the dead inside the house under the floor, children were buried in two urns that were joined mouth-to-mouth and set horizontally in the pit, while adults were placed in a supine position with the head towards the North. Before the ceremonial burial, the feet were chopped off, possibly because of the fear of the turning into ghosts
14.
Indus Valley Civilisation
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The Indus Valley Civilisation was a Bronze Age civilisation mainly in the northwestern regions of South Asia, extending from what today is northeast Afghanistan to Pakistan and northwest India. Along with ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia it was one of three early civilisations of the Old World, and of the three, the most widespread, at its peak, the Indus Civilisation may have had a population of over five million. Inhabitants of the ancient Indus river valley developed new techniques in handicraft, the Indus cities are noted for their urban planning, baked brick houses, elaborate drainage systems, water supply systems, and clusters of large non-residential buildings. The discovery of Harappa, and soon afterwards, Mohenjo-Daro, was the culmination of work beginning in 1861 with the founding of the Archaeological Survey of India in the British Raj, excavation of Harappan sites has been ongoing since 1920, with important breakthroughs occurring as recently as 1999. This Harappan civilisation is called the Mature Harappan culture to distinguish it from the cultures immediately preceding and following it. The early Harappan cultures were preceded by local Neolithic agricultural villages, as of 1999, over 1,056 cities and settlements had been found, of which 96 have been excavated, mainly in the general region of the Indus and Ghaggar-Hakra Rivers and their tributaries. Among the settlements were the urban centres of Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, Dholavira, Ganeriwala in Cholistan. The Harappan language is not directly attested and its affiliation is uncertain since the Indus script is still undeciphered, a relationship with the Dravidian or Elamo-Dravidian language family is favoured by a section of scholars. Recently, Indus sites have been discovered in Pakistans northwestern Frontier Province as well, other IVC colonies can be found in Afghanistan while smaller isolated colonies can be found as far away as Turkmenistan and in Maharashtra. The largest number of colonies are in the Punjab, Sindh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Indus Valley sites have been found most often on rivers, but also on the ancient seacoast, for example, Balakot, and on islands, for example, Dholavira. There is evidence of dry river beds overlapping with the Hakra channel in Pakistan, many Indus Valley sites have been discovered along the Ghaggar-Hakra beds. Among them are, Rupar, Rakhigarhi, Sothi, Kalibangan, Harappan Civilisation remains the correct one, according to the common archaeological usage of naming a civilisation after its first findspot. John wrote, I was much exercised in my mind how we were to get ballast for the line of the railway and they were told of an ancient ruined city near the lines, called Brahminabad. Visiting the city, he found it full of hard well-burnt bricks, and, convinced there was a grand quarry for the ballast I wanted. These bricks now provided ballast along 93 miles of the track running from Karachi to Lahore. In 1872–75, Alexander Cunningham published the first Harappan seal and it was half a century later, in 1912, that more Harappan seals were discovered by J. J. H. MacKay, and Marshall. By 1931, much of Mohenjo-Daro had been excavated, but excavations continued, such as that led by Sir Mortimer Wheeler, director of the Archaeological Survey of India in 1944. Among other archaeologists who worked on IVC sites before the independence in 1947 were Ahmad Hasan Dani, Brij Basi Lal, Nani Gopal Majumdar, and Sir Marc Aurel Stein
15.
Cemetery H culture
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The Cemetery H culture was a Bronze Age culture in the Punjab, north-western India, from about 1900 BCE until about 1300 BCE. It has been related to both the phase of the Harappan civilisation, and the Indo-Aryan migrations. The Cemetery H culture was located in and around the Punjab region in present-day India and it was named after a cemetery found in area H at Harappa. Remains of the culture have been dated from about 1900 BCE until about 1300 BCE, according to Kennedy and Mallory & Adams, the Cemetery H culture also shows clear biological affinities with the earlier population of Harappa. Some traits of the Cemetery H culture have been associated with the Swat culture, according to Parpola, the Cemetery H culture represents a first wave of Indo-Aryan migration from as early as 1900 BCE, which was followed by a migration to the Punjab c. Together with the Gandhara grave culture and the Ochre Coloured Pottery culture, the distinguishing features of this culture include, The use of cremation of human remains. The bones were stored in painted pottery burial urns and this is completely different from the Indus civilization where bodies were buried in wooden coffins. The urn burials and the skeletons were nearly contemporaneous. Reddish pottery, painted in black with antelopes, peacocks etc. sun or star motifs, expansion of settlements into the east. Apparent breakdown of the trade of the Indus civilization, with materials such as marine shells no longer used. Continued use of mud brick for building, cremation in India is first attested in the Cemetery H culture, a practice previously described in the Vedas. The Rigveda contains a reference to the practice, in RV10.15.14. Indus Valley Tradition Painted Grey Ware Copper Hoard Culture http, //www. harappa. com harappa. com http, //pubweb. cc. u-tokai. ac. jp/indus/english/3_1_01. html journal
16.
Vedic period
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The Vedic period was the period in Indian history during which the Vedas, the oldest scriptures of Hinduism, were composed. During the early part of the Vedic period, the Indo-Aryans settled into northern India, scholars consider Vedic civilisation to have been a composite of the Indo-Aryan and Harappan cultures. The end of the Vedic period witnessed the rise of large, around the beginning of the Common Era, the Vedic tradition formed one of the main constituents of the so-called Hindu synthesis. The commonly proposed period of earlier Vedic age is dated back to 2nd millennium BCE, after the collapse of the Indus Valley Civilisation, which ended c.1900 BCE, groups of Indo-Aryan peoples migrated into north-western India and started to inhabit the northern Indus Valley. The knowledge about the Aryans comes mostly from the Rigveda-samhita, which was composed between c and they brought with them their distinctive religious traditions and practices. The Vedic beliefs and practices of the era were closely related to the hypothesised Proto-Indo-European religion. According to Anthony, the Old Indic religion probably emerged among Indo-European immigrants in the zone between the Zeravshan River and Iran. It was a mixture of old Central Asian and new Indo-European elements. At least 383 non-Indo-European words were borrowed from this culture, including the god Indra, Indra was the subject of 250 hymns, a quarter of the Rig Veda. He was associated more than any other deity with Soma, a stimulant drug probably borrowed from the BMAC religion and his rise to prominence was a peculiar trait of the Old Indic speakers. These migrations may have been accompanied with violent clashes with the people who inhabited this region. The Rig Veda contains accounts of conflicts between the Aryas and the Dasas and Dasyus, the Rig Veda describes Dasas and Dasyus as people who do not perform sacrifices or obey the commandments of gods. Their speech is described as mridhra which could variously mean soft, uncouth, hostile, other adjectives which describe their physical appearance are subject to many interpretations. Internecine military conflicts between the tribes of Vedic Aryans are also described in the Rig Veda. Most notable of such conflicts was the Battle of Ten Kings, which took place on the banks of the river Parushni. The battle was fought between the tribe Bharatas, led by their chief Sudas, against a confederation of ten tribes— Puru, Yadu, Turvasha, Anu, Druhyu, Alina, Bhalanas, Paktha, Siva, Vishanin. Bharatas lived around the regions of the river Saraswati, while Purus, their western neighbours. The other tribes dwelt north-west of the Bharatas in the region of Punjab, division of the waters of Ravi could have been a reason for the war
17.
Ochre Coloured Pottery culture
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The Ochre Coloured Pottery culture is a 2nd millennium BC Bronze Age culture of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It is a contemporary of and successor to the Indus Valley Civilization, the OCP marked the last stage of the North Indian Bronze Age and was succeeded by the Iron Age black and red ware culture and the painted gray ware culture. Early specimens of the ceramics found near Jodhpura, Rajasthan date from the 3rd millennium. The culture reached the Gangetic plain in the early 2nd millennium, recently Archaeological Survey of India discovered copper axes and some piece of pottery in its exacavation at Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh. Ochre Coloured Pottery culture has potential to be called as a proper civilisation something like Harrapan civilisation, the term copper hoards refers to different assemblages of copper-based artefacts in the northern areas of the Indian Subcontinent that are believed to date from the 2nd millennium BC. Initially, the copper hoards were known mostly from the Ganges-Yamuna doab, characteristic hoard artefacts from southern Haryana/northern Rajasthan include flat axes, harpoons, double axes, and antenna-hilted swords. The doab has a related repertory, artefacts from the Chota Nagpur area are very different, they seem to resemble ingots and are votive in character. The raw material may have derived from a variety of sources in Rajasthan, Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha. Some scholars regard the OCP culture as late or impoverished Harappan culture, V. N. Misra regards the OCP as only a final and impoverished stage of the Late Harappan culture and designates this phase as Degenerate Harappan. Together with the Cemetery H culture and the Gandhara Grave culture, kallur archaeological site Yule, P. Metalwork of the Bronze Age in India, Munich, C. H. Beck, ISBN 3-406-30440-0 Yule, P. Hauptmann, A. Hughes, the Copper Hoards of the Indian Subcontinent, Preliminaries for an Interpretation, Jahrbuch des Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums Mainz, pp.36, 193–275, ISSN 0076-2741 Gupta, S. P
18.
Gandhara grave culture
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The Gandhara grave culture, also called Swat culture, emerged c.1600 BC, and flourished c.1500 BC to 500 BC in Gandhara, which lies in modern-day Pakistan and Afghanistan. It has been regarded as a token of the Indo-Aryan migrations, relevant finds, artifacts found primarily in graves, were distributed along the banks of the Swat and Dir rivers in the north, Taxila in the southeast, along the Gomal River to the south. Simply made terracotta figurines were buried with the pottery, and other items are decorated with simple dot designs, horse remains were found in at least one burial. The Gandhara grave culture may be an artifact of the Indo-Aryan migrations, according to Kochhar, the Indo-Aryan culture fused with indigenous elements of the remnants of the Indus Valley Civilization and gave rise to the Vedic Civilization. Asko Parpola argues that the Gandhara grave culture is by no means identical with the Bronze Age Culture of Bactria, according to Tusa, the Gandhara grave culture and its new contributions are in line with the cultural traditions of the previous period. According to Kennedy, who argues for a cultural continuity. This suggests a continuum between the ancient populations of Timargarha and Mehrgarh. This is contested by Elena E. Kuzmina, who notes remains that are similar to some from Central Asian populations, antonini, Stacul and other scholars argue that this culture is also not related with the Beshkent culture of Kyrgyzstan and Vakhsh culture of Tajikistan. However, E. Kuzmina argues the opposite on the basis of archaeology and the human remains from the separate cultures
19.
Janapada
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The Janapadas were the realms, republics and kingdoms of the Indian Vedic period late Bronze Age into the from about 1200 BCE to the 6th century BCE. Concluding with the rise of sixteen Mahajanapadas, most of the states were annexed by more powerful neighbours. The Sanskrit term janapada is a compound term, composed of two words, janas and pada. The word pada means foot, from its earliest attestation, the word has had a meaning of realm, territory. Linguist George Dunkel compares the Greek andrapodon slave, to PIE *pédom fetters, Sanskrit padám, usually taken to mean footprint, trail, diverges in accent from the PIE reconstruction. For the sense of population of the land, padasya janas, a primary meaning of place of the people, janasya padam, would not explain why the compound is of masculine gender. An original dvandva land and people is conceivable, but a dual inflection would be expected, literary evidence suggests that the janapadas flourished between 1500 BCE and 500 BCE. The earliest mention of the term occurs in the Aitareya. In the Vedic samhitas, the term denotes a tribe. The janas were headed by a king, the samiti was a common assembly of the jana members, and had the power to elect or dethrone the king. The sabha was an assembly of wise elders, who advised the king. The janas were originally semi-nomadic pastoral communities, but gradually came to be associated with specific territories as they became less mobile, various kulas developed within the jana, each with its own chief. Gradually, the necessities of defence and warfare prompted the janas to form military groupings headed by janapadins and this model ultimately evolved into the establishment of political units known as the janapadas. While some of the janas evolved into their own janapadas, others appear to have mixed together to form a common Janapada, according to the political scientist Sudama Misra, the name of the Panchala janapada suggests that it was a fusion of five janas. Some janas mentioned in the earliest texts do not find a mention in the later texts, Misra theorizes that these smaller janas were conquered by and assimilated into the larger janas. Janapadas were gradually dissolved around 500 BCE and their disestablishment can be attributed to the rise of imperial powers within India, as well as in the Northwest of South Asia by foreign invaders. The Janapada were highest political unit in Ancient India during this period these polities were usually monarchical, the head of a kingdom was called a or king. A chief or priest and a or commander of administrating the army who would assist the king, there were also two other political bodies, the thought to be a council of elders and the a general assembly of the entire people
20.
Black and red ware culture
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The black and red ware culture is an early Iron Age archaeological culture of the northern Indian subcontinent. It is dated to roughly the 12th – 9th century BCE, BRW pottery is unknown west of the Indus Valley. Recent findings in Northern India show Iron working since 1800 BCE, according to Shaffer, the nature and context of the iron objects involved are very different from early iron objects found in Southwest Asia. It is succeeded by the Painted Grey Ware culture, Mathura, A protohistoric Perspective in D. M. Srinivasan, Mathura, the Cultural Heritage,1989, pp. 171–180, the origins of iron-working in India, new evidence from the Central Ganga Plain and the Eastern Vindhyas by Rakesh Tewari India Heritage - Earthenware and Pottery
21.
Painted Grey Ware culture
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The Painted Grey Ware culture is an Iron Age culture of the Gangetic plain and the Ghaggar-Hakra valley, lasting from roughly 1200 BCE to 600 BCE. It is contemporary to, and a successor of the Black, but this point of view may change as fresh surveys by archaeologist Vinay Kumar Gupta suggest Mathura was the largest PGW site around 375 hectares in area. Two periods of PGW were identified recently at Ahichhatra, the earliest from 1500 to 800 BCE, total number of PGW sites discovered so far is more than 1100. It probably corresponds to the middle and late Vedic period, i. e. the Kuru-Panchala kingdom and it is succeeded by Northern Black Polished Ware from c. 700-500 BCE, associated with the rise of the great mahajanapada states, the PGW culture cultivated rice, wheat, and barley, and domesticated cattle, sheep, pigs, and horses. Houses were built of wattle-and-daub, mud, or bricks, ranging in size from small huts to large houses with many rooms, there is a clear settlement hierarchy, with a few central towns that stand out amongst numerous small villages. In the 1950s, archaeologist B. B. Lal associated Hastinapura, Mathura, Ahichatra, Kampilya, Barnava, Kurukshetra and other sites of PGW culture with the Mahabharata period and the Aryans. Furthermore, he pointed out that the Mahabharata mentions a flood, however, B. B. Lal considered his theories to be provisional and based upon a limited body of evidence, and he later reconsidered his statements on the nature of this culture. The pottery style of culture is different from the pottery of the Iranian Plateau. In some sites, PGW pottery and Late Harappan pottery are contemporaneous, the archaeologist Jim Shaffer has noted that at present, the archaeological record indicates no cultural discontinuities separating Painted Grey Ware from the indigenous protohistoric culture. However, the continuity of pottery styles may be explained by the fact that pottery was made by indigenous craftsmen even after the Indo-Aryan migration. According to Chakrabarti and other scholars, the origins of the subsistence patterns, towards the end of the period, many of the PGW settlements grew into the large towns and cities of the Northern Black Polished Ware period. Confirmation of this early PGW came when a team of the Archaeological Survey of India led by B. R, kuru Kingdom Panchala Mahajanapadas Bryant, Edwin. The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture, the Aryan hypothesis in Indian archaeology. Indian Studies Past and Present 4, 333-358, the Indo-Aryan Invasions, Cultural Myth and Archaeological Reality. “Have Aryans been identified in the prehistoric record from South Asia. ”, in George Erdosy. The Indo-Aryans of Ancient South Asia, p. 49-54
22.
Northern Black Polished Ware
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The Northern Black Polished Ware culture is an urban Iron Age culture of the Indian Subcontinent, lasting c. 700–200 BCE, succeeding the Painted Grey Ware culture and Black and it developed beginning around 700 BC, or in the late Vedic period, and peaked from c. 500–300 BC, coinciding with the emergence of 16 great states or mahajanapadas in Northern India, after recent excavations at Gotihwa in Nepal, archaeologist Giovanni Verardi by radiocarbon datings says that proto-NBPW is at least from 900 BC. Excavations in India at Ayodhya, Juafardih near Nalanda, and Kolhua near Vaisali, based on this, historian Carlos Aramayo proposes the following chronology, Proto-NBPW, Early NBPW, and Late NBPW. Scholars have noted similarities between NBP and the much earlier Harappan cultures, among them the ivory dice and combs, there are also, however, important differences between these two cultures, for example, rice, millet and sorghum became more important in the NBP culture. The NBP culture may reflect the first state-level organization in the Indian Subcontinent, some sites where Northern Black Polished Ware have been found are Mahasthangarh, Chandraketugarh, Wari-Bateshwar, Bangarh and Mangalkot. Http, //lakdiva. org/coins/ruhuna/ruhuna_elephant_srivasta_disk. html India Heritage - Earthenware and Pottery
23.
Haryanka dynasty
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The Haryanka dynasty was the second ruling dynasty of Magadha, an ancient kingdom in India, which succeeded the Barhadratha dynasty. The reign of this dynasty probably began in the middle of 6th century BCE, later, it was shifted to Pataliputra, near the present day Patna in India. The founder of dynasty was either Bimbisara himself or his father Bhattiya. According to the Buddhist text, the Mahavamsa, Bimbisara was anointed king by his father at the age of fifteen and this dynasty was succeeded by the Shishunaga dynasty. The Haryanka king Bimbisara was responsible for expanding the boundaries of his kingdom through matrimonial alliances, the land of Kosala fell to Magadha in this way. He is referred to as King Shrenik in Jain scriptures, estimates place the territory ruled by this early dynasty at 300 leagues in diameter, and encompassing 80,000 small settlements. In some sources, Bimbisara was imprisoned and killed by his son and successor, Ajatashatru, Ajatashatru was contemporary with Mahavira and Gautama Buddha. Ajatashatru fought a war against Vajji, ruled by the Lichhavis, Ajatashatru followed policies of conquest and expansion. He defeated his neighbors including the king of Kosala, his brothers, when at odds with him, went to Kashi and this led to a war between Magadha and Kosala. Ajatashatru occupied Kashi and captured the smaller kingdoms, Magadha under Ajatashatru became the most powerful kingdom in North India. He is believed to have ruled for sixteen years, the kingdom had a particularly bloody succession. Anuruddha eventually succeeded Udaybhadra through assassination, and his son Munda succeeded him in the same fashion, due in part to this bloody dynastic feuding, it is thought that a civil revolt led to the emergence of the Shishunaga dynasty. Legendary kings of Magadha Pradyota dynasty Raychaudhuri, H. C, political History of Ancient India, Calcutta, University of Calcutta Bhargava, P. L
24.
Mahajanapada
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A Mahājanapada is one of the sixteen kingdoms or oligarchic republics that existed in ancient India from the sixth centuries BCE to fourth centuries BCE. Two of them were most probably ganas i. e. republics, the 6th century BCE is often regarded as a major turning point in early Indian history. Archaeologically, this corresponds in part to the Northern Black Polished Ware culture. The term Janapada literally means the foothold of a tribe, the fact that Janapada is derived from Jana points to an early stage of land-taking by the Jana tribe for a settled way of life. This process of first settlement on land had completed its final stage prior to the times of the Buddha, the Pre-Buddhist north-west region of the Indian sub-continent was divided into several Janapadas demarcated from each other by boundaries. In Pāṇinis Ashtadhyayi, Janapada stands for country and Janapadin for its citizenry, each of these Janapadas was named after the Kshatriya tribe who had settled therein. Buddhist and other texts only incidentally refer to sixteen great nations which were in existence before the time of the Buddha and they do not give any connected history except in the case of Magadha. He omits the nations from Uttarapatha like the Kamboja and Gandhara, the more extended horizon of the Bhagvati and the omission of all countries from Uttarapatha clearly shows that the Bhagvati list is of later origin and therefore less reliable. The first reference to the Angas is found in the Atharva-Veda where they find mention along with the Magadhas, Gandharis, the Jaina Prajnapana ranks Angas and Vangas in the first group of Aryan people. It mentions the cities of ancient India. It was also a center of trade and commerce and its merchants regularly sailed to distant Suvarnabhumi. Anga was annexed by Magadha in the time of Bimbisara and this was the one and only conquest of Bimbisara. The Country of Assaka or the Ashmaka tribe was located in Dakshinapatha or southern India, in Buddhas time, the Assakas were located on the banks of the river Godavari. The capital of the Assakas was Potana or Potali, which corresponds to Paudanya of Mahabharata, the Ashmakas are also mentioned by Pāṇini. They are placed in the north-west in the Markendeya Purana and the Brhat Samhita, the river Godavari separated the country of the Assakas from that of the Mulakas. The commentator of Kautiliyas Arthashastra identifies Ashmaka with Maharashtra, the country of Assaka lay outside the pale of Madhyadesa. It was located on a high road, the Dakshinapatha. At one time, Assaka included Mulaka and abutted Avanti, the country of the Avantis was an important kingdom of western India and was one of the four great monarchies in India in the post era of Mahavira and Buddha
25.
Achaemenid Empire
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The Achaemenid Empire, also called the Persian Empire, was an empire based in Western Asia, founded by Cyrus the Great. The empires successes inspired similar systems in later empires and it is noted in Western history as the antagonist of the Greek city-states during the Greco-Persian Wars and for the emancipation of the Jewish exiles in Babylon. The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, was built in a Hellenistic style in the empire as well. By the 7th century BC, the Persians had settled in the portion of the Iranian Plateau in the region of Persis. From this region, Cyrus the Great advanced to defeat the Medes, Lydia, Alexander, an avid admirer of Cyrus the Great, conquered the empire in its entirety by 330 BC. Upon his death, most of the former territory came under the rule of the Ptolemaic Kingdom and Seleucid Empire. The Persian population of the central plateau reclaimed power by the second century BC under the Parthian Empire, the historical mark of the Achaemenid Empire went far beyond its territorial and military influences and included cultural, social, technological and religious influences as well. Many Athenians adopted Achaemenid customs in their lives in a reciprocal cultural exchange. The impact of Cyruss edict is mentioned in Judeo-Christian texts, the empire also set the tone for the politics, heritage and history of modern Iran. Astronomical year numbering Dates are approximate, consult particular article for details Due to the duration of their reigns, Smerdis, Xerxes II. The Persian nation contains a number of tribes as listed here, the Pasargadae, Maraphii, and Maspii, upon which all the other tribes are dependent. Of these, the Pasargadae are the most distinguished, they contain the clan of the Achaemenids from which spring the Perseid kings. Other tribes are the Panthialaei, Derusiaei, Germanii, all of which are attached to the soil, the Achaemenid Empire was created by nomadic Persians. The Achaemenid Empire was not the first Iranian empire, as by 6th century BC another group of ancient Iranian peoples had established the short lived Median Empire. The Iranian peoples had arrived in the region of what is today Iran c.1000 BC and had for a number of centuries fallen under the domination of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, based in northern Mesopotamia. However, the Medes and Persians, Cimmerians, Persians and Chaldeans played a role in the overthrow of the Assyrian empire. The term Achaemenid means of the family of the Achaemenis/Achaemenes, despite the derivation of the name, Achaemenes was himself a minor seventh-century ruler of the Anshan in southwestern Iran, and a vassal of Assyria. At some point in 550 BC, Cyrus rose in rebellion against the Medes, eventually conquering the Medes and creating the first Persian empire
26.
Nanda Empire
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The Nanda dynasty originated from the region of Magadha in ancient India during the 4th century BCE and lasted between 345–321 BCE. At its greatest extent, the empire ruled by the Nanda Dynasty extended from Bengal in the east, to the Punjab region in the west, the rulers of this dynasty were famed for the great wealth which they accumulated. The Nanda Empire was later conquered by Chandragupta Maurya, who founded the Maurya Empire and he expanded his territory south of the Vindhya Range into the Deccan Plateau. The Nandas, who usurped the throne of the Shishunaga dynasty c.345 BCE, were thought to be of low origin and he was the son of Mahanandin, and a Shudra mother. The Nanda kings built on the foundations laid by their Haryanka, to achieve this objective they built a vast army, consisting of 200,000 infantry,20,000 cavalry,2,000 war chariots and 3,000 war elephants. According to the Greek historian Plutarch, the size of the Nanda army was larger, numbering 200,000 infantry,80,000 cavalry,8,000 war chariots. A possible indication of Nanda military victories in Kalinga is suggested by the later Hathigumpha inscription of Kharavela, the existence of a place called Nau Nand Dehra on the Godavari is taken by some scholars as reflecting Nanda rule over the Deccan. The evidence for the extension of Nanda rule into trans-Vindhyan India is not, however, the Nandas were also renowned for their immense wealth. They undertook irrigation projects and invented standardized measures for trade across their empire, the Nanda Dynasty was also mentioned in the ancient Sangam literature of the Tamil people. The famous Tamil poet Mamulanar of the Sangam literature described the capital city Pataliputra of the Nanda Dynasty and their unpopularity, possibly due to their financial extortion, facilitated a revolution, leading to their overthrow by Chandragupta Maurya and Kautilya. Nevertheless, the greatness attained in the Maurya Age would hardly have been possible but for the achievements of their predecessors, the advisors of the king were fewer in number but were most respected on account of their high character and wisdom. They are mentioned by the Greek observers who wrote about conditions in the fourth century BCE, next to the advisors were the generals of the army. Bhadrasala, one of such generals, is mentioned in the Milinda-Panho, a passage of the Kathasaritsagara refers to the kataka of Nanda in Ayodhya. Mookerji, Radha Kumud, Chandragupta Maurya and his times, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 81-208-0433-3 Panda, Harihar, Raychaudhuri, as a Historian, Northern Book Centre, ISBN 81-7211-210-6 Raychaudhuri, H. C. Political History of Ancient India, From the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty, Oxford University Press Sastri, K. A. Nilakanta, the Early History of India, Atlantic Publishers and distributors, ISBN 978-81-7156-618-1
27.
Macedonia (ancient kingdom)
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Macedonia or Macedon was an ancient kingdom on the periphery of Archaic and Classical Greece, and later the dominant state of Hellenistic Greece. The kingdom was founded and at first ruled by the royal Argead dynasty, the reign of Philip II saw the rise of Macedonia, during which the kingdom rose to control the entire Greek world. With a reformed army containing phalanxes wielding the sarissa pike, Philip II defeated the old powers of Athens and Thebes in the decisive Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC, Sparta was kept isolated and was occupied a century later by Antigonus III Doson. Alexander then led a roughly decade-long campaign of conquest against the Achaemenid Empire, in the ensuing wars of Alexander the Great, he overthrew the Achaemenid Empire and conquered a territory that stretched as far as the Indus River. For a brief period, his Macedonian empire was the most powerful in the world – the definitive Hellenistic state, Greek arts and literature flourished in the new conquered lands and advances in philosophy, engineering, and science were spread throughout much of the ancient world. Of particular importance were the contributions of Aristotle, who had been imported as tutor to Alexander, important cities such as Pella, Pydna, and Amphipolis were involved in power struggles for control of the territory. New cities were founded, such as Thessalonica by the usurper Cassander, Macedonias decline began with the Macedonian Wars and the rise of Rome as the leading Mediterranean power. At the end of the Second Macedonian War in 168 BC, a short-lived revival of the monarchy during the Third Macedonian War in 150–148 BC ended with the establishment of the Roman province of Macedonia. The name Macedonia comes from the ethnonym Μακεδόνες, which itself is derived from the ancient Greek adjective μακεδνός, meaning tall and it also shares the same root as the noun μάκρος, meaning length in both ancient and modern Greek. The name is believed to have meant either highlanders, the tall ones. Robert S. P. Beekes supports that both terms are of Pre-Greek substrate origin and cannot be explained in terms of Indo-European morphology. Contradictory legends state that either Perdiccas I of Macedon or Caranus of Macedon were the founders of the Argead dynasty, the kingdom of Macedonia was situated along the Haliacmon and Axius rivers in Lower Macedonia, north of Mount Olympus. Historian Malcolm Errington posits the theory one of the earliest Argead kings must have established Aigai as their capital in the mid-7th century BC. Prior to the 4th century BC, the kingdom covered a region corresponding to the western. Achaemenid Persian hegemony over Macedonia was briefly interrupted by the Ionian Revolt, although Macedonia enjoyed a large degree of autonomy and was never made a satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire, it was expected to provide troops for the Achaemenid army. Following the Greek victory at Salamis in 480 BC, Alexander I was employed as an Achaemenid diplomat to strike a treaty and alliance with Athens. Soon afterwards the Achaemenid forces were forced to withdraw from mainland Europe, although initially a Persian vassal, Alexander I of Macedon fostered friendly diplomatic relations with his former Greek enemies, the Athenian and Spartan-led coalition of Greek city-states. Two separate wars were fought against Athens between 433 and 431 BC, spurred by an Athenian alliance with a brother and cousin of Perdiccas II who had rebelled against him
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Maurya Empire
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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
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Seleucid Empire
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Seleucus received Babylonia and, from there, expanded his dominions to include much of Alexanders near eastern territories. At the height of its power, it included central Anatolia, Persia, the Levant, Mesopotamia, and what is now Kuwait, Afghanistan, and parts of Pakistan and Turkmenistan. The Seleucid Empire was a center of Hellenistic culture that maintained the preeminence of Greek customs where a Greek political elite dominated. The Greek population of the cities who formed the dominant elite were reinforced by immigration from Greece, Seleucid expansion into Anatolia and Greece was abruptly halted after decisive defeats at the hands of the Roman army. Their attempts to defeat their old enemy Ptolemaic Egypt were frustrated by Roman demands, contemporary sources, such as a loyalist degree from Ilium, in Greek language define the Seleucid state both as an empire and as a kingdom. Similarly, Seleucid rulers were described as kings in Babylonia and he refers to either Alexander Balas or Alexander II Zabinas as a ruler. Alexander, who conquered the Persian Empire under its last Achaemenid dynast, Darius III, died young in 323 BC. Alexanders generals jostled for supremacy over parts of his empire, Ptolemy, a former general and the satrap of Egypt, was the first to challenge the new system, this led to the demise of Perdiccas. Ptolemys revolt led to a new subdivision of the empire with the Partition of Triparadisus in 320 BC, Seleucus, who had been Commander-in-Chief of the Companion cavalry and appointed first or court chiliarch received Babylonia and, from that point, continued to expand his dominions ruthlessly. Seleucus established himself in Babylon in 312 BC, the used as the foundation date of the Seleucid Empire. The whole region from Phrygia to the Indus was subject to Seleucus, but Seleucus Nicator gave them to Sandrocottus in consequence of a marriage contract, and received in return five hundred elephants. Following his and Lysimachus victory over Antigonus Monophthalmus at the decisive Battle of Ipsus in 301 BC, Seleucus took control over eastern Anatolia, in the latter area, he founded a new capital at Antioch on the Orontes, a city he named after his father. An alternative capital was established at Seleucia on the Tigris, north of Babylon, Seleucuss empire reached its greatest extent following his defeat of his erstwhile ally, Lysimachus, at Corupedion in 281 BC, after which Seleucus expanded his control to encompass western Anatolia. He hoped further to take control of Lysimachuss lands in Europe – primarily Thrace and even Macedonia itself, nevertheless, even before Seleucus death, it was difficult to assert control over the vast eastern domains of the Seleucids. Seleucus invaded the Punjab region of India in 305 BC, confronting Chandragupta Maurya and it is said that Chandragupta fielded an army of 600,000 men and 9,000 war elephants. Archaeologically, concrete indications of Mauryan rule, such as the inscriptions of the Edicts of Ashoka, are known as far as Kandahar in southern Afghanistan and it is generally thought that Chandragupta married Seleucuss daughter, or a Macedonian princess, a gift from Seleucus to formalize an alliance. In a return gesture, Chandragupta sent 500 war elephants, an asset which would play a decisive role at the Battle of Ipsus in 301 BC. In addition to this treaty, Seleucus dispatched an ambassador, Megasthenes, to Chandragupta, Megasthenes wrote detailed descriptions of India and Chandraguptas reign, which have been partly preserved to us through Diodorus Siculus
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Pandyan Dynasty
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The Pandyan or Pandiyan or Pandian dynasty was an ancient Tamil dynasty, one of the three Tamil dynasties, the other two being the Chola and the Chera. The Pandya King, along with Chera King and Chola King, were referred to as the Three Crowned Kings of Tamilakam, the dynasty ruled parts of South India from around 600 BCE to first half of 17th century CE. They initially ruled their country Pandya Nadu from Korkai, a seaport on the southernmost tip of the Indian Peninsula, fish being their flag, Pandyas were experts in water management, agriculture and fisheries and they were eminent sailors and sea traders too. Pandyan was well known since ancient times, with contacts, even diplomatic, the Pandyan empire was home to temples including Meenakshi Amman Temple in Madurai, and Nellaiappar Temple built on the bank of the river Thamirabarani in Tirunelveli. The Pandya kings were called either Jatavarman or Maravarman Pandyan, from being Jains in their early ages, they became Shaivaites after some centuries of rule. Strabo states that an Indian king called Pandion sent Augustus Caesar presents and gifts of honour, the country of the Pandyas, Pandi Mandala, was described as Pandyan Mediterranea in the Periplus and Modura Regia Pandyan by Ptolemy. The early Pandyan Dynasty of the Sangam Literature faded into obscurity upon the invasion of the Kalabhras, the dynasty revived under Kadungon in the early 6th century, pushed the Kalabhras out of the Tamil country and ruled from Madurai. They again went into decline with the rise of the Cholas in the 9th century and were in constant conflict with them. The Pandyas allied themselves with the Sinhalese and the Cheras in harassing the Chola empire until they found an opportunity for reviving their fortunes during the late 13th century and they also had extensive trade links with the Southeast Asian maritime empires of Srivijaya and their successors. The Pandyas excelled in trade and literature. They controlled the fisheries along the South Indian coast, between Sri Lanka and India, which produced some of the finest pearls in the known ancient world. Traditionally, the legendary Sangams were held in Madurai under their patronage, during their history, the Pandyas were repeatedly in conflict with the Pallavas, Cholas, Hoysalas and finally the Muslim invaders from the Delhi Sultanate. The Islamic invasion led to the end of Pandyan supremacy in South India,1323, Jaffna Kingdom in Sri Lanka declared its independence from the crumbling Pandyan Empire. The Pandyans lost their capital city Madurai to Madurai Sultanate in 1335, however they shifted their capital to Tenkasi and continued to rule the Tirulnelveli, Tuticorin, Ramanad, Sivagangai regions. Meanwhile, Madurai sultanate was replaced by Nayaka governors of Vijayanagara in 1378, in 1529 Nayaka governors declared independence and established Madurai Nayak dynasty. The word Pandya is derived from the Tamil word Pandu meaning very old, another theory is that the word Pandya is derived from the Tamil word Pandi meaning bull. Ancient Tamils, considered the bull as a sign of masculinity, the earliest Pandyans, probably used the bull as its emblem. Another theory suggests that in Sangam Tamil lexicon the word Pandya means old country in contrast with Chola meaning new country, Chera meaning hill country, the Chera, Chola and Pandya are the traditional Tamil siblings and together with the Pallavas are the major Kings that ruled ancient Tamilakam
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Chera dynasty
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The Cheras were the principal ruling dynasty of the present-day state of Kerala and to a lesser extent, parts of Tamil Nadu in South India. Along with the Ay kingdom and the Ezhimala kingdom, they formed the kingdoms of Kerala in the early years of the Common Era. The origins of the dynasty are unclear and it is understood that they were speakers of Proto-Tamil-Malayalam while some being practitioners of literary writing in Old Tamil. In fact, most of their history is reconstructed from the body of known as the Sangam literature written in Old Tamil around the 3rd century CE. While Pliny and Ptolemy refer to the Cheras as Calobotras, the Periplus refers to them as the Keprobotras, the earliest Sanskrit works which refer to the Cheras and Kerala is probably the Aitreya Aranyaka. It refers to the land as Chera-pada - and as one of the three peoples who did not follow some ancient injunctions, there are also brief references by Katyanana, Edicts of Ashoka, Patanjali and Kautilya though Panini does not mention of the land. However, it is the Tamil works collectively known as the Sangam literature that form the most important sources for a detailed history of the Cheras. These works roughly span the period 100 CE to 300 CE, among them, the most important sources for the Cheras are the Pattittupattu, the Agananuru, the Purananuru and the Silappatikaram. The exact antiquity of the Chera dynasty is difficult to establish, however, based on the travellers accounts and the Sangam literature, it can be confirmed that they were already existing around the 4th century BCE. The Sangam literature describes a line of Chera rulers. It records the names of the kings, the princes, the internal chronology of this literature is still far from settled and a connected account of the history of the period is an area of research. Uthiyan Cheralathan, Nedum Cheralathan and Senguttuvan Chera are some of the referred to in the Sangam poems. Senguttuvan Chera, the most celebrated Chera king, is famous for the legends surrounding Kannagi, the exact location of the Chera capital has been subject to some speculation. The Chera capital has been called, Vanchi and Karur in several works and this has led to several theories identifying the Chera capital in places called Karur in both Kerala and Tamil Nadu. However, it is clear that the capital was near the famous port known as Muziris. Pliny refers to Muziris as the Chera capital, while the author of the Periplus identifies the capital to be a couple of away from the mouth of the river at Muziris. Ptolemy who identifies the capital as Karoura gives a location that is very close to Muziris as well. The Cheras also seem to have battles with other neighbouring dynasties such as the Pallavas, the Rashtrakutas
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Chola dynasty
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The Chola dynasty was one of the longest-ruling dynasties in the history of southern India. The earliest datable references to this Tamil dynasty are in inscriptions from the 3rd century BCE left by Ashoka, as one of the Three Crowned Kings of Tamilakam, the dynasty continued to govern over varying territory until the 13th century CE. The whole country south of the Tungabhadra was united and held as one state for a period of two centuries and more, the Chola fleet represented the zenith of ancient Indian sea power. During the period 1010–1200, the Chola territories stretched from the islands of the Maldives in the south to as far north as the banks of the Godavari River in Andhra Pradesh. Rajaraja Chola conquered peninsular South India, annexed parts of which is now Sri Lanka, Rajendra Chola sent a victorious expedition to North India that touched the river Ganges and defeated the Pala ruler of Pataliputra, Mahipala. He also successfully invaded cities of Srivijaya of Malaysia and Indonesia, the Chola dynasty went into decline at the beginning of the 13th century with the rise of the Pandyan Dynasty, which ultimately caused their downfall. The Cholas left a lasting legacy and their patronage of Tamil literature and their zeal in the building of temples has resulted in some great works of Tamil literature and architecture. The Chola kings were avid builders and envisioned the temples in their kingdoms not only as places of worship and they pioneered a centralised form of government and established a disciplined bureaucracy. The Chola school of art spread to Southeast Asia and influenced the architecture, the Cholas are also known as the Choda. There is very little available in regarding their origin. Its antiquity is evident from the mentions in ancient Tamil literature, Later medieval Cholas also claimed a long and ancient lineage. Mentions in the early Sangam literature indicate that the earliest kings of the dynasty antedated 100 CE, Cholas were mentioned in Ashokan Edicts of 3rd Century BCE as one of the neighboring countries existing in the South. A commonly held view is that Chola is, like Chera and Pandya, the annotator Parimelazhagar said, The charity of people with ancient lineage are forever generous in spite of their reduced means. Other names in use for the Cholas are Killi, Valavan and Sembiyan. Killi perhaps comes from the Tamil kil meaning dig or cleave and this word often forms an integral part of early Chola names like Nedunkilli, Nalankilli and so on, but almost drops out of use in later times. Valavan is most probably connected with valam – fertility and means owner or ruler of a fertile country, in Tamil lexicon Chola means Soazhi or Saei denoting a newly formed kingdom, in the lines of Pandya or the old country. There is very little evidence available of the Cholas prior to the 7th century. Historic records exist thereafter, including inscriptions on temples, the main source for the available information of the early Cholas is the early Tamil literature of the Sangam Period
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Pallava dynasty
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The Pallava dynasty was a South Indian dynasty that existed from 275 CE to 897 CE, ruling a portion of what is today southern India. They gained prominence after the eclipse of the Satavahana dynasty, whom the Pallavas served as feudatories, Pallavas are most noted for their patronage of architecture, the finest example being the Shore Temple, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Mahabalipuram. The Pallavas, who left behind magnificent sculptures and temples, established the foundations of medieval South Indian architecture and they developed the Pallava script from which Grantha ultimately descended. The Pallava script gave rise to other southeast Asian scripts. Chinese traveller Hiuen Tsang visited Kanchipuram during Pallava rule and extolled their benign rule, the Pallavas themselves claimed to descend from Brahma and Ashvatthama. Though Manimekalai posits Ilam Tiriyan as a Chola, not a Pallava, thence, came into existence the race of Pallavas. Vīrakūrcha, of celebrated name, who simultaneously with the daughter of the chief of serpents grasped also the insignia of royalty. The Proceedings of the First Annual Conference of South Indian History Congress also notes, The word Tondai means a creeper, historian K. R. Subramanian says the Pallavas were originally a Telugu power rather than a Tamil one. Telugu sources know of a Trilochana Pallava as the earliest Telugu king, the first Chalukya king is said to have been met, repulsed and killed by the same Trilochana near Mudivemu. A Buddhist story describes Kala the Nagaraja, resembling the Pallava Kalabhartar as a king of the region near Krishna district, the Pallava Bogga may be identified with the kingdom of Kala in Andhra which had close and early maritime and cultural relations with Ceylon. K. A. K. P. Jayaswal also proposed a North Indian origin, the Pallavas captured Kanchi from the Cholas as recorded in the Velurpalaiyam Plates, around the reign of the fifth king of the Pallava line Kumaravishnu I. Thereafter Kanchi figures in inscriptions as the capital of the Pallavas, the Cholas drove the Pallavas away from Kanchi in the mid-4th century, in the reign of Vishugopa, the tenth king of the Pallava line. The Pallavas re-captured Kanchi in the century, possibly in the reign of Simhavishnu, the fourteenth king of the Pallava line. Thereafter the Pallavas held on to Kanchi until the 9th century, until the reign of their last king, the Pallavas were in conflict with major kingdoms at various periods of time. A contest for political supremacy existed between the early Pallavas and the Kadambas, numerous Kadamba inscriptions provide details of Pallava-Kadamba hostlities. During the reign of Vishnugopavarman II, political convulsion engulfed the Pallavas due to the Kalabhra invasion of the Tamil country, towards the close of the 6th century, the Pallava Simhavishnu stuck a blow against the Kalabhras. Thereafter the Tamil country was divided between the Pallavas in the north with Kanchipuram as their capital, and Pandyas in the south with Madurai as their capital, the royal custom of using a series of descriptive honorific titles, Birudas, was particularly prevalent among the Pallavas. The birudas of Mahendravarman I are in Sanskrit, Tamil and Telugu, the Telugu birudas show Mahendravarmans involvement with the Andhra region continued to be strong at the time he was creating his cave-temples in the Tamil region
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