1.
Madurai district
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Madurai district is second largest in population of the 32 districts of the state of Tamil Nadu, in southeastern India. The city of Madurai serves as the district headquarters and it houses the world-famous Sri Meenakshi Sundareshwarar temple and is situated on the banks of the river Vaigai. Thiruparankundram is one of the major tourist place in the district, as of 2011, the district had a population of 3,038,252 with a sex-ratio of 990 females for every 1,000 males. Aside from the city of Madurai, the towns are Melur, Avaniapuram, Thirumangalam. It is an important hub for film shootings. Madurai is called with various nicknames like Athens of the East, Thoonga Nagaram, Naan maada koodal, Malligai Managar, the main kingdoms which ruled Madurai during various times are the Pandyas and the Nayaks. According to 2011 census, Madurai district had a population of 3,038,252 up from 2,578,201 in the 2001 census, for a growth rate of 17. 95%. It had a sex-ratio of 990 females for every 1,000 males, up from 978 in 2001, a total of 313,978 were under the age of six, constituting 162,517 males and 151,461 females. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes accounted for 13. 46% and. 37% of the population respectively, the average literacy of the district was 74. 83%, compared to the national average of 72. 99%. The district had a total of 794,887 households, Madurai district comprises 13 talukas and revenue blocks, same names same boundaries. Under the gram panchayat system rural administration or the district is done by panchayat villages, the revenue blocks are further sub-divided by firkas. The last three taluks, Tiruparankundram, Madurai West and Madurai East, were created in February 2014. The thirteen talukas/blocks are, In the 2001 census, Madurai district had only seven talukas, Madurai North, Madurai South, Melur, Peraiyur, Thirumangalam, Vadipatti, the climate is moderate with no extremes
2.
Tamil Nadu
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Tamil Nadu is one of the 29 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai, Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Puducherry and the South Indian states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh. The state shares a border with the nation of Sri Lanka. Tamil Nadu is the eleventh-largest state in India by area and the sixth-most populous, the state was ranked sixth among states in India according to the Human Development Index in 2011, with the second-largest state economy after Maharashtra. Tamil Nadu is the second largest state economy in India with ₹13,842 billion in gross domestic product after Maharashtra. Tamil Nadu was ranked as one of the top seven developed states in India based on a Multidimensional Development Index in a 2013 report published by the Reserve Bank of India and its official language is Tamil, which is one of the longest-surviving classical languages in the world. Tamil Nadu is home to natural resources. In addition, its people have developed and continue classical arts, classical music, historic buildings and religious sites include Hindu temples of Tamil architecture, hill stations, beach resorts, multi-religious pilgrimage sites, and eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Archaeological evidence points to this area being one of the longest continuous habitations in the Indian peninsula, the ASI archaeologists have proposed that the script used at that site is very rudimentary Tamil Brahmi. Adichanallur has been announced as a site for further excavation. About 60 per cent of the epigraphical inscriptions found by the ASI in India are from Tamil Nadu. A Neolithic stone celt with the Indus script on it was discovered at Sembian-Kandiyur near Mayiladuthurai in Tamil Nadu, according to epigraphist Iravatham Mahadevan, this was the first datable artefact bearing the Indus script to be found in Tamil Nadu. Mahadevan claimed that the find was evidence of the use of the Harappan language, the date of the celt was estimated at between 1500 BCE and 2000 BCE. The early history of the people and rulers of Tamil Nadu is a topic in Tamil literary sources known as Sangam literature, numismatic, archaeological and literary sources corroborate that the Sangam period lasted for about six centuries, from 300 BC to AD300. Three dynasties, namely the Chera, Chola and Pandya, ruled the area of present-day Tamil Nadu, the Chera ruled the whole of present-day Kerala and parts of western Tamil Nadu comprising Coimbatore, Dharmapuri, Karur, Salem and Erode districts from the capital of Vanchi Muthur. The Chola dynasty ruled the northern and central parts of Tamil Nadu from their capital, Uraiyur, All three dynasties had extensive trade relationships with Rome, Greece, Egypt, Ceylon, Phoenicia, Arabia, Mesopotamia and Persia. Trade flourished in commodities such as spices, ivory, pearls, beads, Chera traded extensively from Muziris on the west coast, Chola from Arikamedu and Puhar and Pandya through Korkai port. A Greco-Roman trade and travel document, the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea gives a description of the Tamil country, besides these three dynasties, the Sangam era Tamilakam was also divided into various provinces named nadu, meaning country
3.
Madurai
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Madurai is a major city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the headquarters of Madurai District. Madurai is the third largest city by population in Tamil Nadu, located on the banks of River Vaigai, Madurai has been a major settlement for two millennia. Madurai was the longest continuous capital city until British rule in India, Madurai has been selected as one of the hundred Indian cities to be developed as a smart city under Prime Minister Narendra Modis flagship Smart Cities Mission. Madurai is closely associated with the Tamil language, and the third Tamil Sangam, the recorded history of the city goes back to the 3rd century BCE, being mentioned by Megasthenes, the Greek ambassador to India, and Kautilya, a minister of the Mauryan emperor Chandragupta Maurya. Signs of human settlements and Roman trade links dating back to 300BC are evident from excavations by Archeological Survey of India in Manalur, the city has a number of historical monuments, with the Meenakshi Amman Temple and Tirumalai Nayak Palace being the most prominent. Madurai is an important industrial and educational hub in South Tamil Nadu, the city is home to various automobile, rubber, chemical and granite manufacturing industries. It has developed as a city for information technology. Madurai has important government educational institutes like the Madurai Medical College, Homeopathic Medical College, Madurai Law College, Agricultural College, Madurai city is administered by a municipal corporation established in 1971 as per the Municipal Corporation Act. Madurai is the corporation in Tamil Nadu next to Chennai corporation. The city covers an area of 147.97 km2 and had a population of 1,017,865 in 2011, the city is also the seat of a bench of the Madras High Court. The city is referred by various names including Madurai, Koodal, Malligai Maanagar, Naanmadakoodal, the word Madurai may be derived from Madhura arising out of the divine nectar showered on the city by the Hindu god Shiva from his matted hair. Another theory is that Madurai is the derivative of the word Marutham, a town in the neighbouring Dindigul district is called Vada Madurai and another in Sivagangai district is called Manamadurai. The different names by which the city has referred to historically are listed in the 7th-century poem Thiruvilayaadal puraanam written by Paranjothi Munivar. Koodal means an assembly or congregation of people, referring to the three Tamil Sangams held at Madurai. Naanmadakoodal, meaning the junction of four towers, refers to the four major temples for which Madurai was known for, tevaram, the 7th- or 8th-century Tamil compositions on Shiva by the three prominent Nayanars, namely Appar, Sundarar and Thirugnanasambandar, address the city as Thirualavai. As per Iravatham Mahadevan, a 2nd-century BCE Tamil-Brahmi inscription refers to the city as matiray, Madurai has been inhabited since at least the 3rd century BCE. Megasthenes may have visited Madurai during the 3rd century BCE, with the city referred as Methora in his accounts
4.
Tamil-Brahmi
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Tamil-Brahmi, or Tamili, is a variant of the Brahmi script used to write the Tamil language. These are the earliest documents of a Dravidian language, and the script was established in the Chera and Pandyan states, in what is now Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh. Inscriptions have been found on beds, pot sherds, Jar burials, coins, seals. The language is Archaic Tamil, and led to classical Sangam literature, Tamil Brahmi differs in several ways from Ashokan Brahmi. It adds several letters for sounds not found in Prakrit, ṉ ṟ ṛ ḷ and this is unique to Tamil Brahmi and Bhattiprolu among the early Indian scripts. This appears to be an adaptation to Dravidian phonotactics, where words commonly end in consonants, as opposed to Prakrit, where this never occurs. According to Mahadevan, in the earliest stages of the script the inherent vowel was either abandoned, as above, later stages of Tamil Brahmi returned to the inherent vowel that was the norm in India. The origins of the Brahmi in general and Tamil Brahmi specifically are unclear, there are number of inscriptions whose dates have not been settled yet. Nevertheless, a number of theories has been put forward with literary, epigraphic, the received consensus is a 3rd-century post-Ashokan dispersal, but that since the year 2000, there have been two serious candidates for a pre-Ashokan date. The earliest mention of a script for writing the Tamil language is found in the Jaina work Samavayanga Sutta, in the Buddhist work, Lalitavistara, a script called Dravidalipi is mentioned. According to Kamil Zvelebil, Damilli and Dravidalipi are synonymous for Tamil writing, references to writing are also available in early Tamil literature. Tolkappiyam in stanza 16 and 17 mentions dots added to consonants, the author of Tolkappiyam displays awareness of a writing system and the graphic system as he knew it corresponds with later writing systems. Other works such as Tirukkural mentions writing using the word ezhuttu, cilappatikaram mentions kannezhuttu that was used to mark merchandise imported at the port emporium of Kaveripattinam, it also mentions kannezhuttalar or scribes. A reference to palm leaf manuscript writing is found in Nalatiyar, based on the literature analysis, Kamil Zvelebil believes writing was known to Tamil people at least from the 3rd century BCE. The evidence for pre-Ashokan dispersal comes from Sri Lanka and more recently, the earliest well accepted Brahmi inscriptions in South Asia are found in the citadel of Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka and are dated to the 4th century BCE. Brahmi developed before the spread of Ashokan missionary activities and spread across South Asia due to trade networks. However, these instances of Brahmi were not considered to be examples of Tamil-Brahmi. In 2013, Rajan and Yatheeskumar published excavations at Porunthal and Kodumanal in Tamil Nadu and their stratigraphic analysis combined with radiocarbon dates of paddy grains and charcoal samples indicated that inscription contexts date to as far back as the 5th and perhaps 6th centuries BCE
5.
Tamil Jain
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Tamil Jains are Tamils from Tamil Nadu, India, who practice Digambara Jainism. They are a microcommunity of around 85,000, Tamil Jains are predominantly scattered in northern Tamil Nadu, largely in the districts of Madurai, Viluppuram, Kanchipuram, Vellore, Tiruvannamalai, Cuddalore and Thanjavur. Early Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions in Tamil Nadu date to the 3rd century BCE, camaṇar wrote much Tamil literature, including the important Sangam literature, such as the Nālaṭiyār, the Silappatikaram, the Manimekalai and the Cīvaka Cintāmaṇi. Three of the five epics of Tamil literature are attributed to Jains. Some scholars believe that Jain philosophy must have entered South India some time in the sixth century BCE, even Chandragupta accompanied this constellation of sages. On reaching Shravanabelagola, Bhadrabahu felt his end approaching and decided stay back along with Chandragupta and he instructed the Jain saints to tour over the Chola-, according to other scholars, Jainism must have existed in South India well before the visit of Bhadrabhu and Chandragupta. There are plenty of caves as old as the century found with Jain inscriptions and Jain deities around Madurai, Tiruchirāppaḷḷi, Kanyakumari. A number of Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions have been found in Tamil Nadu that date from the second century BCE and they are regarded as associated with Jain monks and lay devotees. The exact origins of Jainism in Tamil Nadu is unclear, however, Jains flourished in Tamil Nadu at least as early as the Sangam period. Tamil Jain tradition places their origins are much earlier, the Ramayana mentions that Rama paid homage to Jaina monks living in South India on his way to Sri Lanka. Some scholars believe that the author of the oldest extant work of literature in Tamil, tirukkural by Thiruvalluvar is considered by many to be the work of a Jain by scholars like V. Kalyanasundarnar, Vaiyapuri Pillai, Swaminatha Iyer, P. S. It emphatically supports vegetarianism and states that giving up animal sacrifice is worth more than thousand burnt offerings (verse, Silappatikaram, the earliest surviving epic in Tamil literature, was written by a Samaṇa, Ilango Adigal. This epic is a work in Tamil literature, describing the historical events of its time and also of then-prevailing religions. The main characters of this work, Kannagi and Kovalan, who have a divine status among Tamils, were Jains, according to George L. D. in Madurai. It seems likely that this assembly was the model upon which tradition fabricated the Sangam legend, Jainism became dominant in Tamil Nadu in the fifth and sixth century CE, during a period known as the Kalabhra interregnum. Jainism began to decline around the 8th century A. D. with many Tamil kings embracing Hindu religions, still, the Chalukya, Pallava and Pandya dynasties embraced Jainism. When India became independent in 1947, Madras Presidency became Madras State, comprising present day Tamil Nadu, coastal Andhra Pradesh, South Canara district Karnataka, the state was subsequently split up along linguistic lines. In 1969, Madras State was renamed Tamil Nadu, meaning Tamil country, the ruins of Anandamangalam vestiges were discovered in Anandamangalam, a small hamlet near Orathi village in Kancheepuram district of Tamil Nadu
6.
Tamilakam
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Tamiḻakam, refers to the geographical region inhabited by the ancient Tamil people. Tamilakam covered today Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry, Lakshadweep and southern parts of Andhra Pradesh, traditional accounts and Tholkāppiyam referred these territories as a single cultural area, where Tamil was the natural language and culture of all people. The ancient Tamil country was divided into kingdoms, the best known among them were the Cheras, Cholas, Pandyans and Pallavas. Archaeological data from protohistoric Kerala and Tamil Nadu appears to challenge the notion of a culture region. During the Sangam period, Tamil culture began to spread outside Tamilakam, ancient Tamil settlements were also found in Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Tamiḻakam is a portmanteau of a word and suffix from the Tamil language, namely Tamiḻ and it can be roughly translated as the homeland of the Tamils. According to Kamil Zvelebil, the term seems to be the most ancient term used to designate Tamil territory in the Indian subcontinent, the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea referred it as Damirica. The word Tamilakam is today used as synonym for Tamil Nadu, until recently, the interpretation and understanding of Indias past has largely been based on textual sources. According to the Tholkāppiyam, the limits of Tamiḻakam were between the hills of Venkatam in the north and Kanyakumari in the south, tholkappiar, the writer of the Tholkāppiyam, doesnt mention a Tamil part of Sri Lanka. Approximately during the period between 350 BCE to 200 CE, Tamiḻakam was ruled by the three Tamil dynasties, the Chola dynasty, the Pandyan dynasty and the Chera dynasty, there were also a few independent chieftains, the Velirs. During the time of the Maurya Empire in North India the Cheras, the Pandyas, the earliest datable references to the Tamil kingdoms are in inscriptions from the 3rd century BCE during the time of the Maurya Empire. The Pandyan dynasty ruled parts of South India until the early 17th century, the heartland of the Pandyas was the fertile valley of the Vaigai River. They initially ruled their country from Korkai, a seaport on the southernmost tip of the Indian Peninsula, the Chola dynasty ruled from before the Sangam period until the 13th century in central Tamil Nadu. The heartland of the Cholas was the valley of the Kaveri. The Chera dynasty ruled from before the Sangam period until the 12th century over an area corresponding to modern-day western Tamil Nadu, the Vealirs were minor dynastic kings and aristocratic chieftains in Tamiḻakam in the early historic period of South India. Tamiḻakam was divided into regions called Perunadu or Great country. There were three important political regions which were Chera Nadu, Chola Nadu and Pandya Nadu, along these three there were two more political regions of Athiyaman Nadu and Thamirabharani Nadu which were later on absorbed into Chera resp. Pandya Nadu by 3rd century BCE, thondai Nadu which was under Chola Nadu, later emerged as independent Pallava Nadu by 6th century ADE
7.
Epigraphy
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Specifically excluded from epigraphy are the historical significance of an epigraph as a document and the artistic value of a literary composition. A person using the methods of epigraphy is called an epigrapher or epigraphist, for example, the Behistun inscription is an official document of the Achaemenid Empire engraved on native rock at a location in Iran. Epigraphists are responsible for reconstructing, translating, and dating the trilingual inscription and it is the work of historians, however, to determine and interpret the events recorded by the inscription as document. Often, epigraphy and history are competences practiced by the same person, an epigraph is any sort of text, from a single grapheme to a lengthy document. Epigraphy overlaps other competences such as numismatics or palaeography, when compared to books, most inscriptions are short. Typically the material is durable, but the durability might be an accident of circumstance, epigraphy is a primary tool of archaeology when dealing with literate cultures. The US Library of Congress classifies epigraphy as one of the sciences of history. Epigraphy also helps identify a forgery, epigraphic evidence formed part of the discussion concerning the James Ossuary, the study of ancient handwriting, usually in ink, is a separate field, palaeography. The character of the writing, the subject of epigraphy, is a quite separate from the nature of the text. Texts inscribed in stone are usually for public view and so they are different from the written texts of each culture. Not all inscribed texts are public, however, in Mycenaean Greece the deciphered texts of Linear B were revealed to be used for economic. Informal inscribed texts are graffiti in its original sense, the science of epigraphy has been developing steadily since the 16th century. Principles of epigraphy vary culture by culture, and the infant science in European hands concentrated on Latin inscriptions at first, individual contributions have been made by epigraphers such as Georg Fabricius, August Wilhelm Zumpt, Theodor Mommsen, Emil Hübner, Franz Cumont, Louis Robert. The Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, begun by Mommsen and other scholars, has published in Berlin since 1863. It is the largest and most extensive collection of Latin inscriptions, New fascicles are still produced as the recovery of inscriptions continues. The Corpus is arranged geographically, all inscriptions from Rome are contained in volume 6 and this volume has the greatest number of inscriptions, volume 6, part 8, fascicle 3 was just recently published. Specialists depend on such on-going series of volumes in which newly discovered inscriptions are published, often in Latin, Greek epigraphy has unfolded in the hands of a different team, with different corpora. The first is Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum of which four volumes came out, again at Berlin and this marked a first attempt at a comprehensive publication of Greek inscriptions copied from all over the Greek-speaking world
8.
Brahmi script
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Brahmi is the modern name given to one of the oldest writing systems used in South and Central Asia from the 1st millennium BCE. Brahmi is an abugida that thrived in the Indian subcontinent and uses a system of marks to associate vowels with consonant symbols. It evolved into a host of other scripts that continue in use, Brahmi is related to the ancient Kharosthi script, which was used in what is now eastern Afghanistan and Pakistan. Kharosthi died out in ancient times, the best-known Brahmi inscriptions are the rock-cut edicts of Ashoka in north-central India, dating to 250–232 BCE. The script was deciphered in 1837 by James Prinsep, an archaeologist, philologist, Brahmi was at one time referred to in English as the pin-man script, that is stick figure script. Thence the name was adopted in the work of Georg Bühler. The Gupta script of the 5th century is sometimes called Late Brahmi, the Brahmi script diversified into numerous local variants, classified together as the Brahmic scripts. Dozens of modern scripts used across South Asia have descended from Brahmi, one survey found 198 scripts that ultimately derive from it. The script was associated with its own Brahmi numerals, which provided the graphic forms for the Hindu–Arabic numeral system now used through most of the world. The Brahmi script is mentioned in the ancient Indian texts of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism, for example, the Lipisala samdarshana parivarta lists 64 lipi, with the Brahmi script starting the list. The Lalitavistara Sūtra states that young Siddhartha, the future Buddha, mastered philology, Brahmi and other scripts from Brahmin Lipikara, a shorter list of eighteen ancient scripts is found in the texts of Jainism, such as the Pannavana Sutra and the Samavayanga Sutra. These Jaina script lists include Brahmi at number 1 and Kharoshthi at number 4 but also Javanaliya, while the contemporary Kharosthi script is widely accepted to be a derivation of the Aramaic alphabet, the genesis of the Brahmi script is less straightforward. Salomon reviewed existing theories in 1998, while Falk provided an overview in 1993, an origin in Semitic scripts has been proposed by some scholars since the publications by Albrecht Weber and Georg Bühlers On the origin of the Indian Brahma alphabet. The most disputed point about the origin of the Brahmi script has long been whether it was an indigenous development or was borrowed or derived from scripts that originated outside India. Most scholars believe that Brahmi was likely derived from or influenced by a Semitic script model, however, the issue is not settled due to the lack of direct evidence and unexplained differences between Aramaic, Kharosthi and Brahmi. Virtually all authors accept that regardless of the origins, the degree of Indian development of the Brahmi script in both the form and the structure has been extensive. It is also accepted that theories of Vedic grammar probably had a strong influence on this development. In contrast, some reject the idea of foreign influence
9.
Edicts of Ashoka
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These inscriptions were dispersed throughout the areas of modern-day Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Afghanistan and Pakistan and represent the first tangible evidence of Buddhism. The edicts describe in detail the Ashokas view about dhamma, an earnest attempt to solve some of problems that a complex society faced, according to the edicts, the extent of Buddhist proselytism during this period reached as far as the Mediterranean, and many Buddhist monuments were created. These inscriptions proclaim Ashokas adherence to the Buddhist philosophy which, as in Hinduism is called dharma, the inscriptions show his efforts to develop the Buddhist dharma throughout his kingdom. In these inscriptions, Ashoka refers to himself as Beloved servant of the Gods The identification of Devanampiyadasi with Ashoka was confirmed by an inscription discovered in 1915 by C, beadon, a British gold-mining engineer, at Maski, a village in Raichur district of Karnataka. Another minor rock edict is found at the village Gujarra in Datia district of Madhya Pradesh and this also shows the name Ashoka in addition to usual Devanampiyadasi. The inscriptions found in the part of India were written in Magadhi Prakrit using the Brahmi script. These edicts were deciphered by British archaeologist and historian James Prinsep. The edicts were based on Ashokas ideas on administration and behaviour of people towards one another, now it is conquest by Dhamma that Beloved-Servant-of-the-Gods considers to be the best conquest. Rock Edict Nb13 The distance of 600 yojanas corresponds to the distance between the center of India and Greece, roughly 4,000 miles. Amtiyoko refers to Antiochus II Theos of Syria, who controlled the Seleucid Empire from Syria to Bactria in the east from 305 to 250 BCE, and was therefore a direct neighbor of Ashoka. Turamaye refers to Ptolemy II Philadelphos of Egypt, king of the dynasty founded by Ptolemy I, amtikini refers to Antigonus II Gonatas of Macedon. Maka refers to Magas of Cyrene, alikasudaro refers to Alexander II of Epirus. Some scholars, however, point to the presence of Buddhist communities in the Hellenistic world from that time, the pre-Christian monastic order of the Therapeutae may have drawn inspiration for its ascetic lifestyle from contact with Buddhist monasticism, although the foundation and Scriptures were Jewish. A possible Buddhist gravestone from the Ptolemaic period has been found by Flinders Petrie, decorated with a depiction of what may be Wheel of the Law and Trishula. Commenting on the presence of Buddhists in Alexandria, Robert Linssen pointed out that It was later in this place that one of the most active centres of Christianity was established. These communities therefore seem to have been significant during the reign of Ashoka. A notable mention references aspects of Greek society, there is no country, except among the Greeks, where these two groups, Brahmans and ascetics, are not found, and there is no country where people are not devoted to one or another religion. Rock Edict Nb13 Two edicts in Afghanistan have been found with Greek inscriptions, one of these being a bilingual edict in Greek language, and the king abstains from living beings, and other men and those who huntsmen and fishermen of the king have desisted from hunting. Kambojas are a people of Central Asian origin who had settled first in Arachosia and Drangiana, the Nabhakas, the Nabhapamkits, the Bhojas, the Pitinikas, the Andhras and the Palidas are other people under Ashoka’s rule
10.
Pali
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Pali is a Prakrit language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of much of the earliest extant literature of Buddhism as collected in the Pāli Canon or Tipiṭaka and is the language of Theravāda Buddhism. The word Pali is used as a name for the language of the Theravada canon, Childers translates the word as series and states that the language bears the epithet in consequence of the perfection of its grammatical structure. However, modern scholarship has regarded Pali as a mix of several Prakrit languages from around the 3rd century BCE, combined together and partially Sanskritized. The closest artifacts to Pali that have found in India are Edicts of Ashoka found at Gujarat, in the west of India. There is persistent confusion as to the relation of Pāḷi to the vernacular spoken in the ancient kingdom of Magadha, Pali, as a Middle Indo-Aryan language, is different from Sanskrit more with regard to its dialectal base than the time of its origin. A number of its morphological and lexical features show that it is not a continuation of Ṛgvedic Vedic Sanskrit. Instead it descends from one or more dialects that were, despite many similarities, however, this view is not shared by all scholars. Some, like A. C. Woolner, believe that Pali is derived from Vedic Sanskrit, Paiśācī is a largely unattested literary language of classical India that is mentioned in Prakrit and Sanskrit grammars of antiquity. e. Evidence which lends support to this interpretation is that literature in Paiśācī is fragmentary and extremely rare, many Theravada sources refer to the Pali language as Magadhan or the language of Magadha. This identification first appears in the commentaries, and may have been an attempt by Buddhists to associate more closely with the Maurya Empire. The Buddha taught in Magadha, but the four most important places in his life are all outside of it and it is likely that he taught in several closely related dialects of Middle Indo-Aryan, which had a high degree of mutual intelligibility. There is no attested dialect of Middle Indo-Aryan with all the features of Pali, Pali has some commonalities with both the western Ashokan Edicts at Girnar in Saurashtra, and the Central-Western Prakrit found in the eastern Hathigumpha inscription. In Sri Lanka, Pali is thought to have entered into a period of decline ending around the 4th or 5th century, the work of Buddhaghosa was largely responsible for its reemergence as an important scholarly language in Buddhist thought. Another scholar states that at time it was a refined. Modern scholarship has not arrived at a consensus on the issue, after the death of the Buddha, Pali may have evolved among Buddhists out of the language of the Buddha as a new artificial language. According to K. R. Norman, it is likely that the viharas in North India had separate collections of material, in the early period it is likely that no degree of translation was necessary in communicating this material to other areas. Around the time of Ashoka there had been more linguistic divergence, following this period, the language underwent a small degree of Sanskritisation
11.
Prakrit
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A Prakrit is any of several Middle Indo-Aryan languages. The Ardhamagadhi Prakrit, which was used extensively to write the scriptures of Jainism, is considered to be the definitive form of Prakrit. Prakrit grammarians would give the full grammar of Ardhamagadhi first, for this reason, courses teaching Prakrit are often regarded as teaching Ardhamagadhi. Other Prakrits are reported in old sources but are not attested. Alternatively, Prakrit can be taken to mean derived from an original, Prakrit is foremost a native term, designating vernaculars as opposed to Sanskrit. The Prakrits became literary languages, generally patronized by ancient Indian kings identified with the Kshatriya Varna of Hinduism, the earliest extant usage of Prakrit is the corpus of inscriptions of Emperor Aśoka. Besides this, Prakrit appears in literature in the form of Pāli Canon of Theravada Buddhists, Prakrit canon of the Jains, Prakrit grammars and in lyrics, plays and epics of the times. The various Prakrit languages are associated with different patron dynasties, with different religions and different literary traditions, each Prakrit represents a distinct tradition of literature within the history of Pakistan, India and Nepal. In linguistic terms, this is used in contrast with saṃskṛta, Dramatic Prakrits were those that were devised specifically for use in dramas and other literature. Whenever dialogue was written in a Prakrit, the reader would also be provided with a Sanskrit translation, none of these Prakrits came into being as vernaculars, but some ended up being used as such when Sanskrit fell out of favor. The phrase Dramatic Prakrits often refers to three most prominent of them, Shauraseni, Magadhi Prakrit, and Maharashtri Prakrit, however, there were a slew of other less commonly used Prakrits that also fall into this category. These include Pracya, Bahliki, Daksinatya, Sakari, Candali, Sabari, Abhiri, Dramili, there was an astoundingly strict structure to the use of these different Prakrits in dramas. Maharashtri Prakrit, the ancestor of modern Marathi, is an interesting case. Maharashtri was often used for poetry and as such, diverged from proper Sanskrit grammar mainly to fit the language to the meter of different styles of poetry, the new grammar stuck, which led to the unique flexibility of vowels lengths – amongst other anomalies – in Marathi. Ardhamagadhi Dramili Elu Gandhari Magadhi Maharashtri Paisaci Shauraseni Jain Maharashtri Jain Shauraseni Apabransh National Institute of Prakrit Study, shravanabelagola, Karnataka, India Banerjee, Satya Ranjan. The Eastern School of Prakrit Grammarians, a linguistic study, deshpande, Madhav, Sanskrit & Prakrit, sociolinguistic issues. Pischel, R. Grammar of the Prakrit Languages
12.
Sangam period
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Sangam period is the period in the history of ancient Tamil Nadu spanning from c. 4th century BC to c. It is named after the famous Sangam academies of poets and scholars centered in the city of Madurai, according to Tamil legends, there were three Sangam periods, namely Head Sangam, Middle Sangam and Last Sangam period. Historians use the term Sangam period to refer the last of these, so it is also called Last Sangam period, or Third Sangam period. The Sangam literature is thought to have produced in three Sangam academies of each period. The evidence on the history of the Tamil kingdoms consists of the epigraphs of the region, the Sangam literature. Approximately during the period between 400 BC to AD200, Tamilakam was ruled by the three Tamil dynasties of Pandya, Chola and Chera, and a few independent chieftains, the Velir. There is a wealth of sources detailing the history, socio-political environment and cultural practices of ancient Tamilakam, including volumes of literature, tamilakams history is split into three periods, prehistoric, classical and medieval. A vast array of literary, epigraphical and inscribed sources from around the world provide insight into the socio-political and cultural occurrences in the Tamil nation. The religion of the ancient Tamils closely follow roots of nature worship, in the ancient Sangam literature, Sivan was the supreme God, and Murugan was the one celebrated by the masses, both of them were sung as deified Tamil poets ascending the Koodal academy. The Tamil landscape was classified into five categories, thinais, based on the mood, the season, other ancient works refer to Maayon and Vaali. The most popular deity was Murugan, who has from an early date been identified with Karthikeya. Kannagi, the heroine of the Silappatikaram, was worshiped as Pathini by many Tamils, there were also many temples and devotees of Thirumaal, Siva, Ganapathi, and the other common Hindu deities. The year was made up of twelve months and every two months constituted a season, with the popularity of Mazhai vizhavu, traditionally commencement of Tamil year was clubbed on April 14, deviating from the astronomical date of vadavazhi vizhavu. Pongal, பொங்கல் the festival of harvest and spring, thanking Lord Indiran and Lord El and this day comes on April 14/15. Mazhai Vizhavu, aka Indhira Vizha, the festival for want of rain, celebrated for one month starting from the full moon in Ootrai சித்திரை. It is epitomised in the epic Cilapatikaram in detail, soornavai Vizha, the slaying of legendary Kadamba Asura king Surabadma, by Lord, comes on the sixth day after new moon in Itrai. It is sung about in Thirumurugatrupadai and Purananuru anthology, vaadai Vizha or Vadavazhi Vizha, the festival of welcoming the Lord Surya back to home, as He turns northward, celebrated on December 21/22. It is sung about in Akanauru anthology, aathi Irai min means the star of the God on the Bull
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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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Archaeological Survey of India
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It was founded in 1861 by Alexander Cunningham who also became its first Director-General. The first systematic research into Indias history was conducted by the Asiatic Society, based in Calcutta, the society promoted the study of ancient Sanskrit and Persian texts and published an annual journal titled Asiatic Researches. Notable among its members was Charles Wilkins who published the first English translation of the Bhagavad Gita in 1785 with the patronage of the then Governor-General of India. However, the most important of the achievements was the decipherment of the Brahmi script by James Prinsep in 1837. This successful decipherment inaugurated the study of Indian palaeography, armed with the knowledge of Brahmi, Alexander Cunningham, a protégé of Prinsep, carried out a detailed survey of the Buddhist monuments which lasted for over half a century. Inspired by early amateur archaeologists like the Italian military officer, Jean-Baptiste Ventura, the survey was suspended briefly between 1865 and 1871 due to lack of funds but restored by Lord Lawrence the then Viceroy of India. In 1871, the Survey was revived as a separate department, to this day, Alexander Cunningham is revered as the Father of Indian Archaeology. Cunningham retired in 1885 and was succeeded as Director General by James Burgess, Burgess launched a yearly journal The Indian Antiquary and an annual epigraphical publication Epigraphia Indica as a supplement to the Indian Antiquary. The post of Director General was permanently suspended in 1889 due to a crunch and was not restored until 1902. In the interim period, conservation work in the different circles was carried out by the superintendents of the individual circles, the post of Director General was restored by Lord Curzon in 1902. Breaking with tradition, Curzon chose a 26-year-old professor of classical studies at Cambridge named John Marshall to head the survey. Marshall served as Director General for a quarter of a century and during his long tenure, Marshall established the post of Government epigraphist and encouraged epigraphical studies. The most significant event of his tenure was, however, the discovery of the Indus Valley Civilization at Harappa, the success and scale of the discoveries made ensured that the progress made in Marshalls tenure would remain unmatched. Marshall was succeeded by Harold Hargreaves in 1928, Hargreaves was succeeded by Daya Ram Sahni, supervisor of Marshalls excavation of Harappa in 1921−22, who in 1931, became the first Indian Director General of the survey. Sahni was succeeded by J. F. Blakiston and K. N. Dikshit both of whom had participated in the excavations at Harappa and Mohenjodaro, in 1944, a British archaeologist and army officer, Mortimer Wheeler took over as Director General. Wheeler served as Director General till 1948 and during this period he excavated the Iron Age site of Arikamedu, Wheeler was succeeded by N. P. Chakravarti in 1948. The National Museum was inaugurated in New Delhi on August 15,1949 to house the artifacts displayed at the Indian Exhibition in the United Kingdom, madho Sarup Vats and Amalananda Ghosh succeeded Chakravarti. Ghoshs tenure which lasted until 1968 is noted for the excavations of Indus Valley sites at Kalibangan, Lothal, the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act was passed in 1958 bringing the archaeological survey under the aegis of the Ministry of Culture
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Sherd
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Occasionally, a piece of broken pottery may be referred to as a shard. While the spelling shard is generally reserved for referring to fragments of glass vessels, the etymology is connected with the idea of breakage, from Old English sceard, related to Old Norse skarth, notch, and Middle High German scharte, notch. A sherd or potsherd that has been used by having writing painted or inscribed on it can be more referred to as an ostracon. The analysis of sherds is widely used by archaeologists to date sites and develop chronologies, due to their characteristics and high resistance to natural. Some characteristics of sherds useful to archaeologists include temper, form and these characteristics can be used to determine the kinds of resources and technologies used at the site. Archaeologists often classify sherds by the part of the vessel from which the sherd came. For example, sherds may be categorized as rim sherds, body sherds, rim sherds are fragments of a vessels rim, while base sherds are fragments of the vessels base. Body sherds are fragments of ceramic that are not identified as rim sherds or base sherds, other categories might include fragments of handles or lids. While all types of sherds carry valuable information, rim sherds, shepard, Anna O. Ceramics for the Archaeologist
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Sling (weapon)
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A sling is a projectile weapon typically used to throw a blunt projectile such as a stone, clay, or lead sling-bullet. It is also known as the shepherds sling, someone who specialises in using slings is called a slinger. A sling has a cradle or pouch in the middle of two lengths of cord. The sling stone is placed in the pouch, the middle finger or thumb is placed through a loop on the end of one cord, and a tab at the end of the other cord is placed between the thumb and forefinger. The sling is swung in an arc, and the tab released at a precise moment and this frees the projectile to fly to the target. The sling essentially works by extending the length of a human arm, the sling is inexpensive and easy to build. It has historically used for hunting game and in combat. Film exists of Spanish Civil War combatants using slings to throw grenades over buildings into enemy positions on the opposite street, today the sling is of interest as a wilderness survival tool and an improvised weapon. The sling is an ancient weapon known to Neolithic peoples around the Mediterranean and it is possible that the sling was invented during the Upper Paleolithic at a time when new technologies such as the spear-thrower and the bow and arrow were emerging. Whereas sling-bullets are common finds in the record, slings themselves are rare. This is both because a slings materials are biodegradable and because slings were lower-status weapons, rarely preserved in a wealthy person’s grave, the oldest-known surviving slings—radiocarbon dated to ca.2500 BC—were recovered from South American archaeological sites located on the coast of Peru. The oldest-known surviving North American sling—radiocarbon dated to ca.1200 BC—was recovered from Lovelock Cave, the oldest known extant slings from the Old World were found in the tomb of Tutankhamen, who died about 1325 BC. A pair of finely plaited slings were found with other weapons, the sling was probably intended for the departed pharaoh to use for hunting game. It was found alongside an iron spearhead, the remains are broken into three sections. The oldest representation of a slinger in art may be from Çatalhöyük, from approximately 7,000 BC, the sling is mentioned by Homer and by other Greek authors. This deficiency was rectified when a company of 200 Rhodians, who understood the use of leaden sling-bullets, was formed and they were able, says Xenophon, to project their missiles twice as far as the Persian slingers, who used large stones. Ancient authors seemed to believe, incorrectly, that sling-bullets could penetrate armour, in the first instance, it seems likely that the authors were indicating that slings could cause injury through armour by a percussive effect rather than by penetration. In the latter case we may imagine that they were impressed by the degree of deformation suffered by lead sling-bullet after hitting a hard target, various ancient peoples enjoyed a reputation for skill with the sling
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International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
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University of Bonn
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The University of Bonn is a public research university located in Bonn, Germany. Founded in its present form in 1818, as the successor of earlier academic institutions. The University of Bonn offers a number of undergraduate and graduate programs in a range of subjects. Its library holds more than five million volumes, the University of Bonn has 544 professors and 32,500 students. The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2016 and the Academic Ranking of World Universities 2015 ranked the University of Bonn as one of the 100 best universities in the world. The universitys forerunner was the Kurkölnische Akademie Bonn which was founded in 1777 by Maximilian Frederick of Königsegg-Rothenfels, in the spirit of the Enlightenment the new academy was nonsectarian. The academy had schools for theology, law, pharmacy and general studies, in 1784 Emperor Joseph II granted the academy the right to award academic degrees, turning the academy into a university. The academy was closed in 1798 after the bank of the Rhine was occupied by France during the French Revolutionary Wars. The Rhineland became a part of Prussia in 1815 as a result of the Congress of Vienna, shortly after the seizure of the Rhineland, on 5 April 1815, King Frederick William III of Prussia promised the establishment of a new university in the new Rhine province. At this time there was no university in the Rhineland, as all three universities that existed until the end of the 18th century were closed as a result of the French occupation, the Kurkölnische Akademie Bonn was one of these three universities. The other two were the Roman Catholic University of Cologne and the Protestant University of Duisburg, the new Rhein University was then founded on 18 October 1818 by Frederick William III. It was the sixth Prussian University, founded after the universities in Greifswald, Berlin, Königsberg, Halle, the new university was equally shared between the two Christian denominations. This was one of the reasons why Bonn, with its tradition of a university, was chosen over Cologne. Apart from a school of Roman Catholic theology and a school of Protestant theology, inititally 35 professors and eight adjunct professors were teaching in Bonn. The university constitution was adopted in 1827, in the spirit of Wilhelm von Humboldt the constitution emphasized the autonomy of the university and the unity of teaching and research. Similar to the University of Berlin, which was founded in 1810, only one year after the inception of the Rhein University the dramatist August von Kotzebue was murdered by Karl Ludwig Sand, a student at the University of Jena. The Carlsbad Decrees, introduced on 20 September 1819 led to a crackdown on universities, the dissolution of the Burschenschaften. One victim was the author and poet Ernst Moritz Arndt, who, only after the death of Frederick William III in 1840 was he reinstated in his professorship
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Tamil Virtual Academy
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The government of Tamil Nadu established the Tamil Virtual University on 17 February 2001 as a Society. Tamil Virtual University offers certificate courses at three levels and B. A. Programme in Tamil, the postgraduate Programme M. A. has been approved by Tamil University, Tanjore. The Chairman of the university is T. K. RAMACHANDRAN IAS, the digital library of TVU provides literature, glossaries and dictionaries. It accommodates literature starting from Sangam era to the present day, with the following features, ancient and medieval literature, with their commentaries. Romanized versions of Tolkappiyam, Patthuppaattu and Ettutthogai, the library has subject-indexing and search facilities
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Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
