1.
Palitana State
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Palitana was a princely state in India during the British Raj until 1948. The center was the city of Palitana, the last ruler of the state received a privy purse of 180,000 Rupees at the states accession to independent India on 15 February 1948. As a Second Class princely state it was founded in 1194 and it was one of the major states in Saurashtra, where there were many smaller states. Palitana covered 777 km² and had 58,000 inhabitants in 91 villages, in 1940 it had a population of 76,432. It used to be a state of India in the Kathiawar Agency of the Bombay Presidency. 52,856, showing a decrease of 15% in the decade, gross revenue, £42,000, tribute jointly to the Gaekwar of Baroda and the Nawab of Junagadh, £700. The capital of the state, Palitana, had a population of 12,800 and its ruler enjoyed a 9-guns salute. The rulers were Gohil Rajputs, with the title of Thakur Sahib,1697 -1734 Prithvirajji Kandhaji 1734 -
2.
Shatrunjaya
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Shatrunjaya originally Pundarikgiri), also spelt Shetrunjaya are hills located by the city of Palitana, in Bhavnagar district, Gujarat, India. They are situated on the banks of the Shetrunji River at an elevation 164 feet above sea level and these hills have similarities to other hills where Jain temples have been built in Bihar, Gwalior, Mount Abu and Girnar. The Jains sacred site of Shatrunjaya contains hundreds of Palitana temples, the hills were sanctified when Rishabha, the first tirthankara of Jainism, gave his first sermon in the temple on the hill top. The ancient history of the hills is also traced to Pundarika Swami, a chief Ganadhara and grandson of Rishabha and his shrine located opposite to the main Adinath temple, built by his son Bharata, is also worshiped by pilgrims. There are several alternate spellings, including Śatruñjaya, Satrunjaya, Shetrunja, Shatrunjaya was also known as Pundarikgiri as Pundarik was said to have attained nirvana on this mountain. Alternate names include Siddhakshetra or Siddhanchal as many thirtankaras are stated to have received enlightenment here, Jains refer to their temples as derasaras. Shatrunjaya, the name for Mount Shatrunjaya where it is located, the Gulf of Khambhat is to the south of the Shatrunjaya Hills, Bhavnagar town is to its north, and a river flows between the two hills. Legend states that the hill is a part of the Himalayas, a path along the ridge leads down to the Adipur valley, a distance of 13 kilometres. Palitana town is at the base of the foothills,56 kilometres from Bhavanagar, the topography is rugged while the landscape is drought-affected. The hills were considered a thirtha even before AD, the Palitana temples, a pilgrimage complex on both hills and their saddle, are reached by climbing approximately 3750 stone steps, which are carved into the mountain. The climb is 3.5 kilometres from the base and takes two hours. The hills are closed to pilgrims for four months during the monsoon season, the pilgrimage is known as Shri Shantrunjay Teerth Yatra. It occurs from the Poornima day of Kartik month according to the Hindu calendar, Jains assemble at the foot of the hills to undertake the yatra. During this yatra, considered an event in the lifetime of a Jain, pilgrims circumambulate the Shatrunjaya hills covering a distance of 216 kilometres on foot. Palitana temples Palitana Tirth Pat Deshpande, Aruna
3.
Palitana temples
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The Palitana temples of Jainism are located on Shatrunjaya hill by the city of Palitana in Bhavnagar district, Gujarat, India. The city of the name, known previously as Padliptapur, has been dubbed City of Temples. Shatrunjaya means a place of victory against inner enemies or which conquers inner enemies and this site on Shatrunjaya hill is considered sacred by Svetambara Jains. It is said that 23 of 24 Jain Tirthankaras, except Neminatha, There are approximately 863 marble-carved temples on the hills spread mostly in nine clusters, some being vast temple complexes, while most small in size. The main temple is dedicated to Rishabhanatha, the first Tirthankara, the main temple is reached by stepping up 3500 steps. Along with Shikharji in the state of Jharkhand, the two sites are considered the holiest of all pilgrimage places by the Jain community, Jains believe that a visit to this group of temples is essential as a once in a life time chance to achieve nirvana or salvation. Of note, Digambara Jains have only one here on the hills. Also, on the summit, there is a shrine of a Muslim saint by name Angar Pir who is reported to have protected the temples during Muslim invasions in early 14th century. As the temple-city was built to be an abode for the divine, no one is allowed to stay overnight, Shatrunjaya means a place of victory against inner enemies or which conquers inner enemies. There are 108 names of Shatrunjaya but only some of them are in common use, the Gulf of Cambay is to the south of the Shatrunjaya Hills, and Bhavnagar city is to the north of the hills with the Shetrunji River flowing in between. The temple complex on the hills is located 56 kilometres southwest of Bhavnagar, Palitana, a town in the foothill is 2 kilometres away. The Palitana town is at an altitude of only 66 m, the Palitana Temples are situated at the twin summits and the saddle linking them. The summit is situated at an elevation of 7,288 feet, reaching it involves climbing over 3,750 stone steps. The temples remain closed for the devotees during the monsoon season, paths It takes approximately two hours to make the 3.5 kilometres climb. The shortest one goes around the walls of the temples on the hilltop and passes Angar Pir. A second route goes around the foot of the mountain, elderly pilgrims who cannot climb the stairs are carried on a doli carried by porters and charged based on the pilgrims weight. A large number of pilgrims take part in a route in the month of Phalguna. Grounds From the top of Shatrunjaya are views of the Shetrunji river, the narrow streets or lanes in the temple complex are similar to the ones found in the medieval cities of Europe
4.
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
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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
6.
States and union territories of India
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India is a federal union comprising twenty-nine states and seven union territories. The states and union territories are further subdivided into districts and further into smaller administrative divisions, the Constitution of India distributes the sovereign executive and legislative powers exercisable with respect to the territory of any State between the Union and that State. The Indian subcontinent has been ruled by different ethnic groups throughout its history. Between 1947 and 1950, the territories of the states were politically integrated into the Indian Union. The new Constitution of India, which came into force on 26 January 1950, the new republic was also declared to be a Union of States. The nine Part A states were Assam, Bihar, Bombay, Madhya Pradesh, Madras, Orissa, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal. The eight Part B states were former princely states or groups of states, governed by a rajpramukh, who was usually the ruler of a constituent state. The rajpramukh was appointed by the President of India, the Part B states were Hyderabad, Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Bharat, Mysore, Patiala and East Punjab States Union, Rajasthan, Saurashtra, and Travancore-Cochin. The ten Part C states included both the former chief commissioners provinces and some states, and each was governed by a chief commissioner appointed by the President of India. The Part C states were Ajmer, Bhopal, Bilaspur, Coorg, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Cutch, Manipur, Tripura, the only Part D state was the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which were administered by a lieutenant governor appointed by the central government. The Union Territory of Puducherry was created in 1954 comprising the previous French enclaves of Pondichéry, Karaikal, Yanam, Andhra State was created on 1 October 1953 from the Telugu-speaking northern districts of Madras State. The States Reorganisation Act of 1956 reorganised the states based on linguistic lines resulting in the creation of the new states, as a result of this act, Madras State retained its name with Kanyakumari district added to from Travancore-Cochin. Andhra Pradesh was created with the merger of Andhra State with the Telugu-speaking districts of Hyderabad State in 1956, kerala was created with the merger of Malabar district and the Kasaragod taluk of South Canara districts of Madras State with Travancore-Cochin. The Laccadive Islands which were divided between South Canara and Malabar districts of Madras State were united and organised into the territory of Lakshadweep. Bombay State was enlarged by the addition of Saurashtra State and Kutch State, Rajasthan and Punjab gained territories from Ajmer and Patiala and East Punjab States Union respectively and certain territories of Bihar was transferred to West Bengal. Bombay State was split into the states of Gujarat and Maharashtra on 1 May 1960 by the Bombay Reorganisation Act. Nagaland was formed on 1 December 1963, the Punjab Reorganisation Act of 1966 resulted in the creation of Haryana on 1 November and the transfer of the northern districts of Punjab to Himachal Pradesh. The act also designated Chandigarh as a territory and the shared capital of Punjab
7.
Gujarat
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Gujarat is a state in Western India, sometimes referred to as the Jewel of Western India. It has an area of 196,024 km2 with a coastline of 1,600 km, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula, and a population in excess of 60 million. The state is bordered by Rajasthan to the north, Maharashtra to the south, Madhya Pradesh to the east, and the Arabian Sea and its capital city is Gandhinagar, while its largest city is Ahmedabad. Gujarat is home to the Gujarati-speaking people of India, the state encompasses some sites of the ancient Indus Valley Civilization, such as Lothal and Dholavira. Lothal is believed to be one of the worlds first seaports, Gujarat was known to the ancient Greeks, and was familiar in other Western centres of civilisation through the end of the European Middle Ages. Modern-day Gujarat is derived from Sanskrit term Gurjaradesa, the Gurjar nation, parts of modern Rajasthan and Gujarat have been known as Gurjaratra or Gurjarabhumi for centuries before the Mughal period. Gujarat was one of the centres of the Indus Valley Civilization. It contains ancient metropolitan cities from the Indus Valley such as Lothal, Dholavira, the ancient city of Lothal was where Indias first port was established. The ancient city of Dholavira is one of the largest and most prominent archaeological sites in India, the most recent discovery was Gola Dhoro. Altogether, about 50 Indus Valley settlement ruins have been discovered in Gujarat, the ancient history of Gujarat was enriched by the commercial activities of its inhabitants. There is clear evidence of trade and commerce ties with Egypt, Bahrain. The early history of Gujarat reflects the grandeur of Chandragupta Maurya who conquered a number of earlier states in what is now Gujarat. Pushyagupta, a Vaishya, was appointed governor of Saurashtra by the Mauryan regime and he ruled Giringer and built a dam on the Sudarshan lake. Between the decline of Mauryan power and Saurashtra coming under the sway of the Samprati Mauryas of Ujjain, in the first half of the 1st century AD there is the story of a merchant of King Gondaphares landing in Gujarat with Apostle Thomas. The incident of the cup-bearer killed by a lion might indicate that the city described is in Gujarat. For nearly 300 years from the start of the 1st century AD, the weather-beaten rock at Junagadh gives a glimpse of the ruler Rudradaman I of the Saka satraps known as Western Satraps, or Kshatraps. Mahakshatrap Rudradaman I founded the Kardamaka dynasty which ruled from Anupa on the banks of the Narmada up to the Aparanta region which bordered Punjab, in Gujarat several battles were fought between the south Indian Satavahana dynasty and the Western Satraps. The greatest ruler of the Satavahana Dynasty was Gautamiputra Satakarni who defeated the Western Satraps, the Kshatrapa dynasty was replaced by the Gupta Empire with the conquest of Gujarat by Chandragupta Vikramaditya
8.
Bhavnagar district
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Bhavnagar District is a district of southeastern Gujarat, India, on the Saurashtra peninsula. It is also known as Gohilwar as major portion of Bhavnagar district, in old times, was ruled by Gohil Rajputs. The administrative headquarters is in the town of Bhavnagar, Bhavnagar District covers an area of over 8334 km². The coastal area is mostly alluvium, Bhavnagar borders with Ahmedabad District to the northeast, Botad District to the northwest, the Gulf of Cambay to the east and south and Amreli District to the west. Bhavnagar State was a state during the Raj, ruled by the Gohil Rajputs. Bhavnagar lost two talukas, Botad and Gadhada, to the creation in August 2013 of the new district of Botad, Bhavnagar District is divided into nine talukas, Bhavnagar, Sihor, Umarana, Gariyadhar, Palitana, Mahuva, Talaja, Ghogha and Vallbhipur. There are close to 800 villages in this district, according to the 2011 census Bhavnagar district has a population of 2,388,291, roughly equal to the nation of Jamaica or the US state of Kansas. This gives it a ranking of 133rd in India, the district has a population density of 288 inhabitants per square kilometre. Its population growth rate over the decade 2001-2011 was 16. 53%, Bhavnagar has a sex ratio of 931 females for every 1000 males, and a literacy rate of 76. 84%. Velavadar Blackbuck National Park is the only tropical grassland in India recognised as a National park and it is spread over an area of 34.08 km2. The park contains mainly blackbuck, antelopes, nilgai, wolves, jackals, hyenas, jungle cats, fox, endangered birds such as Houbara Bustard, Lesser Florican, Sarus White Storks, White Pelican, Montagu, and Pallid harrier also call the park home. Raptors including the Greater Spotted Eagle, Juvenile Imperial Eagle, Bonellis Eagle, Short-toed Snake Eagle, the climate in Velavdar National Park makes it one of the best places for the migrating birds to breed. Piram Island is an island approximately 6 km offshore off Ghogha and it is said that this island was created about 3.5 million years ago. It is well known for its diversity of life, including many vulnerable or endangered species
India
