1.
Pandit
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A pandit, also spelled pundit is a scholar or a teacher of any field of knowledge in Hinduism, particularly the Vedic scriptures, dharma, Hindu philosophy, or secular subjects such as music. He may be a Guru in a Gurukul, in Sanskrit, states Monier Williams, Pandit generally refers to any wise, educated or learned man with specialized knowledge. The term is derived from paṇḍ which means to collect, heap, pile up, the term is found in Vedic and post-Vedic texts, but without any sociological context. In the colonial era literature, the term refers to Brahmins specialized in Hindu law. The related term Purohit refers to a house priest
2.
Varanasi
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The spiritual capital of India, it is the holiest of the seven sacred cities in Hinduism and Jainism, and played an important role in the development of Buddhism. Varanasi lies along National Highway 2, which connects it to Kolkata, Kanpur, Agra, and Delhi, Varanasi is also one of 72 districts in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. At the time of the 2011 census, there were a total 8 blocks and 1329 villages in this district, Varanasi grew as an important industrial centre, famous for its muslin and silk fabrics, perfumes, ivory works, and sculpture. Buddha is believed to have founded Buddhism here around 528 BC when he gave his first sermon, The Setting in Motion of the Wheel of Dharma, at nearby Sarnath. The citys religious importance continued to grow in the 8th century, Tulsidas wrote his epic poem on Ramas life called Ram Charit Manas in Varanasi. Several other major figures of the Bhakti movement were born in Varanasi, including Kabir, Guru Nanak Dev visited Varanasi for Shivratri in 1507, a trip that played a large role in the founding of Sikhism. The kingdom of Benares was given official status by the Mughals in 1737, silk weaving, carpets and crafts and tourism employ a significant number of the local population, as do the Diesel Locomotive Works and Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited. Varanasi Hospital was established in 1964, Varanasi has been a cultural centre of North India for several thousand years, and is closely associated with the Ganges. Hindus believe that death in the city will bring salvation, making it a centre for pilgrimage. The city is known worldwide for its ghats, embankments made in steps of stone slabs along the river bank where pilgrims perform ritual ablutions. Of particular note are the Dashashwamedh Ghat, the Panchganga Ghat, the Manikarnika Ghat and the Harishchandra Ghat, the last two being where Hindus cremate their dead. The Ramnagar Fort, near the bank of the Ganges, was built in the 18th century in the Mughal style of architecture with carved balconies, open courtyards. Among the estimated 23,000 temples in Varanasi are Kashi Vishwanath Temple of Shiva, the Sankat Mochan Hanuman Temple, the Kashi Naresh is the chief cultural patron of Varanasi, and an essential part of all religious celebrations. One of Asias largest residential universities is Banaras Hindu University, the Hindi-language nationalist newspaper, Aj, was first published in 1920. The old city is located on the shores of the Ganges, bounded by Varuna. The name was used by pilgrims dating from Buddhas days. Hindu religious texts use many epithets to refer to Varanasi, such as Kāśikā, Avimukta, Ānandavana, according to legend, Varanasi was founded by the god Shiva. It is regarded as one of seven cities which can provide Moksha, Ayodhyā, Mathurā, Gayā, Kāśi, Kañchi, Avantikā
3.
Benares State
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Benares or Banaras State was a princely state in what is today India during the British Raj. On 15 October 1948 Benares last ruler signed the accession to the Indian Union, the state was founded by the local zamindar Raja Balwant Singh, who assumed the title of Raja of Benares in 18th century, taking advantage of the Mughal Empires disintegration. His descendants ruled the area around Benares as feudatories of Nawab of Awadh, in 1910, Benares became a full-fledged state of British India. The state was merged in India after Indias independence in 1947 and he is a religious leader and the people of Varanasi consider him an incarnation of Shiva. He is also the chief patron and an essential part of all religious celebrations. The ruling family claims descent from the God Shiva and benefits greatly from pilgrimages to Benares, the earliest rulers of the latter princely state of Benares were zamindaris for the Awadh province of the Mughal Empire. The region eventually ceded by the Nawab of Oudh to the British Raj in 1775, Benares became a state in 1911. It was given the privilege of 13-gun salute, most of the area currently known as Varanasi was acquired by Mansa Ram, a zamindar of Utaria. Balwant Singh, the ruler of Utaria in 1737, took over the territories of Jaunpur, Varanasi, the Kingdom of Benaras started in this way during the Mughal dynasty. Other places under the kingship of Kashi Naresh were Chandauli, Gyanpur, Chakia, Latifshah, Mirzapur, Nandeshwar, Mint House, the strong clan organisation on which they rested, brought success to the lesser Hindu princes. There were as many as 100,000 men backing the power of the Benares rajas in what became the districts of Benares, Gorakhpur. This proved an advantage when the dynasty faced a rival and the nominal suzerain, the Nawab of Oudh, in the 1750s. An exhausting guerrilla war, waged by the Benares ruler against the Oudh camp, using his troops, the rulers of the state carried the title Maharaja Bahadur from 1859 onwards. The Ramnagar Fort was built by Kashi Naresh Raja Balwant Singh with creamy chunar sandstone in the eighteenth century and it is a typically Mughal style of architecture with carved balconies, open courtyards, and picturesque pavilions. When the Dussehra festivities are inaugurated with a pageant, the Kashi Naresh rides an elephant at the head of the procession. Then, resplendent in silk and brocade, he inaugurates the month-long folk theatre of Ramlila at Ramnagar, the Ramlila is a cycle of plays which recounts the epic story of Lord Rama, as told in Ramcharitmanas, the version of the Ramayana written by Tulsidas. The plays, sponsored by the Maharaja, are performed in Ramnagar every evening for 31 days, on the last day the festivities reach a crescendo as Rama vanquishes the demon king Ravana. Maharaja Udit Narayan Singh started this tradition of staging the Ramleela at Ramnagar in the mid-nineteenth century, over a million pilgrims arrive annually for the vast processions and performances organized by the Kashi Naresh
4.
British Raj
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The British Raj was the rule by the British Crown in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947. The rule is also called Crown rule in India, or direct rule in India, the resulting political union was also called the Indian Empire and after 1876 issued passports under that name. It lasted until 1947, when the British Indian Empire was partitioned into two sovereign states, the Dominion of India and the Dominion of Pakistan. The British Raj extended over almost all present-day India, Pakistan and this area is very diverse, containing the Himalayan mountains, fertile floodplains, the Indo-Gangetic Plain, a long coastline, tropical dry forests, arid uplands, and the Thar desert. In addition, at times, it included Aden, Lower Burma, Upper Burma, British Somaliland. Burma was separated from India and directly administered by the British Crown from 1937 until its independence in 1948, among other countries in the region, Ceylon was ceded to Britain in 1802 under the Treaty of Amiens. Ceylon was part of Madras Presidency between 1793 and 1798, the kingdoms of Nepal and Bhutan, having fought wars with the British, subsequently signed treaties with them and were recognised by the British as independent states. The Kingdom of Sikkim was established as a state after the Anglo-Sikkimese Treaty of 1861, however. The Maldive Islands were a British protectorate from 1887 to 1965, India during the British Raj was made up of two types of territory, British India and the Native States. In general, the term British India had been used to also to the regions under the rule of the British East India Company in India from 1600 to 1858. The term has also used to refer to the British in India. The terms Indian Empire and Empire of India were not used in legislation, the monarch was known as Empress or Emperor of India and the term was often used in Queen Victorias Queens Speeches and Prorogation Speeches. The passports issued by the British Indian government had the words Indian Empire on the cover, in addition, an order of knighthood, the Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire, was set up in 1878. At the turn of the 20th century, British India consisted of eight provinces that were administered either by a Governor or a Lieutenant-Governor, during the partition of Bengal the new provinces of Assam and East Bengal were created as a Lieutenant-Governorship. In 1911, East Bengal was reunited with Bengal, and the new provinces in the east became, Assam, Bengal, Bihar, there were 565 princely states when India and Pakistan became independent from Britain in August 1947. The princely states did not form a part of British India, the larger ones had treaties with Britain that specified which rights the princes had, in the smaller ones the princes had few rights. Within the princely states external affairs, defence and most communications were under British control, the British also exercised a general influence over the states internal politics, in part through the granting or withholding of recognition of individual rulers. Although there were nearly 600 princely states, the majority were very small
5.
Uttar Pradesh
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Uttar Pradesh, abbreviated as UP, is the most populous state in the Republic of India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. The state, located in the region of the Indian subcontinent, has over 200 million inhabitants. It was created on 1 April 1937 as the United Provinces during British rule, Lucknow is the capital city of Uttar Pradesh. Ghaziabad, Kanpur, Bhadohi, Raebareli, Moradabad, Bareilly, Aligarh, Sonbhadra, on 9 November 2000, a new state, Uttarakhand, was carved out from the Himalayan hill region of Uttar Pradesh. It covers 243,290 square kilometres, equal to 7. 33% of the area of India. Hindi is the official and most widely spoken language in its 75 districts, Uttar Pradesh is the third largest Indian state by economy, with a GDP of ₹9,763 billion. Agriculture and service industries are the largest parts of the states economy, the service sector comprises travel and tourism, hotel industry, real estate, insurance and financial consultancies. Uttar Pradesh was home to powerful empires of ancient and medieval India, the two major rivers of the state, the Ganges and Yamuna, join at Allahabad and then flow as the Ganges further east. Modern human hunter-gatherers have been in Uttar Pradesh since between around 85,000 and 72,000 years ago, the kingdom of Kosala, in the Mahajanapada era, was located within the regional boundaries of modern-day Uttar Pradesh. According to Hindu legend, the divine king Rama of the Ramayana epic reigned in Ayodhya, the aftermath of the Mahabharata yuddh is believed to have taken place in the area between the Upper Doab and Delhi, during the reign of the Pandava king Yudhishthira. The kingdom of the Kurus corresponds to the Black and Red Ware and Painted Gray Ware culture, most of the invaders of south India passed through the Gangetic plains of what is today Uttar Pradesh. Control over this region was of importance to the power and stability of all of Indias major empires, including the Maurya, Kushan, Gupta. Following the Huns invasions that broke the Gupta empire, the Ganges-Yamuna Doab saw the rise of Kannauj, during the reign of Harshavardhana, the Kannauj empire reached its zenith. It spanned from Punjab in the north and Gujarat in the west to Bengal in the east and it included parts of central India, north of the Narmada River and it encompassed the entire Indo-Gangetic plain. Many communities in parts of India claim descent from the migrants of Kannauj. Kannauj was several times invaded by the south Indian Rashtrakuta Dynasty, in the Mughal era, Uttar Pradesh became the heartland of the empire. Mughal emperors Babur and Humayun ruled from Delhi, in 1540 an Afghan, Sher Shah Suri, took over the reins of Uttar Pradesh after defeating the Mughal king Humanyun. Sher Shah and his son Islam Shah ruled Uttar Pradesh from their capital at Gwalior, after the death of Islam Shah Suri, his prime minister Hemu became the de facto ruler of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and the western parts of Bengal
6.
San Diego
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San Diego is a major city in California, United States. It is in San Diego County, on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, approximately 120 miles south of Los Angeles and immediately adjacent to the border with Mexico. With an estimated population of 1,394,928 as of July 1,2015, San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest in California. It is part of the San Diego–Tijuana conurbation, the second-largest transborder agglomeration between the US and a country after Detroit–Windsor, with a population of 4,922,723 people. San Diego has been called the birthplace of California, historically home to the Kumeyaay people, San Diego was the first site visited by Europeans on what is now the West Coast of the United States. Upon landing in San Diego Bay in 1542, Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo claimed the area for Spain, the Presidio and Mission San Diego de Alcalá, founded in 1769, formed the first European settlement in what is now California. In 1821, San Diego became part of the newly independent Mexico, in 1850, California became part of the United States following the Mexican–American War and the admission of California to the union. The city is the seat of San Diego County and is the center of the region as well as the San Diego–Tijuana metropolitan area. San Diegos main economic engines are military and defense-related activities, tourism, international trade, the presence of the University of California, San Diego, with the affiliated UCSD Medical Center, has helped make the area a center of research in biotechnology. The original inhabitants of the region are now known as the San Dieguito, the area of San Diego has been inhabited by the Kumeyaay people. The first European to visit the region was Portuguese-born explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo sailing under the flag of Castile, sailing his flagship San Salvador from Navidad, New Spain, Cabrillo claimed the bay for the Spanish Empire in 1542, and named the site San Miguel. In November 1602, Sebastián Vizcaíno was sent to map the California coast, in May 1769, Gaspar de Portolà established the Fort Presidio of San Diego on a hill near the San Diego River. It was the first settlement by Europeans in what is now the state of California, in July of the same year, Mission San Diego de Alcalá was founded by Franciscan friars under Junípero Serra. By 1797, the mission boasted the largest native population in Alta California, with over 1,400 neophytes living in, Mission San Diego was the southern anchor in California of the historic mission trail El Camino Real. Both the Presidio and the Mission are National Historic Landmarks, in 1821, Mexico won its independence from Spain, and San Diego became part of the Mexican territory of Alta California. In 1822, Mexico began attempting to extend its authority over the territory of Alta California. The fort on Presidio Hill was gradually abandoned, while the town of San Diego grew up on the land below Presidio Hill. The Mission was secularized by the Mexican government in 1833, the 432 residents of the town petitioned the governor to form a pueblo, and Juan María Osuna was elected the first alcalde, defeating Pío Pico in the vote
7.
Indian classical music
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Indian classical music is one of many forms of art music that have their roots in particular regional cultures. For other classical and art traditions, see List of classical. Indian classical music is a genre of South Asian music, the North Indian classical music tradition is called Hindustani, while the South Indian expression is called Carnatic. These traditions were not distinct till about the 16th century, there on, during the turmoils of Islamic rule period of the Indian subcontinent, the traditions separated and evolved into distinct forms. However, the two continue to have more common features than differences. The roots of the music of India are found in the Vedic literature of Hinduism and the ancient Natyashastra. The 13th century Sanskrit text Sangita-Ratnakara of Sharngadeva is regarded as the text by both the Hindustani music and the Carnatic music traditions. The Indian classical music has two elements, raga and tala. The raga forms the fabric of a structure, the tala measures the time cycle. The raga gives an artist the ingredients palette to build the melody from sounds, dhrupads are among the oldest classical Indian music compositions, with heroic, laudatory and spiritual themes. They are the basis for many subgenre of Indian music, the roots of music in ancient India are found in the Vedic literature of Hinduism. The earliest Indian thought combined three arts, syllabic recital, melos and dance, as these fields developed, sangita became a distinct genre of art, in a form equivalent to contemporary music. This likely occurred before the time of Yāska, since he includes these terms in his nirukta studies, some of the ancient texts of Hinduism such as the Samaveda are structured entirely to melodic themes, it is sections of Rigveda set to music. The Samaveda is organized into two formats, one part is based on the musical meter, another by the aim of the rituals. The text is written with embedded coding, where svaras is either shown above or within the text and these markings identify which units are to be sung in a single breath, each unit based on multiples of one eighth. The hymns of Samaveda contain melodic content, form, rhythm and this structure is, however, not unique or limited to Samaveda. The Rigveda embeds the musical meter too, without the kind of found in the Samaveda. For example, the Gayatri mantra contains three lines of exactly eight syllables, with an embedded ternary rhythm
8.
Sitar
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The sitar is a plucked stringed instrument used mainly in Hindustani music and Indian classical music. The sitar flourished in the 16th and 17th centuries and arrived at its present form in 18th century India and it derives its distinctive timbre and resonance from sympathetic strings, bridge design, a long hollow neck and a gourd-shaped resonance chamber. In appearance, the sitar is similar to the tanpura, except that it has frets, used widely throughout the Indian subcontinent, the sitar became popularly known in the wider world through the works of Ravi Shankar, beginning in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The word sitar originally derived from Sanskrit words saptatantri veena, which later was called as saat taar which eventually became sitar, another source might be from Persian seh + tar, literally meaning three strings. The instrument is thought to have been a version of the Veena, another prominent instrument in Carnatic and Hindustani music, altered in order to conform with Mughal tastes. The sitar flourished in the 16th and 17th centuries and arrived at its present form in 18th century India, in his Bharatiya Sangeet Vadya, Lalmani Misra traces the instruments development from the Tritantri veena through the nibaddh and anibaddh Tamburas also called tanbur and later the jantra. Construction of the similar tanpura was described by Tansen, a sitar can have 18,19,20, or 21 strings. The frets are movable, allowing fine tuning, the Gandhaar-pancham sitar has six playable strings, whereas the Kharaj-pancham sitar, used in the Maihar gharana, to which Ravi Shankar belonged, and other gharanas such as Bishnupur, has seven. Three of these, called the chikaari, simply provide a drone, the instrument has two bridges, the large bridge for the playing and drone strings and the small bridge for the sympathetic strings. Its timbre results from the way the strings interact with the wide, as a string reverberates its length changes slightly as its edge touches the bridge, promoting the creation of overtones and giving the sound its distinctive tone. The maintenance of this specific tone by shaping the bridge is called jawari, many musicians rely on instrument makers to adjust this. The bridges are fixed to the resonating chamber, or kaddu. Some sitars have a resonator, the tumbaa, near the top of the hollow neck. Materials used in construction include teak wood or tun wood, which is a variation of mahogany, for the neck and faceplate, the instruments bridges are made of deer horn, ebony, or very occasionally from camel bone. Synthetic material is now common as well, there are three popular modern styles of sitar offered in a variety of sub-styles and decorative patterns. The two popular styles are the gayaki style sitars and the full decorated instrumental style sitars, the gayaki style sitar is mostly of seasoned toon wood, with very few or no carved decorations. It often has a dark polish, the inlay decorations are mostly of mother of pearl. The number of strings is often limited to eleven but may extend to thirteen
9.
Singing
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Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of sustained tonality, rhythm, and a variety of vocal techniques. A person who sings is called a singer or vocalist, Singers perform music that can be sung with or without accompaniment by musical instruments. Singing is often done in an ensemble of musicians, such as a choir of singers or a band of instrumentalists, Singers may perform as soloists, or accompanied by anything from a single instrument up to a symphony orchestra or big band. Singing can be formal or informal, arranged or improvised and it may be done as a form of religious devotion, as a hobby, as a source of pleasure, comfort, or ritual, as part of music education, or as a profession. Excellence in singing requires time, dedication, instruction, and regular practice, if practice is done on a regular basis then the sounds can become more clear and strong. Professional singers usually build their careers around one specific genre, such as classical or rock. They typically take voice training provided by teachers or vocal coaches throughout their careers. Though these four mechanisms function independently, they are coordinated in the establishment of a vocal technique and are made to interact upon one another. During passive breathing, air is inhaled with the diaphragm while exhalation occurs without any effort, exhalation may be aided by the abdominal, internal intercostal and lower pelvis/pelvic muscles. Inhalation is aided by use of external intercostals, scalenes and sternocleidomastoid muscles, the pitch is altered with the vocal cords. With the lips closed, this is called humming, humans have vocal folds which can loosen, tighten, or change their thickness, and over which breath can be transferred at varying pressures. The shape of the chest and neck, the position of the tongue, any one of these actions results in a change in pitch, volume, timbre, or tone of the sound produced. Sound also resonates within different parts of the body and an individuals size, Singers can also learn to project sound in certain ways so that it resonates better within their vocal tract. This is known as vocal resonation, another major influence on vocal sound and production is the function of the larynx which people can manipulate in different ways to produce different sounds. These different kinds of function are described as different kinds of vocal registers. The primary method for singers to accomplish this is through the use of the Singers Formant and it has also been shown that a more powerful voice may be achieved with a fatter and fluid-like vocal fold mucosa. The more pliable the mucosa, the more efficient the transfer of energy from the airflow to the vocal folds, Vocal registration refers to the system of vocal registers within the voice. A register in the voice is a series of tones, produced in the same vibratory pattern of the vocal folds
10.
Angel Records
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Angel Records was a record label founded by EMI in 1953. It specialised in music, but included an occasional operetta or Broadway score. The Angel mark was used by EMI, its predecessors, eMIs classical-music operations were sold to Warner Music Group in 2013. EMI Classics was sold and absorbed into Warner Classics, a recording angel is a traditional figure that watches over people, marking their actions on a tablet for future judgment. Artist Theodore Birnbaum devised a version of this image, depicting a cherub marking grooves into a phonograph disc with a quill. Beginning in 1898, the Gramophone Company in the United Kingdom used this angel as a trademark on its record labels and players, from 1909, Gramophone and related companies began replacing the angel with the famous trademark of a dog listening to a gramophone. The angel was retained in areas where the depiction of a dog was deemed offensive, in 1953 Gramophone successor EMI lost its U. S. distribution arrangement with Columbia Records, which had elected to make Philips Records distributor of U. S. In response, EMI established Angel Records in New York City under the direction of record producers Dorle Soria, the couple concentrated on distributing EMI classical recordings in the U. S. market. S. However, Angel recordings such as Sir Thomas Beechams 1957 performance of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakovs Scheherazade, made in England in stereo with the Royal Philharmonic, were imported to the U. S. Several albums featured Sir Thomas Beecham and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, including Beechams 1959 stereo recordings, some historic EMI recordings have appeared in the U. S. on the Seraphim label on CD in recent years. Since 1990, international use of the Angel mark has been replaced by the EMI Classics label and it is still active in the U. S. In 1992, Angel expanded into the theatre genre by adding the Angel Broadway imprint. In 2001, Angel released newly remastered and expanded editions of the soundtracks of three Rodgers and Hammerstein films – Oklahoma, carousel and The King and I. The LP versions and original CD versions of these soundtracks had previously released by Capitol Records. EMI Classics was sold and absorbed into Warner Classics, the AngelRecords. com URL now redirects to Sinfini Music, an unrelated company. Universal Music owns the Angel trademark, list of record labels Dorle Soria papers, 1930-1991 Music Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
11.
His Master's Voice
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His Masters Voice, abbreviated HMV, is a famous trademark in the music and recording industry and was for many years the unofficial name of a large British record label. The name was coined in the 1890s as the title of a painting of a dog named Nipper, in the original painting, the dog was listening to a cylinder phonograph. The trademark image comes from a painting by English artist Francis Barraud and it was acquired from the artist in 1899 by the newly formed Gramophone Company and adopted by the Victor Talking Machine Company in the United States. According to contemporary Gramophone Company publicity material, the dog, a terrier named Nipper, had belonged to Barrauds brother. When Mark Barraud died, Francis inherited Nipper, with a cylinder phonograph, Francis noted the peculiar interest that the dog took in the recorded voice of his late master emanating from the horn, and conceived the idea of committing the scene to canvas. In early 1899, Francis Barraud applied for copyright of the painting using the descriptive working title Dog looking at. The image was first used on the companys catalogue dated December 1899, Victor used the image more aggressively than its UK partner, and from 1902 most Victor records had a simplified drawing of Barrauds dog-and-gramophone image on their labels. Magazine advertisements urged record buyers to look for the dog, in British Commonwealth countries, the Gramophone Company did not use the dog on its record labels until 1909. The following year the Gramophone Company replaced the Recording Angel trademark in the half of the record labels with the Nipper logo. The company was not formally called HMV or His Masters Voice, Records issued by the company before February 1908 were generally referred to as G&Ts, while those after that date are usually called HMV records. This image continued to be used as a trademark by Victor in the U. S. Canada, and Latin America, and then by Victors successor, in Commonwealth countries it was used by subsidiaries of the Gramophone Company, which ultimately became part of EMI. The trademarks ownership is divided among different companies in different countries, the name HMV is used by a chain of music shops owned by HMV, mainly in the UK, Ireland, Canada, Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong, and Japan. In 1921 the Gramophone Company opened the first HMV shop in London, in 1929 RCA absorbed Victor, and with it a major shareholding in the Gramophone Company, which Victor had owned since 1920. In 1931 RCA was instrumental in the creation of EMI, which continued to own the His Masters Voice name, in 1935 RCA sold its stake in EMI but continued to own Victor and the rights to His Masters Voice in the Americas. HMV continued to distribute RCA recordings until RCA severed its ties with EMI in 1957, RCA Victors Japanese subsidiary, the Victor Company of Japan, became independent, and today they still use the Victor brand and Nipper in Japan only. In 1968, RCA introduced a logo and restricted the use of Nipper to the album covers of Red Seal Records. The trademark was reinstated to most RCA record labels in the Western Hemisphere beginning in late 1976 and was again widely used in RCA advertising throughout the late 1970s and 1980s. The dog reappeared for a time on RCA television sets and was used on the RCA CED videodisc system
12.
Apple Records
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Apple Records is a record label founded by the Beatles in 1968, as a division of Apple Corps Ltd. It was initially intended as an outlet for the Beatles, both as a group and individually, plus a selection of other artists including Mary Hopkin, James Taylor, Badfinger. In practice, by the mid-1970s, the roster had become dominated with releases by the former Beatles as solo artists, Allen Klein managed the label from 1969 to 1973. It was then managed by Neil Aspinall on behalf of the four Beatles and he retired in 2007 and was replaced by Jeff Jones. At this time, the Beatles were contracted to EMIs Parlophone label in the United Kingdom, in a new distribution deal, EMI and Capitol agreed to distribute Apple Records until 1975, while EMI retained ownership of the Beatles recordings. Beatles recordings issued in the United Kingdom on the Apple label carried Parlophone catalogue numbers, Apple Records owns the rights to all of the Beatles videos and movie clips, and the rights to recordings of other artists signed to the label. The first catalogue number, Apple 1, was a pressing of Frank Sinatra singing Maureen Is a Champ to the melody of The Lady Is a Tramp for Ringo Starrs then-wife Maureen. BeatlesandBeyond Radio presenter Pete Dicks reports that the title is actually Lady is a Champ, in 1969, the Beatles were in need of financial and managerial direction and Lennon was approached by Allen Klein, manager of the Rolling Stones at the time. Klein went on to manage Apple, by virtue of his support from the Beatles. McCartney had suggested his then new father-in-law Lee Eastman for the job, after Klein took control of Apple, several sub-divisions, including Apple Electronics, were shut down, and some of Apple Records artistic roster effectively dropped. Thereafter, new signings were not so numerous, and tended to arrive through the actions of ex-Beatles. McCartney had little input into Apple Records roster after 1970, Klein managed Apple Corp. until March 1973 when his contract expired. In May 1971, the Beatles entire pre-Apple catalogue on the American Capitol label were re-issued on the Apple label, after Kleins departure, Apple was then managed by Neil Aspinall on behalf of the four Beatles and their heirs. Apple Records distribution contract with EMI expired in 1976 and control of the Beatles catalogue, including solo recordings to date by George Harrison, John Lennon and Ringo Starr, reverted to EMI. The original UK versions of the Beatles albums were released worldwide on compact disc in 1987 and 1988 on the Parlophone label, previously, Abbey Road had been issued on CD by the EMI-Odeon label in Japan in the early 1980s. Although this was a release, it was not authorised by the Beatles. Following the settlement of Apples ten-year lawsuit against EMI in 1989, new projects began to forward, including the Live at the BBC album. It was after the Anthology project that the company resumed making large profits again
13.
Dark Horse Records
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Dark Horse Records is a record label founded by former Beatle George Harrison in 1974. The labels formation coincided with the winding down of the Beatles Apple Records, the initial signings were Indian musician Ravi Shankar and Splinter, the last of whom provided the label with its only significant commercial success until Harrison signed with Dark Horse in 1976. The label was distributed internationally by A&M Records for the first two years of its operation, following a highly publicised split with A&M, Harrison and Dark Horse formed a long-term partnership with Warner Bros. Records that lasted until the expiration of his contract in 1994. After a ten-year period of inactivity, the returned in 2002 with the posthumous release of Harrisons final studio album. More recently, Dark Horse Records issued the Shankar–Harrison compilation box set Collaborations, while all the former Beatles were contractually obliged to EMI until 26 January 1976, as solo artists, Harrison sought a new avenue for his extracurricular projects. He and Starr considered buying Apple in 1973 and running it themselves, Harrison eventually agreed terms with A&M Records for the latter to distribute his new label worldwide. For a company name, Harrison used the title of a song he had written in 1973, the inspiration for the Dark Horse Records logo came from a label on a tin that Harrison found during a trip to India. The logo features the seven-headed horse Uchchaisravas, a figure in Indian art. After the latter, it went into hiatus for ten years, Dark Horse was distributed by A&M Records, Warner Bros. Records and EMI. Dark Horse was revived with the release of Brainwashed in 2002. Harrisons back catalogue on the label was remastered and reissued as the Dark Horse Years 1976–1992 box set during 2004, list of record labels George Harrison discography George Harrison
14.
East Meets West Music
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East Meets West Music is the official recording label of the Ravi Shankar Foundation. With access to the sitar masters personal archive of thousands of hours of live audio, film footage, interviews. In addition to Ravi Shankars personally selected source material from the archive, EMWMusic also hopes to provide a platform for new artists, projects, and collaborations. The Ravi Shankar Foundation launched East Meets West Music in 2010, an East Meets West Music Series Celebrating the life, music and legacy of Ravi Shankar, featuring musicians and students inspired by the Maestro and who continue his mission of Peace through Music. Ashwini Bhide Deshpande, world-renowned classical Hindustani vocalist in the Jaipur-Atrauli Gharana tradition, pays loving tribute to the Maestro and this recording features four Ravi Shankar ragas, performed by Ashwini Bhide Deshpande and overlaid with her lyrical bandishes, as well as one original raga by Ashwini Bhide Deshpande. East Meets West Music, UTSAV Series, arghyam - The Offering Released,2013. East Meets West Music, UTSAV Series, in October 2011, at the age of 91, Ravi Shankar invited his long time-tabla accompanist, Tanmoy Bose, to his home in Encinitas, California for an informal recording session. Over four days in Shankars living room, the seven different Ragas. The resulting music is pure Ravi Shankar, combining his deep musical experience, the seamless musical dialog between Shankar and Bose creates a uniquely stirring listening experience. Both intimate and masterly, The Living Room Sessions Part 1 is an invitation into the home, East Meets West Music, The Living Room Sessions Part 1 Released,2013. Session Mishra Kafi introduces the set with a beautiful Alaap and Gat in medium tempo Deepchandi Taal, East Meets West Music, The Living Room Sessions Part 2 Released,2012. Cinematographer and director Alan Kozlowski presents a look at 91-year-old Ravi Shankar performing in Southern California in October 2011. The love of subject is clear in the film, but its Ravis raw, though Ravi has curtailed his busy touring schedule, his playing continues to draw intense praise. Songlines Magazine says that the master has lost absolutely nothing in the way of performances, East Meets West Music, Tenth Decade in Concert - Live in Escondido First release,2010. EMWMusic’s inaugural release, Nine Decades, Volume 1, is the first in a multi-volume series, the Nine Decades series features rare and never-before released recordings hand-picked by Ravi Shankar from his vast archive and remastered for an optimum listening experience. East Meets West Music, NINE DECADE SERIES Released,2010. Raga Gangeshwari, the centerpiece of Volume 1, takes listeners to a concert at a temple on the banks of the Ganges in 1968. ”The intimate quality of the recording. Raga Gangeshwari is performed with Kamala Chakravarty on tanpura and Ustad Alla Rakha on tabla, also featured on this volume is Vedic chanting by temple priests, as well as audience reactions to an early performance in the West
15.
Uday Shankar
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He was a pioneer of modern dance in India. Of India, awarded him with its second highest civilian award the Padma Vibhushan and he was born Uday Shankar Chowdhury, in Udaipur, Rajasthan, to a Bengali family with origins in Narail. His father was conferred the title, Harchowdhury by the Nawabs and his younger brothers were Rajendra Shankar, Debendra Shankar, Bhupendra Shankar and Ravi Shankar. Of his siblings, Bhupendra died young in 1926 and his father was a Sanskrit scholar, who graduated with honours from the Calcutta University and later studied at Oxford University, where he became a Doctor of Philosophy. Since his father moved frequently on account of his work, the family spent much time in Udays maternal uncles house at Nasratpur with his mother, Udays studies also took place at various locations including Nasratpur, Gazipur, Varanasi, and Jhalawar. At his Gazipur school, he learnt music and photography from Ambika Charan Mukhopaddhay, his Drawing, in 1918, at the age of eighteen, he was sent to Mumbai to train at the J. J. School of Art and then to Gandharva Mahavidyalaya, by now, Shyam Shankar had resigned his post in Jhalawar and moved to London. Here he married an English woman and practised law, before becoming an amateur impresario, introducing Indian dance, subsequently, Uday joined his father in London, and on 23 August 1920, joined the Royal College of Art, London to study painting under Sir William Rothenstein. He danced at a few charity performances that his father had organised in London and this was to have a lasting impact on his career. Uday Shankar did not have any training in any of the Indian classical dance forms. From a young age, he had exposed to both Indian classical dance and folk dance, as well as to ballet during his stay in Europe. He decided to bring elements of both the styles together to create a new dance, which he called Hi-dance and he went on to translate classical Indian dance forms and their iconography to dance movements, after studying the Rajput painting and Mughal painting styles at the British Museum. Further during his stay in Britain, he came across several performing artists, subsequently when he left for Rome on the Prix de Rome scholarship of French Government, soon his interaction with such artists grew and so did the idea to transform Indian dance into a contemporary form. The turning point came with his first meetings with legendary Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova and she was looking for artists to collaborate on India-based themes. This led to the creation of ballets based on Hindu themes, Radha-Krishna, a duet with Anna, the ballet was presented at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in London. Later he continued to conceive and choreograph ballets, including one based on the Ajanta Caves frescoes, in time his style of dance came to be known as Hi-dance, though later he called it Creative dance. He worked with Anna for one and a half years, before starting out on his own in Paris and he was welcomed by Rabindranath Tagore himself, who also persuaded him to open a performing arts school in India. On his return to Paris in 1931, he founded Europes first Indian dance company, along with Alice Boner, together with musicians Vishnu Dass Shirali and Timir Baran, he created a new template for music to accompany his newly devised movements
16.
Allauddin Khan
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Allauddin Khan, also known as Baba Allauddin Khan was a Bengali shorodi and multi-instrumentalist, composer and one of the most renowned music teachers of the 20th century in Indian classical music. In 1935, he toured Europe, along with Uday Shankars ballet troupe, during his lifetime, he composed several ragas and laid the foundation of a modern Maihar gharana. Amongst his recordings which are rare, the most important ones are those he recorded with the All India Radio in 1959–60. D, anecdotes about Khan range from throwing a tabla tuning hammer at the Maharaja himself to taking care of disabled beggars. Nikhil Banerjee said that the image was deliberately projected in order not to allow any liberty to the disciple. He was always worried that soft treatment on his part would only spoil them and he could play over 200 instruments. Ustad Alauddin Khan, a directed by Ritwik Ghatak. Remastered version released in 2010 by East Meets West Music Maihar Raag, a look at Allauddin Khans crumbling heritage in Maihar, which won the National Film Award for Best Non-Feature Film in 1994. Ustad Allauddin Khan and his music, ustad Allauddin Khan, the legend of music. New Delhi, Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, the Great Master of Hindustani Classical Music, Dr Allauddin Khan. Ustad Baba Allaudin Khan, Detailed Biography and images at California Institute of the Arts Raga at East Meets West Music
17.
Ali Akbar Khan
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Ali Akbar Khan was a Hindustani classical musician of the Maihar gharana, known for his virtuosity in playing the sarod. Trained as a musician and instrumentalist by his father, Allauddin Khan, Khan also composed several classical ragas. Khan was instrumental in popularising Indian classical music in the West and he first came to America in 1955 on the invitation of violinist Yehudi Menuhin and later settled in California. He was a Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Music at the University of California, Khan was accorded Indias second highest civilian honour, the Padma Vibhushan, in 1989. Nominated five times for the Grammy Award, Khan was a recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship, Ali Akbar Khan was born in the village of Shibpur, Nabinagar Upazila, Brahmanbaria, in present-day Bangladesh, to renowned musician and teacher, Allauddin Khan and Madina Begum. Soon after his birth, Khans family returned to Maihar where his father was the court musician for the Maharaja of the princely state. From an early age Khan received training from his father in various instruments as well as vocal composition, Allauddin was a perfectionist and a strict taskmaster, and Khans lessons started before dawn and often lasted 18 hours a day. Khan also learned to play the tabla and the pakhavaj from his uncle, Aftabuddin Khan, Shankar and Annapurna Devi were married in 1941. Ali Akbar Khan, after years of training, gave his debut performance at a music conference in Allahabad in 1936. In 1938 Khan gave his first recital on All India Radio, Bombay, in 1943, on his fathers recommendation, Khan was appointed a court musician for the Maharaja of Jodhpur, Hanwant Singh. There, he taught and composed music besides giving recitals and was accorded the title of Ustad by the Maharaja, when the princely states were wound down with Indias independence in 1947 and Hanwant Singh died in a plane crash in 1948, Khan moved to Bombay. In Bombay, he won acclaim as a composer of film scores. Lata Mangeshkar sang the song, Har Kahin Pe Shaadmani and as a token of her respect to sarod maestro. This was followed by Satyajit Rays Devi, Merchant-Ivorys The Householder and he also played Sarod for a song in 1955 film Seema which had the music composed by Shankar Jaikishan. Later in 1993, he would some of the music for Bernardo Bertoluccis Little Buddha. Beginning in 1945, Khan also started recording a series of 78 rpm disks at the HMV Studios in Bombay, for one such record he conceived a new composition Raga Chandranandan, based on four evening ragas, Malkauns, Chandrakauns, Nandakauns and Kaushi Kanada. He performed in India and travelled extensively in the West, in 1956, Khan founded the Ali Akbar College of Music in Calcutta, with the mission to teach and spread Indian classical music. He founded another school of the name in Berkeley, California in 1967 and later moved it to San Rafael
18.
Yehudi Menuhin
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Yehudi Menuhin, Baron Menuhin, OM KBE was an American-born violinist and conductor who spent most of his performing career in Britain. He is widely considered one of the greatest violinists of the 20th century, Yehudi Menuhin was born in New York City to a family of Belorussian Jews. Through his father Moshe, a rabbinical student and anti-Zionist. In late 1919 Moshe and his wife Marutha became American citizens, yehudis sisters were concert pianist and human rights activist Hephzibah, and pianist, painter and poet Yaltah. Menuhins first violin instruction was at age four by Sigmund Anker, his parents had wanted Louis Persinger to teach him, Menuhin displayed exceptional talent at an early age. His first public appearance, when only seven, was as solo violinist with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra in 1923, Persinger then agreed to teach him, and accompanied him on the piano for his first few solo recordings in 1928–29. When the Menuhins went to Paris, Persinger suggested Yehudi go to his old teacher, Belgian virtuoso and he did have one lesson with Ysaÿe, but disliked his teaching method and his advanced age. Instead, he went to the Romanian composer and violinist George Enescu, under whose tutelage he made recordings with several piano accompanists and he was also a student of Adolf Busch. In 1929 he played in Berlin, under Bruno Walters baton, according to Henry A. Murray, Menuhin wrote, Actually, I was gazing in my usual state of being half absent in my own world and half in the present. I have usually been able to retire in this way, I was also thinking that my life was tied up with the instrument and would I do it justice. His first concerto recording was made in 1931, Bruchs G minor, under Sir Landon Ronald in London, between 1934 and 1936, he made the first integral recording of Johann Sebastian Bachs sonatas and partitas for solo violin, although his Sonata No. 2, in A minor, was not released until all six were transferred to CD and he and Louis Kentner gave the first performance of William Waltons Violin Sonata, in Zürich on 30 September 1949. He continued performing, and conducting, to an advanced age, Menuhin credited German philosopher Constantin Brunner with providing him with a theoretical framework within which I could fit the events and experiences of life. Menuhin made Lysy his only student, and the two toured extensively throughout the concert halls of Europe. The young protégé later established the International Menuhin Music Academy in Gstaad, Menuhin made several recordings with the German conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler, who had been criticized for conducting in Germany during the Nazi era. Menuhin defended Furtwängler, noting that the conductor had helped a number of Jewish musicians to flee Nazi Germany, in 1957, he founded the Menuhin Festival Gstaad in Gstaad, Switzerland. In 1962, he established the Yehudi Menuhin School in Stoke dAbernon and he also established the music program at The Nueva School in Hillsborough, California, sometime around then. In 1965 he received a knighthood from the British monarchy
19.
Alla Rakha
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Ustad Allarakha Qureshi, popularly known as Alla Rakha, was an Indian tabla player specialized in Hindustani Classical music. He was a frequent accompanist of sitar player Ravi Shankar, Allah Rakha was born in Ghagwal, Jammu and Kashmir, British India. He became fascinated with the sound and rhythm of the tabla at the age of 12, sabir Rakha, a brother, also played the tabla. He studied voice and Raag Vidya under Ashiq Ali Khan of the Patiala gharana and his regimen of practice and dedication were legendary, hours upon hours of hard, disciplined practice, that would later pay off. He was married to Bavi Begum and their marriage produced three sons, Zakir Hussain, Fazal Qureshi and Taufiq Qureshi, two daughters, Khurshid Aulia née Qureshi and Razia, and nine grandchildren. They all survived him except Razia, it was the news of her death the day before that is thought to have caused his heart attack. Soon after, he composed music for a couple of Hindi films from 1943–48, however, he still played as an accompanist, for soloists like Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Allauddin Khan, Vilayat Khan, Vasant Rai, Ali Akbar Khan, and Ravi Shankar. He became a Ustad to Shankha Chatterjee, Yogesh Samsi, Prafulla Athalye, Aditya Kalyanpur, Anuradha Pal, Nishikant Barodekar, Uday Ramdas, Shyam Kane and his eldest son, Zakir Hussain is also an accomplished tabla virtuoso. Rakha popularised the art of tabla, playing across the globe, elevating the status, abbaji also bridged the gap between Carnatic music and Hindustani music by playing with both renowned Carnatic musicians and other Hindustani stalwarts. Leading American percussionists in rock n roll, such as the Grateful Deads Mickey Hart, admired him and studied his technique, benefitilkng greatly even from single meetings. Hart, an authority on percussion in world music, said, Allah Rakha is the Einstein. Rakha also collaborated with jazz drummer Buddy Rich on their 1968 album Rich à la Rakha, Rakha was part of the ensemble accompanying Ravi Shankar during George Harrisons Concert for Bangladesh shows, held in New York City in August 1971. The success of the album and concert film from this event presented Indian classical music to a wide audience in the West. Rakha was awarded the Padma Shri in 1977 and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1982 and he was also featured in a Google doodle on 29 April 2014 on the occasion of his 95th birthday. Alla Rakha died on 3 February 2000 at his Simla House residence on Nepean Sea Road following an attack, which he suffered on learning of the death of his daughter, Razia. Anokhelal Mishra Kishan Maharaj Samta Prasad Zakir Hussain Yogesh Samsi Inlay notes to A Life Story of a Genius compilation CD set Alla Rakha at AllMusic
20.
George Harrison
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George Harrison, MBE was an English guitarist, singer, songwriter, and music and film producer who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Although most of the Beatles songs were written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney and his songs for the group included Taxman, Within You Without You, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Here Comes the Sun and Something, the last of which became the Beatles second-most covered song. Harrisons earliest musical influences included George Formby and Django Reinhardt, Carl Perkins, Chet Atkins and Chuck Berry were subsequent influences. By 1965 he had begun to lead the Beatles into folk rock through his interest in the Byrds and Bob Dylan, having initiated the bands embracing of Transcendental Meditation in 1967, he subsequently developed an association with the Hare Krishna movement. He also organised the 1971 Concert for Bangladesh with Indian musician Ravi Shankar, in his role as a music and film producer, Harrison produced acts signed to the Beatles Apple record label before founding Dark Horse Records in 1974 and co-founding HandMade Films in 1978. Harrison released several best-selling singles and albums as a solo performer, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him number 11 in their list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. He is a two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee – as a member of the Beatles in 1988, Harrisons first marriage, to model Pattie Boyd in 1966, ended in divorce in 1977. The following year he married Olivia Harrison, with whom he had one son, Harrison died in 2001, aged 58, from lung cancer. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered in the Ganges and Yamuna rivers in India and he left an estate of almost £100 million. Born in Liverpool, United Kingdom, on 25 February 1943, Harrison was the youngest of four children of Harold Hargreaves Harrison and he had one sister, Louise, and two brothers, Harry and Peter. His mother was an assistant from a Catholic family with Irish roots. His future wife, the model Pattie Boyd, described Harrisons parents as quite short, an enthusiastic music fan, she was known among friends for her loud singing voice, which at times startled visitors by rattling the Harrisons windows. While pregnant with George, she listened to the weekly broadcast Radio India. Harrisons biographer Joshua Greene wrote, Every Sunday she tuned in to mystical sounds evoked by sitars and tablas, hoping that the music would bring peace. Harrison was born and lived the first six years of his life at 12 Arnold Grove, Wavertree, Liverpool, the home had an outdoor toilet and its only heat came from a single coal fire. In 1949 the family were offered a house and moved to 25 Upton Green. In 1948, at the age of five, Harrison enrolled at Dovedale Primary School and he passed the eleven-plus exam and attended Liverpool Institute High School for Boys from 1954 to 1959. Though the institute did offer a course, Harrison was disappointed with the absence of guitars
21.
Anoushka Shankar
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Anoushka Shankar is a British Indian sitar player and composer. She is the daughter of Ravi Shankar and the half-sister of Norah Jones, Anoushka was born in London and her childhood was divided between London and Delhi. She is the daughter of Sukanya Shankar and Indian sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar, through her father, she is also the half-sister of American singer Norah Jones, and Shubhendra Shubho Shankar, who died in 1992. As a teenager, Anoushka lived in Encinitas, California, a 1999 honors graduate and Homecoming Queen, Anoushka decided to pursue a career in music rather than attend college. Anoushka began training on the sitar with her father Ravi at the age of seven, as part of her training, she began accompanying him on the tanpura at his performances from the age of ten, soaking up the music and becoming acclimatised to the stage. Anoushka gave her first public performance on 27 February 1995 at the age of 13. For this solo debut, she was accompanied by tabla maestro Zakir Hussain and her first experience in the recording studio came that same year when Angel Records released a special four-CD box set called In Celebration, to mark her father’s birthday. By the age of fourteen, she was accompanying her father at concerts around the world, at fifteen, she assisted her father on the landmark album Chants of India, produced by George Harrison. Under both their guidance, she was in charge of notation and eventually of conducting the performers who took part in the record. After this experience, the heads of Angel Records came to her parents home to ask to sign her and she released her first album, Anoushka, in 1998, followed by Anourag in 2000. In 1999 Shankar graduated from school with honors, but decided against university in favour of beginning to tour as a solo artist. In that time, she toured worldwide, playing an average of 50-60 concerts per year,2005 brought the release of her fourth album RISE, her first self-produced, self-composed, non-classical album, earning her another Grammy nomination in the Best Contemporary World Music category. In February 2006 she became the first Indian to play at the Grammy Awards, Shankar, in collaboration with Karsh Kale, released Breathing Under Water on 28 August 2007. It is a mix of classical sitar and electronica beats and melodies, notable guest vocals included her paternal half-sister Norah Jones, Sting, and her father, who performed a sitar duet with her. In 2011 Shankar signed with record label Deutsche Grammophon as an exclusive artist and this marked the beginning of a prolific recording and creative period for Shankar, during which time she continued to refine the sitar sound and musical ideas she had become known for. In 2013 she released an album called Traces of You. Produced by Nitin Sawhney, and featuring her half-sister Norah Jones as the vocal performer. In July 2015 Shankar released Home, her first purely classical album of Indian Ragas, self-composed and produced, Home was recorded over a week in October 2014 in Shankar’s new, purpose-built home-studio
22.
Norah Jones
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Norah Jones is an American singer, songwriter and actress. Throughout her career, Jones has won awards and has sold more than 50 million albums worldwide. Billboard named her the top jazz artist of the 2000–2009 decade and she has won nine Grammy Awards and was 60th on Billboard magazines artists of the 2000–2009 decade chart. In 2002, Jones launched her music career with the release of Come Away with Me. It was certified diamond, selling over 26 million copies, the record earned Jones five Grammy Awards, including the Album of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best New Artist. They were also well received by critics. Jones fifth studio album, Little Broken Hearts, was released on April 27,2012, Jones is the daughter of Indian sitar player and composer Ravi Shankar, and half-sister of fellow musician Anoushka Shankar. Jones was born Geetali Norah Shankar on March 30,1979 in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York, to American concert producer Sue Jones, after her parents separated in 1986, Shankar lived with her mother, growing up in Grapevine, Texas. She attended Colleyville Middle School and Grapevine High School before transferring to Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing, while in high school, she sang in the school choir, participated in band, and played the alto saxophone. At the age of sixteen, with parents consent, she officially changed her name to Norah Jones. Jones always had an affinity for the music of Bill Evans and Billie Holiday and she once said, My mom had this eight-album Billie Holiday set, I picked out one disc that I liked and played that over and over again. As a child, Jones began singing in church and also took piano and she considers herself spiritual and appreciates the rituals of her church but does not consider herself deeply religious. She attended Interlochen Center for the Arts during the summers, while at high school, she won the Down Beat Student Music Awards for Best Jazz Vocalist and Best Original Composition. Jones attended the University of North Texas, where she majored in jazz piano, during this time, she had a chance meeting with future collaborator Jesse Harris. She gave a ride to a band playing at the university whose members happened to be friends of Harris and he was on a cross-country road-trip with friend and future Little Willies member Richard Julian, and stopped to see the band play. After meeting Jones, Harris started sending her lead sheets of his songs, in 1999, Jones left Texas for New York City. Less than a later, she started a band with Harris. As artist Peter Malick states in the notes, I started looking for a singer who could record for me
23.
John Coltrane
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John William Coltrane, also known as Trane, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career and he led at least fifty recording sessions during his career, and appeared as a sideman on many albums by other musicians, including trumpeter Miles Davis and pianist Thelonious Monk. As his career progressed, Coltrane and his music took on a spiritual dimension. Coltrane influenced innumerable musicians, and remains one of the most significant saxophonists in music history and he received many posthumous awards and recognitions, including canonization by the African Orthodox Church as Saint John William Coltrane and a special Pulitzer Prize in 2007. His second wife was pianist Alice Coltrane and their son Ravi Coltrane is also a saxophonist, Coltrane was born in his parents apartment at 200 Hamlet Avenue, Hamlet, North Carolina on September 23,1926. His father was John R. Coltrane and his mother was Alice Blair and he grew up in High Point, North Carolina, attending William Penn High School. Beginning in December 1938 Coltranes aunt, grandparents, and father all died within a few months of one another, leaving John to be raised by his mother, in June 1943 he moved to Philadelphia. In September of that year his mother bought him his first saxophone, Coltrane played the clarinet and the alto horn in a community band before taking up the alto saxophone during high school. He had his first professional gigs in early to mid-1945 – a cocktail lounge trio, with piano and guitar. To avoid being drafted by the Army, Coltrane enlisted in the Navy on August 6,1945, by the time he got to Hawaii, in late 1945, the Navy was already rapidly downsizing. As the Melody Masters was a band, however, Coltrane was treated merely as a guest performer to avoid alerting superior officers of his participation in the band. He continued to other duties when not playing with the band, including kitchen. By the end of his service, he had assumed a role in the band. His first recordings, a session in Hawaii with Navy musicians. Coltrane played alto saxophone on a selection of standards and bebop tunes. In Philadelphia after the war, he studied theory with guitarist and composer Dennis Sandole. Originally an altoist, in 1947 Coltrane also began playing saxophone with the Eddie Vinson Band. Coltrane later referred to point in his life as a time when a wider area of listening opened up for me
24.
Music of India
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The music of India includes multiple varieties of Indian classical music, folk music, Filmi and Indian pop. Indias classical music tradition, including Hindustani music and Carnatic, has a history spanning millennia, Music in India began as an integral part of socio-religious life. The basic concepts of music includes shruti, swaras, alankar, raga. Its tonal system divides the octave into 22 segments called shrutis, not all equal, the Hindustani music tradition diverged from Carnatic music around the 13th-14th centuries CE. The practice of singing based on notes was popular even from the Vedic times where the hymns in Sama Veda, developing a strong and diverse tradition over several centuries, it has contemporary traditions established primarily in India but also in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Classical genres are dhrupad, dhamar, khyal, tarana and sadra, the present of Carnatic music can be traced to the 14th - 15th centuries AD and thereafter. It originated in South India during the rule of Vijayanagar Empire, like Hindustani music, it is melodic, with improvised variations, but tends to have more fixed compositions. It consists of a composition with improvised embellishments added to the piece in the forms of Raga Alapana, Kalpanaswaram, Neraval and, in the case of advanced students, Raga, Tala. The main emphasis is on the vocals as most compositions are written to be sung, there are about 7.2 million ragas in Carnatic Music, with around 300 still in use today. Every December, the city of Chennai in India has its eight-week-long Music Season, Carnatic music has served as the foundation for most music in South India, including folk music, festival music and has also extended its influence to film music in the past 100–150 years or so. Light classical or semi-classical, among others, Thumri, Dadra, Ghazal, Chaiti, Kajri and Tappa, Rabindra Sangeet, also known as Tagore songs, are songs written and composed by Rabindranath Tagore. They have distinctive characteristics in the music of Bengal, popular in India, Sangeet means music, Rabindra Sangeet means music of Rabindra. Rabindra Sangeet used Indian classical music and traditional music as sources. Rabindranath Tagore was a figure in Indian music. Many singers in West Bengal and Bangladesh base their careers on the singing of Tagore musical masterpieces. The national anthem of India and national anthem of Bangladesh are Rabindra Sangeets, bihu is the festival of New Year of Assam falling on mid April. This is a festival of nature and mother earth where the first day is for the cows, second day is for the man. Bihu dances and songs accompanied by drums and wind instruments are essential part of this festival
25.
Bharat Ratna
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The Bharat Ratna is the highest civilian award of the Republic of India. Instituted in 1954, the award is conferred in recognition of exceptional service/performance of the highest order, without distinction of race, occupation, position, or sex. The recommendations for the Bharat Ratna are made by the Prime Minister to the President, recipients receive a Sanad signed by the President and a peepal-leaf–shaped medallion, there is no monetary grant associated with the award. Bharat Ratna recipients rank seventh in the Indian order of precedence, the first recipients of the Bharat Ratna were politician C. Rajagopalachari, philosopher Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, and scientist C. V. Raman, since then, the award has been bestowed on 45 individuals, including 12 who were awarded posthumously. The original statutes did not provide for posthumous awards but were amended in January 1955 to permit them, the former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri became the first individual to be honoured posthumously. In 2014, cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, then aged 40, became the youngest recipient, on 24 December 2014, the Indian government announced the award to independence activist Madan Mohan Malaviya and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Following a 1997 Supreme Court decision, the press communiqué announcing Boses award was cancelled, it is the time when the award was announced. Several bestowals of the award have met with criticism, the posthumous award for M. G. On 15 January 1955, the Padma Vibhushan was reclassified into three different awards, the Padma Vibhushan, the highest of the three, followed by the Padma Bhushan and the Padma Shri, there is no formal provision that recipients of the Bharat Ratna should be Indian citizens. Sachin Tendulkar, at the age of 40, became the youngest person, in a special ceremony on 18 April 1958, Dhondo Keshav Karve was awarded on his 100th birthday. As of 2015, the award has been conferred upon 45 people with 12 posthumous declarations, the award was briefly suspended twice in its history. The first suspension occurred after Morarji Desai was sworn in as the fourth Prime Minister in 1977 and his government withdrew all personal civil honours on 13 July 1977. The suspension was rescinded on 25 January 1980, after Indira Gandhi became the Prime Minister, the awards were reintroduced by the Supreme Court in December 1995, following the conclusion of the litigation. The Bharat Ratna is conferred in recognition of exceptional service/performance of the highest order, without distinction of race, occupation, position, the award was originally confined to the arts, literature, science, and public services, as per the 1954 regulations. In December 2011, the rules were changed to any field of human endeavour. Although there is no nomination process, recommendations for the award can only be made by the Prime Minister to the President with a maximum number of three nominees being awarded per year. However, in 1999, four individuals were awarded the honour, the recipient receives a Sanad signed by the President and a medallion without any monetary grant
26.
Bengalis
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The Bengalis, also spelled as the Bangalees, are a major Indo-Aryan ethno-linguistic group. They are native to the region of Bengal in South Asia and they speak the Bengali language, the most easterly branch of the Indo-European language family. Bengalis are the third largest ethnic group in the world after the Han Chinese, apart from Bangladesh and West Bengal, Bengali-majority populations also reside in Indias Tripura state, the Barak Valley in Assam state and the union territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The global Bengali diaspora has well-established communities in Pakistan, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and they have four major religious subgroups, including Bengali Muslims, Bengali Hindus, Bengali Christians and Bengali Buddhists. Archaeologists have discovered remnants of a 4,000 years old Chalcolithic civilisation in the greater Bengal region, however evidence of much older Palaeolithic human habitations are found in the form of a Stone Implement and a Hand Axe in Rangamati and Feni districts of Bangladesh. The origin of the word Bangla ~ Bengal is unknown, though it is believed to be derived from a tribe called Bang that settled in the area around the year 1000 BCE. Kingdoms of Anga, Vanga and Magadha were formed in and around Bengal and were first described in the Atharvaveda around 1000 BCE as well as in Hindu epic Mahabharata, from the 6th century BCE, Magadha expanded to include most of the Bihar and Bengal regions. It was one of the four kingdoms of India at the time of Buddha and was one of the sixteen Mahajanapadas. One of the earliest foreign references to Bengal is the mention of a land ruled by the king Xandrammes named Gangaridai by the Greeks around 100 BCE, the word is speculated to have come from Gangahrd in reference to an area in Bengal. Later from the 3rd to the 6th centuries CE, the kingdom of Magadha served as the seat of the Gupta Empire, one of the first recorded independent kings of Bengal was Shashanka, reigning around the early 7th century. After a period of anarchy, Gopala came to power in 750, atisha was a renowned Bengali Buddhist teacher who was instrumental in revival of Buddhism in Tibet and also held the position of Abbot at the Vikramshila university. Tilopa was also from Bengal region, the Pala dynasty was later followed by a shorter reign of the Hindu Sena Empire. Islam was introduced to Bengal in the century by Sufi missionaries. Subsequent Muslim conquests helped spread Islam throughout the region, bakhtiar Khilji, a Turkic general of the Slave dynasty of Delhi Sultanate, defeated Lakshman Sen of the Sena dynasty and conquered large parts of Bengal. Consequently, the region was ruled by dynasties of sultans and feudal lords under the Bengal Sultanate for the few hundred years. Islam was introduced to the Sylhet region by the Muslim saint Shah Jalal in the early 14th century, Mughal general Man Singh conquered parts of Bengal including Dhaka during the time of Emperor Akbar. Few Rajput tribes from his army permanently settled around Dhaka and surrounding lands, later on, in the early 17th century, Islam Khan conquered all of Bengal. Other figures have been considered to be part of the Renaissance and he is considered one of the fathers of radio science, and is also considered the father of Bengali science fiction
27.
Europe
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Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, yet the non-oceanic borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary. Europe covers about 10,180,000 square kilometres, or 2% of the Earths surface, politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states of which the Russian Federation is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a population of about 740 million as of 2015. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast, Europe, in particular ancient Greece, was the birthplace of Western civilization. The fall of the Western Roman Empire, during the period, marked the end of ancient history. Renaissance humanism, exploration, art, and science led to the modern era, from the Age of Discovery onwards, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers controlled at times the Americas, most of Africa, Oceania. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to economic, cultural, and social change in Western Europe. During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the west and the Warsaw Pact in the east, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1955, the Council of Europe was formed following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill and it includes all states except for Belarus, Kazakhstan and Vatican City. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, the EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The European Anthem is Ode to Joy and states celebrate peace, in classical Greek mythology, Europa is the name of either a Phoenician princess or of a queen of Crete. The name contains the elements εὐρύς, wide, broad and ὤψ eye, broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it. For the second part also the divine attributes of grey-eyed Athena or ox-eyed Hera. The same naming motive according to cartographic convention appears in Greek Ανατολή, Martin Litchfield West stated that phonologically, the match between Europas name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor. Next to these there is also a Proto-Indo-European root *h1regʷos, meaning darkness. Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to the continent, in some Turkic languages the originally Persian name Frangistan is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa
28.
The Apu Trilogy
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The Apu Trilogy comprises three Bengali films directed by Satyajit Ray, Pather Panchali, Aparajito and Apur Sansar. They are frequently listed among the greatest films of all time and are cited as the greatest movies in the history of Indian cinema. The original music for the films was composed by Ravi Shankar and they are based on two Bengali novels written by Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay, Pather Panchali and Aparajito. The three films went on to win national and international awards, including three National Film Awards and seven awards from the Cannes, Berlin and Venice Film Festivals. Produced on a shoestring budget using an amateur cast and crew, Pather Panchali Apus early experiences in rural Bengal as the son of a poor but high caste family are presented. Apus father Harihar, a Brahmin, has difficulty in supporting his family, after the death of Apus sister, Durga, the family moves to the holy city of Benares. Aparajito The familys finances are still precarious, after his father dies there, Apu and his mother Sarbajaya come back to a village in Bengal. Despite unrelenting poverty, Apu manages to get formal schooling and turns out to be a brilliant student, the growing Apu comes into conflict with his mother. Later, when his mother too, he has to learn to live alone. Apur Sansar Attempting to become a writer, Apu unexpectedly finds himself pressured to marry a girl whose mother rejected her mentally ill bridegroom on the day of their wedding. Their blossoming marriage ends in her death in childbirth, after which the despairing Apu abandons his child, but eventually returns to accept his responsibilities. In 1950, Ray had decided that Pather Panchali, the coming of age story of Bengali literature, published in 1928 by Bibhutibhusan Bandopadhyay. This semi-autobiographical novel describes the growing up of Apu, a boy in a Bengal village. He went ahead with the film after meeting Jean Renoir during filming of The River and after watching the Italian neorealist film Bicycle Thieves while he was in London. Besides the influence of European cinema and Bengali literature, Ray is also indebted to the Indian theatrical tradition, the complicated doctrine of rasa centers predominantly on feelings experienced not only by the characters but also conveyed in a certain artistic way to the spectator. The duality of rasa representation shows in The Apu Trilogy, Ray gathered an inexperienced crew, although both his cameraman Subrata Mitra and art director Bansi Chandragupta went on to achieve great acclaim. The cast consisted of amateur artists. Shooting started in late 1952, using Rays personal savings and he had hoped that once the initial shots had been completed, he would be able to obtain funds to support the project, however, such funding was not forthcoming
29.
Satyajit Ray
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Satyajit Ray was an Indian Bengali filmmaker, widely regarded as one of the greatest filmmakers of the 20th century. Ray was born in the city of Calcutta into a Bengali family prominent in the world of arts, Ray directed 36 films, including feature films, documentaries and shorts. He was also a writer, publisher, illustrator, calligrapher, music composer, graphic designer. He authored several short stories and novels, primarily aimed at children, Feluda, the sleuth, and Professor Shonku, the scientist in his science fiction stories, are popular fictional characters created by him. He was awarded a degree by Oxford University. Rays first film, Pather Panchali, won international prizes. This film, along with Aparajito, and Apur Sansar form The Apu Trilogy, Ray did the scripting, casting, scoring, and editing, and designed his own credit titles and publicity material. The Government of India honored him with the Bharat Ratna, its highest civilian award, Satyajit Rays ancestry can be traced back for at least ten generations. He also set up a press by the name of U. Ray and Sons, which formed a backdrop to Satyajits life. Sukumar Ray, Upendrakishores son and father of Satyajit, was a pioneering Bengali writer of nonsense rhyme and childrens literature, an illustrator, Ray was born to Sukumar and Suprabha Ray in Calcutta. Sukumar Ray died when Satyajit was barely three, and the family survived on Suprabha Rays meager income, in 1940, his mother insisted that he study at the Visva-Bharati University at Santiniketan, founded by Rabindranath Tagore. Ray was reluctant due to his love of Calcutta, and the low opinion of the life at Santiniketan His mothers persuasion. In Santiniketan, Ray came to appreciate Oriental art and he later admitted that he learned much from the famous painters Nandalal Bose and Benode Behari Mukherjee. Later he produced a film, The Inner Eye, about Mukherjee. His visits to Ajanta, Ellora and Elephanta stimulated his admiration for Indian art, in 1943, Ray started work at D. J. Keymer, a British-run advertising agency, as a junior visualiser, although he liked visual design and he was mostly treated well, there was tension between the British and Indian employees of the firm. The British were better paid, and Ray felt that the clients were generally stupid, later, Ray also worked for Signet Press, a new publishing house started by D. K. Gupta
30.
All India Radio
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All India Radio, officially known since 1956 as Ākāshvāṇī, is the national public radio broadcaster of India and a division of Prasar Bharati. Established in 1930, it is the service of Prasar Bharatis Doordarshan. AIR has covered more than 99% of the Indian population as per the latest information given by Minister of Information, All India Radio is the largest radio network in the world. Its headquarters is at the Akashvani Bhavan in New Delhi, Akashvani Bhavan houses the Drama Section, the FM Section and the National Service. Ākāśavāni is a Sanskrit word meaning celestial announcement, or voice from the sky/heaven, in Hindu, Jain and Buddhist holy traditions, Akashvanis often featured in stories as a medium of communication from the heavens to mankind. Akashvani was first used in the context of radio by M. V. Gopalaswamy after setting up the nation’s first private station in his residence. Akashvani seemed to be a name for a radio broadcaster and was later adopted as All India Radios on-air name in 1956. During the British Raj, broadcasting began in July 1923 with programmes by the Bombay Presidency Radio Club, however, on 1 March 1930, the company went into liquidation. The government took over the facilities, beginning the Indian State Broadcasting Service on 1 April 1930 on an experimental basis for two years, and then permanently in May 1932. On 8 June 1936, the ISBS was renamed All India Radio, on 1 October 1939, the External Service began with a broadcast in Pushtu, it was intended to counter radio propaganda from Germany directed to Afghanistan, Iran and the Arab nations. When India became independent in 1947, the AIR network had six stations. The total number of sets at that time was about 275,000 in India. On 3 October 1957, the Vividh Bharati Service was launched, television broadcasting began in Delhi in 1959 as part of AIR, but was split off from the radio network as Doordarshan on 1 April 1976. FM broadcasting began on 23 July 1977 in Chennai, and was expanded during the 1990s, AIR has many services in a number of languages, each serving different regions across India. Vividh Bharati is one of the services of AIR. Its name roughly translates as Diverse Indian, and it is known as the Commercial Broadcasting Service. It is the commercially most accessible of the AIR networks and is popular in Mumbai, Vividh Bharati offers a wide range of programmes including news, film music and comedy programs. It operates on different medium wave-band frequencies for each city, All frequencies are in kHz, unless otherwise noted
31.
The Beatles
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The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960. With members John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, the Beatles built their reputation playing clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg over a three-year period from 1960, with Stuart Sutcliffe initially serving as bass player. The core of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison went through a succession of drummers, including Pete Best, before asking Starr to join them. They acquired the nickname the Fab Four as Beatlemania grew in Britain the next year, from 1965 onwards, the Beatles produced increasingly innovative recordings, including the albums Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles and Abbey Road, after their break-up in 1970, they each enjoyed successful musical careers of varying lengths. McCartney and Starr, the members, remain musically active. Lennon was shot and killed in December 1980, and Harrison died of cancer in November 2001. The Beatles are the band in history, with estimated sales of over 600 million records worldwide. They have had more number-one albums on the British charts and sold more singles in the UK than any other act, according to the RIAA, the Beatles are also the best-selling music artists in the United States, with 178 million certified units. In 2008, the group topped Billboard magazines list of the all-time most successful Hot 100 artists, as of 2016 and they have received ten Grammy Awards, an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score and fifteen Ivor Novello Awards. The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 and they were also collectively included in Time magazines compilation of the twentieth centurys 100 most influential people. In March 1957, John Lennon, then aged sixteen, formed a group with several friends from Quarry Bank school. They briefly called themselves the Blackjacks, before changing their name to the Quarrymen after discovering that a local group was already using the other name. Fifteen-year-old Paul McCartney joined as a rhythm guitarist shortly after he, in February 1958, McCartney invited his friend George Harrison to watch the band. The fourteen-year-old auditioned for Lennon, impressing him with his playing, after a month of Harrisons persistence, they enlisted him as their lead guitarist. By January 1959, Lennons Quarry Bank friends had left the group, the three guitarists, billing themselves at least three times as Johnny and the Moondogs, were playing rock and roll whenever they could find a drummer. They used the name until May, when they became the Silver Beetles, before undertaking a tour of Scotland as the backing group for pop singer. By early July, they had changed their name to the Silver Beatles, allan Williams, the Beatles unofficial manager, arranged a residency for them in Hamburg, but lacking a full-time drummer they auditioned and hired Pete Best in mid-August 1960
32.
Raga rock
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Raga rock is rock or pop music with a heavy Indian influence, either in its construction, its timbre, or its use of instrumentation, such as the sitar and tabla. More recently, scholars have included British rock music from the 1960s and 1970s that utilizes South Asian musical materials and instruments, raga rock is not normally considered a specific genre of music, but rather a general aspect of any rock significantly influenced by Indian classical music. Since Indian influences are primarily limited to 1960s rock, most raga rock is limited to that decade, ragas are specific melodic modes used in classical music of South Asia. Thus, any songs with obvious Indian influences may be deemed raga-rock although the term is frequently used to refer to much more explicitly Indian musical outings. A major influence on raga rock was the Indian classical raga music of Bengali sitarist Ravi Shankar, the Byrds March 1966 single Eight Miles High and its B-side Why were also influential in originating the musical subgenre. However, in his 1968 Pop Chronicles interview, Byrds member Roger McGuinn denied that Eight Miles High was in fact raga rock, the Beatles song Norwegian Wood, which first appeared on the bands 1965 album Rubber Soul, was the first Western pop song to incorporate the sitar. Harrisons interest in Indian music popularized the genre in the mid-1960s with songs such as Love You To and Tomorrow Never Knows, Within You Without You, in the early 1970s, the British progressive rock band Quintessence began to mix elements of Indian classical music with rock and jazz. Later in the decade, guitarist John McLaughlin and his band Shakti introduced a version of raga rock over the course of three albums. The album, which fused Indian music with rock, funk, hip hop and country music, featured the UK #1 single Brimful of Asha and a cover of The Beatles Norwegian Wood sung entirely in Punjabi. In 1996, the British rock group Kula Shaker, which featured Top 10 raga rock hits including Tattva and Govinda, both of which included Sanskrit lyrics. The Brian Jonestown Massacre released the albums Their Satanic Majesties Second Request in 1996 and Give It Back. in 1997, some scholars approach raga rock and other uses of non-Western musical materials in Western popular music from sociological perspectives, especially as a manifestation of Orientalism. Common themes include use, sexual exploration, and spirituality. Bellman and other scholars suggest that the Orient once again becomes a Western fantasy land, mediated to mass audiences of the mid and late twentieth century through Rock. Behind the Sun by Red Hot Chili Peppers If Only Tonight We Could Sleep
33.
Parliament of India
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The Parliament of India is the supreme legislative body of the Republic of India. The Parliament is composed of the President of India and the houses and it is bicameral with two houses, the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha. The President in his role as head of legislature has powers to summon. The president can exercise these powers only upon the advice of the Prime Minister and those elected or nominated to either house of Parliament are referred to as members of parliament. The Parliament meets at Sansad Bhavan in New Delhi, the Sansad Bhavan is located in New Delhi. It was designed by Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker, who were responsible for planning, the construction of buildings took six years and the opening ceremony was performed on 18 January 1927 by the then Governor-General of India, Irwin. The construction costs for the building were ₹8.3 million, the parliament is 560 feet in diameter and covers an area of 6 acres. The Central hall consists of the chambers of Lok sabha, Rajya Sabha, surrounding these three chambers is the four storied circular structure providing accommodations for members and houses Parliamentary committees, offices and the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs. A new Parliament building may replace the existing complex, the new building is being considered on account of the stability concerns regarding the current complex. A committee to suggest alternatives to the current building has been set up by the Ex, the present building, an 85-year-old structure suffers from inadequacy of space to house members and their staff and is thought to suffer from structural issues. The building also needs to be protected because of its heritage tag, the Indian Parliament consists of two houses called the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha with the President of India acting as their head. The President of India, the Head of state is a component of Parliament, the President of India is elected by the members of Parliament of India and the state legislatures and serves for a term of five years. Lok Sabha or the house has 545 members. It has a term of five years, Rajya Sabha or the upper house is a permanent body not subject to dissolution. One third of the members every second year, and are replaced by newly elected members. Each member is elected for a term of six years and its members are indirectly elected by members of legislative bodies of the states. The Rajya Sabha can have a maximum of 250 members and it currently has a sanctioned strength of 245 members, of which 233 are elected from States and Union Territories and 12 are nominated by the President. The number of members from a state depends on its population, the minimum age for a person to become a member of Rajya Sabha is 30 years
34.
Princely state
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A princely state, also called native state or Indian state, was a nominally sovereign monarchy under a local or regional ruler in a subsidiary alliance with a greater power. At the time of the British withdrawal,565 princely states were recognised in the Indian subcontinent, apart from thousands of zamindaris. Rulers of salute states entitled to a gun salute of eleven guns and above received from the British the style of Highness, while the Nizam of Hyderabad had the unique style of Exalted Highness. At the other end of the scale, the principality of Lawa covered an area of 49 km2, or smaller than Bermuda. Some two hundred of the states had an area of less than 25 km2. The era of the princely states effectively ended with Indian independence in 1947, by 1950, almost all of the principalities had acceded to either India or Pakistan – thirteen to Pakistan and the rest to India. During this time, the princely states were merged into unions, each of which was headed by a former ruling prince with the title of Rajpramukh. In 1956, the position of Rajpramukh was abolished and the federations dissolved, the Indian Government formally derecognised the princely families in 1971, followed by the Government of Pakistan in 1972. The widespread expansion of Islam during this time brought many principalities into tributary relations with Islamic sultanates, notably the Delhi Sultanate, in the south, however, the Hindu Vijayanagara Empire remained dominant until the mid-17th century, among its tributaries was the future Mysore Kingdom. The Turco-Mongol Mughal Empire brought a majority of the existing Indian kingdoms and principalities under its suzerainty by the 17th century, beginning with its foundation in the early 16th century. The advent of Sikhism resulted in the creation of the Sikh Empire in the north by the early 18th century, at the same time, the Marathas carved out their own states to form the Maratha Empire. Through the 18th century, former Mughal governors formed their own independent states, India under the British Raj consisted of two types of territory, British India and the Native states or Princely states. In general the term British India had been used also to refer to the regions under the rule of the East India Company in India from 1774 to 1858, the term has also been used to refer to the British in India. More prestigious Hindu rulers often used the title Raja, Raje or a variant such as Rana, Rao, also in this class were several Thakurs or Thakores and a few particular titles, such as Sardar, Mankari, Deshmukh, Sar Desai, Raja Inamdar, Saranjamdar. The most prestigious Hindu rulers usually had the prefix maha in their titles, as in Maharaja, Maharana, Maharao, etc. The states of Travancore and Cochin had queens regnant styled Maharani, generally the female forms applied only to sisters, spouses and widows, there were also compound titles, such as rajadhiraj, Raj-i-rajgan, often relics from an elaborate system of hierarchical titles under the Mughal emperors. For example, the addition of the adjective Bahadur raised the status of the one level. Furthermore, most dynasties used a variety of titles, such as Varma in South India
35.
Middle Temple
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It is located in the wider Temple area of London, near the Royal Courts of Justice, and within the City of London. In the 13th century, the Inns of Court originated as hostels and schools for student lawyers, the Middle Temple is the western part of The Temple, the headquarters of the Knights Templar until they were dissolved in 1312. The Temple Church still stands as a church of the Inner. Most of the Inn is occupied by offices, known as chambers. One of the Middle Temples main functions now is to provide education, Middle Temple Hall is at the heart of the Inn, and the Inns student members are required to attend a minimum of 12 qualifying sessions there. Qualifying sessions, formerly known as dinners, combine collegiate and educational elements and will combine an dinner or reception with lectures, debates, mooting. Middle Temple Hall is also a venue for banqueting, weddings, receptions. In recent years, it has become a much-used film location—the cobbled streets, historic buildings, william Shakespeares Twelfth Night received its first recorded performance here, at the feast Candlemas in 1602. Middle Temple Library possesses Emery Molyneuxs terrestrial and celestial globes, which are of particular historical cartographical value, Middle Temple is also one of the few remaining liberties, an old name for a geographic division. It is an independent extra-parochial area, historically not governed by the City of London Corporation, the Middle Temples functions as a local council are set out in the Temples Order 1971. It geographically falls within the boundaries and liberties of the City, some of the Inns buildings lie just outside the liberty of the Middle Temple and the Citys boundary, and are actually situated in the City of Westminster. Quadrant House was acquired by the Middle Temple in 1999 and after five years of conversion is now a barristers chambers and this lies outside the liberty but is within the City of London. List of members of Middle Temple Outer Temple Pump Court Middle Temple website
36.
Barrister
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A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation and their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching the philosophy, hypothesis and history of law, and giving expert legal opinions. Often, barristers are also recognised as legal scholars, Barristers are distinguished from solicitors, who have more direct access to clients, and may do transactional-type legal work. It is mainly barristers who are appointed as judges, and they are hired by clients directly. In England and Wales, barristers may seek authorisation from the Bar Standards Board to conduct litigation and this allows a barrister to practise in a dual capacity, fulfilling the role of both barrister and solicitor. A barrister, who can be considered as a jurist, is a lawyer who represents a litigant as advocate before a court of appropriate jurisdiction, a barrister speaks in court and presents the case before a judge or jury. In some jurisdictions, a barrister receives additional training in law, ethics. In contrast, a solicitor generally meets with clients, does preparatory and administrative work, in this role, he or she may draft and review legal documents, interact with the client as necessary, prepare evidence, and generally manage the day-to-day administration of a lawsuit. Barristers usually have particular knowledge of law, precedent. When a solicitor in general practice is confronted with a point of law. In most countries, barristers operate as sole practitioners, and are prohibited from forming partnerships or from working as a barrister as part of a corporation, however, barristers normally band together into chambers to share clerks and operating expenses. Some chambers grow to be large and sophisticated, and have a corporate feel. In some jurisdictions, they may be employed by firms of solicitors, banks, in contrast, solicitors and attorneys work directly with the clients and are responsible for engaging a barrister with the appropriate expertise for the case. Barristers generally have little or no contact with their lay clients. All correspondence, inquiries, invoices, and so on, will be addressed to the solicitor, in court, barristers are often visibly distinguished from solicitors by their apparel. For example, in Ireland, England, and Wales, a barrister usually wears a wig, stiff collar, bands. Since January 2008, solicitor advocates have also been entitled to wear wigs, in many countries the traditional divisions between barristers and solicitors are breaking down. Barristers once enjoyed a monopoly on appearances before the courts, but in Great Britain this has now been abolished
37.
East Bengal
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East Bengal was the name used during two periods in the 20th century for a territory that roughly corresponded to the modern state of Bangladesh. Both instances involved a violent partition of Bengal which made one half East Bengal or Bangladesh, the area compromises roughly two-thirds of the ethno-linguistic region of Bengal. The first instance of the name was during the British rule of India, British governance of large swathes of Indian territory began with Robert Clives victory over the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj ud-Daulah, at the Battle of Plassey in 1757. The victory gave the British East India Company dominion over Bengal, after the Indian rebellion of 1857, the British government took direct control away from the East India Co. and established its imperial capital at Calcutta, the city founded by the Company. By 1900, the British province of Bengal constituted a huge territory, with the assumption of Lord Curzon to the office of Viceroy of India, British India was finally put under the charge of a man who considered himself an expert in Indian affairs. Curzon, seeing the logistical problems of administering such a large province, Bengal, henceforth, would encompass Calcutta and the western territories, roughly comprising modern West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Orissa. Eastern Bengal and Assam, the new province, would roughly encompass modern Bangladesh, the partition of Bengal, effected in July 1905, sparked a firestorm in the nationalist movement. In the now divided Bengal, East Bengal comprised an area of 196,540 square miles that included 18 million Muslims and 12 million Hindus, the Bengal area had 141,580 square miles with a majority of 42 million Hindus and 9 million Muslims. Bengal was divided into two provinces on 3 July 1946 in preparation for the partition of India - the Muslim-majority East Bengal, the two provinces each had their own Chief Minister. In August 1947, West Bengal became part of India, tensions between East Bengal and the western wing of Pakistan led to the One Unit policy. In 1955, most of the wing was combined to form a new West Pakistan province while East Bengal became the new province of East Pakistan. This system lasted until 1971 when East Pakistan declared independence during the Liberation War of Bangladesh, after absorption into the Dominion of Pakistan, the province of East Pakistan was administered by a ceremonial Governor and an indirectly elected Chief Minister. During the year from May 1954 to August 1955, executive powers were exercised by the Governor, British India History of Pakistan History of Bangladesh Barak Valley East Bengal CFL2015 points table top
38.
Bangladesh
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Bangladesh, officially the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It shares land borders with India and Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan and China are located near Bangladesh but do not share a border with it. The countrys maritime territory in the Bay of Bengal is roughly equal to the size of its land area, Bangladesh is the worlds eighth most populous country. Dhaka is its capital and largest city, followed by Chittagong which has the countrys largest port, Bangladesh forms the largest and eastern part of the Bengal region. Bangladeshis include people of different ethnic groups and religions, Bengalis, who speak the official Bengali, make up 98% of the population. The politically dominant Bengali Muslims make the nation the worlds third largest Muslim-majority country, most of Bangladesh is covered by the Bengal delta, the largest delta on Earth. The country has 700 rivers and 8,046 km of inland waterways, highlands with evergreen forests are found in the northeastern and southeastern regions of the country. Bangladesh has many islands and a coral reef and it is home to the Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest in the world. The countrys biodiversity includes a vast array of plant and wildlife, including critically endangered Bengal tigers, the Greeks and Romans identified the region as Gangaridai, a powerful kingdom of the historical subcontinent, in the 3rd century BCE. Archaeological research has unearthed several ancient cities in Bangladesh, which had trade links for millennia. The Bengal Sultanate and Mughal Bengal transformed the region into a cosmopolitan Islamic imperial power between the 14th and 18th centuries, the region was home to many principalities which had inland naval prowess. It was also a center of the worldwide muslin and silk trade. As part of British India, the region was influenced by the Bengali renaissance, the Partition of British India made East Bengal a part of the Dominion of Pakistan, and was renamed as East Pakistan. The region witnessed the Bengali Language Movement in 1952 and the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, after independence, a parliamentary republic was established. A presidential government was in place between 1975 and 1990, followed by a return to parliamentary democracy, the country has also been affected by poverty, natural disasters, hunger, dominant party systems and military coups. Bangladesh is a power and a major developing nation. Listed as one of the Next Eleven, it has the 46th largest economy and it is one of the largest textile exporters in the world. Its major trading partners are the European Union, the United States, China, India, Japan, Malaysia, with its strategically vital location between Southern, Eastern and Southeast Asia, Bangladesh is an important promoter of regional connectivity and cooperation
39.
Jhalawar
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Jhalawar is a city in southeastern Rajasthan. It was the capital of the princely state of Jhalawar. Jhalawar was once known as Brijnagar, the city of Jhalawar was founded by a Rajput Jhala Zalim Singh, who was then the Dewan of Kota State. He established this township, then known as Chaoni Umedpura, as a cantonment, the township was at the time surrounded by dense forests and wildlife. Jhala Zalim Singh often came here for hunting and he liked the place so much that he wanted to develop it as a township. The objective to develop this place as a cantonment was due to the fact that Maratha invaders passed through this central place from Malwa towards Kota to capture Hadoti states. Chaoni Umedpura was developed as a cantonment and township around 1803-04 A. D, english rulers separated Jhalawar state from Kota state and gave it to Jhala Madan Singh, the grandson of Jhala Zalim Singh. He developed his administration services to develop the state of Jhalawar and he resided in Jhalara Patan for a long time and started to build the Garh Palace. He was the first ruler of Jhalawar state and made a significant contribution in the history of Jhalawar, Jhala Madan Singh ruled Jhalawar from 1838 to 1845. After his death, Jhala Prithvi Singh became the ruler of Jhalawar, Rana Bhawani Singh Ji, who ruled Jhalawar state from 1899 to 1929 A. D. did remarkable work in the development of Jhalawar state. His active involvement was in the fields of activities, public works. The chief town of Jhalawar, also known as Patan or Jhalara Patan, was the centre of trade for the princely state. The palace is four miles north of the town, an extensive ruin near the town is the site of the ancient city of Chandrawati, said to have been destroyed in the reign of Aurangzeb. The finest feature of its remains is the temple of Sitaleswar Mahadeva, the former ruling family of Jhalawar belonged to the Jhala family of Rajputs. At Kota Madhu Singh, a Jhala Rajput became a favorite with the Maharaja, and received him a important post. On the death of one of the Kota rajas, the state was left to the charge of Jhala Zalim Singh, from that time Zalim Singh was the de facto ruler of Kota. Under his administration, which lasted over forty-five years, the Kota territory was respected by all parties. 8000/-, Madan Singh received the title of Maharaja Rana, and was placed on the same footing as the other chiefs in Rajputana. The Jhala clan of Rajputs are still regarded as the rulers of Jhalawar state and they were entitled to a 17 gun salute by the British authorities
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Rajasthan
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Rajasthan is Indias largest state by area. Elsewhere it is bordered by the other Indian states, Punjab to the north, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh to the northeast, Madhya Pradesh to the southeast, and Gujarat to the southwest. Rajasthan is also home to two national reserves, the Ranthambore National Park in Sawai Madhopur and Sariska Tiger Reserve in Alwar. The state was formed on 30 March 1949 when Rajputana – the name adopted by the British Raj for its dependencies in the region – was merged into the Dominion of India. Its capital and largest city is Jaipur, also known as Pink City, other important cities are Jodhpur, Udaipur, Bikaner, Kota and Ajmer. Parts of what is now Rajasthan were partly part of the Vedic Civilisation, kalibangan, in Hanumangarh district, was a major provincial capital of the Indus Valley Civilization. Matsya Kingdom of the Vedic civilisation of India, is said to roughly corresponded to the state of Jaipur in Rajasthan. The capital of Matsya was at Viratanagar, which is said to have named after its founder king Virata. Bhargava identifies the two districts of Jhunjhunu and Sikar and parts of Jaipur district along with Haryana districts of Mahendragarh, bhargava also locates the present day Sahibi River as the Vedic Drishadwati River, which along with Saraswati River formed the borders of the Vedic state of Brahmavarta. Manu and Bhrigu narrated the Manusmriti to a congregation of seers in this area only, the Indo-Scythians invaded the area of Ujjain and established the Saka era, marking the beginning of the long-lived Saka Western Satraps state. Gurjars ruled for many dynasties in this part of the country, up to the tenth century almost the whole of North India, acknowledged the supremacy of the Gurjars with their seat of power at Kannauj. The Gurjar Pratihar Empire acted as a barrier for Arab invaders from the 8th to the 11th century, the chief accomplishment of the Gurjara Pratihara empire lies in its successful resistance to foreign invasions from the west, starting in the days of Junaid. Majumdar says that this was acknowledged by the Arab writers. He further notes that historians of India have wondered at the progress of Muslim invaders in India. Traditionally the Rajputs, Jats, Meenas, REBARI, Gurjars, Bhils, Rajpurohit, Charans, Yadavs, Bishnois, Sermals, PhulMali, all these tribes suffered great difficulties in protecting their culture and the land. Millions of them were killed trying to protect their land, a number of Gurjars had been exterminated in Bhinmal and Ajmer areas fighting with the invaders. Meenas were rulers of Bundi, Hadoti and the Dhundhar region, hem Chandra Vikramaditya, the Hindu Emperor, was born in the village of Machheri in Alwar District in 1501. Hem Chandra was killed in the battlefield at Second Battle of Panipat fighting against Mughals on 5 November 1556, maharana Pratap of Mewar resisted Akbar in the famous Battle of Haldighati and later operated from hilly areas of his kingdom
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Sanskrit
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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
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London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
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