1.
India
–
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and it is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast. It shares land borders with Pakistan to the west, China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast, in the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Indias Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a border with Thailand. The Indian subcontinent was home to the urban Indus Valley Civilisation of the 3rd millennium BCE, in the following millennium, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism began to be composed. Social stratification, based on caste, emerged in the first millennium BCE, early political consolidations took place under the Maurya and Gupta empires, the later peninsular Middle Kingdoms influenced cultures as far as southeast Asia. In the medieval era, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived, much of the north fell to the Delhi sultanate, the south was united under the Vijayanagara Empire. The economy expanded in the 17th century in the Mughal empire, in the mid-18th century, the subcontinent came under British East India Company rule, and in the mid-19th under British crown rule. A nationalist movement emerged in the late 19th century, which later, under Mahatma Gandhi, was noted for nonviolent resistance, in 2015, the Indian economy was the worlds seventh largest by nominal GDP and third largest by purchasing power parity. Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the major economies and is considered a newly industrialised country. However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, corruption, malnutrition, a nuclear weapons state and regional power, it has the third largest standing army in the world and ranks sixth in military expenditure among nations. India is a constitutional republic governed under a parliamentary system. It is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society and is home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats. The name India is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindu, the latter term stems from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, which was the historical local appellation for the Indus River. The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi, which translates as The people of the Indus, the geographical term Bharat, which is recognised by the Constitution of India as an official name for the country, is used by many Indian languages in its variations. Scholars believe it to be named after the Vedic tribe of Bharatas in the second millennium B. C. E and it is also traditionally associated with the rule of the legendary emperor Bharata. Gaṇarājya is the Sanskrit/Hindi term for republic dating back to the ancient times, hindustan is a Persian name for India dating back to the 3rd century B. C. E. It was introduced into India by the Mughals and widely used since then and its meaning varied, referring to a region that encompassed northern India and Pakistan or India in its entirety
India
–
Flag
India
–
The granite
tower of
Brihadeeswarar Temple in
Thanjavur was completed in 1010 CE by
Raja Raja Chola I.
India
–
Writing the will and testament of the Mughal king court in Persian, 1590–1595
2.
Telugu language
–
Telugu is a Dravidian language native to India. It is also spoken by significant minorities in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and it is one of six languages designated a classical language of India by the Government of India. Telugu ranks third by the number of speakers in India. It is one of the scheduled languages of the Republic of India. Approximately 10,000 inscriptions exist in the Telugu language, the speakers of the language call it Telugu or Tenugu. The older forms of the name include Teluṅgu, Tenuṅgu and Teliṅga, the etymology of Telugu is not certain. Some historical scholars have suggested a derivation from Sanskrit triliṅgam, as in Trilinga Desa, tradition holds that Shiva descended as a lingam on three mountains, Kaleshwaram, Srisailam, and Bhimeswaram, which are said to have marked the boundaries of the Trilinga Desa. Atharvana Acharya in the 13th century wrote a grammar of Telugu, Appa Kavi in the 17th century explicitly wrote that Telugu was derived from Trilinga. Scholar Charles P. Brown comments that it was a strange notion as all the predecessors of Appa Kavi had no knowledge of such a derivation. George Abraham Grierson and other linguists doubt this derivation, holding rather that Telugu was the older term, another view holds that tenugu is derived from the proto-Dravidian word ten– south to mean the people who lived in the south/southern direction. The name telugu then, is a result of n -> l alternation established in Telugu, according to the natve tradition Telugu grammar has a hoary past. Sage Kanva was said to be the first grammarian of Telugu, a Rajeswara Sarma discussed the hisoricity and content of Kanvas grammar written in Sanskrit. He cited twenty grammatical aphorisms ascribed to Kanva, and concluded that Kanva wrote an ancient Telugu Grammar which was lost, according to the Russian linguist M. S. Andronov, Telugu split from the Proto-Dravidian languages between 1500 and 1000 BC. According to linguist Bhadriraju Krishnamurti, Telugu, as a Dravidian language, descends from Proto-Dravidian, linguistic reconstruction suggests that Proto-Dravidian was spoken around the third millennium BC, possibly in the region around the lower Godavari river basin in peninsular India. The material evidence suggests that the speakers of Proto-Dravidian were of the associated with the Neolithic societies of South India. A legend gives the Lepakshi town a significant place in the Ramayana — this was where the bird Jatayu fell, when Sri Rama reached the spot, he saw the bird and said compassionately, “Le Pakshi” — ‘rise, bird’ in Telugu. This indicates the presence of Telugu Language during Ramayana period, there is a mention of Telugu people or Telugu country in ancient Tamil literature as Telunka Nadu. Telugu words were found in Hebrew literature, inscriptions with Telugu words dating back to 400 BC to 100 BC have been discovered in Bhattiprolu in the Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh
Telugu language
–
Wall painting at a shop in Telangana, India. It first shows the painted party symbols of all the major political parties in the region during the nationwide elections in India in 2014. It also has a Telugu inscription showing availability of political flags, banners, caps, badges and other election material.
Telugu language
–
Distribution of native Telugu speakers in India (as of 1961)
Telugu language
–
Numeral systems
3.
Hinduism
–
Hinduism is a religion, or a way of life, found most notably in India and Nepal. Hinduism has been called the oldest religion in the world, and some practitioners and scholars refer to it as Sanātana Dharma, scholars regard Hinduism as a fusion or synthesis of various Indian cultures and traditions, with diverse roots and no founder. This Hindu synthesis started to develop between 500 BCE and 300 CE following the Vedic period, although Hinduism contains a broad range of philosophies, it is linked by shared concepts, recognisable rituals, cosmology, shared textual resources, and pilgrimage to sacred sites. Hindu texts are classified into Shruti and Smriti and these texts discuss theology, philosophy, mythology, Vedic yajna, Yoga, agamic rituals, and temple building, among other topics. Major scriptures include the Vedas and Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, prominent themes in Hindu beliefs include the four Puruṣārthas, the proper goals or aims of human life, namely Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha, karma, samsara, and the various Yogas. Hindu practices include such as puja and recitations, meditation, family-oriented rites of passage, annual festivals. Some Hindus leave their world and material possessions, then engage in lifelong Sannyasa to achieve Moksha. Hinduism prescribes the eternal duties, such as honesty, refraining from injuring living beings, patience, forbearance, self-restraint, Hinduism is the worlds third largest religion, with over one billion followers or 15% of the global population, known as Hindus. The majority of Hindus reside in India, Nepal, Mauritius, the Caribbean, the word Hindu is derived from the Indo-Aryan/Sanskrit word Sindhu, the Indo-Aryan name for the Indus River in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent. The term Hindu in these ancient records is a geographical term, the Arabic term al-Hind referred to the people who live across the River Indus. This Arabic term was taken from the pre-Islamic Persian term Hindū. By the 13th century, Hindustan emerged as an alternative name of India. It was only towards the end of the 18th century that European merchants and colonists began to refer to the followers of Indian religions collectively as Hindus. The term Hinduism, then spelled Hindooism, was introduced into the English language in the 18th-century to denote the religious, philosophical, because of the wide range of traditions and ideas covered by the term Hinduism, arriving at a comprehensive definition is difficult. The religion defies our desire to define and categorize it, Hinduism has been variously defined as a religion, a religious tradition, a set of religious beliefs, and a way of life. From a Western lexical standpoint, Hinduism like other faiths is appropriately referred to as a religion, in India the term dharma is preferred, which is broader than the western term religion. Hindu traditionalists prefer to call it Sanatana Dharma, the study of India and its cultures and religions, and the definition of Hinduism, has been shaped by the interests of colonialism and by Western notions of religion. Since the 1990s, those influences and its outcomes have been the topic of debate among scholars of Hinduism, Hinduism as it is commonly known can be subdivided into a number of major currents
Hinduism
–
Swami Vivekananda was a key figure in introducing
Vedanta and
Yoga in Europe and USA, raising interfaith awareness and making Hinduism a world religion.
Hinduism
–
Temple wall panel relief sculpture at the
Hoysaleswara temple in
Halebidu, representing the
Trimurti:
Brahma,
Shiva and
Vishnu.
Hinduism
–
The
Rigveda is the first and most important Veda and is one of the oldest
religious texts. This Rigveda
manuscript is in
Devanagari.
Hinduism
–
A wedding is the most extensive personal ritual an adult Hindu undertakes in his or her life. A typical
Hindu wedding is solemnized before Vedic
fire ritual (shown).
4.
Islam
–
Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion which professes that there is only one and incomparable God and that Muhammad is the last messenger of God. It is the worlds second-largest religion and the major religion in the world, with over 1.7 billion followers or 23% of the global population. Islam teaches that God is merciful, all-powerful, and unique, and He has guided mankind through revealed scriptures, natural signs, and a line of prophets sealed by Muhammad. The primary scriptures of Islam are the Quran, viewed by Muslims as the word of God. Muslims believe that Islam is the original, complete and universal version of a faith that was revealed many times before through prophets including Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses. As for the Quran, Muslims consider it to be the unaltered, certain religious rites and customs are observed by the Muslims in their family and social life, while social responsibilities to parents, relatives, and neighbors have also been defined. Besides, the Quran and the sunnah of Muhammad prescribe a comprehensive body of moral guidelines for Muslims to be followed in their personal, social, political, Islam began in the early 7th century. Originating in Mecca, it spread in the Arabian Peninsula. The expansion of the Muslim world involved various caliphates and empires, traders, most Muslims are of one of two denominations, Sunni or Shia. Islam is the dominant religion in the Middle East, North Africa, sizable Muslim communities are also found in Horn of Africa, Europe, China, Russia, Mainland Southeast Asia, Philippines, Northern Borneo, Caucasus and the Americas. Converts and immigrant communities are found in almost every part of the world, Islam is a verbal noun originating from the triliteral root s-l-m which forms a large class of words mostly relating to concepts of wholeness, submission, safeness and peace. In a religious context it means voluntary submission to God, Islām is the verbal noun of Form IV of the root, and means submission or surrender. Muslim, the word for an adherent of Islam, is the active participle of the verb form. The word sometimes has connotations in its various occurrences in the Quran. In some verses, there is stress on the quality of Islam as a state, Whomsoever God desires to guide. Other verses connect Islām and dīn, Today, I have perfected your religion for you, I have completed My blessing upon you, still others describe Islam as an action of returning to God—more than just a verbal affirmation of faith. In the Hadith of Gabriel, islām is presented as one part of a triad that also includes imān, Islam was historically called Muhammadanism in Anglophone societies. This term has fallen out of use and is said to be offensive because it suggests that a human being rather than God is central to Muslims religion
Islam
–
The
Kaaba, in
Mecca,
Hejaz region, today's
Saudi Arabia, is the
center of Islam.
Muslims from all over the world gather there to
pray in unity.
Islam
–
The dome of the
Carol I Mosque in
Constanța,
Romania, topped by the
Islamic crescent
Islam
–
Medallion showing "
Allah " (
God) in
Hagia Sophia,
Istanbul,
Turkey.
Islam
–
An
angel presenting
Muhammad and his companions with a miniature city. In the
Topkapi Palace Library,
Istanbul.
5.
Buddhism
–
Buddhism is a religion and dharma that encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs and spiritual practices largely based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. Buddhism originated in India sometime between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE, from where it spread through much of Asia, two major extant branches of Buddhism are generally recognized by scholars, Theravada and Mahayana. Buddhism is the worlds fourth-largest religion, with over 500 million followers or 7% of the global population, Buddhist schools vary on the exact nature of the path to liberation, the importance and canonicity of various teachings and scriptures, and especially their respective practices. In Theravada the ultimate goal is the attainment of the state of Nirvana, achieved by practicing the Noble Eightfold Path, thus escaping what is seen as a cycle of suffering. Theravada has a following in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. Mahayana, which includes the traditions of Pure Land, Zen, Nichiren Buddhism, Shingon, rather than Nirvana, Mahayana instead aspires to Buddhahood via the bodhisattva path, a state wherein one remains in the cycle of rebirth to help other beings reach awakening. Vajrayana, a body of teachings attributed to Indian siddhas, may be viewed as a branch or merely a part of Mahayana. Tibetan Buddhism, which preserves the Vajrayana teachings of eighth century India, is practiced in regions surrounding the Himalayas, Tibetan Buddhism aspires to Buddhahood or rainbow body. Buddhism is an Indian religion attributed to the teachings of Buddha, the details of Buddhas life are mentioned in many early Buddhist texts but are inconsistent, his social background and life details are difficult to prove, the precise dates uncertain. Some hagiographic legends state that his father was a king named Suddhodana, his mother queen Maya, and he was born in Lumbini gardens. Some of the stories about Buddha, his life, his teachings, Buddha was moved by the innate suffering of humanity. He meditated on this alone for a period of time, in various ways including asceticism, on the nature of suffering. He famously sat in meditation under a Ficus religiosa tree now called the Bodhi Tree in the town of Bodh Gaya in Gangetic plains region of South Asia. He reached enlightenment, discovering what Buddhists call the Middle Way, as an enlightened being, he attracted followers and founded a Sangha. Now, as the Buddha, he spent the rest of his teaching the Dharma he had discovered. Dukkha is a concept of Buddhism and part of its Four Noble Truths doctrine. It can be translated as incapable of satisfying, the unsatisfactory nature, the Four Truths express the basic orientation of Buddhism, we crave and cling to impermanent states and things, which is dukkha, incapable of satisfying and painful. This keeps us caught in saṃsāra, the cycle of repeated rebirth, dukkha
Buddhism
–
Standing Buddha statue at the
Tokyo National Museum. One of the earliest known representations of the
Buddha, 1st–2nd century CE.
Buddhism
–
The Dharmachakra
Buddhism
–
Relic depicting Gautama leaving home. The Great Departure, c.1–2nd century. (
Musée Guimet)
Buddhism
–
Ascetic
Gautama with his five companions, who later comprised the first
Sangha. (Painting in
Laotian temple)
6.
Kannada people
–
The Kannada people known as the Kannadigas and Kannadigaru, are the people who natively speak Kannada. Kannadigas are mainly found in the state of Karnataka in India, Kannada minorities are also found in the neighboring states Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Goa. Settlement in Karnataka is found to be existent at least from the 2nd millennium BC as explored in Brahmagiri archaeological site near Chitradurga district, chandravalli exploration has revealed interaction of Roman and Chinese travelers around the 2nd and 3rd century BC. Kannadigas have built powerful empires and kingdoms with Kannada as the official language, the language was once popular from Kaveri to Godavari as mentioned in the Kannada classic Kavirajamarga of 850 CE. Archaeological evidences show Kannada inscriptions found as far north as Madhya Pradesh, the great Karnataka Expansion provides insights to kingdoms of northern India whose originators were from Kannada country. The Karnata Dynasty of Mithila and Nepal, However contrary evidence also suggests that this dynasty may have been of Parmar Rajput origin, the temples of Karnataka had in them many shaili or varieties to credit. A majority of the temples were built using the available stones. Ajanta Caves have sculptures of Rashrakutas and Badami Chalukyas, Dasa is literally servant in Kannada and sahitya is literature. Haridasas were preachers of Bhakti to Vishnu, the bhakti literature of these Haridasas is collectively referred to as Dasa Sahitya. It is composed in the Kannada language, the Haridasas richly contributed to the heritage of Karntataka music. They made an impression on the religious and cultural life of Karnataka by spreading the didactic teachings in a musical form to the hearts of the common folk. Like other doyens of Indian classical music, these scholars offered prayer to Vishnu through music, the Lord is described as Samagana priya, and bhakti through music is the most preferred path to reach Him. The Haridasa compositions are known as Devaranamas. Compositions like Krishna Nee Begane Baaro, Venkatachala Nilayam, Jagadoddharana, both Hindustani and Karnataka variations are respected and nurtured by Kannadigas. Bhavageete and Sugama Sangeetha are some innovations, other forms of music include Gamaka, Joogera Pada and Lavani. Yakshagana is considered a unique and indigenous form of music and dance of Karnataka. While a lot of gadhya is written in praise of the characters of the epics and puranas, there are major works depicting the kings. These are called Naataka and Bayalata, as its etymology indicates, bayalu means open-air field and ata means theater
Kannada people
–
Sala fighting the lion, the royal emblem of
Hoysala Empire
Kannada people
–
Gold coins issued by
Kadamba King Toyimadeva, 1048 - 1075 A.D
Kannada people
–
Hampi, capital of Vijayanagara Empire
7.
Gondi people
–
The Gond are also known as the Raj Gond. The term was used in 1950s, but has now become almost obsolete. The Gondi language is related to the Telugu, belonging to the Dravidian family of languages. About half of Gonds speak Gondi languages while the rest speak Indo-Aryan languages including Hindi, according to the 1971 census, their population was 5.1 million. By the 1991 census this had increased to 9.3 million, for the past few decades they have been at the receiving end of the Naxalite–Maoist insurgency in the central part of India. Gondi people are made to act as a militia against Naxalites by the Government of Chhattisgarh through Salwa Judum, scholars believe that Gonds settled in Gondwana, now known as eastern Madhya Pradesh, between the 13th and 19th centuries AD. Muslim writers described a rise of Gond state after the 14th century, Gonds ruled in four kingdoms in central India between the 16th and 18th centuries. They built number of forts, palaces, temples, tanks, the Gondwana kingdom survived till late 16th century. They also gained control over the Malwa after the decline of the Mughals followed by the Marathas in 1690, the Maratha power swept into Gondland in the 1740s. The Marathas overthrew Gond Rajas and seized most of their territory. While Some Gond zamindaris survived until recently, many astronomy ideas were known to ancient Gonds. Gond tribals had their own terms for Sun, Moon, Constellations. Most of these ideas were basis for their time keeping and calendrical activities, other than Gonds the Banjaras and Kolams are also known to have knowledge of astronomy. They are a designated Scheduled Tribe in Andhra Pradesh, parts of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana, Odisha, as of 2017, that tribal designation applies only to certain districts, not the entire state. The 2011 Census of India for Uttar Pradesh showed the Scheduled Caste Gond population as 21,992, a sociolinguistic survey of the Gondi-speaking communities of central India. 516 p. Banerjee, B. G. and Kiran Bhatia, phulmat of the Hills, A Tale of the Gonds. Fürer-Haimendorf, Christoph von, and Elizabeth von Fürer-Haimendorf, the Gonds of Andhra Pradesh, Tradition and Change in an Indian Tribe. London, George Allen & Unwin,1979, songs and Drummings of the Hill Maria, Jhoria Muria and Bastar Muria Gonds. And, the Musical Instruments of the Marias and Murias, mehta, B. H. Gonds of the Central Indian Highlands, A Study of the Dynamics of Gond Society
Gondi people
–
The Gondi
8.
Brahui people
–
The Brahui or Brahvi people are a Pakistani ethnic group of about 2.2 million people with the vast majority found in Baluchistan, Pakistan. They are a minority group in Afghanistan, where they are native. They mainly occupy the area in Balochistan from Bolan Pass through the Bolan Hills to Ras Muari on the Arabian sea, the Brahuis are almost entirely Sunni Muslims. The ethnonym Brahui is an old term and a purely Dravidian one. The fact that other Dravidian languages only exist further south in India has led to speculations about the origins of the Brahui. There are three hypotheses regarding the Brahui that have proposed by academics. One theory is that the Brahui are a population of Dravidians, surrounded by speakers of Indo-Iranian languages. Another theory is that they migrated to Baluchistan from inner India during the early Muslim period of the 13th or 14th centuries, a third theory says the Brahui migrated to Balochistan from Central India after 1000 AD. The absence of any older Iranian influence in Brahui supports this last hypothesis, the main Iranian contributor to Brahui vocabulary is a northwestern Iranian language, Baluchi, Sindhi and southeastern Iranian language, Pashto. The Brahui language is a Dravidian language, even though it is far from South India. Brahui is generally written in the Perso-Arabic script and there is even a Latin alphabet that has developed for use with Brahui. Kalat, Jhalawan, and Sarawan, with Kalat as the standard dialect, at present Brahui is spoken in Pakistani Balochistan, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Sindh and the Persian Gulf Arab states. Other, relatively minor, low-frequency haplogroups among the Brahui are those of L, E1b1a, G, and N
Brahui people
–
A photograph from 1910 with the caption reading "Brahui of
Quetta ".
9.
History of Telangana
–
The history of Telangana, located in the Deccan region, includes its governance by many rulers. It was ruled by the Satavahana dynasty, the Telinga Kakatiya Dynasty, the Musunuri Nayaks the Delhi Sultanate, later, the Telangana region became part of the Golconda Sultanate. On 2 June 2014, Telangana became the 29th state of India, consisting of the ten districts, the city of Hyderabad will continue to serve as the joint capital for Andhra Pradesh and the successor state of Telangana for a period of ten years. Telangana history and the history of Andhra Pradesh are very similar as both share the same language and culture. The Satavahanas rose to a power, after the fall of the Mauryan Empire. Koti Lingala seems to be one of the 30 cities of Satavahana dynasty, excavations revealed brick wells, coins belonging to pre-Satavahana period, Gobhada and Samagopa. It is believed that the place is the site of hermitage of sage Bhavari, several coins of Simukha, the founder of the Satavahana dynasty, and those of other early rulers like Kanha and Satakarni I were found. The Deccan, during period was an emporium of inland. The region between the rivers of Godavari and Krishna was full of ports and throbbing with activity, there was plentiful of currency to facilitate trade and the people entered upon a period of great industrial, commercial and maritime activity. Buddhism flourished throughout the period and the rulers were also devoted to Vedic ritualism and they constructed several Buddhist Stupas, Viharas and Chaityas. Satavahanas were able rulers and loved literacy and architecture, the 17th ruler of this dynasty, Hāla was a great poet and his “Gathasaptasati” in Prakrit was well received by all. Gunadhya, the minister of Hala was the author of “Brihatkadha”, according to Matsya Purana, there were 29 rulers of this dynasty. They ruled over for about 456 years, from the 2nd century BC to the 2nd century AD, the empire included most of the southern peninsula and some southern parts of the present Indian states of Maharashtra, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh. The court language used by the Satavahanas was Prakrit, the decline and fall of the Satavahana Empire left the state in a political chaos. Local rulers as well as tried to carve out small kingdoms for themselves. Such instability continued to prevail until the rise of the Western Chalukyas, the 12th and 13th centuries saw the emergence of the Kakatiya dynasty. At first they were feudatories of the Western Chalukyas of Kalyani, a ruler of this dynasty, Prola II, extended his sway to the south and declared his independence. His successor Rudra pushed the kingdom to the east up to the Godavari delta and he built Warangal Fort to serve as a second capital and faced the invasions of the Seuna Yadavas of Devagiri
History of Telangana
–
Ruins of the
Kakatiya Kala Thoranam (Warangal Gate).
History of Telangana
–
Major General Syed Ahmed El Edroos (at right) offers his surrender of the Hyderabad State Forces to
Major General (later
General and
Army Chief)
Joyanto Nath Chaudhuri at
Secunderabad
10.
Andhra Pradesh
–
Andhra Pradesh is one of the 29 states of India, situated on the southeastern coast of the country. The state is the eighth largest state in India covering an area of 162,968 km2, as per 2011 Census of India, the state is tenth largest by population with 49,386,799 inhabitants. On 2 June 2014, the portion of the state was bifurcated to form a new state of Telangana. In accordance with the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act,2014, Hyderabad will remain the de jure capital of both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states for a period of not exceeding 10 years. The new riverfront proposed capital in Guntur district is Amaravati, which is under the jurisdiction of APCRDA, the Gross State Domestic Product of the state in the 2016–2017 financial year at current prices stood at ₹6,800.3 billion. The state has a coastline of 974 km with jurisdiction over nearly 15,000 km2 territorial waters, the second longest among all the states of India after Gujarat. It is bordered by Telangana in the north-west, Chhattisgarh in the north, Odisha in the north-east, Karnataka in the west, Tamil Nadu in the south and the water body of Bay of Bengal in the east. A small enclave of 30 km2 of Yanam, a district of Puducherry, Andhra Pradesh is composed of two regions, Coastal Andhra, located along the Bay of Bengal, and Rayalaseema, in the inland southwestern part of the state. These two regions comprise 13 districts, with 9 in Coastal Andhra and 4 in Rayalaseema, Andhra Pradesh hosted 121.8 million visitors in 2015, a 30% growth in tourist arrivals over the previous year. The Tirumala Venkateswara Temple in Tirupati is one of the worlds most visited religious sites, a tribe named Andhra has been mentioned in the Sanskrit texts such as Aitareya Brahmana. According to Aitareya Brahmana of the Rig Veda, the Andhras left north India, archaeological evidence from places such as Amaravati, Dharanikota and Vaddamanu suggests that the Andhra region was part of the Mauryan Empire. Amaravati might have been a centre for the Mauryan rule. After the death of emperor Ashoka, the Mauryan rule weakened around 200 BCE, the Satavahana dynasty dominated the Deccan region from the 1st century BCE to the 3rd century CE. The Satavahanas have been mentioned by the names Andhra, Andhrara-jatiya and Andhra-bhrtya in the Puranic literature, Dharanikota along with Amaravathi was the capital of the later Satavahanas. Amaravathi became a trade and pilgrimage centre during the Satavahana rule. According to the Buddhist tradition, Nagarjuna lived here, possibly in second, Andhra Ikshvakus were one of the earliest recorded ruling dynasties of the Guntur-Krishna regions of Andhra Pradesh. They ruled the eastern Andhra country along the Krishna river during the half of the second century CE. Puranas called Andhra Ikshvakus Shri Parvatiya Andhras, archaeological evidence has suggested that the Andhra Ikshvakus immediately succeeded the Satavahanas in the Krishna river valley
Andhra Pradesh
–
Montage of Andhra Pradesh Clockwise from top left:
Vijayawada city view,
Araku Valley,
Visakhapatnam Port view,
Godavari Arch Bridge (
Rajahmundry), Tirumala temple (
Tirupati), Dolphin's Nose mountain and the
Bay of Bengal at Visakhapatnam.
Andhra Pradesh
–
Logo
Andhra Pradesh
–
తెలుగు తల్లి - Telugu Thalli
Andhra Pradesh
–
Early
Satakarni issue,
Maharashtra –
Vidarbha type.
11.
Telangana
–
Telangana is one of the 29 states in India, located in southern India. Formed in June 2014 as the newest state in India, from the part of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana has an area of 112,077 square kilometres. It is the twelfth largest state in India, and the twelfth most populated state in India and its major cities include Hyderabad, Warangal, Nizamabad, Khammam, Karimnagar and Ramagundam. Telangana is bordered by the states of Maharashtra to the north and north west, Chhattisgarh to the north, Karnataka to the west and Andhra Pradesh to the east and south. Telangana had a history as the Telugu-speaking region of the state of Hyderabad. It joined the Union of India in 1948, in 1956, the Hyderabad state was dissolved as part of the linguistic reorganisation of states and Telangana was merged with former Andhra State to form Andhra Pradesh. Following a movement for separation, Telangan was awarded separate statehood on 2 June 2014, Hyderabad will continue to serve as the joint capital city for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana for a period of not more than ten years. After Asaf Jahis ceded the Seemandhra region to the British, the rest of the Telugu region retained the name Telingana and the other parts were called Madras Presidencys Circars and Ceded. One of the earliest uses of a similar to Telangana can also be seen in a name of Malik Maqbul, who was called the Tilangani. He was the commander of the Warangal Fort, the Satavahana dynasty became the dominant power in this region. It originated from the lands between the Godavari and Krishna rivers and was based at Amaravathi and Dharanikota, after the decline of the Satavahanas, various dynasties, such as the Vakataka, Vishnukundina, Chalukya, Rashtrakuta and Western Chalukya, ruled the area. The Telangana area experienced its golden age during the reign of the Kakatiya dynasty, rudrama Devi and Prataparudra II were prominent rulers from the Kakatiya dynasty. The dynasty weakened with the attack of Malik Kafur in 1309 and was dissolved after the defeat of Prataparudra by the forces of Muhammad bin Tughluq in 1323, the area came under the rule of the Delhi Sultanate in the 14th century, followed by the Bahmani Sultanate. Quli Qutb Mulk, a governor of Golkonda, revolted against the Bahmani Sultanate, on 21 September 1687, the Golkonda Sultanate came under the rule of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb after a year-long siege of the Golkonda fort. In 1712, Qamar-ud-din Khan was appointed by emperor Farrukhsiyar as the viceroy of Deccan with the title Nizam-ul-Mulk and he was later recalled to Delhi, with Mubariz Khan appointed as the viceroy. In 1724, Qamar-ud-din Khan defeated Mubariz Khan to reclaim the Deccan suba and he took the name Asif Jah, starting what came to be known as the Asif Jahi dynasty. He named the area Hyderabad Deccan, subsequent rulers retained the title Nizam ul-Mulk and were called Asif Jahi nizams or nizams of Hyderabad. The Medak and Warangal divisions of Telangana were part of their realm, when Asif Jah I died in 1748, there was political unrest due to contention for the throne among his sons, who were aided by opportunistic neighbouring states and colonial foreign forces
Telangana
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Montage of Telangana. Sidewise from top left:
Charminar,
Warangal Fort,
Hyderabad city view,
Nizamabad railway station,
Kuntala Waterfalls,
Falaknuma Palace
Telangana
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Location of Telangana (marked in red) in India
Telangana
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Hyderabad state in 1909
Telangana
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Ramagiri fort ruins at
Kalvacherla in
Karimnagar district is an ancient fort initially built by the Sathavahanas and modified many times by other dynasties till 16th century
12.
Geography of Andhra Pradesh
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Among the other states, which are situated on the countrys coastal area, Andhra Pradesh has got a coastline of around 974 km, which gives it the 2nd longest coastline in the nation. Two major rivers, the Godavari and the Krishna run across the state, a small enclave 12 sq mi, the Yanam district of Puducherry, lies in the Godavari Delta in the north east of the state. The state includes the part of Deccan plateau as well as a considerable part of the Eastern Ghats. Historically the region comprising the state was known as Andhraapatha, Andhradesa, Andhraavani, the climate of Andhra Pradesh is generally hot and humid. The summer season in this state generally extends from March to June, during these months the moisture level is quite high. The coastal areas have higher temperatures than the parts of the state. In summer, the temperature ranges between 20 °C and 40 °C. At certain places the temperature is as high as 45 degrees on a summer day, the summer is followed by the monsoon season, which starts during July and continues till September. This is the season for tropical rains in Andhra Pradesh. The major role in determining the climate of the state is played by South-West Monsoons, about one third of the total rainfall in Andhra Pradesh is brought by the North-East Monsoons around the month of October in the state. The winters in Andhra Pradesh are pleasant and this is the time when the state attracts most of its tourists. October to February are the months in Andhra Pradesh. Since the state has quite a long coastline, the winters are comparatively mild, the range of winter temperatures is generally from 13 °C to 30 °C. Locals and tourists generally find that cotton summer clothes are best suited to coping with the climate of Andhra Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh can be divided into two regions, namely Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema. Anantapur is the largest district of the state and the 7th largest district in India with an area of 19130 km2, each district is divided into multiple mandals, and each mandal has many villages. Visakhapatnam is the largest city in the state followed by Vijayawada, other important cities and towns are Kakinada, Guntur, Rajahmundry, Tirupati, Nellore, Ongole, Kurnool and Eluru. After Telangana was created on 2 June 2014, Andhra Pradeshs erstwhile capital Hyderabad remained in Telangana, although Hyderabad was set to remain the joint capital of both states for ten years, the new capital is being built at Amaravati. Official website of the Government of Andhra Pradesh
Geography of Andhra Pradesh
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Andhra Pradesh and
Telangana Topo Map
Geography of Andhra Pradesh
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Topics
13.
Politics of Andhra Pradesh
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In December 1953, the States Reorganisation Commission was appointed to prepare for the creation of states on linguistic lines. Thus, merging the Telugu speaking region of Hyderabad state with Telugu speaking state of Andhra state, the Indian National Congress party won all the state elections from the emergence of the state in 1953 till 1983. Projects like Nagarjuna Sagar and Srisailam Dams were constructed during this time, there were ten different chief ministers from the formation of the state in 1956 till 1983. Marri Chenna Reddy formed the Telangana Praja Samiti party to lead the Telangana movement, in November 1969, there was a major split in the party which eventually led to the downfall of the movement. Resigned his position to make room for a leader from Telangana to become the Chief Minister, on 30 September 1971, P. V. Narasimha Rao became the Chief Minister. Within nine months of its founding, Telugu Desam was voted to power, nadendla Bhaskara Rao broke with the party and formed a state government with the help of the opposition Congress. However his government lasted only 31 days as he did not command a majority in the Assembly, NTR was reinstated to power on 16 September 1984. The Congress returned to power when Marri Chenna Reddy was sworn in for his term as chief minister on 3 December 1989. The Congress lasted in power until the elections of 1994, in the elections of 1994, N. T. Rama Raos Telugu Desam Party ran advocating prohibition in response to a womens movement. He had then recently married his second wife Lakshmi Parvathi, nTRs campaign focussed on the rural areas which won him a significant majority in the state elections of 1995. NTR died on 18 January 1996 and Lakshmi Parvati succeeded him as the head of TDP which no longer had any representation in the state legislature. S, Rajasekhara Reddy became the chief minister. Under Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, the Indian National Congress party won the 2004 elections as part of a coalition with TRS, during the run-up to the 2004 elections, Rajasekhar Reddy was able bring a common platform and mutual agreement within the Andhra Pradesh Congress Party. His campaign took form of a three-month-long padhayatra or foot-walk, the elections resulted in the defeat of the then-ruling Telugu Desam Party under the leadership of N. Chandrababu Naidu. The congress also won the elections in 2005 and district local body elections in 2006. In the Andhra Pradesh general election,2009 the Indian National Congress under the leadership of YSR won a majority by winning 156 of 294 assembly seats. Telugu Desam Party gained a few more seats than the previous election. Praja Rajyam Party founded by Chiranjeevi won 16% of the votes, the TRS and the Left parties in combination won less than 7% of the votes. Lok Satta Party won its first Assembly seat and captured more than 1% vote share, as Rajasekhara Reddy died on 2 September 2009 in a helicopter crash, K. Rosaiah of the Indian National Congress took charges as Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh
Politics of Andhra Pradesh
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Topics
14.
Assaka
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Assaka or Ashmaka, was a Telugu region of ancient India. It was one of the shODasa mahajanapadas in the 6th century BCE, the region was located on the banks of the Godavari river, between the rivers Godavari and Manjira. It was the only Mahajanapada situated to the south of the Vindhya Range and it corresponds to districts Nizamabad and parts of Adilabad in Telangana and Nanded, Yavatmal in Maharashtra states in current-day India. The Prakrit name of Bodhan is from bhoodaan meaning Land given to poor as alms, the capital is variously called Potali, or Podana, which now lies in the Nandura Tehsil. The Buddhist text Mahagovinda Suttanta mentions about a ruler of Assaka, the Matsya Purana lists twenty-five rulers of Aśmaka, contemporary to the Shishunaga rulers of Magadha. Later, the people spread southward to the territory of the Rashtrakuta empire, Ashmaka is also identified as Assaka and Aśvakas in Buddhist literature and Gatha Saptashati of king Hāla. Ashmaka is derived from Sanskrit word Ashma which means Stone or Gem, In fact one finds thousands of hillocks and stones in this region, there is a speculation that about 10 to 20 Million years back, there was a heavy Meteoroid fall in this Region. Kingdoms of Ancient India Mahajanapada History of India History of Maharashtra Telangana Janapada
Assaka
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The Assaka Mahajanapada
15.
Satavahana dynasty
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The Satavahanas were an ancient Indian dynasty based in the Deccan region. The Satavahana kingdom mainly comprised the present-day Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, at different times, their rule extended to parts of modern Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Karnataka. The dynasty had different capital cities at different times, including Pratishthana, the origin of the dynasty is uncertain, but according to the Puranas, their first king overthrew the Kanva dynasty. In the post-Maurya era, the Satavahanas established peace in the Deccan region, in particular their struggles with the Saka Western Satraps went on for a long time. The dynasty reached its zenith under the rule of Gautamiputra Satakarni, the kingdom fragmented into smaller states by the early 3rd century CE. The Satavahanas were early issuers of Indian state coinage struck with images of their rulers and they formed a cultural bridge and played a vital role in trade and the transfer of ideas and culture to and from the Indo-Gangetic Plain to the southern tip of India. They supported Brahmanism as well as Buddhism, and patronised Prakrit language instead of Sanskrit, the date and place of origin of the Satavahanas, as well as the meaning of the dynastys name, are a matter of debate among the historians. According to one theory, the word Satavahana is a Prakrit form of the Sanskrit Sapta-Vahana and this would indicate that the Satavahanas originally claimed association with the legendary solar dynasty, as was common in ancient India. According to Inguva Kartikeya Sarma, the name is derived from the words sata and vahana. Another theory connects their name to the earlier Satiyaputa dynasty, yet another theory derives their name from the Munda words Sadam and Harpan, implying son of the performer of a horse sacrifice. Several rulers of the dynasty bear the name or title Satakarni, Satavahana, Satakarni, Satakani and Shalivahana appear to be variations of the same word. Damodar Dharmanand Kosambi theorized that the word Satakarni is derived from the Munda words sada, the Puranas use the name Andhra or Andhra-Bhritya for the Satavahanas. The term Andhra may refer to ethnicity or territory of the dynasty and it does not appear in the dynastys own records. The use of the name Andhra in the Puranas has led scholars to believe that the dynasty originated in the eastern Deccan region. At Kotilingala in Telangana, coins bearing the legend Rano Siri Chimuka Satavahanasa were found, coins attributed to Simukas successors Kanha and Satakarni I were also discovered at Kotilingla. Based on these discoveries, historians such as D. R. Reddy, S. Reddy, however, the coin samples from Kotlingala are small, and it is not certain if these coins were minted there or reached there from somewhere else. Sastry also later changed his view, and stated that the two kings were different, as for the Puranas, these texts were compiled much later, during the Gupta period, and it is not certain if the Satavahanas were referred to as Andhras during their time. Another section of scholars believe that the Satavahanas originated in western Deccan, all of the four extant inscriptions from the early Satavahana period have been found in and around this region
Satavahana dynasty
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Territorial extent of the Satavahana Empire (continuous line) and conquests (dotted line).
Satavahana dynasty
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Chronology of the
Telugu people,
Andhra Pradesh, and
Telangana history
Satavahana dynasty
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Satavahanas laid foundations to Buddhist rock-cut architecture during this period,
Ajanta caves.
Satavahana dynasty
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Fragment of Amaravati
Stupa.
16.
Andhra Ikshvaku
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Andhra Ikshvakus were one of the earliest recorded ruling dynasties of the Guntur-Krishna-Nalgonda regions of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. They ruled the Telugu country along the Godavari and Krishna River during the half of the 2nd century CE. It is a common belief that Andhra Ikshvakus were related to the mythological ikshvakus. The region they ruled came to be known as Kammanadu, the term Kammanadu was first found in 3rd century A. D. in the inscription of Ikshvaku king Purushadatta at Bethavolu near modern day Vijayawada. Archaeological evidence has suggested that the Andhra Ikshvakus immediately succeeded the Satavahanas in the Krishna river valley, Ikshvakus have left inscriptions at Nagarjunakonda, Jaggayyapeta, Amaravati and Bhattiprolu. The Puranas mention them as the Sriparvatiyas, Rulers of Sriparvata, the Satavahanas were also known as Andhras but Several Kings of House described themselves as Satavahanas and Never as Andhras. Ikshvaku Ikshvaku Dynasty Satavahana The Andhras Through the Ages by Kandavalli Balendu Sekharam
Andhra Ikshvaku
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Chronology of the
Telugu people,
Andhra Pradesh, and
Telangana history
Andhra Ikshvaku
17.
Vishnukundina
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The Vishnukundina dynasty was an Indian imperial power controlling the Deccan, Orissa and parts of South India during the 5th and 6th centuries, carving land out from the Vakataka Empire. It played an important role in the history of the Deccan during the 5th and 6th centuries, by 514, the Vakatakas were reduced to the areas of present-day Telangana area. The area north of the Godavari, Kalinga, became independent, the area south of the Krishna River fell to the Pallavas. The Vishnukundin reign came to an end with the conquest of the eastern Deccan by the Chalukya, Pulakeshin appointed his brother Kubja Vishnuvardhana as Viceroy to rule over the conquered lands. Eventually Vishnuvardhana declared his independence and started the Eastern Chalukya dynasty, Vishnukundina is a Sanskritised name for Vinukonda. Several attempts have been made by scholars to find out the origins of this dynasty, the early rulers of the dynasty migrated to the west in search of employment and under the Vakatakas they might have attained feudatory status. During the reign of Madhava Varma, they became independent and conquered coastal Andhra from the Salankayanas, the Vishnukundin reign might be fixed between the end of the Salankayana and the rise of the Eastern Chalukyan power in 624. Some historians mention Vishnukundins reign was from 420 to 624, while some other historian say there reign was from early 5th century to the 7th century, according to the Indra Pala Nagara plates, Indra Varma is considered to be the first ruler of the Vishnukundin dynasty. He might have carved out a principality for himself probably as a subordinate of the Vakatakas sometime about the last quarter of the 4th century. He adorned the title of priyaputra, parabrama shastry, Indravermas capital was Indrapalapuram in Nalgonda district of Telangana State. Not much information is known about the two kings, Madhav Varma I and his son Govinda Varma. They might have kept intact the inheritance or extended their sway to some extent, by the middle of the 5th century, the dynasty began its imperial expansion under its most efficient ruler Madhav Varma II who ruled for nearly half a century. The reign of Madhav Varma was an age in the history of the Vishnukundins. It was during this period, the small Vishnukundin dynasty rose to imperial heights, a princess of the then powerful ruling family of the Deccan the Vakatakas was given in marriage to Madhav Varmas son, Vikramendra Varma. This alliance gave them power and made it easy for them to extend their influence to the east coast. Madhav Varma II led his arms against Ananda Gotrikas who were ruling over Guntur, Tenali and Ongole, after occupying these areas from the Ananda Gotrikas, Madhav Varma II made Amarapura his capital. Madhav Varma II next turned his attention against the Vengi kingdom which was under the Salankayanas, the Godavari tract became part of the Vishnukundin territory. After these conquests the capital might have shifted to Bezwada
Vishnukundina
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Chronology of the
Telugu people,
Andhra Pradesh, and
Telangana history
Vishnukundina
18.
Pallava dynasty
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The Pallava dynasty was a South Indian dynasty that existed from 275 CE to 897 CE, ruling a portion of what is today southern India. They gained prominence after the eclipse of the Satavahana dynasty, whom the Pallavas served as feudatories, Pallavas are most noted for their patronage of architecture, the finest example being the Shore Temple, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Mahabalipuram. The Pallavas, who left behind magnificent sculptures and temples, established the foundations of medieval South Indian architecture and they developed the Pallava script from which Grantha ultimately descended. The Pallava script gave rise to other southeast Asian scripts. Chinese traveller Hiuen Tsang visited Kanchipuram during Pallava rule and extolled their benign rule, the Pallavas themselves claimed to descend from Brahma and Ashvatthama. Though Manimekalai posits Ilam Tiriyan as a Chola, not a Pallava, thence, came into existence the race of Pallavas. Vīrakūrcha, of celebrated name, who simultaneously with the daughter of the chief of serpents grasped also the insignia of royalty. The Proceedings of the First Annual Conference of South Indian History Congress also notes, The word Tondai means a creeper, historian K. R. Subramanian says the Pallavas were originally a Telugu power rather than a Tamil one. Telugu sources know of a Trilochana Pallava as the earliest Telugu king, the first Chalukya king is said to have been met, repulsed and killed by the same Trilochana near Mudivemu. A Buddhist story describes Kala the Nagaraja, resembling the Pallava Kalabhartar as a king of the region near Krishna district, the Pallava Bogga may be identified with the kingdom of Kala in Andhra which had close and early maritime and cultural relations with Ceylon. K. A. K. P. Jayaswal also proposed a North Indian origin, the Pallavas captured Kanchi from the Cholas as recorded in the Velurpalaiyam Plates, around the reign of the fifth king of the Pallava line Kumaravishnu I. Thereafter Kanchi figures in inscriptions as the capital of the Pallavas, the Cholas drove the Pallavas away from Kanchi in the mid-4th century, in the reign of Vishugopa, the tenth king of the Pallava line. The Pallavas re-captured Kanchi in the century, possibly in the reign of Simhavishnu, the fourteenth king of the Pallava line. Thereafter the Pallavas held on to Kanchi until the 9th century, until the reign of their last king, the Pallavas were in conflict with major kingdoms at various periods of time. A contest for political supremacy existed between the early Pallavas and the Kadambas, numerous Kadamba inscriptions provide details of Pallava-Kadamba hostlities. During the reign of Vishnugopavarman II, political convulsion engulfed the Pallavas due to the Kalabhra invasion of the Tamil country, towards the close of the 6th century, the Pallava Simhavishnu stuck a blow against the Kalabhras. Thereafter the Tamil country was divided between the Pallavas in the north with Kanchipuram as their capital, and Pandyas in the south with Madurai as their capital, the royal custom of using a series of descriptive honorific titles, Birudas, was particularly prevalent among the Pallavas. The birudas of Mahendravarman I are in Sanskrit, Tamil and Telugu, the Telugu birudas show Mahendravarmans involvement with the Andhra region continued to be strong at the time he was creating his cave-temples in the Tamil region
Pallava dynasty
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Kailasanathar Temple,
Kanchipuram,
Tamil Nadu,
India
Pallava dynasty
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Pallava territories during Narasimhavarman I c. 645. This includes the Chalukya territories occupied by the Pallavas.
Pallava dynasty
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Inner court or the circumambulatory passage with 58 subshrines.Kailasanathar Temple,
Kanchipuram,
Tamil Nadu,
India.
Pallava dynasty
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Typical design of pillar with multi-directional mythical lions.Kailasanathar Temple,
Kanchipuram,
Tamil Nadu,
India.
19.
Eastern Chalukyas
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Eastern Chalukyas, also known as the Chalukyas of Vengi, were a dynasty that ruled parts of South India between the 7th and 12th centuries. They started out as governors of the Chalukyas of Badami in the Deccan region, subsequently, they became a sovereign power, and ruled the Vengi region of present-day Andhra Pradesh until c. 1130 CE. They continued ruling the region as feudatories of the Cholas until 1189 CE and their kingdom ultimately succumbed to the Hoysalas and the Yadavas. Originally, the capital of the Eastern Chalukyas was located at the Vengi city and it was subsequently moved to Rajamahendravaram. Throughout their history the Eastern Chalukyas were the cause of wars between the more powerful Cholas and Western Chalukyas over the control of the strategic Vengi country. The Chalukyas of Vengi branched off from the Chalukyas of Badami, the Badami ruler Pulakeshin II conquered the Vengi region in eastern Deccan, after defeating the remnants of the Vishnukundina dynasty. He appointed his brother Kubja Vishnuvardhana the governor of newly acquired territory in 624 CE. Vishnuvardhanas viceroyalty subsequently developed into an independent kingdom, possibly after Pulakeshin died fighting the Pallavas in the Battle of Vatapi, from the 11th century onward, the dynasty started claiming legendary lunar dynasty origins. According to this legend, the dynasty descended from the Moon, via Budha, Pururava,59 unnamed descendants of Udayana ruled at Ayodhya. Their descendant Vijayaditya was killed in a battle with Trilochana Pallava and his pregnant widow was given shelter by Vishnubhatta Somayaji of Mudivemu. She named her son Vishnuvardhana after her benefactor, when the boy grew up, he became the ruler of Dakshinapatha by the grace of the goddess Nanda Bhagavati. Between 641 CE and 705 CE some kings, except Jayasimha I and Mangi Yuvaraja, then followed a period of unrest characterised by family feuds and weak rulers. Meanwhile, the Rashtrakutas of Malkhed ousted Western Chalukyas of Badami, the weak rulers of Vengi had to meet the challenge of the Rashtrakutas, who overran their kingdom more than once. There was no Eastern Chalukya ruler who could check them until Gunaga Vijayaditya III came to power in 848 CE, the then Rashtrakuta ruler Amoghavarsha treated him as his ally and after Amoghavarshas death, Vijayaditya proclaimed independence. In its early life, the Eastern Chalukya court was essentially a republic of Badami, and as generations passed, local factors gained in strength, the Eastern Chalukyan government was a monarchy based on the Hindu philosophy. The inscriptions refer to the seven components of the state. No information is available as to how the work of administration was carried out, the Vishaya and Kottam were the administrative subdivisions known from records. The Karmarashtra and the Boya-Kottams are examples of these, the royal edicts are addressed to all Naiyogi Kavallabhas, a general term containing no indication of their duties, as well as to the Grameyakas, the residents of the village granted
Eastern Chalukyas
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Chronology of the
Telugu people,
Andhra Pradesh, and
Telangana history
Eastern Chalukyas
20.
Kota Vamsa
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Kota Vamsa is the medieval dynasty which ruled in parts of the modern-day Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The Kota prasisti declared that they were the rulers of the Shatashasra, some historians mention that Dhananjaya gotra of the Kotas might have come from their ancestor, Prince Dhananjaya who ruled Madhyadesa. While some writers argue that King Dhananjaya is a descendent pravara of Sage Vishwamitra, yashoda Devi, a popular historian openioned that Kota kings were the contemporaries of Kakatiya dynasty. However, much information about the initial Kota Kings is not exactly known, Kota Kings practice religious tolerance and patronised both Jainism and Hinduism. They favored Shaivism and their god was Amareswara of Amaravati. They built several Hindu temples during their reign, Kota Kings followed the varna system
Kota Vamsa
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Gandaberunda
21.
Chagi
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The Chagi dynasty owed nominal allegiance to the Cholas, the Kakatiyas and the Gajapatis. The rulers were warriors and administrators and de facto independent rulers and their kingdom was fairly large and made significant political achievements compared to other dynasties in Vengi at the time. They had their own coinage and contracted diplomatic alliances of marriage with the Kakatiyas and the Kondapadamati chiefs of Durjaya clan, Haihayas of Palnadu, the Kakatiya King Ganapati Devas sister Melambika was married to the second son of Chagi Buddaraju, who was ruling Natavadi region. According to Ramavilas by Telugu Lakshmana Kavi, the Chagi’s ancestry is as follows, Brahma was born from the lotus of Vishnu. Marichi’s son was Kashyapa and his son was Bhaskara, bhaskara’s son was Vaivasvata, whose son was Manu and Manus’s son was Ikshavaku. In Ikshavakavamsa as born Kakutsa, Raghu and Dasharatha, dasharatha’s son was Rama of Suryavamsa, through them, Sagivamsa arose and became famous with great warriors and saints like Nagarjuna. Chagi Venkana was believed to be the first of the Chagis and he was of the solar race and was the lord of the west and protector of the earth. Other branches of the Chagi dynasty are the Vatsavayi, Pericchedi, an inscription left in a temple in the Krishna district around 1260 CE gives the genealogy of the Sagis and states the family is of the Bahujakula. Bahuja means arm or shoulder in Sanskrit and kula means clan, in Hindu mythology, the four castes formed from the body of lord Brahma with the Kshatriyas arising from his arms and chest. Muppa 1 was the first historical member of the Chagi dynasty and he was also known as Arya. Muppa served Rajendra Choda loyally and successfully in his wars and was rewarded with royal insignias and some tracts to govern, Dora 1 had the title Tyagi as one inscription mentions Tyagi Dora, son of king Arya. His coins known as Tyagigadyas are heard of as early as 1126 CE, Pota 1 His daughter Prolama Devi was married of to the Natavadis. He was an ally of the Palnadu Haihayas, participated in the civil war, one version of Palnati Vira Charitra mentions that Sagi Potamaraju, minister Satya, Gundamadeva, and Gobburaju and others came with a vast infantry, to join Nalakama in the war. Dora 2 extended the bounds of his kingdom, transferred his capital to Vijayawada, Dora bore the epithets, Natavati Vishayadhisvara and Tyagiraja. Dora is mentioned simply as king Tyagi in Pota’s record of CE1199, Pota 2 also known as Narashimha Vardhana Tyagipota. Ganapaya and Dora 3 Manma Pota and Manma Ganpaya According to Ramavilasa, dedicated to Vatsavayi Goparaju, Sagi Macha was the youngest brother of Manma Pota, macha’s son was Erra Pota who in turn had two sons, Telugu Raju and Rama Raju. Telugu Raju and Rama Raju were in the service of Pratapa Rudra of the Kakaitya dynasty, Ramavilasa says that Rama Raju conquered many kings in the battlefield and was presented with many elephants, kamkana, rubies and dancing women by them. As Rama Raju made Vatsavaya his capital, the name Vatsavaya came to be attached to Sagivamsa, Rama Raju’s descendant, Vatsavai Pedda Pathrudu founded the town of Peddapuram
Chagi
–
Chronology of the
Telugu people,
Andhra Pradesh, and
Telangana history
Chagi
22.
Kakatiya dynasty
–
The Kakatiya dynasty was a South Indian dynasty whose capital was Orugallu, now known as Warangal. It was eventually conquered by the Delhi Sultanate, the demise of Kakatiya dynasty resulted in confusion and anarchy under alien rulers for sometime. Three new fledgling kingdoms arose out of the ruins of the Kakatiya empire namely the Reddy kingdom, Padma Nayaka Velama kingdom, historic sources relating to the Kakatiya dynasty are sparse. Of those that are available, the most prevalent are ancient inscriptions that mainly document matters relating to religion and they are particularly abundant for the period 1175–1324 CE, which is the period when the dynasty most flourished and are a reflection of that. The probability is that many inscriptions have been lost due to falling into disuse and also the ravages of subsequent rulers. Inscriptions are still being discovered today but governmental agencies tend to concentrate on recording those that are already known rather than searching for new examples, studies of the inscriptions and coinage by the historian Dineshchandra Sircar reveal that there was no contemporary standard spelling of the family name. Variants include Kakatiya, Kakatiyya, Kakita, Kakati and Kakatya, the family name was often prefixed to the name of the monarch, giving constructs such as Kakatiya-Prataparudra. Some of the also had alternate names, for example, Venkata and Venkataraya may have been alternate names of Prataparuda I. The Kakatiya rulers traced their ancestry to legendary chief or ruler called Durjaya, many other ruling dynasties of Andhra also claimed descent from Durjaya. Nothing further is known about this chief, the early rulers were feudatoris of Western Chalukyas. Prataparudra I established a dynasty in 1163 CE. The regnal dates of the rulers are unknown. In order, they were Venna, Gunda I, Gunda II, Gunda III, the next ruler, Gunda IV, is mentioned in the Mangallu grant of the Eastern Chalukya king Dānārnava in 956 CE. Gunda IV was followed by Beta I, Prola I, Beta II, Durgaraja, next come the sovereign rulers Prataparudra I, Ganapati, Rudrama Devi, and Prataparudra II. The dynasty ended in 1323 after an invasion by the Delhi sultanate, the early Kakatiya rulers used the title Reddi. However, after they became sovereigns they were addressed as deva, there appears to be a significant element of sanskritisation in this transition. According to Sastry, Prataparudra I reigned between around 1158 –1195, while Sircar gives the dates 1163–1195 and it was during Prataparudras reign, in 1163, that the Kakatiyas declared an end to their status as feudatory chiefs of the Chalukyas. It is notable that inscriptions were written using the Kakatiya chiefs vernacular Telugu rather than the Kannada language that had prevailed until that point
Kakatiya dynasty
–
Chronology of the
Telugu people,
Andhra Pradesh, and
Telangana history
Kakatiya dynasty
Kakatiya dynasty
–
Ramappa Temple.
Kakatiya dynasty
–
Statue of
Rudrama Devi.
23.
Musunuri Nayaks
–
The Musunuri Nayaks were warrior kings of 14th-century South India who were briefly significant in the region of Telangana. They were warrior chieftains in the Kakatiya army, who regained Andhradesa in 1326 from the Delhi Sultanate in the aftermath of the Kakatiya defeat, prominent among them were Musunuri Prolaya Nayak and Musunuri Kapaya Nayak, also known respectively as Prolaaneedu and Musunuri Kaapaaneedu. After the fall of the Kakatiyas, their empire was annexed by the Delhi Sultanate, ulugh Khan remained as the governor of the region for a short period, until he was recalled to Delhi to succeed Muhammad bin Tughluq in 1324. A former Kakatiya commander, Nagaya Ganna Vibhudu, now renamed Malik Maqbul, was appointed as the governor of the region, however, the Tughluq hold over the erstwhile Kakatiya kingdom was tenuous and a number of local chieftains seized effective power. His successor, Kapaya Nayak, led a rebellion against the Tughluqs, according to the Kaluvacheru grant of a female member of the Panta Reddi clan in 1423, Kapaya Nayak was assisted by 75 subordinate Nayaks, including Vema Reddi, the founder of the Reddi dynasty. Kapaya Nayak ruled over Telangana until 1368, upon his death, the subordinate Nayaks are said to have dispersed to their own towns. Despite his opposition to the Turks, Kapaya Nayak continued using the Kush Mahal built by the Turks in Warangal, in 1361, he gifted to the Bahmani Sultan Muhammad Shah I the Turquoise Throne as part of a treaty agreement. Little is known of Prolaya Nayak or indeed any of the Musunuri family, the nobles were able to assert control in the Godavari area, over which Prolaya Nayak became the ruler from 1325 until his death in 1333. He left no children and was succeeded by a cousin, Kapaya Nayak and he took control of Warangal from Malik Maqbul in 1336 and thus also of a wider swathe of eastern Telangana that was governed from there. He also tried to support rebels in the surrounding areas, although in the case of aid given to Alauddin Bahman Shah. Several military engagements with Bahaman Shah followed over a period of years, during which Kapaya Nayaka had to cede various forts and territories. His weakened position was exploited by the Reddis and the Velamas, notes Citations Bibliography After the Kakatiyas, V. Yashoda Devi, Andhra Pradesh Sahitya Academy, Hyderabad,1975. A history of South India from prehistoric times to the fall of Vijayanagar, K. A. Nilakanta Sastri, the Early Muslim expansion in South India, N. Ventakaramanayya,1942. Hearing Voices, Vignettes of Early Modernity in South Asia, 1400–1750
Musunuri Nayaks
–
Chronology of the
Telugu people,
Andhra Pradesh, and
Telangana history
Musunuri Nayaks
–
Musunuri Kaapaaneedu
24.
Vijayanagara Empire
–
The Vijayanagara Empire was based in the Deccan Plateau region in South India. It was established in 1336 by Harihara I and his brother Bukka Raya I of Sangama Dynasty, the empire rose to prominence as a culmination of attempts by the southern powers to ward off Islamic invasions by the end of the 13th century. It lasted until 1646, although its power declined after a military defeat in 1565 by the Deccan sultanates. The empire is named after its city of Vijayanagara, whose ruins surround present day Hampi, now a World Heritage Site in Karnataka. The writings of medieval European travelers such as Domingo Paes, Fernão Nunes, and Niccolò Da Conti, Archaeological excavations at Vijayanagara have revealed the empires power and wealth. The empires legacy includes many monuments spread over South India, the best known of which is the group at Hampi, the previous temple building traditions in South India came together in the Vijayanagara Architecture style. The mingling of all faiths and vernaculars inspired architectural innovation of Hindu temple construction, first in the Deccan, efficient administration and vigorous overseas trade brought new technologies such as water management systems for irrigation. The empires patronage enabled fine arts and literature to new heights in Kannada, Telugu, Tamil. The Vijayanagara Empire created an epoch in South Indian history that transcended regionalism by promoting Hinduism as a unifying factor, differing theories have been proposed regarding the origins of the Vijayanagara empire. Others claim that they were Telugu people, first associated with the Kakatiya Kingdom, irrespective of their origin, historians agree the founders were supported and inspired by Vidyaranya, a saint at the Sringeri monastery to fight the Muslim invasion of South India. He created the Kampili kingdom, but this was a short lived kingdom during this period of wars, Kampili existed near Gulbarga and Tungabhadra river in northeastern parts of the present-day Karnataka state. It ended after a defeat by the armies of Delhi Sultanate, the triumphant army led by Malik Zada sent the news of its victory, over Kampili kingdom, to Muhammad bin Tughluq in Delhi by sending a straw-stuffed severed head of the dead Hindu king. Within Kampili, on the day of certain defeat, the populace committed a jauhar in 1327/28 CE, eight years later, from the ruins of the Kampili kingdom emerged the Vijayanagara Kingdom in 1336 CE. In the first two decades after the founding of the empire, Harihara I gained control over most of the south of the Tungabhadra river. The original capital was in the principality of Anegondi on the banks of the Tungabhadra River in todays Karnataka. The next ruler, Deva Raya I, emerged successful against the Gajapatis of Odisha, italian traveler Niccolo de Conti wrote of him as the most powerful ruler of India. Deva Raya II succeeded to the throne in 1424 and was possibly the most capable of the Sangama dynasty rulers and he quelled rebelling feudal lords as well as the Zamorin of Calicut and Quilon in the south. He invaded the island of Lanka and became overlord of the kings of Burma at Pegu, the Sultanate invaded Vijayanagara in 1417 when the latter defaulted in paying the tribute
Vijayanagara Empire
–
Map of South India in 15th century
Vijayanagara Empire
–
Extent of Vijayanagara Empire, 1446, 1520 CE
Vijayanagara Empire
–
Virupaksha Temple,
Hampi
Vijayanagara Empire
–
Natural fortress at
Vijayanagara
25.
Reddy dynasty
–
The Reddy dynasty was established in southern India by Prolaya Vema Reddy. The region that was ruled by the Reddy dynasty is now part of coastal and central Andhra Pradesh. Prolaya Vema Reddy was part of the confederation that started a movement against the invading Turkic armies of the Delhi Sultanate in 1323, the first of the Reddy clans came into prominence during the Rajendra Chola III kings period. The Reddy chiefs were appointed as generals under the Kakatiyas. During this time the Reddys carved out feudal principalities for themselves, eventually, the army of the Delhi Sultanate invaded Warangal and captured Pratapa Rudra. In 1323, after the death of Pratapa Rudra and the subsequent fall of the Kakatiya empire, Prolaya Vema Reddy proclaimed independence and established the Reddy Kingdom in Addanki. They ruled coastal and central Andhra for over a hundred years from 1325 to 1448, at its maximum extent, the Reddy kingdom stretched from Cuttack, Orissa to the north, Kanchi to the south and Srisailam to the west. The initial capital of the kingdom was Addanki, later, it was moved to Kondavidu and subsequently to Rajahmundry. The Reddys were known for their fortifications, two major hill forts, one at Kondapalli,20 km north west of Vijayawada and another at Kondavidu about 30 km west of Guntur stand testimony to the fort building skill of the Reddy kings. The forts of Bellamkonda, Vinukonda and Nagarjunakonda in the Palnadu region were part of the Reddy kingdom. The dynasty remained in power till the middle of the 15th century and was supplanted by the Gajapatis of Odisha, the Gajapatis eventually lost control of coastal Andhra after Gajapati Prataprudra Deva was defeated by Krishna Deva Raya of Vijaynagar. The territories of the Reddy kingdom eventually came under the control of the Vijayanagara Empire, the Reddy rulers played a prominent part in post-Kakatiyas of Telangana. The Kakatiya empire came to an end in 1323 after the army of the Delhi sultanate invaded Warangal, Warangal fell to the invaders and Ulugh Khan commanded Warangal and Telangana. During this time of invasion and chaos in Telugu country. They united the Telugu nobles with the purpose of reclaiming the kingdom, musunuri Prolaya Nayaka, Prolaya Vema Reddy, Recharla Singama Nayaka, Koppula Prolaya Nayaka and Manchikonda Ganapatinayaka were the prominent nobles. Musunuri Prolaya Nayaka was the leader of this confederation of Telugu nobles who united and vowed to put an end to the Sultanates rule. They succeeded in repulsing those forces from Warangal and then established independent Kingdoms of their own and it was during this chaotic period in Andhra history that Prolaya Vema Reddy established the Reddy kingdom in 1325. The Reddy rulers patronised and protected Hinduism and its institutions, the Brahmins were given liberal grants by the Reddy kings and the agraharas of Brahmins were restored. The Hindu temples of Srisailam and Ahobilam were provided with more facilities, Prolaya Vema Reddy bestowed a number of agraharas on the Brahmins
Reddy dynasty
–
Chronology of the
Telugu people,
Andhra Pradesh, and
Telangana history
Reddy dynasty
–
Maximum extent of the Reddy Kingdom, 14th Century CE
Reddy dynasty
–
Water colour painting - Kondavidu fort, Reddy Kingdom.
Reddy dynasty
–
Mallikarjuna Swamy Temple, Srisailam
26.
Bahmani Sultanate
–
The Bahmani Sultanate was a Muslim state of the Deccan in South India and one of the major medieval Indian kingdoms. Bahmanid Sultanate was the first independent Muslim kingdom in South India, the empire was established by Turkic general Ala-ud-Din Bahman Shah after revolting against the Delhi Sultanate of Muhammad bin Tughlaq. Nazir Uddin Ismail Shah who had revolted against the Delhi Sultanate stepped down on day in favour of Bahman Shah. His revolt was successful, and he established an independent state on the Deccan within the Delhi Sultanates southern provinces, the Bahmani capital was Ahsanabad between 1347 and 1425 when it was moved to Muhammadabad. The Bahmani contested the control of the Deccan with the Vijayanagara Empire to the south, the sultanate reached the peak of its power during the vizierate of Mahmud Gawan. The south Indian Emperor Krishnadevaraya of the Vijayanagara Empire defeated the last remnant of Bahmani Sultanate power after which the Bahmani Sultanate collapsed. After 1518 the sultanate broke up into five states, Nizamshahi of Ahmednagar, Qutb Shahi of Golconda, Baridshahi of Bidar, Imadshahi of Berar and they are collectively known as the Deccan Sultanates. Later rulers of the dynasty believed that they descended from Bahman, the Bahamani Sultans were patrons of the Persian language, culture and literature, and some members of the dynasty became well-versed in that language and composed its literature in that language. The craftspersons of Bidar were so famed for their work on copper and silver that it came to be known as Bidri
Bahmani Sultanate
–
Bahmani Sultanate, 1470 CE
Bahmani Sultanate
–
Ahmad Shah I Wali.
Bahmani Sultanate
–
Mahmud Gawan Madrasa was built by
Mahmud Gawan, the
Vizier of the Bahmani Sultanate as the center of learning in the
Deccan.
27.
Qutb Shahi dynasty
–
The Qutb Shahi dynasty was a Muslim Turkmens dynasty that initially patronized Persianate culture. Its members were called the Qutub Shahis and were the ruling family of the kingdom of Golkonda in modern-day India. The Golconda sultanate was constantly in conflict with the Adil Shahis, in 1636, Shah Jahan forced the Qutb Shahis to recognize Mughal suzerainty, which lasted until 1687 when the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb conquered the Golcondan sultanate. The dynastys founder, Sultan Quli Qutb-ul-Mulk, migrated to Delhi with his uncle, Allah-Quli, some of his relatives, later he migrated south, to the Deccan and served the Bahmani sultan, Mohammad Shah. He conquered Golconda, after the disintegration of the Bahmani Kingdom into the five Deccan sultanates, soon after, he declared independence from the Bahmani Sultanate, took the title Qutub Shah, and established the Qutb Shahi dynasty of Golconda. He was later assassinated in 1543 by his son, Jamsheed and he later died in 1550 from cancer. Jamsheeds young son reigned for a year, at time the nobility brought back. During the reign of Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah, relations between Hindus and Muslims were strengthened, even to the point of Hindus resuming their religious festivals like Diwali and Holi. Some Hindus rose to prominence in the Qutb Shahi state, the most important example being the ministers Madanna and Akkanna. Golconda, and with the construction of the Char Minar, later Hyderabad served as capitals of the sultanate, the dynasty ruled Golconda for 171 years, until the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb conquered the Deccan in 1687. The Qutub Shahi rulers were great builders, whose structures included the Char Minar, Quli Qutb Mulks court became a haven for Persian culture and literature. Sultan Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah wrote poems in Dakhini Urdu, Persian and Telugu, subsequent poets and writers, however wrote in Urdu, while using vocabulary from Persian, Hindi and Telugu languages. By 1535, the Qutub Shahis were using Telugu for their revenue, although Telugu was not their mother tongue, the Golconda rulers spoke and wrote Telugu, and patronized Telugu so exclusively they were termed the Telugu Sultans. In 1543, fearing for his life, Prince Ibrahim Quli fled to the Vijayanagaran court, upon his enthronement as sultan in 1550, Ibrahim Quli was thoroughly acquainted with Telugu aesthetics. The Qutb Shahi architecture was Indo-Persian, a culmination of Hindu, Moorish, Mughal, some examples of Golcondan Indo-Persian architecture are the Golconda Fort, tombs of the Qutb Shahis, Char Minar and the Char Kaman, Mecca Masjid and the Toli mosque. The Qutb Shahi dynasty has been considered a composite of Hindu-Muslim religio-social culture and these structures are made of beautifully carved stonework, and surrounded by landscaped gardens. They are open to the public and receive many visitors, Hyderabad Deccan Battle of Talikota For FURTHER READING, Chopra, R. M. The Rise, Growth And Decline of Indo-Persian Literature,2012, Iran Culture House, New Delhi
Qutb Shahi dynasty
–
Golkonda Painting - Finch, Poppies, Dragonfly, and Bee India (Deccan, Golconda), 1650-1670 Opaque watercolor and gold on paper Overall
Qutb Shahi dynasty
–
Flag of the Qutb Shahis
Qutb Shahi dynasty
–
Tomb of
Sultan Muhammad Qutb Shah in
Hyderabad.
Qutb Shahi dynasty
–
Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah.
28.
Hyderabad State
–
Hyderabad State, also known as Hyderabad Deccan, was an Indian princely state located in the south-central region of India with its capital at the city of Hyderabad. It is now divided into Telangana state, Hyderabad-Karnataka region of Karnataka, the state was ruled from 1724 until 1948 by a hereditary Nizam who was initially a Mughal governor of the Deccan before becoming independent. Hyderabad gradually became the first princely state to come under British paramountcy signing an alliance agreement. However, with the rise of militant razakars, India found it necessary to station Indian troops, subsequently, the Nizam signed an instrument of accession, joining India. Hyderabad State was founded by Mir Qamar-ud-din Khan who was the governor of Deccan under the Mughals from 1713 to 1721, in 1724, he once again resumed rule under the title of Asaf Jah. His other title Nizam ul-Mulk, became the title of his position Nizam of Hyderabad, by the end of his rule, the Nizam had become independent from the Mughals, and had founded the Asaf Jahi dynasty. Following the decline of the Mughal power, the region of Deccan saw the rise of Maratha Empire, the Nizam himself saw many invasions by the Marathas in the 1720s, which resulted in the Nizam paying a regular tax to the Marathas. The major battles fought between the Marathas and the Nizam include Palkhed, Rakshasbhuvan, and Kharda, in all of which the Nizam lost. Following the conquest of Deccan by Bajirao I and the imposition of chauth by him, Nizam remained a tributary of the Marathas for all intent, from 1778, a British resident and soldiers were installed in his dominions. In 1795, the Nizam lost some of his own territories to the Marathas, the territorial gains of the Nizam from Mysore as an ally of the British were ceded to the British to meet the cost of maintaining the British soldiers. In 1798, Nizam ʿĀlī Khan was forced to enter into an agreement which put Hyderabad under British protection and he was the first Indian prince to do so. Hyderabad under Nizam Ali Khan was a British ally in the second and third Maratha Wars, by 1918 Nizam Mīr Us̄mān ʿĀlī was given British titles, but the Crown retained the right to intervene in case of misrule. Hyderabad was considered backward, but peaceful, during this time, hyderabad’s Muslim nizams ruled over a predominantly Hindu population. The last Nizam, Osman Ali Khan, was one of the worlds richest men in the 1930s. In 1947 India gained independence and Pakistan came into existence, the British left the rulers of the princely states the choice of whether to join one or the other. On 11 June 1947, the Nizam issued a declaration to the effect that he had decided not to participate in the Constituent Assembly of either Pakistan or India, India insisted that the great majority of residents wanted to join India. The Nizam was in a position as his army numbered only 24,000 men. On 4 September the Prime Minister of Hyderabad Mir Laiq Ali announced to the Hyderabad Assembly that a delegation was about to leave for Lake Success, headed by Moin Nawaz Jung
Hyderabad State
Hyderabad State
–
Flag
Hyderabad State
–
Main street of Hyderabad with Charminar, 1890
Hyderabad State
–
General El Edroos (at right) offers his surrender of the Hyderabad State Forces to Major General (later General and Army Chief)
Joyanto Nath Chaudhuri at
Secunderabad.
29.
British Raj
–
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
British Raj
–
An 1909 map of the British Indian Empire
British Raj
–
Flag
British Raj
–
British Raj coins during
Edward VII and
George V,
Indian Museum
British Raj
–
Imperial entities of India
30.
Dravidian people
–
Dravidians are native speakers of any of the Dravidian languages. There are around 200 million native speakers of Dravidian languages and they form the majority of the population of South India. Dravidian-speaking people are found in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Maldives, Bangladesh. Historically the word drāviḍa is used to denote the region of South India. In Prakrit, words such as Damela, Dameda, Dhamila and Damila evolved from Tamila could have used to denote an ethnic identity. Tamil has a tradition dating back to the 3rd century BCE. The third century BCE onwards saw the development of large Dravidian political states, Chola dynasty, Pandyan dynasty, Chera Dynasty and a number of smaller states. The Satavahana dynasty, Rashtrakuta dynasty, Western Chalukya Empire, Kakatiya dynasty, Hoysala Empire, the Vijayanagara Empire, the Chola Empire was one of the biggest maritime empires in medieval India, stretching from Southern India to Southeast Asia including Philippines, Malaysia, Southern Thailand and Indonesia. Medieval Tamil guilds and trading organizations like the Ayyavole and Manigramam played an important role in the Southeast Asia trade, traders and religious leaders travelled to Southeast Asia and played an important role in the cultural Indianisation of the region. Locally developed scripts such as Grantha and Pallava script induced the development of many scripts such as Khmer, Javanese Kawi script, Baybayin. Certain communities of Marathis from Maharashtra are considered as Scytho-Dravidians, Dravidian visual art is dominated by stylised Temple architecture in major centres, and the production of images of stone and bronze sculptures. The Nataraja sculpture from the Chola period, has become notable as a symbol of Hinduism, the Sanskrit word drāviḍa is used to denote the geographical region of South India. Southern Brahmins are known as Pancha Dravida while northern Brahmins are known as Pancha Gauda, in Prakrit, words such as Damela, Dameda, Dhamila and Damila, which later evolved into Tamila, could have been used to denote an ethnic identity. The Hathigumpha inscription of the Kalinga ruler Kharavela refers to a Tmira samghata dated to 150 BCE and it also mentions that the league of Tamil kingdoms had been in existence for 113 years by that time. In Amaravati in present-day Andhra Pradesh there is an inscription referring to a Dhamila-vaniya datable to the 3rd century CE, another inscription of about the same time in Nagarjunakonda seems to refer to a Damila. A third inscription in Kanheri Caves refers to a Dhamila-gharini, in the Buddhist Jataka story known as Akiti Jataka there is a mention to Damila-rattha. Thamizhar is etymologically related to Tamil, the language spoken by Tamil people, southworth suggests that the name comes from tam-miz > tam-iz self-speak, or ones own speech. Zvelebil suggests an etymology of tam-iz, with tam meaning self or ones self, alternatively, he suggests a derivation of tamiz < tam-iz < *tav-iz < *tak-iz, meaning in origin the proper process
Dravidian people
–
Avvaiyar
Dravidian people
–
Indra Nooyi
Dravidian people
–
A. R. Rahman
Dravidian people
–
Satya Nadella
31.
Ethnic group
–
An ethnic group or ethnicity is a category of people who identify with each other based on similarities, such as common ancestral, language, social, cultural or national experiences. Unlike other social groups, ethnicity is often an inherited status based on the society in which one lives, in some cases, it can be adopted if a person moves into another society. Ethnic groups, derived from the historical founder population, often continue to speak related languages. By way of language shift, acculturation, adoption and religious conversion, it is possible for individuals or groups to leave one ethnic group. Ethnicity is often used synonymously with terms such as nation or people. In English, it can also have the connotation of something exotic, generally related to cultures of more recent immigrants, the largest ethnic groups in modern times comprise hundreds of millions of individuals, while the smallest are limited to a few dozen individuals. Conversely, formerly separate ethnicities can merge to form a pan-ethnicity, whether through division or amalgamation, the formation of a separate ethnic identity is referred to as ethnogenesis. The term ethnic is derived from the Greek word ἔθνος ethnos, the inherited English language term for this concept is folk, used alongside the latinate people since the late Middle English period. In Early Modern English and until the mid-19th century, ethnic was used to mean heathen or pagan, as the Septuagint used ta ethne to translate the Hebrew goyim the nations, non-Hebrews, non-Jews. The Greek term in antiquity could refer to any large group, a host of men. In the 19th century, the term came to be used in the sense of peculiar to a race, people or nation, the abstract ethnicity had been used for paganism in the 18th century, but now came to express the meaning of an ethnic character. The term ethnic group was first recorded in 1935 and entered the Oxford English Dictionary in 1972, depending on the context that is used, the term nationality may either be used synonymously with ethnicity, or synonymously with citizenship. The process that results in the emergence of an ethnicity is called ethnogenesis, the Greeks at this time did not describe foreign nations but had also developed a concept of their own ethnicity, which they grouped under the name of Hellenes. Herodotus gave an account of what defined Greek ethnic identity in his day, enumerating shared descent. Whether ethnicity qualifies as a universal is to some extent dependent on the exact definition used. Many social scientists, such as anthropologists Fredrik Barth and Eric Wolf and they regard ethnicity as a product of specific kinds of inter-group interactions, rather than an essential quality inherent to human groups. According to Thomas Hylland Eriksen, the study of ethnicity was dominated by two distinct debates until recently, one is between primordialism and instrumentalism. In the primordialist view, the participant perceives ethnic ties collectively, as a given, even coercive
Ethnic group
–
Before the 1970s, the
Korowai people of
Papua were an
uncontacted people. Their population numbers no more than 3,000.
Ethnic group
–
The
Assyrians are the indigenous peoples of
Northern Iraq.
Ethnic group
–
Some European ethnic groups, such as
Basque people, do not constitute a majority in any one country.
32.
Yanam
–
Yanam is a town in the Indian union territory of Puducherry, located in Yanam district, which forms a 30 km² enclave in the district of East Godavari in Andhra Pradesh. It has a population of 32,000, most of whom speak Telugu, for 200 years it was a French colony, and, though united with India in 1954, is still sometimes known as French Yanam. It possesses a blend of French and Telugu culture prevailing in Andhra Pradesh, also, after implementation of the Sarda Act in British India in 1929, Telugu people came to Yanam to conduct child marriages, which remained legal under the French administration. In 1936, Yanams population was 5,220, the district lies in the delta of the Godavari River, the town is situated where the river meets its tributary, the Koringa River, nine kilometres from the Bay of Bengal on the Coromandel coast. Yanams soil is alluvium consisting of clay and gravel. It is greyish black and clayey in composition, a few thin layers of sandy clay or sand, not exceeding 0. 3-metre in thickness, are intercalated with the clay soil. The river sands on the bank of Gauthami, Godavari consist of quartz, felspar, a few grains of monazite are also found in the black streaks. There are no minerals of value in the region. Yanam receives irrigation water via the Bank Canal, which begins at the Dowleswaram headworks and it provides irrigation and drinking water to the areas west of the Coringa River. After merger, irrigation was provided to about 5, the work was undertaken by the Andhra Pradesh Public Works Department in 1964, and was completed and commissioned in June 1966. Like the French Channel, it provides irrigation and drinking water, Yanams climate is characterised by high humidity, an oppressive summer season, and plentiful rainfall. It enjoys the benefits of both the Southwest and Northeast monsoons, average annual rainfall is 1226 mm. Temperatures in Yanam range from 27 °C to 45 °C in summer, from February, temperatures start rising rapidly until May, which is the hottest month, with the mean maximum around 37 °C and mean minimum around 28 °C. Humidity being high, the heat is exhausting, the maximum temperature on some days in May or early June, before the onset of the south-west monsoon, may touch 47 °C. The sea breeze affords some relief in the afternoons, similarly, pre-monsoon thunder-showers may also bring relief on some days. With the onset of the monsoon in June the temperature falls rapidly, at times the minimum temperature may drop to 14 °C. December and January are the coolest months, as of 2001 India census, Yanam had a population of 31,362. Males constitute 51% of the population and females 49%, in Yanam, 14% of the population is under 6 years of age
Yanam
–
View of central Yanam
Yanam
–
Entrance to Yanam
Yanam
–
Sri Potti Sreeramulu Yanam Bridge
Yanam
–
Rajiv Gandhi Beach
33.
Union Territory
–
A union territory is a type of administrative division in the Republic of India. Unlike the states, which have their own elected governments, union territories are ruled directly by the Union Government, Union territories in India qualify as federal territories, by definition. The Parliament of India can pass a law to amend the Constitution and provide a Legislature with elected Members, in general, The President of India appoints an administrator or lieutenant-governor for each UT. There are seven union territories, including Delhi, the capital of India, and Chandigarh, Delhi and Puducherry operate somewhat differently from the other five. Delhi and Puducherry were given partial statehood and Delhi was redefined as the National Capital Territory of Delhi, Delhi and Puducherry have their own elected legislative assemblies and the executive councils of ministers with partially state-like function. These union territories could be changed to states in the future for more efficient administrative control
Union Territory
–
•
National Capital Territory of Delhi
34.
Pondicherry
–
Pondicherry is the capital city and the largest city of the Indian union territory of Puducherry. The city of Pondicherry is situated in Puducherry district of the union territory and it is affectionately known as Pondy, and has been officially known by the alternative name Puducherry in Tamil since 2006. Pondicherry city consists of 42 wards, wards 1-10 are located in north of the city. Wards 11-19 are located in Boulevard Town and remaining wards are located in the southwest of the downtown, the history of the city of Pondicherry is recorded only after the arrival of Dutch, Portuguese, British and French colonialists. A marketplace named Poduke or Poduca is recorded as a Roman trading destination from the mid 1st century, the area was part of the Pallava Kingdom of Kanchipuram in the 4th century. The Cholas of Thanjavur held it from the 10th to 13th centuries, the Vijayanagar Empire took control of almost all of the South of India in the 14th century and maintained control until 1638 when they were supplanted by the Sultan of Bijapur. The French East India Company established this town as their headquarters in 1674, five trading posts were established along the south Indian coast between 1668 and 1674. The town was separated by a canal into the French Quarter, during the Anglo-French wars, Puducherry changed hands frequently. On January 16,1761, the British captured Puducherry from the French, the British took control of the area again in 1793 at the Siege of Pondicherry amid the Wars of the French Revolution, and returned it to France in 1814. When the British gained control of the whole of India in the late 1850s, Pondicherry, Mahe, Yanam, Karaikal and Chandernagar remained a part of French India until 1954 when it was incorporated into the Indian Union along with the rest of French India. On 18 October 1954 in an election involving 178 people in Pondicherry Municipal and Commune Panchayat,170 people were in favour of independence. The de facto transfer of the French India territories form French governance to the Indian union took place on 1 November 1954, however, the formal de jure transfer of territory agreement between France and India was signed on 16 August 1962. The topography of Pondicherry is the same as that of coastal Tamil Nadu, pondicherrys average elevation is at sea level, and a number of sea inlets, referred to as backwaters can be found. Pondicherry experiences extreme coastal erosion as a result of a constructed in 1989. Where there was once a broad, sandy beach, now the city is protected against the sea by a 2-km-long seawall.5 m above sea level, today, the seawall consists of rows of granite boulders which are reinforced every year in an attempt to stop erosion. As a consequence of the seawall, Pondicherry experiences severe seabed erosion and turbulence at the coastal margin, whenever gaps appear as the stones fall into the continually eroding seabed, the government of Puducherry adds more boulders. Pondicherrys seawall has also caused beach erosion to migrate further up the coast, to the villages in Puducherry. In 2012, the Ministry of Power inaugurated the Smart Grid project in Puducherry, farming around Pondicherry include crops such as rice, pulses, sugarcane, coconuts, and cotton
Pondicherry
–
Clockwise from top right: Gandhi Statue,
Promenade Beach,
Matrimandir,
Sri Aurobindo Ashram,
Immaculate Conception Cathedral, Park Monument,
Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus,
Manakula Vinayagar Temple
Pondicherry
–
Pondicherry waterfront circa 1900
Pondicherry
–
Panoramic view of Pondicherry town
Pondicherry
–
A PRTC deluxe bus.
35.
Tamil Nadu
–
Tamil Nadu is one of the 29 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai, Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Puducherry and the South Indian states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh. The state shares a border with the nation of Sri Lanka. Tamil Nadu is the eleventh-largest state in India by area and the sixth-most populous, the state was ranked sixth among states in India according to the Human Development Index in 2011, with the second-largest state economy after Maharashtra. Tamil Nadu is the second largest state economy in India with ₹13,842 billion in gross domestic product after Maharashtra. Tamil Nadu was ranked as one of the top seven developed states in India based on a Multidimensional Development Index in a 2013 report published by the Reserve Bank of India and its official language is Tamil, which is one of the longest-surviving classical languages in the world. Tamil Nadu is home to natural resources. In addition, its people have developed and continue classical arts, classical music, historic buildings and religious sites include Hindu temples of Tamil architecture, hill stations, beach resorts, multi-religious pilgrimage sites, and eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Archaeological evidence points to this area being one of the longest continuous habitations in the Indian peninsula, the ASI archaeologists have proposed that the script used at that site is very rudimentary Tamil Brahmi. Adichanallur has been announced as a site for further excavation. About 60 per cent of the epigraphical inscriptions found by the ASI in India are from Tamil Nadu. A Neolithic stone celt with the Indus script on it was discovered at Sembian-Kandiyur near Mayiladuthurai in Tamil Nadu, according to epigraphist Iravatham Mahadevan, this was the first datable artefact bearing the Indus script to be found in Tamil Nadu. Mahadevan claimed that the find was evidence of the use of the Harappan language, the date of the celt was estimated at between 1500 BCE and 2000 BCE. The early history of the people and rulers of Tamil Nadu is a topic in Tamil literary sources known as Sangam literature, numismatic, archaeological and literary sources corroborate that the Sangam period lasted for about six centuries, from 300 BC to AD300. Three dynasties, namely the Chera, Chola and Pandya, ruled the area of present-day Tamil Nadu, the Chera ruled the whole of present-day Kerala and parts of western Tamil Nadu comprising Coimbatore, Dharmapuri, Karur, Salem and Erode districts from the capital of Vanchi Muthur. The Chola dynasty ruled the northern and central parts of Tamil Nadu from their capital, Uraiyur, All three dynasties had extensive trade relationships with Rome, Greece, Egypt, Ceylon, Phoenicia, Arabia, Mesopotamia and Persia. Trade flourished in commodities such as spices, ivory, pearls, beads, Chera traded extensively from Muziris on the west coast, Chola from Arikamedu and Puhar and Pandya through Korkai port. A Greco-Roman trade and travel document, the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea gives a description of the Tamil country, besides these three dynasties, the Sangam era Tamilakam was also divided into various provinces named nadu, meaning country
Tamil Nadu
–
Location of Tamil Nadu (marked in red) in
India
Tamil Nadu
–
Sage
Agastya father of Tamil literature,
Sangam period
Tamil Nadu
–
Megalithic Sarcophagus burial from Tamil Nadu.
36.
Karnataka
–
Karnataka is a state in south western region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, originally known as the State of Mysore, it was renamed Karnataka in 1973. The capital and largest city is Bangalore, the state covers an area of 191,976 square kilometres, or 5.83 percent of the total geographical area of India. It is the seventh largest Indian state by area, with 61,130,704 inhabitants at the 2011 census, Karnataka is the eighth largest state by population, comprising 30 districts. Kannada, one of the languages of India, is the most widely spoken. Most of these rivers flow out of Karnataka eastward into the Bay of Bengal, though several etymologies have been suggested for the name Karnataka, the generally accepted one is that Karnataka is derived from the Kannada words karu and nādu, meaning elevated land. Karu nadu may also be read as karu, meaning black, the British used the word Carnatic, sometimes Karnatak, to describe both sides of peninsular India, south of the Krishna. With an antiquity that dates to the paleolithic, Karnataka has been home to some of the most powerful empires of ancient, the philosophers and musical bards patronised by these empires launched socio-religious and literary movements which have endured to the present day. Karnataka has contributed significantly to both forms of Indian classical music, the Carnatic and Hindustani traditions, Karnatakas pre-history goes back to a paleolithic hand-axe culture evidenced by discoveries of, among other things, hand axes and cleavers in the region. Evidence of neolithic and megalithic cultures have also found in the state. Gold discovered in Harappa was found to be imported from mines in Karnataka, prior to the third century BCE, most of Karnataka formed part of the Nanda Empire before coming under the Mauryan empire of Emperor Ashoka. Four centuries of Satavahana rule followed, allowing them to large areas of Karnataka. The decline of Satavahana power led to the rise of the earliest native kingdoms, the Kadambas, the Kadamba Dynasty, founded by Mayurasharma, had its capital at Banavasi, the Western Ganga Dynasty was formed with Talakad as its capital. These were also the first kingdoms to use Kannada in administration, as evidenced by the Halmidi inscription, the Western Chalukyas patronised a unique style of architecture and Kannada literature which became a precursor to the Hoysala art of 12th century. Parts of modern-day Southern Karnataka were occupied by the Chola Empire at the turn of 11th century, the Cholas and the Hoysalas fought over the region in the early 12th century before it eventually came under Hoysala rule. At the turn of the first millennium, the Hoysalas gained power in the region, literature flourished during this time, which led to the emergence of distinctive Kannada literary metres, and the construction of temples and sculptures adhering to the Vesara style of architecture. The expansion of the Hoysala Empire brought minor parts of modern Andhra Pradesh, in the early 14th century, Harihara and Bukka Raya established the Vijayanagara empire with its capital, Hosapattana, on the banks of the Tungabhadra River in the modern Bellary district. The empire rose as a bulwark against Muslim advances into South India, in 1565, Karnataka and the rest of South India experienced a major geopolitical shift when the Vijayanagara empire fell to a confederation of Islamic sultanates in the Battle of Talikota
Karnataka
–
Mallikarjuna temple and Kashi Vishwanatha temple at
Pattadakal, Karnataka, built successively by the kings of the
Chalukya Empire and
Rashtrakuta Empire is a
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Karnataka
–
Map of Karnataka
Karnataka
–
Hoysala Empire sculptural articulation in
Belur.
Karnataka
–
Shilabalika sculpture at the Chennakeshva Temple in Belur
37.
Maharashtra
–
Maharashtra is a state in the western region of India and is Indias second-most populous state and third-largest state by area. It is the wealthiest Indian state and it is also the worlds second-most populous sub-national entity. It has over 112 million inhabitants and its capital, Mumbai, has a population of approximately 18 million, Nagpur is Maharashtras second capital as well as its winter capital. Maharashtras business opportunities along with its potential to offer a standard of living attract migrants from all over India. Ancient and medieval Maharashtra included the empires of the Satavahana dynasty, Rashtrakuta dynasty, Western Chalukyas, Mughals, the major rivers of the state are Godavari, and Krishna. The Narmada and Tapti Rivers flow near the border between Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, Maharashtra is the second most urbanised state in India. The state has several popular Hindu places of pilgrimage including Pandharpur, Dehu and Alandi, other places that attract pilgrims from other parts of India and beyond include Hazur Sahib Gurudwara at Nanded, Sai Baba shrine at Shirdi and Dikshabhumi at Nagpur. Maharashtra is the wealthiest and one of the most developed states in India, as of 2011, the state had a per capita income of ₹1.0035 lakh, more than the national average of ₹0.73 lakh. Its GDP per capita crossed the ₹1.20 lakh threshold for the first time in 2013, however, as of 2014, the GDP per capita reduced to ₹1.03 lakh Agriculture and industries are the largest parts of the states economy. Major industries include chemical products, electrical and non-electrical machinery, textiles, petroleum, Jai Maharashtra The modern Marathi language developed from the Maharashtri Prakrit, and the word Mahratta is found in the Jain Maharashtri literature. The terms Maharashtra, Maharashtri, Marathi and Maratha may have derived from the same root, however, their exact etymology is uncertain. But the Marathas as a people do not seem to be mentioned before the thirteenth or fourteenth century, the most widely accepted theory among the linguistic scholars is that the words Maratha and Maharashtra ultimately derived from a combination of Maha and rashtrika. The word rashtrika is a Sanskritized form of Ratta, the name of a tribe or dynasty of petty chiefs ruling in the Deccan region. Another theory is that the term is derived from Maha and ratha / rathi, an alternative theory states that the term derives from the word Maha and Rashtra. However, this theory has not found acceptance among scholars who believe it to be the Sanskritised interpretation of later writers. Maharashtra was ruled by the Maurya Empire in the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE, around 230 BCE Maharashtra came under the rule of the Satavahana dynasty for 400 years. The greatest ruler of the Satavahana Dynasty was Gautamiputra Satakarni, in 90 CE Vedishri, son of the Satavahana king Satakarni, the Lord of Dakshinapatha, wielder of the unchecked wheel of Sovereignty, made Junnar, thirty miles north of Pune, the capital of his kingdom. The state was ruled by Western Satraps, Gupta Empire, Gurjara-Pratihara, Vakataka, Kadambas, Chalukya Empire, Rashtrakuta Dynasty, and Western Chalukya before finally
Maharashtra
–
Trimurti sculpture of
Lord Dattatreya from
Elephanta Caves, an
UNESCO World Heritage Site in Maharashtra
Maharashtra
–
Ajanta Caves in
Aurangabad, Maharashtra
Maharashtra
–
Late Harappa figure from
Daimabad hoard,
Indus Valley Civilization
Maharashtra
–
Bronze statue of
Shivaji Maharaj in the collection of the Shri Bhavani Museum of
Aundh, Maharashtra.
38.
Odisha
–
Odisha (/ɒˈrɪsə, ɔː-, oʊ-/, is one of the 29 states of India, located in the eastern coast. It is surrounded by the states of West Bengal to the north-east, Jharkhand to the north, Chhattisgarh to the west and north-west, Odisha has 485 kilometres of coastline along the Bay of Bengal on its east, from Balasore to Malkangiri. It is the 9th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population and it is also the 3rd most populous state of India in terms of tribal population. Odia is the official and most widely spoken language, spoken by 33.2 million according to the 2001 Census. The ancient kingdom of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Mauryan emperor Ashoka in 261 BCE resulting in the Kalinga War, the modern state of Orissa was established on 1 April 1936, as a province in British India, and consisted predominantly of Odia-speaking regions. April 1 is celebrated as Odisha Day, the region is also known as Utkala and is mentioned in Indias national anthem, Jana Gana Mana. Cuttack was made the capital of the region by Anantavarman Chodaganga in c,1135, after which the city was used as the capital by many rulers, through the British era until 1948. Thereafter, Bhubaneswar became the capital of Odisha, the term Odisha is derived from the ancient Prakrit word Odda Visaya as in the Tirumalai inscription of Rajendra Chola I, which is dated to 1025. Sarala Das, who translated the Mahabharata into the Odia language in the 15th century, calls the region Odra Rashtra, the inscriptions of Kapilendra Deva of the Gajapati Kingdom on the walls of temples in Puri call the region Odisha or Odisha Rajya. After a brief debate, the house, Lok Sabha, passed the bill. On 24 March 2011, Rajya Sabha, the house of Parliament, also passed the bill. Prehistoric Acheulian tools dating to Lower Paleolithic era have been discovered in places in the region. Kalinga has been mentioned in ancient texts like Mahabharata, Vayu Purana, the Sabar people of Odisha have also been mentioned in the Mahabharata. Baudhayana mentions Kalinga as not yet being influenced by Vedic traditions, Ashoka of the Mauryan dynasty conquered Kalinga in the bloody Kalinga War in 261 BCE, which was the eighth year of his reign. According to his own edicts, in that war about 100,000 people were killed,150,000 were captured, the resulting bloodshed and suffering of the war is said to have deeply affected Ashoka. He turned into a pacifist and converted to Buddhism, by c.150 CE, emperor Kharavela, who was possibly a contemporary of Demetrius I of Bactria, conquered a major part of the Indian sub-continent. He also built the monastery atop the Udayagiri hill, subsequently, the region was ruled by monarchs, such as Samudragupta and Shashanka. It was also a part of Harshas empire, later, the kings of the Somavamsi dynasty began to unite the region
Odisha
–
Hathigumpha on the
Udayagiri Hills built in c. 150 BCE
Odisha
–
Location of Odisha in
India
Odisha
–
Konark Sun Temple built by the
Eastern Ganga dynasty (c. 1250) is a
World Heritage Site
Odisha
–
Satellite view of the
Mahanadi river
delta
39.
Chattisgarh
–
Chhattisgarh is one of 29 states located in central India. It is the 10th largest state in India, with an area of 135,194 km2, with a population of 28 million, Chhattisgarh is the 17th most-populated state in the country. A resource-rich state, it is a source of electricity and steel for the country, Chhattisgarh is one of the fastest-developing states in India. The state was formed on 1 November 2000 by partitioning 16 Chhattisgarhi-speaking southeastern districts of Madhya Pradesh, currently the state comprises 27 districts. The following are the list of the districts of Chhattisgarh State, There are several opinions as to the origin of the name Chhattisgarh, Chhattisgarh was popularized later during the time of the Maratha Empire and was first used in an official document in 1795. It is claimed that Chhattisgarh takes its name from the 36 ancient forts in the area, however, experts do not agree with this explanation, as 36 forts cannot be archaeologically identified in this region. Another view, more popular with experts and historians, is that Chhattisgarh is the form of Chedisgarh which means Raj or Empire of the Chedis. In ancient times, Chhattisgarh region had been part of the Chedi dynasty of Kaling, in the medieval period up to 1803, a major portion of present eastern Chhattisgarh was part of the Sambalpur Kingdom of Odisha. The northern and southern parts of the state are hilly, while the part is a fertile plain. The highest point in the state is the Bailadila Range, deciduous forests of the Eastern Highlands Forests cover roughly 44% of the state. The state animal is the van bhainsa, or wild water buffalo, the state bird is the pahari myna, or hill myna. The state tree is the Sal found in Bastar division, in the north lies the edge of the great Indo-Gangetic plain. The Rihand River, a tributary of the Ganges, drains this area, the eastern end of the Satpura Range and the western edge of the Chota Nagpur Plateau form an east-west belt of hills that divide the Mahanadi River basin from the Indo-Gangetic plain. The outline of Chhattisgarh is like a sea horse, the central part of the state lies in the fertile upper basin of the Mahanadi river and its tributaries. This area has extensive rice cultivation, the upper Mahanadi basin is separated from the upper Narmada basin to the west by the Maikal Hills and from the plains of Odisha to the east by ranges of hills. The southern part of the lies on the Deccan plateau, in the watershed of the Godavari River and its tributary. The Mahanadi is the river of the state. The other main rivers are Hasdo, Rihand, Indravati, Jonk, Arpa and it is situated in the east of Madhya Pradesh
Chattisgarh
–
Sal- The State Tree of Chhattisgarh
Chattisgarh
–
Seal
Chattisgarh
–
Raipur Railway Station Entrance
Chattisgarh
–
Swami Vivekananda Airport Raipur
40.
Andaman and Nicobar Islands
–
The Andaman and Nicobar Islands, one of the seven union territories of India, are a group of islands at the juncture of the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea. The territory is 150 km north of Aceh in Indonesia and separated from Thailand and it comprises two island groups, the Andaman Islands and the Nicobar Islands, separated by the 10°N parallel, with the Andamans to the north of this latitude, and the Nicobars to the south. The Andaman Sea lies to the east and the Bay of Bengal to the west, the territorys capital is the Andamanese town of Port Blair. The total land area of islands is approximately 8,249 km2. The capital of Nicobar Islands is Car Nicobar, the islands host the Andaman and Nicobar Command, the only tri-service geographical command of the Indian Armed Forces. The Andaman Islands are home to the only known Paleolithic people, the Sentinelese people, the earliest archaeological evidence yet documented goes back some 2,200 years. Since that time, the Andamanese have diversified into distinct linguistic, the Nicobar Islands appear to have been populated by people of various backgrounds. At the time of the European contact, the inhabitants were the Nicobarese people, speaking a Mon-Khmer language. Both are unrelated to the Andamanese, but being closely related to the Myanmarese, rajendra Chola I, one of the Tamil Chola dynasty kings, conquered the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to use them as a strategic naval base to launch a naval expedition against the Sriwijaya Empire. The islands also provided a maritime base for ships of the Maratha Empire in the 17th century. The Maratha navys admiral Kanhoji Angre established naval supremacy with a base in the islands and is credited with attaching those islands to India. The history of organised European colonisation on the islands began when the Danish settlers of the Danish East India Company arrived in the Nicobar Islands on 12 December 1755. On 1 January 1756, the Nicobar Islands were made a Danish colony, first named New Denmark, during 1754–1756 they were administrated from Tranquebar. The islands were abandoned due to outbreaks of malaria between 14 April 1759 and 19 August 1768, from 1787 to 1807/05,1814 to 1831,1830 to 1834. From 1 June 1778 to 1784, Austria mistakenly assumed that Denmark had abandoned its claims to the Nicobar Islands and attempted to establish a colony on them, renaming them Theresia Islands. In 1789 the British set up a base and penal colony on Chatham Island next to Great Andaman. Two years later the colony was moved to Port Cornwallis on Great Andaman, denmarks presence in the territory ended formally on 16 October 1868 when it sold the rights to the Nicobar Islands to Britain, which made them part of British India in 1869. In 1858 the British again established a colony at Port Blair, the primary purpose was to set up a penal colony criminal convicts from the Indian subcontinent
Andaman and Nicobar Islands
–
Andaman and Nicobar Islands अण्डमान और निकोबार द्वीपसमूह আন্দামান ও নিকোবর দ্বীপপুঞ্জ
Andaman and Nicobar Islands
–
Aerial view of the Andaman Islands.
Andaman and Nicobar Islands
–
Little Andaman Island seen by Spot satellite.
Andaman and Nicobar Islands
–
Ross Island a couple of days before the
tsunami of December 2004.
41.
Indian subcontinent
–
Geologically, the Indian subcontinent is related to the land mass that rifted from Gondwana and merged with the Eurasian plate nearly 55 million years ago. Geographically, it is the region in south-central Asia delineated by the Himalayas in the north, the Hindu Kush in the west. Politically, the Indian subcontinent usually includes Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, sometimes, the term South Asia is used interchangeably with Indian subcontinent. There is no consensus about which countries should be included in each and it is first attested in 1845 to refer to the North and South Americas, before they were regarded as separate continents. Its use to refer to the Indian subcontinent is seen from the twentieth century. It was especially convenient for referring to the region comprising both the British India and the states under British Paramountcy. The term Indian subcontinent also has a geological significance and it was, like the various continents, a part of the supercontinent of Gondwana. A series of tectonic splits caused formation of basins, each drifting in various directions. The geological region called the Greater India once included the Madagascar, Seychelles, Antartica, as a geological term, Indian subcontinent has meant that region formed from the collision of the Indian basin with Eurasia nearly 55 million years ago, towards the end of Paleocene. The Indian subcontinent has been a particularly common in the British Empire. The region, state Mittal and Thursby, has also labelled as India, Greater India. The BBC and some sources refer to the region as the Asian Subcontinent. Some academics refer to it as South Asian Subcontinent, the terms Indian subcontinent and South Asia are sometimes used interchangeably. There is no accepted definition on which countries are a part of South Asia or Indian subcontinent. In dictionary entries, the term subcontinent signifies a large, distinguishable subdivision of a continent, the region experienced high volcanic activity and plate subdivisions, creating Madagascar, Seychelles, Antartica, Austrolasia and the Indian subcontinent basin. The Indian subcontinent drifted northeastwards, colliding with the Eurasian plate nearly 55 million years ago and this geological region largely includes Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The zone where the Eurasian and Indian subcontinent plates meet remains one of the active areas. The English term mainly continues to refer to the Indian subcontinent, physiographically, it is a peninsular region in south-central Asia delineated by the Himalayas in the north, the Hindu Kush in the west, and the Arakanese in the east
Indian subcontinent
–
Indian subcontinent
42.
Maurya Empire
–
The Maurya Empire was a geographically extensive Iron Age historical power founded by Chandragupta Maurya which dominated ancient India between c. 322 and 187 BCE. Originating from the kingdom of Magadha in the Indo-Gangetic Plain in the side of the Indian subcontinent. The empire was the largest to have existed in the Indian subcontinent. By 316 BCE the empire had fully occupied Northwestern India, defeating and conquering the satraps left by Alexander, Chandragupta then defeated the invasion led by Seleucus I, a Macedonian general from Alexanders army, gaining additional territory west of the Indus River. The Maurya Empire was one of the largest empires of the world in its time and it declined for about 50 years after Ashokas rule ended, and it dissolved in 185 BCE with the foundation of the Shunga dynasty in Magadha. After the Kalinga War, the Empire experienced nearly half a century of peace, Mauryan India also enjoyed an era of social harmony, religious transformation, and expansion of the sciences and of knowledge. Ashoka sponsored the spreading of Buddhist ideals into Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia, West Asia, the population of the empire has been estimated to be about 50–60 million, making the Mauryan Empire one of the most populous empires of Antiquity. Archaeologically, the period of Mauryan rule in South Asia falls into the era of Northern Black Polished Ware, the Arthashastra and the Edicts of Ashoka are the primary sources of written records of Mauryan times. The Lion Capital of Ashoka at Sarnath has been made the national emblem of India, the Maurya Empire was founded by Chandragupta Maurya, with help from Chanakya, at Takshashila. Chanakya swore revenge and vowed to destroy the Nanda Empire, meanwhile, the conquering armies of Alexander the Great refused to cross the Beas River and advance further eastward, deterred by the prospect of battling Magadha. Alexander returned to Babylon and re-deployed most of his troops west of the Indus River, soon after Alexander died in Babylon in 323 BCE, his empire fragmented, and local kings declared their independence, leaving several smaller disunited satraps. Chandragupta Mauryas rise to power is shrouded in mystery and controversy, on one hand, a number of ancient Indian accounts, such as the drama Mudrarakshasa by Vishakhadatta, describe his royal ancestry and even link him with the Nanda family. A kshatriya clan known as the Mauryas are referred to in the earliest Buddhist texts, however, any conclusions are hard to make without further historical evidence. Chandragupta first emerges in Greek accounts as Sandrokottos, as a young man he is said to have met Alexander. He is also said to have met the Nanda king, angered him, Chanakyas original intentions were to train a guerilla army under Chandraguptas command. The Mudrarakshasa of Vishakhadatta as well as the Jaina work Parishishtaparvan talk of Chandraguptas alliance with the Himalayan king Parvatka, Chanakya encouraged Chandragupta Maurya and his army to take over the throne of Magadha. These men included the general of Taxila, accomplished students of Chanakya, the representative of King Porus of Kakayee, his son Malayketu. The Macedonians may then have participated, together with other groups, the Mudrarakshasa of Visakhadutta as well as the Jaina work Parisishtaparvan talk of Chandraguptas alliance with the Himalayan king Parvatka, often identified with Porus
Maurya Empire
–
Aśoka pillar at Sarnath. ca. 250 BCE.
Maurya Empire
–
Maurya Empire at its maximum extent
Maurya Empire
–
Ashoka pillar at
Vaishali
Maurya Empire
–
Bas relief at
Sanchi Stupa, 3rd century BCE.
43.
Ashoka
–
Ashoka was an ancient Indian emperor of the Maurya Dynasty who ruled almost all of the Indian subcontinent from c. 268 to 232 BCE. One of Indias greatest emperors, Ashoka reigned over a realm that stretched from the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan to the state of Bangladesh in the east. It covered the entire Indian subcontinent except parts of present-day Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, the empires capital was Pataliputra, with provincial capitals at Taxila and Ujjain. In about 260 BCE, Ashoka waged a destructive war against the state of Kalinga. He conquered Kalinga, which none of his ancestors had done and he embraced Buddhism after witnessing the mass deaths of the Kalinga War, which he himself had waged out of a desire for conquest. Ashoka reflected on the war in Kalinga, which reportedly had resulted in more than 100,000 deaths and 150,000 deportations, Ashoka converted gradually to Buddhism beginning about 263 BCE. He was later dedicated to the propagation of Buddhism across Asia, Ashoka regarded Buddhism as a doctrine that could serve as a cultural foundation for political unity. Ashoka is now remembered as a philanthropic administrator, in the Kalinga edicts, he addresses his people as his children, and mentions that as a father he desires their good. Ashokas name Aśoka means painless, without sorrow in Sanskrit, in his edicts, he is referred to as Devānāmpriya, and Priyadarśin. His fondness for his names connection to the Saraca asoca tree, along with the Edicts of Ashoka, his legend is related in the 2nd-century CE Ashokavadana, and in the Sri Lankan text Mahavamsa. The emblem of the modern Republic of India is an adaptation of the Lion Capital of Ashoka, Ashoka was born to the Mauryan emperor, Bindusara and a relatively lower ranked wife, Subhadrangī. Ashoka became a great emperor despite having an appearance that was unfavorable to his father. He was the grandson of Chandragupta Maurya, founder of the Mauryan dynasty, since, according to Roman historian Appian, Ashokas grandfather Chandragupta had made a marital alliance with Seleucus, there is a possibility that Ashoka had a Seleucid Greek grandmother. The Avadana texts mention that his mother was queen Subhadrangī, according to the Ashokavadana, she was the daughter of a Brahmin from the city of Champa. Though a palace intrigue kept her away from the emperor, this eventually ended and it is from her exclamation I am now without sorrow, that Ashoka got his name. The Divyāvadāna tells a story, but gives the name of the queen as Janapadakalyānī. Ashoka had several siblings, all of whom were his half-brothers from the other wives of Bindusara. His fighting qualities were apparent from an age and he was given royal military training
Ashoka
–
A c. 1st century BCE/CE relief from
Amaravati,
Andhra Pradesh (India). The figure in the centre may represent Ashoka.
Ashoka
–
A c. 1910 painting by
Abanindranath Tagore (1871–1951) depicting Ashoka's queen standing in front of the railings of the Buddhist monument at
Sanchi (
Raisen district,
Madhya Pradesh).
Ashoka
–
A similar four "
Indian lion "
Lion Capital of Ashoka atop an intact
Ashoka Pillar at Wat U Mong near Chiang Mai, Thailand showing another larger
Dharma Chakra /
Ashoka Chakra atop the four lions.
Ashoka
–
Ashokan Pillar at
Vaishali
44.
Saka
–
The Saka or Saca was the term used in Persian and Sanskrit sources for the Scythians, a large group of Eastern Iranian nomadic tribes on the Eurasian Steppe. Modern scholars usually use the term Saka to refer to Iranians of the Eastern Steppe, rené Grousset wrote that they formed a particular branch of the Scytho-Sarmatian family originating from nomadic Iranian peoples of the northwestern steppe in Eurasia. They migrated into Sogdiana and Bactria in Central Asia and then to the northwest of the Indian subcontinent where they were known as the Indo-Scythians, modern debate about the identity of the Saka is partly from ambiguous usage of the word by ancient, non-Saka authorities. According to Herodotus, the Persians gave the name Saka to all Scythians, however, Pliny the Elder claims that the Persians gave the name Sakai only to the Scythian tribes nearest to them. The Scythians to the far north of Assyria were also called the Saka suni by the Persians, the Assyrians, of the time of Esarhaddon, record campaigning against a people they called in the Akkadian the Ashkuza or Ishhuza. However, modern consensus is that the Saka language, ancestor to the Pamir languages in northern India and Khotanese in Xinjiang. Another people, the Gimirrai, who were known to the ancient Greeks as the Cimmerians, were associated with the Sakas. In ancient Hebrew texts, the Ashkuz are considered to be an offshoot from the Gimirri. The Saka were regarded by the Babylonians as synonymous with the Gimirrai, the Sakā paradraya were the western Scythians or Sarmatians. Both the Sakā tigraxaudā and Sakā haumavargā are thought to be located in Central Asia east of the Caspian Sea, Sakā haumavargā is considered to be the same as Amyrgians, the Saka tribe in closest proximity to Bactria and Sogdiana. In the modern era, the archaeologist Hugo Winckler was the first to associate the Sakas with the Scyths, J. M. Sakā and Skuthai evidently constituted a generic name for the nomads on the northern frontiers. Persian sources often treat them as a tribe called the Saka. Modern scholars usually use the term Saka to refer to Iranian-speaking tribes who inhabited the Eastern Steppe, the Saka people were an Iranian people who spoke a language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. They are known to the ancient Greeks as Scythians and are attested in historical and archaeological records dating to around the 8th century BC. In the Achaemenid-era Old Persian inscriptions found at Persepolis, dated to the reign of Darius I, likewise an inscription dated to the reign of Xerxes I has them coupled with the Dahae people of Central Asia. The contemporary Greek historian Herodotus noted that the Achaemenid Persians called all of the Iranian Scythian peoples as the Saka. According to Herodotus, Cyrus the Great confronted the Massagetae, a related to the Saka. Darius the Great also waged wars against the eastern Sakas, who fought him with three armies led by three kings according to Polyaenus, in 520–519 BC, Darius I defeated the Sakā tigraxaudā tribe and captured their king Skunkha
Saka
–
Gold artifacts of the Saka in Bactria, at the site of
Tillia tepe.
Saka
–
Approximate extent of
Eastern Iranian languages in the 1st century BC is shown in orange.
Saka
–
A
cataphract -style parade armour of a Saka royal, also know as " The Golden Warrior ", from the
Issyk kurgan, an historic burial near ex-capital city of
Almaty,
Kazakhstan
Saka
–
Artifacts found the tombs 2 and 4 of Tillia Tepe and reconstitution of their use on the man and woman found in these tombs
45.
Pandyan dynasty
–
The Pandyan or Pandiyan or Pandian dynasty was an ancient Tamil dynasty, one of the three Tamil dynasties, the other two being the Chola and the Chera. The Pandya King, along with Chera King and Chola King, were referred to as the Three Crowned Kings of Tamilakam, the dynasty ruled parts of South India from around 600 BCE to first half of 17th century CE. They initially ruled their country Pandya Nadu from Korkai, a seaport on the southernmost tip of the Indian Peninsula, fish being their flag, Pandyas were experts in water management, agriculture and fisheries and they were eminent sailors and sea traders too. Pandyan was well known since ancient times, with contacts, even diplomatic, the Pandyan empire was home to temples including Meenakshi Amman Temple in Madurai, and Nellaiappar Temple built on the bank of the river Thamirabarani in Tirunelveli. The Pandya kings were called either Jatavarman or Maravarman Pandyan, from being Jains in their early ages, they became Shaivaites after some centuries of rule. Strabo states that an Indian king called Pandion sent Augustus Caesar presents and gifts of honour, the country of the Pandyas, Pandi Mandala, was described as Pandyan Mediterranea in the Periplus and Modura Regia Pandyan by Ptolemy. The early Pandyan Dynasty of the Sangam Literature faded into obscurity upon the invasion of the Kalabhras, the dynasty revived under Kadungon in the early 6th century, pushed the Kalabhras out of the Tamil country and ruled from Madurai. They again went into decline with the rise of the Cholas in the 9th century and were in constant conflict with them. The Pandyas allied themselves with the Sinhalese and the Cheras in harassing the Chola empire until they found an opportunity for reviving their fortunes during the late 13th century and they also had extensive trade links with the Southeast Asian maritime empires of Srivijaya and their successors. The Pandyas excelled in trade and literature. They controlled the fisheries along the South Indian coast, between Sri Lanka and India, which produced some of the finest pearls in the known ancient world. Traditionally, the legendary Sangams were held in Madurai under their patronage, during their history, the Pandyas were repeatedly in conflict with the Pallavas, Cholas, Hoysalas and finally the Muslim invaders from the Delhi Sultanate. The Islamic invasion led to the end of Pandyan supremacy in South India,1323, Jaffna Kingdom in Sri Lanka declared its independence from the crumbling Pandyan Empire. The Pandyans lost their capital city Madurai to Madurai Sultanate in 1335, however they shifted their capital to Tenkasi and continued to rule the Tirulnelveli, Tuticorin, Ramanad, Sivagangai regions. Meanwhile, Madurai sultanate was replaced by Nayaka governors of Vijayanagara in 1378, in 1529 Nayaka governors declared independence and established Madurai Nayak dynasty. The word Pandya is derived from the Tamil word Pandu meaning very old, another theory is that the word Pandya is derived from the Tamil word Pandi meaning bull. Ancient Tamils, considered the bull as a sign of masculinity, the earliest Pandyans, probably used the bull as its emblem. Another theory suggests that in Sangam Tamil lexicon the word Pandya means old country in contrast with Chola meaning new country, Chera meaning hill country, the Chera, Chola and Pandya are the traditional Tamil siblings and together with the Pallavas are the major Kings that ruled ancient Tamilakam
Pandyan dynasty
–
Extent of the Pandya Territories c. 1250 CE
Pandyan dynasty
–
Four-armed
Vishnu, Pandya Dynasty, 8th–9th century CE.
Pandyan dynasty
–
Temple between hill symbols and elephant coin of the Pandyas Sri Lanka 1st century CE.
46.
Chola dynasty
–
The Chola dynasty was one of the longest-ruling dynasties in the history of southern India. The earliest datable references to this Tamil dynasty are in inscriptions from the 3rd century BCE left by Ashoka, as one of the Three Crowned Kings of Tamilakam, the dynasty continued to govern over varying territory until the 13th century CE. The whole country south of the Tungabhadra was united and held as one state for a period of two centuries and more, the Chola fleet represented the zenith of ancient Indian sea power. During the period 1010–1200, the Chola territories stretched from the islands of the Maldives in the south to as far north as the banks of the Godavari River in Andhra Pradesh. Rajaraja Chola conquered peninsular South India, annexed parts of which is now Sri Lanka, Rajendra Chola sent a victorious expedition to North India that touched the river Ganges and defeated the Pala ruler of Pataliputra, Mahipala. He also successfully invaded cities of Srivijaya of Malaysia and Indonesia, the Chola dynasty went into decline at the beginning of the 13th century with the rise of the Pandyan Dynasty, which ultimately caused their downfall. The Cholas left a lasting legacy and their patronage of Tamil literature and their zeal in the building of temples has resulted in some great works of Tamil literature and architecture. The Chola kings were avid builders and envisioned the temples in their kingdoms not only as places of worship and they pioneered a centralised form of government and established a disciplined bureaucracy. The Chola school of art spread to Southeast Asia and influenced the architecture, the Cholas are also known as the Choda. There is very little available in regarding their origin. Its antiquity is evident from the mentions in ancient Tamil literature, Later medieval Cholas also claimed a long and ancient lineage. Mentions in the early Sangam literature indicate that the earliest kings of the dynasty antedated 100 CE, Cholas were mentioned in Ashokan Edicts of 3rd Century BCE as one of the neighboring countries existing in the South. A commonly held view is that Chola is, like Chera and Pandya, the annotator Parimelazhagar said, The charity of people with ancient lineage are forever generous in spite of their reduced means. Other names in use for the Cholas are Killi, Valavan and Sembiyan. Killi perhaps comes from the Tamil kil meaning dig or cleave and this word often forms an integral part of early Chola names like Nedunkilli, Nalankilli and so on, but almost drops out of use in later times. Valavan is most probably connected with valam – fertility and means owner or ruler of a fertile country, in Tamil lexicon Chola means Soazhi or Saei denoting a newly formed kingdom, in the lines of Pandya or the old country. There is very little evidence available of the Cholas prior to the 7th century. Historic records exist thereafter, including inscriptions on temples, the main source for the available information of the early Cholas is the early Tamil literature of the Sangam Period
Chola dynasty
–
Map showing the extent of the Chola empire
Chola dynasty
–
South India in BC 300, showing the Chera, Pandya and Chola Kingdoms
Chola dynasty
–
Gopuram Corner View of Thanjavur Brihadeeswara Temple.
47.
Bobbili
–
Bobbili is a town in Vizianagaram district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Bobbili is located at 18. 5667°N83. 3667°E /18.5667,83.3667 and it has an average elevation of 103 metres. The town of Bobbili was founded during the 17th century by Pedda Rayudu, the town was originally named Pedda-puli after Sher Muhammad Khan, the Nawab of Srikakulam who granted it as a gift to the maharajah of Venkatgiri for his services in his southern campaigns. However, with time, the became known as Pebbuli, then Bebbuli. The battle of Bobbili in 1757, is one of the significant episodes in the history of the state of Andhra Pradesh, Vizianagaram kings won the war with the help of French General Marquis de Bussy. This battle gave the glamour of eternal bravery to Bobbili name, as of 2011 Census of India, the town had a population of 56,819. The total population constitute,28,285 males,28,534 females and 5,693 children in the age group of 0–6 years, the average literacy rate stands at 76. 66% with 39,193 literates, higher than the national average of 74%. The primary and secondary education is imparted by government, aided and private schools. The medium of instruction followed by different schools are English, Telugu, Bobbili is known for its quality education. An age old college in the form of Rajah R. S. R. K, ranga Rao College and even older school in the form of Samsthanam High School Parliamentary and assembly constituencies Bobbili is a parliamentary constituency in Indian Lok Sabha. It had 9,70,612 voters during the elections, since 2009 Bobbili Parliamentary Constituency no longer exists and is replaced with Vizianagaram Parliamentary constituency. Bobbili is a constituency in Andhra Pradesh. There are 1,20,173 registered voters in this constituency in 1999 elections, Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation has set up Industrial Development area at Bobbili in 2008. Nearly 200 units will be set up in an area of over 1,000 acres of land, the state government has spent about Rs.20 crore is on infrastructure like roads, water supply, power transmission including a 33 kV sub-station. The major projects in the pipeline include B. K, steels, Vizag Profiles and Ferro Alloys. The Growth Centre has a potential to employ 10,000 people directly, Bobbili Railway junction is in Visakhapatnam division of East Coast Railway zone. It is located at Mallampeta which is named after the goddess Mallamma and it is located in the Vizianagaram-Raipur railway line. There is a Broad-gauge railway line between Bobbili and Salur, Andhra Pradesh Vizianagaram district List of municipalities in Andhra Pradesh
Bobbili
–
Musical concert Mandapam at simhachalam
Bobbili
–
Statue of Thandra Paparayudu at RK Beach
Bobbili
–
A lion sculpture atop the celebrated Venugopala Swamy temple
Bobbili
–
Topics
48.
Golconda
–
It is also a tehsil of Hyderabad district, Telangana, India. The region is known for the mines that have produced some of the worlds most famous gems, including the Koh-i-Noor, the Hope Diamond and the Nassak Diamond. Golkonda was originally known as Mankal. Golkonda Fort was first built by the Kakatiya dynasty as part of their defenses along the lines of the Kondapalli Fort. The city and the fortress were built on a hill that is 120 meters high. The fort was rebuilt and strengthened by Rani Rudrama Devi and her successor Prataparudra, later, the fort came under the control of the Musunuri Nayaks, who defeated the Tughlaqi army occupying Warangal. It was ceded by the Musunuri Kapaya Nayak to the Bahmani Sultanate as part of a treaty in 1364, under the Bahmani Sultanate, Golkonda slowly rose to prominence. Sultan Quli Qutb-ul-Mulk, sent as a governor of Telangana, established it as the seat of his government around 1501, Bahmani rule gradually weakened during this period, and Sultan Quli formally became independent in 1538, establishing the Qutb Shahi dynasty based in Golkonda. Over a period of 62 years, the mud fort was expanded by the first three Qutb Shahi sultans into the present structure, a fortification of granite extending around 5 km in circumference. It remained the capital of the Qutb Shahi dynasty until 1590 when the capital was shifted to Hyderabad, the Qutb Shahis expanded the fort, whose 7 kilometres outer wall enclosed the city. The fort finally fell into ruin in 1687, after a long siege leading to its fall at the hands of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. The Golkonda Fort used to have a vault where once the famous Koh-i-Noor, Golkonda is renowned for the diamonds found on the south-east at Kollur Mine near Kollur, Guntur district, Paritala and Atkur in Krishna district and cut in the city during the Kakatiya reign. At that time, India had the only known diamond mines in the world, Golkonda was the market city of the diamond trade, and gems sold there came from a number of mines. The fortress-city within the walls was famous for diamond trade, however, Europeans believed that diamonds were found only in the fabled Golkonda mines. Its name has taken a generic meaning and has come to be associated with great wealth, gemologists use this classification to denote a diamond with a complete lack of nitrogen, Golconda material is also referred to as 2A. During the Renaissance and the modern eras, the name Golkonda acquired a legendary aura. The lowest of these is the outermost enclosure into which we enter by the Fateh Darwaza studded with giant iron spikes near the south-eastern corner, at Fateh Darwaza can be experienced a fantastic acoustic effect, characteristic of the engineering marvels at Golkonda. A hand clap at a point below the dome at the entrance reverberates and can be heard clearly at the Bala Hisar pavilion. This worked as a note to the royals in case of an attack
Golconda
–
Golconda Fort
Golconda
–
Ruins of the Fort
Golconda
–
Golkonda Fort in 1906
Golconda
–
The
Hope Diamond
49.
Nizam of Hyderabad
–
The Asaf Jah Dynasty was founded by Mir Qamar-ud-Din Siddiqi, a viceroy of the Deccan under the Mughal Empire from 1713 to 1721. He intermittently ruled after Aurangzebs death in 1707, in 1724, Mughal control lapsed, and Asaf Jah declared himself independent in Hyderabad. Following the decline of the Mughal power, the region of Deccan saw the rise of Maratha Empire, the Nizam himself saw many invasions by the Marathas in the 1720s, which resulted in the Nizam paying a regular tax to the Marathas. The major battles fought between the Marathas and the Nizam include Palkhed, Bhopal, Rakshasbhuvan, and Kharda, in all of which the Nizam lost. Following the conquest of Deccan by Bajirao I and the imposition of chauth by him, Nizam remained a tributary of the Marathas for all intent and purposes. In 1805, after the British victory in the Second Anglo-Maratha War, in 1903 the Berar region of the state was separated and merged into the Central Provinces of British India, to form the Central Provinces and Berar. In 1947, at the time of the partition of India, Britain offered the 566 princely states in the sub-continent the option of acceding to either India or Pakistan, Hyderabad was the largest and most prosperous state of all princely states in India. It covered 82,698 square miles of fairly homogeneous territory and had a population of roughly 16.34 million people, Hyderabad State had its own army, airline, telecommunication system, railway network, postal system, currency and radio broadcasting service. In spite of the overwhelming Hindu majority, Hindus were severely under-represented in government, police, of 1765 officers in the State Army,1268 were Muslims,421 were Hindus, and 121 others were Christians, Parsis and Sikhs. Of the officials drawing a salary between Rs. 600-1200 per month,59 were Muslims,5 were Hindus and 38 were of other religions, the Nizam and his nobles, who were mostly Muslims, owned 40% of the total land in the state. The Nizam decided to keep Hyderabad independent, unlike the other princely states, in September 1948, in Operation Polo, the Indian Army marched into Hyderabad, deposed the Nizam, and annexed the state into the Indian Union. Seven Nizams ruled Hyderabad for two centuries until 1947, the Asaf Jahi rulers were great patrons of literature, art, architecture, and culture, and rich food. The Nizams patronized aspects of a Persianate society, copied from their Turco-Mongol Mughal overlords, the last Nizam had been the richest man in the world in his time. He pushed education, science, and establishment of Osmania University, nizām-ul-mulk was a title first used in Urdu around 1600 to mean Governor of the realm or Deputy for the Whole Empire. The word is derived from the Arabic language, as in Abu Ali Hasan ibn Ali Tusi, better known by his title of Nizam al-Mulk, Nizām, meaning order. The Nizam was referred to as Ala Hadrat / Ala Hazrat or Nizam Sarkar, the first Nizam ruled on behalf of the Mughal emperors. After the death of Aurangzeb, the Nizams split from the Mughals to form an independent kingdom, when the British achieved paramountcy over India, the Nizams were allowed to continue to rule their princely states as client kings. The Nizams retained internal power over Hyderabad State until 17 September 1948 when Hyderabad was integrated into the new Indian Union
Nizam of Hyderabad
–
Coat of Arms
Nizam of Hyderabad
–
Osman Ali Khan
Nizam of Hyderabad
–
Hyderabad State in 1909
Nizam of Hyderabad
–
Qamar-ud-din Khan, Asaf Jah I
50.
Satavahana
–
The Satavahanas were an ancient Indian dynasty based in the Deccan region. The Satavahana kingdom mainly comprised the present-day Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, at different times, their rule extended to parts of modern Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Karnataka. The dynasty had different capital cities at different times, including Pratishthana, the origin of the dynasty is uncertain, but according to the Puranas, their first king overthrew the Kanva dynasty. In the post-Maurya era, the Satavahanas established peace in the Deccan region, in particular their struggles with the Saka Western Satraps went on for a long time. The dynasty reached its zenith under the rule of Gautamiputra Satakarni, the kingdom fragmented into smaller states by the early 3rd century CE. The Satavahanas were early issuers of Indian state coinage struck with images of their rulers and they formed a cultural bridge and played a vital role in trade and the transfer of ideas and culture to and from the Indo-Gangetic Plain to the southern tip of India. They supported Brahmanism as well as Buddhism, and patronised Prakrit language instead of Sanskrit, the date and place of origin of the Satavahanas, as well as the meaning of the dynastys name, are a matter of debate among the historians. According to one theory, the word Satavahana is a Prakrit form of the Sanskrit Sapta-Vahana and this would indicate that the Satavahanas originally claimed association with the legendary solar dynasty, as was common in ancient India. According to Inguva Kartikeya Sarma, the name is derived from the words sata and vahana. Another theory connects their name to the earlier Satiyaputa dynasty, yet another theory derives their name from the Munda words Sadam and Harpan, implying son of the performer of a horse sacrifice. Several rulers of the dynasty bear the name or title Satakarni, Satavahana, Satakarni, Satakani and Shalivahana appear to be variations of the same word. Damodar Dharmanand Kosambi theorized that the word Satakarni is derived from the Munda words sada, the Puranas use the name Andhra or Andhra-Bhritya for the Satavahanas. The term Andhra may refer to ethnicity or territory of the dynasty and it does not appear in the dynastys own records. The use of the name Andhra in the Puranas has led scholars to believe that the dynasty originated in the eastern Deccan region. At Kotilingala in Telangana, coins bearing the legend Rano Siri Chimuka Satavahanasa were found, coins attributed to Simukas successors Kanha and Satakarni I were also discovered at Kotilingla. Based on these discoveries, historians such as D. R. Reddy, S. Reddy, however, the coin samples from Kotlingala are small, and it is not certain if these coins were minted there or reached there from somewhere else. Sastry also later changed his view, and stated that the two kings were different, as for the Puranas, these texts were compiled much later, during the Gupta period, and it is not certain if the Satavahanas were referred to as Andhras during their time. Another section of scholars believe that the Satavahanas originated in western Deccan, all of the four extant inscriptions from the early Satavahana period have been found in and around this region
Satavahana
–
Territorial extent of the Satavahana Empire (continuous line) and conquests (dotted line).
Satavahana
–
Chronology of the
Telugu people,
Andhra Pradesh, and
Telangana history
Satavahana
–
Satavahanas laid foundations to Buddhist rock-cut architecture during this period,
Ajanta caves.
Satavahana
–
Fragment of Amaravati
Stupa.
India
