Tuesday 6 September 2011

DOSE


dOSE (hINDUISM)

Adi Shankara

Who is Sankaracharya?
Jagadguru Sri Adi Sankaracharya was the greatest exponent of the doctrine of Advaita Vedanta and a savior of Vedic Dharma. Salutations to Sankara, who is an ever shining star on the sky of Indian philosophy.
The existence of Vedic Dharma in India today is due to Sankara. The forces opposed to Vedic religion were more numerous and powerful at the time of Sankara than they are today. Still, single-handed, within a very short time, Sankara overpowered them all and restored the Vedic Dharma and Advaita Vedanta to its pristine purity in the land pure knowledge and spirituality.

Sankaracharya occupies a very important position in the history of Indian philosophy.
(excerpts taken from http://dlshq.org/saints/sankara.htm)
Philosophy of Adi ShankaraShankara spread the tenets of Advaita Vedanta, the supreme philosophy of monism to the four corners of India with his ‘digvijaya’ (the conquest of the quarters). The quintessence of Advaita Vedanta (non-dualism) is to reiterate the truth of reality of one’s essential divine identity and to reject one’s thought of being a finite human being with a name and form subject to earthly changes.
According to the Advaita maxim, the True Self is Brahman (Divine Creator). Brahman is the ‘I’ of ‘Who Am I?’The Advaita doctrine propagated by Shankara views that the bodies are manifold but the separate bodies have the one Divine in them.
The phenomenal world of beings and non-beings is not apart from the Brahman but ultimately become one with Brahman. The crux of Advaita is that Brahman alone is real, and the phenomenal world is unreal or an illusion. Through intense practice of the concept of Advaita, ego and ideas of duality can be removed from the mind of man.The comprehensive philosophy of Shankara is inimitable for the fact that the doctrine of Advaita includes both worldly and transcendental experience.
Shankara while stressing the sole reality of Brahman, did not undermine the phenomenal world or the multiplicity of Gods in the scriptures.Shankara’s philosophy is based on three levels of reality, viz., paramarthika satta (Brahman), vyavaharika satta (empirical world of beings and non-beings) and pratibhashika satta (reality).
Shankara’s theology maintains that seeing the self where there is no self causes spiritual ignorance or avidya. One should learn to distinguish knowledge (jnana) from avidya to realize the True Self or Brahman. He taught the rules of bhakti, yoga and karma to enlighten the intellect and purify the heart as Advaita is the awareness of the ‘Divine’.
Shankara developed his philosophy through commentaries on the various scriptures. It is believed that the revered saint completed these works before the age of sixteen.
His major works fall into three distinct categories – commentaries on the Upanishads, the Brahmasutras and the Bhagavad Gita.
The most important of the works is the commentaries on the Brahmasutras – Brahmasutrabhashya – considered the core of Shankara’s philosophy of Advaita.
Shankaracharya’s Monastic Centers
Shri Shankaracharya established four ‘mutts’ or monastic centers in four corners of India and put his four main disciples to head them and serve the spiritual needs of the ascetic community within the Vedantic tradition. He classified the wandering mendicants into 10 main groups to consolidate their spiritual strength.
Each mutt was assigned one Veda.
The mutts are Jyothir Mutt at Badrinath in northern India with Atharva Veda; Sarada Mutt at Sringeri in southern India with Yajur Veda; Govardhan Mutt at Jaganath Puri in eastern India with Rig Veda and Kalika Mutt at Dwarka in western India with Sama Veda.

It is believed that Shankara attained heavenly abode in Kedarnath and was only 32 years old when he died.
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DarshanAuthorDarshanAuthor
1. NyayaSage Gautam4. YogaMaharshi Patanjali
2. VaisheshikSage Kanad5. Purva
(mimansa)		Sage Jaimini
3. SankhyaSage Kapil6. Vedanta
(Uttarmimansa)		Maharshi Vyas

(Uttar) Mimansa or the Vedanta Darshan: ‘It is also called the Vedanta, Uttarmimansa and the Shankardarshan. This Darshanis the jewel in the crown of the entire science of Spirituality. This Darshan envisages the ultimate culmination of the Darshanikschool of thought and philosophy prior to Shankaracharya. In the Upanishads the Vedanta is referred to as the ultimate doctrine of the Shrutis. The Upanishads themselves were called the Vedanta. The definition of the Vedanta can be given as -

Meaning: The concluding part of the Vedas and the holy text in the form of the Upanishads which describes Brahman is known as the Vedanta. - Nyayakosh’
The Brahmasutras too elucidate the meaning of the Upanishads and hence are included in the Vedanta. The Upanishads were referred to as the Vedanta because they unravelled the mysterious meaning of the Vedas. Sage Badarayan compiled theBrahmasutras with the motive of eliminating the contradictions and differences of opinion in the Upanishads and creating an unanimous opinion.
‘Worship and spiritual practice have to be founded on some Darshan. Only then do they derive some significance. Prior to the elucidation of the unmanifest form of The Lord done in the Vedas there was no Darshan about its manifestation. Sage Vyas wrote theBrahmasutras and accomplished that task. He gathered the spiritual doctrines in that holy text in the form of aphorisms (sutras).Shankaracharya, Nimbarkacharya, Ramanujacharya, Vallabhacharya, Madhvacharya and other authors of theDarshans have compiled their own sectarian Darshans based on the Brahmasutras.’ 
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dOSE--Medieval History of India

For a period that has come to be so strongly associated with the Islamic influence and rule in India, Medieval Indian history went for almost three whole centuries under the so-called indigenous rulers, that included the Chalukyas, the Pallavas, the Pandyas, the Rashtrakutas, the Muslims rulers and finally the Mughal Empire. The most important dynasty to emerge in the middle of the 9th century was that of the Cholas.

The Palas

Between 8th and 10th centuries A.D., a number of powerful empires dominated the eastern and northern parts of India. The Pala king Dharmpala, son of Gopala reigned from the late 8th century A.D. to early 9th century A.D.Nalanda University and Vikramashila University were founded by Dharmpala.

The Senas

After the decline of the Palas, the Sena dynasty established its rule in Bengal. The founder of the dynasty wasSamantasena. The greatest ruler of the dynasty was Vijaysena. He conquered the whole of Bengal and was succeeded by his son Ballalasena. He reigned peacefully but kept his dominions intact. He was a great scholar and wrote four works including one on astronomy. The last ruler of this dynasty was Lakshamanasena under whose reign the Muslims invaded Bengal, and the empire fell.

The Pratihara

The greatest ruler of the Pratihara dynasty was Mihir Bhoja. He recovered Kanauj (Kanyakubja) by 836, and it remained the capital of the Pratiharas for almost a century. He built the city Bhojpal (Bhopal). Raja Bhojaand other valiant Gujara kings faced and defeated many attacks of the Arabs from west.
Between 915-918 A.D, Kanauj was attacked by a Rashtrakuta king, who devastated the city leading to the weakening of the Pratihara Empire. In 1018, Kannauj then ruled by Rajyapala Pratihara was sacked by Mahmud of Ghazni. The empire broke into independent Rajput states.


The Rashtrakutas

This dynasty, which ruled from Karnataka, is illustrious for several reasons. They ruled the territory vaster than that of any other dynasty. They were great patrons of art and literature. The encouragement that several Rashtrakuta kings provided to education and literature is unique, and the religious tolerance exercised by them was exemplary.

The Chola Empire of the South

It emerged in the middle of the 9th century A.D., covered a large part of Indian peninsula, as well as parts of Sri Lankaand the Maldives Islands.
The first important ruler to emerge from the dynasty was Rajaraja Chola I and his son and successor Rajendra Chola.Rajaraja carried forward the annexation policy of his father. He led armed expedition to distant lands of Bengal, Orissaand Madhya Pradesh.
The successors of Rajendra I, Rajadhiraj and Rajendra II were brave rulers who fought fiercely against the laterChalukya kings, but could not check the decline of Chola Empire. The later Chola kings were weak and incompetent rulers. The Chola Empire thus lingered on for another century and a half, and finally came to an end with the invasion of Malik Kafur in the early 14th century A.D.

cOURTESY--http://india.gov.in/knowindia/medieval_history.php
Posted by swapnil at 9:51 AM 0 comments 
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Dose--The ChALUKYAS

Badami Chalukya Empire Map
  1. The Chalukya Empire was an Indian royal dynasty that ruled large parts of southern and central India between the 6th and the 12th centuries. During this period, they ruled as three related, but individual dynasties. The earliest dynasty, known as the "Badami Chalukyas", ruled from their capital Vatapi (modern Badami) from the middle of the 6th century. The Badami Chalukyas began to assert their independence at the decline of the Kadamba kingdom of Banavasi and rapidly rose to prominence during the reign of Pulakesi II. After the death of Pulakesi II, the Eastern Chalukyas became an independent kingdom in the eastern Deccan. They ruled from their capital Vengi until about the 11th century. In the western Deccan, the rise of the Rashtrakutas in the middle of 8th century eclipsed the Chalukyas of Badami before being revived by their descendants, the Western Chalukyas, in late 10th century. These Western Chalukyas ruled from Kalyani (modern Basavakalyan) till the end of the 12th century.
  2. Hiuen-Tsiang, a Chinese traveller had visited the court of Pulakesi II. At the time of this visit, as mentioned in the Aihole record, Pulakesi II had divided his empire into three Maharashtrakas or great provinces comprising of 99,000 villages each. This empire possibly covered present day Karnataka, Maharashtra and coastal Konkan.
  3. Pulakesi II is the most famous ruler of the Chalukya dynasty. In his reign the Chalukyas of Badami saw their kingdom extend over most of the Deccan.
  4. The Chalukyas ruled over the Deccan plateau in India for over 600 years. During this period, they ruled as three closely related, but individual dynasties. These are the "Chalukyas of Badami" (also called "Early Chalukyas"), who ruled between the 6th and the 8th century, and the two sibling dynasties, the "Chalukyas of Kalyani" (also called Western Chalukyas or "Later Chalukyas") and the "Chalukyas of Vengi" (also called Eastern Chalukyas).
  5. The Aihole inscription of Pulakesi II (634) written by his court poet Ravikirti in Sanskrit language and Kannada script is considered as an excellent piece of poetry. A few verses of a poetess named Vijayanaka who describes herself as the "dark Sarasvati" has been preserved. It is possible that she may have been a queen of prince Chandraditya (a son of Pulakesi II).
  6. The rule of the Western and Eastern Chalukyas, however, is a major event in the history of Kannada and Telugu literatures respectively. By the 9th–10th centuries, Kannada language had already seen some of its most notable writers. The "three gems" of Kannada literature, Adikavi Pampa, Sri Ponna and Ranna belonged to this period.
  7. The army was well organised and this was the reason for Pulakesi II's success beyond the Vindyas.It consisted of an infantry, a cavalry, an elephant corps and a powerful navy. The Chinese traveller Hiuen-Tsiang wrote that the Chalukyan army had hundreds of elephants which were intoxicated with liquor prior to battle. It was with their navy that they conquered Revatidvipa (Goa), and Puri on east coast of India. Rashtrakuta inscriptions use the term Karnatabala when referring to the powerful Chalukya armies.
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dOSE --(Vijaynagar Empire)

Inside the Hazara Rama temple at Hampi
  1. The Vijayanagara Empire ( referred as the Kingdom of Bisnaga by the Portuguese, was a South Indian empire based in the Deccan Plateau. Established in 1336 by Harihara I and his brother Bukka Raya I, it lasted until 1646 although its power declined after a major military defeat in 1565 by the Deccan sultanates.
  2. Harihara I, (1336-1356 CE) also called Hakka and Vira Harihara I, was the founder of the Vijayanagara empire. He was Bhavana Sangama’s eldest son, belonged to the kuruba clan and was founder of the Sangama dynasty, the first among the four dynasties that ruled Vijayanagara. Immediately after coming to power, he built a fort at Barkuru, on the west coast of present day Karnataka.
  3. The empire is named after its capital city of Vijayanagara, whose impressive ruins surround modern Hampi, now a World Heritage Site in modern Karnataka, India.
  4. The Sangama Dynasty was the first dynasty of the Vijayanagara Empire.
  5. Vijayanagara Empire
    Sangama Dynasty
    Harihara Raya I1336-1356
    Bukka Raya I1356-1377
    Harihara Raya II1377-1404
    Virupaksha Raya1404-1405
    Bukka Raya II1405-1406
    Deva Raya I1406-1422
    Ramachandra Raya1422
    Vira Vijaya Bukka Raya1422-1424
    Deva Raya II1424-1446
    Mallikarjuna Raya1446-1465
    Virupaksha Raya II1465-1485
    Praudha Raya1485
    Saluva Dynasty
    Saluva Narasimha Deva Raya1485-1491
    Thimma Bhupala1491
    Narasimha Raya II1491-1505
    Tuluva Dynasty
    Tuluva Narasa Nayaka1491-1503
    Viranarasimha Raya1503-1509
    Krishna Deva Raya1509-1529
    Achyuta Deva Raya1529-1542
    Sadasiva Raya1542-1570
    Aravidu Dynasty
    Aliya Rama Raya1542-1565
    Tirumala Deva Raya1565-1572
    Sriranga I1572-1586
    Venkata II1586-1614
    Sriranga II1614-1614
    Ramadeva1617-1632
    Venkata III1632-1642
    Sriranga III


  1. During the rule of the Vijayanagar Empire, poets, scholars and philosophers wrote in Sanskrit and the regional languages, Kannada, Telugu and Tamil and covered such subjects as religion, biography, Prabhanda(fiction), music, grammar, poetry and medicine. The Telugu language became a popular literary medium, reaching its peak under the patronage of Krishnadevaraya.
    Most Sanskrit works were commentaries either on the Vedas or on the Ramayana and Mahabharata epics, written by well known figures such as Sayana and Vidyaranya that extolled the superiority of the Advaitaphilosophy over other rival Hindu philosophies. Other writers were famous Dvaita saints of the Udupi order such as Jayatirtha (earning the title Tikacharya for his polemicial writings), Vyasatirtha who wrote rebuttals to the Advaita philosophy and of the conclusions of earlier logicians, and Vadirajatirtha and Sripadaraya both of whom criticised the beliefs of Adi Sankara.Apart from these saints, noted Sanskrit scholars adorned the courts of the Vijayanagara kings and their feudatory chiefdoms. Many kings of the dynasty were themselves litterateurs and authored classics such as King Krishnadevaraya's Jambavati Kalyana, a poetic and dramatically skillful work.
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dOSE (SANSKRIT sCHOLARS)

  1. Bhaṭṭikāvya or "Bhatti's Poem" is one of the boldest experiments in classical literature: written in Sanskrit in the 7th century CE, in the formal genre of "great poem" (mahākāvya) it incorprates two of the most powerful Sanskrit traditions, the Ramayana and Panini's grammar, and several other minor ones, in one rich mix of science and art, both as a poetic retelling of the adventures of Rama and a compendium of examples of grammar and rhetoric.As literature, it stands comparison with the best of Sanskrit poetry.
  2. Pāṇini was an Ancient Indian Sanskrit grammarian from Pushkalavati, Gandhara (fl. 4th century BCE.He is known for his Sanskrit grammar, particularly for his formulation of the 3,959 rules of Sanskrit morphology in the grammar known as Ashtadhyayi (अष्टाध्यायी Aṣṭādhyāyī, meaning "eight chapters"), the foundational text of the grammatical branch of the Vedanga, the auxiliary scholarly disciplines of Vedic religion.
  3. The work of the very early Indian grammarians has been lost; for example, the work of Sakatayana (roughly 8th c. BCE) is known only from cryptic references by Yaska (ca. 6th-5th c. BCE) and Panini. One of the views of Sakatayana that was to prove controversial in coming centuries was that most nouns are etymologically derivable from verbs.
  4. Yāska ( यास्क) was a Sanskrit grammarian who preceded Pānini (fl. 4th c. BC), assumed to have been active in the 5th or 6th century BC.He is the author of the Nirukta, a technical treatise on etymology, lexical category and the semantics of words. He is thought to have succeeded Śākaṭāyana, an old grammarian and expositor of the Vedas, who is mentioned in his text.
  5. The Aindra (of Indra) school of Sanskrit grammar is one of the eleven schools of grammar mentioned in Panini's Ashtadhyayi. It is named after Indra in allusion to Lord Indra, the king of Gods in Hindu mythology. 
  6. Panini's grammar consists of four parts:
    Śivasūtra: phonology (notations for phonemes specified in 14 lines)
    Aṣṭadhyāyī: morphology (construction rules for complexes)
    Dhātupāṭha: list of roots (classes of verbal roots)
    Gaṇapāṭha: lists classes of primitive nominal stems
  7. Kātyāyana is known for two works:
    --------The Varttika, an elaboration on Pāṇini grammar. Along with the Mahābhāsya of Patañjali, this text became a core part of the vyākarana (grammar) canon. This was one of the six Vedangas, and constituted compulsory education for Brahmin students in the following twelve centuries.
    --------He also composed one of the later Sulba Sutras, a series of nine texts on the geometry of altar constructions, dealing with rectangles, right-sided triangles, rhombuses, etc.
  8. Varttikakara  is a Sanskrit word literally meaning a "Commentator". 
  9. Sureśvara is the commentator of the Advaita Vedanta school. His famous commentaries include the Bŗhadāraņyakopanişad-bhāşya-vārttika and the Taittirīya-vārttika.
  10. Patañjali  is the compiler of the Yoga Sutras, an important collection of aphorisms on Yoga practice, and also the author of the Mahābhāṣya, a major commentary on Panini's Ashtadhyayi. However, whether these two works are that of the same author or not remains in some doubt.

  11. dOSE (sOME hISTORIANS)

    1. Kalhan was one of the greatest historians of Kashmir.
    2. Ram Swarup Joon (रामस्वरुप जून) is a Jat historian. He has written a book "History of the Jats" in Hindi in 1938 which was translated to English in by Lt. Col. Dal Singh in 1967.
    3. Shaikh Abu al-Fazl ibn Mubarak (Persian: ابو الفضل) also known as Abu'l-Fazl, Abu'l Fadl and Abu'l-Fadl 'Allami was the vizier of the great Mughal emperor Akbar, and author of the Akbarnama, the official history of Akbar's reign in three volumes, the third volume is known as the Ain-i-Akbari and a Persian translation of the Bible. He was also the brother of Faizi, the poet laureate of emperor Akbar.
    4. Mulla ʿAbd-ul-Qadir Bada'uni  was an Indo-Persian historian and translator living during the Mughal period in India.He translated the Hindu works, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.However, as an Orthodox Muslim, he strongly resented the reforms of Akbar, and the elevation of Hindus to high offices. He was also renowned for his rivalry with Abul Fazl.
    5. Khwaja Nizam-ud-Din Ahmad (also spelled as Nizam ad-Din Ahmad and Nizam al-Din Ahmad) (born 1551, died 1621/1030 AH) was a Muslim historian of late medieval India. He was son of Muhammad Muqim-i-Harawi. He was Akbar's Mir Bakhshi. His work, the Tabaqat-i-Akbari, is a comprehensive work on general history covering the time from the Ghaznavids up to 1593-4

    6. DOSE (IMPORTANT EVENTS DURING WORLD WAR 1)

      1. The 1916 Battle of the Somme was one of the largest battles of the First World War, with more than one million casualties, and also one of the bloodiest battles in human history. The Allied forces attempted to break through the German lines along a 25-mile (40 km) front north and south of the River Somme in northern France. One purpose of the battle was to draw German forces away from the Battle of Verdun; however, by its end the losses on the Somme had exceeded those at Verdun. While Verdun would bite deep in the national consciousness of France for generations, the Somme would have the same effect on generations of Britons. The battle is best remembered for its first day, 1 July 1916, on which the British suffered 57,470 casualties, including 19,240 dead — the bloodiest day in the history of the British Army to this day.
      2. The Battle of Verdun, fought from 21 February to 19 December 1916 around the city of Verdun-sur-Meuse in northeast France, was one of the most important battles in World War I on the Western Front. The battle was fought between the German and French armies.
      3. The Treaty of Versailles (1919) was the peace treaty which officially ended World War I between the Allied and Central Powers and the German Empire. After six months of negotiations, which took place at the Paris Peace Conference, the treaty was signed as a follow-up to the armistice signed in November 11th, 1918 in the Compiègne Forest (which had put an end to the actual fighting). Although there were many provisions in the treaty, one of the more important and recognized provisions required Germany to accept full responsibility for causing the war and, under the terms of articles 231-247, make reparations to certain countries that had formed the Allies.
      4. The Brusilov Offensive  was the greatest Russian feat of arms during World War I, and among the most lethal battles in world history. It was a major offensive against the armies of the Central Powers on the Eastern Front, launched on June 4, 1916 and lasting until early August. It took place in what today is Ukraine, in the general vicinity of the towns of Lemberg, Kovel, and Lutsk. The offensive was named after the Russian commander in charge of the Southwestern Front, Aleksei Brusilov.
      5. The Battle of Tannenberg in 1914 was a decisive engagement between the Russian Empire and the German Empire in the first days of The Great War, fought by the Russian First and Second Armies and the German Eighth Army between August 17 and September 2, 1914. The battle resulted in the almost complete destruction of the Russian Second Army. 
      6. The Battle of Arras was an offensive during World War I by forces of the British Empire between 9 April and 16 May 1917. British, Canadian, and Australian troops attacked German trenches near the French city of Arras.
      7. The Armenian Genocide — also known as the Armenian Holocaust, "Great Calamity" (Մեծ Եղեռն) or the Armenian Massacre — refers to the forced mass evacuation and related deaths of hundreds of thousands to over a million Armenians, during the government of the Young Turks from 1915 to 1917 in the Ottoman Empire.
      8. The Battle of Jutland  (Battle of the Skagerrak);  was the largest naval battle of World War I, and the only full-scale clash of battleships in that war.
      9. The First Battle of the Marne (also known as the Miracle of the Marne) was a World War I battle fought from September 5 to September 12, 1914. It was a Franco-British victory against the German army under German Chief of Staff Helmuth von Moltke the Younger.
      10. The Battle of Gallipoli (sometimes referred to as the first D-Day) took place on the Turkish peninsula of Gallipoli from April 1915 to January 1916 during the First World War. A joint British and French operation was mounted in order to eventually capture the Ottoman capital of Constantinople (now Istanbul). The attempt failed, with heavy casualties on both sides.

      11. DOSE (BENGAL REFORMERS AND LITERATURE)

        1. Raja Ram Mohan Roy was a founder (with Dwarkanath Tagore and other Bengali Brahmins) of the Brahma Sabha in 1828 which engendered the Brahmo Samaj, an influential Indian socio-religious reform movement. His influence was apparent in the fields of politics, public administration and education as well as religion. He is best known for his efforts to abolish the practice of sati, the Hindu funeral practice in which the widow was compelled to sacrifice herself on her husband’s funeral pyre. It was he who first introduced the word "Hinduism" into the English language in 1816. For his diverse contributions to society, Raja Ram Mohan Roy is regarded as one of the most important figures in the Bengal Renaissance. His efforts to protect Hinduism and Indian rights by participating in British government earned him the title “The Father of the Bengal Renaissance” or “The Father of the Indian Nation.”
        2. Dwarkanath Tagore (1794-1846), was one of the earliest entrepreneurs from India, and founder of the Jorasanko branch of the Tagore family, and is notable for making substantial contributions to the Bengal Renaissance.
        3. Debendranath Tagore (Debendronath Ţhakur) was the founder in 1848 of the Brahmo Religion which today is synonymous with Brahmoism the youngest religion of India and Bangladesh.
        4. Satyendranath Tagore was the first Indian to join the Indian Civil Service. He was an author, song composer, linguist and made significant contribution towards the emancipation of women in Indian society during the British Raj.
        5. Rabindranath Tagore  sobriquet Gurudev was a Bengali polymath. As a poet, novelist, musician, and playwright, he reshaped Bengali literature and music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As author of Gitanjali and its "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse", he won the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature
        6. Tagore penned the anthems of Bangladesh and India: Amar Shonar Bangla and Jana Gana Mana.
        7. Michael Madhusudan Dutt (Datta), born Madhusudan Dutt, is a famous 19th century Bengali poet and dramatist.  He was a pioneer of Bengali drama. His famous work Meghnadh Badh Kabya (Bengali: মেঘনাদবধ কাব্য), is a tragic epic. It consists of nine cantos and is quite exceptional in Bengali literature both in terms of style and content. He also wrote poems about the sorrows and afflictions of love as spoken by women.
        8. Bankim Chandra Chatterjee was a Bengali poet, novelist, essayist and journalist, most famous as the author of Vande Mataram or Bande Mataram, that inspired the freedom fighters of India, and was later declared the National Song of India.Kapalkundala (1866) is Chatterjee's first major publication.
        9. Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar , was a Bengali polymath and a key figure of the Bengal RenaissanceVidyasagar reconstructed the Bengali alphabet and reformed Bengali typography into an alphabet (actually abugida) of twelve vowels and forty consonants.
          Vidyasagar contributed significantly to Bengali and Sanskrit literature.
        10. Vidyasagar was one of the first persons in India to realize that modern science was the key to India's future. He translated into Bengali the English biographies of some outstanding scientists like Copernicus, Newton, and Herschel. He sought to inculcate a spirit of scientific inquiry into young Bengalis. A staunch anti-Berkeleyan, he emphasized the importance of studying European Empiricist philosophy (of Francis Bacon) and the inductive logic of John Stuart Mill.

        11. Indian History Dose

          1. Gopal Krishna Gokhale, CIE , was one of the founding social and political leaders during the Indian Independence Movement against the British Empire in India. Gokhale was a senior leader of the Indian National Congress and founder of the Servants of India Society. Through the Society as well as the Congress and other legislative bodies he served in, Gokhale promoted not only or even primarily independence from the British Empire but also social reform. To achieve his goals, Gokhale followed two overarching principles: avoidance of violence and reform within existing government institutions.Gokhale was famously a mentor to Mahatma Gandhi in his formative years. In 1912, Gokhale visited South Africa at Gandhi's invitation. As a young barrister, Gandhi returned from his struggles against the Empire in South Africa and received personal guidance from Gokhale, including a knowledge and understanding of India and the issues confronting common Indians. By 1920, Gandhi emerged as the leader of the Indian Independence Movement. In his autobiography, Gandhi calls Gokhale his mentor and guide.
          2. The Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire is an order of chivalry founded by Queen Victoria in 1878.The Order includes members of three classes:             Knight Grand Commander (GCIE)
            Knight Commander (KCIE)
            Companion (CIE)
          3. Nawab Sayyid Hassan Ali Mirza Khan Bahadur, GCIE,was the first Nawab of Murshidabad and the eldest son of Nawab Sayyid Mansur Ali Khan, the last Nawab of Bengal.
          4. Nawab Sayyid Mansur Ali Khan was Nawab of Bengal until his abdication in 1880, whereupon he renounced his titles and position as Nawab of Bengal. Bengal had been already occupied by the British for the last 150 years, so he was nothing more than a puppet of the British.
          5. Major-General Sahibzada Sayyid Iskander Ali Mirza, CIE, OBE  was the last Governor-General of the Dominion of Pakistan (6 October 1955 to 23 March 1956), and the first President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
          6. The Indian General Service Medal (1936 IGSM) was a campaign medal approved on 3 August 1938, for issue to officers and men of the British and Indian armies.
          7. Prabhu Narayan Singh was ruler of the Indian Princely State of Benares State (Royal House of Benares) from 1889 to 1931.'
          8. At the time of Indian independence, only five rulers — the Nizam of Hyderabad, the Maharaja of Mysore, the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir state, the Maharaja Gaekwad of Baroda and the Maharaja Scindia of Gwalior — were entitled to a 21-gun salute. Five more rulers — the Nawab of Bhopal, the Maharaja Holkar of Indore, the Maharana of Udaipur, the Maharaja of Kolhapur and the Maharaja of Travancore — were entitled to 19-gun salutes. The most senior princely ruler was the (Muslim) Nizam of Hyderabad, who was entitled to the unique style Exalted Highness. Other princely rulers entitled to salutes of 11 guns (soon 9 guns too) or more were entitled to the style Highness. No special style was used by rulers entitled to lesser gun salutes.
          9. The Holkar were a prominent Dhangar family, who ruled as Rajas and later Maharajas of Indaur (better known as Indore) in Central India as an independent member of the Maratha Confederacy until 1818, and afterwards as a princely state -under protectorate- of British India with a 19-guns salute (21 guns locally; a rare high rank) until India's independence, when the state acceded to the Indian government.
          10. The Maratha Empire (Marathi: मराठा साम्राज्य )or the Maratha Confederacy was a Hindu state located in present-day India. It existed from 1674 to 1818. At its peak, the empire's territories covered much of South Asia.It expanded greatly after the death of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb in 1707, only to lose in Third battle of Panipat in 1761. Later, the empire was divided into Maratha states which eventually lost to the British in the Anglo-Maratha wars.

          11. AAJ KA DOSE (ANCIENT HISTORY)--1

            1. Manusmṛti or Manusmriti (Sanskrit: मनुस्मृति), also known as Mānava-Dharmaśāstra (Sanskrit: मानवधर्मशास्त्र), is the most important and earliest metrical work of the Dharmaśāstra textual tradition of Hinduism.[1] Generally known in English as the Laws of Manu, it was first translated into English in 1794 by Sir William Jones, an English Orientalist and judge of the British Supreme Court of Judicature in Calcutta.[2] The text presents itself as a discourse given by the sage called Manu to a group of seers, or rishis, who beseech him to tell them the "law of all the social classes" (1.2). Manu became the standard point of reference for all future Dharmaśāstras that followed it. According to Hindu tradition, the Manusmriti records the words of Brahma.By attributing the words to supernatural forces, the text takes on an authoritative tone as a statement on Dharma, in opposition to previous texts in the field, which were more scholarly.
            2. Vijnaneshwara was a prominent jurist of twelfth century India. His treatise, the Mitakshara, dealt with inheritance, and is one of the most influential legal treatises in Hindu law.

              Vijnaneshwara was born in the village of Martur, near Gulbarga in Karnataka. He lived in the court of king Vikramaditya VI (1076-1126), the Chalukya monarch of Basavakalyan.
            3. Chandragupta I (r. 320-335) was succeeded by his son, Samudragupta (r. 335-380) who conquered the Kushans and other smaller kingdoms and greatly expanded the emerging Gupta Empire. Chandragupta II (r. 380-414), the son of Samudragupta, expanded the Empire even further so that the Gupta Empire was almost as large as that of the ancient and powerful Mauryan Empire.
            4. Badami, in the Bagalokot district of Karnataka in South India, was once the capital of the Chalukyas who ruled over a large part of Karnataka from the 6th to 8th centuries. Founded by Pulakesi I in 540 AD
            5. - In the 6th century CE, the Hindu Chalukya rulers ruled over much of present South India. The Chalukyan king Pulakesi I established Bagalkote as his administrative headquarters; the district retained its prominent status until the Chalukyan empire was sacked by the Rashtrakutas in 753 CE. The Chinese explorer Hieun-Tsang visited Badami and described the people as "tall, proud,...brave and exceedingly chivalrous".
            6. Hiuen Tsang, a Chinese pilgrim who came to India in AD 629, was the most distinguished Buddhist scholar of his times.He stayed in India for 16 long years, travelling extensively and holding discussions with Buddhist scholars all over the country. A keen intellect, an enquiring mind, profound scholarship and, above all, a deep attachment to India, were the hallmarks of his impressive personality. Hiuen Tsang's services to the spread of Buddhist knowledge in China are inestimable
            7.  In the year 305 BC, Seleucus I Nicator went to India and apparently occupied territory as far as the Indus, and eventually waged war with the Maurya Emperor Chandragupta Maurya:. Always lying in wait for the neighboring nations, strong in arms and persuasive in council, he [Seleucus] acquired Mesopotamia, Armenia, 'Seleucid' Cappadocia, Persis, Parthia, Bactria, Arabia, Tapouria, Sogdia, Arachosia, Hyrcania, and other adjacent peoples that had been subdued by Alexander.
            8. - Indian troops won their last great victory against a foreign army of importance in 303 BC, whenChandragupta Maurya's army defeated Seleucus Nicator: Alexander's general.
            9.  Around 321 BC, the Nanda Dynasty ended and Chandragupta became the first king of the great Mauryan Dynasty and Mauryan Empire with the help of Vishnugupta. The Empire later extended over most of Southern Asia under King Asoka, who was at first known as 'Asoka .
            10. In 1646 Shivaji liberated the fort of Torana from the Bijapur commander.A huge treasure came into his possesion.This enabled Shivaji to build a new fort at Raighad and raise a good army.Later Shivaji occupied Chakan and Kondana fortresses.Shivaji also occupied fort of Kalyan in Thana district.Shivaji's military succss brought fear in the Bijapur courtiers,so tocontrol Shivaji they arrested Shahji Bhonsle
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