Chronicles Of India

BRAHMI INSCRIPTION FOUND IN ANCIENT SEAPORT OF EGYPT

This is the greatest and most exciting epigraphic discovery of last 100 years.

This Kushana Brahimi inscription (written in Sanskrit language) found in recent excavations in old temple at Berenike in the northern tip of Africa, Egypt.

Prof.Marek Wozniak, Warsaw, Poland has found it in Egypt and sent it to India for decipherment.

A photorealistic representation of Alexander the Great (r. 336-323 BCE) as he may have appeared in life. This reconstruction is based on archaeological evidence including busts, coin portraits and statuary, as well as descriptions of Alexander in historical accounts. This reconstruction was made using Artbreeder, an AI neural network.

Something about the man who build this monument ie. Qutubdin Aibak.

After being recognized as the ruler of India, Aibak focused on consolidating his rule in the territories already under his control, rather than conquering new territories. In 1210, he fell down from a horse while playing chovgan (a form of polo on horseback)(how does a horse-rider, who rode the horse since childhood suddenly fall down from a pet horse? Or was the horse not his? The horse's name was Subhrak), and died instantly when the pommel of the saddle pierced his ribs.

All contemporary chroniclers praise Aibak as a loyal, generous, courageous and just man. According to Minhaj, his generosity earned him the epithet lakh-bakhs, literally "giver of lakhs [of copper coins or jitals]".

Fakhr-i Mudabbir states that Aibak's soldiers - who included "Turks, Ghurids, Khurasanis, Khaljis, and Hindustanis" - did not dare to forcibly take even a blade of grass or a morsel of food from the peasants. The 16th century Mughal chronicler Abu'l-Fazl criticizes Aibak's master Mu'izz ad-Din for "shedding innocent blood", but praises Aibak stating that "he achieved things, good and great". As late as the 17th century, the term "Aibak of the time" was used to describe generous people, as attested by the chronicler Firishta.

The 23-month-old Bhutti, or Bhutanese, cow stands just 51cm (20in) high, and weighs 28kg (62Ib).

Despite a national Covid lockdown, more than 15,000 people have reportedly visited Rani at her farm in Charigram, near the capital Dhaka.

Farm manager Hasan Howladar has applied to the Guinness Book of Records, saying Rani is the world's smallest cow.
Source - BBC

568 years ago today in 1453, the ancient city of Constantinople falls in a siege to the Ottoman Empire.

Constantinople was considered a jewel and bastion of Christendom. It served as the capital of the Byzantium Empire, which was the successor to the ancient Roman Empire. The city had withstood many sieges over the centuries and its fortifications were considered some of the best and most complex in the ancient and medieval worlds. However 200 years before this siege, Crusaders managed to take and sack the city which severely setback Byzantine civilization.

This would be the 3rd attempt to take the city in 50 years by the Ottomans. This time they brought over 80,000 men and more than 100 ships to face the defender’s roughly 10,000 soldiers and

19th Century Europeans were very much interested in the Stupa which was originally built by Ashoka. French sought the permission of Shahjehan Begum to take away the eastern gateway which was quite well preserved, to a museum in France. English, who had established themselves in India, majorly as a political force, were interested too in carrying it to England for a museum. They were satisfied with plaster-cast copies which were carefully prepared and the original remained at the site, part of Bhopal state. The rule of Bhopal, Shahjehan Begum and her successor Sultan Jehan Begum, provided money for the preservation of the ancient site.

The caves are around 1650 years old.
Udayagiri Caves is a group of 20 Gupta-era temples and monasteries carved out of a rocky hill, out of which one is dedicated to Jainism and rest to Hinduism.
Brahmi inscriptions on the caves indicate that the site was excavated during the rule of Gupta King,
Chandragupta II (AD 376-413).
Cave 5, also known as the Varaha Cave, depicts Vishnu in a massive carving as Varaha (boar) incarnation
and rescuing goddess Earth (Bhudevi, Prithivi) from the depths of cosmic ocean. Varaha, as embedded in
Hindu text, is a symbol of right versus wrong and good versus evil.

The Quwwat-ul-Islam or Might of Islam Mosque is the earliest surviving mosque in India and stands in the Qutb Minar enclosure in Delhi. It was begun in 1193 by Qutb-ud-Din Aibak (r.1206-1210), the first Sultan of Delhi and founder of the Slave Dynasty and completed four years later, with further additions made by later Sultans in the 13th and 14th centuries. It was built on the site of Rai Piathora’s Hindu temple using the spoil from 27 other Hindu and Jain temples. Carved Hindu motifs such as tasselled ropes, bells, tendrils, cows and leaves can all be traced on the recycled masonry which can be found throughout the mosque Later screenwork and other extensions added by Iltutumish in 1230, are fundamentally Islamic in design such as the diapered arabesque patterns and Quranic inscriptions.