ANCIENT HISTORY OF AGRA


Though Agra's history is largely recognised with Mughal Empire, the place was established much before it and has linkages since Mahabharat period and Mahirshi Angira in 1000 BC. It is generally accepted that Sultan Sikandar Lodī, the Ruler of the Delhi Sultanate founded Agra in the year 1504. After the Sultan's death the city passed on to his son Sultan Ibrāhīm Lodī. He ruled his Sultanate from Agra until he fell fighting to Bābar in the First battle of Panipat fought in 1526.
In the year 1556, the great Hindu warrior Hemu Vikramaditya, also known as Samrat Hem Chander Vikramaditya, won the state of Agra as the prime minister cum Chief of Army of Adil Shah of the Afghan Sūrī Dynasty. The commander of Humāyūn / Akbar's forces in Agra, Tardi Beg Khan, was so scared of Hemu that he retreated from the city without a fight. This was Hemu's 21st continuous win since 1554, and he later went on to conquer Delhi, having his coronation at Purānā Qil'a in Delhi on 7 October 1556 and re-established the Hindu Kingdom and the Vikramaditya Dynasty in North India.
The golden age of the city began with the Mughals. It was known then as Akbarabād and remained the capital of the Mughal Empire under the Emperors Akbar, Jahāngīr and Shāh Jahān. Shāh Jahān later shifted his capital to Shāhjahānabād in the year 1649.
Since Akbarabād was one of the most important cities in India under the Mughals, it witnessed a lot of building activity. Babar, the founder of the Mughal dynasty, laid out the first formal Persian garden on the banks of river Yamuna. The garden is called the Arām Bāgh or the Garden of Relaxation. His grandson Akbar raised the towering ramparts of the Great Red Fort, besides making Agra a center for learning, arts, commerce and religion. Akbar also built a new city on the outskirts of Akbarabād called Fatehpūr Sikrī. This city was built in the form of a Mughal military camp in stone.
His son Jahāngīr had a love of gardens and flora and fauna and laid many gardens inside the Red Fort or Lāl Qil'a. Shāh Jahān, known for his keen interest in architecture, gave Akbarabād its most prized monument, the Tāj Mahal. Built in loving memory of his wife Mumtāz Mahal, the mausoleum was completed in 1653.
Shāh Jahān later shifted the capital to Delhi during his reign, but his son Aurangzeb moved the capital back to Akbarabād, usurping his father and imprisoning him in the Fort there. Akbarabād remained the capital of India during the rule of Aurangzeb until he shifted it to Aurangabad in the Deccan in 1653. After the decline of the Mughal Empire, the city came under the influence of Marathas and was called Agra, before falling into the hands of the British Raj in 1803.


Agra, Main Street, c.1858
In 1835 when the Presidency of Agra was established by the British, the city became the seat of government, and just two years later it was witness to the Agra famine of 1837–38. During the Indian rebellion of 1857 British rule across India was threatened, news of the rebellion had reached Agra on 11 May and on 30 May two companies of native infantry, the 44th and 67th regiments, rebelled and marched to Delhi. The next morning native Indian troops in Agra were forced to disarm, on 15 June Gwalior (which lies south of Agra) rebelled. By 3 July the British were forced to withdraw into the fort. Two days later a small British force at Sucheta were defeated and forced to withdraw, this led to a mob sacking the city. However, the rebels moved onto Delhi which allowed the British to restore order by 8 July. Delhi fell to the British in September, the following month rebels who had fled Delhi along with rebels from Central India marched on Agra but were defeated. After this British rule was again secured over the city until the independence of India in 1947
Agra is the birthplace of the religion known as Dīn-i Ilāhī, which flourished during the reign of Akbar and also of the Radhaswami Faith, which has around two million followers worldwide. Agra has historic linkages with Shauripur of Jainism and Runukta of Hinduism, of 1000 BC.
Tāj Mahal, Agra Fort and Fatehpur Sikri are all UNESCO World Heritage Sites

History of Delhi

Historical Region of North India

Delhi

A view of the Old City

Location Delhi

State established: 736 AD

Language Khariboli, Hindi, Urdu

Dynasties Tomaras-Chauhans (736-1192)

Mamluks (1206–90)

Khilji (1290–1320)

Tughlaqs (1320–1413)

Sayyids (1414–51)

Lodis (1451–1526)

Mughals (1526–1540)

Suris(1540-1553)

Hindu-Hemu(1553–56)

Mughals(1556-1857)

British (1857–1947)

Independence (1947-)

Historicalcapitals Delhi

The Indian capital city of Delhi has a long history, including a history as the capital of several empires. The earliest architectural relics date back to the Maurya Period (c. 300 BC); since then, the site has seen continuous settlement. In 1966, an inscription of the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka (273-236 BC) was discovered near Srinivaspur. Two sandstone pillars inscribed with the edicts of Ashoka were brought to by Firuz Shah Tughluq in the 14th century. The famous Iron pillar near the Qutub Minar was commissioned by the emperor Kumara Gupta I of the Gupta dynasty (320-540) and transplanted to Delhi during the 10th century. Eight major cities have been situated in the Delhi area. The first five cities were in the southern part of present-day Delhi.

Though settlements have been dated to have been taking place in Delhi for millennia, there is no record to stand by that claim. Delhi is generally considered a close to 5000-year old city, as per Ancient Indian text The Mahabharata, since the first ever mention of the city is found in this religious scripture. Therefore, except the scripture, archaeological evidences to book the city's Ancient history are as good as nought. As a result, Delhi's Ancient history finds no records and this period may be regarded as the lost period of its history. Extensive coverage of Delhi's history begins with the onset of the Delhi Sultanate in the 12th century. Since then, Delhi had been the seat of Islamic and British rulers until India's independence in 1947.

The core of Delhi's tangible heritage is Islamic, spanning over seven centuries of Islamic rule over the city, with some British-styled architectures and zones in Lutyens' Delhi dating to the British rule in India. Whatever records exist of Delhi- in the form of scriptures or archaeological evidences, they crown Delhi as the Capital city of some empire or the other all through, with minor random breaks in between, making Delhi one of the longest serving Capitals and one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world. It is considered to be a city built, destroyed and rebuilt several times, as outsiders who successfully invaded the Indian Subcontinent would ransack the existing capital city in Delhi, and those who came to conquer and stay would be so impressed by the city's strategic location as to make it their capital and rebuild it in their own way.

Ancient history of RAJASTHAN

Ancient history of RAJASTHAN

The Indian king HARSHAVARDHAN, who belonged to the vibhuti clan basically from Yaduvanshi clan, ruled over not only Rajasthan but also India, after his death the rajput came in rajasthan history. Harshvardhan was the first to use the word RAJPUTRA, after this the rulers of the region would refer to themselves as rajput or rajpoot. Parts of Rajasthan belonged to the Indus Valley Civilization between about 3500 and 1750 BCE. Excavations at Kalibanga in Northern Rajasthan have revealed the existence of human settlements of the Harappan times on the banks of a river that dried up later, which is believed to be the River Saraswati by some scholars. The historical evidence found in Bairat reflects the presence of Pre-Aryan people. The first Aryan settlement was at the Dhundhar region around 1400 BCE. Matsya or Meena (Sanskrit for fish) was the name of a Kshatriya tribe and the state of the Vedic civilization of India.It lay to south of the kingdom of Kurus and west of the Yamuna which separated it from the kingdom of Panchalas. It roughly corresponded to former state of Jaipur in Rajasthan, and included the whole of Alwar with portions of Bharatpur. The capital of Matsya was at Viratanagar (modern Bairat) which is said to have been named after its founder king Virata. Meenas are brothers and kinsmen of Virata, the ruler of Virat Nagar. They ruled this area(near to Virat Nagar) till 11th century

Hawa Mahal

20 MORE FACTS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT INDIA :)

20 MORE FACTS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT INDIA :)

1. Movies: No list featuring facts about India would be complete without this tidbit: India has the largest movie industry in the world. Most Indian movies come from Bollywood, but there are many studios around the country who contribute as well.

2. Holy Writings: The Vedic Scriptures date to 2000-500 BC and were composed in the Punjab region.

3. Invented zero: A commonly known, but not to be neglected India fact is that the number and concept of zero was invented and documented first by Indians.

4. Ancient buildings: All over India, ancient buildings and structures can be found. Sculptures and paintings on the buildings often tell stories or describe life at that time period.

5. IT: The Pentium chip and Hotmail were created by Indians—Vinod Dahm and Sabeer Bhatia respectively. The Indian IT population is growing and is highly sought after all over the world.

6. School: The world’s largest Montessori school is in India. It has over 26,000 students!

7. National fruit: While India may not be the biggest mango exporter, over 12 million tons of mangoes are grown each year. That’s the equivalent of over 2,400 Asian Elephants!

8. Cotton: Indian cotton was well known; some of the earliest cotton came from India. Roman and Mongol royalty wore Indian cotton, known for being light and airy.

9. Beans: India produces more dried beans than any other nation on earth. This includes a variety of legumes such as the kidney bean and chick peas as well as a variety of lentils.

10. Bananas: Another top export from India is bananas. No other country exports as many bananas, not even Brazil, which is second.

11. Producer of milk: Because India’s pastoral community is heavily dependent on milk, India has become the largest producer of milk in the world.

12. National drink: Chai, or tea is drunk widely in India. They produce more tea than any other country, exporting to countries all over the world.

13. Spices: While Saffron has its roots in neighboring countries, India uses the most expensive spice in several sweets and other dishes.

14. Staples: The main food staples in India are rice in the south, wheat in the north, and dhal or lentils.

15. Lucky color: Red is the color of good luck and is usually worn for weddings and other celebrations and festivals.

16. Vegetarian: India has the largest amount of vegetarians in the world.

17. Finger food: Most Indian food is still traditionally eaten without silverware. Rotis or chapattis aid with this.

18. Time: All of India — despite the large land-space is on one time zone. This is, however, half-an-hour different to neighboring countries, making for a complicated time zone.

19. Cherrapunji is the wettest spot on earth. It receives at least 425 inches of rain every year, which is over 5 times more than the tropical rain forests of South America!

20. Highest peaks: The Himalaya includes the highest peak in the world—Everest. The mountain range stretches about 1,500 miles long and is over 23,600 ft at its highest.

FACTS

Whether you are from India looking for some Interesting Facts about India or a foreigner travelling to India and looking to know some facts about India, these 20 Facts about India will blow your mind away

1. Wonder: The Taj Mahal is considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It was built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his wife.

2. Food: Cooking and eating are a large part of Indian culture and tradition. It’s not uncommon for meals to require hours of preparation time and most festivals and gatherings center around food.

3. Roads: The world’s largest road network is in India—over 1.9 million miles of roads cover the country.

4. Chess: Chaturanga—Sanskrit, meaning “four members of an army” was invented in India. Now known all over the world, chess had its beginnings in India.

5. Name: The official Sanskrit name for India is Bharat Ganarajya. Even today, it is often called Bharat by young and old.

6. Origin of India name: The name “India” comes from the Indus River, which is where earliest settlers made their homes. The Indus valley is one of the world’s earliest urban civilizations.

7. British rule: The British ruled India from 1858-1947, although their presence and trade had been going on for some time before then.

8. Independence: On August 15, 1947, India gained independence from the British, after a successful nearly non-violent independence movement.

9. Government: India is governed under a parliamentary system and is a federal constitutional republic. There are 28 states and 7 union territories in India.

10. Capital: The capital city of India is New Delhi. It is the center of government and is also home to 2 UNESCO heritage sites.

11. Diamonds: Until 1986, the only place where diamonds had been officially found was in India.

12. Multi-lingual: There are 1,652 dialects and languages spoken in India. It is not at all unusual for an Indian to speak at least two and often more languages well.

13. Recognized languages: There are currently 22 recognized languages in India, with Standard Hindi and English being the standard languages.

14. English speakers: Because so many Indians speak English, India now has the largest population of English speakers in the world.

15. Borders: India shares land borders with Pakistan, China, Nepal, Bhutan, Burma and Bangladesh. Sri Lanka and the Maldives are neighboring ocean countries.

16. Exports: Going back thousands of years, India has long exported textiles. Current exports include steel, agricultural goods, and many services, such as in the tech or medical industries.

17. Beauties: India has won two Miss Universe and five Miss World titles so far. Many Indian beauty queens are also Bollywood actresses or models.

18. Age demographic: More than 50% of India is younger than 25 and more than 65% are 35 or younger. The average Indian age is much younger than most other nations.

19. Old civilization: Some of the oldest and most long-lasting civilizations can be traced to India, or areas that used to belong to India. Early empires were larger than other neighboring empires of the time, including Egypt and Mesopotamia.

20. Peace loving: India has never invaded any country. It was invaded by other countries and rulers, including Alexander the Great.

61 Interesting Facts About . . INDIA

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India

India is about 1/3 the size of the United States, yet it is the second most populous country in the world, with a population of 1,166,079,217. India is the seventh largest country in the world, at 1.27 million square miles.g India is the largest democracy in the world.i The Kumbh Mela (or Grand Pitcher Festival) is a huge Hindu religious festival that takes place in India every 12 years. In 2001, 60 million people attended, breaking the record for the world’s biggest gathering. The mass of people was photographed from space by a satellite.c Many Indians find toilet paper repellent and consider it cleaner to splash water with the left hand in the appropriate direction. Consequently, the left hand is considered unclean and is never used for eating.f To avoid polluting the elements (fire, earth, water, air), followers of Zoroastrianism in India don’t bury their dead, but instead leave bodies in buildings called “Towers of Silence” for the vultures to pick clean. After the bones dry, they are swept into a central well.f It is illegal for foreigners to import or export Indian currency (rupees) It is illegal to take Indian currency (rupees) out of India.f India leads the world with the most murders (32,719), with Russia taking second at 28,904 murders per year.j India has one of the world’s highest rates of abortion.e More than a million Indians are millionaires, yet most Indians live on less than two dollars a day. An estimated 35% of India’s population lives below the poverty line.l Cows can be found freely wandering the streets of India’s cities. They are considered sacred and will often wear a tilak, a Hindu symbol of good fortune. Cows are considered one of humankind’s seven mothers because they offer milk as does one’s natural mother.k Dancing is one of India’s most highly developed arts and was an integral part of worship in the inner shrines of every temple. It is notable for its expressive hand movements.f Rabies is endemic in India. Additionally, “Delhi Belly” or diarrhea is commonplace due to contaminated drinking water.f Many Indian wives will never say their husband’s name aloud, as it is a sign of disrespect. When addressing him, the wife will use several indirect references, such as “ji” or “look here” or “hello,” or even refer to him as the father of her child.f A widow is considered bad luck—otherwise, her husband wouldn’t have died. Elderly women in the village might call a widow “the one who ate her husband.” In some orthodox families, widows are not allowed near newlyweds or welcomed at social gatherings.b India is the birthplace of chess.l The original word for “chess” is the Sanskritchaturanga, meaning “four members of an army”—which were mostly likely elephants, horses, chariots, and foot soldiers.d The Indian flag has three horizontal bands of color: saffron for courage and sacrifice, white for truth and peace, and green for faith, fertility, and chivalry. An emblem of a wheel spinning used to be in the center of the white band, but when India gained independence, a Buddhist dharma chakra, or wheel of life, replaced the spinning wheel.m Khajuraho’s exotic art may suggest that sex was a step for attaining ultimate liberation or moksha The temples of Khajuraho are famous for their erotic sculptures and are one of the most popular tourist attractions in India. Scholars still debate the purpose of such explicit portrayals of sexual intercourse, which sometimes involve animals.a The earliest cotton in the world was spun and woven in India. Roman emperors would wear delicate cotton from India that they would call “woven winds.” Mogul emperors called the fabrics “morning dew” and “cloth of running water.”i In ancient and medieval India, suttees, in which a recently widowed woman would immolate herself on her husband’s funeral pyre, were common.b The Himalayas—from the Sanskrit hima, meaning “snow,” and alaya, meaning “abode”—are found in the north of India. They extend 1,500 miles and are slowly growing taller, by almost an inch (2.5 cm) a year. Several ancient Indian monasteries are found nestled in the grandeur of these mountains.m India is the world’s largest producer of dried beans, such as kidney beans and chickpeas. It also leads the world in banana exports; Brazil is second.l In India, the fold and color of clothing are viewed as important markers of social classification. Additionally, a woman will be viewed as either a prostitute or a holy person depending on the manner in which she parts her hair.k With 150,000 post offices, India has the largest postal network in the world. However, it is not unusual for a letter to take two weeks to travel just 30 miles.f In India, grasping one’s ears signifies repentance or sincerity.f The Bengal tiger is India’s national animal. It was once ubiquitous throughout the country, but now there are fewer than 4,000 wild tigers left.m Indians hold prominent places both internationally and in the United States. For example, the co-founder of Sun Microsystems (Vinod Khosla), the creator of the Pentium chip (Vinod Dahm), the founder/creator of Hotmail (Sabeer Bhatia), and the GM of Hewlett-Packard (Rajiv Gupta) are all Indian.h Alexander the Great of Macedon (356-323 B.C.) was one of the first important figures to bring India into contact with the West. After his death, a link between Europe and the East would not be restored until Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama (1460-1524) landed in Calicut, India, in 1498.l The British Raj, or British rule, lasted from 1858 to 1947 (although they had a strong presence in India since the 1700s). British influence is still seen in Indian architecture, education system, transportation, and politics. Many of India’s worst famines are associated with British rule in India.i Every major world religion is represented in India. Additionally, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism all originated in India.f About 80% of Indians are Hindu. Muslims are the largest minority in India and form approximately 13% of the country’s population. In fact, India has the third largest population of Muslims in the world, after Indonesia and Pakistan.i India has the world’s largest movie industry, based in the city of Mumbai (known as the “City of Dreams”). The B in “Bollywood” comes from Bombay, the former name for Mumbai. Almost all Bollywood movies are musicals.l Mumbai (Bombay) is India’s largest city, with a population of 15 million. In 1661, British engineers built a causeway uniting all seven original islands of Bombay into a single landmass.l Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) is known around the world as Mahatma, which is an honorific title meaning “Great Soul” in the ancient Indian language of Sanskrit. He devoted his life to free India from British rule peacefully and based his campaign on civil disobedience. His birthday, October 2, is a national holiday. He was assassinated in 1948.m The Lotus temple is one of the most visited temples in the world, with over 50 million visitors per year The lotus is sacred to both Hindus and Buddhists. The Bahá'í house of worship in Delhi, known as the “Lotus Temple,” is shaped like a lotus flower with 27 gigantic “petals” that are covered in marble.i The banyan, or Indian fig tree, is considered a symbol of immortality and is mentioned in many Indian myths and legends. This self-renewing plant is India’s national tree.m Marigold flowers are used as decoration for Hindu marriages and are a symbol of good fortune and happiness.i The official name of India is the Republic of India. The name “India” derives from the River Indus, which most likely is derived from the Sanskrit sindhu, meaning “river.” The official Sanskrit name of India is Bharat, after the legendary king in the epicMahabharata.m Introduced by the British, cricket is India’s most popular sport. Hockey is considered the national sport, and the Indian field hockey team proudly won Olympic gold in 1928.i Indians made significant contributions to calculus, trigonometry, and algebra. The decimal system was invented in India in 100 B.C. The concept of zero as a number is also attributed to India.m The national fruit of India is the mango. The national bird is the peacock, which was initially bred for food.m Most historians agree that the first recorded account of plastic surgery is found in ancient Indian Sanskrit texts.b Hindi and English are the official languages of India. The government also recognizes 17 other languages (Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Nepali, Manipuri, Konkani, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu). Apart from these languages, about 1,652 dialects are spoken in the country.l India’s pastoral communities are largely dependent on dairy and have made India the largest milk-producing country in the world.l India has the world’s third largest road network at 1.9 million miles. It also has the world’s second largest rail network, which is the world’s largest civilian employer with 16 million workers.f Though the Ganges is one of the dirtiest rivers in the world, bathing in the river is thought to wash away one’s sins Rivers have played a vital role in India’s popular culture and folklore—they have been worshipped as goddesses because they bring water to an otherwise dry land. Bathing in the Ganges in particular is thought to take away a person’s sins. It is not unusual to spread a loved one’s ashes in the Ganges.f Raziya Sultana (1205-1240) was the first woman leader of India. She was considered a great leader, though she ruled for only three years before being murdered.b Most Indians rinse their hands, legs, and face before eating a meal. It is considered polite to eat with the right hand, and women eat after everyone is finished. Wasting food is considered a sin.i During the Vedic era in India, horse sacrifice sanctioned the sovereignty of the king.a It is traditional to wear white, not black, to a funeral in India. Widows will often wear white in contrast to the colorful clothes of married or single women.k All of India is under a single time zone.g On India’s Independence Day, August 15, 1947, the country was split into India and Pakistan. The partition displaced 1.27 million people and resulted in the death of several hundred thousand to a million people.g In recent years, Indian authors have made a mark on the world with such novels as Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses (1988), Vikram Seth’s Suitable Boy (1993), and Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things (1997).i India experiences six seasons: summer, autumn, winter, spring, summer monsoon, and winter monsoon.m India is the world’s largest tea producer, and tea (chai) is its most popular beverage.f According to legend, to prevent the builders from ever replicating the beauty of the Taj Mahal, their hands were cut off The Taj Mahal (“crown palace”) was built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan (1592-1666) for his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal (1593-1631). This architectural beauty has been called “marbled embroidery” for its intricate workmanship. It took 22,000 workmen 22 years to complete it.m The first and greatest civilization in ancient India developed around the valley of the Indus River (now Pakistan) around 3000 B.C. Called the Indus Valley civilization, this early empire was larger than any other empire, including Egypt and Mesopotamia.l After the great Indus Civilization collapsed in 2000 B.C., groups of Indo-Europeans called Aryans (“noble ones”) traveled to northwest India and reigned during what is called the Vedic age. The mingling of ideas from the Aryan and Indus Valley religions formed the basis of Hinduism, and the gods Shiva, Kali, and Brahma all have their roots in Aryan civilization. The Aryans also recorded the Vedas, the first Hindu scriptures, and introduced a caste system based on ethnicity and occupation.l Alexander the Great invaded India partly because he wanted to solve the mystery of the “ocean,” which he had been told was a huge, continuous sea that flowed in a circle around the land. When he reached the Indian Ocean, he sacrificed some bulls to Poseidon for leading him to his goal.m Greek sculpture strongly influenced many portrayals of Indian gods and goddesses, particularly after the conquest of Alexander the Great around 330 B.C. In fact, early Indian gods had Greek features and only later did distinct Indian styles emerge.m Chandragupta Maurya (340-290 B.C.), a leader in India who established the Mauryan Empire (321-185 B.C.), was guarded by a band of women on horseback.a When the first independent prime minister of India, pacifist Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964), was featured in Vogue, his distinctive close fitting, single-breasted jacket briefly became an important fashion statement for the Mod movement in the West. Named the Nehru jacket, the prime minister’s coat was popularized by the Beatles and worn by such famous people as Johnny Carson (1925-2005) and Sammy Davis Jr. (1925-1990).n