|
Muga Silk
Muga silk is a variety of wild silk geographically tagged to the state of Assam in India. The silk is known for its extreme durability and has a natural yellowish-golden tint with a shimmering, glossy texture. It was previously reserved for the use of royalty. In the Brahmaputra Valley, the larvae of the Assam silkmoth feed on aromatic ''Som'' ('' Machilus bombycina'') and ''Sualu'' ('' Litsea polyantha'') leaves. Muga silk can be dyed after bleaching. This silk can be hand-washed with its lustre increasing after every wash. Muga silk, like other Assam silks, is used in products like saris, mekhalas and chadors. History Sericulture in Assam is an ancient industry without a precise time of origin. Assam was well known for the production of high quality silk since ancient times. The craft of weaving goes along with the production of silk. It grew to such sophistication in Assam that it was known all over India and abroad. The first reference to Assam silk was probably in Valm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jaapi
Jaapi or Japi (Assamese: জাপি) is a traditional conical hat from Assam, India similar to other Asian conical hats is made from tightly woven bamboo and/or cane and ''tokou paat'' (Trachycarpus martianus) a large, palm leaf. The word ''jaapi'' derives from ''jaap'' meaning a bundle of ''taku'' leaves. In the past, plain jaapi were used by ordinary people in Assam and by farmers for protection from the sun, while ornate jaapi were worn as a status symbol by royalty and nobility. Decorative ''sorudoi jaapi'' are made with intricate cloth designs (primarily red, white, green, blue, and black) that are integrated into the weaving. History The medieval Chutia kings used the Jaapi as a cultural symbol. The last Chutia king Nitipal gifted gold and silver embroidered Jaapis to the Ahom king Suhungmung as presents in his attempts for a treaty in the year 1523. After annexing Sadiya in 1524, the Ahom king received a lot of treasure and bounty, which included Jaapis. In the ye ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pundra Kingdom
Pundravardhana or Pundra Kingdom ( sa, Puṇḍravardhana), was an ancient kingdom during the Iron Age period in India with a territory that included parts of present-day Rajshahi and Rangpur Divisions of Bangladesh as well as the West Dinajpur district of West Bengal, India. The capital of the kingdom, then known as ''Pundranagara'' (Pundra city), was located at Mahasthangarh in Bogra District in northern Bangladesh.Hossain, Md. Mosharraf, ''Mahasthan: Anecdote to History'', 2006, pp. 69-73, Dibyaprakash, 38/2 ka Bangla Bazar, Dhaka, Geography Mahasthangarh, the ancient capital of Pundravardhana is located 11 km (7 mi) north of Bogra on the Bogra- Rangpur highway, with a feeder road (running along the eastern side of the ramparts of the citadel for 1.5 km) leading to Jahajghata and site museum.Hossain, Md. Mosharraf, pp. 14-15. Mention in ''Mahabharata'' and ''puranic'' literature According to the epic ''Mahabharata'' (I.104.53-54) and puranic literature, '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bhaskarvarman
Bhaskaravarman () (600–650), the last of the Varman dynasty, was an illustrious king of medieval Kamarupa. After being captured by the Gauda king during the reign of his father, he was able to re-establish the rule of the Varman's. He made political alliances with Harshavardhana of Thaneswar, against the alliance of the Gauda and East Malwa. He was visited by Xuanzang and Wang Xuance, the envoy of the Tang dynasty who have left accounts of the king and the kingdom. Bhaskaravarman came to power after his brother Supratisthitavarman had died. He was the first Kamarupa king to claim descent from the mythical Narakasura, Bhagadatta and Vajradatta. After his death Salasthambha, who established the Mlechchha dynasty, acquired power in Kamarupa Kingdom. He issued the Dubi and Nidhanpur copper plate grants, re-issued after his ancestor Bhutivarman, and a clay seal found in Nalanda. Background After Susthitavarman was defeated by Mahasenagupta, his son Supratisthitavarman came ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harshacharita
The ''Harshacharita'' ( sa, हर्षचरित, ) (''The deeds of Harsha''), is the biography of Indian emperor Harsha by Banabhatta, also known as Bana, who was a Sanskrit writer of seventh-century CE India. He was the ''Asthana Kavi'', meaning ''Court Poet'', of Harsha. The ''Harshacharita'' was the first composition of Bana and is considered to be the beginning of writing of historical poetic works in the Sanskrit language. The ''Harshacharita'' ranks as the first historical biography in Sanskrit although it is written in a florid and fanciful style. Bana's detailed and vivid descriptions of rural India's natural environment as well as the extraordinary industry of the Indian people exudes the vitality of life at that time. Since he received the patronage of the emperor Harsha, his descriptions of his patron are not an unbiased appraisal and presents the emperor's actions in an overly favourable light. Contents The ''Harṣacharita'', written in ornate poetic prose, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tibeto-Burman Languages
The Tibeto-Burman languages are the non- Sinitic members of the Sino-Tibetan language family, over 400 of which are spoken throughout the Southeast Asian Massif ("Zomia") as well as parts of East Asia and South Asia. Around 60 million people speak Tibeto-Burman languages. The name derives from the most widely spoken of these languages, Burmese and the Tibetic languages, which also have extensive literary traditions, dating from the 12th and 7th centuries respectively. Most of the other languages are spoken by much smaller communities, and many of them have not been described in detail. Though the division of Sino-Tibetan into Sinitic and Tibeto-Burman branches (e.g. Benedict, Matisoff) is widely used, some historical linguists criticize this classification, as the non-Sinitic Sino-Tibetan languages lack any shared innovations in phonology or morphology to show that they comprise a clade of the phylogenetic tree. History During the 18th century, several scholars noticed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sadiya
Sadiya is a town in Tinsukia district, Assam. It was the capital of the Chutia Kingdom and after the downfall of the kingdom it became the seat of the ''Sadiya-khowa-Gohain'' of the Ahom kingdom. Extensive remains of buildings and fortifications built during the rule of the Chutias near Sadiya still point to the importance of the region in the past. Historically Sadiya referred to the Chutiya kingdom which included at times the districts of Lakhimpur, Dhemaji and Tinsukia. It is claimed to be the center of development of the eastern Assamese dialects, the inscription here are written in a Tai script. Its stands on a grassy plain, almost surrounded by forested Himalayan mountains, on the right bank of Lohit River which is locally (but erroneously) considered the main stream of the Brahmaputra River. The deepest point of the Brahmaputra River is located near this village. It is famous for a flower named ''satphul'' (the word means "blessing" or a "desert flower"), which is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tamreswari Temple
Tamreswari temple (also Dikkaravasini, Kesai Khati) is situated about 18 km away from Sadiya in Tinsukia district, Assam, India. The temple was in the custody of non-Brahmin tribal priests called Deoris. Some remains suggest that a Chutiya king built a wall in the year 1442. The temple was dedicated to ''Kechaikhati'' (kechai means raw and khati means eat), a powerful tribal deity or a form of the Buddhist deity Tara, commonly found among different Bodo-Kachari groups. The worship of the goddess even after coming under Hindu influence was performed according to her old tribal customs. The temple was abandoned during the reign of Suhitpangphaa (1780 - 1795), when the Ahom kingdom was attacked by the Konbaung dynasty of Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells expl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kalika Purana
The Kalika Purana ( sa, Kālikā Purāṇa), also called the Kali Purana, Sati Purana or Kalika Tantra, is one of the eighteen minor Puranas ('' Upapurana'') in the Shaktism tradition of Hinduism. The text was likely composed in Assam or Cooch Behar: "This story is recounted also in the Kālikāpurāṇa—the earliest text devoted to the worship of Kāmākhyā, probably compiled no later than the tenth–eleventh century in a region between Assam and Koch Bihar (a district of West Bengal)." region of India and is attributed to the sage Markandeya. It exists in many versions, variously organized in 90 to 93 chapters. The surviving versions of the text are unusual in that they start abruptly and follow a format not found in either the major or minor Purana-genre mythical texts of Hinduism. Various types of animal sacrifices for devi are detailed in the Purana. Content The text starts off with the legends of Devi trying to bring Shiva back from ascetic life into that of a hous ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amara-kosha
The Amarakosha (Devanagari: अमरकोशः , IAST: ''Amarakośaḥ'' , ISO: ''Amarakōśaḥ'') is the popular name for ''Namalinganushasanam'' (Devanagari: नामलिङ्गानुशासनम् , IAST: ''Nāmaliṅgānuśāsanam'', ISO: ''Nāmaliṅgānuśāsanam'', which means "instruction concerning nouns and gender") a thesaurus in Sanskrit written by the ancient Indian scholar Amarasimha. The name Amarakosha derives from the Sanskrit words ''amara'' ("immortal") and ''kosha'' ("treasure, casket, pail, collection, dictionary"). According to Arthur Ba Keith, this is one of the oldest extant Sanskrit lexicons (kosha). According to Keith, Amarasiṃha, who possibly flourished in the 6th century, was "certainly a Buddhist who knew the Mahāyāna and used Kālidāsa." The author himself mentions 18 prior works, but they have all been lost. There have been more than 40 commentaries on the ''Amarakosha''. Author Narasimha is said to have been one of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moraceae
The Moraceae — often called the mulberry family or fig family — are a family of flowering plants comprising about 38 genera and over 1100 species. Most are widespread in tropical and subtropical regions, less so in temperate climates; however, their distribution is cosmopolitan overall. The only synapomorphy within the Moraceae is presence of laticifers and milky sap in all parenchymatous tissues, but generally useful field characters include two carpels sometimes with one reduced, compound inconspicuous flowers, and compound fruits. The family includes well-known plants such as the fig, banyan, breadfruit, jackfruit, mulberry, and Osage orange. The 'flowers' of Moraceae are often pseudanthia (reduced inflorescences). Historical taxonomy Formerly included within the now defunct order Urticales, recent molecular studies have resulted in the family's placement within the Rosales in a clade called the urticalean rosids that also includes Ulmaceae, Celtidaceae, Cannabace ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Magnolia
''Magnolia'' is a large genus of about 210 to 340The number of species in the genus ''Magnolia'' depends on the taxonomic view that one takes up. Recent molecular and morphological research shows that former genera ''Talauma'', ''Dugandiodendron'', ''Manglietia'', ''Michelia'', ''Elmerrillia'', ''Kmeria'', ''Parakmeria'', ''Pachylarnax'' (and a small number of monospecific genera) all belong within the same genus, ''Magnolia'' s.l. (s.l. = ''sensu lato'': 'in a broad sense', as opposed to s.s. = ''sensu stricto'': 'in a narrow sense'). The genus ''Magnolia'' s.s. contains about 120 species. See the section Nomenclature and classification in this article. flowering plant species in the subfamily Magnolioideae of the family Magnoliaceae. It is named after French botanist Pierre Magnol. ''Magnolia'' is an ancient genus. Appearing before bees evolved, the flowers are theorized to have evolved to encourage pollination by beetles. To avoid damage from pollinating beetles, the carpe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ericales
The Ericales are a large and diverse order of dicotyledons. Species in this order have considerable commercial importance including for tea, persimmon, blueberry, kiwifruit, Brazil nuts, argan, and azalea. The order includes trees, bushes, lianas, and herbaceous plants. Together with ordinary autophytic plants, the Ericales include chlorophyll-deficient mycoheterotrophic plants (e.g., '' Sarcodes sanguinea'') and carnivorous plants (e.g., genus ''Sarracenia''). Many species have five petals, often grown together. Fusion of the petals as a trait was traditionally used to place the order in the subclass Sympetalae. Mycorrhizal associations are quite common among the order representatives, and three kinds of mycorrhiza are found exclusively among Ericales (namely, ericoid, arbutoid and monotropoid mycorrhiza). In addition, some families among the order are notable for their exceptional ability to accumulate aluminum. Ericales are a cosmopolitan order. Areas of distribution of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
.JPG "Click for more on -> Magnolia")
