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Rajyavardhana
Rajyavardhana, also known as Rajya Vardhan, was the eldest son of Prabhakarvardhana and member of the Pushyabhuti dynasty. He ascended the throne after his father's death and was succeeded by his younger brother, Harsha. Contemporary information regarding the life of Rajyavardhana is limited in scope and utility. He is mentioned by Xuanzang, the Chinese traveller, and in ''Harshacharita'', a seventh-century CE work by the poet and bard Bāṇabhaṭṭa. Neither offer impartial accounts and they differ in substantive details. The military historian Kaushik Roy describes ''Harshacharita'' as "historical fiction" but with a factually correct foundation. Rajyavardhana was the elder of two sons of Prabhakarvardhana and his queen, Yasomati. The couple also had a daughter, Rajyashri, who married Grahavarman, a member of the Maukhari ruling family at Kannauj. Prabhakarvardana was the powerful ruler of the Thanesar region around 585-606 CE, although exact dates are uncertain. The histor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prabhakarvardhana
Prabhakaravardhana (also known as Prabhakara Vardhana) was a king of Thanesar in northern India around the time of the decline of the Gupta Empire. According to the historian R. C. Majumdar, he was the first notable king of the Vardhana dynasty but the fourth ruler from the family, who are also referred to as the Pushpabhutis. He had been preceded by his father, Adityavardhana, grandfather Rajyavardhana I and great-grandfather, Naravardhana, but inscriptions suggest that Banabhatta, the seventh-century bard and chronicler of the Vardhanas, may have been wrong to call these earlier rulers kings and that they may instead have been mere feudatory rulers of minor significance. Prabhakaravardhana's father, Adityavardhana, had formed an alliance with Mahasenagupta of Magadha against the Maukhari dynasty. He was married to Mahasenagupta, who was probably the sister of this Gupta king who bore the same name. Through these arrangements he had much enlarged the family's estates. It is becau ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harsha
Harshavardhana ( IAST Harṣa-vardhana; c. 590–647 CE) was a Pushyabhuti emperor who ruled northern India from 606 to 647 CE. He was the son of Prabhakaravardhana who had defeated the Alchon Huna invaders, and the younger brother of Rajyavardhana, a king of Thanesar, present-day Haryana. At the height of Harsha's power, his territory covered much of north and northwestern India, with the Narmada River as its southern boundary. He eventually made Kannauj (in present Uttar Pradesh state) his capital, and ruled till 647 CE.International Dictionary of Historic Places: Asia and Oceania by Trudy Ring, Robert M. Salkin, Sharon La Boda p.507 Harsha was defeated by the Emperor Pulakeshin II of the Chalukya dynasty in the Battle of Narmada, when he tried to expand his empire into the southern peninsula of India. The peace and prosperity that prevailed made his court a centre of cosmopolitanism, attracting scholars, artists and religious visitors from far and wide. The Chinese tra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thanesar
Thanesar city or old Kurukshetra city is a historic town and an important Hindu pilgrimage sites, Hindu pilgrimage centre in Kurukshetra district of the States and territories of India, state of Haryana in North India, northern India. It is located in Kurukshetra district, approximately 160 km northwest of Delhi. Thanesar city means old name of kurukshetra city. Kurukshetra (Sthanishwar city ) was the capital and seat of power of the Pushyabhuti dynasty, whose rulers conquered most of Aryavarta following the fall of the Gupta Empire. The Pushyabhuti emperor Prabhakarvardhana was a ruler of Thanesar in the early seventh century CE. He was succeeded by his sons, Rajyavardhana and Harsha. Harsha, also known as Harshavardhana, consolidated a vast empire over much of North India by defeating independent kings that fragmented from the Later Guptas. History The name Thanesar is derived from its name in Sanskrit language, Sanskrit, ''Sthanishvara'' which means ''Place/Abode of G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shashanka
Shashanka (IAST: Śaśāṃka) was the first independent king of a unified polity in the Bengal region, called the Gauda Kingdom and is a major figure in Bengali history. He reigned in the 7th century, some historians place his rule between circa 600 CE and 636/7 CE, whereas other sources place his reign between 590 and 625 CE. Shashanka, is credited with creating the Bengali calendar. The term Bangabda (Bangla year) is found too in two Shiva temples many centuries older than Akbar era, suggesting that a Bengali calendar existed long before Akbar's time.James Lochtefeld (2002), "Jyotisha" in The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Vol. 1: A–M, Rosen Publishing, , pages 326–327 He is the contemporary of Harsha and of Bhaskaravarman of Kamarupa. His capital was at Karnasubarna, in present-day Murshidabad in West Bengal. Contemporary sources There are several major contemporary sources of information on his life, including copperplates from his vassal Madhavavarma (king ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pushyabhuti Dynasty
The Pushyabhuti dynasty (IAST: Puṣyabhūti), also known as the Vardhana dynasty ruled in northern India during 6th and 7th centuries. The dynasty reached its zenith under its last ruler Harshavardhana, Harsha Vardhana (c. 590–647 CE), and the Empire of Harsha covered much of north and north-western India, extending till Kamarupa in the east and Narmada River in the south. The dynasty initially ruled from Thanesar, Sthanveshvara (in modern Kurukshetra district, Haryana), but Harsha eventually made Kanyakubja (modern Kannauj, Uttar Pradesh) his capital, from where he ruled until 647 CE. Etymology and name According to ''Harshacharita, Harsha-charita'', composed by the court poet Bāṇabhaṭṭa, Bana, the family was known as Pushyabhuti dynasty (IAST: Puṣyabhūti-vaṃśa), or Pushpabhuti dynasty (IAST: Puṣpabhūti-vaṃśa). The manuscripts of ''Harsha-charita'' use the variant "Pushpabhuti", but Georg Bühler proposed that this was a scribal error, and that the correc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yasomati
Yasomati (died 604 or 605 or 606 CE) was an ancient Indian queen as the chief wife of King Prabhakaravardhana of Thanesar. Name Yasomati is also known as Yasovati, and as Yasomati Devi ("devi" meaning 'goddess'). Since the "s" in the common English spelling of her name is pronounced "sh" (as in "fish"), her name is also spelled Yashomati. Biography According to a theory, Yasomati was a daughter of King Yashodharman of Malwa and a sister of King Shiladitya of Malwa. Yasomati married Prabhakaravardhana (member of the Pushyabhuti dynasty), and she had three children with him: *King Rajyavardhana *King Harsha (हर्षवर्धन) * Rajyashri, Queen consort of Kannauj Yasomati burnt herself to death. This is sometimes considered ''sati'', although ''sati'' is a term usually used for the ''widows'' who died by self-immolation, whilst Yasomati killed herself before her husbandʻs death. Poet Bāṇabhaṭṭa mentioned in ''Harshacharita'' that Yasomati distributed her jewel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Huna People
Hunas or Huna (Middle Brahmi script: ''Hūṇā'') was the name given by the ancient Indians to a group of Central Asian tribes who, via the Khyber Pass, entered the Indian subcontinent at the end of the 5th or early 6th century. The Huna Kingdom occupied areas as far south as Eran and Kausambi, greatly weakening the Gupta Empire. The Hunas were ultimately defeated by a coalition of Indian princes that included an Indian king Yasodharman and the Gupta emperor, Narasimhagupta. They defeated a Huna army and their ruler Mihirakula in 528 CE and drove them out of India. The Guptas are thought to have played only a minor role in this campaign. The Hunas are thought to have included the Xionite and/or Hephthalite, the Kidarites, the Alchon Huns (also known as the Alxon, Alakhana, Walxon etc.) and the Nezak Huns. Such names, along with that of the Harahunas (also known as the Halahunas or Harahuras) mentioned in Hindu texts, have sometimes been used for the Hunas in general; while ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
6th-century Indian Monarchs
The 6th century is the period from 501 through 600 in line with the Julian calendar. In the West, the century marks the end of Classical Antiquity and the beginning of the Middle Ages. The collapse of the Western Roman Empire late in the previous century left Europe fractured into many small Germanic kingdoms competing fiercely for land and wealth. From the upheaval the Franks rose to prominence and carved out a sizeable domain covering much of modern France and Germany. Meanwhile, the surviving Eastern Roman Empire began to expand under Emperor Justinian, who recaptured North Africa from the Vandals and attempted fully to recover Italy as well, in the hope of reinstating Roman control over the lands once ruled by the Western Roman Empire. In its second Golden Age, the Sassanid Empire reached the peak of its power under Khosrau I in the 6th century.Roberts, J: "History of the World.". Penguin, 1994. The classical Gupta Empire of Northern India, largely overrun by the Huna, ended in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward Byles Cowell
Edward Byles Cowell, (23 January 1826 – 9 February 1903) was a noted translator of Persian poetry and the first professor of Sanskrit at Cambridge University. Cowell was born in Ipswich, the son of Charles Cowell and Marianne Byles. Elizabeth "Beth" Cowell, the painter, was his sister. He became interested in Oriental languages at the age of fifteen, when he found a copy of Sir William Jones's works (including his ''Persian Grammar'') in the public library. Self-taught, he began translating and publishing Hafez within the year. On the death of his father in 1842 he took over the family business. He married in 1845, and in 1850 entered Magdalen College, Oxford, where he studied and catalogued Persian manuscripts for the Bodleian Library. From 1856 to 1867 he lived in Calcutta as professor of English history at Presidency College. He was also as principal of Sanskrit College from 1858 to 1864. In this year he discovered a manuscript of Omar Khayyám's quatrains in the Asiatic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
War Elephant
A war elephant was an elephant that was trained and guided by humans for combat. The war elephant's main use was to charge the enemy, break their ranks and instill terror and fear. Elephantry is a term for specific military units using elephant-mounted troops. Description War elephants played a critical role in several key battles in antiquity, especially in Ancient India. While seeing limited and periodic use in Ancient China, they became a permanent fixture in armies of historical kingdoms in Southeast Asia. During classical antiquity they were also used in ancient Persia and in the Mediterranean world within armies of Macedon, Hellenistic Greek states, the Roman Republic and later Empire, and Carthage in North Africa. In some regions they maintained a firm presence on the battlefield throughout the Middle Ages. However, their use declined with the spread of firearms and other gunpowder weaponry in early modern warfare. After this, war elephants became restricted to non- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Infantry
Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and marine infantry. Although disused in modern times, heavy infantry also commonly made up the bulk of many historic armies. Infantry, cavalry, and artillery have traditionally made up the core of the combat arms professions of various armies, with the infantry almost always comprising the largest portion of these forces. Etymology and terminology In English, use of the term ''infantry'' began about the 1570s, describing soldiers who march and fight on foot. The word derives from Middle French ''infanterie'', from older Italian (also Spanish) ''infanteria'' (foot soldiers too inexperienced for cavalry), from Latin '' īnfāns'' (without speech, newborn, foolish), from which English also gets '' infant''. The individual-soldier term ''infantry ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cavalry
Historically, cavalry (from the French word ''cavalerie'', itself derived from "cheval" meaning "horse") are soldiers or warriors who fight mounted on horseback. Cavalry were the most mobile of the combat arms, operating as light cavalry in the roles of reconnaissance, screening, and skirmishing in many armies, or as heavy cavalry for decisive shock attacks in other armies. An individual soldier in the cavalry is known by a number of designations depending on era and tactics, such as cavalryman, horseman, trooper, cataphract, knight, hussar, uhlan, mamluk, cuirassier, lancer, dragoon, or horse archer. The designation of ''cavalry'' was not usually given to any military forces that used other animals for mounts, such as camels or elephants. Infantry who moved on horseback, but dismounted to fight on foot, were known in the early 17th to the early 18th century as '' dragoons'', a class of mounted infantry which in most armies later evolved into standard cavalry while ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
