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Ramacharitam
The ''Ramacharitam'' is a Sanskrit epic poem written in ''Arya metre'' by Sandhyakar Nandi (c. 1084 - 1155 CE) during Pala Empire. This work simultaneously narrates the story of the Ramayana and the Pala king Ramapala. Manuscripts A palm-leaf manuscript was discovered by Haraprasad Shastri from Nepal and published in 1910 by the Asiatic Society, Kolkata. Translations in English and Bangla were published in 1939 and 1953, respectively. Author Sandhyakar Nandi was patronaged by Madanapala and his biographical details are retrieved from the ''Kaviprashasti'' (of 20 couplets) appended at the end. Nandi hailed from Brihadbatu, a village close to Pundravardhana, and was the son of Prajapati Nandi, who was the ''Sandhi-Vigrahika'' (minister of peace and war) of Ramapala. Content The poem, in four cantos, details the historical events in Bengal from the assassination of the Pala emperor Mahipala II by Divya, a rebel Kaivarta samanta up to the reign of Madanapala in 215 verses, emp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pala Empire
The Pāla Empire (r. 750-1161 CE) was an imperial power during the post-classical period in the Indian subcontinent, which originated in the region of Bengal. It is named after its ruling dynasty, whose rulers bore names ending with the suffix ''Pāla'' ("protector" in Prakrit). The empire was founded with the election of Gopāla as the emperor of Gauda in late eighth century AD. The Pala stronghold was located in Bengal and eastern Bihar, which included the major cities of Gauḍa, Vikramapura, Pāṭaliputra, Monghyr, Somapura, Ramavati (Varendra), Tāmralipta and Jaggadala. The Pālas were astute diplomats and military conquerors. Their army was noted for its vast war elephant corps. Their navy performed both mercantile and defensive roles in the Bay of Bengal. At its zenith under emperors Dharmapala and Devapala in the early ninth century, the Pala empire extended their dominance into the northern Indian region, with its territory stretching across the Gangetic pl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dibar Dighi
Dibar Dighi ( bn, দিবর দীঘি) is a tank in Bangladesh. An octagonal granite pillar, associated with Kaivarta chief Dibya, who usurped the Pala throne, stands in the centre of the tank. Location The site is located in Dibar village, on the northern side of Nazipur-Sapahar highway in Patnitala Upazila of Naogaon District. Architecture Dibar Dighi Alexander Cunningham, whose "servant" visited the site in 1879–80, noted the lake to spread about 1200 square ft. Average depth was about 12 ft. The tank currently occupies about 20 acres of land and sits atop a mound, spread over 100 acres. Kaivarta Stambha The tank is primarily famed for housing a semi-submerged granite pillar — locally known as ''Kaivarta Stambha'' — in its center. The apex of the pillar is crown shaped and decorated with three inflated circular rings. The pillar does not have any inscriptions. Francis Buchanon-Hamilton's survey of Bengal (1807–08) measured the net height to be 2 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ramayana
The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th to 4th centuries BCE, and later stages extending up to the 3rd century CE. ''Ramayana'' is one of the two important epics of Hinduism, the other being the ''Mahabharata, Mahābhārata''. The epic, traditionally ascribed to the Maharishi Valmiki, narrates the life of Sita, the Princess of Janakpur, and Rama, a legendary prince of Ayodhya city in the kingdom of Kosala. The epic follows his fourteen-year exile to the forest urged by his father King Dasharatha, on the request of Rama's stepmother Kaikeyi; his travels across forests in the South Asia, Indian subcontinent with his wife Sita and brother Lakshmana, the kidnapping of Sita by Ravana – the king of Lanka, that resulted in war; and Rama's eventual return to Ayodhya to be crowned kin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ramapala
Ramapala (reigned 1077–1130 AD) was the successor to the Pala king Shurapala II in the Bengal region of the Indian subcontinent, and fifteenth ruler of the Pala line. Early life Ramapala was the youngest son of Vigrahapala III. His mother was an unknown Rashtrakuta princess. Ramapala showed valour in battle field during the reign of his father, according to Manhali copper plate. Ramapala, along with his older brother Shurapala II, was locked in a bitter struggle with their oldest brother Mahipala II, who ascended the Pala throne after their father's death. They were imprisoned by Mahipala. However, after Mahipala's death at the hands of Kaivarta chief Divya, the brothers fled to distant parts of their kingdom, where they succeeded one another. Shurapala ruled for two years, before being succeeded by Ramapala. Reign At the very beginning, Ramapala reigned over a small territory comprising part of Magadha and Radha. But soon, according to ''Ramacharitam'', he faced a new ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late Bronze Age. Sanskrit is the sacred language of Hinduism, the language of classical Hindu philosophy, and of historical texts of Buddhism and Jainism. It was a link language in ancient and medieval South Asia, and upon transmission of Hindu and Buddhist culture to Southeast Asia, East Asia and Central Asia in the early medieval era, it became a language of religion and high culture, and of the political elites in some of these regions. As a result, Sanskrit had a lasting impact on the languages of South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia, especially in their formal and learned vocabularies. Sanskrit generally connotes several Old Indo-Aryan language varieties. The most archaic of these is the Vedic Sanskrit found in the Rig Veda, a colle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Double Entendre
A double entendre (plural double entendres) is a figure of speech or a particular way of wording that is devised to have a double meaning, of which one is typically obvious, whereas the other often conveys a message that would be too socially awkward, sexually suggestive, or offensive to state directly. A double entendre may exploit puns or word play to convey the second meaning. Double entendres generally rely on multiple meanings of words, or different interpretations of the same primary meaning. They often exploit ambiguity and may be used to introduce it deliberately in a text. Sometimes a homophone can be used as a pun. When three or more meanings have been constructed, this is known as a "triple entendre", etc. Etymology According to the Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary and the Oxford English Dictionary, the expression comes from the rare and obsolete French expression, which literally meant "double meaning" and was used in the senses of "double understanding ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bengali-language Literature
Bengali ( ), generally known by its endonym Bangla (, ), is an Indo-Aryan language native to the Bengal region of South Asia. It is the official, national, and most widely spoken language of Bangladesh and the second most widely spoken of the 22 scheduled languages of India. With approximately 300 million native speakers and another 37 million as second language speakers, Bengali is the fifth most-spoken native language and the seventh most spoken language by total number of speakers in the world. Bengali is the fifth most spoken Indo-European language. Bengali is the official and national language of Bangladesh, with 98% of Bangladeshis using Bengali as their first language. Within India, Bengali is the official language of the states of West Bengal, Tripura and the Barak Valley region of the state of Assam. It is also a second official language of the Indian state of Jharkhand since September 2011. It is the most widely spoken language in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asiatic Society Of Bangladesh
The Asiatic Society of Bangladesh is a non political and non profit research organisation registered under both Society Act of 1864 and NGO Bureau, Government of Bangladesh. The Asiatic Society of Bangladesh was established as the Asiatic Society of East Pakistan in Dhaka in 1952 by a number of Muslim leaders, and renamed in 1972. Ahmed Hasan Dani, a noted Muslim historian and archaeologist of Pakistan played an important role in founding this society. He was assisted by Muhammad Shahidullah, a Bengali linguist. The society is housed in Nimtali, walking distance from the Curzon Hall of Dhaka University, locality of Old Dhaka. Publications The society's publications include: * ''Banglapedia, the National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh'' (edition 2, 2012) * ''Encyclopedia of Flora and Fauna of Bangladesh'' (2010, 28 volumes) * ''Cultural Survey of Bangladesh, a documentation of the country's cultural history, tradition and heritage'' (2008, 12 volumes) * ''Children’s Banglapedia'', a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ram Sharan Sharma
Ram Sharan Sharma (26 November 1919 – 20 August 2011) was an Indian historian and Indologist who specialised in the history of Ancient and early Medieval India. He taught at Patna University and Delhi University (1973–85) and was visiting faculty at University of Toronto (1965–1966). He also was a senior fellow at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He was a University Grants Commission National Fellow (1958–81) and the president of Indian History Congress in 1975. It was during his tenure as the dean of Delhi University's History Department that major expansion of the department took place in the 1970s. The creation of most of the positions in the department were the results of his efforts. He was the founding Chairman of the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) and a historian of international repute. During his lifetime, he authored 115 books published in fifteen languages. He influenced major decisions relating to historical rese ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samanta
Samanta was a title and position used in the history of the Indian subcontinent between 4th and 12th centuryThe Journal of the Bihar Research Society, Volumes 69-70, p.77 to denote a vassal or tributary chief. The term roughly translates to ''neighbor''. The institution is considered to be closely associated with the origin and growth of feudalism in India and Medieval India. The institution is known to have existed prior to the Gupta period, though details on them are vague. A Pallava inscription dating to the time of Santivarman (AD 455 - 470) uses the term ''Samanta-Chudamanayah'' (best feudatories).Indian Hist (Opt), by Reddy, p.A-415 The Samanta in South India was used to mean a vassal to an emperor. In North India, the earliest use of the term in a similar sense was in Bengal in the Barabar Hill Cave Inscription of the Maukhari Chief, Anantavarman (dating to the 6th century AD) in which his father is described as the ''Samanta-Chudamanih'' (best among feudatories) of the impe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pundravardhana
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] |
Mahipala II
Mahipala II was the successor to the Pala king Vigrahapala III in the Bengal region of the Indian subcontinent, and thirteenth ruler of the Pala line reigning for 6 years. He was succeeded by Shurapala II. Mahipala II was locked in a bitter conflict with his ambitious younger brothers, Surapala and Ramapala. He imprisoned them early in his reign. The common people were also oppressed during his rule. Mahipala had to face a well-organised rebellion of his vassal chiefs. Mahipala’s army was small and ill-equipped, but he advanced to fight the rebels. He was defeated and killed by the rebels under the leadership of Divya. The rebels occupied the capital, and Surapala and Ramapala fled the city. See also *List of rulers of Bengal This is a list of rulers of Bengal. For much of its history, Bengal was split up into several independent kingdoms, completely unifying only several times. In ancient times, Bengal consisted of the kingdoms of Pundra, Suhma, Vanga, Samatata a ... ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
