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Shakyas
Shakya ( Pāḷi: ; sa, शाक्य, translit=Śākya) was an ancient eastern sub-Himalayan ethnicity and clan of north-eastern region of the Indian subcontinent, whose existence is attested during the Iron Age. The Shakyas were organised into a (an aristocratic oligarchic republic), also known as the Shakya Republic. The Shakyas were on the periphery, both geographically and culturally, of the eastern Gangetic plain in the Greater Magadha cultural region. Location The Shakyas lived along the foothills of the Himālaya mountains, with their neighbours to the west and south being the kingdom of Kosala, their neighbours to the east across the Rohiṇī river being the related Koliya tribe, while on the north-east they bordered on the Mallakas of Kusinārā. To the north, the territory of the Shakyas stretched into the Himālayas until the forested regions of the mountains, which formed their northern border. The capital of the Shakyas was the city of Kapilavastu. Et ...
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Kapilavatthu
Kapilavastu was an ancient city in the north of the Indian subcontinent which was the capital of the clan ''gaṇasaṅgha'' or "republic" of the Shakyas in the late Iron Age, around the 6th and 5th centuries BC. King Śuddhodana and Queen Māyā are believed to have lived at Kapilavastu, as did their son Prince Siddartha Gautama (Gautama Buddha) until he left the palace at the age of 29. Buddhist texts such as the Pāli Canon say that Kapilavastu was the childhood home of Gautama Buddha, on account of it being the capital of the Shakyas, over whom his father ruled. Kapilavastu is the place where Siddhartha Gautama spent 29 years of his life. According to Buddhist sources the name Kapilvatthu means "tawny area", due to the abundance of reddish sand in the area. Kapilavastu never became a major pilgrimage site like Buddha's birthplace at Lumbini not far away, which would have left unmistakeable remains. The settlement was probably never as large as depictions in early Buddhi ...
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Gaṇasaṅgha
Gana-Sangha (Sanskrit: गणसङ्घ) or Gana-Rajya (Sanskrit: गणराज्य) were democratic states in ancient India. Definition The word (; Sanskrit: गण) in Sanskrit and Pali means tribe. It can also be used to refer to a body of attendants and can refer to any assemblage or association of men formed for the attainment of the same aims, denotes the gathering of a given community. The word ''sangha'' in Sanskrit means association, assembly, company or community. For instance, in Buddhism, ''sangha'' refers to the monastic community of bhikkhus (monks) and bhikkhunis (nuns). The phrase ''gana sangha'' can be translated as (rule by) tribal assembly. In ancient Buddhist texts like the '' Anguttara Nikaya'' which make frequent reference to the great states in ancient India, the texts often use the phrase to refer a type of oligarchical rule, contrast to monarchy (साम्राज्य ''saamarajya'' in Sanskrit). Among the Mahajanapadas, the sixteen great s ...
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Kapilavastu (ancient City)
Kapilavastu was an ancient city in the north of the Indian subcontinent which was the capital of the clan '' gaṇasaṅgha'' or "republic" of the Shakyas in the late Iron Age, around the 6th and 5th centuries BC. King Śuddhodana and Queen Māyā are believed to have lived at Kapilavastu, as did their son Prince Siddartha Gautama (Gautama Buddha) until he left the palace at the age of 29. Buddhist texts such as the Pāli Canon say that Kapilavastu was the childhood home of Gautama Buddha, on account of it being the capital of the Shakyas, over whom his father ruled. Kapilavastu is the place where Siddhartha Gautama spent 29 years of his life. According to Buddhist sources the name Kapilvatthu means "tawny area", due to the abundance of reddish sand in the area. Kapilavastu never became a major pilgrimage site like Buddha's birthplace at Lumbini not far away, which would have left unmistakeable remains. The settlement was probably never as large as depictions in early Buddh ...
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Iron Age
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly applied to Iron Age Europe and the Ancient Near East, but also, by analogy, to other parts of the Old World. The duration of the Iron Age varies depending on the region under consideration. It is defined by archaeological convention. The "Iron Age" begins locally when the production of iron or steel has advanced to the point where iron tools and weapons replace their bronze equivalents in common use. In the Ancient Near East, this transition took place in the wake of the Bronze Age collapse, in the 12th century BC. The technology soon spread throughout the Mediterranean Basin region and to South Asia ( Iron Age in India) between the 12th and 11th century BC. Its further spread to Central Asia, Eastern Europe, and Central Europe is somewhat ...
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Indian Subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent is a physiographical region in Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian Ocean from the Himalayas. Geopolitically, it includes the countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka."Indian subcontinent". '' New Oxford Dictionary of English'' () New York: Oxford University Press, 2001; p. 929: "the part of Asia south of the Himalayas which forms a peninsula extending into the Indian Ocean, between the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal. Historically forming the whole territory of Greater India, the region is now divided into three countries named Bangladesh, India and Pakistan." The terms ''Indian subcontinent'' and ''South Asia'' are often used interchangeably to denote the region, although the geopolitical term of South Asia frequently includes Afghanistan, which may otherwise be classified as Central Asian.John McLeod, The history of India', page 1, Greenwood Publishing ...
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Kusinārā
Kushinagar (Hindustani: or ; Pali: ; Sanskrit: ) is a town in the Kushinagar district in Uttar Pradesh, India. It is an important and popular Buddhist pilgrimage site, where Buddhists believe Gautama Buddha attained '' parinirvana''. Etymology According to Buddhist tradition ''Kushavati'' was named prior to the king Kush. The naming of Kushwati is believed to be due to abundance of Kush grass found in this region. Demographics According to the 2011 Census of India, Kushinagar had 3462 households and a total population of 22,214, of which 11,502 were males and 10,712 were females. The population within the age group of 0 to 6 years was 2,897. The total number of literate people in Kushinagar was 15,150, which constituted 68.2% of the population with male literacy of 73.3% and female literacy of 62.7%. The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes population was 1,117 (5.03%) and 531 (2.39%) respectively. History The present Kushinagar is identified with Kusavati (in the pre ...
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Malla (tribe)
Malla (Prakrit: ; pi, Malla; sa, मल्ल​ ) was an ancient Indo-Aryan tribe of north-eastern South Asia whose existence is attested during the Iron Age. The population of Malla, the Mallakas, were divided into two branches, each organised into a (an aristocratic oligarchic republic), presently referred to as the Malla Republics, which were part of the larger Vajjika League. Location The Mallakas lived in the region now covered by the Gorakhpur district in India, although their precise borders are yet to be determined. The Mallakas' neighbours to the east across the Sadānirā river were the Licchavikas, their neighbours to the west were the Sakyas, Koliyas, Moriyas, and Kauśalyas, the southern neighbours of the Mallakas were the Kālāmas and the Gaṅgā river, and the northern Mallaka borders were the Himālaya mountains. The territory of the Mallakas was a tract of land between the Vaidehas and the Kauśalyas. The territories of the two Malla republi ...
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Koliya
Koliya ( Pāli: ) was an ancient Indo-Aryan clan of north-eastern South Asia whose existence is attested during the Iron Age. The Koliyas were organised into a (an aristocratic oligarchic republic), presently referred to as the Koliya Republic. Location The territory of the Koliyas was a thin strip of land spanning from the river Sarayū to the Himālayan hills in the north. The Rohiṇī river was the western border of the Koliyas, with their neighbours to the north-west being the Sakyas. In the south-west, the river Anomā or Rāptī separated the Koliyas from the kingdom of Kosala, to the east their neighbours were the Moriyas, and to their north-east they bordered on the Mallakas of Kusinārā. The capital of the Koliyas was Rāmagāma, and one of their other settlements was Devadaha. Name The name of the tribe is uniformly attested under the Pāli form . The Koliyas originally obtained this name from the (jujube) tree because they lived in a region wher ...
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Rohni River
The Rohni or Rohini or Rohin River rises in the Chure or Sivalik Hills in Kapilvastu and Rupandehi Districts of Nepal's Lumbini Zone and flows south into Uttar Pradesh state, India. At Gorakhpur it becomes a left bank tributary of West Rapti River, which in turn joins the Ghaghara above Gaura Barhaj, then Ghaghara in turn joins the Ganges. According to an account in several Buddhist texts, Kapilavatthu (the town of the Sakyans) and Koli (the town of the Koliyans) were situated on either side of the Rohini river. The cultivators of both towns worked the fields watered by the Rohini river. One year, they did not have enough rain and finding that the paddy and other crops were beginning to shrivel up, cultivators on both sides wanted to divert the water from the Rohini river to their own fields. Those living in Koli said that there was not enough water in the river for both sides, and that if only they could channel the water just once more to their fields that would be enough for ...
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Kosala
The Kingdom of Kosala (Sanskrit: ) was an ancient Indian kingdom with a rich culture, corresponding to the area within the region of Awadh in present-day Uttar Pradesh to Western Odisha. It emerged as a small state during the late Vedic period, with connections to the neighbouring realm of Videha. Kosala belonged to the Northern Black Polished Ware culture (c. 700–300 BCE), and the Kosala region gave rise to the Sramana movements, including Jainism and Buddhism. It was culturally distinct from the Painted Grey Ware culture of the Vedic period of Kuru- Panchala west of it, following independent development toward urbanisation and the use of iron. During the 5th century BCE, Kosala incorporated the territory of the Shakya clan, to which the Buddha belonged. According to the Buddhist text ''Aṅguttara Nikāya'' and the Jaina text, the '' Bhagavati Sutra'', Kosala was one of the ''Solasa'' (sixteen) Mahajanapadas (powerful realms) in 6th to 5th centuries BCE, and its cul ...
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Himalayas
The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 peaks exceeding in elevation lie in the Himalayas. By contrast, the highest peak outside Asia ( Aconcagua, in the Andes) is tall. The Himalayas abut or cross five countries: Bhutan, India, Nepal, China, and Pakistan. The sovereignty of the range in the Kashmir region is disputed among India, Pakistan, and China. The Himalayan range is bordered on the northwest by the Karakoram and Hindu Kush ranges, on the north by the Tibetan Plateau, and on the south by the Indo-Gangetic Plain. Some of the world's major rivers, the Indus, the Ganges, and the Tsangpo– Brahmaputra, rise in the vicinity of the Himalayas, and their combined drainage basin is home to some 600 million people; 53 million people live in the Himalayas. The Himalaya ...
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Greater Magadha
Greater Magadha is a concept in studies of the early history of India. It is used to refer to the political and cultural sphere that developed in the lower Gangetic plains ( Johannes Bronkhorst defines the region to comprise modern day Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh) during the Vedic age. The '' Śramaṇa'' culture of Greater Magadha developed parallel to but separate from the Vedic culture to its west, that was characteristic of the upper Ganges basin ( Ganga-Yamuna doab). According to Bronkhorst, the sramana culture arose in "Greater Magadha," which was Indo-Aryan, but not Vedic. In this culture, Kshatriyas were placed higher than Brahmins, and it rejected Vedic authority and rituals. Overview The concept was developed in a book by the indologist Johannes Bronkhorst (2007), where he defines the region to comprise modern day Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh. They developed an ideological opposition to the sacrifice and ritual slaying of animals. Later this non-vedic traditi ...
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