...In 326 BCE, Chandragupta Maurya was just a teenager when Alexander the Great of Macedonia invaded India. Facing stiff resistance all through what is now Pakistan, and hampered by the high Hindu-Kush Mountains, Alexander’s army lost its will to conquer India at the Battle of Jhelum (or Hydaspes River). Although the Macedonians made it through the Khyber Pass and defeated Raja Puru (King Poros) near modern-day Bhera, Pakistan, the fighting was almost too much for Alexander’s troops. Worst of all, Raja Puru’s army included 30 war elephants, who spooked the Macedonian cavalry’s horses (and probably the men, as well). When the victorious Macedonians heard that their next target - the Nanda Empire - could muster 6,000 war elephants, the soldiers revolted. Alexander the Great would not conquer the far side of the Ganges. Although the world’s greatest tactician could not convince his troops to take on the Nanda Empire, five years after Alexander turned away, a 20-year-old Chandragupta Maurya would accomplish that feat, and go on to unite almost all of what is nowIndia. The young Indian emperor would also take on Alexander’s successors - and win. Chandragupta Maurya’s Birth and Ancestry: Chandragupta Maurya was born sometime around 340 BCE, reportedly in Patna, now in the Bihar state of India. Given the vast span of time since his birth, it is unsurprising that scholars are uncertain of many details. For example, some texts claim that both of Chandragupta’s parents were of the Kshatriya...
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...2048nitaTime to push back the Buddha's birth date a century or so? Archaeologists may have uncovered evidence of the oldest Buddhist shrine yet discovered, dating to around 550 B.C. Located at Nepal's Lumbini pilgrimage center, the legendary site of the Buddha's birth, the discovery points to the renowned religious figure living more than a century earlier than dates accepted by many scholars. (See also: "Buddha Rising.") "What we have got is the earliest Buddhist shrine in the world," says archaeologist Robin Coningham of the United Kingdom's Durham University, lead author of the discovery study, released on Monday by the journal Antiquity. In the study, the international archaeology team reports digging beneath existing brick structures at the shrine, which is visited yearly by hundreds of thousands of pilgrims. PHOTOGRAPH BY IRA BLOCK, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC Archaeologists Robin Coningham (at left) and Kosh Prasad Acharya direct excavations within the Maya Devi Temple. The excavations showed that older wooden structures lay beneath the walls of the later brick Buddhist shrine. The layout of that more recent shrine duplicates the layout of the earlier wooden structures, pointing to a continuity of Buddhist worship at the site, Coningham says. "The big debate has been about when the Buddha lived and now we have a shrine structure pointing to the sixth century B.C.," Coningham says. The team used two kinds of scientific dating to find the age of the early shrine. Outside...
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...of JAWAHARLAL NEHRU The Discovery of India JAWAHARLAL NEHRU The Discovery of India DELHI OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS OXFORD NEW YORK Oxford University ATHENS (Press, Walton Street, Oxford 0X2 61X2 OXFORD AUCKLAND CAPE TOWN CALCUTTA FLORENCE NEW YORK BANGKOK ISTANBUL MADRID PARIS BOMBAY DELHI KARACHI MELBOURNE SINGAPORE DAR ES SALAAM HONG KONG MADRAS NAIROBI TOKYO KUALA LUMPUR MEXICO CITY TAIPEI TORONTO and associates in BERLIN IBADAN © Rajiv Gandhi 1985 First published 1946 by The Signet Press, Calcutta Centenary Edition 1989 Sixth impression 1994 Printed at Rekha Printers Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi 110020 and published by Neil O'Brien, Oxford University Press YMCA Library Building, Jai Singh Road, New Delhi 110001 To my colleagues and co-prisoners in the A h m a d n a g a r Fort Prison C a m p from 9 August 1942 to 28 March 1945 FOREWORD My father's three books — Glimpses of World History, An Autobiograpy and The Discovery of India — have been my companions through life. It is difficult to be detached about them. Indeed Glimpses was' written for me. It remains t h e best introduction to the story of man for young and growing people in India and all over the world. The Autobiography has been acclaimed as not merely the quest of one individual for freedom, b u t as an insight into the making of the mind of new India. I h a d to correct the proofs of Discovery while my father was away, I think in Calcutta, and I was...
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...Page No. 2 Index Swachh Bharat Mission FEB & MARCH, 2015 AUGUST, 2012 Page No. 4 Insurance Sector In India Page No. 5 Bharat Ratna Award Designed by: Chandan Kumar “Raja” For Advertisement Contact at : 9958790414 Join us at Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/iasexamportal Follow us at Twitter: https://twitter.com/iasexamportal CURRENT AFFAIRS National Issues International Issues India & the World Economy Science and Technology Sports Awards & Prizes In The News 6 14 20 23 39 51 58 64 Disclaimer: Editor and Publisher are not responsible for any view, data, figure etc. expressed in the articles by the author(s). Maps are notational . All Disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent courts and fourms in Delhi/New Delhi only. Selected Articles from Various Newspapers & Journals Page No. 67 91 Cyberspace Page No. 93 Regional Rural Banks The Mauryan Empire Model Paper G.S. Paper I 94 117 Join Online Coaching For IAS Pre & Mains Exams http://iasexamportal.com/civilservices/courses Project Mausam and Maritime Silk Route SWACHH BHARAT MISSION Throughout the world around 2.5 billion people do not have toilets to use, out of those 250 crore people 65 crore live in India alone. In order to solve this big challenge government of India has launched “Swachh Bharat Mission” on the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi and former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri...
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...GRE Analytical Writing ISSUE Essay Topic - 1 "Important truths begin as outrageous, or at least uncomfortable, attacks upon the accepted wisdom of the time." GRE AWA Analytical Writing ISSUE Essay Sample Solution – 1 “The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.” ― Niels Bohr[->0] This is a proven fact that truth is the initial stage of progress. However, it is also believed that truth always starts away from the traditions and conventions. Therefore, people consider truths as attacks upon their beliefs, which people are following from ages. Truth also means some new facts that are unknown to us. People do not want to deviate from the facts, which they have learnt from their ancestors, and it is true to say that shedding ones dogmas is often difficult. They feel that it is an attack on their wisdom. If we look at the history of the world, we will find many examples where truth has generated commotions in the society. Different people have different views about the existence of God, life after death and origin of earth etc. For example, people took a long time to accept that the earth is round. Religious leaders and clergymen opposed this idea as it was against what they were teaching. Similarly, when Polish astronomer, Copernicus discovered that the earth goes round the sun and not vice versa, he was opposed by churches for many years. In fact he and his supporters were...
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