Ancient Indian History

Sindoor (vermilion) is a red, orange or ochre colored cosmetic powder used by mainly married women of Indian subcontinent. It is made from cinnabar (a naturally occurring form of mercury sulfide), turmeric and lime.  Image courtesy: Flickr Significance of Applying Sindoor by Indian Women- Image courtesy: Flickr Sindoor has a lot of importance in Indian culture. There is a tradition of applying sindoor on parting of hairs by married Hindu women. It is considered very auspicious and applied for long life of their husbands. Traditionally, the unmarried women and widows do not apply sindoor. A woman's  bindi may also be made from sindoor.  Mythology- Sindoor is symbolized as energy of goddess Parwati, the wife of god Shiva. The Indian women believe that the goddess Parwati protects all those men whose wives apply sindoor on their forehead.  Historicity of Applying Sindoor as Cosmetic- The practice of cosmetics is believed to have or...

On the day of Mahashivratri, I thought to write about Adideva, the oldest diety. The earliest evidence of Lord Shiva is found in the form of 'Pashupati seal of Mohenjo-daro.' Lord Shiva Excavation of Pashupati Seal- This seal was found during 1928-29 in Block 1, southern portion of the DK-G area of Mohenjo-daro, near the famous great bath. Mohenjo-daro is a well known center of Indus valley civilization. The seal was numbered 420 by Ernest J. H. Mackey and dated it around 2350-2000 BCE, the intermediate period of Indus valley civilization. At present time this seal can be seen at National Museum, New Delhi.  Image courtesy: Wikipedia Features of Pashupati seal- The size of the seal is 3.56 cm× 3.53 cm× 0.76 cm and is made of steatite (soapstone), a magnesium rich mineral talk, which is decay resistant and soft to carve. To make the stone seals, the stone was sawed and shaped with knives, and then carved using fine chisels and drills. After that t...

The Vedic Aryan Head - In 1990, the scholars of Indian history were thrilled with an article published in the Journal of Indo European Studies ( vol18, page 425-446 ). The article was "Analysis of an Indo-Europian Vedic  Aryan Head- 4500-2500 BC" by Hicks and Anderson. Image courtesy: Ramani's blog  This antique Aryan head was recovered in  New Delhi by Dr. P Anderson from a scrap dealer in 1958. There was tilak markings on the brow and handlebar moustaches on this copper based Aryan's head. The hair was styled in a manner described for Rigvedic  Vashishtha - coiled with a tuft to the right. Tests for dating of the artifact were performed by three different universities using different techniques. MASCA corrected carbon dating produced a date centered around 3700 BC +,- 800 years. Anderson claimed that the carbon dating was done by very advanced technique in Zurich by Laboratory for Nuclear Science at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. Datin...

       There is a very interesting Puranic story about it. Once Sita was applying vermilion ( sindoor ) on her forehead, Hanuman asked her why she was doing that. Sita replied that it would ensure the long life of her husband Rama. The next day, Hanuman came to the court of Rama, painted himself with vermilion (sindoor) pasted all over his body. Everybody laughed at him. Rama asked him about it. Hanuman replied that if the vermilion painted on the forehead of mother Sita could increase the life of Rama, painting all over his body might make him immortal. This is the story of his intense love and reverence for his master Rama.        This is the matter of Puran. But there is another aspect which is described in the epic Mahabharata by Vyas. When the army of Sugreev was preparing for battle, the soldiers were applying red paste and the soldiers of Jamvant were applying black paste over their body. गिरिकूटनिभाः के चित्के चिन्महिषसंन...

In October 2019, an article was published in  Open magazine by Nanditha Krishna a historian at CPR Institute of Indological Research in Chennai. She claimed that she got knowledge about an ancient clay tablet from Nepal through an  email from her friend. Her friend Jeremy Pine is a terracotta dealer in Hong Kong and brought that tablet from Nepal. Image courtesy: Open magazine         The  thermoluminescene test of this tablet was done by Oxford Authentication on 14th May 2019 and dated the firing of the tablet between 1600 BC- 300BC. Image courtesy: Open magazine          Now we focus some important signs of this tablet:- The hairstyle or headdress that resembles that of Indus valley civilization. Chariot is being pulled by four Horses . The spoked wheels of the chariot. Absence of any Indus language sign The ancient Indian chariots- The chariot...

Vedic  period is the period in Indian  subcontinent between end of Indus valley civilization and the beginning of Buddhism and Jainism. This period  falls around between 15 th century BC to 5 th century BC. This period corresponds to bronze-iron age of northern India. Rigveda is the main textual evidence of this period, which was composed around between 15 th to 12 th century BC by Aryans. Archeological evidences of this period are not much and we shall discuss about it later. Yagna: religious act Vedic period Image courtesy: Pinterest The knowledge about this period comes from Rigvedic texts and few archaeological evidences. The Rigveda mainly consists of prayer to gods and Indra was the chief among them. Other deities were Agni, Soma, Ishwara, Ashwin, Varun, Marut etc. We shall discuss later about Rigvedic deities. As we know that there are two hypotheses about origin of Aryans, ‘migration into India’ hypothesis and ‘indigenous A...