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Hitopadesha
''Hitopadesha'' (Sanskrit: हितोपदेशः, IAST: ''Hitopadeśa'', "Beneficial Advice") is an Indian text in the Sanskrit language consisting of fables with both animal and human characters. It incorporates maxims, worldly wisdom and advice on political affairs in simple, elegant language, and the work has been widely translated. Little is known about its origin. The surviving text is believed to be from the 12th-century, but was probably composed by Narayana between 800 and 950 CE. The oldest manuscript found in Nepal has been dated to the 14th century, and its content and style has been traced to the ancient Sanskrit treatises called the ''Panchatantra'' from much earlier. The author and his sources The authorship of the ''Hitopadesa'' has been contested. 19th-century Indologists attributed the text to Vishnu Sharma, a narrator and character that often appears in its fables. Upon the discovery of the oldest known manuscript of the text in Nepal, dated to 1373, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Panchatantra
The ''Panchatantra'' ( IAST: Pañcatantra, ISO: Pañcatantra, , "Five Treatises") is an ancient Indian collection of interrelated animal fables in Sanskrit verse and prose, arranged within a frame story.Panchatantra: Indian Literature , Encyclopaedia Britannica The surviving work is dated to about 300 CE, but the fables are likely much more ancient. The text's author is unknown, but it has been attributed to Vishnu Sharma in some recensions and Vasubhaga in others, both of which may be fictitious pen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fable
Fable is a literary genre defined as a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are anthropomorphized, and that illustrates or leads to a particular moral lesson (a "moral"), which may at the end be added explicitly as a concise maxim or saying. A fable differs from a parable in that the latter ''excludes'' animals, plants, inanimate objects, and forces of nature as actors that assume speech or other powers of humankind. Conversely, an animal tale specifically includes talking animals as characters. Usage has not always been so clearly distinguished. In the King James Version of the New Testament, "" ("'' mythos''") was rendered by the translators as "fable" in the First Epistle to Timothy, the Second Epistle to Timothy, the Epistle to Titus and the First Epistle of Peter. A person who writes fables is referred to as a fabulist. Global history The fable is one of the m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Narayan Pandit
Narayan Pandit (Hindi: नारायण पण्डित), or Narayana (died 10th century), was the Brāhmaṇa author of the ''Sanskrit'' treatise called ''Hitopadesha'' — a work based primarily on the ''Panchatantra'', one of the oldest collection of stories, mainly animal fables, in the world. Narayana's dates are not known, but scholarly consensus places the composition of the ''Hitopadesha'' at around 800 to 950 CE. The last lines of the book indicate the name of the author as Narayan Pandit: नारायणेन प्रचरतु रचितः संग्रहोsयं कथानाम् Narayan Pandit was the royal poet of Dhawalchandra, the king of Bengal. (in Hindi) The beginning and ending |
Charles Wilkins
Sir Charles Wilkins (1749 – 13 May 1836) was an English typographer and oriental studies, Orientalist, and founding member of the The Asiatic Society, Asiatic Society. He is notable as the first translator of the Bhagavad Gita into English. He supervised Panchanan Karmakar to create one of the first Bengali alphabet, Bengali typefaces. In 1788, Wilkins was elected a member of the Royal Society. Birth and childhood He was born at Frome in Somerset in 1749. He trained as a printer. In 1770, he went to India as a printer and writer in the British East India Company, East India Company's service. His facility with language allowed him to quickly learn Persian language, Persian and Bengali language, Bengali. He created with his own hands the first type for printing Bengali. He published the first typeset book in the language, earning himself the name "the william Caxton, Caxton of India". He also designed type for publications of books in Persian. In 1781, he was appointed as tran ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Colebrooke
Henry Thomas Colebrooke FRS FRSE FLS (15 June 1765 – 10 March 1837) was an English orientalist and botanist. He has been described as "the first great Sanskrit scholar in Europe". Biography Henry Thomas Colebrooke was born on 15 June 1765. His parents were Sir George Colebrooke, 2nd Baronet, MP for Arundel and Chairman of the East India Company from 1769, and Mary Gaynor, daughter and heir of Patrick Gaynor of Antigua. He was educated at home, and from the age of twelve to sixteen he lived in France. In 1782 Colebrooke was appointed through his father's influence to a writership with the East India Company in Calcutta. In 1786 and three years later he was appointed assistant collector in the revenue department at Tirhut. He wrote ''Remarks on the Husbandry and Commerce of Bengal'', which was privately published in 1795, by which time he had transferred to Purnia. This opposed the East India Company's monopoly on Indian trade, advocating instead for free trade betw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Raj
The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani language, Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or direct rule in India. * Quote: "Mill, who was himself employed by the British East India company from the age of seventeen until the British government assumed direct rule over India in 1858." * * The region under British control was commonly called India in contemporaneous usage and included areas directly administered by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom, which were collectively called ''Presidencies and provinces of British India, British India'', and areas ruled by indigenous rulers, but under British British paramountcy, paramountcy, called the princely states. The region was sometimes called the Indian Empire, though not officially. As ''India'', it was a founding member of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nāgarī Script
The Nāgarī script is the ancestor of Devanagari, Nandinagari and other variants, and was first used to write Prakrit and Sanskrit. The term is sometimes used as a synonym for Devanagari script.Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, , page 83George Cardona and Danesh Jain (2003), The Indo-Aryan Languages, Routledge, , pages 68-69 It came in vogue during the first millennium CE. The Nāgarī script has roots in the ancient Brahmi script family. The Nāgarī script was in regular use by 7th century CE, and had fully evolved into Devanagari and Nandinagari scripts by about the end of first millennium of the common era. Etymology Nagari is a vṛddhi derivation from नगर (), which means city. Origins The Nāgarī script appeared in ancient India as a central-eastern variant of the Gupta script (whereas Śāradā was the western variety and Siddham was the far eastern variety). In turn it branched off into several scripts, suc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Carey (missionary)
William Carey (17 August 1761 – 9 June 1834) was an English Christian missionary, Particular Baptist minister, translator, social reformer and cultural anthropologist who founded the Serampore College and the Serampore University, the first degree-awarding university in India and cofounded the Serampore Mission Press. He went to Calcutta (Kolkata) in 1793, but was forced to leave the British Indian territory by non-Baptist Christian missionaries. He joined the Baptist missionaries in the Danish colony of Frederiksnagore in Serampore. One of his first contributions was to start schools for impoverished children where they were taught reading, writing, accounting and Christianity. He opened the first theological university in Serampore offering divinity degrees, and campaigned to end the practice of sati. Carey is known as the "father of modern missions."Gonzalez, Justo L. (2010) ''The Story of Christianity'' Vol. 2: The Reformation to the Present Day, Zondervan, , p. 4 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Serampore
Serampore (also called Serampur, Srirampur, Srirampore, Shreerampur, Shreerampore, Shrirampur or Shrirampore) is a city in Hooghly district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the headquarters of the Srirampore subdivision. It is a part of the area covered by Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA). It is a pre-colonial city on the west bank of the Hooghly River. It was part of Danish India under the name Frederiknagore from 1755 to 1845. Geography Location Serampore is located at . The area consists of flat alluvium, alluvial plains, that form a part of the Gangetic Delta. This belt is highly industrialised. Police stations Serampore police station has jurisdiction over Serampore and Baidyabati Municipal areas, and parts of Sreerampur Uttarpara CD Block. Serampore Women police station has been set up. Urbanisation Srirampore subdivision is the most urbanized of the subdivisions in Hooghly district. 73.13% of the population in the subdivision is urban and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bhagavad Gita
The Bhagavad Gita (; ), often referred to as the Gita (), is a Hindu texts, Hindu scripture, dated to the second or first century BCE, which forms part of the Hindu epic, epic poem Mahabharata. The Gita is a synthesis of various strands of Indian religious thought, including the Vedic concept of ''dharma'' (duty, rightful action); samkhya-based ''yoga'' and ''jnana'' (knowledge); and ''bhakti'' (devotion). Among the Hindu denominations, Hindu traditions, the text holds a unique pan-Hindu influence as the most prominent sacred text and is a central text in Vedanta and the Vaishnava, Vaishnava Hindu tradition. While traditionally attributed to the sage Veda Vyasa, the Gita is historiographically regarded as a composite work by multiple authors. Incorporating teachings from the Upanishads and the samkhya Yoga (philosophy), yoga philosophy, the Gita is set in a narrative framework of dialogue between the pandava prince Arjuna and his charioteer guide Krishna, an avatar of Vishnu, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sir William Jones
Sir William Jones (28 September 1746 – 27 April 1794) was a British philologist, orientalist, Indologist and judge. Born in Westminster, London to Welsh mathematician William Jones, he moved to the Bengal Presidency where Jones served as a puisne judge on the Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William and also became a scholar of ancient Indian history. As part of his research, he was the first to assert the kinship of the Indo-European languages. Jones also founded the Asiatic Society in Calcutta in 1784. Early life William Jones was born in London; his father William Jones (1675–1749) was a mathematician from Anglesey in Wales, noted for introducing the use of the symbol π. The young William Jones was a linguistic prodigy, who in addition to his native languages English and Welsh, learned Greek, Latin, Persian, Arabic, Hebrew and the basics of Chinese writing at an early age. By the end of his life, he knew eight languages with critical thoroughness. Jones's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
