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Kapiśa
The Kingdom of Kapisa, appearing in contemporary Chinese sources as () and (), was a state located in what is now Afghanistan during the late 1st millennium. Its capital was the city of Kapisa. The kingdom stretched from the Hindu Kush in the north to Bamiyan and Kandahar in the south and west, out as far as the modern Jalalabad District in the east. The name Kapisa appears to be a Sanskritized form of an older name for the area, from prehistory. Following its conquest in 329 BC by Alexander the Great, Bagram and the surrounding area were known in the Hellenic world as Alexandria on the Caucasus in reference to the Hindu Kush as the "Indic Caucasus", although the older name appears to have survived. In the early 7th century, the Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzang made a pilgrimage to Kapisa, and described there the cultivation of rice and wheat, and a king of the Suli tribe. In his chronicle, he relates that in Kapisa were over 6,000 monks of the Mahayana school of Buddhism. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kapisa Province
Kapisa ( ; Dari and Pashto: ''Kāpisā'') is the smallest of Afghanistan, Afghanistan's thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan, provinces and is located in the north-east of the country. It has an estimated population of 523,201 people and an area of , making it the most densely populated province apart from Kabul Province. It borders Panjshir Province to the north, Laghman Province to the east, Kabul Province to the south and Parwan Province to the west. Mahmud-i-Raqi is the provincial capital, while the most populous city and district of Kapisa is Nijrab. History The earliest references to Kapisa appear in the writings of the fifth century BCE Indian scholar Pāṇini. Pāṇini refers to the city of Kapiśi, a city of the Kapisa kingdom, modern Bagram. Pāṇini also refers to ''Kapiśayana'', a famous wine from Kapisa. The city of Kapiśi also appeared as ''Kaviśiye'' on Graeco-Indian coins of Apollodotus I and Eucratides. Archeological discoveries in 1939 confirmed that t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran border, west, Turkmenistan to the Afghanistan–Turkmenistan border, northwest, Uzbekistan to the Afghanistan–Uzbekistan border, north, Tajikistan to the Afghanistan–Tajikistan border, northeast, and China to the Afghanistan–China border, northeast and east. Occupying of land, the country is predominantly mountainous with plains Afghan Turkestan, in the north and Sistan Basin, the southwest, which are separated by the Hindu Kush mountain range. Kabul is the country's capital and largest city. Demographics of Afghanistan, Afghanistan's population is estimated to be between 36 and 50 million. Ancient history of Afghanistan, Human habitation in Afghanistan dates to the Middle Paleolithic era. Popularly referred to as the graveyard of empire ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kashmir
Kashmir ( or ) is the Northwestern Indian subcontinent, northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term ''Kashmir'' denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal Range. The term has since also come to encompass a larger area that includes the Indian-administered territories of Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, the Pakistani-administered territories of Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, and the Chinese-administered territories of Aksai Chin and the Trans-Karakoram Tract. Quote: "Kashmir, region of the northwestern Indian subcontinent. It is bounded by the Uygur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang to the northeast and the Tibet Autonomous Region to the east (both parts of China), by the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab to the south, by Pakistan to the west, and by Afghanistan to the northwest. The northern and western portions are administered by Pakistan a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Begram Ivories
The Begram ivories are a group of over a thousand decorative plaques, small figures and inlays, carved from ivory and bone, and formerly attached to wooden furniture, that were excavated in the 1930s in Bagram (Begram), Afghanistan. They are rare and important exemplars of Kushan art of the 1st or 2nd centuries CE, attesting to the cosmopolitan tastes and patronage of local dynasts, the sophistication of contemporary craftsmanship, and to the ancient trade in luxury goods. They are the best known element of the Begram Hoard. The '' French Archaeological Delegation in Afghanistan'' (DAFA) conducted excavations at the site between 1936 and 1940, uncovering two walled-up strongrooms, Room 10 and Room 13. Inside, a large number of bronze, alabaster, glass (remains of 180 pieces), coins, and ivory objects, along with remains of furniture and Chinese lacquer bowls, were unearthed. Some of the furniture was arranged along walls, other pieces stacked or facing each other. In particula ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mahabharata
The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; , , ) is one of the two major Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epics of ancient India revered as Smriti texts in Hinduism, the other being the ''Ramayana, Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the events and aftermath of the Kurukshetra War, a war of succession between two groups of princely cousins, the Kauravas and the Pandava, Pāṇḍavas. It also contains Hindu philosophy, philosophical and devotional material, such as a discussion of the four "goals of life" or ''puruṣārtha'' (12.161). Among the principal works and stories in the ''Mahābhārata'' are the ''Bhagavad Gita'', the story of Damayanti, the story of Shakuntala, the story of Pururava and Urvashi, the story of Savitri and Satyavan, the story of Kacha (sage), Kacha and Devayani, the story of Rishyasringa and an Ramopakhyana, abbreviated version of the ''Rāmāyaṇa'', often considered as works in their own right. Traditionally, the authorship of the ''Mahābhārata'' is attributed to Vyasa, Vy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthur Anthony Macdonell
Arthur Anthony Macdonell, FBA (11 May 1854 – 28 December 1930) was an Indian-born British linguist and Sanskrit scholar. Biography Macdonell was born at Muzaffarpur in the Tirhut region of the state of Bihar in British India, the son of Charles Alexander Macdonell, of the Indian Army. He was educated at Göttingen University, then matriculated in 1876 at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, gaining a classical exhibition and three scholarships (for German, Chinese, and the Boden Scholarship for Sanskrit). He graduated with classical honours in 1880 and was appointed Taylorian Teacher of German (language) at Oxford. In 1883 he obtained his PhD from the University of Leipzig, and then became Deputy Professor of Sanskrit at Oxford in 1888, and Boden Professor of Sanskrit in 1899 (a post that carried with it a fellowship of Balliol College, Oxford). Macdonell edited various Sanskrit texts, wrote a grammar, compiled a dictionary, and published a Vedic grammar, a Vedic Reader, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nezak Huns
The Nezak Huns ( Pahlavi: 𐭭𐭩𐭰𐭪𐭩 ''nycky''), also Nezak Shahs, was a significant principality in the south of the Hindu Kush region of South Asia from circa 484 to 665 CE. Despite being traditionally identified as the last of the four Hunnic states in South Asia, their ethnicity remains disputed and speculative. The dynasty is primarily evidenced by coinage inscribing a characteristic water-buffalo-head crown and an eponymous legend. The Nezak Huns rose to power after the Sasanian Empire's defeat by the Hephthalites. Their founder Khingal may have been from a Hunnic group, allied to the Hephthalites, or an indigenous ruler who accepted tributary status. Little is known about the rulers who followed him; they received regular diplomatic missions from the Tang dynasty, and some coexisted with the Alchon Huns from about the mid-sixth century. The polity collapsed in the mid-seventh century after experiencing increasingly frequent invasions from the Arab frontier; the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Apollodotus
Apollodotus I (Greek language, Greek: , ''Apollódotos ho Sōtḗr'', "Apollodotus the Saviour"), known in Indian sources as Apaladata, was an Indo-Greek king from 180 BC to 160 BC, or between 174 and 165 BC (first dating by Osmund Bopearachchi and R. C. Senior, second dating by Boperachchi) who ruled the western and southern parts of the Indo-Greek kingdom, from Taxila in the Punjab region, Punjab region to the areas of Sindh and possibly Gujarat. Ruler of the Indo-Greek kingdom Apollodotus whose name means "given by Apollo", was not the first to strike bilingual coins outside Bactria, but he was the first king who ruled in India only, and therefore the founder of the proper Indo-Greek kingdom. According to William Woodthorpe Tarn, W. W. Tarn, Apollodotus I was one of the generals of Demetrius I of Bactria, the Greco-Bactrian king who invaded northwestern India after 180 BC. Tarn was uncertain whether he was a member of the royal house. It is possible he was an illegit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indo-Greek
The Indo-Greek Kingdom, also known as the Yavana Kingdom, was a Hellenistic period, Hellenistic-era Ancient Greece, Greek kingdom covering various parts of modern-day Afghanistan, Pakistan and northwestern India. The term "Indo-Greek Kingdom" loosely describes a number of various Hellenistic states, ruling from regional capitals like Taxila, Sagala, Pushkalavati, and Bagram. Other centers are only hinted at; e.g. Ptolemy's ''Geographia (Ptolemy), Geographia'' and the nomenclature of later kings suggest that a certain Theophilos (king), Theophilus in the south of the Indo-Greek sphere of influence may also have had a royal seat there at one time. The kingdom was founded when the Graeco-Bactrian king Demetrius I of Bactria invaded India from Bactria in about 200 BC. The Greeks to the east of the Seleucid Empire were eventually divided to the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, Graeco-Bactrian Kingdom and the Indo-Greek Kingdoms in the North Western Indian Subcontinent. During the two cent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pāṇini
(; , ) was a Sanskrit grammarian, logician, philologist, and revered scholar in ancient India during the mid-1st millennium BCE, dated variously by most scholars between the 6th–5th and 4th century BCE. The historical facts of his life are unknown, except only what can be inferred from his works, and legends recorded long after. His most notable work, the ''Aṣṭādhyāyī,'' is conventionally taken to mark the start of Classical Sanskrit. His work formally codified Classical Sanskrit as a refined and standardized language, making use of a technical metalanguage consisting of a syntax, morphology, and lexicon, organised according to a series of meta-rules. Since the exposure of European scholars to his ''Aṣṭādhyāyī'' in the nineteenth century, Pāṇini has been considered the "first Descriptive linguistics, descriptive linguist",#FPencyclo, François & Ponsonnet (2013: 184). and even labelled as "the father of linguistics". His approach to grammar influenced such ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
