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 Once
upon a time there lived an Arab woman
named Arjumand Banu. We know very little
about her, except that she lived in
Agra, India, and was the Sultana of Shah
Jehan, the greatest of the Mogul
emperors. She must have been a good
woman and a good wife, because, after
eighteen years of married life, and
within twelve months after his accession
to the throne, in 1629, she died in
giving birth to her fourteenth baby. And
her husband loved her so much that he
sheltered her grave with a mausoleum
which, without question or reservation,
is pronounced by all architects and
critics to be the most beautiful
building in the world--the most sublime
and perfect work of human hands. Click
here to read more. |
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 Seven
ancient ruined cities, representing
successive periods and dynasties from
2500 B. C. to 1600 A. D., encumber the
plains immediately surrounding the city
of Delhi, within a radius of eighteen or
twenty miles; and you cannot go in any
direction without passing through the
ruins of stupendous walls, ancient
fortifications and crumbling palaces,
temples, mosques and tombs. Tradition
makes the original Delhi the political
and commercial rival of Babylon,
Nineveh, Memphis and Thebes, but the
modern town dates from 1638, the
commencement of the reign of the famous
Mogul Shah Jehan. About eleven miles
from the city is a group of splendid
ruins, some of the most remarkable in
the world, and a celebrated tower known
as the Kutab-Minar, one of the most
important architectural monuments in
India. You reach it by the Great Trunk
Road of India, the most notable
thoroughfare in the empire, which has
been the highway from the mountains and
northern provinces to the sacred River
Ganges from the beginning of time. If
followed it will lead you through
Turkestan and Persia to Constantinople
and Moscow. Over this road came
Tamerlane, the Tartar Napoleon, with his
victorious army, and Alexander the
Great, and it has been trodden by the
feet of successive invaders for twenty
or thirty centuries. Today it leads to
the Khyber Pass, the only gateway
between India and Afghanistan. Click
here to read more. |
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 The
first real civilization in India was
around 2500 BC, living near the Indus
River valley.
From 1500 BC to around 200 BC,
Aryan invaders came from central Asia,
taking over control of the northern
regions or India.
With them, they brought
traditions for raising cattle and eating
meat, along with gods.
However, in the 8th
century, the caste system, which was a
hierarchy governed by strict rules took
back supremacy.
Historians then tell us that
around 500 BC, Buddhism became the
religion of India, being embraced by the
Indian people while driving through
Hinduism beliefs.
During
the time from 40 to 600 AD, several
Indian empires rose and fell and at this
time, the practice of Buddhism began to
decline.
Around this time, north India
separated into different Hindu kingdoms,
especially after being invaded by the
Huns.
These kingdoms remained
segregated until the Muslims arrived in
1192 from the Middle East.
Over the next 20 years, all of
Ganges basin was under the control of
the Muslims and Islam was not able to
penetrate the south.
Additionally, two powerful
kingdoms were formed in what we know
today as Karnataka.
This region consisted of two
kingdoms - Vijayanagar, a Hindu kingdom
and Bahmani, a fragmented Muslim
kingdom. Click
here to read more. |
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