India - an incredible history

The Mundeshwari temple in Kaura, Kaimur, India.

Dedicated to Lord Shiva and Shakti and possibly 6 000 years old.

In the conventional narrative, Indian history begins with the birth of the Indus Valley Civilization in such sites as Mohenjo-Daro, Harappa, and Lothal, followed by the coming of the Aryans. These two phases are usually described as the pre-Vedic and Vedic periods. It is in the Vedic period that Hinduism first arose, though some elements of Hinduism are clearly drawn from the Indus Valley civilization.

Most of the subcontinent was conquered by the Maurya Empire during the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE. From the 3rd century BC onwards Prakrit and Pali literature in the north and the Sangam literature in southern India started to flourish. The famous Wootz steel originated in south India in the 3rd century BC and was exported to foreign countries.

Various parts of India were ruled by numerous Middle kingdoms for the next 1,500 years, among which the Gupta Empire stands out. This period, witnessing a Hindu religious and intellectual resurgence, is known as the classical or "Golden Age of India". During this period, aspects of Indian civilization, administration, culture, and religion (Hinduism and Buddhism) spread to much of Asia, while kingdoms in southern India had maritime business links with the Roman Empire from around 77 CE. Indian cultural influence spread over many parts of Southeast Asia which led to the establishment of Indianized kingdoms in Southeast Asia (Greater India).

Much of the Northwest subcontinent (currently Afghanistan and Pakistan) came under the rule of the Persian Achaemenid Empire in C. 520 BCE, under the rule of Darius the Great and remained so for two centuries. In 326 BCE, Alexander the Great conquered Asia Minor and the Achaemenid Empire, when he reached the Northwest frontier of the Indian subcontinent he defeated King Porus and conquered most of Punjab.

Muslim rule started in parts of north India in the 13th century when the Delhi Sultanate was founded in 1206 CE by the central Asian Turks. The Delhi Sultanate ruled the major part of northern India in the early 14th century, but declined in the late 14th century when several powerful Hindu states such as the Vijayanagara Empire, Gajapati Kingdom, Ahom Kingdom and the Mewar dynasty emerged.

In the 16th century, Mughals came from Central Asia and gradually covered most of India. The Mughal Empire suffered a gradual decline in the early 18th century, which provided opportunities for the Maratha Empire, Sikh Empire and Mysore Kingdom to exercise control over large areas of the subcontinent. Possibly the most wellknow Mughal is Shah Jahan who initiated the buildiong of Taj Mahal over his beloved wife, the empress Mumtaz Mahal, who died when giving birth to their daugheter Gauhar Ara Begum, the youngest of Jahan's 14 children, 1631.

Taj Mahal

The European presence in India dates to the sixteenth century, and it is in the very early part of the eighteenth century that the Mughal empire began to disintegrate, paving the way for regional states. In the contest for supremacy, the English emerged victors, their rule marked by the conquests at the battlefields of Plassey and Buxar. The Rebellion of 1857-58, which sought to restore Indian supremacy, was crushed, and with the subsequent crowning of Victoria as Empress of India, the incorporation of India into the empire was complete. By the early part of the twentieth century, a nationalist movement had emerged, and by 1919-20, Mohandas Karamchand ('Mahatma') Gandhi had emerged as, if not the virtually undisputed leader of this movement, certainly its most well-known and formidable architect.

Successive campaigns had the effect of driving the British out of India in 1947, but not before they had partitioned it, and carved out the Muslim-majority state of Pakistan -- later itself dismembered into Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The first prime minister of independent India was Jawaharlal Nehru, who held office from 1947 until his death in 1964. Apart from a short period of two years from 1975-77, when an internal emergency was imposed by then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and constitutional liberties were suspended, India has been a thriving parliamentary democracy.

It is undisputed that some great civilisations emerged in India. Most Europeans are genetically related to India.

Lord Shiva gave Barbarika, the son of Ghatotkacha and Maurvi (Ahilawati), daughter of Muru, a Yadava king, three infallible arrows. One arrow was enough to end all battles. Barbarika was originally a yaksha, and was reborn as a man. He was bound by his principle of always fighting on the losing side, which led him to stand witness to the battle of Mahabharata without taking part. Is it possible that he flying vimanas and the weapon of Brahma was once a nuclear war between two great civilizations in India? The weapon of Brahma was indeed of light, and we should never exclude the possibility of more advanced civilisations in the past.

Some other unconfirmed sources talk about this great war between the civilisation of Mu and Atlantis, around 15 000 years ago. Atlantis itself was destroyed by the Great Flood, mentioned in anabundance of ancient texts, no matter where.

Rererence: Vinay Lal, 1998 & 2007 http://www.mapsofindia.com/

https://hindutemples-india.blogspot.com/2019/06/mundeshwari-temple-kaura-kaimur-temple.html?m=0 Wikipedia: Astra

Jowett, Benjamin, tr. 1914. The Dialogues of Plato. Vol. 4. New York: National Library Company.