World History (हिन्दी)

Among the 16 Janapadas, Magadha rose to the level of an empire. It started off as a small Janapada or a state in the southern banks of the mighty life giving Ganges river(Ganga). It had great dynasties like the Brihadratha, Haryanka(Bimbisara), Shishunaga and the Nandas. But it tasted true glory under the Mauryas, who expanded Magadhan Empire to much of modern day Indian subcontinent. Chandra Gupt...

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Hinduism has been a key identity marker, along with numerous others, of Indian Civilisation. Its more or less seen as a way of life. Its seen as old, ancient and evolving. It has numerous schools of thoughts without any rigid diktat. Different people have followed it in different ways across time and space.

How has India evolved? Today its in a much better economic situation where most people get food to eat and have a place to live. Back in 1991, India opted for economic liberalisation under the leadership of Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao and Finance Minster Manmohan Singh. Dr Manmohan Singh bid farewell to the Parliament and Rajya Sabha today.

Emperor Ashoka had many children. He sent two of them to Sri Lanka to spread the message of non-violence, good governance and the message of Buddha. These were son Mahendra and daughter Sanghamitra.

NOTE: Errors in this episode mentioned at the bottom of the description. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Have we made progress compared to those who preceded us? Are we better than them? Materially, no doubt. We have iPhones, drive EVs, fly in hours to different places on the planet. Socially? The jury isn't out, yet. So was the case for the Ma...

Alexander defeats Persians and reaches India and fights the Battle of Hydaspes/Jhelum in 326 BC. He leads a campaign along India's western lands along the Indus river and the regions to its west in modern day Balochistan. This weakened western India provides the right environment for Chanakya and Chandragupta to raise armies, capture lands and taste power. They would then train their arrows on...

All about Achaemenid Empire, it rise and expansion and how they reached India, captured many kingdoms, washed their feet in the Indus river and left a mark

In this episode we talk about the rise of Achaemenids and how Kourosh/Cyrus II/Cyrus the Great escapes death and is on the verge of taking power. This episode would be all about Persia but is part of the Ancient India series, as we are discussing this to understand the context in which the Achaemenids reach Indus Valley. In the next episode we shall see Cyrus the Great take power in the territorie...

War in Indian History, India of Today and Magadh and the challenges ahead. The gap between those on the field and those thinking and formulating the policy. Can it be narrowed down further? The audio content file has been replaced with added background audio.

The second episode dedicated to Magadh/Magadha or may be even the third if we are to include one of the bonus, non-serialised, episodes. The rule of the Shishunagas, Nandas and how Vishnu Gupta(Chanakya) enabled the end of the Nandas as a payback of the humiliation he received in the Nanda court of Dhananand.

In the melee of the sixteen(16) Mahajanapadas, four(4) emerged supreme: Magadh, Avanti, Kosala, Vatsa. These four competed for pre-eminence and Magadh emerged victorious under the leadership of Haryanka dynasty. Haryanka had great kings like Bimbisara, Ajatashatru and Udayin. The Haryankas were related to Vardhaman Mahavir, the 24rth Jain Tirthankara and were patrons of Buddhism. Both Bimbisara an...

Chanakya, Mauryas, their strategies...

The rise and spread of Buddhism in India from the Birth of Buddha to the schisms within the religion. #India #AncientIndia

In the intellectual melee of 6th century BC we see the rise of new ideas and beliefs. We have discussed Ajivikas in the previous episode. In this episode we shall talk about Janinism

In the 6th century BC we see the consolidation of the previously existing polities called Janapadas. We now have Mahajanapadas. There were 16 such Mahajanapadas. Some were republics(Ganasanghas) and others were monarchies (Samrajya). This period saw rapid increse of agricultural output aided by iron ploughshare and canal based irrigation. This led to the second urbanisation in India (the Indus Val...

Who were the Kalabhras? Where did they come from? We are not clear or sure about the origins of Kalabhras. Their story/history is elusive and their rule has often been compared to a dark age.

While Mauryas, Shungas, Kanvas and Kushanas ruled northern India one after the other over several centuries. Deccan came under the rule of the Satavahanas(Andhras) from 1st century BC to 3rd century AD. From 3rd century BC to 3rd century AD we see the rule of Cholas, Cheras and Pandyas in deep south of Indian Peninsula. But these dynasties were soon taken over by the Kalabhras, whose rule some his...

Post the Vedic period we see the rise of Mahajapanpadas. A smaller polity neighbouring the Mahajanapadas in the east, Magadha would end up dominating a significnt land mass of India. Modern India takes many of its symbols from this Magadha. Be it the Ashokan 4 lioned capital as the national emblem or naming India's national diplomatic enclave Chanakyapuri. Modern India shares much more with An...

When the Aryans or a people came to India(what has been referred to as the subcontinent or Indian subcontinent), they mixed with the locals and created a composite culture. This had many of the local pre-existing element and probably some new elements. But during the British rule over India, orientalist historians presented/created/built the Aryan theory to demonstrate how they were the rightful r...

How I feel about friends and humans and how they matter. In our podcast we do not give enough credit to individuals but rather reserve those for major actors and historical forces. That could be seen as a flaw but this is how most of the podcast episodes have been designed with a mandate to focus on the major aspects and in the process we end up discounting some others. Parsimony, some might call...

Happiness and and being content matters a lot. Especially in our times. History reading can at times have a calming effect. I personally found reading history very relaxing during my school days. And when I came across different nations, I often wondered how it would have been for the people there. How would they have seen or judged our present? Does it really matter? If Yes, then to what extent?...

The Battle of Hydaspes took place on the southern banks of Jhelum river. The Greek world knew this river by the name of Hydaspes, hence the name of the battle. In an earlier episode of the Ancient India series, the podcaster had erroneously mentioned that this battle took place on the banks of Ravi river. This is incorrect. In its stead the river mentioned should have been Jhelum. The mistake is r...

The later Vedic period saw the consolidation of Janas to Janapadas that had territory and the formation of Rashtra. We see iron being used and thus Vedic Civilisation/Culture was an Iron Age. The role of agriculture in the lives of the peolple increased and with surplus wealth and resources we see the rise of different professions and an yearning for knowledge, philosophy and sciences. The people...

Rise of the Rig Vedic people and formation of early polity with Janas(tribes) in the Sapta-Sindhu region of Ancient India from 1500 BC to 1000 BC