History Passion

 Battles for Delhi - Rishi Dandamis and Alexander the Great -  Another great sage Alexander met dueing his entry into India was Rishi Dandamis. Alexander was fascinated by the holy men of India and their philosophies. He sent one of his generals to bring Dandamis over or else the sage would be beheaded. The sage was lying almost naked in his abode and non-chalantly told the general that he had no fear of death as the soul was immortal and would go to God. He told the General if Alexander wanted to meet him, he had to come himself to the sage. On hearing this Alexander came to meet Rishi Dandamis and pent over an hour conversing with him.

 Battles for Delhi ---- India has been invaded by many invaders through the ages.. some say Semiramis the Assyrian queen, then Darius the Persian King, Alexander of Macedonia, Huns; Arabs, Turks, Mughals, Persians and the British. The story of India has been one of continuous struggle to fight evil eyes cast on it. Whenever India has been strong and united, it has defeated the invaders. Whenever it has been weak, it has succumbed to foreign rule. A lot of attention has been paid to battles like Panipat, Plassey, Assaye where forces defending India have lost. But there have been long periods in between where a strong India triumphed against invading forces. The book "Battles for Delhi...Dilli kareeb ast" refers to a mix of such wins and losses.

  Suraj Kund - a slice of history of ancient Delhi highly visible and existing Suraj Kund - said to be built by Suraj Pal, a Tomar dynasty king. The Kund is said to have dried up. The site is a famous tourist site at Faridabad on the borders of Delhi. A sun temple has been found to have been in existence. A real, existing part of the history of ancient Delhi. The presence of the impact of Tomar kings in everywhere. Images courtesy Wikipedia Grab a copy of the book Battles for Delhi at : https://www.indussource.com/product/battles-for-delhi-dilli-kareeb-ast/

  Anangpur About 10 years back I was searching for a site in Faridabad to set up a school. While doing so I chanced to come upon a village called Anangpur . It is on the outskirts of Delhi in Faridabad. Having known that King Anangpal Tomar had a hand in setting up and reviving Delhi in the 8th Century AD, I realized this village named after him could be the original site of the resettlement of Delhi/ Indraprastha in the 8th century. The area including the nearby Suraj Kund shows the presence of Tomar Kings.  There is an old dam in a dilapidated state nearby which was built by Anangpal. ( attaching some pics obtained from the net of it).  This site should be preserved as a World Heritage site by Indian Government as it is the seed place for Delhi as we know it now. Anangpal Tomar II is said to have uprooted an iron pillar ( Killi ) and then tried to unsuccessfully replant it but it remained loose ( Dhilli ) and one version says the name Dhillika/ Dhilli/ Dilli is what g...

I am an MBA and an Engineer by qualification.  But I have always been fascinated by history. I have a huge collection of books on history. The history of Delhi has always fascinated me as it is my city of birth and one I grew up in. So I decided to write a book on Delhi called "Battles for Delhi... Dilli kareeb ast".  The book contains a history of Delhi from 1192 AD to 1857 AD. It covers 13 crucial battles that decided the fate of India over almost 700 years starting with the Battles of Tarain fought between Prithviraj Chauhan and Mohammed Ghori to the 1857 War of Independence India fought against the British. The book has eighteen chapters and analyses why inner fighting and lack of unity at critical times cot India dearly. You can buy the book at: Battles for Delhi

  Kashmiri Gate was the site of a bloody battle in the 1857 Indian War of Independence. The Indians captured Delhi from the British in May 1857 and Delhi was the stronghold of the War for Independence. The British besieged the city and finally managed to capture it in September 1857. It was a bloody battle lasting almost a week where it took the British savage hand to hand fighting with Indians to move a distance of slightly over a kilometer to the Red Fort. The site from where they broke into Delhi was this Kashmiri Gate

 There is so much of Indian history that needs to be discovered. The Rig Veda mentions a live River Saraswati a number of times. The Mahabharat tells  of the journey of Balram along a declining Saraswati river to witness the final battle between Bhima and Duryodhana. The possible hidden channels of the river from Himachal to Haryana to Rajasthan ad Gujarat have been mapped. A lot of archaeological digging around these places can reveal a lot about Indian history Rakhi Garhi, the site most probably on the Saraswati  river bed region in Haryana, can reveal much about Indian history. So can other sites if excavations can be carried out