History Passion

 # battlesfordelhi ....  Continuous pressure on the Indian frontier from North West As said in my previous blogs there was constant pressure from late 4th century BC starting with the invasions of Alexander on north West India. Then came Seleucid invasions. After the Maurya imperial rule came Indo Greek and Shaka and Kushana invasions.  After the consolidation of a pan Indian empire, the Gupta empire came the Hun invasions which too were repelled. There was a brief period of consolidation again under Harshvardhana in the first half of 7th century AD but his empire fell apart. This also coincided with the rise of an Islamic Arabic empire in the Gulf area which started expanding aggressively conquering Egypt and the Levant in Middle East. This was in the first half the 7th century AD. The Arab armies conquered a Zoroastrian Sassanid Persia between 633 AD and 654AD. They had also conquered Bahrain and Oman by 630 AD. These conquests brought them to the borders of India. Ther...

Invasions of India.... #battlesfordelhi India has been invaded since much longer than what people realize. There is a recorded invasion by an Assyrian army in antiquity. Then came invasions by the Persians under Darius. Then came Alexander with his Greeks, Seleucus again with Greeks and then the Indo Greek Kings. This was till the end of 2nd century BC. Later in the 2nd century BC came the Kushans followed by the Shakas. The Shaka menace lasted for 500 years. This was followed by the Huns, a menace that lasted till the 6th century AD. Every time the invaders came through the North West and pushed back Indians either east to Pataliputra or South towards Ujjain. Time and again India came out with brave sons like Porus, Chandragupta Maurya, Pushyamitra, Vikramaditya, Chandragupta Vikramaditya, Skandagupta and Yashodharman who beat back the Greeks, Shakas and Huns and restored glory to Mother India. #BattlesforDelhi stands for the incessant struggle put in by Indians through the ages to de...

  King Vikramaditya of Ujjain defeated the Shakas   Indo Greek kingdoms conquered parts of North West India in the second century BC. They were in turn conquered by Indo Scythian tribes from Central Asia called Shakas. Shakas penetrated as far as Mathura and Ujjain in India. Around 58 BC, the legendary King of Malwa Vikramaditya defeated the Shakas in Ujjain and expelled them from Central India. In celebration of that he started a new era Vikram Samvat from 57 BC

 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...