The facts below were recently published in one of the German magazines which deals with World History:

India never invaded any country in her last 10,000 years of history.

Quotes about India

Quotations about India and Indian people
Albert Einstein, American Scientist: "We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made!"


Mark Twain, American Author: "India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. Our most valuable and most astrictive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only!"

"So far as I am able to judge, nothing has been left undone, either by man or nature, to make India the most extraordinary country that the sun visits on his rounds. Nothing seems to have been forgotten, nothing overlooked."
"In religion, India is the only millionaire... the One land that all men desire to see, and having seen once, by even a glimpse, would not give that glimpse for all the shows of all the rest of the globe combined."


Will Durant, American Historian: “It is true that even across the Himalayan barrier India has sent to the west, such gifts as grammar and logic, philosophy and fables, hypnotism and chess, and above all numerals and the decimal system.”
"India will teach us the tolerance and gentleness of mature mind, understanding spirit and a unifying, pacifying love for all human beings."
"India is the motherland of our race and Sanskrit is the mother of Indo-European languages. She is the mother of our philosophy, of our mathematics, mother of ideals embodied in Christianity and mother of our democracy. Mother India is in many ways the mother of us all." (Story of Civilizationâ)

Henry David Thoreau, American Thinker /Author: Whenever I have read any part of the Vedas, I have felt that some unearthly and unknown light illuminated me. In the great teaching of the Vedas, there is no touch of sectarianism. It is of all ages, climbs, and nationalities and is the royal road for the attainment of the Great Knowledge. When I read it, I feel that I am under the spangled heavens of a summer night.


R.W. Emerson, American Author: In the great books of India, an empire spoke to us, nothing small or unworthy, but large, serene, consistent, the voice of an old intelligence, which in another age and climate had pondered and thus disposed of the questions that exercise us.


William James, American Author: "From the Vedas we learn a practical art of surgery, medicine, music, house building under which mechanized art is included. They are encyclopedia of every aspect of life, culture, religion, science, ethics, law, cosmology and meteorology."


Max Muller, German Scholar: "If I were to look over the whole world to find out a country most richly endowed with all the wealth, power and beauty that nature can bestow – in some part a very paradise on earth – I should point to India."
"There is no book in the world that is so thrilling, stirring and inspiring as the Upanishads." ( Sacred Books of the Eastâ™)


Romaine Rolland, French Philosopher: If there is one place on the face of this Earth where all the dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest day when man began the dream of existence, it is India.


Apollonius Tyanaeus, Ancient Greek Traveler: "In India, I found a race of mortals living upon the Earth, but not adhering to it, inhabiting cities, but not being fixed to them, possessing everything, but possessed by nothing."


Dr Arnold Toynbee, British Historian: “It is already becoming clear that a chapter which had a Western beginning will have to have an Indian ending if it is not to end in the self-destruction of the human race. At this supremely dangerous moment in history, the only way of salvation for mankind is the Indian way.”


Hu Shih (Former Chinese Ambassador to USA): "India conquered and dominated China for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across its border." (Bhavan Journal 15.05.1999

Albert Einstein said:
We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made.

Mark Twain said:
India is,
the cradle of the human race,
the birthplace of human speech,
the mother of history,
the grandmother of legend,
and the great grand mother of tradition.
our most valuable and most instructive materials in the
history of man are treasured up in India only.

French scholar Romain Rolland said:
If there is one place on the face of earth where all the dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India.


Hu Shih, former Ambassador of China to USA said:
India conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border.

New Facts about Indinas in America!

There are 3.22 Million Indians in America
38% of Doctors in America are Indians.
12% of Scientists in America are Indians.
36% of NASA employees are Indians.
34% of MICROSOFT employees are Indians
28% of IBM employees are Indians
17% of INTEL employees are Indians
13% of XEROX employees are Indians
23% of Indian Community in America ARE having Green-CardS

India invented the Number System. Zero was invented by Aryabhatta.

The World's first university was established in Takshila in 700BC. More than 10,500 students from all over the world studied more than 60 subjects. The University of Nalanda built in the 4th century CE was one of the greatest achievements of ancient India in the field of education.

Sanskrit is the mother of all higher languages. Sanskrit is the most precise and therefore suitable language for the computer software - a report in Forbes magazine, July 1987.

Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to humans. Charaka, the father of medicine consolidated Ayurveda 2500 years ago. Today Ayurveda is fast regaining its rightful place in our civilization. It is the only system which takes the holistic view of the person being treated.

Although modern images of India often show poverty and lack of development, India was the richest country on earth until the time of British in the early 17th Century. Christopher Columbus was attracted by her wealth and was looking for route to India when he discovered American continent by mistake.

The art of Navigation was born in the river Sindh 6000 years ago. The very word Navigation is derived from the Sanskrit word NAVGATIH. The word navy is also derived from Sanskrit 'Nou'.

Bhaskaracharya calculated the time taken by the earth to orbit the sun hundreds of years before the astronomer Smart. Time taken by earth to orbit the sun: (5th century) 365.258756484 days. The value of "pi" was first calculated by Budhayana, and he explained the concept of what is known as the Pythagorean Theorem. He discovered this in the 6th century long before the European mathematicians.

Algebra, trigonometry and calculus came from India. Quadratic equations were propounded by Sridharacharya in the 11th century. The largest numbers the Greeks and the Romans used were 106 whereas Hindus used numbers as big as 10**53(10 to the power of 53) with specific names as early as 5000 BCE during the Vedic period. Even today, the largest used number is Tera: 10**12(10 to the power of 12).

According to the Gemological Institute of America, up until 1896, India was the only source for diamonds to the world. USA based IEEE has proved what has been a century old suspicion in the world scientific community that the pioneer of wireless communication was Prof Jagdeesh Bose and not Marconi. The earliest reservoir and dam for irrigation was built in Saurashtra. According to Saka King Rudradaman I of 150 CE a beautiful lake aptly called 'Sudarshana' was constructed on the hills of Raivataka during Chandragupta Maurya's time.

Chess (Shataranja or AshtaPada) was invented in India.

Sushruta is the father of surgery. 2600 years ago he and health scientists of his time conducted complicated surgeries like cesareans, cataract, artificial limbs, fractures, urinary stones and even plastic surgery and brain surgery. Usage of anesthesia was well known in ancient India. Over 125 surgical equipments were used. Deep knowledge of anatomy, physiology, etiology, embryology, digestion, metabolism, genetics and immunity is also found in many texts.

When many cultures were only nomadic forest dwellers over 5000 years ago, Indians established Harappan culture in Sindhu Valley (Indus years ago, Indians established Harappan culture in Sindhu Valley Civilization)

The place value system, the decimal system was developed in India in 100 BC.

Here is a list of Indian states/UTs with predominant languages:

1. Jammu & Kashmir (Dogri, Kashmiri, Ladakhi, Punjabi, Urdu, Hindi, Baltistani, Dardi)

2. Himanchal Pradesh (Hindi, Pahadi)

3. Punjab (Punjabi, Hindi and Urdu)

4. Haryana (Hindi, Haryanvi, Predominantly Muslim - Urdu)

5. Rajasthan (Hindi, Rajasthani, Marwadi, Predominantly Muslim - Urdu)

6. Uttar Pradesh (Hindi, Brijbhasha, Pahadi, Avadhi, Bhojpuri, numerous others, Pred. Musl. - Urdu)

7. Madhya Pradesh (Hindi, Marathi, numerous others, pred. Muslim - Urdu)

8. Gujarat (Gujarati)

9. Maharashtra (Marathi, Vidarbha region - Hindi and Marathi, Konkan region - Konkani and Malwani)

10. Karnataka (Kannada, Tulu, Konkani)

11. Goa (Konkani)

12. Kerala (Malayalam)

13. Tamil Nadu (Tamil)

14. Lakshadweep (small chain of islands - Malayalam (?) )

15. Andaman & Nicobar Islands (Andamanese)

16. Andhra Pradesh (Telugu, Hyderabad city - Telugu plus Urdu)

17. Orissa (Oriya)

18. Bihar (Hindi, Bhojpuri, Maithini, Santhali, Angika, numerous others, Bengali, Pred. Muslim - Urdu)

19. West Bengal (Bengali)

20. Sikkim (Nepali, Lepcha, Bhutia)

21. Assam (Assamese, others)

22. Meghalaya (Garo, Khasi)

23. Arunanchal Pradesh (I plead ignorance!)

24. Mizoram (Mizo)

25. Nagaland (Naga)

26. Tripura (Tripuri, Bengali, Kuki)

27. Delhi (Capital City and sorrounding area - given quasi-statehood recently)

Other languages - Sindhi, SanskritOther Indian languages which are not represented in the "leftover" India -Baluchi, Pashto (in Pakistan now)

Approximately 3 billion movie tickets are sold in India every year.

The only country in the world that has a Bill of Rights for Cows is India.

Bananas were discovered by Alexander the Great in 327 B.C. when he conquered India.

India has the most post offices in the world.

The Indian election in 1984 was the largest election of any country.

The material to build the Taj Mahal was brought in from various parts of India by a fleet of 1000 elephants.

The number system was invented by India. Aryabhatta was the scientist who invented the digit zero.

India can be divided into three distinct geographic regions: the Himalayan region in the north, which contains some of the highest mountains in the world, the Gangetic Plain, and the plateau region in the south and central part.

The name India is derived from the River Indus, the valleys around which were the home of the early settlers.

India's three great river systems are the Ganges, the Indus, and the Brahmaputra.

The Persian invaders converted India into Hindu.
India's movie industry, Bollywood, is the largest in the world producing over eight hundred movies a year.

India used to be the richest country in the world until the British invasion in the early 17th Century.

Barbie's boyfriend Ken was not sold in India until recently because it clashed with the traditional arranged marriage.

Arabic numerals are not Arabic; they were invented in India

Taj Mahal Facts



Any person, visiting or planning to visit the Taj Mahal, is interested to know more about the Taj Mahal. There are many queries and questions about the Taj Mahal- who built the Taj, why was it built, when can I visit…in fact, there is no end to such queries. This section on the "Taj Mahal facts" is intended to provide you a quick knowledge about this great monument of love. Read on to get some quick information about Taj Mahal and Agra…

Year of Construction: 1631
Completed In: 1653
Time Taken: 22 years
Built By: Shah Jahan
Dedicated to: Mumtaz Mahal (Arjumand Bano Begum), the wife of Shah Jahan
Location: Agra (Uttar Pradesh)
Building Type: Islamic tomb
Architecture: Islamic
Cost of Construction: 32 crore rupees
Number of workers: 20,000
Highlights: One of the Seven Wonders of the World
A UNESCO World Heritage site
Timings: 6:00 am to 7:30 pm (Friday closed)
Fee: Rs 970 (Foreigners)
Rs 20 (Indians, during daytime)
Rs 110 (Indians, during sunrise and sunset)

In the following lines, we have mentioned some more Taj Mahal trivia:

Before his accession to the throne, Shah Jahan was popularly known as Prince Khurram.
Shah Jahan fell in love with the beautiful Arjumand Bano Begum and married her, making her his third wife.
Arjumand Bano Begum christened by Shah Jahan as Mumtaz Mahal, meaning the "chosen one".
Shah Jahan lost Mumtaz Mahal when she got giving birth to their 14h child.
It is believed that in her last breath Mumtaz secured a promise from Shah Jahan that he would construct the most beautiful monument in the her memory.
For the transportation of the construction materials, more than 1,000 elephants were made use of.
As many as 28 different varieties of semi-precious and precious stones were used to adorn the Taj with exquisite inlay work.

Facts You Never Knew about India
Many interesting facts about India are well known: it is the world's largest democracy and federal republic, the second largest country in population and on track to become the largest, has the world's largest filmmaking industry, etc. But there are many interesting facts that are less commonly known.

Foreign Influence in India
Many well known foreign cultures throughout history have traveled to India. Below I describe some of the ways in which various groups interacted with India, and in particular, the state of Kerala on the southwestern coast of India.

Phoenicians
The Phoenicians are said to have traded with Kerala as early as 3000 BC for ivory, sandalwood, and spices. However their presence decreased as Arabs, Assyrians, and Greeks became more powerful.

Egyptians
Egyptian trade also dates as far back as the third millenium BC. Cinnamon from Kerala was used to embalm the dead bodies of the pharaohs, and also in the manufacturing of perfumes and holy oils.
Arabs
Greeks
Assyrians
The Nestorian Christians in Alexandria, Egypt, may have been the first Christians to trade with Kerala and spread the religion into the region. Like all Assyrians, they were skilled in trade as well.
Romans
Chinese
Persians
Jews
Around 1000 B.C., Jewish King Solomon sent ships to the port of Ophir to buy timber, sandalwood, ivory, and other things for the construction of his temple in Jerusalem. Many historians believe Ophir is a city on the Kerala coast: either it is Bepur near Kozhikode, or it is Puvar near Thiruvananthapuram.

There are a number of theories about when the Jews first arrived in India.

In 586 BC, Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon captured Jerusalem and destroyed Solomon's Temple. Cyrus II of Persia conquered Babylon and released the Jews in 536 BC, although according to tradition, the "Babylonian Captivity" lasted 70 years. Some Jews are said to have come to Kerala after Cyrus released them.
Following the "Great Revolt" of the Jews against the Roman Empire, Roman troops destroyed the Second Temple of Jerusalem (rebuilt on the site of Solomon's Temple after the end of Babylonian rule) in 70 AD. To escape Roman rule, 10,000 Jews are said to have migrated to Kerala in 72 AD.
Another theory says Jews came to Kerala after being exiled from the island of Majorca in Spain by the Roman emperor Vespasian in the year 370. Unfortunately, the emperor of Rome in 370 was Gratian, and he did nothing notable in Majorca and never dealt with Jews. Vespasian was actually emperor from 69 to 79 AD, during the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. He and his son Titus did launch military campaigns against Judea however, and I believe it is possible that out of many Jews who fled the area during this time, some may have ended up in Kerala.
Verifiable historical evidence about Kerala Jews goes back to the Jewish Copper Plate granted by Bhaskara Ravi Varman to Jewish Chief Joseph Rabban of Anjuvannam in 1000 AD.

Jews also came from Baghdad and the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) in the sixteenth century. The Bene Israel and Cochini Jews became absorbed into the caste system in India. The Iraqi Jews tended to be more strictly adhering to their religious laws and viewed the Bene Israel Jews as being too secular. The Cochini Jews had a higher status in the caste system than the Bene Israel Jews. Thus Jewish communities were divided into various classes, and not existing as one united cultural group in India. Click here for more information on Jews in India.

Some say that many Kerala Christians were originally Jews who were converted by Syrian Christians. Jews lived peacefully in Kerala until the Catholic Portuguese arrived and persecuted both Jews and Syrian Christians during the Inquisition. The Portuguese destroyed the Jewish settlement in Kodungallor, sacked the Jewish community in Kochi and partially destroyed the famous synagogue there in 1661. After the Portuguese left, the Kerala Jews enjoyed normal life under the rule of the more tolerant Dutch and later the British. According to the Dutch Jew Moses Pereya de Paiva, in 1686 there were 10 synagogues and almost 500 Jewish families in Kochi. The state of Israel was created in 1948, and between 1948 and 1955, all of the "Black" and "Brown" Jews (about 3,000) went to Israel, where they are now known as "Cochini" Jews. In 1961 there were only 359 Jews left in Kerala and they were all "White" Jews. By then only two synagogues were open for service: the Pardesi Synagogue in Mattancherry built in 1567 and the synagogue in Parur. Today only about 50 Jews remain in Kerala.

Interestingly, the tiles on the floor of the synagogue in Kochi are Chinese, not Jewish. The king of Kochi originally received the tiles from Chinese traders, who frequently visited the ports of Kerala. A Jewish merchant concocted a story that the Chinese bleed cows in order to construct tiles, and thus persuaded the king to sell him the tiles cheap. Then the tiles were used in the construction of the synagogue.

Scandinavians
The Danish East India Company also had some settlements in India, primarily on the eastern coast. The most notable settlements are Serampore in West Bengal and Tranquebar in Tamil Nadu. See this page and this page for pictures from these areas and some information on them and other colonies.

The Svenska Ostindiska Companiet (SOIC, or Swedish East India Company), despite its name, had little to do with India. It was founded in 1731 in Gothenburg, Sweden, to conduct trade mainly with China. Inspired by the British East India Company, it became the largest Swedish trading company until it was folded in 1831. The Danish and Swedish East India companies at one point were more successful in the tea trade than the British, and would smuggle tea into Britain for huge profits.

Italians
Portuguese
Dutch
Portuguese power in Asia began to decline after its union with Spain in 1580. Catholic Spain at the time also controlled the area of northern Europe called the Low Countries, which today consists of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. The Germanic people of the northern area of the Low Countries were Protestant and developed a powerful navy. They declared themselves independent in 1581 and called themselves the Dutch Republic or Netherlands. In 1588, Queen Elizabeth I's navy defeated the Spanish Armada, thereby weakening the Spanish navy. This encouraged the Dutch to use their navy to explore the seas in the early 1600s. They formed the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC, or Dutch East India Company), in 1602. The VOC is said to be the world's first publicly traded company. The Dutch East India Company successfully pushed the Portuguese out of most of Indonesia and set up a headquarters in Batavia (Jakarta). The Dutch also wrested Sri Lanka from the Portuguese and began to make trade agreements with the kings of Kerala.

The Dutch effectively controlled the major kingdoms of Kerala with the exception of Thiruvithamkode (Travancore) in southern Kerala. However they met strong resistance from the Samuthiri of Kozhikode, even though they had defeated his kingdom in battle many times. In addition the Dutch in Kerala received little assistance from the headquarters in Batavia as time wore on. Although the Dutch forcefully controlled their trade with Kerala (getting large quantities of pepper, cinnamon, etc. cheap and selling it expensively in Europe), the cost of warring with the Samuthiri and also competing with the rising French and British powers in India made things difficult. In 1741, the Dutch suffered a crushing defeat in a naval battle at Kolachel with the powerful king Marthanda Varma of Thiruvithamkode. This is said to be the first defeat of a European naval power at the hands of an Asian nation, although many history books wrongly give this credit to the 1905 victory of Admiral Tojo of Japan against Czar Nicholas II's Russian navy. Eventually the weakened Dutch were ousted from Kerala by the British. However the Dutch did control Indonesia until after World War II.

French
British
Indian Influence in Asia
Throughout history Indian people and ideas have spread throughout Asia. Indians settled and ruled in Indonesia and Indochina, and Buddhism and certain martial arts spread as far as Afghanistan, China, Japan, and Indonesia. Here I will describe the influences of Indians on different parts of East and Southeast Asia. This page contains detailed lists of rulers of Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma, and Tibet. This page contains detailed information about the Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms of Indonesia.

Initially, Southeast Asia was inhabited by short, dark-skinned, hairy people known as Negritos, related to the Australian Aborigines. Eventually they were pushed out by Malayo-Polynesian people who colonized Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Brunei, Japan, New Zealand, Hawaii, Easter Island, and even Madagascar, with their mastery of the outrigger canoe, by 500 CE. It appears they may have, over the years, developed a lot of technology on their own, including using their abundant supply of tin to make bronze, and mastering metallurgy as well as agriculture (rice in particular). By 300 BCE, the Vietnamese, Mon-Khmers, Tibeto-Burmans and Thais settled in the region, after being forced out of southern China. The Mon-Khmers split into the Mon, who settled Burma and parts of Thailand and Malaya, and the Khmer, ancestors of today's Cambodians.

The Mon made contact with India during Asoka's rule. Asoka sent Buddhist missionaries to Burma to convert the Mons in the mid-third century BCE, leading to Burma's perpetual Buddhism that lasts to this day. The Mons traded with India and Sri Lanka. In the second century BCE, India and China began to trade. The land routes were riddled with moutains, jungles, or warlike Central Asians. Indian merchants found water routes through Southeast Asia, where pirates were the only problem. Because of seasonal wind patterns in the Indian Ocean, Indian ships would often wait in Southeast Asia for months until favorable winds came, giving them plenty of time to mingle in society. Indian missonaries converted people to Hinduism and Buddhism, and local rulers began to call themselves maharajahs and precisely mimick Indian courts. Indian-style city-states flourished on the coasts of Burma, Malaya, Thailand, Cambodia, and southern Vietnam by the first century CE. See this page for more information.

This site has a great presentation of information about the history of Southeast Asia, including the vast Indian influence on the region. I will give generalizations and interesting snippets of that history here.
Funan
The first kingdom of Southeast Asia was Phnom (the Cambodian word for "mountain"), or Funan (the Chinese name for the region). Both names refer to Mount Meru, the home of the gods in Hinduism. The kingdom formed when the lower Mekong delta was united under a city called Vyadhapura ("hunter city" in Sanskrit). A Cambodian legend tells a story about how the kingdom formed. An Indian Brahmin was told to sail east by a spirit. He reached Cambodia where a beautiful woman sailed out to meet him. Soon he realized she was Queen Willow Leaf, ruler of Cambodia and daughter of a serpent god who is his enemy. She threatened to destroy him, but he shot a magic arrow into her boat. She realized she was no match for him, so they made peace, got married, and had a child who became the first king of Funan.

Funan was a great trade center, and not just between Indians and Chinese. A Roman coin dated 152 CE was found there. Funan had a Malay upper class, but most of the population was Negrito. A Chinese ambassador was offended by Negritos who were "ugly and black" with frizzy hair, who walked around naked. He told this to the king of Funan, who passed a law requiring everyone to be clothed in public. This led to the invention of the traditional Cambodian "sampot" loincloth. King Jayavarman I (478-514) ruled at the peak of Funan's power, and then the kingdom fell apart. Internal disarray and raids by Khmers and Laos weakened Funan. By 627, Khmers completely conquered Funan. However, the civilization of Funan established a trend for Southeast Asian states to follow.

Burma
Between the Irrawaddy delta and the border of modern Bangladesh, a kingdom called Arakan, likely founded by Indians, existed. Arakan is separated from the rest of Burma by the Arakan Yoma mountain range, isolating them culturally from the changes that took place in the rest of Burma. Today they still speak an old dialect of Burmese. They were interested more in sea trade with India due to the difficulty of traveling through the mountains. Sanskrit inscriptions describe an old kingdom in the area. The Arakanese people may have been Pyu from northern Burma who were expelled during Thai invasions. The Arakanese tolerated other religions when they sought trade with India, and today there is a community of Bengali Muslims in Arakan.
Indonesia
The islands of Sumatra and Java in Indonesia got their names from the original Indian names: Swarna-Dwipa ("gold island") and Yava-Dwipa ("rice island"; "yava" is barley in Sanskrit). After the fall of Funan, a powerful Buddhist kingdom called Srivijaya rose to power on the southeastern coast of Sumatra Island in Indonesia. Srivijaya became a center of Buddhist learning and practice, as well as the main controller of naval trade with Indochina. They kept good trade relations with the Tang dynasty in China and the Islamic caliphates in the Middle East. They had competition from the Hindu Mataram kingdom in central and eastern Java. But another Buddhist kingdom, the Sailendras, arose in Java. In 775, the Saliendras overthrew the Hindu kings of Mataram. The then Buddhist kindgom of Mataram is known for building the gargantuan Borobudur temple in central Java.

But Buddhism was on the decline in Champa (Vietnam), Cambodia, and post-Gupta India. By 850, the Sailendra rulers of Mataram had converted to Hinduism and built Hindu temples to match Borobudur. Eventually Mataram was overthrown and Javanese pirates began raiding Srivijayan ships. The Srivijayans failed in getting help from China to fight the pirates. In the tenth century, both China and the Abbasid Caliphate crumpled, causing more economic problems for Srivijaya. In 1030, the Chola Empire of South India devastated Srivijaya and forced them to pay tribute until 1190. Srivijaya never recovered and the kingdoms of Sumatra and Java had limited power.

A new kingdom called Singosari arose in 1222 in Java. King Kertanagara extended his rule to nearby islands: Madura, Bali, the lesser Sundas, and southern Sumatra. But in 1289, he mistreated an envoy of Kublai Khan who was coming to demand submission to China, and the Mongols sent an army in response. Kertanagara was killed by a rival, Jayakatwang, of the Kediri kingdom, before the Mongols arrived. Kertanagara's son-in-law, Kertarajasa, used the Mongols to defeat Jayakatwang and then drove the Mongols back out of Indonesia. A new capital was established at Majapahit. During the reign of Kertarajasa's daughter (1329-1350), Majapahit became the center of what may have been the most powerful kingdom in Indonesian history, with the help of a skilled general named Gajah Mada. Gajah Mada continued to help the next ruler, Hayam Wuruk (1350-1389) rule the most glorious period of Javanese history. Java traded with everyone in Asia except for Sumatra, which rebelled briefly in 1377 to try to restore Srivijaya. The rebellion was crushed. But Java was in decline after Hayam Wuruk, who divided Java among his sons of concubines. Civil war broke out and in the early 1400s, a Chinese pirate captured Palembang (the capital of Srivijaya) and raided local ships until a Chinese fleet removed him and returned Palembang to Majapahit. Over the next century, Muslim influence increased in Indonesia, although it is known that a Hindu king named Ranavijaya ruled in Java as late as 1486. The rule of a non-Muslim ended around 1520 or 1530 according to Portuguese records, and the pre-Muslim era of Indonesia ended. Majapahit's culture has survived however: the island of Bali is now a haven for Indonesian Hinduism.

Cambodia
Chenla, the first Khmer kingdom, grew in the 7th century but split into Land Chenla (Laos) and Water Chenla (Cambodia). At the end of the 8th century, Java's Sailendra kings conquered Water Chenla. The new king of Water Chenla under Javanese domination was Jayavarman II, who ruled for roughly 50 years. He gave the name Kambujadesa to Water Chenla (leading to later names Kampuchea and Cambodia).

Vietnam
Vietnam was originally two states: Annam (a.k.a. Nam Viet, or Dai Viet) in the north, and Champa in the south. Annam was part of China for a long time, while Champa was largely controlled by Indians. The rulers of Champa are divided into fifteen periods: fourteen dynasties and a Cambodian period. All except the twelfth and fourteenth dynasty contain rulers with Indian names. From late in the third dynasty (510 CE) through the Cambodian period (1220), only two rulers were non-Indian: one was an Annamese king who ruled for three years, and another was an Annamese vassal who ruled during the last six years of the Cambodian period. The thirteenth dynasty also saw two Indian rulers, Jaya Sinhavarman V and Maija Vijaya, who ruled from 1400 to 1446. After winning freedom from China, Annam eventually conquered Champa and the Chinese culture of the north overwhelmed the Indian culture of the south.




WRITE 2 ME
http://en.peperonity.com/go/sites/mview/factsb4u/15469805

FOR A majority of people, a house is the purchase of a lifetime — funded by years of toil and sweat. And a home means much more than the brick and mortar that goes into its making. Few have the time to delve into the technicalities that go into construction though they spend ample time pondering over how the design and interiors of their homes should be. And, when the construction is complete, nothing puts them off so much as a small crack on the wall or a patch of dampness on the ceiling does, not to speak of the colour of the plastering.

A recent seminar of the Builders' Association of India, Southern Centre, threw light into the technological advancements in concrete and defects that surface on concrete.

Concrete has to crack to perform (the concrete in tension has to crack for the steel to take the tensile stress), said Mohan Ramanathan, managing director, Advanced Construction Technologies. But then he did not mean large wide cracks, but microscopic ones. He narrated how a mason at a Rs. 1-crore flat slighted him when he pointed out cracks on a column. "Don't you know it will be plastered?" was the explanation.

Well, plastering was nothing but an attempt by some to camouflage defects, he said, and the audience — a modest gathering of the builder-fraternity — nodded in agreement.

Zackriah George, senior partner, Pithavadian & Partners, architectural consultants, was much more forthcoming in his observations. The market in the decade to come would be for renovation and retrofitting, he said referring to the quality of construction activity being undertaken.

D. Srinivasan, secretary-general, Indian Concrete Institute, spoke on complaints of cement being crack-prone and steel corrosion-prone. [When strength increases, longevity decreases. When concrete strength increases, steel of higher strength will be required. Or else, cracking will be more (specifically the width of cracks), which in turn will make it corrosion-prone. Laboratory tests confirm this.]

Blame apart, it should not be forgotten that cement-manufacturing technology has advanced and finer, higher-grade cement was available now, says M. Sekar, professor of Civil Engineering, Structural Engineering Division, Anna University.

"Is the recommended concrete cover-thickness provided?'' he asks. Better onsite supervision and expert consultancy will make a difference. There was no point blaming the quality of cement steel. Steel is definitely of a higher grade and so too is cement. But whether additional strength is required is the question. For a 20-tonne load requirement should a 40-tonne structure be in place.

Mixing and curing play a crucial role. Pointing out a 10-storeyed building in the city, he refers to an SOS call he got from the owner, who himself supervised its construction. The basement floor slabs were bursting outwards. How to correct such structural defects? It is just that the basics have been forgotten or given the go by, says Dr. Sekar.

The road ahead


A couple of decades ago, concrete comprised cement, sand, aggregate and water. Today, there are additives/compounds to provide higher strength, durability and impact resistance. The progress generally encompasses advancement in steel and cement as well, but then what is disappointing is that it has not brought about "slender members" and the real benefits of the upgrade have not been reaped, he says.

Versatile mix?????!

Grades 53, 43, 33 indicate the compressive strength of cement mortar in Newtons per one sq.mm. 53-grade means 53N per sq.mm. The grades are application-specific. Generally OPC (Ordinary Portland Cement) will suffice. Pricewise, there is not much of a difference.

The colour depends on raw material used. More iron means darker shade.

Strength depends on the correct proportion of raw material mix.

Setting of cement is the stiffening of the cement paste.

Hardening is the gain of strength. The process is continuous up to one year rapidly, and gradual up to 5 years.

Calcareous (limestone from mines), argillaceous material (clay and bauxite) and iron are the commonly used raw material for cement manufacture.


About cement

The most widely used engineering material is concrete. It has excellent ire and weather-resistant properties. Good in compression but weak in tension is the reason why steel is used to supplement it to achieve tensile strength.


Concrete aggregates: natural sand, gravel, pebbles, rocks crushed to required size and manufactured aggregate such as blast furnace slag.

The content of water (it should not be saline), aggregate type and grading, aggregate/cement ratio, fineness of cement and presence of admixtures affect workability.

Concrete embedded with steel is RCC-reinforced cement concrete.

Factors affecting concrete's strength are the water/cement ratio, shape and size of aggregates, aggregate cement ratio, degree of compaction, age of concrete, air entrainment and moisture aggregate.
Cracks


In general, a crack develops when stresses in the structural component exceed its strength, which may be due to factors such as external forces, foundation settlement, thermal changes, chemical reaction and so on.

Plastering cracks appear/ occur because of evaporation of water, increased thickness, very fine sand, low quality bricks, nonuniform plastering, improper seasoning of walls, use of different mix ratios, improper filling of joints, insufficient curing and more free lime.

RCC cracks occur due to insufficient reinforcement and cover, corroded steel, improper vibration, expansion of concrete, excessive coarse aggregate and so on.
It is the cracks in beams and columns and corrosion, especially in cantilevered portions (projecting surfaces) that have to be seriously viewed and remedial action taken early.

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