The five centuries which passed between the decline of the first great Indian empire of the Mauryas and the emergence of the great empire of the Guptas has often been described as a dark period in Indian history when foreign dynasties fought each other for short-lived and ephemeral supremacy over northern India. Continue Reading...

The history of the Maurya empire after the death of Ashoka is not very well recorded. There are only stray references in Buddhist texts, the Indian Puranas and some Western classical texts and these references often Continue Reading...

The first notable Chandella a prince was Harsha, who, shaken by the invasions of the Rashtrakutas from the Deccan, reinstated his Pratihara overlord Kshitipala or Mahipala on the throne of Kannauj AD c.917. His son and successor, Yasovarman alias Lakshavarman, valiantly defended his suzerain from the attacks of both the Rashtrakutas and the Palas of east India. Continue Reading...

The Rigveda is an ancient Indian collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns. It is one of the four sacred canonical texts of Hinduism known as the Vedas. The Rigveda is the oldest known Vedic Sanskrit text. Its early layers are one of the oldest extant texts in any Indo-European language. Continue Reading...

The Vedas are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldest scriptures of Hinduism. There are four Vedas: the Rigveda, the Yajurveda, the Samaveda and the Atharvaveda. Continue Reading...

Jyotisa, as we have seen, consists of three sections. There was a scholarly man in the Matha who was particularly learned in this science. We wished to honour him with a title and decided upon "Triskandha- Bhaskara". "Skandha" literally means a big branch springing from the trunk of a tree. The three skandhas of Jyotisas are: siddhanta, hora and samhita. Continue Reading...