A Journey To Discover Life

  This is a collaboration post with " Kathaavali " blogger, Shomik, who gave his much-needed insight and expertise, as well as his extensive research on the topic of ancient India and introduced me to this forgotten queen who deserved a blog on her.  The Discovery: Around the 1970s, excavations were underway at Ramtek Hill in Maharashtra under Dr A.P. Jamkhedkar, the Director of the Archaeological Survey of India. The idea was to further study the Maratha fort at Ramtek and their lineage owing to the Ram Temple constructed by Raghuji Bhonsle, the ruler of Nagpur in the 18th century. As the excavation progressed, a temple was unearthed. It was soon discovered that the temple was not from the Maratha times after all. In fact, this Vaishnava temple dates back to the 5th century CE and soon shed light on one of the most important Queens of ancient India, forgotten like many others in the tide of time.  The Sanskrit inscription on the temple wall at Ramtek Kevala, although bad...

   Shah Jahan's quarters flanked on either side by identical bungalows for Jahanara and Roshanara. Background: The Timurid Dynasty, better (and wrongly) known as the Mughal Empire, ruled the Subcontinent from 1526 C.E. till the time the British East India Company successfully captured Delhi from Bahadur Shah II in 1857 C.E. (The size of the empire obviously varied). Hence, a large part of medieval Indian history revolves around the characters of this dynasty. Due to the extensive amount of contemporary records right from Babur, the founder of the empire, writing his own memoirs in “ Babar Nama ” to the accounts of court poets like Abu Talim and the extensive details of Abul Fazl, one has a clear idea about the functioning of the Timurid empire as well as the Harem involving the royal ladies of the dynasty. Almost nothing is left to the imagination when it comes to the lives of the first six and most famous and successful Timurid emperors, namely Babar, Humayun, Akbar, Jahangir...