Indian rock-cut architectureIndian rock-cut architecture is more various and found in greater abundance in that country than any other form of rock-cut architecture around the world. Rock-cut architecture is the practice of creating a structure by carving it out of solid natural rock. Rock that is not part of the structure is removed until the only rock left makes up the architectural elements of the excavated interior. Indian rock-cut architecture is mostly religious in nature. There are more than 1,500 known rock-cut structures in India.
ArthashastraThe Arthashastra (अर्थशास्त्रम्, ) is an Ancient Indian Sanskrit treatise on statecraft, political science, economic policy and military strategy. Kautilya, also identified as Vishnugupta and Chanakya, is traditionally credited as the author of the text. The latter was a scholar at Takshashila, the teacher and guardian of Mauryan emperor Chandragupta Maurya. Some scholars believe them to be the same person, while a few have questioned this identification. The text is likely the work of several authors over centuries.
Haryanka dynastyThe Haryanka dynasty was the third ruling dynasty of Magadha, an empire of ancient India. Initially, the capital was Rajagriha. Later, it was shifted to Pataliputra, near the present-day Patna in India during the reign of Udayin. Bimbisara is considered as the main founder of the dynasty. According to the Buddhist text, the Mahavamsa, Bimbisara was appointed king by his father, Bhattiya, at the age of fifteen. This dynasty was succeeded by the Shishunaga dynasty. The governance structure of Haryanka dynasty is mentioned in ancient texts.
KambojasThe Kambojas were a southeastern Iranian people who inhabited the northeastern most part of the territory populated by Iranian tribes, which bordered the Indian lands. They only appear in Indo-Aryan inscriptions and literature, being first attested during the later part of the Vedic period. They spoke a language similar to Younger Avestan, whose words are considered to have been incorporated in the Aramao-Iranian version of the Kandahar Bilingual Rock Inscription erected by the Maurya emperor Ashoka (268-232).
BindusaraBindusara (297-273 BCE), also Amitraghāta or Amitrakhāda ( "slayer of enemies" or "devourer of enemies") or Amitrochates (Strabo calls him Allitrochades) was the second Mauryan emperor of Magadha in Ancient India. He was the son of the dynasty's founder Chandragupta and the father of its most famous ruler Ashoka. Bindusara's life is not documented as well as the lives of these two emperors: much of the information about him comes from legendary accounts written several hundred years after his death.
ManimekalaiMaṇimēkalai (மணிமேகலை, jewelled belt, girdle of gems), also spelled Manimekhalai or Manimekalai, is a Tamil-Buddhist epic composed by Kulavāṇikaṉ Seethalai Sataṉar probably somewhere between the 2nd century to the 6th century. It is an "anti-love story", a sequel to the "love story" in the earliest Tamil epic Silappadikaram, with some characters from it and their next generation. The epic consists of 4,861 lines in akaval meter, arranged in 30 cantos.
HindutvaHindutva (Hindu-ness) is a political ideology encompassing the cultural justification of Hindu nationalism and the belief in establishing Hindu hegemony within India. The political ideology was formulated by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in 1922. It is used by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other organisations, collectively called the Sangh Parivar.
Painted Grey Ware cultureThe Painted Grey Ware culture (PGW) is an Iron Age Indo-Aryan culture of the western Gangetic plain and the Ghaggar-Hakra valley in the Indian subcontinent, conventionally dated 1200 to 600–500 BCE, or from 1300 to 500–300 BCE It is a successor of the Cemetery H culture and Black and red ware culture (BRW) within this region, and contemporary with the continuation of the BRW culture in the eastern Gangetic plain and Central India.
Barabar CavesThe Barabar Hill Caves (Hindi बराबर, Barābar) are the oldest surviving rock-cut caves in India, dating from the Maurya Empire (322–185 BCE), some with Ashokan inscriptions, located in the Makhdumpur region of Jehanabad district, Bihar, India, north of Gaya. These caves are situated in the twin hills of Barabar (four caves) and Nagarjuni (three caves); caves of the -distant Nagarjuni Hill are sometimes singled out as the Nagarjuni Caves.
YakshiniYakshinis or yakshis (यक्षिणी yakṣiṇī or yakṣī; yakkhiṇī or yakkhī) are a class of female nature spirits in Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain religious mythologies that are different from devas and asuras (classes of power-seeking beings), and gandharvas or apsaras (celestial nymphs). Yakshinis and their male counterparts, the yakshas, are one of the many paranormal beings associated with the centuries-old sacred groves of India. Yakshis are also found in the traditional legends of Northeastern Indian tribes, ancient legends of Kerala, and in the folktales of Kashmiri Muslims.