Kalinga (historical region)Kalinga (Sanskrit: Kaliṅga) is a historical region of India. It is generally defined as the eastern coastal region between the Mahanadi and the Godavari rivers, although its boundaries have fluctuated with the territory of its rulers. The core territory of Kalinga now encompasses central and southern Odisha and northern Andhra Pradesh. At its widest extent, the Kalinga region also included parts of present-day Chhattisgarh, extending up to Amarkantak in the west. The Kalingas have been mentioned as a major tribe in the legendary text Mahabharata.
Edicts of AshokaThe Edicts of Ashoka are a collection of more than thirty inscriptions on the Pillars of Ashoka, as well as boulders and cave walls, attributed to Emperor Ashoka of the Maurya Empire who reigned from 268 BCE to 232 BCE. Ashoka used the expression Dhaṃma Lipi (Prakrit in the Brahmi script: 𑀥𑀁𑀫𑀮𑀺𑀧𑀺, "Inscriptions of the Dharma") to describe his own Edicts. These inscriptions were dispersed throughout the areas of modern-day Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and provide the first tangible evidence of Buddhism.
War elephantA war elephant was an elephant that was trained and guided by humans for combat. The war elephant's main use was to charge the enemy, break their ranks and instill terror and fear. Elephantry is a term for specific military units using elephant-mounted troops. War elephants played a critical role in several key battles in antiquity, especially in ancient India. While seeing limited and periodic use in Ancient China, they became a permanent fixture in armies of historical kingdoms in Southeast Asia.
BhubaneswarBhubaneswar (ˈbɦubɔneswɔɾɔ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Odisha, located in the Khordha district. The region, especially the old town, was historically often depicted as Chakra Kshetra and Ekamra Kshetra (Area adorned with a mango tree). Bhubaneswar is dubbed the "Temple City", a nickname earned because of the 700 temples which once stood there. In contemporary times, it has emerged as an education hub and an attractive business destination.
Nanda EmpireThe Nanda dynasty was the fifth ruling dynasty of Magadha in the northern Indian subcontinent during the fourth century BCE and possibly also during the fifth century BCE. The Nandas overthrew the Shaishunaga dynasty, the previous ruling dynasty of Magadha in eastern India, and expanded the empire to include a larger part of northern India. Ancient sources differ considerably regarding the names of the Nanda kings and the duration of their rule, but based on the Buddhist tradition recorded in the Mahāvaṃsa, they appear to have ruled during 345–322 BCE, although some theories date the start of their rule to fifth century BCE.
History of IndiaAnatomically modern humans first arrived on the Indian subcontinent between 73,000 and 55,000 years ago. The earliest known human remains in South Asia date to 30,000 years ago. Sedentariness began in South Asia around 7000 BCE; by 4500 BCE, settled life had increasingly spread, and gradually evolved into the Indus Valley civilisation, which flourished between 2500 BCE and 1900 BCE in present-day Pakistan and north-western India. Early in the second millennium BCE, persistent drought caused the population of the Indus Valley to scatter from large urban centres to villages.
Maurya EmpireThe Maurya Empire was a geographically extensive Iron Age historical power in South Asia based in Magadha. Founded by Chandragupta Maurya in 322 BCE, it existed in loose-knit fashion until 185 BCE. The empire was centralized by the conquest of the Indo-Gangetic Plain; its capital city was located at Pataliputra (modern Patna). Outside this imperial centre, the empire's geographical extent was dependent on the loyalty of military commanders who controlled the armed cities scattered within it. During Ashoka's rule (ca.
Bay of BengalThe Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean. Geographically, it is positioned between the Indian subcontinent and the Indochinese peninsula, located below the Bengal region (based on which the bay was named during the British Raj). It is the largest water region called a bay in the world. Many South Asian and Southeast Asian countries are dependent on the Bay of Bengal. Geopolitically, the bay bounded on the west and northwest by India, on the north by Bangladesh, and on the east by Myanmar and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India.
