Which is oldest pyramid in the world?



In early March 2020, Egypt reopened the Pyramid of Djoser to the public after extensive restoration costing close to USD 6.6 million. A part of the larger UNESCO World Heritage Site of Memphis and its Necropolis, the Pyramid Fields from Giza to Dahshur, the Pyramid of Djoser is the oldest pyramid in the world.



Situated in Saqqara, Egypt, the pyramid was built over 4,700 years ago. It takes its name after Pharaoh Djoser and serves as his burial place.



Djoser and his grand wish



Djoser, also known as Zoser, was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh of the third dynasty of the Old Kingdom who ruled for 19 years between 2630 and 2611 BC.



During his rule, Djoser tasked his vizier Imhotep with the construction of his burial chamber. A man of many talents, Imhotep is widely considered to have been the architect of the pyramid.



He initially designed the structure as a traditional, flat-roofed tomb with sloping sides called a mastaba. However, Djoser wanted something grander. And this grand wish culminated in the construction of a six-step pyramid, which was the largest of its time and inspired those that were built later.



The majestic pyramid



The Pyramid of Djoser was assembled during the 19 years of Djoser’s rule. The mighty six-step pyramid contains close to 11.6 million cubic feet of stone and clay. Part of a larger 40-acre complex, the pyramid stands at a height of 197 feet.



The burial chamber of Djoser and his 11 daughters is located deep within the pyramid. It is part of the pyramid’s maze-like series of tunnels which are roughly 5.5 km in length. Researchers believe the tunnels were designed to prevent theft. However, it is felt that these tunnels might have been a reason for the pyramid’s deterioration.



Deterioration and conservation



By the beginning of the 21st Century, experts believed that the pyramid was on the verge of collapse. It had suffered severe damage due to winds and natural disasters, including a massive earthquake in 1992.



Without conservation, the tunnels could collapse, bringing down the pyramid with it.



In 2006, restoration of the pyramid began. However, work had to be halted for two years from 2011 to 2013 due to the uprising that saw the expulsion of the then Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.



Conservation work within the structure proved to be difficult. To prevent the stone walls from crumbling inwards, engineers inflated airbags to prop up the roofs of the pyramid’s six-stacked terraces.



Conservation was also plagued by controversy, with experts claiming that it was only worsening the condition of the pyramid.



All’s well that ends well



Though not completely restored to its former glory, the pyramid was opened to the public in March 2020.



The structure is now fitted with a new lighting system and an accessible entry for people with disabilities.



 



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Borrowed from a similar movement in Ireland, name the British social reformer who set up the Home Rule League in Madras in 1916?



Home Rule League, either of two short-lived organizations of the same name in India established in April and September 1916, respectively, by Indian nationalist Bal Gangadhar Tilak and British social reformer and Indian independence leader Annie Besant. The term, borrowed from a similar movement in Ireland, referred to the efforts of Indian nationalists to achieve self-rule from the British Indian government.



Indian home rule movement began in India in the background of World War I. The Government of India Act (1909) failed to satisfy the demands of the national leaders. However, the split in the congress and the absence of leaders like Tilak, who was imprisoned in Mandalay meant that nationalistic response was tepid.



By 1915, many factors set the stage for a new phase of nationalist movement. The rise in stature of Annie Besant (who was of part Irish origin and a firm supporter of Irish Home Rule Movement), the return of Tilak from exile and the growing calls for solving the split in congress began to stir the political scene in India. The Ghadar Mutiny and its suppression led to an atmosphere of resentment against British rule.



 



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In 1905, the Bengal Presidency was partitioned into East and West Bengal, and reunited six years later, only to be severed again in 1947. While West Bengal is today a state, what is East Bengal now?



The first Partition of Bengal was a territorial reorganization of the Bengal Presidency implemented by the authorities of the British Raj in 1905. The partition separated the largely Muslim eastern areas from the largely Hindu western areas on 16 October 1905 after being announced on 20 July 1905 by Lord Curzon, the then Viceroy of India.



The middle class of Bengal saw this as the rupture of their dear motherland as well as a tactic to diminish their authority. In the six-month period before the partition was to be effected the Congress arranged meetings where petitions against the partition were collected and given to impassive authorities. Surendranath Banerjee admitted that the petitions were ineffective and as the date for the partition drew closer began advocating tougher approaches such as boycotting British goods. He preferred to label this move as "swadeshi" instead of boycott. The boycott was led by the moderates but minor rebel groups also sprouted under its cause.



The uproar that had greeted Curzon's contentious move of splitting Bengal, as well as the emergence of the 'Extremist' faction in the Congress, became the final motive for separatist Muslim politics. In 1909, separate elections were established for Muslims and Hindus. Before this, many members of both communities had advocated national solidarity of all Bengalis. With separate electorates, distinctive political communities developed, with their own political agendas. Muslims, too, dominated the Legislature, due to their overall numerical strength of roughly twenty two to twenty eight million. Nationally, Hindus and Muslims began to demand the creation of two independent states, one to be formed in majority Hindu and one in majority Muslim areas.



In 1947, Bengal was partitioned for the second time, solely on religious grounds, as part of the Partition of India following the formation of the nations India and Pakistan. In 1955, East Bengal became East Pakistan, and in 1971 became the independent state of Bangladesh.



 



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In 1942, Gandhi launched the Quit India Movement with which famous call in Bombay?



The Cripps Mission had failed, and on 8 August 1942, Gandhi made a call to Do or Die in his Quit India speech delivered in Bombay at the Gowalia Tank Maidan.  The All-India Congress Committee launched a mass protest demanding what Gandhi called "An Orderly British Withdrawal" from India. 



The speech decreed that the British must leave India immediately or else mass agitations would take place.



The call mobilised the citizens to be involved in a widespread Civil Disobedience movement since the British refused to grant independence to India till the War was over.



The ‘Quit India’ movement then escalated into large-scale violence directed at railway stations, telegraph offices, government buildings, and other emblems and institutions of colonial rule.



There were widespread acts of sabotage, and the government held Gandhi responsible for these acts of violence, suggesting that they were a deliberate act of Congress policy. This led to the incarceration of the Congress leadership.



 



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By defeating the Nawab of Bengal and his French allies in which battle in 1757 did The East India Company begin its domination in the region?



The Battle of Plassey was fought in north-eastern India on 23 June 1757. Troops of the British East India Company, led by Robert Clive, came up against the forces of Siraj-ud-Daulah, the last Nawab of Bengal, and his French allies. Clive's victory eventually led to the British becoming the greatest economic and military power in India.



The East India Company was one of these competing powers. While battling the French for trading supremacy, it simultaneously began to involve itself in local politics, especially in Bengal, India’s richest province.



The Bengali ruler Siraj-ud-Daulah had been in dispute with the Company for some time. A year before the Battle of Plassey, when the Company refused to halt military preparations against the French following the outbreak of the Seven Years War (1756-63), he had attacked and captured its stronghold of Fort William in Calcutta (Kolkata).



For a later generation of Britons, the victory at Plassey marked the birth of their Indian Empire. Until Indian independence in 1947 almost every schoolchild would have heard of the battle and known of ‘Clive of India’.



 



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On March 29, 1857, in Meerut, who is believed to have fired the first shot in the Sepoy Mutiny, also known as India’s first war of independence?



Mangal Pandey, (born July 19, 1827, Akbarpur, India—died April 8, 1857, Barrackpore), Indian soldier whose attack on British officers on March 29, 1857, was the first major incident of what came to be known as the Indian, or Sepoy, Mutiny (in India the uprising is often called the First War of Independence or other similar names).



Pandey was born in a town near Faizabad in what is now eastern Uttar Pradesh state in northern India, although some give his birth place as a small village near Lalitpur (in present-day southwestern Uttar Pradesh). He was from a high-caste Brahman landowning family that professed strong Hindu beliefs. 



In India, Pandey has been remembered as a freedom fighter against British rule. A commemorative postage stamp with his image on it was issued by the Indian government in 1984. In addition, a movie and stage play that depicted his life both appeared in 2005.



 



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In 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru addressed the Constituent Assembly in New Delhi with a historic speech. What is it called?



"Tryst with Destiny" was a speech delivered by Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of independent India, to the Indian Constituent Assembly in The Parliament, on the eve of India's Independence, towards midnight on 14 August 1947. It spoke on the aspects that transcend India's history.



At the dawn of history India started on her unending quest, and trackless centuries are filled with her striving and the grandeur of her successes and her failures. Through good and ill fortune alike she has never lost sight of that quest or forgotten the ideals which gave her strength. We end today a period of ill fortune and India discovers herself again. The achievement we celebrate today is but a step, an opening of opportunity, to the greater triumphs and achievements that await us.



 



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In 1919, under whose orders was the brutal and unprovoked massacre at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar, Punjab, carried out?



 In Amritsar the news that prominent Indian leaders had been arrested and banished from that city sparked violent protests on April 10, in which soldiers fired upon civilians, buildings were looted and burned, and angry mobs killed several foreign nationals and severely beat a Christian missionary. A force of several dozen troops commanded by Brig. Gen. Reginald Edward Harry Dyer was given the task of restoring order. Among the measures taken was a ban on public gatherings.



On the afternoon of April 13, a crowd of at least 10,000 men, women, and children gathered in the Jallianwala Bagh, which was nearly completely enclosed by walls and had only one exit. It is not clear how many people there were protesters who were defying the ban on public meetings and how many had come to the city from the surrounding region to celebrate Baisakhi, a spring festival. Dyer and his soldiers arrived and sealed off the exit. Without warning, the troops opened fire on the crowd, reportedly shooting hundreds of rounds until they ran out of ammunition. It is not certain how many died in the bloodbath, but, according to one official report, an estimated 379 people were killed, and about 1,200 more were wounded. 



 



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Who brought apples to Himachal Pradesh?



Himachal is known for its apples not only in the country but worldwide as well. A very few know about how this fruit came to India and how it nurtured to win everyone’s heart. Samual Evan Stokes (also known as Satyanand Stokes) was the first person who started the cultivation of apple trees at a small village in Himachal named Thanedar. He is known for starting the large-scale cultivation of apples in Himachal Pradesh. Some of the theories state that Captain R C Scot of the British Army had introduced apples to the Kullu valley of Himachal Pradesh much before Satyanand Stokes, but it is mainly due to the efforts of Satyanand Stokes today Himachal is widely known for delicious red coloured apples.



The hill state of Himachal Pradesh constitutes about 48 percent of the area under the production of apple. The average production is around 2.5 crore of boxes each year but may vary every year depending on the weather conditions. The production of apple is mainly done in the districts of Kullu, Shimla, Kinnaur, Mandi, Chamba and some areas of Sirmaur District. Nowadays the production of apples has stretched to some areas of Lahaul and Spiti district as well. The economy of these areas is mainly dependent on the production of apples. The apple season starts from June and is at its peak in the month of August when the fruits are being harvested from the higher and middle reaches of the state. The total duration of the apple season varies from June to November depending upon the altitude.



 



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Which queen of Ahmadnagar fought the Mughals, personally leading at times?



Sultana Chand Bibi (1550–1599 CE), was an Indian Muslim regent and warrior. She acted as the Regent of Bijapur (1580–90) and Regent of Ahmednagar (in current day Maharashtra) (1596–99). Chand Bibi is best known for defending Ahmednagar against the Mughal forces of Emperor Akbar in 1595.



Chand Bibi was the daughter of Hussain Nizam Shah I of Ahmednagar, and the sister of Burhan Nizam Shah II, the Sultan of Ahmednagar. She knew many languages, including Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Marathi and Kannada. She played sitar, and painting flowers was her hobby.



Chand Bibi took the leadership in Ahmednagar and defended the Ahmednagar fort successfully. Later, Shah Murad sent an envoy to Chand Bibi, offering to raise the siege in return for the cession of Berar. Chand Bibi's troops were suffering from famine. In 1596, she decided to make peace by ceding Berar to Murad, who retreated.



 



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There are many legends around the romance of this dancer with a young Jahangir. Who is she?



We all love the story of Anarkali, that beautiful dancing girl in the court of Akbar the Great, who was allegedly buried alive by the emperor for having the audacity of falling in love with his son Saleem, later to be named Jahangir, the heir to the Mughal throne of India.



 The story of Anarkali and her alleged lover Saleem is now part of a subcontinental legend, and to try to change the story of the ‘eternal lovers’ would be an uphill task. 



 Everyone scoffed at the idea of her being buried alive, and that is where the ‘original’ story has to be told. The real name of Anarkali was Nadira Begum, a girl of Turkmen origin, she was a ‘kaneez’ in the harem of the emperor. Of the hundreds of women in the great Mughal harem in Lahore, she stood out for her beauty. Her complexion was red like a “pomegranate” in full bloom, and it was because of her flushing red complexion that the emperor himself named her Anarkali and announced it in court.



 



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Which niece of Nurjahan was married to Nurjahan’s stepson Shahjahan?



Mumtaz Mahal was born as Arjumand Banu on 27 April 1593 in Agra to Abu'l-Hasan Asaf Khan and his wife Diwanji Begum, the daughter of a Persian noble, Khwaja Ghias-ud-din of Qazvin. Asaf Khan was a wealthy Persian noble who held high office in the Mughal Empire. His family had come to India impoverished in 1577, when his father Mirza Ghias Beg (popularly known by his title of I'timad-ud-Daulah), was taken into the service of Emperor Akbar in Agra.



Mumtaz was Nur Jahan’s niece and was married to Shah Jahan when she was 19.  They were, however, married five years after the year of their betrothal on 30 April 1612 in Agra. The marriage was a love-match. After their wedding celebrations, Shah Jahan, "finding her in appearance and character elect among all the women of the time", gave her the title "Mumtaz Mahal" Begum ("the Exalted One of the Palace"). During the intervening years between their betrothal and marriage, Shah Jahan had married his first wife, Princess Kandahari Begum in 1609 and in 1617, after marrying Mumtaz, took a third wife, Izz-un-Nissa Begum (titled Akbarabadi Mahal), the daughter of a prominent Mughal courtier. According to the official court historians, both the marriages were political alliances.



 



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Jahangir’s mother belonged to the royal family of which kingdom?



Mariam-uz-Zamani was a wife of the Mughal emperor Akbar. She has also been referred to by several other names, including Hira Kunwari, Harkha Bai and Jodha Bai.



Born a Hindu-Rajput princess, in 1562, Mariam-uz-Zamani was offered in marriage to Akbar by her father, Raja Bharmal of Amber. The wedding, held in Sambhar, was a political one and was a sign of complete submission of her father to his imperial overlord. Her marriage to Akbar led to a gradual shift in his religious and social policy. She is widely regarded in modern Indian historiography as exemplifying Akbar's and the Mughal's tolerance of religious differences and their inclusive policies within an expanding multi-ethnic and multi-denominational empire.



Mariam-uz-Zamani was born in 1542, the daughter of Raja Bharmal of Amber by his wife Rani Champavati, daughter of Rao Ganga Solanki. Her paternal grandparents were Raja Prithviraj Singh I and Apurva Devi, a daughter of Rao Lunkaran of Bikaner.



Her birth name is unknown. 'Mariam-uz-Zamani' was in fact a title bestowed on her by Akbar on the occasion of their son Jahangir's birth.



 



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What was Nurjahan known as before she married Jahangir?



Nur Jahan (1575-1645) whose original name was Mihr-un-Nisa, was the daughter of Mirza Ghiyas Beg who belonged to a noble family of Persia. Evil days fell upon him and he had to leave his native place and in search of fortune he moved towards India. When he reached Qandhar, his wife gave birth to a daughter who later on became the most beloved queen of emperor Jahangir. With the help of a friend, he was able to get some job during Akbar’s time. On account of his talents, he gained importance in the court.



Nur Jahan was a cultured educated, intelligent and dominating lady. She was fond of music, painting and poetry. She composed verses in Persian. She designed new varieties of cotton and silk fabrics. She suggested models of jewellery. Thus she set the fashions of the age. About Nur Jahans’ influence over Jahangir, Dr. Beni Prasad has observed “Nur Jahan ruled him (Jahangir) for fourteen years and during the last five years of his reign, Nur Jahan alone controlled him.”



 



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How did the Mughals treat women?



The origin



When Babur, the first Mughal emperor came thundering into India, he brought his ‘haraman’, his household with him, including wives, children, mothers, grandmothers, elderly widowed aunts, unmarried relatives and so on. These Turki women were hardy – they lived in tents, rode on horseback accompanying the army and mingled with everyone, and indeed, matriarchs were greatly respected and looked to for advice.



However, during Akbar’s long, stable reign, the concept of a physically separate, private place for Mughal royal ladies started. As Akbar made a great many marriage alliances with the Rajput princesses in his endeavour to get the support of their fathers, his household exploded in size, since each princess would come to him with a large number of attendants to keep her company.



A Glided Cage



An enclosed area of the royal compound called the harem, mahal or zenana became the world of Mughal women. Over time, the separation became complete. Mughal royal ladies started observing full purdah (meaning ‘curtain’ in Persian) – it became utterly shameful for them to see or be seen by any unrelated man who wasn’t the emperor himself. The zenana was soon heavily-guarded – not by men, but by eunuchs. On the rare occasion that the royal ladies had to venture outside, it was under heavy veils and in closely covered palanquins. If an unrelated man was found trying to enter this sacrosanct space, he could (and often would) be put to death straight away!



Inside this royal bubble and the mahal, life was totally different, where the women could walk around freely, unveiled. Thousands of women lived their entire lives in this luxurious, opulent, gilded cage. In addition to the many official wives of the emperor, were hundreds of ‘semi-official’ ones, as well as grandmothers, step-mothers, aunts, sisters, daughters, nieces and so on. Children were brought up in the harem, until the boys had to move out in their teenage years.



It was an entire world of its own, where the Mughal Emperor was the sun around which the women revolved. He could enter his harem whenever he pleased. The harem is where the Emperor went for privacy and relaxation. It is where he would take his meals, and where he would read his private documents.



Zenana Shenanigans



Life in the zenana was a bustling hive of activity and intrigue. Each lady had a personal allowance, and female slaves and servants hovered around to tend to every need. Royal karkhanas were set up just to make the finest muslin dresses for them, and royal jewelers did the rounds to fashion the most exquisite jewellery.



The ladies were educated, and many became patrons of culture – music, art and literature. They influenced fashions at the court. Some were writers and poets like Salima Sultana, Jahanara, and Aurangzeb’s daughter Zebunissa. Chess, a Mughal obsession, was as fiercely played inside the harem as at court.



Eager Europeans



European visitors to the Mughal court were both shocked and very curious about this setup which seemed very exotic to them.



European visitors were most curious to see the zenana for themselves but were not allowed anywhere close to it due to the heavy shroud of secrecy surrounding it.



Bernier, a French doctor, speaks of his attempts to get into the harem. “I have sometimes gone into it when the King was absent from Delhi, for the purpose of giving my professional advice when a great lady was so ill she could not be moved. A cashmere shawl covered my head, hanging like a scarf down to my feet, and a eunuch led me by hand as if I had been a blind man.”



Mostly they had to rely on hearsay from the eunuchs who served in the harem. “The apartments of the queens are magnificent; and whatever can contribute either to conscience or pleasure has been consulted in their arrangement. It may be said, that the ardour of a burning climate is never experienced in these abodes. Here are to be seen running streams, shadowy groves, fountains, and subterraneous grottos for securing the enjoyment of a delicious coolness.”



Meena Bazaar



Akbar started an annual event in the mahal that was carried on by all future emperors. The Meena Bazaar was a yearly fair held during the lavishly celebrated Parsi Navroz festivities, where instead of regular shopkeepers, the royal ladies and the wives of Mughal nobles would set up stalls to set luxuries and exotic items. The only made customer allowed in was the Emperor himself!



A French account says, “A whimsical kind of fair is held in the Mehale, conducted by the handsomest wives of the Omrahs…these bewitching females act the part of traders, while the purchases are the King, the Begums or the Princesses of the harem”. But to give an idea of how some nobility really felt about it: when Akbar was negotiating with a Rajput king, one of the conditions for the Rana’s surrender was that his women would be exempt from attending the Meena Bazaar!



Powerful Princesses



Royal Mughal Princesses would usually remain unmarried and spend their whole lives in the zenana. However, they could have enormous influence, and would ofen watch what was happening at court from behind intricate latticed screens and give their opinions to the emperors. Some also issued farmans (edicts). For instance, Jahanara was the great favourite of her father Shah Jahan and her brother Dara Shikoh. Her sister Roshanara on the other hand, was on Aurangzeb’s side and would spy on the harem and send him letters about what was happening. Jahangir’s wife Noorjahan practically ran the massive Mughal empire in his name for 15 years.



The mahal was a thriving hotbed of politics all around. Each royal lady would intrigue to become more powerful and influential than the next, and everyone competed to get the Emperor’s ear.’ There were quite as many plots and spies and treachery as in the Mughal court.



 



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