Ancient History

In about 518 BCE, the Persians invaded India. They were led by King Darius I, who conquered the Indus Valley and the area that is now the state of Punjab. Darius-I was successful in maintaining power, and his descendants continued to rule the area when he died. Darius-I also began to collect a tribute tax, and spread news of India’s many natural resources to Europe.

The mightiest of the Kushan rulers in India was Kanishka. He was in power from 78 AD to 120 AD. It was Kanishka who initiated the Saka Era in 78 AD. Through inheritance and conquest, Kanishka’s kingdom covered an area extending from Bukhara (now in Uzbekistan) in the west to Patna in the Ganges Valley in the east, and from the Pamirs (now in Tajikistan) in the north to central India in the south. His capital was Purushpura (Peshawar).

“Satyameva Jayate” (Truth Alone Triumphs) is a mantra from the ancient Indian scripture Mundaka Upanishad. Upon independence of India, it was adopted as the national motto of India. It is inscribed in Devanagari script at the base of the national emblem. The emblem and words ‘Satyameva Jayate’ are inscribed on one side of all Indian currency.

Excavations at Chanhudaro have revealed three different cultural layers from lowest to the top being Indus culture, the Jhukar culture and the Jhangar culture. The site is especially important for providing evidences about different Harappan factories.

In 1872–75 Alexander Cunningham published the first Harappan seal (with an erroneous identification as Brahmi letters). It was half a century later, in 1912, that more Harappan seals were discovered by J. Fleet, prompting an excavation campaign under Sir John Hubert Marshall in 1921–22 and resulting in the discovery of the civilization at Harappa by Sir John Marshall, Rai Bahadur Daya Ram Sahni and Madho Sarup Vats, and at Mohenjo-daro by Rakhal Das Banerjee, E. J. H. MacKay, and Sir John Marshall.

Nalanda was an ancient centre of higher learning in Bihar, India. It was a Buddhist centre of learning from the fifth or sixth century CE to 1197 CE. Nalanda flourished between the reign of the Sakraditya (whose identity is uncertain and who might have been either Kumara Gupta-I or Kumara Gupta-II) and 1197 CE, supported by patronage from the Hindu Gupta rulers as well as Buddhist emperors like Harsha and later emperors from the Pala Empire.

The ruins of Harrappa were first described in 1842 by Charles Masson in his Narrative of Various Journeys in Balochistan, Afghanistan, and the Punjab, where locals talked of an ancient city extending “thirteen cosses” (about 25 miles), but no archaeological interest would attach to this for nearly a century.

Dhanvantri is an Avatar of Vishnu from the Hindu tradition. He appears in the Vedas and Puranas as the physician of the gods (devas), and the god of Ayurvedic medicine. It is common practice in Hinduism for worshipers to pray to Dhanvantri seeking his blessings for sound health for themselves and/or others. Dhanvantri is depicted as Vishnu with four hands, holding medical herbs in one hand and a pot containing rejuvenating nectar called amrita in another.

Tripitaka is a traditional term used by various Buddhist sects to describe their various canons of scriptures. As the name suggests, a Tripitaka traditionally contains three “baskets” of teachings: a Sutra Pitaka (Sanskrit; Pali: Sutta Pitaka), a Vinaya Pitaka (Sanskrit & Pali) and an Abhidharma Pitaka (Sanskrit; Pali: Abhidhamma Pitaka).

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. Together with Plato and Socrates (Plato’s teacher).

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