INDIAN HISTORY THROUGH MAP- PART-G

(1)Gandhara


 

• Gandhara was an ancient kingdom in modern-day states of northern Pakistan and northeastern Afghanistan.
• Evidence of Stone Age human inhabitants of Gandhara, including stone tools and burnt bones, was discovered at Sanghao near Mardan in area caves. The artifacts are 15,000 to 30,000 years old.

  

  1.Mother Goddess (fertility divinity), possibly derived from the Indus Valley Civilization,terracotta, Sar Dheri, Gandhara, 1st century BC. 2.Female spouted figure, terracotta, Charsadda, Gandhara, 3rd to 1st century BC .

• The region shows an influx of southern Central Asian culture in the Bronze Age with the Gandhara grave culture, likely corresponding to immigration of Indo-Aryan speakers and the nucleus of Vedic civilisation. This culture flourished from 1500 to 500 BC. The name of the Gandharis is attested in the Rigveda ,Atharvaveda and in ancient inscriptions dating back to Achaemenid Persia.Gandharas are included in the Uttarapatha division of Puranic and Buddhistic traditions. 
• Gandhara and Kamboja was governed by the Achaemenian Dynasty during the reign of Cyrus the Great or in the first year of Darius I.  In the book "Histories" by Herodotus, Gandhara is named as a source of tax collections for King Darius.The Gandhara and Kamboja had constituted the seventh satrapies (upper Indus) of the Achaemenid Empire. Then Maurya, greace-Bacrians, Sakas, Indo-Parthians, Kushanas, Huns, Kabulshahi(Hindushahi) ruled here. 
• The Persian term Shahi is used by history writer Al-Biruni to refer to the ruling dynasty that took over from the Kabul Shahi and ruled the region during the period prior to Muslim conquests of the 10th and 11th centuries. After it was conquered by Mahmud of Ghazni in 1021 AD, the name Gandhara disappeared. During the Muslim period the area was administered from Lahore or from Kabul. During Mughal times the area was part of Kabul province.
• The travel records of many Chinese Buddhists pilgrims record that Gandhara was going through a transformation during these centuries. Buddhism was declining and Hinduism was rising. Fa-Xian travelled around 400, when Prakrit was the language of the people and Buddhism was flourishing. 100 years later, when Song-Yun visited in 520: the area had been destroyed by the White Huns and was ruler did not practice the laws of the Buddha. Xuan-Zang visited India around 644 and found Buddhism on the wane in Gandhara and Hinduism in the ascendant. Gandhara was ruled by a king from Kabul, who respected Buddha's law, but Taxila was in ruins and Buddhist monasteries were deserted. Instead, Hindu temples were numerous and Hinduism was popular.
• Mahayana Pure Land sutras were brought from the Gandhara region to China as early as 147 CE, when the Kushan monk Lokaksema began translating some of the first Buddhist sutras into Chinese.
• The Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzang visited a Lokottaravada monastery in the 7th century CE, at Bamiyan, Afghanistan. Birchbark and palm leaf manuscripts of texts in this monastery's collection, including Mahayana sutras, have been discovered at the site. Some manuscripts are in the Gandhari language and Kharosthi script, while others are in Sanskrit and written in forms of the Gupta script.
• Gandhara is noted for the distinctive Gandhara style of Buddhist art, which developed out of a merger of Greek, Syrian, Persian, and Indian artistic influence. This development began during the Parthian Period (50 BC – AD 75). Gandharan style flourished and achieved its peak during the Kushan period, from the 1st to the 5th centuries. It declined and suffered destruction after invasion of the White Huns in the 5th century. 

  

  1.The Buddha preaching at the Deer Park in Sarnath(2nd–3rd century).2.The Great Departure from the Palace (2nd–3rd century)3.Buddha in acanthus capital.4.The Greek god Atlas, supporting a Buddhist monument, Hadda.5.Wine-drinking and music, Hadda (1st–2nd century).6.The end of ascetism (2nd–3rd century).7.The death of the Buddha, or parinirvana (2nd–3rd century)

  

  1.Standing Bodhisattva (1st–2nd century).2.Standing Buddha (1st–2nd century).3.Bodhisattva seated inmeditation4.Buddha head (2nd century).5.The Buddha and Vajrapani under the guise of Heracles(a devine hero in greek mythology).6.The Bodhisattva and Chandeka, Hadda (5th century).7.The Bodhisattva and Chandeka, Hadda (5th century).8.The birth of Siddharta (2nd–3rd century).9.Scene of the life of the Buddha (2nd–3rd century)10.Hellenistic decorative scrolls from Hadda, Afghanistan

• Stucco and stone was widely used by sculptors in Gandhara for the decoration of monastic and cult buildings. Stucco provided the artist with a medium of great plasticity, enabling a high degree of expressiveness to be given to the sculpture. Sculpting in stucco was popular wherever Buddhism spread from Gandhara – India, Afghanistan, Central Asia and China.
• The Gandharan Buddhist texts are both the earliest Buddhist as well as Asian manuscripts discovered so far. Most are written on birch bark and were found in labelled clay pots. Panini has mentioned both the Vedic form of Sanskrit as well as Gandhari, a later form of Sanskrit, in his Ashtadhyayi.
• Gandhara's language was a Prakrit usually called Gandhari. Texts are written right-to-left in the Kharosthi script, which had been adapted for Indo-Aryan languages from a Semitic alphabet, the Aramaic alphabet. Gandhara was then controlled by the Achaemenid dynasty of the Persian Empire, which used the Aramaic script to write the Iranian languages of the Empire.
• The primary cities of Gandhara were Purushapura (now Peshawar), Takshashila (or Taxila) and Pushkalavati. The latter remained the capital of Gandhara down to the 2nd century AD, when the capital was moved to Peshawar. An important Buddhist shrine helped to make the city a centre of pilgrimage until the 7th century. Pushkalavati in the Peshawar Valley is situated at the confluence of the Swat and Kabul rivers, where three different branches of the River Kabul meet. That specific place is still called Prang (from Prayaga) and considered sacred and where local people still bring their dead for burial. Similar geographical characteristics are found at site of Prang in Kashmir and at the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna, at Prayag(Allahabad).

(2) Ganeshwar 

• In the Sikar District of Rajasthan. Excavations in the area revealed the remains of a 4,000 year old civilization.
• Pottery similar to Jodhpura was found here.
• Red pottery was found here with black portraiture. The period was estimated to be 2500–2000 BC. Ganeshwar is located near the copper mines of the Sikar-Jhunjhunu area of the Khetri copper belt in Rajasthan. Excavations revealed copper objects including arrowheads, spearheads, fish hooks, bangles and chisels. 
• With its microliths and other stone tools, Ganeshwar culture can be ascribed to the pre-Harappan period. 
• Ganeshwar mainly supplied copper objects to Harappan cities.
• Three cultural phases in Ganeshwar: Period1(3800 BCE onward) reflects hunting gathering community using microliths made of chert and quartz.Charred bone of wild animals were found. Period2(2800BCE onward) marked begining of smelting.A few copper objects were found.Circular huts.Microliths,animal bones,handmade and wheelmade pottery. There was profusion of Jodhpura-Ganeshwar Ware, a few pots made of well fired clay. Period3(2000BCE onward)had a wide range of pots, many copper objects with declinein microliths and animal bones. 
• Ganeshwar was having copper working centre and suppying these items to communities elsewhere.There are similarities betwen wheel made pottery of Ganeshwar, period2 and early Harappan pottery.Harappan potteries were found in two Ganeshwar culture cities.At Ganeshwar itself, a reserved slip ware which is only found in the Harappan city(Banwali and few other places). Double spiral-headed pins from Ganeshwar have been found at some Harappan cities.

(3)Gangaikondacholapuram 

(4) Ganjam 

(5) Ganweriwala

(6) Gaya 

(7) Ghantasala 

(8) Ghargaon (Shrigonda)

(9) Ghazni


(10) Gheria / Vijaydurg

• Vijaydurg, the oldest fort on the Sindhudurg coast, was constructed during the regime of Raja Bhoja II of the Shilahar dynasty (1193-1205). The fort was earlier known as "Gheria", as it is situated close to the village of "Girye". 
• hivaji captured this fort from Adil Shah of Bijapur in 1653 and renamed it as "Vijay Durg".
• Vijaydurg Fort was called the "Eastern Gibraltar", as it was virtually impregnable. Its locational advantages include the 40 km long Waghotan/Kharepatan creek. Large vessels cannot enter the shallow water of this creek. Also, Maratha warships could be anchored in this creek and yet remain invisible from the sea.

(11) Ghor / Ghur

• Before the 12th century, the area was home to pagans, Zoroastrians, Buddhists, Muslims and a small number of Jews. The conversion of the Ghauris to Islam is attributed to Mahmud Ghazni who converted them to Islam after his conquest of Ghor.
• Ghor was also the centre of the Ghurid dynasty in the 12th and 13th century.The inhabitants of Ghor were completely Islamized during the Ghurids era.

(13) Gihlot
(14) Gilund 

• It is part of Ahar Banas Culture.Discoveries at Gilund were brdly similar to Ahar.The structural remains included a mud-brick complex and part of a wall made of burnt bricks.Storage pits are also found.
• Artefacts:microliths,fragments of copper, and beads of semi-precious stones, terracotta figurines of animals including humped bulls, and terracotta gamesman.

(15) Gingee

(16) Girnar / Girinagara 

• Junagadh city is located at the foot of the Girnar hills.
• There is an inscription with fourteen Edicts of Ashoka(Major Rock Edicts of Ashoka).The edict is inscribed high up on a large, domed mass of black granite in Brahmi script in a language similar to Pali.
• On the same rock there are inscriptions in Sanskrit added around 150 CE by Rudradaman I, the Saka (Scythian) ruler of Malwa, a member of the Western Kshatrapas dynasty.
• Another inscription dates from about 450 CE and refers to Skandagupta. 
• Old rock-cut Buddhist caves in this area, dating from well before 500 CE, have stone carvings and floral work. 
• Girnar (also known as Girnar Hill or Girinagar or Revatak Pravata) is a collection of mountains situated near Junagadh in Kathiawar. That it was a site of immense importance is amply proved by the number of major inscriptions to be found there, including apart from those of Asoka, those of Rudradaman and Skandagupta. It is mentioned as Girinagar in the Brhat Samhita.
• Mountain is regarded as sacred both to Brahmans and Jainas.
• Its importance was increased by the fact that during the reign of Chandragupta a dam was constructed on the Sudarsana lake in the neighbourhood of Girnar. The Rudradaman inscription informs us that the lake was originally built by Pusyagupta the provincial governor of Candragupta. Subsequently conduits were worked from it by Tusaspa in the reign of Asoka. 
• It appears from the inscription of Skandagupta that the lake continued to supply water to the surrounding area until well into the Gupta period, eight hundred years later.Since it was the source of water for irrigation it must have been the focal point in the area. It is possible that in the Asokan period the city of Girnar was closer to the lake than is the present site of Junagadh,since it would have been more practical to build the city as near the water supply as possible. 
• There are many Jain temples and Hindu temples in Girnar.

(17) Goa (Panjim)

(18) Gokul (A village in Mahasthanagarh, Bangladesh.See Part M)

(19) Goli

• Budhist antiquities (Stupa, Budhist Sculpture etc.) of Ikshvaku and Satvahana age in Guntur district, AP.

(20) Golkonda

(21) Gop Moti 

• In Jamnagar district. Known for a temple structure considered as oldest monument in Kathiawad (6th Century AD). It is different from Nagara Style/Shikhara Style of north Indian temples.

(22) Guad / Gaur / Gauda / Lakhnauti / Lakshmanavati

• Gaur is a ruined city on the India-Bangladesh border, most of the former citadel is located in present day the Malda district of West Bengal, while a smaller part is located in Nawabganj District of Bangladesh. This city was on the east bank of the Ganges river. Howeverver, the current course of the Ganges is far away from the ruins.
• Lakhnauti gathered prominence during the Sena dynasty(Lakshman Sena). Prior to the accession of the Sena dynasty, Gauda region was under the control of the Pala dynasty and, Karnasuvarna, the capital of Shashanka, served as the administrative headquarter.
• Many Mosques were built in Gaud. The citadel, of the Muslim period, was strongly fortified with a rampart and entered through a magnificent gateway called the Dakhil Darwaza (1459–1474). Near by were the royal tombs. Within the citadel is the Kadam Rasul mosque (1530), which is close out side is a tall tower called the Firoz Minar. Tomb of the saint Makhdum Shaikh Akhi Siraj (died 1357) is also situated.

  

  Firoz Minar,Ancient Temple and Dakhil Darwaza

(24) Gufkral  
(25) Gulbarga (Kalaburgi)

(26) Gumla 

(27) Gurhoma Sangri 

(28) Gurni Kalan 

(29) Guwahati

(30) Gwalior

• Gwalior is a historical city in Madhya Pradesh. Gwalior occupies a strategic location in the Gird region of India, and the city and its fortress has been ruled under several historic northern Indian kingdoms. From the Tomars in the 13th century, it passed to the Mughals, then the Marathas under the Scindias (1754).
• After being founded by Maharaj Suraj Sen, Gwalior Fort saw many many different rulers capturing it and ruling the city around it. 
• During 1195–96 Mahhamed Gauri invaded Gwalior but he failed as the fort of Gwalior was unconquerable under the brave efforts of Parihars. In 1231 Itutmish captured Gwalior and from then till the 13th century it remained under Muslim Rule. 
• In 1375, Raja Veer Singh was made the ruler of Gwalior and he founded the rule of the tomars in Gwalior. During those years, Gwalior saw its golden period.
• The Jain Sculptures at Gwalior Fort were built during Tomar's rule. Raja Man Singh made his dream palace the Maan Mandir Palace in Gwalior Fort. Babur described this Palace as a pearl in the necklace of forts in India.By the 15th century, the city had a noted singing school which was attended by Tansen. Gwalior was ruled by the Mughals and then the Marathas.
Following figures shows: 1. Jain statues at Gwalior 3. Sahastrabahu Temple 2.The Maan Mandir Palace

(31) Gyaraspur

• Gyaraspur is located near Vidisha (35 km) and Sanchi.The place has several ruins of several old Hindu, Jain and Buddhist places of worship mostly of 9th-10th century. These include:
• 1.Maladevi Temple: Pratihara period temple. Partly rock-cut and partly structural. Ornamented with Jaina Yaksha, Yakshiniand Jina Tirthankar images, the sanctum door jambs have Ganga, Yamuna and other Hindu deities9th century.
• 2.Hindola Torna: Dashavataras (ten incarnations) of Vishnu are carved on the door jambs of this torana,10th century.
• 3.Bajramath Temple:  A triple shrine temple. In the 10th century development, this temple’s gate, doors and back parts are engraved with Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma. Later on this temple was transformed as Jain temple in which Tirthankarstatues are established. Narasimha, Varaha, Vishnu, Shiva, Tripurantaka are shown in the various niches on the external walls.
• 4.Dhaikinath Stupa (Budhism).