TINY BLASTS FROM THE PAST | #3
Hey folksđ, We are back with the third edition of trivial pursuits. Â
With new Ed startups sprouting up in every corner and seeing the abundance of exams to test your aptitude, attitude, altitude, and whatnot, one keeps wondering when the rat race for admission into prestigious universities started. Perhaps with the establishment of IITs during the 1960s? Or with the starting of Indian Civil Service during the 19th century by the British? It turns out human greed is prehistoric. The ancient university of Nalanda, founded in the 5th century BC by the Gupta Dynasty, also had admission tests where 3 out of every ten students passed. Schools started popping near the university to help the students pass the admission test and thus began the world's first coaching institutes.Â
Dive on to find more such interesting stories from the past.
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This TIME magazine cover published in 1937 features the Nizam of Hyderabad Mir Osman Ali Khan Siddiqi, the richest man of that time. He was so rich his paperweight was a million-dollar worth diamond called the Jacob diamond (I like the Kohinoor, to be fair). When he wasnât reveling in luxury, the Nizam did many works to benefit his subjects, the most prominent of those being the founder of Osmania University, a prominent university in the two states.
The things we do for love power:Â It is common through Indian history to see kings build temples and conquer kingdoms to showcase their grandeur.The royal kingdom of Travancore under king Marthanda Varma even sophisticated the language used in the royal court to create awe around the royalty. Everyday activities like brushing teeth got converted to "the cleaning of the royal pearls (and not teethđ)," and eating food became " feasting of the holy nectar.' Women from the royalty do not get pregnant; in fact, "the royal womb gets occupied," and dying is for mere mortals like us, while the kings "moved on from the kingdom" to rule on the next kingdom in their afterlife. Cut back to now from the same land of Travancore; we have yet another man of power, this time wor(l)dly- wise politician who has also created a sense of wonder around him with vocabulary. Shashi Tharoorđ
When the Ganges came to London: Freshwater, an increasingly scarce resource, is high on the list of priorities for most tourists when they plan a journey to a distant land. Most of the time, the concern is motivated by fears of hygiene. That wasnât the case in 1902, when the SS Olympia docked in London, carrying on board the Maharaja of Jaipur, Sawai Madho Singh II.Â
These âGangajalisâ entered the Guinness Book of World Records when he had two enormous sterling silver vessels, the largest in the world, created to carry âGangajalâ on his travels to England. These giant vessels were created by melting 14,000 silver coins.
Accompanying him were 132 servants, a retinue of Hindu priests, and over 600 pieces of luggage. What stood out, however, was the amount of âGangajalâ on board â 8,000 liters, held in two enormous silver urns. The Maharajaâs disembarkment was, as a June 1902 edition of The Globe put it, âa remarkable sightâ. More remarkable was the provenance of the water, and the reason it had been carried more than 5,000 miles from Jaipur to London, via Bombay. Madho Singh was one of several important Indian nobles invited to attend the coronation of Edward VII after the death of Queen Victoria.Â
The cursed sands: The temple town of Talakadu, near Mysore, offers a slice of history and heritage. Locals believe that in the early 16th century when Tirumalaraja (viceroy of Vijayanagara) lost his throne to Raja Wodeyar (the 9th Maharaja of Mysore), his wife Alamelamma escaped to Talakadu with her royal ornaments. But Wodeyar ordered his soldiers to seize the jewels. Alamelamma then went to the banks of river Cauvery in Malangi and threw herself and the ornaments into the water, committing suicide but not without giving a curse to the Wodeyars that Talakadu would be reduced to sand one day. Today, the old city of Talakadu is completely buried beneath the hills of sand stretching for nearly a mile in length, only the tops of two gopurams being visible. More than thirty temples, it is stated, are beneath the sand, but some temples have been successfully excavated. There were whole Temples excavated from the sand; imagine the size of the sand dunes! Today, Alamelammaâs ornaments adorn goddess Sri Ranga Nayaki in the nearby Sriranganathaswamy Temple at Srirangapatna.
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The Chola empire that originated in South India around the Cauvery delta is considered to be one of the most proficient forces when it came to maritime military strategies. They were perhaps the only kingdom that originated in India that were able to make a significant foray into Southeast Asia. Ever heard of Malacca, or specifically the Strait of Malacca? Itâs a narrow stretch of water that connects the Indian Ocean and the South China sea between the Malay peninsula and the island of Sumatra (Indonesia). It has been a strategic checkpoint in terms of commerce for centuries and is still one of the busiest waterways in the world accounting for about one-fourth of annual global trade. In the 11th century CE, the Chola king Rajendra I had to lead an invasion over the Srivijaya kingdom due to escalated tensions and there was no better strategy other than to block the Malacca strait which was a lifeline to the Malay kingdom. On knowing about the advance of the Chola armada, the Srivijaya forces headed to the northwest entry of the strait to block off the former. But little did they know that it was just a decoy armada and it was too late before they came to know that the main section of the Chola forces had already entered the strait via the entry point in the southeastern end of the strait. It was the least expected move from any point of view since during those times, circling around Sumatra and getting to the rear side of the strait was considered very challenging due to the increased distance and the activities of pirates in that region. This is just one example that puts down the capabilities of the much-lauded Chola navy with their efforts to counter piracy in cooperation with other kingdoms from the east and the extent of their influence to the east as far as the Philippines just adding to them.
Fig.1:Influence of the Cholas and their trade relations with the eastern part of Asia.
2.THE COIN NO ONE'S EVER SEEN
Yes, Bitcoin is one of the most successful cryptocurrencies to ever exist and has recently reached a milestone that no one has ever seen. This started a chain of cryptocurrencies being introduced, one even being named after a meme called DogeCoin. The market capitalization of Bitcoin has hit an all-time high of 1 trillion dollars and this might indicate a potential for shifting to a global digital currency in a few decades, at the end no one knows, just speculating! What sets cryptocurrencies apart from our regular notes and coins is that thereâs no central authority. This grants a lot more freedom to people to make transactions. This massive jump in the currencyâs value can be attributed to our crazy billionaire Elon musk whoâs tweets seem to make everything skyrocket!
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