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A Photo Blog of Jaipur and Bhangarh

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India has some of the most massive ancient and medieval age forts in the world . Nothing comes close to sheer size and strategic geographic location of some of these. Of these forts, the best are to be found in the state of Rajasthan, the land of the brave and chivalrous Rajput warriors. Most of their forts are what are called hill forts, situated on a hill or ridge line and considered the most difficult to conquer for an invading army. Six of these majestic forts in Rajasthan are also a UNESCO World Heritage site ( https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/247 ). No other place will mesmerize a history lover as much as the state of Rajasthan, and in my last visit to India, I was lucky enough to get a chance to visit the city of Jaipur. The capital of Rajasthan is also home to one of the 6 UNESCO forts, the Amer fort and palace, also known as Amber. I wanted to do a detailed photo blog of my visit, but the sheer number of things to see in Jaipur, plus my increasing laziness made me do a
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How a Rajput succession plan impacted the Battle of Panipat in 1761

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History is intriguing in how an insignificant looking event can have enormous significance many decades later. The Rajputs in India had been the first Hindu rulers to resist the Mughals. Apart from the religious differences, it was the geographical location of the Rajput kingdoms that was responsible for their resistance. The rajputs controlled areas touching Delhi and stretching from Sind to Malwa region of central India, they initially gave resistance to the Mughal invasions but with Akbar as the emperor, things changed. Akbar initiated a policy of matrimonial alliances with Rajput houses, marrying many of the rajput princesses and aligning the rajputs to Mughal dominion. The exception to this was the House of Udaipur, which never accepted wedding proposals from mughal emperors for their daughters. One should remember that the Udaipur kings were direct descendants of the Mewar royal family. When the first Mughal king, Babar entered India in 1527, it was the Rana (King) of Mewar
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Thugs of Hindustan

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"The robbery and murder practiced by the Thugs in accordance with their ritual." - Definition of thuggee from the Oxford dictionary. The " thugs " were groups of professional assassins who had specialized themselves in the art of deceiving and killing travelers on the country roads during medieval India. The word thug is derived from the Hindi word " thag ", which means thief or swindler, which itself is derived from the Sanskrit word " staghati ", which means to conceal or deceive, and was coined to refer to the infamous and secretive cult of assassins in medieval India. The word "thug" was first mentioned in a book written during the reign of Delhi king Firoz Shah Tughlaq in the 13th century. This cult is estimated to have been responsible for thousands of killings per year for over 4 centuries and continued to remain highly secretive until the 18th century, when the British in India decided to eradicate the thugs.
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Alexander: Why did the world conqueror decide against fighting the Nanda rulers of India

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There is an ancient military saying “ The Turks are known for their horsemen, the Persians for their Archers, and the Indians for their Armies ”. Alexander is regarded as one of the greatest of conquerors the world ever saw. Starting from small kingdom of Macedonia, he went on to conquer vast stretches of land in Central Asia including Ancient Persia and western India. Now we all have read in our school textbooks about how Alexander fought King Porus and after defeating Porus at the Battle of the Hydapes (the river Indus), his soldiers felt homesick and so Alexander decided to return to Macedonia. Offcourse Alexander himself could never return to Macedonia and died on his way back in Babylonia due to a mosquito bite. An emperor who ruled most of the then known world died due to a small mosquito. Now why would someone who was so determined on conquering the entire world, give up his dream after a battle with an Indian king. A fact that many historians agree on is that the
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Bada Imambara - The Monument constructed as a famine relief measure

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Jisko na de maula, usko de nawab Asaf-ud-Daula  - English translation as "He who does not receive (livelihood) from the Lord, will receive it from Asaf-ud-Daula." The above saying is attributed to Nawab Asaf-Ud-Daula, the 4th nawab of Awadh, for his unique famine relief measure in the city of Lucknow in the decade of 1780. The province of Awadh (modern day Central and Eastern Uttar Pradesh) was one of the richest Mughal provinces due to the fertile plains between the Ganga and Yamuna rivers. In 1784, though there was a severe drought which went on to last for 10 years. Nawab Asaf-ud-Daula To curb the loss of income from farming, the Nawab wanted to ensure that employment is provided to every person for his fair share of labour. The only measure to provide employment to maximum people was to build a monument. Thus the construction of the Bada Imambara or Big Imambara was started in 1784. This was a unique monument in the sense it was neither a Mosque nor a Mausol
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