Haath Katro Khamba

Do you recognize it or where is this place, what is its name? Don't know?

Don't know because its history has not been told

This is Goa's "Haath Katro Khamba".

80000 Hindus who did not convert to Christianity were tied to this pillar and their hands were cut from the shoulders and left to die

Do you know who did this?

St. Xavier,

Whose mummy is still kept safe in a church...

Many schools run in our country in the name of St. Xavier where we send our children to study with great enthusiasm, think about it once 

Yamuna River

Source: The river Yamuna, a major tributary of river Ganges, originates from the Yamunotri glacier near Bandarpoonch peaks in the Mussoorie range of the lower Himalayas in Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand.

Basin: It meets the Ganges at the Sangam in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh after flowing through Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi.

Length: 1376 km.

Important Dam: Lakhwar-Vyasi Dam (Uttarakhand), Tajewala Barrage Dam (Haryana) etc.

Important Tributaries: Chambal, Sindh, Betwa, Ken, Tons, Hindon.

Basics of Scripts & Indus categorys

There are several types of scripts or writing systems. A script can evolve indepently of languages that use them. They are like roadways and railway lines. Thus, Samskrtam can use Malayalam script, Brahmi, Indus Script, or Devanagari or Roman transliteration letters to express itself.

Here are the basic types of scripts:-

Alphabetic Scripts

Each symbol represents a single phoneme (sound). Examples include the Latin alphabet (used in English) and the current Greek alphabet.

Abugida Scripts

Each symbol represents a consonant-vowel combination, with diacritics modifying the inherent vowel. Examples include Devanagari (used in Hindi), Malayalam, Tamil and Ethiopic.

Indus Script falls in this category as per Yajnadevam.

Most Indian languages use Abugida script. Thus we are mostly following the Indus Script in India for most Indian languages!

Syllabaries

Each symbol represents a syllable. Examples include Japanese Kana (Hiragana and Katakana)  ancint Mycenian Greek Linear B, Sumerian Akkadian Cuneiform, Mayan script, and Cherokee. 

A syllable is a consonant vowel combination. Syllables are formed by combining letters, typically around a vowel sound. For example, the word “banana” has three syllables (ba-na-na) and is made up of six letters (b-a-n-a-n-a).

Syllabaries will have a large number of symbols.

Logographic Scripts

Each symbol represents a word or morpheme. Examples include Chinese characters and Egyptian hieroglyphs. 

Morphemes are indivisible parts of a word. Example "un" and "happy" in the word "unhappy" are morphemes.

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In abugida (sometimes spelled “abiguda”) each symbol typically represents a consonant followed by a specific vowel. The vowel can be changed by adding diacritical marks to the consonant symbol

Some Features of abugida will make it clear

Consonant-Vowel Units

Each basic symbol stands for a consonant with an inherent vowel sound. For example, in Devanagari, the symbol “क” represents “ka”.

Diacritics for Vowels

The inherent vowel can be altered by adding diacritical marks. For instance, “कि” represents “ki” and “कु” represents “ku”.

When consonants occur together without intervening vowels, special conjunct symbols are used.

Examples of Abugida:-

Devanagari (used for Hindi, Samskrtam)

Bengali

Ethiopic (Ge’ez)

Tamil

Malayalam

Thai

Abugidas are distinct from alphabets (where vowels and consonants are equally represented) and syllabaries (where each symbol represents a syllable) because they combine elements of both.

Brahma 10th Century Statue

Statue of Brahma, 10th century, Pala Dynasty, Bengal, Rajshahi District (Aganda Bharat).

Government Museum, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.

The Terracotta Dice Discovered in Harappa,

The terracotta dice discovered in Harappa, an ancient city of the Indus Valley Civilization (2600-1800 BC), now located in present-day Pakistan, offer a fascinating glimpse into the past. These cubical dice, adorned with dots representing numbers one through six, were unearthed during excavations conducted between 1995 and 2001.

What makes these dice even more intriguing is the fact that they were not exclusive to Harappa. Similar artifacts were also discovered in the ancient city of Mohenjo-daro. Sir John Marshall, a prominent archaeologist, noted the prevalence of dice games in Mohenjo-daro, as evidenced by the abundance of dice pieces found. These dice were typically crafted from pottery, and their shapes varied in size, ranging from 1.2 by 1.2 by 1.2 inches to 1.5 by 1.5 by 1.5 inches.

The existence of such dice in multiple locations of the Indus Valley Civilization raises questions about the significance of these games in their society and what they reveal about the daily life and recreational activities of that ancient culture. These ancient dice serve as mysterious artifacts that connect us with a civilization long gone, and they continue to spark curiosity about the past.