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The Ramayana is an ancient Sanskrit epic. It is ascribed to the Hindu sage Valmiki and forms an important part of the Hindu canon, considered to be based on historical events.<br/><br/> The Ramayana depicts the duties of relationships, portraying ideal characters like the ideal servant, the ideal brother, the ideal wife and the ideal king. The name Ramayana is a tatpurusha compound of Rāma and ayana (going, advancing), translating to ‘Rama's Journey’. The Ramayana consists of 24,000 verses in seven books (kāṇḍas) and 500 cantos (sargas), and tells the story of Rama (an Avatar of the Hindu preserver-God Vishnu), whose wife Sita is abducted by the demon king of Lanka, Ravana.<br/><br/> The epic was an important influence on later Sanskrit poetry and Indian life and culture. The characters Rama, Sita, Lakshmana, Bharata, Hanuman and Ravana are all fundamental to the cultural consciousness of India.<br/><br/> There are other versions of the Ramayana, notably Buddhist and Jain in India, as well as Indonesian, Philippine, Thai, Lao, Burmese, Cambodian and Malay versions of the tale.
Janakpur's focal point is the magnificent Janaki Mandir, a temple devoted to Sita, the divine heroine of the Hindu epic Ramayana. The Indian sage Valmiki supposedly wrote the Ramayana – The Story of Rama – sometime between 500 and 100 BC. This major epic, some 48,000 lines long, is also well known in Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.<br/><br/> The temple was built in 1911 by the Rani of Tikamagarh (Central India), at a cost of 900,000 Rupees – in those days a dizzying amount of money. In local parlance, the temple is also called Nau Lakh Mandir or 'Temple of 900,000 Rupees'. In 1657, a golden statue of the Goddess Sita was found at the very spot, and Sita is also said to have lived there – indeed, another name for Sita is Janaki.
Ali Gauhar (1728–1806 CE), historically known as Shah Alam II, the eighteenth Mughal Emperor, was the son of the murdered Alamgir II. He escaped to Allahabad in December 1759 and later successfully defended the throne from the traitorous Imad-ul-Mulk, who appointed Shah Jahan III as the emperor. Later, he was nominated as the emperor by Ahmad Shah Durrani after the Third Battle of Panipat.<br/><br/> Shah Alam II was considered the only and rightful emperor but he was not able to return to Delhi until 1772. He is known to have fought against the British East India Company during the Battle of Buxar and reformed the Mughal Army under the command of Mirza Najaf Khan and is thus known as one of the last effective Mughal Emperors.<br/><br/> Shah Alam II also authored his own Diwan of poems and was known by the pen-name Aftab. His poems were guided, compiled and collected by Mirza Fakhir Makin.
Kishkindha was the Monkey Kingdom of the Vanara (monkey) King Sugriva, the younger brother of Bali, in the Indian epic the Ramayana. This was the kingdom where he ruled with the assistance of his minister, Hanuman. This kingdom is identified to be the regions around the Tungabhadra river (then known as Pampa Saras) near Hampi in Karnataka.<br/><br/> The Ramayana is a story as old as time and - at least in the Indian subcontinent and across much of Southeast Asia - of unparalleled popularity. More than 2300 years ago the scholar-poet Valmiki sat down to write his definitive epic of love and war.<br/><br/> The poem Valmiki composed is styled the Ramayana, or "Romance of Rama" in Sanskrit. In its present form, the Sanskrit version consists of some 24,000 couplets divided into seven books.
Sri Lanka had always been an important port and trading post in the ancient world, and was increasingly frequented by merchant ships from the Middle East, Persia, Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and other parts of Southeast Asia.<br/><br/> The islands were known to the first European explorers of South Asia and settled by many groups of Arab and Malay merchants. A Portuguese colonial mission arrived on the island in 1505 headed by Lourenço de Almeida, the son of Francisco de Almeida. At that point the island consisted of three kingdoms, namely Kandy in the central hills, Kotte at the Western coast, and Yarlpanam (Anglicised Jaffna) in the north.<br/><br/> The Dutch arrived in the 17th century. The British East India Company took over the coastal regions island controlled by the Dutch in 1796, in 1802 these provinces were declared a crown colony under direct rule of the British government, therefore the island was not part of the British Raj. The annexation of the Kingdom of Kandy in 1815 by the Kandyan convention, unified the island under British rule.<br/><br/> European colonists established a series of cinnamon, sugar, coffee, indigo cultivation followed by tea and rubber plantations and graphite mining. The British also brought a large number of indentured workers from Tamil Nadu to work in the plantation economy. The city of Colombo was developed as the administrative centre and commercial heart with its harbor, and the British established modern schools, colleges, roads and churches.<br/><br/> On 4 February 1948 the country gained its independence as the Dominion of Ceylon. It changed its name to Sri Lanka in 1972.
The Mughal Emperor Akbar (r. 1556-1605) was known for his religious tolerance, and had holy Hindu scriptures translated into Persian. He presented the magnificent copy of the Ramayana from which this miniature comes to his mother in 1594. Sita, wife of the protagonist, Rama, has been captured by the evil demon Ravana. In this scene a frightened Sita begins to doubt whether it really is her good friend, the monkey general Hanuman, standing before her.
The Ramayana is a story as old as time and - at least in the Indian subcontinent and across much of Southeast Asia - of unparalleled popularity. More than two thousand three hundred years ago the scholar-poet Valmiki sat down to write his definitive epic of love and war.<br/><br/> The poem Valmiki composed is styled the Ramayana, or 'Romance of Rama' in Sanskrit. In its present form, the Sanskrit version consists of some 24,000 couplets divided into seven books.<br/><br/> The Ramakien is the Thai version of this epic and has an important influence on Thai literature, art and drama. It is regarded as the National Epic of Thailand.<br/><br/> Wat Phra Kaew (Temple of the Emerald Buddha); full official name Wat Phra Si Rattana Satsadaram is regarded as the most sacred Buddhist temple in Thailand. It is located within the precincts of the Grand Palace.<br/><br/> The Grand Palace served as the official residence of the Kings of Thailand from the 18th century onwards. Construction of the Palace began in 1782, during the reign of King Rama I, when he moved the capital across the river from Thonburi to Bangkok.
The old silversmiths’ quarter centred on Baan Wua Lai (Spotted Cow Village) stretches along both sides of Wua Lai Road, to the south of Chiang Mai's old city. This long-established, prosperous community of artisans maintains a tradition that stretches back more than two centuries, to the time of Chao Kawila’s re-establishment of Chiang Mai in the years after 1797.<br/><br/> Silversmiths have long been valued and held in high esteem by Southeast Asian royal courts from Burma to Java, and in times past the Lan Na Kingdom was no exception.<br/><br/> The Ramayana is a story as old as time and - at least in the Indian subcontinent and across much of Southeast Asia - of unparalleled popularity. More than two thousand three hundred years ago the scholar-poet Valmiki sat down to write his definitive epic of love and war.<br/><br/> The poem Valmiki composed is styled the Ramayana, or 'Romance of Rama' in Sanskrit. In its present form, the Sanskrit version consists of some 24,000 couplets divided into seven books.<br/><br/> The Ramakien is the Thai version of this epic and has an important influence on Thai literature, art and drama. It is regarded as the National Epic of Thailand.
The Ramayana is an ancient Sanskrit epic. It is ascribed to the Hindu sage Valmiki and forms an important part of the Hindu canon, considered to be based on historical events.<br/><br/>The Ramayana depicts the duties of relationships, portraying ideal characters like the ideal servant, the ideal brother, the ideal wife and the ideal king. The name Ramayana is a tatpurusha compound of Rāma and ayana (going, advancing), translating to ‘Rama's Journey’. The Ramayana consists of 24,000 verses in seven books (kāṇḍas) and 500 cantos (sargas), and tells the story of Rama (an Avatar of the Hindu preserver-God Vishnu), whose wife Sita is abducted by the demon king of Lanka, Ravana.<br/><br/>The epic was an important influence on later Sanskrit poetry and Indian life and culture. The characters Rama, Sita, Lakshmana, Bharata, Hanuman and Ravana are all fundamental to the cultural consciousness of India.<br/><br/>There are other versions of the Ramayana, notably Buddhist and Jain in India, as well as Indonesian, Philippine, Thai, Lao, Burmese, Cambodian and Malay versions of the tale.
The Ramayana is an ancient Sanskrit epic. It is ascribed to the Hindu sage Valmiki and forms an important part of the Hindu canon, considered to be based on historical events.<br/><br/>The Ramayana depicts the duties of relationships, portraying ideal characters like the ideal servant, the ideal brother, the ideal wife and the ideal king. The name Ramayana is a tatpurusha compound of Rāma and ayana (going, advancing), translating to ‘Rama's Journey’. The Ramayana consists of 24,000 verses in seven books (kāṇḍas) and 500 cantos (sargas), and tells the story of Rama (an Avatar of the Hindu preserver-God Vishnu), whose wife Sita is abducted by the demon king of Lanka, Ravana.<br/><br/>The epic was an important influence on later Sanskrit poetry and Indian life and culture. The characters Rama, Sita, Lakshmana, Bharata, Hanuman and Ravana are all fundamental to the cultural consciousness of India.<br/><br/>There are other versions of the Ramayana, notably Buddhist and Jain in India, as well as Indonesian, Philippine, Thai, Lao, Burmese, Cambodian and Malay versions of the tale.
The Ramayana is an ancient Sanskrit epic. It is ascribed to the Hindu sage Valmiki and forms an important part of the Hindu canon, considered to be based on historical events.<br/><br/>The Ramayana depicts the duties of relationships, portraying ideal characters like the ideal servant, the ideal brother, the ideal wife and the ideal king. The name Ramayana is a tatpurusha compound of Rāma and ayana (going, advancing), translating to ‘Rama's Journey’. The Ramayana consists of 24,000 verses in seven books (kāṇḍas) and 500 cantos (sargas), and tells the story of Rama (an Avatar of the Hindu preserver-God Vishnu), whose wife Sita is abducted by the demon king of Lanka, Ravana.<br/><br/>The epic was an important influence on later Sanskrit poetry and Indian life and culture. The characters Rama, Sita, Lakshmana, Bharata, Hanuman and Ravana are all fundamental to the cultural consciousness of India.<br/><br/>There are other versions of the Ramayana, notably Buddhist and Jain in India, as well as Indonesian, Philippine, Thai, Lao, Burmese, Cambodian and Malay versions of the tale.