Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Wolrd History in a single interface

An interesting link that shows world history in an interactive way

https://www3.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/globe.html#

Thursday, May 1, 2008

The roots of Marathi

With the disintegration of the Mauryan Empire, a local dynasty called Satavahanas came into prominence in Maharashtra between 230 B.C.E. and 225 C.E. The period saw the biggest cultural development of Maharashtra. The Satavahana's official language was Maharashtri, which later developed into Marathi.

Maharashtri (Marathi: महाराष्ट्री प्राकृत), is a language of ancient and medieval India, descended from Sanskrit, and spoken in what is now Maharashtra and other parts of India. It is the ancestor of Marathi, Divehi and Sinhalese as well. It is one of the many languages (often called dialects) of a complex called Prakrit, and the chief Dramatic Prakrit. Its literary use was made famous by the playwright Kalidasa.

Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maharashtri
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prakrit
http://bhashaindia.com/Patrons/LanguageTech/Marathi.aspx

Sopara the oldest port

Sopara near Mumbai was a prosperous port of the west coast of India since the beginning of the first millennium B.C. till as late as 15th century A.D. Known under the names of Shutparak, and Suppara and identified with Ophir of Solomon’s times by some scholars, this port center, an outlet to the trade of Deccan, has a rich inscriptional reference

This is the same as the present day place called Nala Sopara.
However today it is on land majorly Nala Sopara was one of the oldest connectors to india as a port.

Here are some links

http://www.geocities.com/unitedit/places/SoparaPort/SoparaArticle.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sopara