future of the past

Awesome collection of historical path breaks

http://blog.modernmechanix.com/

Prehistoric Delhi

I stumbled upon this book in KMC( NID library) related to Prehistoric times of delhi...here are some intersting facts.

"The name delhi appears to have been used for the first time during 1st and 2nd centuries A.D. by the great geographer ptolemy. He had marked 'daidala' in his map in India close to Indraprashtha....

"Firshita, author of Tarikh-i- Farishta' states that Delhi derives its name from Raja Dhilu of the Early times..."

"With the discovery of early stone age tools around anangpur and stray finds from various areas of delhi, it is now claer that delhi and its neighbourhood, spreading on the plateaus of aravalis and plains of yamuna, has been the habitat of man from times of homo sapiens"

"Early Man preferred the area around delhi as all the requisites required by him to inhabit the area were available here in plenty. Moreover the climatic consitions were also not very harsh"


Truly amazing find...makes us link to stone age period beyond the traditional history we keep studying every now and then.

Sources:

Prehistoric Delhi and its neighbourhoods - A.K. Sharma

Wolrd History in a single interface

An interesting link that shows world history in an interactive way

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

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