Koptos Cemetery

He went to the cemetery of Koptos with the clergymen of Isis and the excessive priest of Isis. They dug about for 3 days and three nights, for they searched even in all of the catacombs, which have been within the cemetery of Koptos; they turned over the steles of the scribes of the “double home of life,” and browse the inscriptions that they discovered on them. Nevertheless, they may not discover the resting place of Ahura and Merab.

Now Na.nefer.ka.ptah perceived that they may not discover the resting place of Ahura and her little one Merab. Due to this fact, he raised himself up as a venerable, very previous historic, and got here earlier than Setna. As well as, Setna noticed him, and Setna mentioned to the traditional: “You appear like a really previous man; have you learnt the place the resting place of Ahura and her little one Merab is?”

The traditional mentioned to Setna: “It was advised by the daddy of the daddy of my father to the daddy of my father, and the daddy of my father has advised it to my father; the resting place of Ahura and of her little one Merab is in a mound south of the city of Pehemato.” As well as, Setna mentioned to the traditional, “Maybe we could do injury to Pehemato, and you might be prepared to steer one to the city for the sake of that.” The traditional replied to Setna: “If one listens to me, shall he due to this fact destroy the city of Pehemato!

Youngster Merab

If they don’t discover Ahura and her little one Merab underneath the south nook of their city could I be disgraced.” They attended to the traditional, and located the resting place of Ahura and her little one Merab underneath the south nook of the city of Pehemato. Setna laid them within the royal boat to deliver them as honored individuals, and restored the city of Pehemato because it initially was. And Na.nefer.ka.ptah made Setna to know that it was he who had come to Koptos, to allow them to search out out the place the resting place was of Ahura and her little one Merab.

Due to this fact, Setna left the haven within the royal boat, sailed with out stopping, and reached Memphis with all of the troopers who have been with him. And once they advised the King he got here all the way down to the royal boat. He took them as honored individuals escorted to the catacombs, by which Naneferkaptah was, and smoothed down the bottom over them.

Source: https://fashion.marietaminkova.com/koptos-cemetery/

Eat Peas with a dessert spoon

The application of a knife to fish is

likely to destroy the delicacy of its flavor; besides which, fish sauces are

often acidulated; acids corrode steel, and draw from it a disagreeable taste.

In the North, where lemon or vinegar is very generally used for salmon and many

other kinds of fish, the objection becomes more apparent.

Eat Peas with a dessert spoon; and curry also. Tarts and puddings are to be eaten with a spoon.              

It is not elegant to gnaw Indian corn. The

kernels should be scored with a knife, scraped

 By a

step in pseudo refinement, the etiquette of 1839 pronounces that the use of a

spoon for these purposes must be carefully avoided at dinner, it being only

admissible for soup and pieces off into the plate, and then eaten with a fork.

Ladies should be particularly careful how they manage so ticklish a dainty,

lest the exhibition rub off a little desirable romance.

As a general rule — in helping any one at

table, never use a knife where you can use a spoon.

Making a noise in chewing, or breathing

hard in eating, are both unseemly habits, and ought to be eschewed.  .

Many people make a disgusting noise with their lips, by inhaling their breath strongly whilst taking soup a habit which should be carefully avoided.

You cannot use your knife, or fork, or

teeth too quietly.

It is considered extremely piggish to have

an overloaded plate, piled up with an heterogeneous mass of edibles. Almost

every dish has its appropriate sauce, (not,-sarsen,) or vegetables, intended as

condiments or auxiliaries to that alone. Squash, corn, turnips, beets, and

tomato sauce, all on the same plate, remind one more of the contents of a

beggar’s wallet, or a mess for a dog, than of .a portion for a moderate

Christian gentleman.

Do not press people to eat more than they appear to like

Do not press people to eat

more than they appear to like, nor insist

upon their tasting of any particular dish: you may so far recommend one, as to

mention that it is considered “ excellent.” Remember that tastes differ, and

viands which please you, may be objects of dislike to others; and that in

consequence of your urgency, very young or very modest people may feel

themselves compelled to partake of what may be most disagreeable to them.

Do not pick your teeth much_ at table, as,

however satisfactory a practice to yourself, to witness it is not at all

pleasant.

Ladies should never dine with their gloves

on – unless their hands are not fit to be sent.

Vienna`s Artistic Oasis

Vienna’s Artistic Oasis Celebrates Its Tenth Anniversary

The Museums Quartier is one of the world’s largest artistic and cultural spaces, and the urbane living room at the heart of the Austrian capital. This year, Vienna’s meeting place for those with a passion for culture is celebrating the tenth anniversary of its opening with a wide range of events – from Austria’s first and only open-air cartoon exhibition (to 31 July) through the “Sound Heaven” (10 June to 1 October) to the great Open Air Festival, with live music acts and a spectacular 3-D projection (30 June).

Homage To The Rat Pack

They sing, swing and step: Reamonn’s Rea Garvey, Xavier Naidoo, Sasha and comedy star Michael Mittermeier continue their smash hit tour with the Big Band, and are guesting at the Wiener Stadthalle on 9 and 10 December. “Alive and Swingin’” is the name of their tribute to the legendary appearances by Sammy Davis Jr., Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Joey Bishop in the early1960s. So the public can look forward to a musical journey back in time this winter. Coot.

Visionary And Lateral Thinker

From 30 June to 3 October, the Archi- tekturzentrum Wien is devoting a show entitled “It still amazes me that I became an architect” to architect and artist Alexander Brodsky. The show is designed to offer an insight into the “other Moscow”, which contrasts starkly with Russia’s breakneck, often untamed development elsewhere. Brodsky’s architecture is low-key by comparison, and deeply-rooted in the traditional building culture of the country. For the Architekturzentrum Wien, he is putting into practice a “Total Installation” incorporating the exhibition hall, which is designed to put its spell on visitors.

The latest front tourism and cuisine.

Authentic Down To The Last Detail

The Hilton Vienna Danube has an impressive new shine: with the first stage of construction coming to an end, the hotel has reopened its doors on a regular basis. The renovation will be complete by November 2011, when the hotel will be extended by anew Meeting & Congress Center. 166 of the hotel’s 367 rooms are already available in the new look. At around 40 square metres in area on average, these are the largest hotel rooms in Vienna. The new lobby, Hilton Meetings rooms and gastronomic product have also been completed. Business travellers can look forward to the Executive Floors with their numerous conveniences and unique view over the Danube and the Viennese skyline.

Source: https://lifestyle.doholidays.com/viennas-artistic-oasis/

Mathematician Aryabhata

The Indians were the first to use the decimal system. The famous mathematician Aryabhata (A.D. 476-500) was acquainted with it. The Chinese learnt this system from the Buddhist missionaries, and the Western world borrowed it from the Arab? When they came in contact with India. Zero was discovered by the Indians in about the second century B.C.

From the very beginning the Indian

mathematicians considered zero as a separate numeral, and it was used in this

sense in sums of arithmetic. In Arabia the earliest use of zero appears in A.D:

873. The Arabs learnt and adopted it from India and spread it in Europe. So far

as algebra is concerned both the Indians and the Greeks contributed to it, but

m Western Europe its knowledge was borrowed not from Greece but from the Arabs

who had acquired it from India.

In the second century B.C. Apastamba

produced a practical geometry for the construction of altars at which the kings

could offer sacrifices. It describes acute angle, obtuse angle, right angle.

Aryabhata formulated the rule for finding the area of a triangle, which led to

the origin of trigonometry. The most famous work of this time is the

Suryasiddhanta, the like of which is not found in contemporary ancient East

The most renowned scholars of astronomy

were Aryabhata and Varahamihira Aryabhata belonged to the fifth century, and

Varahamihira to the sixth, Aryabhata calculated the position of the planets

according to the Babylonian method. He discovered the cause of lunar and solar

eclipses.

Circumference of the earth

The circumference of the earth which he measured on the basis of speculation is considered to be correct even now. He pointed out that the sun is stationary and the earth rotates. The book of Aryabhata is called the Aryabhatiya.

Varahamihira’s well-known work is called

the Brihatsamhita, which belongs to the sixth century A D. Varahamihira stated

that the moon rotates round the earth and the earth rotates round the sun. He

utilized several Greek, works to explain the movement of the planets and some

other astronomical problems. Although the Greek knowledge influenced Indian

astronomy, there is no doubt that the Indians pursued the subject further and

made use of it in their observations of the planets.

In the applied field Indian craftsmen con: tribute

much to the progress of chemistry. The Indian dyers invented lasting colors and

they also discovered the blue color. It has been already stated how the Indian

smiths were the first in the world to manufacture steel.

Age of the Buddha

The new technique and the use of force

enabled some people to possess large stretches of land which needed a good

number of slaves and hired laborers. In Vedic times people, cultivated their

fields with the help of their family members, there is no word for wage earner

in Vedic literature. But slaves and wage earners engaged in cultivation became

a regular feature in the age of the Buddha.

In the Maurya period they worked on large

state farms. Probably 150,000 people captured in Kalinga by Asoka were drafted

for work in farms and mines. But .by and large slaves in ancient India were

meant for domestic work. Generally the small peasant occasionally aided by

slaves, and hired laborers played the dominant role in production.

With the new technique peasants, artisans,

hired laborers and agricultural slaves produced much more than they needed for

their subsistence. A good part of this produce was collected from them by

princes and priests. For regular Collection administrative and religious

methods were devised. The king appointed tax collectors to assess and collect

taxes.

But it, was also important to convince

people of the necessity of obeying the raja, paying him taxes and offering

gifts to the priests. For this purpose the vane system was devised. According to

it members of the three higher varnas or social orders were distinguished

ritually from those of the fourth Varna.

Vedic studies

The twice born were entitled to Vedic

studies and investiture with the sacred thread, and the fourth Varna or the

sudras were excluded from it. They were meant for serving the higher orders,

and some lawgivers reserved slavery only for the sudras. Thus the twice born

can be called citizens and the sudras noncitizens. But there grew distinctions

between citizen and citizen in the ranks of the twice born.

The brahmaness were not allowed to take to

the plough and manual work Gradually the contempt of the higher varnas for

manual work reached such limits that they developed hatred for the hands that

practiced crafts and thus came to look upon some manual laborers as

untouchables. The more a person withdrew from physical labor, the purer he came

to be considered.

The visas, although members of the twice

born group, worked as peasants, herdsmen and artisans and later as traders. What

is more important, they were the principal taxpayers whose payments maintained

the Kshatriyas and brahmaness. The Varna system authorized the Kshatriya to

collect taxes from the peasants and tolls from traders and artisans, which

enabled him to pay his priests and employees in cash and kind.

Italians have accorded pasta prominent status

Italians have accorded pasta prominent status in their many regional cuisines.

One of the first foodstuffs to be manufactured commercially, pasta is universally popular. No one knows for sure when pasta entered the cuisines of the world or who invented it. But the Italians can certainly be credited with developing its manifold varieties and spreading them around the world. Every form of dough that is rolled thin and cooked on a hot metal surface can be regarded as a forerunner of pasta.

According to researchers on the subject, it is highly probable that pasta emerged around the same time in all parts of the world where flat bread was made. Perceiving as well-nigh miraculous the benefits of yeast for adding volume to bread made with flour in times when it was almost impossible to find economical foodstuffs that also kept well, mankind developed some extraordinary religious rituals revolving around yeast. In her ‘Dictionary of Ottoman Cuisine’, Priscilla Mary Isin reports that even the poor bought the Italian pasta imported by the Ottoman government in the 19th century. And Ahmet Pasa k pasta factory inside the Selimiye Barracks was set up in the 1830b to meet the growing need for this staple.

So popular was pasta with the common people that the author of the first printed cookbook in the Ottoman state, Mehmet Kamil Bey, in 1844 modified the stock expression ‘temcit pilaff’ to ‘temcitpasta’, referring to a dish served over and over again or, metaphorically, any subject that keeps coming up. In our own Turkish cuisine, pasta appears as ‘eriste’(or noodles cut into thin strips), which derives from the Arabic ‘rishta’. Eriste is still used in Turkey today in a range of dishes from soup to rice pilaff.

There is even evidence in the records that eriste was used in halva in the past. Apart from eriste, the popular Turkish ‘manti’ (a kind of ravioli) is another product of our own authentic pasta culture.

Pasta with ‘kes’ (countrycurd cheese)

Ingredients:

100 g pasta

50 g country curd cheese 20 g butter salt and pepper 1 cup meat stock

Preparation:

Heat the oil slightly, add the pasta and stir until well coated. Then add the meat stock, cover tightly and cook over low heat. Remove the pasta to a serving platter and top with the curd cheese browned in butter.

We support turkish sports

Turkish Airlines is continuing its support for Turkish football at every level, starting with the country’s National A-Team. As part of its recently renewed Primary Sponsorship agreement with the Turkish Football Federation (TFF),

Turkish Airlines is continuing to stand by all Turkey’s National Football Teams as well as the teams that compete in the 2nd and 3rd Sportoto Super Leagues. The ‘Official Sponsor’ of the Besiktas, Bursaspor, Fenerbahce, Galatasaray and Trabzon football clubs, the airline recently extended its sponsorship agreement with the TFF for another two years, serving the Turkey’s youth and its future as a permanent sponsor of sports in the country.

Primary sponsor of the Turkish Basketball Federation as well, Turkish Airlines supports sports through its sponsorship of 47 different sports federations. At the individual level, the airline also backs our athletes like Enis Yilmazer and Sahika Ercumen, who represent Turkey and chalk up records at international events.

Souce: https://www.ensarislamoglu.com/italian-pasta/

Many medieval manuscripts

Tantrism permeated Jainism, Buddhism, Savism

and Vaishnavism. From the seventh century it continued to hold ground

throughout the medieval age. Many medieval manuscripts found, in different

parts of the country deal with tantrism and astrology, and the two are

completely mixed with each other.

Thus in the sixth and seventh centuries we

notice certain striking developments in polity, society, economy, language,

script and religion. This shows that in this period, ancient India was coming to

an end and medieval India was taking shape.

There are no written texts for the study of

society in pre Vedic times. Archaeology tells us that people lived m small

groups in the hilly areas in the Paleolithic Age. The main source of their

subsistence was the game they hunted, and wild fruits and vegetation roots they

collected. Man learnt to produce food and live in houses towards the end of the

Stone Age and the beginning of the metal age.

The Neolithic and chalcolithic communities

lived on the uplands not far from the bills and rivers. Gradually there arose

peasant villages in the Indus basin area, and eventually they blossomed into

the urban society of Harappa, with large and small houses. But once the Harappa

civilization disappeared, urbanism did not reappear in India for a thousand

years or so.

Tribal and Pastoral Phase

Tribal and Pastoral Phase For the history

of society from the time of the Rig Veda we can also use written texts. They

tell us that the Rig Vedic society was primarily pastoral. People were

seminomadic, and their chief possessions consisted of cattle and horses. The

term for cow (gau) occurs 176 times in the earlier parts of the Rig Veda.

Cattle were considered to be synonymous with wealth, and a wealthy person was

called goat. Wars were fought for the sake of cattle, and therefore the lama whose

main duty was to protect the cows was called gopa or gopati.

Cow was so important to the family that the

daughter was called dhikr that is one who milks. So intimate was the

acquaintance of the Vedip people with kina that when they came across the buffalo

in India they called it govala or cow haired. In contrast to references to cows

those to agriculture are fewer in the Rig Veda. Cattle rearing therefore was

the main source of livelihood.

In such a society people could hardly

produce anything over and above what was needed for their subsistence.

Tribesmen could afford only occasional presents for their chiefs. The main

income of a chief or a prince came from the spoils of war. He captured booty

from enemy tribes and exacted tributes from hostile tribes and tribal

compatriots. The offering of tribute received by him was called bail. It seems

that the tribal kinsmen gave trust and voluntary presents to the tribal chief.

In return the chief led them from victory to victory and stood by them in

difficult times.

Mingling and Intermingling

Slumber over there. Do you want to be punished by God? She said to Petriya.

The moon was overhead. Everything was so quiet. Anoka’s heart was breaking and something was slowly dying within her.

She couldn`t go on like this any longer, but what was to be done? Should she return to her father—what could she tell him?—“Grandpa has ordered everybody to obey my will.” No, she couldn’t say anything like this. And then, this terrible night will also have its end, and soon the dawn will break and the sun will shine on all God’s creatures But she, disgraceful person, what shall she do? Could she be more furious than she is? To be quiet—but how? To surrender? No!

The thoughts played a wild dance in her head, crossing, mingling and intermingling.

She felt very tired. Passions, love, hatred, hunger and thirst all disappeared. Her eyelids were heavy like lead, and still they would not close. She felt so miserable and lonesome that she would have gladly disappeared into nothingness. But sleep could not be commanded by grand-pa, neither did it fear him.

She looked at the dark figure of Petriya sitting near her.

She felt as if something in her heart were breaking. Suddenly, and with great force, a Christ like feeling of compassion swept over her, and she burst out:

“Petriya, go to sleep!”

Petriya said nothing, dropped the stick, and was about to leave.

Petriya!”

Petriya trembled, stopped as if petrified. My God, what a new mood! What is going to happen now?

“Petriya, dear sister, forgive me!”

Her woman’s heart softened; she understood and melted.

Anoka, my dear soul, may God forgive you!”

“Petriya, my sister …”

She took Petriya by the hand, brought her closer, and embraced her; both were crying.

Sweetly they cried

How sweetly they cried—like children.

Everything is so quiet—not a sound under the sky; two women embrace, cry, and pet each other. Anoka kisses her over and over; Petriya kisses her on the neck and on the forehead. The moon raised its eye-brows in wonder.

‘Petriya, my darling, I shall die! You shall bathe me, sister, when I am gone. Cover me with basil. Bite into an apple and place it then into my coffin. You are the only one that loves me.”

“Don’t say that, my dear little fool. Everybody loves you.”

“No, no, I know. Nobody does.”

“How can you know this, my dear, when you never even spoke to us? I would rather die now myself than let anyone say something against you.”

“And grandpa?”

Our grandpa is an old and kind man. Approach him penitently and you will find out for yourself.”

‘Good, I’ll go to him…. Good-bye, my dear, and forever, if I should die.”

Petriya covered her mouth with her hand. Anoka took Petriya’s hand and put it around her neck:

Evil of me

“If I die don’t speak evil of me, Petriya! And now go, please.”

“I won’t leave you, as long as I live.”

“I pray you as I pray God.”

“And where will you go?”

“Leave me. I feel wonderful now. Leave me, May God help you. For the love of your child, leave me.”

Petriya hid behind the house, to see where Anoka would go. But the night still ruled, so Petriya could not see that Anoka went to grandpa’s door and sat down on the threshold.

Grandpa, too, had not closed his eyes all night.

The first cocks crow, the earliest messengers of a new day and a new life. Never until now did Anoka find this song to be so beautiful.

Grandpa sat up, threw off his blanket, crossed himself and continued squatting on his bed in the darkness, with conflicting thoughts passing through his mind.

Again the cock’s crow. Grandpa arose to go as usually to the well.

Source: https://istanbulgaria.info/at-the-well-part-6/

Ankorvat in Kampuchea

The temple of Ankorvat in Kampuchea is

larger than that of Borobudur. Although this temple belongs to medieval times,

it can be compared to the best artistic achievements of the’ Egyptians and

Greeks. The stories of the Ramayanai and Mahabharala are written in relief on

the walls of the temple. The story of the foraying is so popular in Indonesia

that many folk plays are performed on its basis, The Indonesian language called

Bahasa Indonesia contains numerous Sanskrit words.

In respect of sculptures the head of the

Buddha from Thailand, the head from Kamboja and the magnificent bronze images

from Java are regarded as the best examples of the blending of Indian art with

the local art traditions of Southeast Asia. Similarly beautiful examples of

painting comparable to those of Ajanta have been found not only in Sri Lanka

but in the Tun Huang caves on the Chinese border.

Central Asia and Southeast Asia

It would be wrong to think that religion

alone contributed to the spread of Indian culture. Missionaries were backed by

traders and conquerors. Trade evidently played a vital part in establishing

India’s relations with Central Asia and Southeast Asia.

The very names Suvarnabhumi and

Suvarnadvipa given to territories in Southeast Asia suggest Indians search for

gold. Trade led not only to exchange of goods but also of elements of culture.

It would be inaccurate to hold that the Indians alone contributed to the

culture of their neighbors. It ‘was a two-way traffic The Indians acquired the

craft of minting gold coins from the Greeks and Romans.

They learnt the art of growing silk from China, that of growing betel leaves from Indonesia, and several other products from the neighboring countries’ Similarly the method of growing cotton spread from India to China and Central Asia.

However, Indian contribution seems to be

more important in art, religion, script and language. But in no case the culture

which developed m the neighboring countries was a replica of the Indian

culture. Just as India retained and developed its own personality in spite of

foreign influences, similarly the countries in Southeast Asia evolved their own

indigenous culture by assimilating the Indian elements.

Neighboring contemporaries

This situation seems to have proved

oppressive, and eventually it caused a revolt led by the Kalabhras in the sixth

century. The revolt affected the Pallavas as well as their neighboring

contemporaries. The Kalabhras are called evil rulers who overthrew innumerable

kings and established their hold on the Tamil land.

They put an end to the brahmadeya rights

granted to the brahmanas in numerous villages, It seems that the Kalabhras held

Buddhist persuasions, for they patronized Buddhist monasteries It is

significant that the Kalabhras revolt could be put down only through the joint

efforts of the Pandyas, the Pallavas and * the Chalukyas of Badami, There is

also a tradition that the Kalabhras had imprisoned the Chola, the Pandya and

the Cheia kings.

All this shows that their revolt had

assumed wide proportions, and produced repercussions out ‘side the Tamil land

The confederacy of the kings against the*Kalabhras, who had revoked the land

grants made to the brahmanas, shows that the revolt was directed against the

existing social and political order in south India.

Conflict between the Pailavas and the Chalukyas

The mam interest in the political history

of peninsular India from the sixth to the eighth centuries centers round the

long struggle between the Pailavas of Kanchi and the Chalukyas of Badami for

supremacy. The Pandyas, who were in control of Madurai and Tinnevelly districts

of Tamil Nadu, joined this conflict as a poor third. Although both the Pailavas

and Chalukyas championed Brahmanism, performed Vedic sacrifices and made

grants’ to the brahmanas, the two quarreled with each other for plunder,

prestige and territorial resources.

Both tried to establish supremacy over the

land lying between the Krishna and the Tungabhadra. This doab formed the bone

of contention in late medieval times between the Vijayanagar and the Bahmani

kingdoms. Time and again the Pallava princes tried to cross the Tungabhadra,

which formed the natural historic boundary between many a kingdom of the Deccan

and the Deep South. The struggle continued for long with varying fortunes.

The first important events in this long

conflict took place in the reign of Pulakesin II (609 642), the most famous

Chalukya king. He is known to us from his eulogy written by the court poet

Ravikirti in the Aihole inscription. This inscription is an example of poetic

excellence reached in Sanskrit, and in spite of its exaggeration is a valuable

source for the biography of Pulakesin. He overthrew the Kadamba capital at

Banavasi and compelled the Gangas of Mysore to acknowledge his suzerainty. He

also defeated Harsha’s army on the Narmada and checked his advance towards the

Deccan.

Social Structure

We can present a rough picture of the

social structure that developed in this period. Society was dominated by

princes and priests. The princes claimed the status of brahmanas or kshatriyas

though many of them were local tribal chiefs promoted to the second varna

through benefactions made to the priests. The priests invented respectable

family trees for these chiefs and traced their descent from age old solar and

lunar dynasties, This process enabled the new rulers to acquire legitimacy in

the eyes of the people.

The priests were mainly brahmanas, though

the Jaina and Buddhist monks should also be placed in this category. In this

phase priests gained in influence and authority because of land grants. Below

the princes and priests came the peasantry, which was divided into numerous

peasant castes. Possibly most of them were called sutras in the brahmamcal

system. If the peasant and artisan castes failed to produce and render services

and payments, it was looked upon as a departure from the established dharma or

norm

Such a situation was described as the age

of Kali. It was the duty of the king to put an end to such a state pf affairs

and restore peace and order which worked in favor of chiefs and priests. The

title dhamamaharaja therefore is adopted by the Vakataka, Pallava, Kadamba and

Western Ganga kings. The real founder of the Pallava power, Simhavarman, is

credited with coming to the rescue of dharma when it was beset with the evil

attributes typical of the Kahyuga, Apparently it refers to his suppression of

the Kalabhras who upset the existing social order

India’s Cultural Contacts with the Asian Countries

Medieval lawgivers and commentators

ordained that a person should not cross the seas. This would imply that India

shunned all relations with the outside world. But this is not so, for India

maintained contacts with its Asian neighbors since Harappan times. Indian

traders went to the cities of Mesopotamia, where their seals belonging to the

period between 2400 B.C. and 1700 B.C have been found.

From the beginning of the Christian era

India maintained commercial contacts with China, Southeast Asia, West Asia and

the Roman Empire. We have seen how the Indian land routes were connected with

the Chinese Silk Route. We have also dwelt on India’s commercial intercourse

with the eastern part of the Roman Empire. In addition to this India sent its

missionaries, conquerors and traders to the neighboring countries where they

founded settlements.

Certain rich man

I heard of a certain rich man, who was as

notorious for parsimony as Hatim Tai for liberality. His external form was

adorned with wealth, but the meanness of his disposition was so radiated, that

he never gave even a loaf of bread to any one: he would not have bestowed a

scrap on the cat of Abu Horiera, nor thrown a bone to the dog of companions of

the cave. In short, no one ever saw his door open nor his table spread. A

Durwesh never knew his victuals, excepting by the smell; no bird ever picked up

any crumbs that fell from his table. I heard that he was sailing on the

Mediterranean Sea towards Egypt, with all the pride of Pharaoh in his

imagination, according to the word of God, ‘Until the time that he was

drowned.’ Suddenly a contrary wind assailed the ship, in the manner as they

have said, ‘What can the heart do that it may not record with your sorrowful disposition;

the north wind is not always favourable for the ship.’ He lifted up the hands

of imploration, and uttered ineffectual lamentations. God hath said, ‘“When you

embark on ships offer up your prayers unto the Lord.’

Of what benefit will it be to the servant

in the time of need, to lift up his hands in imploration, which are extended

during prayers, but when any favour is wanted are folded under his arms?

‘Bestow comfort on others with silver and gold, and from thence derive also

benefit yourself. Know thou, that this edifice of yours will remain, use

therefore bricks of gold and bricks of silver.’

They have related, that he had poor

relations in Egypt, who were enriched with the remainder of his wealth. At his

death they rent their old garments and made up silks and damask. In that same

week I saw one of them riding a fleet horse, with an angelic youth running

after him. I said, “Alas if the dead man should return amongst his tribe and

relations, the heirs would feel more sorrow in restoring him his estate than

they suffered on account of his death.” On the strength of the acquaintance

which had formerly subsisted between us, I pulled his sleeve, and said, “Enjoy

thou, 0 good man of happy endowments, that wealth which the late possessor

accumulated to no purpose.”

Debilitated fisherman

A powerful fish fell into the net of a debilitated

fisherman, who not being able to hold it, the fish got the

better of him, snatched the net out of his hand, and escaped. A boy went to

fetch water from the river: the flood tide came in and carried him away. The

net had hitherto always taken the fish, but this time the fish escaped and

carried away the net. The other fisherman grieved at the loss, and reproached

him, that having such a fish in his net, he had not been able to hold it. He

replied, “Alas, my brethren what could be done, seeing it was not my lucky day,

and the fish had yet a day remaining? A fisherman without luck cachet not fish

in the Tigris, neither will the fish without fate expire on the dry ground.

Killed a millipede

One who had neither hands nor feet having killed

a millipede, a pious man passing by said, “Holy God, although

this had a thousand feet, yet when fate overtook him he could not escape from

one destitute of hands and feet. When the enemy who seizes the soul comes

behind, fate ties the feet of the swift man. At that moment when the enemy

attacks us behind, it is needless to draw the Ivianyan bow.”

Fat blockhead clad

I saw a fat blockhead clad in

a rich dress and mounted on an Arab horse, with fine Egyptian linen round his

head. Someone said, “0 Sady, what is your opinion of this notable dress on this

ignorant brute?” I replied, “It is like bad writing executed in water-gold. In

truth, amongst men he is an ass with the form and bleating of a calf. You

cannot say this brute resembles a man excepting in his garment, his turban, and

external form: of all his property, estate, and bodily faculties, it is not

lawful to take anything but his blood. If a man oi noble birth should happen to

be poor, imagine not that his dignity will be thereby lessened; but should a

Jew be so rich as to drive a gold nail into his silver threshold, do not on

that account esteem him noble.”

Obtain a grain of silver

A thief said to a mendicant, “Are you not

ashamed to hold out your hand to every sordid wretch to obtain a grain of silver?”

He replied, “It is better to stretch out the hand for a grain of silver than to

have it cut off for having stolen a dang and a half.”

Certain rich man

I heard of a certain rich man, who was as

notorious for parsimony as Hatim Tai for liberality. His external form was

adorned with wealth, but the meanness of his disposition was so radiated, that

he never gave even a loaf of bread to any one: he would not have bestowed a

scrap on the cat of Abu Horiera, nor thrown a bone to the dog of companions of

the cave. In short, no one ever saw his door open nor his table spread. A

Durwesh never knew his victuals, excepting by the smell; no bird ever picked up

any crumbs that fell from his table. I heard that he was sailing on the

Mediterranean Sea towards Egypt, with all the pride of Pharaoh in his

imagination, according to the word of God, ‘Until the time that he was

drowned.’ Suddenly a contrary wind assailed the ship, in the manner as they

have said, ‘What can the heart do that it may not record with your sorrowful disposition;

the north wind is not always favourable for the ship.’ He lifted up the hands

of imploration, and uttered ineffectual lamentations. God hath said, ‘“When you

embark on ships offer up your prayers unto the Lord.’

Of what benefit will it be to the servant

in the time of need, to lift up his hands in imploration, which are extended

during prayers, but when any favour is wanted are folded under his arms?

‘Bestow comfort on others with silver and gold, and from thence derive also

benefit yourself. Know thou, that this edifice of yours will remain, use

therefore bricks of gold and bricks of silver.’

They have related, that he had poor

relations in Egypt, who were enriched with the remainder of his wealth. At his

death they rent their old garments and made up silks and damask. In that same

week I saw one of them riding a fleet horse, with an angelic youth running

after him. I said, “Alas if the dead man should return amongst his tribe and

relations, the heirs would feel more sorrow in restoring him his estate than

they suffered on account of his death.” On the strength of the acquaintance

which had formerly subsisted between us, I pulled his sleeve, and said, “Enjoy

thou, 0 good man of happy endowments, that wealth which the late possessor

accumulated to no purpose.”

Romania Clayton

Thomas J. Clayton who visited many

countries passed through Bulgaria also. Going from Varna to Ruse and then on to

Romania

Clayton was “surprised” to discover that both Bulgaria and

Romania were “such fertile countries.” He wrote that he “never saw better

pasture lands or wheat fields” anywhere else in the world. These lands reminded

him of the prairie lands of Illinois. He was also surprised to find that there

were no farm houses like in America. The lands, he stated, were “tilled by

peasants who live in miserable little huts, or in villagesOur route lay through

a spur of the Balkan Mountains and was very picturesque very beautiful and

entertainingThe scenery of these mountains is soft and has a soothing rather

than a stirring influence upon the beholder.” The author believed that if peace

prevailed in these parts of the world, Bulgaria and Romania “will soon become

rich and prosperous.”

There are few more accounts by Americans on

Bulgaria. However, they are not much more different than those presented. Many

a time what Americans said about the Bulgarians or for that matter about other

peoples, reflected on their own personal character or how they valued American

culture and way of life. The descriptions presented by these travelers on a

variety of topics, like national character and even the history of Bulgaria are

hardly scientific or correct accounts.

Bulgarian personality

Almost all of these travelers present

nothing but clichés. They did not have the necessary expertise to carefully

analyze the Bulgarian

personality, their ethnic typicalness in terms of common

national cultural values. The frame of reference these travelers used was

founded on their perspective of American history and culture as the

repositories of values of liberty, freedom, democracy, justice, religion,

discipline, industry and progress.

Almost all of the authors sympathized with

the plight of the Bulgarian people under Ottoman domination. They all condemned

the alien system of despotism and many a time showed their preference for

republicanism. The Ottoman system did not permit the development of the

individual, the arts and crafts as well as agriculture and industry. The

authors were aware that the Ottoman state was in its stages of disintegration.

Those who visited Bulgaria before 1878 believed that the Bulgarians would

become free and those who travelled after the liberation of the country praised

the attempts of the Bulgarians to preserve their independence.

Process Mesopotamia

We must now consider more closely the

manner in which these artificial hills come to be created. Any of the mounds

which we have mentioned in the preceding paragraphs would probably serve to

illustrate the broad lines of this process: but those in Mesopotamia will

perhaps serve our purpose best, since they are uncomplicated by the presence of

large stone buildings and at the same time provide examples of some anatomical

eccentricities seldom found elsewhere. This process, then, by which in

antiquity the repeated rebuilding’s of human habitations on a single site

created a perpetually increasing elevation, is by no means difficult to

understand.

The average life of a mud brick building

today seldom exceeds the span of a single generation: and in earlier times,

military conquest or localized raiding on a smaller scale would certainly have

accounted for demolitions that are more frequent. Roofs would be burnt or

collapse and the upper parts of the walls subside, filling the rooms to about a

third of their height with brick debris. Before rebuilding, the site would

usually be systematically levelled, the stumps of the old walls being used as

foundations for the new.

Prehistoric fortresses at Mersin

Thus, after a time, the town or village

would find itself occupying the summit of a rising eminence; a situation, which

had the double advantage of being easily defensible and of affording an

expansive view of the surrounding countryside. One remembers in a connection

how the walls of the little prehistoric fortresses at Mersin in Cilicia were

lined with identical small dwellings for the garrison; and each was provided

with a pair of slit openings from which a watch could be kept on the approaches

to the mound.

What, then, an excavator is concerned with

is the stratified accumulation of archaeological remains, unconsciously created

by the activities of these early builders. By reversing the process and

examining each successive phase of occupation, from the latest (and therefore

uppermost) downwards, he obtains a chronological cross section of the mound’s history,

and can, if circumstances are favorable, reconstruct a remarkably clear picture

of the cultural and political vicissitudes through which its occupants have

passed.

However, it must be remembered that the

procedure, which he adopts, itself involves a new form of demolition. For as

the architectural remains associated with each phase of occupation are cleared,

examined and recorded, they must in turn be removed in order to attend to the

phase beneath. In a Near Eastern mound, the product of an operation of this

sort is often a deep hole in the ground and very little else that could

interest a subsequent visitor to the site of the excavation.

Museum of Pennsylvania

This road of course prolonged itself

through the Taurus passes, where the mounds are rare. However, once the

Anatolian plateau is reached, they start again and increase in size at the

approach to the great cities of Phrygia. The crossing of the Sangarius River is

marked by a colossal mound representing the remains of the old Phrygian

capital, Gordion, and a wide area around it is studded with tumuli covering the

graves of the Phrygian kings.

Excavations by the University Museum of

Pennsylvania in the side of the hill have revealed a gigantic stone gateway,

from which travelers on the Royal Road must have set out on their journey

northward. Half a mile further on, a stretch of the road itself is exposed,

where it passes between the tumuli; and its fifteen foot width of stone

pavement is still perfectly preserved.

(1) A. H. Layard, Nineveh and its Remains.

(2) Published in “Iraq”,

(3) Happening to visit the excavations when

this section of the road had just been located. I found the pavement newly

cleared and, standing in the center of it, the American director, a volume of

Herodotus in his hand, from which he was declaiming the passage in praise of

the Persian couriers who carried the royal dispatches from Sardis to Susa.

Anatolia or Kurdistan

However, it is not only on great highways

of this sort that the purpose of mounds can be identified. In every major

highland valley of Anatolia or Kurdistan, there, probably at a river crossing

or road junction, is a substantial mound; the market town or administrative center

of an agricultural district, which may still be crowned by the ruined castle of

a feudal landlord—the “derebey” of Ottoman times. Scattered elsewhere over the

face of the valley are smaller mounds, which were mere villages or farmsteads.

There are mounds making obvious frontier

posts, and lines of mounds sketching in the communications, which served

military defense systems of the remote past: and there are skeins of more

recent defenses, like the fortresses of Diocletian’s Hines.1 and finally, there

are tiny, insignificant looking mounds standing no more than a few feet above

the level of the plain. In addition, sometimes these prove to be the most

important of all: for they have not been occupied for many thousands of years,

and the relics of their prehistoric occupants lie directly beneath the surface.

Fourteenth century caravanserai

As a result, the actual level of occupation

remains precisely where it was six centuries ago. Seeking a full contrast in

regional conditions, my mind turns to mediaeval Baghdad. There, in 19411 was

concerned with the repair and restoration of a magnificent fourteenth century

caravanserai in the center of the town. Inside the building, occupational

debris had accumulated until only the tops of the main arches were any longer

visible; and this had to be removed before it could again be put into use.

When the task was finished the fine

proportions of the vaulted hall became apparent; but the pavement upon which

one stood was now found to be exactly nine feet beneath the level of the street

outside, and a stairway had to be built in order to reach it.

In a town built largely of mud brick and

subjected during the past centuries to a series of appalling political and

natural disasters, the level of habitation had risen at the rate of eighteen

inches per hundred years. So here at once is a first clue to the regional

character of mound formation; two central factors which have been conducive to

their creation in the countries of the Near East.

One is the almost universal employment in

those countries of sun-dried brick as a building material; the other,

historical insecurity, coupled with the extraordinary conservatism, which makes

eastern peoples, cling tenaciously to a site once occupied by their ancestors

and obstinately return to it however often they are ejected.

Visit to Egypt

It is interesting to recollect that even

Herodotus, during his visit to Egypt, was already able to observe a

phenomen22on caused by the accumulation of occupational debris in an Egyptian

city, though his conclusion regarding its explanation was understandably at

fault. In his description of Bubastis he says—“The temple stands in the middle

of the city, and is visible on all sides as one walks round it; for as the city

has been raised up by embankment, while the temple has been left untouched in

its original condition, you look down upon it whosesoever you are.

“I In fact, as one sees today at Luxor and

elsewhere, the temples, with their massive stone walls and pillars, have mostly

survived at the original level of their foundation. while the surrounding

dwelling houses and other buildings of the city, whose mud and reed walls have

continually been demolished and renewed, rose gradually above them, leaving

them in a deep hollow, like the Forum of Trajan at Rome.

Country west of Mosul

To confirm this, it may be interesting to

quote at random the reactions of a nineteenth century traveler to the

appearance of the country west of Mosul, during a journey in the spring 1840.

Sir Henry Layard had reached the market town called Tell Afar on his way to the

Sin jar Hills, and he describes his surroundings as follows “Towards evening I

ascended the mound and visited the castle….

From the walls, I had an uninterrupted view

of a vast plain, stretching westward towards the Euphrates, and losing itself

in the hazy distance. The ruins of ancient towns and villages arose on all

sides; and as the sun went down, I counted above one hundred mounds, throwing

their dark and lengthening shadows across the plain. These were the ruins of

Assyrian civilization and prosperity. Centuries have elapsed since a settled

population dwelt in this district of Mesopotamia.

Now, not even the tent of a Bedouin could

be seen. “I Layard was of course wrong in thinking only of the Assyrian nation;

for many of the mounds he was looking at were in fact occupied as early as the

sixth millennium B.C. However, he did not exaggerate their number. During a

survey in 1937, I myself recorded the surface pottery from seventy-five mounds

in that area, and these were only a few selected sites, which I could easily

reach by car during a short three weeks reconnaissance.2

However, apart from the close concentration

of mounds in certain areas of this sort, the pattern, which they make, is often

worth observing. AH over Iraq, and for that matter in neighboring countries, a

glance at the disposal of mounds in a landscape will often reveal to one in the

lividest possible manner some aspect of historical geography, whether political

or economic.

Royal Road

The city of Erbil, for instance, (PL. I)

stands within its fortress walls on a mound whose height almost justifies its

local reputation as the “oldest city in the world”: and from its rooftops, over

the undulating plain to the Zaab river crossings.

Which led to Nineveh and the north, one

sees a line of smaller mounds, pointing the exact direction of the age old

caravan route, which the Achaemenian Persians, coming from Susa, prolonged as

far as their new capital at Sardis. They called it the Royal Road, though it

had existed for several thousand years before their time. Wherever it crossed a

wade and there was a source of water, there also, today, there is a mound; and

villages, which make convenient stopping places on the modem motoring road,

crown many of them.

Certain characteristics

Interesting as this illustration is of how

strati graphical formations can be created, this early mention of Egypt must

serve as an occasion to introduce certain reservations regarding that country,

in relation to the subject under discussion. For it should be said at once that

Egypt has certain characteristics which make it less suitable than others do

for the study of mounds.

This is perhaps partly to be attributed to

the abundant supply and general use of building stone, which greatly prolonged

the survival of Egyptian buildings. But it is also partly due to the fact that,

in the narrow valley of Upper Egypt, land is too valuable to allow large ruin

fields of brick buildings to remain derelict; and the fellahin have long since

discovered that the occupational debris with which such ruins are Hide, when

spread over their fields, makes the finest fertilizer available.

Burin any case, those who have approached

the subject of Egyptology will know that archaeology in Egypt, when it took the

form of actual excavation, has always been concerned almost exclusively with

stone temples, tombs and cemeteries. Mounds in Egypt are confined for the most

part to the Delta of the Nile; and, with so much else to attend to, their

excavation has till now been very considerably neglected.

So let us glance once again at the pattern

of countries in which mounds are everywhere found and have been more generally

excavated. From Egypt they spread northward through the Levant and westward

through Anatolia to the Balkans. Eastward they follow the curve of Breasted’s

“crescent” through the rich farmlands in the foothills of the Armenian

mountains to Iraq and Persia and so, southward of the Elburz range, to

Afghanistan and the Indus valley.

Mesopotamia

But the focal point of the whole area,

where mounds are so plentiful that they become the most characteristic feature

of the landscape, is the twin river valley of Mesopotamia which is in fact not

a valley at all but a vast province of partially irrigated alluvial desert. It

is a habit of thought to apply the name Mesopotamia to this basin of alluvium,

which represents half of modem Iraq. But it has come to be known to our own

generation that the first human settlers in this province, the ancestors of the

later Sumerians, were themselves comparative latecomers, and that the

undulating hill country of northern Iraq had a much earlier record of Neolithic

farming communities.

This may help to explain the impression,

which has grown upon one, after long periods of travel in those parts, that the

Assyrian uplands around Mosul and their westward extension through the valleys

of the Khabur and Balik rivers into North Syria must have been the most thickly

populated area of the completely ancient world. Certainly today, they are more

thickly studded with ancient mounds than any other part of the Near East.

Bulgarian Language

The majority of Americans who wrote on

Bulgaria or visited the country showed energy, curiosity, sense of wonder, and

faith in the future of Bulgaria and mankind even when they were disappointed in

some particular aspect of their travel experience. They considered knowledge,

and their travel experiences important, their individual responses and

reactions significant and worth preserving. Although they were usually

unfamiliar with the Bulgarian language, history and customs, their

comments on the Bulgarian character were generally positive.

It was difficult for the American traveler,

who knew little about the country, to come to terms with the complex cultural

milieu of Bulgarians, Greeks, Turks, etc. and to resolve the difference

sometimes subtle, sometimes blatant between the Balkan mind cushioned on a

multi-layered rich past and a modern American mind formed in the New World free

from the burden of the past.  The

Bulgarians, busy with their struggle to free themselves and maintain their

independence, thought little about and did even less to attract tourists.

American tourists in Balkans

For the American tourists the Balkans were

on the periphery of their travel plans. Most of those who visited the country

went there as passers-by and caught only a glimpse of Bulgaria. Bulgaria in the

view of the American traveler was either a peasant society or a society in

transition with many Oriental traits still present.

The Bulgarians were described as simple,

natural, methodological, disciplined, and diligent. There were, of course, some

descriptions which were tendentious and even misleading. The Orthodox Church

was criticized, in part, in the belief that this would make Americans come to

the support of the American missionaries working in Bulgaria.

However, the commentaries of these pioneer

American travelers are not without merit. Through sharing their travel

experiences with their countrymen, the American travelers contributed toward

making Bulgaria known to Americans. Although most of the descriptions were brief,

they nonetheless were good enough to create an image of a country with a long

history, a relatively heroic past and a people struggling to free itself, and

modernize its country.

Archaeological monument

An alternative situation arises, when an

important building or civic lay out is encountered, of the sort which may

afterwards need to be preserved as an archaeological monument. In this case,

the excavation will merely be extended to cover as much as is required of the

stratum concerned, and if a strati graphical sounding to a greater depth is

required, it will be made elsewhere.

However, to return to the creation and

development of mounds themselves, it would be a mistake to think that the

process is always as simple and straightforward as that already described. A

wide variety of circumstances may serve to disrupt their symmetry and

complicate their stratification.

For instance, the diminishing living space

at the summit or a sudden increase in the settlement’s population may cause the

focus of occupation to move away from its original center. In order to make

this clear, we may at this point enumerate some of the principal variations of

the theme of anatomical development, which are to be found, particularly in

Mesopotamian mounds.

Orthodox sequence

As a point of departure then, let us take

the orthodox sequence of developments illustrated in the upper part of Fig. 1.

This diagram represents the habitation of a village community with a static

population. The superimposed remains of five principal occupations have

gradually created a small artificial hill: but as the site of the village rose

in level, the building space on the summit became more and more restricted by

the sloping sides of the mound.

It may well have been for this reason that

the place was eventually abandoned. In any case, after the inhabitants of the

fifth settlement had departed, the ruins of their houses were molded by the

weather to form the peak of a symmetrical tumulus. Vegetation started to grow

upon it, and soon all traces of occupation had disappeared beneath a shallow

mantle of humus soil.

The second and third diagrams in Fig. I

both illustrate cases where the focus of occupation has shifted. The former

represents a phenomenon, which we shall later have an opportunity of studying

in detail at a particular site tell Hassuna in northern Iraq, which will

provide a perfect example.

I in the diagram, after five principal

periods of occupation, a small mound has been formed in a maimed exactly

similar to that in the previous instance. However, from this point onwards,

occupation has continued, not on the summit of the mound, since that had become

inadequate, but terraced into its sloping flank and spreading over an extended

area of new ground beneath.

Anti Russian and pro German

He was surprised to see in the Eiffel

Restaurant the waiters “puffed tobacco smoke as they took the guests’ orders,

and reclined at full length on a bench in the lull of business.” He tried to

explain this by making a sarcastic comment that democracy seemed to have made

some headway since the liberation of the country. However, the author liked the

friendliness and great hospitality of the Bulgarian people he met along the

Danube.

Bigelow was anti-Russian and pro-German.

He was very critical of Russia’s policy in Bulgaria and thought that Germany

ought to have the final say in Southeastern Europe. He attempted to explain

Bulgarian politics by quoting an unnamed Bulgarian diplomat critical of Russian

policy toward his country, and hoping that not the Russian Tsar but the German

Emperor would become the “Protector of the Danube.”

James M. Buckley travelled through Bulgaria

in 1888. He believed that each traveler saw “what he took with him,” and for

this reason he thought that his experiences were worth recording because

“several views are more illuminating than one.” In his books Travels in Three

Continents: Europe, Africa, Asia he described his trip through Eastern Rumelia

and Bulgaria.

 “The

view as we rode along was wonderfully beautiful. Villages and towns are far

apart, and one might easily have fancied himself travelling through a

succession of parks connected with some ancestral estate, his only perplexity

that he saw no house or castle, and few persons.” He was impressed by the

“immense masses of granite” that surround and underlie Plovdiv. He praised the

political “independent existence” of Eastern Rumelia which gave “it much more

interest to Western travelers than would have if still a province of Turkey.”

Bulgarian Orthodox Church

He took part in a convention in Sofia of

the Bulgarian Protestants and was impressed with their work. However, like

Mutchmore, he was very critical of the Bulgarian Orthodox

Church. In his view the Bulgarian Church “was a very low form of

Christianity,” for which the principles of the Gospel were “concealed under the

mask of superstitions; no intelligible instruction is given; pomp, ceremony,

priest craft, support the religion, which exerts little influence over the

daily lives of the people, and can afford little or no comfort in their

experience of privation and toil.”

Sofia, the capital city, did not impress

him much. Were it not for the palace, one or two elaborate hotels of an Eastern

style, and the Bulgarian letters on the signs, he wrote, it would be easy to

“mistake the place for an American prairie town already endeavoring to put on

the airs of a city.” He was more impressed by the fertility of the land, the

number of rivers which flew into the Danube and with the herds of cattle and

flocks of sheep. Many Bulgarians, he wrote, were very “striking-looking men.”

However, the general aspect of the country was “not one of prosperity, and a

primitive scene was that of buffaloes drawing carts.”

State of the Matharas

The most important of them is the state of

the Matharas, who are also called Pitribhaktas. At the peak of their power they

dominated the area between the Mahanadi and the Krishna. Their contemporaries

and neighbors were the Vasisthas, the Nalas and the Manas.

The Vasisthas ruled on the borders of

Andhra m south Kalmga, the Nalas in the forest area of Mahakantara, and the

Manas in the coastal area m the north beyond the Mahanadi. Each state developed

its system of taxation, administration and military organization.

 The

Nalas, and probably the Manas, also evolved their system of coinage. Each

kingdom favored the brahmanas with land grants and even invited them from

outside, and most kings performed Vedic sacrifices not only for spiritual merit

but also for power, prestige and legitimacy.

Elements of advanced culture

In this period elements of advanced culture

were not confined to the coastal belt known as Kalmga, but appeared in the

other parts of Orissa. The find of the Nala gold coins in the tribal Bastar

area in Madhya Pradesh is significant. It presupposes an economic system in

which gold money was used in large transactions and served as medium of payment

to high functionaries. Similarly the Manas seemed to have issued copper coins,

which implies the use of metallic money even by artisans and peasants.

The various states added to their income by

forming new fiscal units in rural areas. The Matharas created a district called

Mahendrabhoga in the area of the Mahendra Mountains. They also ruled over a

district called Dantayavagubhoga, which apparently supplied ivory and no gruel

to its administrators and had thus been created in a backward area.

The Matharas made endowments called

agroharas, which consisted of land and income from villages and were meant for

supporting religious and educational activities of the brahmanas. Some

agraharas had to pay taxes although elsewhere in the, country they were tax-free.

The induction of the brahmanas through land grants in tribal, forest and red

soil areas brought new lands under cultivation and introduced better methods of

agriculture, based on improved knowledge of weather conditions.

Formerly the year was divided into three

units, each consisting of four months, and time was reckoned on the basis of

three seasons. Under the Matharas, in the middle of the fifth century began the

practice of dividing the year into twelve lunar months. This implied a detailed

idea of weather conditions, which was useful for agricultural operations.

Spread of Civilization in Eastern India

Signs of Civilization

A region is considered to be civilized if

its people know the .art of writing, have a system for collecting taxes and

maintaining order, and possess social classes and specialists for performing

priestly, administrative and producing functions. Above all a civilized society

should be able to produce enough to support not only the actual producers

consisting of artisans and peasants but also consumers who are not engaged in

production. All these elements make for civilization. But they appear in a

large part of eastern India on a recognizable scale very late. Practically no

written records are found in the greater portions of eastern Madhya.

Pradesh and the adjoining areas of Orissa,

of West Bengal, of Bangladesh and of Assam till the middle of the fourth century

A.D The period from the fourth to the seventh century is remarkable for the

diffusion of an advanced rural economy, formation of state systems and

delineation of social classes in eastern Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, eastern Bengal

and southeast Bengal, and Assam, This is indicated by the distribution of a

good number of inscriptions in these areas in Gupta times Many inscriptions

dated in the Gupta era are found in these areas.

They are generally in the form of land

grants made by feudatory princes and others for religious purposes to Buddhists

and brahmanas and also to Vaishnavite temples and Buddhist monasteries. These

beneficiaries played an important role in spreading and strengthening elements

of danced culture the process can be understood by attempting a region wise

survey.

Orissa and Eastern and Southern Madhya Pradesh

Kalinga or the coastal Orissa, south of the

Mahanadi, leapt into importance under Asoka, but a strong state was founded in

that area only m the first century B. C. Its ruler Kharavela advanced as far as

Magadha. In the first and second centuries AD the ports of Orissa carried on

brisk trade m pearls, ivory and muslin.

Excavations at Sisupalgarh, the site of

Kalinganagari which was the capital of Kharavela at a distance of 60 km from Bhubaneswar,

have yielded several Roman objects indicating trade contacts with the Roman Empire.

But the greater part of Orissa, particularly northern, Orissa, neither

experienced state formation nor witnessed much commercial activity. In the

fourth century Kosala and Mahakantara figure in the list of conquests made by

Samudragupta. They covered parts of northern and western Orissa. From .the

second half of the fourth century to the sixth century several states were

formed in Orissa, and at least five of them can be clearly identified.

Religious purposes

For a century from A D 432-33 we notice a

series of land sale documents recorded on copperplates Pundravardhanabhukti,

which covered almost the whole of north Bengal, now mostly in Bangladesh, Most

land grants indicate that land was purchased with gold coins called dinara. But

once land was given for religious purposes, the dunes did

not have to pay any tax. The land transactions show the involvement of leading

scribes, merchants, artisans landed classes, etc.’., in local administration,

which was manned by the governors appointed by the Gupta emperors.

The land sale documents not only .indicate

the existence of different’ social groups and local functionaries but also shed

valuable light on the expansion of agriculture Mostly land purchased for

religious endowments is described as fallow, uncultivated, and therefore imitated

Without doubt the effect of the grants was to bring plots of land within the

purview of cultivation and settlement.

The deltaic portion of Bengal formed by the

Brahmaputra and called Samatata was made to acknowledge the authority of

Samudragupta It covered southeast Bengal. A portion of this territory may have

been populated and important enough to attract the attention of the Gupta

conqueror.

But possibly it was not ruled by brahmamsed

princes, and consequently it neither used Sanskrit nor adopted the varna

system, as was the case in north Bengal. From about A D. 525 the area came to

have a fairly organized state covering Samatata and a portion of Vanga which

lay on the western boundary of Samatata. It issued a good number of gold coins

in the second half of the sixth century.

Dacca area

In addition to this state, m the seventh

century we come across the state of the Khadgas, literally swordsmen, in the Dacca

area. We also notice the kingdom of a brahmana feudatory

called Lokanatha and that of the Rates, both in the Comilla area all these

princes of southeast and central Bengal issued land grants in the sixth and

seventh centuries.

Like the Orissa n kings they also created

agraharas. The land charters show cultivation of Sanskrit, leading to the use

of some sophisticated meters in the second half of the seventh century. At the

same time they attest the expansion of cultivation and rural settlements. A

fiscal and administrative unit called Daudabhukti was formed in the border

areas lying between Bengal and Orissa. Danda means punishment, and bhakti enjoyment.

Apparently the unit was created for taming and punishing the tribal inhabitants

of that region. It may have promoted Sanskrit and other elements of culture in

tribal areas.

Finally compiled in Gupta

The Puranas follow the lines of the epics,

and the earlier ones were finally compiled in Gupta times. They are full of

myths, legends, sermons, etc., which were meant for the education and

edification of the common people. The period also saw the compilation of

various Smritis or the law books written in verse. The phase of writing

commentaries on the Smritis begins after the Gupta period.

The Gupta period also saw the development

of Sanskrit grammar based on Panini and Patanjali. This period is particularly

memorable for the compilation of the Amarakosa by Amara Sinha, who was a

luminary in the court of Chandragupta II. This lexicon is learnt by heart by

students taught Sanskrit in the traditional fashion.

On the whole the Gupta period was a bright

phase in the history of classical literature. It developed an ornate style,

which was different from the old simple Sanskrit. From this period onwards we

find greater emphasis on verse than on prose. We also come across a few corner tarries.

There is no doubt that Sanskrit was the court language of the Guptas. Although

we get a good deal of brahmanical religious literature, the period’ also

produced some of the earliest pieces of secular literature.

Science and Technology

In the field of mathematics we come across

during this period a work; called Aryabhatiya written by Aryabhata, who

belonged to Patali porta It seems that this mathematician was | well versed in

various kinds of calculations. A Gupta inscription of 448 from Allahabad

district suggests that the decimal system was known in India at the beginning

of the fifth century AD In the fields of astronomy a book called Romaka

Sidhanta was compiled It was influenced by Greek ideas, as can be inferred from

its name.

The Gupta craftsmen distinguished

themselves by their work in iron and bronze. We know of several bronze images

of the Buddha, which began to be produced on a considerable scale because of

the knowledge of advanced iron technology In the case of iron objects the best

example is the iron pillar found at Delhi near Mehraub.

Manufactured m the fourth century A.D., the

pillar1 has not gathered any ’ rust m the subsequent 15 centuries, which is a

great tribute to the technological skill of the craftsmen It was impossible to

produce such a pillar in any iron foundry m the West Until about a century ago.

It is a pity that the later craftsmen could not develop this knowledge further

Appeared in Prakrit

In the coastal Orissa writing was certainly

known from the third century B C., and inscriptions up to the middle of the

fourth century A. D. appeared in Prakrit. But from about A.D. 350 Sanskrit

began to be used. What is more significant, charters in this language appear

outside the coastal belt beyond the Mahanadi in the north.

Thus the art of writing and Sanskrit

language spread over a good portion of Orissa, and some of the finest Sanskrit

verses are found in the epigraphs of the period. Sanskrit served as the vehicle

of not only brahmanical religion and culture but also of property laws and

social regulations in new areas. Verses from the Puranas and Dharmasastras are

quoted in Sanskrit charters, and kings claim to be the preservers of the Varna

system. The affiliation of the people to the culture of the Gangetic basin is

emphasized. A dip in the Ganga at Prying at the confluence of the Ganga and the

Yamuna is considered holy, and victorious kings visit Pitaya

Bengal

As regards Bengal, portions of north Bengal,

now in Bogra district, give evidence of the prevalence of writing in the time

of Asoka. An inscription indicates several settlements maintaining a storehouse

filled with coins and food grains for the upkeep of Buddhist monks. Clearly the

local peasants were m a position to spare a part of their produce for paying

taxes and making gifts.

Further, people of this area knew Prakrit

and professed Buddhism, Similarly an inscription found in the coastal district

of Noakhali in southeast Bengal shows that people knew Prakrit and Brahmi

script in that area in the second century B.C. But for the greater part of

Bengal we do not hear anything till we come to the fourth .century A.D In about

the middle of the fourth century a king with the title of maharaja ruled in

Pokharna on the Damodara in Bankura district. He knew Sanskrit and was a

devotee of Vishnu, to whom he possibly granted a village.

The area lying between the Ganga and the

Brahmaputra now covering Bangladesh emerged as a settled and fairly Sanskrit educated

area in the fifth and sixth centuries The Gupta governors seem to have become

independent after about A.D. 550, and occupied north Bengal, a portion may have

been seized by the rulers of Kamarupa Local vassal princes called Samantha

maharajas had created their own administrative apparatus and built their

military organization consisting of horses, elephants and foot soldiers and

boats to fight their rivals and collect taxes from the local peasantry. By A.D.

600 the area came to be known as Gaudi with its independent state ruled by

Sasanka, the adversary of Harsha

Turkish girls attend foreign schools in Constantinople

But after all, these changes are

interesting chiefly as indications of the fact that the spirit of Turkish women

has come, to some degree, under the influence of new ideas. Polygamy is on the

decline. Greater attention is now paid to the education of girls among all

classes of the community.

In wealthy families it is common for the

daughters to have English or French or German governesses, and to be instructed

in the ordinary branches of education, even to the extent of doing something so

foreign as to learn to ride. In a few instances, Turkish girls attend foreign schools,

and it is a most significant sign of the times to see the female relatives of

such girls present at the public proceedings of these institutions. Periodicals

providing special literature for ladies have appeared, and there are Turkish

authoresses, some of whom enjoy a great reputation among their countrywomen.

As might be expected, this upward movement

meets with opposition, as upward movements always meet wherever they occur.

Such a thing has been known as an imperial irade, commanding all foreign

governesses to be dismissed from Turkish homes, because teachers of pernicious

ideas. On the eve of Ramadan it is usual to issue strict orders for Turkish

ladies to keep their veils down.

Upon gentleman

A Turkish lady once attended, with her

husband, an “At Home” in a foreign house. Shortly thereafter, the police called

upon the

gentleman, late in the evening, as the custom is in this part

of the world, and informed him that he was wanted at the police-court next

morning on important business.

What that business was the police did not

condescend to say, preferring to make night uncomfortable for the couple, by

keeping them in suspense. Upon appearing at the court, the husband learned that

the visit of his wife to a foreign house, on the occasion referred to, had been

noticed and duly reported to the authorities, and he was warned (under threat

of severe penalty) not to allow the offence to be repeated.

At public gatherings at the Sweet Waters of

Europe and Asia, the police watch the behavior of Turkish ladies as though so

many naughty or helpless children were abroad. One has seen a policeman order a

lady to put up the window of her carriage, because she attracted too much

admiration. At another time, one has seen a company of respectable Turkish

ladies, who were enjoying a moonlight row on the Bosporus, packed home by the

police. The life of educated Turkish women is rendered hard and humiliating by

such restrictions.

Suburbs on the Bosporus

The time-tables of the steamers which ply

between the city and the suburbs on the Bosporus and

the Sea of Marmora, adopt “Turkish time,” and require you to convert the hour

indicated into the corresponding hour from the European or “Frank” standpoint;

and the same two-fold way of thinking on the subject is imposed upon all

persons having dealings with the Government and the native population in

general A similar diversity exists in regard to the length of the year. The

Turkish year consists of twelve lunar months, a thirteenth being added from

time to time to settle accounts with the sun. The question when Ramadan, the

month of fasting by day and of feasting at night begins, or when the festival

of Bagram commences is determined, at least formally, by the appearance of the

new moon, upon the testimony of two Moslem witnesses before a judge in any part

of the Empire.

Different localities

Thus these religious seasons might commence

on different days in different localities, the

moon not being visible in some places, on account of the state of the weather.

The formula in which the approach of these seasons is now announced to the

public, since the increase of astronomical knowledge in Turkish circles, is a

curious compromise between former uncertainty and actual assurance on that

point “Ramadan begins (say) on Tuesday next, provided the new moon is visible.

If not, the Fast will date from Wednesday.” Alongside the

Turkish mode of measuring the year, there

is the method introduced into the Roman world by Julius Caesar, the “Old

Style,” followed by Greeks and Armenians, and also the “New Style,” the mode of

reckoning inaugurated by Pope Gregory XIII., now thirteen days in advance of

the Julian calendar. Accordingly, to prevent mistakes in regard to a date,

letters and newspapers are often dated according to both styles.

With some the year begins in March, with

the advent of spring; with others it commences in September, when autumn

gathers in the fruits of the earth; others make January, in midwinter, their

starting- point The difference between the “Old Style” and the “New Style”

involves two celebrations, as a rule, of Easter, two observances of New Year’s Day,

while Christmas is celebrated three times, the Armenian Church having combined

the commemoration of that festival with the more ancient festival of the

Epiphany. For one section of the community, moreover, the day of rest is

Sunday, for another Saturday, for yet another the day of special religious

services is Friday.

Rule of Constantine

The very geography of the place offers a

wide outlook. As a part of his everyday experience, a resident of

Constantinople lives within sight of Europe and Asia. Every day of his life, he

sees the waterway that runs between the two great continents thronged with

vessels of every nation, hurrying to and fro to bring the ends of the earth

together. Then, how much human power has been enthroned here the dominion of

Byzantium for one thousand years; the rule of Constantine and his successors for

eleven centuries; the sway of the Ottoman Sultans through four hundred and

fifty years. If what we see ought to do with what we are, here is a mound in

which to fashion a large life. But Europe and Asia are present in more than

their physical aspects, or in long periods of their history. Their

civilizations also meet here.

On every side there is the pressure of a

dominant Oriental society and polity, with its theocratic government,

autocracy, the creed of Islam, polygamy, slavery, eunuchs, secluded and veiled

womanhood, men in long robes and turbans, sluggishness, repose, the speech of

Central Asia softened by the accents of Persia and Arabia, minarets, domes

surmounted by the Crescent, graceful but strange salutations, festivals which

celebrate events in a course of history not your own, and express joys which

have never gladdened your soul And mingling, but not blended, with this world

of Asiatic thought and sentiment and manner, is a European world, partly

native, partly foreign, with ideas of freedom, science, education, bustle,

various languages, railroads, tramways, ladies in the latest Parisian fashions,

church bells, the banner of the Cross, newspapers and periodicals from every

European and American capital, knitting scattered children to the life of their

fatherland.

Foreign communities in Istanbul

The members of the foreign communities in the

City of the Sultan do not forget the lands of their birth, or of their race and

allegiance. Though circumstances have carried them far from their native shores

and skies, physical separation does not sever them from the spirit of their

peoples. Nay, as if to make patriotic sentiment easier, foreigners are placed

under the peculiar arrangements embodied in what are termed the Capitulations,

whereby, in virtue of old treaties, they enjoy the privilege of living to a

great extent under the laws of their respective countries, with little

interference on the part of the Ottoman Government.

When your house is your castle, in the

sense that no Turkish policeman dares enter it without the authorization of

your Consulate or Embassy, when legal differences between yourself and your

fellow-countrymen are submitted to judges, and argued by barristers, bred in

the law which rules in your own land, when your church and school can be what

they are at home, and when you can forward your letters, not only to foreign

countries but even to some parts of the Turkish Empire, with a stamp bearing

the badge of your own Government, it is natural that European residents in

Constantinople should be able to preserve their special character, both after

living here for many years, and also from generation to generation.

Istanbul - European world

A Mohammedan polity is opposed to the

assimilation of strangers, unless the aliens become converts to Islam. Whatever

process of assimilation goes on in Constantinople appears in the slow changes

of the East towards some likeness to the West Otherwise, the European

world is as present to the view as the Asiatic, and together

they spread a wide vista before the mind.

Furthermore, what a broad outlook does the

heterogeneous population afford! Whether you walk the streets or stay at home,

on the mart of business, at all large social gatherings, in all public

enterprises, you deal with diverse nationalities and races. Everywhere and

always a cosmopolitan atmosphere pervades your life. One servant in your

household will be a Greek, another an Armenian, a third a German or an

Englishman. Your gardener is a Croat, as tender to flowers as he is fierce

against his foes. The boatmen of your cacique are Turks.

In building a house, the foundations are

excavated by Lazes; the quarrymen must be Croats; the masons and carpenters are

Greeks and Armenians; the hodmen, Kurds; the hamals, Turks; the plumbers,

Italians; the architect is an Englishman, American, or a foreigner of some

other kind; the glaziers must be Jews. Fourteen nationalities are represented

by the students and professors of an international college.

Pilgrimages comes round

When the season of pilgrimages comes round,

the streets are thronged by Tartars, Circassia’s, Persians, Turcoman, on their

way to Mecca and Medina, wild-looking fellows in rough but picturesque garb,

staring with the wonder and simplicity of children at the novelties they see,

purchasing trifles as though treasures, yet stopping to give altos to a beggar,

and groping for the higher life.

Nor is it only in great matters that this wideness of human life comes home to the mind in Constantinople. It is pressed upon the attention by the diversity that prevails, likewise, in matters of comparatively slight importance; in such an affair, for example, as the calculation of time. For some, the pivotal event of history is the birth of Christ; for others, it is the Flight of Mahomet from Mecca to Medina, and accordingly, two systems of the world’s chronology are in vogue.

One large part of the populations still adheres to the primitive idea that a new day commences at sunset, while another part of the community defers that event until the moment after midnight. Hence in your move-mints and engagements you have constantly to calculate the precise time of day according to both views upon the subject.

Gentleman from Istanbul

On the occasion of a visit to a Turkish

gentleman in his garden, it so happened that two of his

nieces, not knowing that any one was calling, came to greet their uncle.

Surprised at seeing a man with him, the young ladies started back, as gazelles

might start at the sight of a hunter. Their uncle, however, summoned them to

return, and with extreme courtesy introduced them to his visitor, with the

information that one of the young ladies could speak English. Conversation in

that language had not gone far, when another gentleman was announced. Instantly

the girls sprang to their feet and darted away as for dear life. “See,” said

the uncle in tones of mingled vexation and sorrow, “See what it is to be an

educated Turkish lady!”

A Turkish gentleman of high rank wishing

his daughters to enjoy the advantage of a European education, but anxious to

spare them as much as possible the chagrin and ennui of being educated above

the station of a Turkish lady, hoped to attain his object by having his girls

learn to speak French without being able to read in that language. Such

experiences are disheartening. But, as the pale flowers which come ere winter

has wholly gone herald the spring and foretell the glory of summer, so the

recent improvements in the lot of Turkish women, however slight they may appear

meantime, warrant the hope of further progress and final emancipation.

EPILOGUE

To live in Constantinople is to live in a

very wide world. The city, it is true, is not a seat of lofty intellectual

thought. Upon none of its hills have the Muses come to dwell. It is not a center

of literary activity; it is not a home of Art Here is no civic life to share,

no far-reaching public works of philanthropy to enlarge the heart, no

comprehensive national life to inspire patriotism, no common religious

institutions to awaken the sense of a vast brotherhood enfolded within the same

great and gracious heavens. If one is so inclined, it is easy for life here to

be exceedingly petty. And yet, it is certain that to live in Constantinople is

to live in a wide world. It is not for any lack of incentive that a resident

here fails “to think imperially” or to feel on an imperial scale.

When a man possessed by the genius of the

place quits the city to reside elsewhere, the horizon of his life contracts and

dwindles, as when a man descends from the wide views of a mountain peak to the

life pent within the walls of a valley. For nowhere else is the mind not only

confronted, but, if one may thus express it, assailed by so many varied

subjects demanding consideration, or the heart appealed to by so many interests

for its sympathy.

Spiritual guide

A pupil complained to his spiritual

guide of being much disturbed by impertinent visitors, who broke in

upon his valuable time, and he asked, How he could get rid of them? The

superior replied, “To such of them as are poor, lend money, and from those that

are rich ask something, when you may depend upon not seeing one of them again.”

If a beggar was the leader of the army of Islamism, the infidels would flee to

China through fear of his importunity.

Actions correspond

A lawyer said to his father, “Those fine

speeches of the declaimers make no impression on me, because 1 do not see that

their actions correspond with their precepts: they teach

people, to forsake the world, whilst themselves accumulate property. A wise

man, who preaches without practicing, will not impress others. That person is

wise who abstained from sin, not he who teaches well to others whilst himself committee

evil.

The wise man who indulges in sensual

gratifications, being himself bewildered, how can he guide others? ” The father

replied, “0 my son you ought not, merely from this vain opinion, to reject the

doctrines of the preacher, thus pursuing the paths of vanity, by imputing

errors to the learned; and whilst you are searching for an immaculate teacher,

are deprived of the benefits of learning; like the blind man, who one night

falling into the mud, cried out, ‘  Moslems bring a lamp to show me the way ? ’ An

impudent woman, who heard him, said, ‘You cannot see a lamp, what then can it

show you? ’

Moreover, the society of the preacher

resembles the shop of a trader, where, until you pay money, you cannot carry

away the goods; and here, unless you come with good inclination, you will not

derive any benefit. Listen to the discourse of the learned man with the utmost

attention, although his actions may not correspond with his doctrine. It is a

futile objection of gainsayers that, ‘How can he who is asleep awaken others? ’

It behooved a man to receive instruction, although the advice be written on a

wall.”

Certain holy man

A certain holy man having

quitted a monastery and the society of religious men, became a member of a

college. I asked, what was the difference between being a learned and a

religious man that could induce him to change his society? He replied, “The

devotee saves his own blanket out of the waves, and the learned man endeavors to

rescue others from drowning.”