Haryana Review MAY-2010

Gender equality: taking roots
Page 42
May 2010, Vol 24 Issue 5 Rs 15
Haryana:
Cradle of Indian culture
Dedicated to
Mother
As I look back As I look back on my life I find myself wondering Did I remember to thank you For all things that you have done for me? For all the time you were by my side To help me celebrate my success Or for teaching me the value of hard work, Good judgement, courage and honesty? I wonder if I had even thanked you for the simple things The laughter, smiles, and quite times we have shared? If I have forgotten to express my gratitude For any of these things I am thanking you now And I am hoping that you have known all along How very much you are loved and appreciated
-Tarun Vaid
HARYANA REVIEW, MAY 2010
E D I TO R I A L
EDITOR-In-CHIEF Dr K K Khandelwal CHIEF EDITOR Shiv Raman Gaur COnSULTInG EDITOR Gobind Thukral
Understanding our rich past

aryana because of its geographic location in the fertile Indo-Gangetic plains is a part of the Indus Valley Civilisation, a Bronze Age civilisation 33001300 BCE and mature period 26001900 BCE. It flourished around the Indus river basin, primarily centred along the Indus and the Punjab region and extended into the Ghaggar-Hakra river valley and the Ganges-Yamuna Doab. It encompassed most of what is now Pakistan, extending into the westernmost states of modern India, Afghanistan, Balochistan and Iran.
MAnAGInG EDITOR M S Yadav nEWS BUREAU Amanbir Kaur Brar Aparna Pawar Nishant Prabhakar Ruchi Sharma Shweta Vashishta LAYOUT Sunil Kumar ILLUSTRATOR Gurpreet Singh PHOTOGRAPHER Randeep Singh PHOTO SUPPORT Tek Chand Arora Gopal Singh Karam Singh Neeraj Chopra Gauri Shankar Jasmer Singh
VOL 24, ISSUE 5, MAY 2010 Edited and published for the Haryana government by Shiv Raman Gaur, IAS, Director, Information & Public Relations Department, and issued from Samvad, SCO No 137, Sector 17, Panchkula (Haryana). (Mailing address: SCO 23 (FF), Sector 7, Madhya Marg, Chandigarh. Phone 0172-5055971, 5055977). All rights reserved. Any reproduction of this publications contents, in whole or in part, without written permission, is prohibited. Haryana Review does not necessarily agree with the views of the writers/contributors. Website:www.haryanareview.com Email:haryanareview@gmail.com Printed at: Model Printing Press (I) Pvt Ltd, Ambala
According to some archaeologists, many Harappan sites have been discovered along the dried up river beds of the Ghaggar-Hakra river and its tributaries, therefore the tag Indus-Saraswati civilisation is justified. We appreciate the logic that sources that inform us about the past have to be meticulously analysed and subjected to a rigorous methodology irrespective of their status or the authority they command. Yet, it is abundantly clear that from prehistoric times to Indus and later pre Vedic and Vedic period, Haryana witnessed an advance civilisation in one form or the other. The battle of Mahabharata [850 BC] is a hard social reality and the battle ground was Kurukshetra. Later, rise and fall of the village republics and the constant unsettling invasions saw more battles around this area. These deep roots in the past are more than a matter of pride. These do provide insight into the culture of the people and the social setup. From hunting to food gathering, to farming with improved ploughs and now to machine driven tilling apparatus, the march continues. Wandering tribes to settled small republics to kingdoms and now democracy, civilisation moves on. In this issue of Haryana Review we bring to the attention of readers not only our hoary past, but also relate it to the present through the pens of experts and our staff writers. As usual, we deal with other issues; sports, education, culture and books. g
CONTENTS
Dekh bhai chhore! mhare purvaj badiya cham-chamate ghare mein rahe karte
COVER STORY Rendezvous with civilisation Haryana: Cradle of Indian civilisation Ancient languages and literature Seeds of republicanism Archaeology establishes a sequence Our forgotten gods Coins tell history A peep into our past The legend of the Saraswati Antiquity of Pehowa Battles that changed history Shadows of invasions Haryana: Precursor of modern town planning Phases of civilisation
4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 32
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[18]
CONTENTS
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ART AnD CULTURE Woman painters palette-for girl child SPECIAL REPORT The 4th Municipal General Election PHOTO FEATURE Shades of Haryanvi life SPECIAL ARTICLE Gender equality: Miles to go REPORT Counting the heads SPORTS Keeping track of athletics MODERn TECHnOLOGY Poor mans refrigerator EnVIROnMEnT Purifying the elixir of life TOURISM Panchkula: On the tourist map FESTIVAL Baisakhi: The festival of harvest SUCCESS STORY Ability to challenge disability GUEST COLUMn Weaving magic with words BOOKS To know more, read on...
33 35 36 42 44 46 47 48 50 52 54 55 56
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Readers may send their comments to haryanareview@gmail.com or to SCO 23, First Floor, Sector 7-C, Madhya Marg, Chandigarh - 160 019
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Rendezvous with civilisation
The remains of an old fort at Agroha

Gobind Thukral
civilisation. Only phases changed. There are several historical sites that clearly establish that Haryana was part of the Indus valley civilisation. Planned towns and brick structures, apart from sculptures, coins and other historical evidence establish this relationship. This civilisation developed near 4000-3000 BC. These people used ornamented terracotta utensils, decorated with human figures, birds and animals in geometric patterns. Utensils were decorated with lines, angles and circles along with birds, animals, leaves and flowers drawn with black lines on red base. Excavations reveal the prehistoric phase of ancient civilisation. Here we find planned cities with commercial centres and sophisticated craftsmanship. There must have been freedom of thought to trigger intellectual churning. Religion also during this period was not lost in the cobwebs of rituals and regulations, but helped creative urges to mature. The pillar in the Hisar fort belonging to the time of Emperor Ashoka (234 BC) was originally placed in Agroha. The discovery of coins of the Kushan kings tells tales of ancient India. Ropar in Punjab, Lothal in Gujarat and Kalibangan in Rajasthan and Agroha reveal fascinating details about the hoary past. There is a degree of sophistication in the layout and design of houses, drains, roads and bathrooms. Designs or utensils bear the figures of deer, peacock, cairns and snakes along with geometric patterns--triangle, square, rectangle circle and semi-circle. Maize, grass, wheat, barley were also painted on them. There was a degree of sophistication that showed aesthetically developed minds and dexterous hands. These centres of urban civilisation either fell on trade routes and part of well developed agriculture and crafts. The growth of towns, trade and money economy are closely linked up with the development of diverse arts and
aryanas tryst with civilisation can be traced to the very dawn of progression of man. The excavations of Agroha, Banawali, Kunal and other places including Daulatpur near Pipli and the latest from Farmana trace the roots of an advanced civilisation. All of these were the pre and postHarappan settlements, bringing for us the very first images of prehistoric times. Historians who rely on hard scientific, archaeological and related evidence assert,Evidence of prehistoric settlements in Haryana comes from excavated finds at the various sites belonging to the preHarappan (c. 2500-2300 BCE), Harappan (c. 2300-1800 BCE), late Harappan (c. 1800-1600 BCE) and protohistoric (2000-1500 BCE) cultures. While some historians assert that this was the decadent phase of urbanised settlements, others argue that these settlements were part of continuous process, moving forward the wheels of
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conducive to enhancing knowledge. The interaction of individuals through commodity markets creates and builds institutions of knowledge. Kosambi maintains that the Punjab was at par with Greece in the early periods, but the repulsion felt by the priestly classes for material reality hindered progress. In his words, Thus, Brahmin indifference to past and present reality not only erased Indian history but a great deal of real Indian culture as well. The loss may be estimated by imagining the works of Aristotle, Herodotus, Thucydides and their contemporaries as replaced by priestly rituals rewritten [by the Greek intelligentsia] In other words, the priestly classes were rewriting rituals, while society was transforming its base. During these several centuries of civilisation journey, Haryana has had a turbulent past, largely because of its strategic geographic location and wealth created through fertile land by sturdy peasants. This attracted invaders from Greece, Iran and other Arab lands. Farmers were good soldiers and defended their land with valour. Invaders came in hordes and plundered the land from all sides.
crafts. There were occupations like washerman and drier, painter, barber, tailor, weaver and several manufacturing crafts. They were of course the potters, the goldsmiths, metalsmiths, carpenters and silk weavers. New social groups were taking shape. The greater part of land was owned by grahpatis (peasant proprietors). Wealth was now becoming measure of respect and some kind of class division was taking roots. Artisans and craftsmen were often organised into guilds. Agriculture was hugely facilitated with the introduction of iron which in turn led to the growth of thriving villages and settlements all over the land. Historian Buddha Prakash in his book Haryana Through the Ages makes interesting observations. He writes,The painted Grey Ware Culture, concentrated in Haryana and Western UP, which came to be known as Kurudesha, is associated with the Kurus. Should this suggestion be valid, it would appear that the bulk of the Kurus lived in the houses of mud and wattle-and-daub, practised agriculture, cattle-breeding and hunting, used fine hand-made and wheel-turned pots, slightly convex bowls, shallow dishes with sagger or flat bases and lota like vessels, which had a grey colour on account of their being fired under reducing conditions in the kiln, and made tools of copper and iron. The domestication of horse and the use of iron gave them the key to expansion and prosperity and made them the paramount power of North India. Thus, under the Kurus, the vast region, encompassing the valleys of the Saraswati and Ganga, a sort of Vishala Haryana became the centre of agriculture, industry, rural development and political power. D. D. Kosambi, the renowned historian, is not very impressed with the level of knowledge created during the transformation from Vedic tribalism to feudalism in the Punjab [Haryana was part of this] and the rest of India. The Punjab was in the forefront of such a transformation from tribalism to feudalism, giving birth to isolated villages and cities where kings and priestly classes had developed close links. Kosambi argues, The isolation of villages and their surplus channelled through the king and not through market mechanism, created conditions that were not
Peace was often elusive, yet people made big efforts to develop agriculture, cattle breeding, crafts and trade, taking to even intentional trade through sea routes of Gujarat. Whenever peace prevailed, progress was fast. Sheer tribalism gave place to wellsettled tribes and the ancient republics flourished. Legendary king Harshavardhana ruled over Northern India for forty one years. He was the son of Prabhakarvardhan who united the small republics from Punjab to Central India, and they, at an assembly, crowned him in 606 AD when he was merely 16 years old. At the height of his power his kingdom spread over the Punjab, Gujarat, Bengal, Orissa and the entire Indo-Gangetic plain north of the Narmada. Medieval period proved to be more troublesome except when the Mughals finally settled until giving place to the British. In 1857, Haryana rose like a lion and defeated the British. It was a short lived affair as the state lacked leaders who could command and organise the people. During the freedom movement, the participation was legendary . These struggles were rooted in our antiquity .g
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Haryana: Cradle of Indian culture

The state played an important role of a crucible for mixing and mingling to cast the shape and form of the culture and civilisation of our country
Brajesh Krishna Kathil
aryana has a long and glorious history of thousands of years, dotted with remarkable epochs and illustrious happenings. The region was watered in ancient times by the holy river Saraswati, Drishadvati and Apaga. The land of Haryana has been an important rendezvous of various people and races, and it played an important role of a crucible for mixing and mingling to cast the shape and form of the culture and civilisation of our country . In the beginning, prehistoric man of the Stone Age roamed about in the Shiwalik and Aravali hills. The earliest man who reached these regions used stone tools like hand-axes, scrappers, cleavers, cores, unfinished flakes and choppers. These tools have been discovered from Dera Karoni, Mansa Devi, Pinjore, Ahian, Dhamla, Kotla, Paplona, Sukretri etc. (all in Kalka district) and belong to lower palaeolithic age. Similarly , some StoneAge tools were discovered from the terrace of Jhirka Cho, a seasonal nullah connected to the Sahibi river near Firozepur-Jhirka (in district Gurgaon). The tools were embedded in gravel deposits and are cleavers and hand-axes made of quartzite. The discovery of these tools gives evidence of the presence of one of the early homo-sapiens and provides clues to the evolution of man in Indian subcontinent. This early man walked from one place to another in search of hunt and lived a homeless life full of exertion and struggle. Archaeological explorations and excavations reveal that the region of Haryana was inhabited as early as proto-historic times and it saw the
Combination of `V signs and linear strokes were used to indicate volumes
Harappan beads
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culture used hand-made and wheeled pottery , bone implements, blades of chalcedony and arrow-heads of copper. The remains of this culture, which is termed as Pre-Harappan Culture, are also found at various other places, viz., Siswal, Mitathal, Banawali, Balu and Rakhigarhi. But at these sites the houses were made of mud or sun-dried bricks or huts of reeds plastered with clay . These settlements were rural ones. Around 2300 BC, a qualitative change took place in this region. It saw the emergence and growth of one of the most important civilisations of the world, known as Harappan civilisation or popularly known as Indus Valley Civilisation. Archaeological discoveries at numerous places in Haryana prove that it was a prosperous urban civilisation related to Sind, Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat. The culture is characterized by fortified township with prominent amenities and facilities, developed industries and distant traderelations. People knew the art of writing and used inscribed seals and sealings for their trade with west Asia. Various objects of terracotta, faience, steatite, bronze, silver, gold and semi-precious stones were profusely used in daily life. Most prominent settlements of this culture are Banawali (Fatehabad), Rakhigarhi (Jind), Balu (Kaithal) and Farmana (Rohtak). All these sites show the existence of twin mounds suggesting dichotomous plan laid in the classical chessboard pattern. The emergence of these settlements introduced first urbanization in Haryana. Striking features of the settlements are wide streets, strong defence-walls and good sanitary arrangements. Surplus food production (wheat, rice, gram, mustard, date-palm etc.), big cattle farms, hunting and fishing gave impetus to the emergence of a complex society of specialized traders, skilled labourers and other classes of people.
growth and expansion of the earliest Bronze Age culture in the third millennium BC. The region was one of the most important epicenters of this earliest cultural activity . Archaeological excavations conducted by the Department of Archaeology and Museums, Haryana at Kunal (in Ratia Tahsil of Fatehabad district) shows that pit-dwelling was prevalent at this place in 2700-2500 BC. People made circular pits, raised by red soil, to live in. On the periphery of these pits, wooden pillars were fixed to make roof by bamboo, grass, straw and other such material. People of this
Stone inscription, Agroha
After the decline of the Harappan culture, the next phase (circa 1700 BC1500 BC) is known as Late Harappan which is represented by smaller settlements devoid of urbanism, script and long distance trade. The remains of this period have been found from the excavations of Mitathal (Bhiwani), Daulatpur and Mirzapur (Kurukshetra) and Balu (Kaithal). Around 1200 BC, people using Painted Grey Ware (typical fine grey pottery with black designs) came to settle in the Saraswati valley of Haryana. They had their links with North-West India and beyond and represented a wave of Aryan people. Their remains have been found inter-locked with the earlier cultures of the region. Excavations at Bhagwanpura (Kurukshetra) reveal for the first time, intermingling and juxtaposition of the Late Harappan and the Painted Grey Ware cultures. It is a significant discovery for the reconstruction of history of the region from the middle of the second to the beginning of the first millennium BC. Haryana played a pivotal role in the process of assimilation and expansion of the Aryans. The land, watered by the Saraswati and Drishadvati was a favourite and beloved abode of the Aryans. A number of hymns of the Rigveda were composed in this land. The Vedic people prospered highly in this region. The most prominent tribe of the Aryans was called the Bharatas, after whom the country was called Bharatavarsh. They contributed a lot to the growth of Aryan culture and civilisation in Haryana. Later on, another tribe of the Aryans, known as the Kurus, inhabited this region and thus the region or its part came to be known as Kurudesa, Kurukshetra and Kuru Janapada. The Kurus made this region the home of Vedic culture and land of idealism and spiritualism. The region became a source of great spiritual contemplation and attained its culmination with the message of Bhagvad Gita which occupies a special place in the life of the nation. Thus, the region of Haryana has a great significance and unique place in our country . It was the cradle of Indian culture and made remarkable contribution to the mainstream of Indian history .g The writer is former Professor and Chairman of the Department of Ancient Indian History and Archaeology, Kurukshetra University
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Ancient languages and literature
The life of the earliest Aryans is represented by the Rig Veda, which was composed in about 1500 BC
Prof J S Grewal
near-contemporary script. The language of the lndus people belonged perhaps to the Dravidian family . The first work of literature, known to have been composed in the Punjab, is the Rigveda. Composed largely between 1500 and 1000 BC, it was recorded in writing more than two thousand years later. In its present form, the Rigveda is divided into ten 'books' (mandalas). Six of these, from the second to the seventh, are more or less homogeneous and are the work of specific seers and their descendants. These 'family books' are arranged on a uniform plan, and appear to form the nucleus of the Rigveda. The unity of the ninth book lies in the fact that all its hymns are addressed to a single deity called Soma. The early part of the first book has an affinity with the eighth. The tenth book of the Rigveda was composed probably towards the end of the period. It appears to stand apart because of its subject matter, its form and its language. The language of the Rigveda is called 'Vedic' by some scholars to mark its distinction from the classical Sanskrit which developed later. Apart from a definite change in the tenth book of the Rigveda, dialectic differences are reflected in the other books. In fact, some elements in the language of the Rigveda are found in neither the Indo-Iranian nor the IndoEuropean family of languages. Recent linguistic analyses have suggested the presence of proto-Dravidian elements in the vocabulary and phonetics of the Rigveda. Some of the proto-Dravidian words relate significantly to agricultural activities, pointing to the local agricultural communities as their source. The Kaushitaki Brahmana of the Rigveda contains the statement that the study of language was specially
riting is regarded as 'the most momentous' invention of human beings, representing an enormous intellectual advance. Apart from storage of information and recording for future reference, distant communication was made possible by writing. The script prevalent among the people of the protohistoric Indus plains has not yet been deciphered. The small number of the available inscriptions, their shortness and the absence of any bilingual inscription has made decipherment extremely difficult. It is clear, however, that the script remained stable over a number of centuries. Accents are added to a large number of letters, suggesting phonetic maturity . Written probably from right to left, the script bears no ascertainable relationship with any contemporary or
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cultivated in the north of India, and that students who returned from there were regarded as authorities on linguistics. We do not know the places where this study was cultivated but we do know that Panini had a number of predecessors. The study of language was intimately linked with religion in the sense that correct recitation and understanding of the sacred text were regarded as essential requirements of worship. Therefore, interest in phonetics, etymology , grammar and metre developed quite early . The Taittiriya Aranyaka mentions phonetics (shiksa) as a subject which dealt with letters, accent, quantity , pronunciation and euphonic rules. The basis for such studies was provided by 'word-text' (pada-patha) of the Vedas. Connected with pada-pathas were the Pratishakhyas which furnished a systematic account of Vedic euphonic combinations. Panini used them for his Ashtadhyayi. In the study of etymology , collections of rare or obscure Vedic words, arranged for the use of teachers, were prepared as Nighantus. These could be used for exegesis. Yaska had before him five such collections when he wrote his Vedic commentary , the famous Nirukta. Besides being important from the point of view of exegesis and grammar, the Nirukta is significant as the earliest extant Sanskrit prose tract of the classical type, considerably earlier than Panini. Yaska must have lived long before Panini for a considerable number of names of important grammarians are mentioned between them. His Nirukta also shows that the Rigveda had a fixed form in his time, and its text was essentially identical with the text now available. Grammatical studies were cultivated to a considerable extent before Yaska. He talks of two schools: the 'eastern' and the 'northern'. He mentions nearly a score of predecessors among whom were Shaktayana, Gargya and Shakalya. Yaska has an interesting discussion on the theory of Shakatayana that nouns were derived from verbs. Gargya is rejected by him because of his own view that all nouns are derived from verbs. The whole system of Panini's grammar is founded on Shakatayanas theory of the verbal origin of nouns. Regarded as an infallible authority , Panini superseded all his predecessors.
Their works, consequently , have perished. Yaska alone survives because he was not a grammarian. His work represents Vedanga 'etymology'. Panini's own work can be regarded as the culmination of the study of grammar and the starting point for the post-Vedic classical Sanskrit. Panini's work has a great cultural significance in itself. His interest in grammar and linguistics underlines the importance of Vedic language and literature in the Punjab, particularly when we know that he had a number of predecessors. He moulded the future of the language precisely because his work came as the culmination of interest in systematic analysis of language. His work is also significant for revealing his familiarity with the later Vedic tradition. He was a master not only of the Rigveda but also of the Sama and the Yajura. He describes the language spoken by a group of priests who were familiar with the language of the northern schools of the Vedic tradition, which was close to the later Vedic prose in structure. Thus, Panini's work reveals a certain degree of close contact between Vahika, the northwestern region beyond the river Sutlej, and the Kuru-Panchala region extending beyond the river Jamuna. Another great name associated with the north-western region is that of Kautilya. On the basis of thorough analyses of the Arthashastra in recent decades, it can be stated with some confidence that it was originally composed by him around 300 BC. It was commented upon and edited by later writers till the text now available was prepared by Vishnugupta in the third or the fourth century AD, including whatever interpolations had been incorporated by then. The second book of the Arthashastra appears to be the original core, with a few other books closely allied to it. This treatise on
political economy gives a clear and methodical analysis of economic and political thought in its application to the existing conditions. Kautilya can legitimately be looked upon as the theorist of the Mauryan system of administration and taxation. Panini and Kautilya are perhaps, the best examples of profound thought coupled with a strong element of empirical observation. Their works appear to be closely related to the life around. The official language and script of the Achaemenian Empire was Aramaic. The Aramaic script was inadequate to express all the sounds of the language spoken by the people in the north-west of the subcontinent. Gradually, a new script was evolved for the north-western Prakrit. This new script was Kharoshthi. Its popularity is indicative of the prevalence of Prakrit as the spoken language of the people of the northwestern region. The inscriptions of Ashoka appear to be the oldest tangible record from the north-west to have survived into the present. In any case, they throw some light on matters related to languages and scripts. When Ashoka decided to give wide publicity to his ideas and programmes, he decided to use Prakrit as the medium. The inscriptions from Topra and Kalsi in the Sutlej-Jamuna Divide are in Prakrit written in Mauryan Brahmi. The language of the inscription at Mansehra in the upper Sindh Sagar Doab is also Prakrit, but the script used is Kharoshthi. This is also true of the inscription at Shahbazgarhi across the river Indus. The language of the fragment of an inscription discovered at Taxila is Aramaic, which would indicate that there were some Iranian residents of Taxila. The inscription at Lampaka (Lamghan) is in Aramaic. In the inscription at Kandhar, Greek as well as Aramaic is used, indicating the presence of Greek and Aramaic speaking people in Kandhar. It need not be ruled out, however, that inscriptions in Greek and Aramaic languages were meant for the traders coming from the west as well as for the local people. The evidence of Ashokan inscriptions is suggestive of the popularity of Prakrit throughout the region. g The writer is an eminent historian and former Chairman and Director , Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla
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Seeds of republicanism
Village republics and oligarchies flourished in ancient Haryana. The concept of democracy has it origin much before the Greeks thought of it
Nishant Prabhakar
e normally take the origin of the concept called democracy to its western roots. For some, the concept of democracy is an appendage of modern times. Even if one goes into the ancient historical roots, democratic identification is linked to the great civilisation of Greece in around 500 BC. However, surprising as it may be, the origin of democratic republicanism has its roots in north-western India and is older than what was practised by the Greek Civilisation. In the 6th century BC, we find a large number of states in Northern India which were not ruled by kings but formed petty republics or oligarchies. This has been proved from various literary sources. Panini, the great Sanskrit scholar who wrote Ashtadhyayi and formulated 3959 rules of Sanskrit grammar in 4th century BC, mentions that all the states and regions (janapadas) of northern India during his time were based on the settlement in a given area by identifiable warrior people. Some of these peoples (in Panini's terms janapadins) were subject to a king, who was at least in theory, of their own blood and was perhaps dependent on their special support. Elsewhere, the janapadins ran their affairs in a republican manner. Further, the Greek traveller named Megasthenes, who came to India in 300 BC, about two decades after Alexander's invasion and served as ambassador of the Greek king Seleucus Nicator to the Indian emperor Chandragupta Maurya, writes about northwestern India being dominated by republics whose heads were elected by the people. These ancient republics were broadly of three types as far as their political organisation is concerned. There were democracies or pure-Gana, wherein the total adult population participated in the administration. The other was aristocracies or pure-Kula, wherein only few selected families participated in the administration. The last one was mixed aristocracies and democracies or mixture of Kula and Gana, where the administration was a mixture of two. Further, the republican states which had a unitary character were called cityrepublics or Nigamas. The republics having federal character were called state-republics or Janapadas. In certain states, only kshatriya "royal families" (rajakulas) were given the right to frame laws and elected the members of the executive council ; in some, the head of joint families were given this right ; while in certain others entire adult population had this right. Besides, in certain states the local assemblies enjoyed wide autonomy to look after their respective local administration and the matters concerning the entire state were decided by all the elected representatives of local assemblies;
in Haryana
while in others, the power to govern the entire state was handed over to an elected central assembly and executive. The term raja, which in a monarchy certainly meant king, was also used in a state with gana or sangha constitution to designate someone who held a share in sovereignty. Another evidence suggests that in some states the enfranchised group was even wider. Such a development is hinted at by Kautilya. According to him, there were two kinds of janapadas: ayudhiya-praya- those
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recognized as having jurisdiction over their own members. In all these states, the people who had the right to rule according to settled laws of the state used to assemble at an assembly hall called the Santhagara, discussed all important matters concerning the state and decisions were taken by a majority vote. The voting pattern was either open or secret ballot if there was no unanimity of opinion. The members of the executive council were called Rajana and the head of the executive council was called Raja or Ganapati. Haryana, which was part of the ancient Punjab, virtually remained a battle ground and had to bear the brunt of a number of foreign attacks. Also, being on the periphery of early empires which flourished in Ganaga- Jamuna Doab, centralised administration was not as effective due to the distances from the capital and lack of communication. Hence, this area became the activity loci of many tribes and tribal republics that had to take up arms repeatedly and thus became dependent upon arms for survival and even subsistence. It is due to this fact, that these tribes are generally catagorised as ayudhayajivi samghas or sastropijivin samghas. According to Professor Manmohan Kumar, On the basis of Numismatics, we get evidence of the tribal republics that formed part of the geographical landscape which now constitutes Haryana. We can trace coinage associated to various republics in Haryana dating back to 2nd century BC. The main republic of this time was the Agratya or Agacga, janapada whose coins were discovered at Agroha and was situated towards modern day Hisar, Fatehabad and parts of Sirsa. Similarly, the Kadas or Kathas were the ancient people who are identified with the Kathaios of the Greek historians and known to have
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made up of mostly soldiers, and sreni-praya- those comprising guilds of craftsmen, traders and agriculturalists. The first were political entities where military tradition alone defined those worthy of power, while the second would seem to be communities where wealth derived from peaceful economic activity gave some access to the political process. This interpretation is supported by the fact, that sreni or guilds based on an economic interest were often both, part of the armed force of a state and the political set up, and were
lived in the region that lies between the Ravi and Beas rivers. They became independent and issued coins which have been discovered from Sugh (Distt. Yamunanagar). Their republic was quite close to the areas of Kunindas and Yaudheyas. The coins associated with them have been found at Yamunanagar, Kurukshetra and Kaithal districts of Haryana along the Ghaggar river. Yaudheyas republic with their capital Rohitika (Rohtak) was the most prominent republic of ancient India. From literary references their empire is placed between 5th century BC and 10th century AD. But their independent existence as attested by coins was from 2nd century BC to 4th century AD. When due to foreign attacks, the central administration of the Mauryan Empire became weak, they declared their independence. They issued coins bearing the legend Yaudheyanarm Bahudhatyake, during this period. Their emprire spread from Nanital, Saharanpur, Hastinapur to parts of Haryana up to the Sarswati river. By 1st century BC, the Agratya republic ceased to exist and its territory was usurped by the Yaudheyas republic while the far north of Haryana, covering present day Panchkula and Yamunanagar district, came under the domain of the Kunindas. However, towards the end of this century, the Yaudheyas had faced the wrath of the foreigners and were forced to migrate to the hilly areas of Uttaranchal and Himachal Pradesh. Here, they issued six headed Karttikeya type coins which are not found anywhere in Punjab and Haryana. According to historian and numismatics expert, Dr. Devendra Handa, The Yaudheyas were at the zenith of their political power during the 3rd to 4th century AD. They issued copper currency bearing Yaudheya Ganasya Jaya. Their coins are found from Bahawalpur (Pakistan) to western Uttar Pradesh including Malwa of Punjab, whole of Haryana, parts of northern Rajasthan and parts of southern Himachal Pradesh. The era of republics was finally ended by the imperial Guptas who pursued the policy of extension of the empire by annexing the neighbouring states. g
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Archaeology
establishes a sequence
A critical assessment of early culture of Haryana and recent discoveries
Dr Sukhdev Saini
t is widely believed that Haryana has been the cradle of cultures from the time of emergence of man in India and it has bequeathed a rich culture. In the cultural cavalcade of Indias history , the contribution of Haryana is of immense value, occupying an important geographical position which brings together ample elements to build a reliable model for the understanding of the cultural background of the history of Indian civilisation. In this connection, the Harappan phases and their continuity is a landmark in the cultural expansion and development of the region. It is one of the most important areas which have given a surprising picture of cultural movement and local tradition. The discovery of the Hakra ware culture and subsequently Harappan culture in Saraswati valley indeed constitutes a landmark in the archaeology of Indian subcontinent. Recently , the excavation at Bhirrana opened a new chapter about the early farming communities of the Saraswati valley . It has pushed back the antiquity of settled life in the part of Harappan civilisation to early 7th millennium BC. Previously , the explorations conducted by different scholars of Kurukshetra University , particularly those by Professor Suraj Bhan brought to light a large number of settlements of early farmers of the Saraswati valley . The excavations and extensive explorations carried out in the Saraswati valley provided a sufficient data that help us to build a solid chronological framework of great significance. The concentration and distribution of Harappan sites in Haryana shows that there were economic pockets in the Saraswati valley . In these economic pockets, the process of self-sufficiency in upper portion of Harappan architecture for a long time. This area of Haryana is well known for its achievement in the field of agriculture and creation of surplus agricultural produce which triggered economic activity and provided impetus to the development of culture since the day of Harappan culture or even earlier. The fabric of agriculture in the proto-historic Haryana rested undoubted on plough cultivation, although conspicuous by its absence except a clay model of a plough from Banawali. But close contacts of this region with Kalibangan and the recovery of archaeo-botanical remains from the region dispelled doubts over the absence of any positive evidence. The archaeo-botanical remains from early onward reveal a rich and varied food economy based on the cultivation of cereals and legumes. The late Harappans of this region were also great agriculturists and produced enough agricultural produce that led to the diffusion or expansion of settlements in large numbers. Although, no large scale commerce is testified during the early Harappan period, but a trade of restricted kind with neighbouring places is well attested. The Harappan society was basically a society of urban character and had certain advanced technical knowledge like copper manufacturing and bead-making and had market centres. Seals and sealing had been playing an important role in the commercialisation of economic setup of the Harappans. In spite of its rural character, the bead industry of Kunal proves beyond doubt that Mature Harappan type of stone and metal beads were manufactured centuries before the emergence of Harappan settlements. The examination of archaeobotanical remains from different sites
Bronze figurine of 'Dancing Girl' found in Mohenjodaro

subsistence was achieved by closelyknit interdependent settlements. The excavated sites which have supplied most valuable information are Bhirrana, Farmana, Rakhigarhi, Banawali, Kunal, Balu, Mitathal and Siswal. The evidences from sites like Kunal, Bhirrana and Farmana on evolutionary pattern in house construction activities are notable. It developed from pit-dwelling, mud or mud brick structure in early phases to structures of baked brick in the mature Harappan phase. The Late Harappans of these sites may be the users of the
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the post-urban phase in various regions are fairly well-known though the understanding is far from complete. Nevertheless, the decline of the Harappan culture was not uniform and simultaneous in the entire-region. Like the early Harappan phases, the posturban phase has a number of regional cultural variations. Wherein in Punjab and Cholistan region this phase is represented by Cemetery H culture, in eastern Punjab and Harayna it is the late Sothi and Bara culture, in Sind the Jhukar culture and in Gujarat by Rangpur IIC and III occupation. This was the time when the local cultures were coming into prominence and the Harappan phenomena were on a decline. But now the question arises that who were the authors of these local cultures? Were they the late Harappans adapting new local tendencies as the beginners of their new settlements (Late Harappan sites)? If they were non- Harappans then we have to trace out their process of development and relation with Harappans from their beginning. Another question that begs an answer is that if the Harappan cities are the consolidated form of expansion of early Harappan settlement expansion, then what is the consolidated form of newly emerged late Harappan settlements in such large numbers? The contents of the following cultural sequence are worked out in the light of the fact that the prevailing tendencies cannot disappear until replaced by the new one. The processes of inferiority in old tendencies give space to accelerate the process of development of new tendencies. So, both processes are happening simultaneously . Then how the gradual elimination of old tradition can be termed or defined as the decline of a group of people or a culture, while they are adapting new traditions initially , although may not be in a perfect manner. Haryana provides ample evidence to solve this riddle. There is a need for analogical study of the late Harappan character of Harappan sites and Harappan character of late Harappan sites. (A) Hakra ware culture: Origin of agricultural communities; pottery making industry; pit-dwelling; intercommunity cultural contact; (B) Early Harappan village culture: Expansion of agricultural communities; expansion of rural
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A red potsherd with an engraving that resembles the 'Dancing Girl', discovered in Fatehabad district in Haryana
reveals a rich and varied food economy based on the cultivation of cereals and legumes throughout Proto-historic occupational phases. The agricultural waste and vast grazing ground around the site must have given rise to animal husbandry . The agro-pastoral character of the site never got marginalised, other traits of subsistence remained subordinate.
CULTURE SEQUENCE:
The evidences of Kunal and Siswal significantly contributed a lot in the continuity of cultural sequence. The cultural features of three structural phases of Period Ic (Harappan) at Kunal clearly demonstrate developing stages of culture marked by change with continuity . The causes for the decline of Harappan culture and the characteristics of the post-urban phase have been a subject of great interest to scholars. Much research has been carried out in various regions of Harappan domain to understand these aspects. Though various views have been put forward regarding the factors that led to the end of the Harappan civilization, there is no unanimity among scholars. This was perhaps due to the play of numerous variables like change in climate, tectonic activity , hydrological changes and shift in subsistence system, trade and economy or invasion, which resulted in the collapse of urban centres. No single cause can be considered to have led to the degeneration of the Mature/Urban phase. However, the characteristics of
settlements; origin of industrial art and crafts; origin of trade and commerce (C) Harappan culture + rural settlement (with urban character): Origin of commercialization of agriculture; consolidation of expansion of rural settlements; expansion of different arts and crafts; expansion of Trade and commerce (D) Mature Harappan + trading communities (with urbanization): Expansion of Commercialization of agriculture; expansion of rural settlements of urban character; consolidation of different arts and crafts; consolidation of trade and commerce (E) Late Harappan phase: Consolidation of expansion of commercialization of agriculture; diffusion of Harappan settlements; diffusion or decentralization of Harappan arts and crafts; expansion of internal trade (F) Post Harappan (chalcolithic community) + pgw culture + bara culture + transformation: Cultural relation of Late Harappan settlements with non-Harappan settlement due to expansion of internal trade; some old pottery tradition replaced by the new one, Chalcolithic pottery tradition, inferior late Harappan pottery tradition; Chalcolithic metal industry , faience industry (G) Transformation from community based administrative system to the territorial based administrative system: In continuation with foreign trade mechanism; development in art and architecture; new trading centers To understand this Proto-Historic cultural continuity of the region, the notable feature that generally strikes is its geographical position and river system, which makes it a viable region. Haryana being a part of Saraswati region forms a distinct geographical unit and accordingly reflects a different view of physiographic as well as cultural aspects. A survey of the river system of Saraswati valley is essential to search new evidence before embarking upon the assessment of cultural contents and possible future potentialities of greater dimensions to reconstruct the ancient history of the region. g The writer teaches in the Department of Ancient History, Kurukshetra University
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Our forgotten gods

Vaikunth, a form of Lord Vishnu, whose worship was widespread in antiquity, has now gone into oblivion
Devendra Handa
ver-awed by the force of some of the natural phenomena with which man in antiquity was surrounded he developed a belief in their being animate and divine. Everything that was regarded as capable of exercising a good or evil influence became an object not only of adoration but of prayer also. The early gods of mankind were the deified representations of the phenomena of nature though the degree of their anthropomorphism varied. India was no exception to it and the Rigveda which is the earliest literary monument of the world acquaints us with a plethora of such divinities: the Earth, Sun, Dawn, Sky, Winds, Fire, Soma, Varuna, Indra, etc. With the passage of time there developed speculations about life and creatures around, various systems of philosophy and religious beliefs commensurate with which and equally varied with those are the faith in the multiplicity and oneness of the Supreme god or even in the negation of such a Being. In course of time there evolved myths of their power, birth, parents, kin and accomplishments. It is interesting to note that these gods have also undergone vicissitudes of fate and fame like their mundane counterparts. The all-powerful Vedic god Indra lost his supreme status and a form of the Sun-god Vishnu rose subsequently to occupy the highest rung of divinity. Many gods even got forgotten. In this series we shall be taking up such deities whose worship was quite strong and wide-spread sometime but are lesser known now or have went into oblivion. One such god was Vaikuntha. Vaikuntha is one of the thousand names of Vishnu. In the realm of plastic art, Vaikuntha is a unitary
Vaikuntha from Pehowa
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multiple image which symbolically represents Vaikuntha (i.e. Vasudeva Vishnu) as the Highest Being along with his three emanations Samkarshana (Balarama), Pradyumna and Ainiruddha or incarnations, i.e., Narasimha, Varaha and Kapila. The Mahabharata refers to this esoteric form of Vishnu as Murti-chatushtaya (four-fold form) but does not give any details. The evolution of Vaikuntha images is traced by some scholars from the four-faced Yaksha image from Bhita near Allahabad, now exhibited in the Lucknow Museum but some KushanGupta images from Mathura showing three different busts emanating from the shoulders of a central figure may certainly be regarded as the precursor of the later development. Vaikuntha images with lion and boar faces, however, seem to have come into existence during the Gupta period. During the early medieval period, Vaikuntha worship had grown quite popular in the hill region of Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh. In the latter state numerous temples may still be seen containing images of the god. It seems that from the Mathura region the worship of Vaikuntha spread to Haryana, Punjab, Himachal and Kashmir in the north and even to Afghanistan in the northwest and towards Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat and further south to Belgam and Bijapur in Karnataka where such images have been found. The earliest iconographical description of the Vaikuntha image occurs in a text Jayakhya Samhita belonging to the late or post Gupta period where it has been described as having four faces of Vaikuntha or Vishnu, Narasimha, Varaha and Kapila and having four arms holding a conch (shankha), a wheel (chakra), a mace (gada) and a lotus (padma) and mounted on a white garuda. The Vishnudharmottara Purana, another text of the late Gupta period, states that the joint image of Vasudeva (human), Samkarshana (lion), Pradyumna (boar) and Aniruddha (terrific face) is called Vaikuntha which should be quadricephalous (chaturmukha). Symbolically the main eastern face is placid and represents strength, southern leonine face represents knowledge,
northern boar face represents affluence and the western terrific face represents strength (shakti). The deity should have eight hands holding an arrow, a rosary and a pestle in the right hands and a shield, a plough, a bow and a discus in the left ones and the god should ride the celestial bird. Later texts like the Aparajitaprichchha, Rupamandana and Devatamurtip-rakarana also describe the Vaikuntha-murti similarly as four-faced, eight-handed and riding the mount Garuda. The attributes according to these texts should be a mace, a sword, a discus and an arrow in the right hands and a conch, a shield, a bow and a lotus in the left ones. We find an interesting story in Khajuraho inscription of Yashovarmadeva (CE 954) about the four-faced Vaikuntha form of Vishnu. It states that Kapila and two other demons had obtained a boon from Brahma that they should be killed only by one who would assume their forms. In order to kill the demons Vishnu assumed the syncretistic form of Vaikuntha with the faces of lion, boar and Kapila. This mythological story, however, is not met with anywhere else. The above-mentioned Khajuraho inscription refers to the construction of the Lakshmana Temple at Khajuraho for setting up the fourfaced Vaikuntha image which was brought from the Kailash region and presented to the Shahi ruler of Kangra as a token of friendship but was taken away forcibly from the Shahi king by king Herambapala. The Chandella king Yashovaraman snatched this image from Herambapalas son Devapala. Another Vaikuntha temple known to us is the larger Sas (of the Sas-Bahu) temple at Gwalior built in CE 1093 by king Mahipala. We have some inscriptional evidence of the installation of Vaikuntha images in temples in Kashmir also. Numerous other shrines dedicated to this god who must have existed once have not survived the vicissitudes of nature and human vandalism. Haryana being located in close vicinity of Mathura seems to have embraced Vaikuntha worship very soon after its inception as indicated by the Gupta image bearing
additional lion and boar faces now worshipped in a Shiva temple at Gharaunda, a straggling town near Karnal on the Sher Shah Suri Marg (National Highway No. 1) and famous for its Mughal sarai carava resting place. Kapal-Mochan, a holy place and pilgrimage near Jagadhari in district Yamunanagar has yielded a late Gupta broken image of Vaikuntha which betrays the continuing popularity of the god in this region. An almost complete image measuring 65 x 40 cm which may roughly be dated to the period of king Harshavardhana shows the nimbate god wearing a flat cylindrical crown (kirita-mukuta), earrings, torque, sacred thread, vaijayantimala long garland, lower garment secured by a waistband and having clearly carved leonine face on his proper right and boar face on the left. His natural hands hold a lotus and conch while the additional hands are placed over personified mace (Gadadevi) and conch (Shankha-purusha). The period of seventh through the ninth century saw the evolution of small portable plaques of the deity. Such plaques have been recovered from Hat near Safidon and Agroha near Hisar. The most beautiful image of Vaikuntha, however, comes from Pehowa showing sparing use of jewellery, graceful curves and contours, pleasing composition, detailed care given even to the incidental figures and delicacy of chisel work which bestow a distinctive character to this one of the loveliest reliefs from Haryana belonging to the first half of the tenth century CE bearing affinity to the Pratihara idiom. Images and fragments found from Pinjore, Chandimandir, Lalru, Kurukshetra, Asandh and Jasat near Pataudi furnish ample evidence of the popularity of Vaikuntha in Haryana during the medieval period. Medieval iconoclasm and religious bigotry, however, seem to have pushed this god into oblivion and people now are hardly aware of his name and the fact that once Vaikuntha was a popular god of the region. g The writer is a former chairman, department of Ancient History, Culture and Archaeology, Panjab University, Chandigarh
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Coins
Virjanand Devkarni
tell history
There is history embedded in the coins, which when deciphered, throws open the doors to our ancient past
literature and Puranas, we come to know about the lineage of various kings and discovery of coins has proved their historical relevance and truth. The existence of Bhanumitra, Vangpal and others Panchal kings; Kunindas; Yaudheyas; Arjunaayaans; Maalwas; Mahadevas; Audumbers; Agrahars; Shibis; Kanishka, Huvishks and other Kushans dynasty kings; Chandragupta Smaudragupta and
Coin of army chief Veer Dwar found at Rohtak

other Gupta kings; Aganimitra, Bhraspatimitra and other rulers; kings of Kushambhi, Ganendra-bhav-nag and other Nag dynasty kings; Satkarnis, Andharas, Pallavas, Cholas, Ghadwallas, Harshvardhan; Rudradaman and other Kshatrapas dynasty, Abhimanu-Sangram and other Kashmiri kings; Menander, Apollodotus and other Indo-Greek kings; Ujjain, Takshila, Mathura, Mahipal Deva and other kings of the Thomar dynasty; Someshwar Dev, Bisal Dev, Prtihaviraj and other Chauhan kings; from Mohammad Gauri to George VI; Shiavaji Maratha; Ranjeet Singh, the Sikh king and other numerous dynasties has been proved by the discovery of coins. From the size, weight and design of various coins, we come to know about the system of measurement followed during that time. On various coins we find mention of various periods and name of the minting areas which proves the existence of many historical places with their corresponding eras. Similarly, single coins depicting name of two rulers indicate the co-existence and co-rule of two kings. The name of the old king on the coin when is superimposed by a new rulers name indicates that the old king was defeated by the new king and the new king was in a hurry to have his own coin depicting his rule. The king was very much interested in having his own royal insignia and hurriedly got the old currency punched in his name so that the people followed it, symbolizing his sovereignty . For example Dambhutis coins depict a punched name of
he place of coins in understanding the ancient history is of utmost importance. In India the excavation of ancient sights has revealed hordes of coins. These coins are of various mediums like metal gold, silver, copper, bronze, brass and various metal alloys and terracotta and leather. From the ancient Sanskrit
Casting blocks for coins belonging to Gaudheya Rajput-Khakhrakot (Rohtak)
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Lord Krishna had thee lineages: Andhak, Bhoj and Vardesh. Out of the three, in the coins issued by Vardesh, both Kharosthi and Bharami scripts have been used and they depict symbols like elephant, lion, chakra etc. This shows that Vardesh believed in the Vishnu incarnation of Krishna. The Turkish kings of Sultanate period like Mohammad Ghauri, Balban and others; Allaudin Khilji and Sher Shah Suri used Devnagari script in their coins. The initial policy of the earlier Muslim kings was to establish themselves among the natives of India as one of them and not as an outsider. Thus, by using Devangari script in their coins, they tried to project themselves as real patrons of the Indians. This was a policy used by them to consolidate their empire. In those areas where we find the coins of a particular ruler, we can conclude, that the area was under the rule of that king in that particular era. Further, when we get a horde of coins of different rulers, this indicates their presence in the same era, only their time of rule differs by a few decades in that particular era. Similarly, from the study of coins,
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Coin of Indo-Greek king Eucratides

Vangpal which is superimposed on the name of Dambhuti. The worlds oldest punch-marked coins depict some logos like sun, stars, fish, peacock, mountains, bow and arrow and other symbols. An analysis of these coins tells us about the ancient customs, beliefs and culture of that era. The coins of Yaudheyas depicting Shiva, Parvati, Kartikeya, Nandi, Hand, Trishul, Chakra and other symbols show that the Yaudheyas were shavites. Similarly, coins of Kanshika show Mahatma Buddha. Besides this, they also have pictures of Shiv, Surya, Vayu devta and Agni devta, which means the Indian gods were venerated by the Kanishk people. During the Gupta dynasty we find coins depicting Goddess Laxmi seated on a lotus (Kamal Pushp). The Agrahars who are known to be the forefathers of Aggarwal community, had Lion, Nandi and Gaj-Laxmi on their coins. Similarly, the Nag dynasty had the Nandi as the symbol on the coins issued by them. The kings of the Panchal dynasty had given Surya (Sun) and Agni (fire), a prominent place on the first face of their coins. The coins issued by Panchalas in the western border areas of ancient India, had both Bharami and Kharosthi script on either side of each coin. This indicates that the people living in western areas of ancient India during that time had knowledge of both Bharami and Kharosthi scripts. Similarly, in the far western frontiers of ancient India, coins having Kharosthi and Greek scripts were in use.
we can get an idea of the old language, customs, culture, education, religion, ruler, kingdom, defence advancements and art forms. The coins issued by various kings are a subject of dedicated and deep research for a scholar of history . Further, if the findings on the study of coins are also proved by the ancient literature, bhoj patras, copper plates, rock inscriptions, pillar inscriptions etc, a job of the historian is to assimilate these findings in a proper chronological manner. The study and research of numerous panegyric compositions found on secret coins which if found to be similar to the panegyric compositions on copper plates or rock inscriptions, helps in correlating historical past, thereby, proving its occurrence which otherwise would have remained lost. For this type of research which is carried out by researchers, the Haryana Purutatav Sangharaley at Gurukul, Jhajjar, is at the help of the researchers. This museum holds the priceless treasures related to the ancient history of Haryana.g The writer is Director , Puratatav Sangharaley, Gurukul, Jhajjar .
Casting blocks for coins of Samantdev and Yaudheyas at Khakrakhot (Rohtak)
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A peep into our past

The cultural ethos of Haryana before 18th century
Artefacts of Harappan Era
Ravneet Kaur
aryana has been the hub of social, cultural and religious activity in India, even before the time of Vedic civilisation. The history of Haryana is marked by constant integration of diverse cultures with continuous migration of people from different parts of the world. Given its distinctive geography , the state of Haryana was witness to the invasions of the Muslim rulers, battles of the Marathas and the Sikhs. Hindu saints, Buddhist monks and Sikh gurus have traversed Haryana, spreading their message of universal love and brotherhood. Sihi in Faridabad, the birth place of great Hindi poet Surdas, is another nucleus of culture in Haryana while the legend of Lord Krishna is very evident in the lives of the people. Haryanas history and culture is
ancient and dynamic, spanning back to the beginning of human civilisation. Primitive society was largely nomadic and pastoral. Man spent most of his time hunting for food, making and using tools, protecting himself from animals and fighting with natural calamities. He worshipped natural elements like water, air, fire and trees. The status of man and woman was equal. The domestication of plants and animals usually distinguishes Neolithic culture from earlier Paleolithic or Mesolithic hunting, fishing, and foodgathering culture. Bronze and iron brought revolution in the life of man. Concept of rich and poor developed. Indus valley civilisation falls in this Bronze Age. With the advent of iron, man started cleaning more and more forests for agriculture. Thus, agriculture forced man to lead a settled
life. This was also the beginning of private ownership of land. Indus valley civilisation was basically an urban civilisation and the people lived in well-planned towns. The highly civilized Harappans knew the art of growing cereals, and wheat and barley constituted their staple food. They consumed vegetables and fruits and ate mutton, pork and eggs as well. Evidences also show that they used cotton as well as woolen garments. Both males and females used nearly same dresses. Fan-shaped headdress was common among women. Men kept short beards but shaved their moustaches. Females used various cosmetics to beautify themselves. Both, rich and poor, wore various ornaments of different metals like gold, silver, copper and precious as well as semiprecious stones. Necklaces, armlets and finger-rings were mostly used by males
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Terracotta Stamps from Jind

while females used headbands, bracelets, bangles, ear-rings and anklets in addition to them. Fishing, hunting and bird fighting was main source of entertainment for them. Toys like carts whistles and rattles were favourite among children. Mostly dead were buried and certain household articles were also buried with them. This was may be because they believed in life after death. Indus valley civilisation was followed by Vedic period. Haryana was a part of the state of Punjab for a long time. The largely accepted view is that a section of Aryans reached the frontiers of the Indian subcontinent around 200 BC and first settled in Punjab and it is here, in this land, where the hymns of Rig-Veda were composed. The Vedic Age laid the foundation of Hinduism and religious practices associated with it. The increase in population, development of the agrarian economy , increase in local trade, the caste factors, and emergence of the ruling class and hereditary nature of kingship, all led to the rise of small kingdoms. Families were patrilineal and people prayed for the abundance of sons. Regarding their food habits, Yava, which probably meant wheat, barley and beans, was the chief foodstuff of Aryans. Milk and its various preparations like ghee butter and curd were used. The flesh of ox, sheep and goat was normally eaten. Horse flesh was eaten only on special occasions. For beef, only barren cows called Vasas were sacrificed. Both cotton and woolen garments of different colours were used. A special garment was worn by a bride at her marriage ceremony . The kurira was some kind of head garment worn specially by brides. Niksha Rukma and Mani were popular ornaments. Aryans had not built up cities, they lived in villages. Roads were built up and carts and chariots were popular means of transport. The chariot race, hunting, gambling and dicing, dancing and music were main sources of entertainment of Aryans. The drum, the lute and the flute were very much familiar to them. An important development of the later Vedic age was the division of the society based on work into different castes. The Brahmins or the priestly class led the society in conducting religious duties and educating people, the Kshatriyas were warriors, the Vaishyas or merchants were petty businessmen and peasants and the Shudras or the outcasts performed menial jobs like scavenging, fishing and removing dead bodies. The caste system was rigid at this time and people could not change jobs according to their ability and interest. According to studies, women enjoyed equal status and rights during the early Vedic period. There were women teachers, scholars, Brahmavadins and highly respected rishis and they also participated in battles. However, later (approximately 500 BC), the status of women began to decline with the Smritis (codified law books) especially Manusmriti and with the Islamic invasion of Babur and the Mughal empire and later Christianity curtailing women's freedom and rights. She was started being treated as commodity . Tulsidass celebrated line in Ramcharitmanas: dhol, ganwar , shudra, pashu, nari; yeh sab taran ke adhikari very well portrays position of
women. Decline in the status of women is also sometimes related with agriculture. As man developed in agriculture, women started taking backward position because of her physical structure. She had to give birth to babies and take care of them and so had to stay at home. During medieval period, there came a radical decline in women's status. When foreign conquerors like Muslims invaded India they brought with them their own culture. They treated woman as the sole property of her father, brother or husband who did not have any will of her own. Indian men also started treating women the same way in order to show their dominance over women. As polygamy was prevalent, these invaders picked up any women they wanted and kept her in their harems. In order to protect themselves, Indian women started using 'Purdah', (a veil). They were not allowed to move freely . These practices gave rise to some new evils such as Child Marriage, Sati, Jauhar and restriction on girl education. If we leave aside the status of women and talk of the Mughal period in other terms, it is often referred to as the golden period in the history of Indian art, craft, architecture and culture. The Mughal rulers brought with them a rich heritage, which they had acquired from Persia. They introduced many new forms of art such as carpet weaving, inlay work, brocades, enameling and glass engraving. The style became popular and seeped into Hindu temples too, especially in Kaithal, Kalayat and Rohtak. The mughals brought with them their rich aromatic food culture in India. Their cooking methods included lot of milk and cream with exotic spices, nuts and dried foods to make it more rich and spicy . Poetry was also a big accomplishment in Indian culture during this period. Mostly poetry was written in Persia because it was an official language until the sack of Delhi in 1739, and Urdu became the new language after that. The costumes were lavish with work elaborately done on them. Block print fabrics were in vogue during this period. Bandhini, Lehariya and mothra was also seen. Rich designs and ornaments gave a splendid touch to this period. Assimilation of different cultures makes Haryanas culture rich and copious. g
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The legend of the Saraswati

The river Saraswati which once flowed through Haryana and was considered sacred and praised in the Vedas is now history . There is a serious attempt to resurrect the river
Amanbir Kaur Brar
Saraswati of weak and declining stage, by the name Ghaggar. Over a 3000 year-long period since the Vedic times the drainage pattern of many rivers had changed. The decline of Saraswati appears to have commenced between 50003000 BC, probably precipitated by a major tectonic event in the Siwalik Hills of Sirmur region. Intense investigations during the last thirty years have yielded fruitful data obtained through ground and satellite based techniques as well as from palaeoseismic, and palaeoclimatic records all of which had enabled a good reconstruction of the drainage evolution in north-western India. In addition, TL-dating of dry-bed sands and isotopic studies of the groundwater below these channels provided useful links in these reconstruction efforts. The observed river-shifts and other changes could also be correlated with specific geologic, seismic or climatic event that occurred during the mid- to late-Quaternary period. The Dirshadvati and the Saraswati according to the Vedic literature were two distinct rivers in the beginning but by the time Aryans reached that area, these had joined together to form one stream. The Chautang, one time considered a tributary of Hakra, was the main stream of the Dirshadvati and later on when the Dirshadvati discharged in the Saraswati, it indirectly became a tributary of the Saraswati. The Dirshadvati is another name for the Chautang. Due to existence of Jamuna fault in Siwaliks, the Jamuna could not have flowed westwards through the bed of Hakra,
A temple in Pehowa, where the Saraswati once flowed
aryana government is now planning to revive the course taken by Saraswati river by building a 50 kmlong channel in Kurukshetra. The Union Government has recently admitted that scientists have discovered water channels indicating beyond doubt the existence of the Vedic Saraswati. The Centre has embarked on an ambitious project to trace Saraswati, the mythological river, believed to be flowing underground and forming the Sangam in confluence with the Ganga and the Jamuna. Above are the recent reports of the newspapers with regard to the Saraswati river. The legend of the Saraswati river has lived on in India since time immemorial. Vedas are full of tantalizing hymns about it being the life-stream of the people. The river Saraswati, during its heydays, is described to be much bigger than Sindhu or the Indus river. During the Vedic period, this river had coursed through the region between modern Yamuna and Sutlej. According to geological and glaciological studies, Saraswati was supposed to have originated in Bandapunch masiff. It passed through the plains of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat before falling into the Arabian Sea at the Rann of Kutch. The rivers, Saraswati and Ghaggar, are supposed to be one and the same, though a few workers use the name Ghaggar to describe Saraswatis upper course and Hakra to its lower course, while some others refer
which is too narrow to carry its waters. South of Simla, between the towns of Jagadhari on the east and Patiala in the west, there are at least seven beds of ancient streams and also two more to the west of Patiala. All these flow from North-northeast to South-southwest and merge into each other forming two major streams, the Dirshadvati to the east and the Saraswati to the West. The Dirshadvati is represented by the eastern most streams, now called the Chautang and the Saraswati, by the rest eight streams which are considered its tributaries, although stream capture was common between the two throughout their life time. During the early or the Lower Pleistocene (2.0 million years to 5,00,000 years ago), due to start of aridity , the Dirsahdvatis waters reduced and it could not reach the Luni. The tectonic movements in the head reaches of the Dirshadvati and the Saraswati in Siwaliks may to some extent have been responsible in changing courses of these streams but the major factor was large amounts of silt, which they carried with themselves from Siwaliks and deposited it down streams blocking their own path. The Saraswati had a number of tributaries in Haryana and Ganganagar district of Rajasthan. These tributaries covered a wide valley extending from the Siwaliks and the area presently occupied by towns of Dadwati, Ganganagar, Jakhal, Tajewala, Jagadhari, Panipat, Thanesar and
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Ancient river
Patiala. It had almost a catchment area of about 10,000 square miles, from which it drained its summer and winter monsoon waters, as well as Himalayan snow melts, making the Saraswati a perennial river. It is not certain from aerial photographs if the whole of the Sutlej during pre- Pleistocene period passed into the Saraswati or only a part of it. During mid and late Pleistocene, the Sutlej was an independent river allowing only its spill waters to the Saraswati. The Indus culture settlements existed along the old courses of the Saraswati from fort Abbas to Derawar Fort, as investigated by Mughals. Renowned historian, Stein investigated the following sites along Ghaggar and Hakra bed in Bikaner and eastern Bahawalpur:- Bhadrakali, Munda Fatehgarh, Kalibangam, Bhawar, Badopal, Ranimahal, Karnisar, Sardargarh, Sohankot, Suwaiki, Bijnagar, Ramsinghpur, Binjor, Walar, Sandhnawala, Kudwala and Luriwala. All these sites are either Chalcolithic (Indus Culture) or early historica, going back to the period of arrival of Aryans and none later than about 750 BC. The earlier sites go back to 2300 BC. Once Hakra or Saraswati became non-perennial, its contribution to the local economy was limited to pastoralism in Rajasthan and Cholistan. But in Sind below Jamrao Head, it supported some agriculture in summer, although not very regularly ,
probably up to1200 AD, and occasionally after-wards but, this date cannot be stated with accuracy . There are, however, indications of occasional supply of water up to mid 18th Century . Even as a non- perennial river, it could not have been utilized for navigation at the time of Greek conquest of Sind, in 325 BC, and afterwards. As a perennial river, it did contribute to navigation and means of communication with the other Indus culture cities in Sind, Kathiawar and Gujarat. A study of ancient cultures gives indication that archaeological sites of the Early (3500 BC-2350 BC) and mature Indus Culture (2350 BC-2000 BC) existed along the ancient courses of the Saraswati, Ghaggar the main channel of the Saraswati on which flourished Kalibangan, and the Chautang. The Iron age or Grey Ware sites (around 1000 BC) also existed along the upper reaches of Ghaggar, but not along the lower Saraswati (or Hakra proper). Along major courses of the Saraswati and the Dirshadvati, there is fresh ground water, especially along Dharmi Khu, Ghantial, Ghotarou and down to Shahgarh, where it is available at 30-40 metres depth. It appears that this ground water in the area moves under the old course from Himalayas in a slow movement which takes centuries. The ancient settlements along the banks of Hakra or Saraswati go back to the Indus culture times (2000 BC, in its
whole reach and 2350-1650 BC, below Naukot), and some of these have been located very close to its mouth in the Rann of Kutch, i.e, near Rahim-kiBazar and Sindhuri. Historical versions on Hakra, recorded mostly in the 17th century and afterwards, cannot be considered authentic, especially about the events which in this particular case, took place around 2000 BC, or even in 11th 13th centuries AD. Although historians of these works have been too assertive, the fact remains that their source of information was contemporary folklore. Folklore on the other hand is full of eulogies and exaggerations and the story tellers (Sugharhs) have given free rein to their imaginations and these have changed from occasion to occasion, according to how good a sugharh was. Folklore, therefore, is not a media to resolve an issue, totally contradicted as it is by the scientific evidence. Finding a river, which is history now, is worthwhile. But the concept of reviving the river again is not at all appreciating. In the present times, water has become a big issue. We are fighting against the scarcity of this life support element. We should save our already existing rivers which are on the verge of extinction. But over here we are failing miserably and to revive an ancient river seems a far thought. g The article is based on the researches of historian Mr M H Panwar
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Antiquity of Pehowa
The modern day Pehowa was called Prithudaka in ancient times and was regarded as an important pilgrimage place of India
Nishant Prabhakar
odern day Pehowa is a bustling grain market, thirty five kilometres from Kurukshetra. It offers a little clue to its antiquity. The town is like any other humdrum mandi town of Haryana or Punjab. Located on National Highway 65, Pehowa is a place where the Hindus come for the last rites of their departed relatives. They are greeted by pandas or priests who perform the required pind-daan and then they depart. Close to the holy tank is a sprawling gurudwara and a busy busstand. The modern name Pehowa is a corruption of the Sanskrit word Prithudaka, which was the original name of the town as mentioned in the Garibnath Temple inscription of this place. Rajasekhara (10th century AD) has also mentioned Prithudaka as an outpost of Uttarapatha. The Mahabharata and the Puranas also refer to Prithudaka as a holy place. Traditionally, it derives its name from Prithu, son of king Vena who was a scion of Hiranyakasipu and was cured of his leprosy by bathing in the Saraswati. Prithu thought it his filial duty to do something for the good of his father. So after cremating his father's body, he performed the usual funeral rites and sat on the bank of the Saraswati for twelve days offering water (Udaka) to all comers. The spot, therefore, came to be known as Prithudaka (Prithu + udaka), i.e. Prithu's water or pool, and the city which he built on or near the spot was also named similarly. All the derivations, however, seem to be only the modern efforts to explain the name linguistically, of course, in the perspective of local history and tradition. The people say that Prithvi Raja built a temple and called it by the name Prithveswar. It stood in front of the place now occupied by Garibnath's establishment. Much sculpture has been found there. The word Prithveswar contracts more easily into Pehoa or as some call it Pehowa than does Prithudaka. Some scholars give another explanation for the name of the town. They believe that because of geo-tectonic changes and aeolian winds advancing from the west, the bed of the river Saraswati got choked resulting in the formation
Doorway from Visvamitra Ka Tila in the Saraswati Temple
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Pasupatinatha (Sravananatha) Temple
of a reservoir of fresh and deep water in its present bed. The place where abundant (Prithu means abundant also) water (udaka) was available was thus called Prithudaka.
THE ANCIENT PRITHUDAKA

Prithudaka has been regarded as one of the most important tirthas of India. It is situated on the bank of the Saraswati river which has been held as the most divine and the best of the rivers in the Rigveda. Famous in all the three worlds, it has been regarded as possessing many merits, remover of sins and auspicious. The town of Pehowa is built partly upon the low ground and partly on an old mound as lofty as that of Thanesar, or from 30 to 40 feet high. There is an inscription in the Garibnath Temple belonging to king Bhoja (Pratihara) and it is dated to 882 AD. Another inscription from this place is now preserved in the Lahore Museum. It belongs to Bhoja's successor, Mahendrapala. These inscriptions reveal that Pehowa was a flourishing town in the ninth-tenth
centuries AD. The fact of its being a famous town can be guessed from the fact that a certain scholar, Prithudakasvami, wrote a commentary at Kurukshetra on Brahmagupta's Brahmasphutasiddhanta (seventh century AD) shortly before AD 864 under the Pratihara king Bhoja. Renowned archaeologist Cunningham had found large sized bricks, 18 x 12 x 2.5-3 inches, from Pehowa. Another archaeologist, Rodgers has also recorded bricks of 13.5 x 9 x 2.5 inches and fragments of sculptures and temple remains at Pehowa but it is difficult to date them precisely in the absence of illustrations. A terracotta figure obtained by Cunningham from Pehowa, amongst other remains, was illustrated by him and may be dated back to the Gupta period. Another brick-panel containing the figure of a dvarapala dated to circa 4-5th century AD has also come to light from Pehowa. Kushana and Kuninda coins recovered from the site by Rodgers push back its antiquity to
about the beginning of the Christian era. Since a great part of the ancient mound is now under habitation, the early history of the town seems to be sealed under it. The earliest remains known so far, however, are in the form of potsherds which were collected from the southern and south-eastern part of the mound now under habitation. These potsherds are known to the archaeologists by the name of Painted Grey Ware which belong to the first half of the 1st millennium BC. Prithudaka had a very large number of tirthas. Such a large number of holy places could not have been established on the banks of a desiccated river. The sanctity of the Saraswati river and of the tirthas on its banks, eulogised so often in religious works, indicates that they were established on the perennial river as depicted in the Rigveda. Some of the tirthas, too, are reminiscent of the facts and events recorded in the Vedic literature. g The article is based on the researches of historian Dr Devendra Handa
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Battles
that changed history
The three battles of Panipat between 1526 and 1761 changed the course of Indian history and firmly placed Muslim rule in India till 1857
Amanbir Kaur Brar
istorically, Panipat brings memories of the three major battles fought on this land. Every invader who came to loot and plunder after traversing Punjab had to fight a pitched battle in Haryana before reaching Delhi.
FIRST BATTLE
The first Battle of Panipat was fought between Sultan Ibrahim Lodhi of Delhi and Babur, on April 21, 1526. It gave a death blow to the Lodhi Empire and marked the end of the Delhi Sultanate's rule in India. It led to the establishment of the Mughal Empire. Mongol prince Zahir-ud-Din Muhammad, known as Babur, had promised to help Daulat Khan Lodhi,
Governor of Lahore, to fight the Sultan of Delhi, Ibrahim Lodhi. Ibrahim fought with a big army of one lakh soldiers whereas Babur possessed only 12 thousand soldiers. Superior battle tactics, better organizational abilities and the deadly use of cannons won for Babur a decisive battle over Ibrahim Lodhi. Lodhi was killed and Delhi and Agra passed into the hands of Babur. This laid the foundation of Mughal dynasty which ruled India for more than 200 years. It was during this battle that artillery was used for the first time in India. At the time of the Babur's invasion, India was a house divided. In fact many historians believe that Babur was invited by both, Daulat Khan, Governor of Punjab and Rana Sangha.
SECOND BATTLE
On 24th January 1556 AD, Mughal ruler Humayun slipped while climbing down the steps of his library and fell to his death. His son, Akbar was only thirteen years old when he ascended the throne. At the time of Akbar's accession to the throne, the Mughal rule was confined to Kabul, Kandhar, and parts of Punjab and Delhi. Akbar was then campaigning in Punjab with his chief minister Bairam Khan. On February 14, 1556, in a garden at Kalanaur, Akbar was enthroned as emperor. Hemu (Hemchandra) was a military chief of the Afghan King Muhammad Adil Shah who had established himself at Chunar and was seeking to expel the Mughals from India. Taking advantage of Humayun's death, Hemu marched to Agra and Delhi in October and
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March 1764, he was forced to break off his siege after only two weeks due to rebellion in Afghanistan. He returned again in 1767, but was unable to win any decisive battle. With his own troops started arguing over a lack of pay , he eventually abandoned the district to the Sikhs, who remained in control until 1849. Before the rule of the Mughals, India was divided into small kingdoms. A unified kingdom with improved administration came into being. Side by side the local chiefs were suppressed. Apart from this, the Mughals were familiar with advanced military tactics. For the first time, artillery was used by Babur in first battle of Panipat. People of India also learned warfare methods from them. Mughals used horses which made them fast and people of India used elephants, so they also shifted to horses instead of elephants.
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occupied it without difficulty , and became the ruler. To counter this, Bairam Khan (Akbar's guardian) marched towards Delhi. On November 5, 1556 both the armies met at Panipat. Hemu with a large army including 1,500 war elephants had initial success. There was a pitched battle and Hemu was on a winning spree when a stray arrow struck him in the eye. He fell unconscious. As in many other battles, the loss of the leader caused panic among the troops and turned the tide of the battle. The Mughals won the battle. There was a great slaughter of those who were captured and in keeping with the custom of his ancestors; Akbar had a victory pillar built with their heads. This battle, known as Second Battle of Panipat was an epoch-making event in the history of India as it resulted in reestablishment of the Mughal Empire in India.
According to Buddha Prakash, former Professor of History in Kurukshetra University , Though under Akbar, Jahangir and Shahjahan, Haryana enjoyed peace and saw the construction of roads, sarais, kosminars and wells, the condition of peasants did not improve. They shared the destitution and indigence of their fellows in other parts of the country . The government and its officials took away a major part of their produce in the form of taxes and other imposts."
POSITION OF WOMEN
There was no purdah in Hindus but, it was the gift of the Muslim rule in India. The position of women deteriorated with the coming of the Muslim rule.
EFFECTS ON DRESS, FOOD AND AMUSEMENT

Achkan and Salwar owe their introduction to the Muslims. Sharara and Kurta and Pathani suits were also brought by Muslims. The ornaments worn by women were mostly common except for the jhumar sui worn by the Muslim women on the side of the head. Mughals brought with them a rich non-vegetarian cuisine and a long list of tandoori dishes. They also made Indians familiar with summer fruits like water-melon, musk melon and grapes. Hunting, hawking, polo and many other games have the Muslim impact in their form and technique. Mughals were great lovers of flowers and gardens and this habit was also transmitted to many Hindus. They constructed beautiful gardens in Srinagar, Delhi, Agra, Lahore and Sirhind.
THIRD BATTLE
The Third Battle of Panipat was fought on January 14, 1761 between the Afghan invader Ahmed Shah Abdali and Marathas, the protectors and friends of the Mughal emperor Shah Alam II. In this battle, the Maratha commander Sadashiv Rao Bhau was defeated by the Afghan commander Ahmed Shah Abdali. Bhau, the Peshwas young son and a number of Maratha commanders fell in the battlefield. This gave a fatal blow to the Maratha power. The battle proved to be disastrous as not only the Marathas had to bear tremendous losses, but the event also marked the beginning of the downfall of the Mughals. The Mughals remained in nominal control over small areas of India, but were never a force again. The empire officially ended in 1857 when its last emperor was accused of being involved in the Sepoy Mutiny and exiled.
EFFECT ON THE LANGUAGE

Persian was the court language during the Mughal rule. The common people, however, spoke mixture of Hindustani and local dialect mixed with some Persian words. Gradual intermingling of the soldiers of the Mughal army with the local people gave rise to a new language, Urdu. Urdu became a popular language with the poets and writers and remained the official language in India for a long time.
SOCIAL EFFECTS
Muslim rule was no blessing to Indians particularly Hindus. They suffered cruelty and injustice. Only Muslims were appointed to high administrative posts. The jazia tax was imposed on Hindus. The Muslim rulers committed cruelties on the bulk of Hindus to make them embrace Islam. But during the rule of Akbar, jazia was abolished. However, both Hindus and Muslims changed a lot because of the close contact and social interaction between the two over a long period and this resulted in a new culture. It's an accepted fact that the ruling classes determine the culture of the common people. Muslim rulers used to keep men and women as slaves. Alauddin Khilji had as many as 84,000 slaves. As a result of contact with the Muslim rulers, the Hindu rulers also started keeping slaves in large number in their palaces and the condition of slaves also deteriorated with time.
EFFECT ON INDIAN ECONOMY

Agriculture and trade touched new heights during the Mughal rule. Hundreds of traders from Bukhara, Samarkand, Balkh, Khurasan, Khwarizm and Persia used to come for trade. The Mughal government facilitated commercial relations with the European nations and also allowed them to establish industries in the coastal regions. This resulted not only in commercial contacts but also in exchange of customs and traditions. During the two hundred years of Mughal rule, towns and the cities prospered while the peasants suffered from excessive taxation. g
POLITICAL EFFECTS
The verdict of Panipat decided that both the Marathas and the Afghans were not to rule over North India. They never regained any unity , and were soon under increasing pressure from the British. Their claims to empire were officially ended in 1818. Meanwhile the Sikhs, the original reason for Ahmad Shah Abdalis invasion, were left largely untouched by the battle. They soon re-took Lahore. When Ahmad Shah Abdali returned in
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Shadows of
Many invaders in the past entered India through Haryana owing to its geographical location and thus the region witnessed a number of bloody battles
invasions
Ruchi Sharma
wing to Haryanas geographical location and its immense riches, the land has witnessed many invasions in the past for loot and plunder. Several important battles were fought in the region that left impact on the history of India. Due to its proximity to the sea route in the west, many invaders came into India through this region; therefore it is also known as "The Gateway of North India". The successive streams of Huns, Turks and the Afghans invaded India and fought decisive battles on this land.
chiefs of north India. In the meantime the chiefs of north India had seen the consequences of not responding to the plea of the Tomara king. Thus, they readily rallied round the Tomara chief and advanced to recover Haryana from the Ghaznavis. While the Ghaznavis were inflicting heavy blows on Haryana, the Lohara kings of Kashmir also launched an expedition, campaigned at Kurukshetra and conquered the territory upto the Yamuna. This disastrous calamity may have forced the Tomaras to make a patch-up with the Ghaznavis.
11TH CENTURY
During the rule of Pratiharas and Tomaras, Haryana reached the peak of progress in trade, art and culture. In the 11th century, the Tomaras, though independent of the Pratiharas, had to bear invasions of the Ghaznavi Turks. In 1014, Mahmud Ghaznavi raided Thanesar and desecrated its temples. The Tomara chief pleaded to other Indian princes for help to ward off the Ghaznavis in order to save north India from his depredation, but received no response. Mahmud invaded and plundered many regions marching through Haryana. Being thus cornered, the Tomaras formed a league of some leading
12TH CENTURY
In the 12th century, the Chauhans defeated the Tomaras by invading Haryana. In about 1156, Bisaladeva or Vigrahraja IV defeated the Bhadanakas, the people of Haryana, and captured Delhi and Hansi from the Tomaras. This victory made the Chauhans an all India power because under the Tomaras the possession of Delhi and Haryana had become the symbol of an all-India status. In that state of conflict, the invaders from the north-west made several bids to conquer the region but the Chauhans repelled all of them. Shihabuddin Mohammad Ghori occupied Sialkot in 1181 and five years later, captured Lahore from the last
Ghaznavi ruler Khusrau Malik. From there he began his raids and razzias into the domain of the Chauhans in Haryana. According to tradition, he led eight invasions against the Chauhans. In seven battles, Prithviraj defeated Ghori. The seventh battle was quite momentous for in it the Chauhans had severely wounded and nearly killed Shihabuddin, but could not effectively pursue the invaders in West Panjab. With the defeat of Prithviraj at Terrain in 1192 AD by Ghori, a new chapter opened in the history of Haryana and left an impact on Indian history. The following 600 years covered the period of the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal Empire, when Haryana suffered the most owing to its proximity to the capital.
13TH AND 14TH CENTURY

In 1206, Qutbuddin Aibak sat on the throne of Delhi and inaugurated Turkish rule in north India. Their theory was that prosperity bred sedition and poverty was the guarantee of stability and peace. The people did not reconcile themselves to this tyranny and struggled to overthrow it whenever an opportunity occurred. After the death of Iltutmish, the Hindus revolted and shook the Sultanate for a while. In 1288, Jalaluddin Firuz Khilji
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was obviously disintegrating. During the 15th century, the Delhi government was not able to exercise authority over a wide area. The Hindus escaped persecution to some extent. The Bhakti and Sufi movements also rose in this period. Therefore, men like Kabir and Guru Nanak were able to preach without fear. With the consolidation of power by Sikander Lodi, persecution was revived. Under the last Lodi ruler, Ibrahim (1517-26) there was such great dissatisfaction that Babar who was encouraged to invade India repeatedly, succeeded at last at Panipat in 1526. This laid the foundation of the Mughal dynasty which ruled India for more than 200 years. At the time of Babars invasion, India was a house divided. Both Daulat Khan, governor of the Punjab, and Rana Sangha, are said to have invited Babar. The people of Haryana, however, refused to submit meekly. In 1529 the Mandhar Rajputs of Nardak region rebelled against their chief and defeated the local Mughal troops. Babar took serious note of the uprising and despatched a huge army to Nardak. After fierce fighting, lasting several days, the rebels were defeated. The rule of his son, Humayun, with a brief spell by Sher Shah, followed uneventfully till the coming of Akbar who ruled for forty-nine years. Akbar, however, had to face a great battle of Panipat in 1556, the Delhi forces being commanded by a great Hindu general Hemu. His military skill was such that he is ranked amongst the greatest generals of his time. Akbar won by sheer accident. Hemu could as well have been the winner. Akbar, the greatest of the Mughals, was averse to the people of this region because of their rebellious and independent disposition. With the coming of Aurangzeb the picture changed and his intolerance hastened the end of the Empire.
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usurped power and two years later he himself ascended the throne. In 1291, a dreadful famine broke out taking heavy toll of life and the people again became assertive. This made the next ruler, Alauddin (1296-1315) deal with a hard hand. Such laws were framed which curbed the wealth and prosperity of the people. Revenue was raised to half the produce, besides grazing charges and other dues. The people were irked by oppressive policies and reacted strongly. After the Sultan died, Qutbuddin Mubarak Shah (1315-1320) acceded to the throne. He withdrew many harsh enactments, reduced revenue, remitted arrears and lifted the controls. But the discontented Indians raised the superficially converted Khusrau Khan to the throne in 1320. Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq defeated Khusrau Khan and ascended the throne. He revived the repressive policies and laws of Alauddin. After him his son, Muhammad-bin-Tughlaq (1325-1351), adopted many fanatic schemes which goaded people to revolt. In 1351 Firuz Shah Tughlaq came to the throne and pacified the people and lifted oppressive imposts. He promoted agriculture by digging canals, planting groves and squaring up the revenue with the produce and also gave impetus to trade. His grandson, Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq II ascended the throne in 1388. His uncle, Nasiruddin Muhammad battled with him and faced defeat. This was followed by invasion of Timur.
in all parts of India took heavy toll on life. The disasters made people restless and rebellious. The Satnami uprising spearheaded this movement in Haryana. People from high and low professions though followed the path of faith and honesty but on offence, were ready to raise arms.

The agrarian crisis at the end of the 18th century threw the peasants, led by their zamindar chiefs, into rebellion over large parts of the country. In regions around Delhi, the Jats rose against the administration. Aurangzeb tried hard to subdue them. After the death of Aurangzeb in 1707, the empire which Babar and Akbar had built and Jahangir and Shahjahan nurtured, crumbled to pieces where Haryana suffered much. All the aspirants to power of the Imperial city had to fight in the Haryana territory. The two foreign invasions of Nadir Shah and Abdali further added to the confusion. Delhi has always been the heart of political life of Haryana and the neighbouring territory. From the early 18th century, it underwent swift decline after the disintegration of the Mughal Empire. The main steps in this direction were the sacking of Nadir Shah and Abdali, the civil wars of the nobility or feudal lords, and the atrocities of Ghulam Quadir. This was followed by the internecine wars between the Marathas, the Sikhs and the Jats. The situation was finally resolved by the British who occupied the Mughal capital in 1803 after defeating the Marathas in its vicinity. The two powers, the Afghans and the Marathas, failed to capture Delhi. The Panipat combat between the Afghans and the Marathas was not decisive but it showed that neither was suited to the role of political successor to the great Mughals. Other powers around Delhi, the Sikhs in the north, the Rajputs chiefs in the west, and the Bharatpur Jats in the south, were not strong enough to influence the final result. After Panipat, the Afghans returned to the north and the Marathas to the south, leaving the Sikhs and the Jats to fill the void. Emperor Shah Alam remained a feudatory of the Marathas till their defeat at the hands of the British in 1803. g

Timurs invasion affected Haryana vitally as he razed large part of the region by spreading terror and devastation. The martial communities of the area, the Jats, Rajputs and the Ahirs defied him at several places. He remained in Haryana for nearly one month and had to constantly fight with people there. At every step, Jats and non-Muslims gave him strong opposition. Thousands of people died in the defence of their soil. In contrast to this, the King of Delhi never thought of any resistance and rather advised the people to flee and save themselves. Even after the withdrawal of Timur, conditions did not improve in Haryana. The Jats and the Meos remained unrestrained. The sultanate
17TH CENTURY
Though under Akbar (1556-1605), Jahangir (1605-1627) and Shahjahan (1627-1658) Haryana enjoyed peace and saw the construction of roads, sarais, kosminars and wells, the condition of the peasants did not appreciably improve. The recurrent natural calamities like famines and draughts
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HARYANA:
town planning
Vivek Dangi
Precursor of modern
I
n the early decades of the last century, it was believed that there existed no civilisation worth the name on the Indian sub-continent prior to the invasion of Alexander in 326 BCE. This was the view of almost all the western historians and scholars, though it was a well-known fact that Vedas existed and which according to some scholars like Max Muller were as old as 1200 BCE. It was in 1862, that Alexander Cunningham, the first Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India, during his excavations, found pottery and seals at Harappa. He found a seal with a humpless bull and the engraved Harappan letters on it. But, he was unable to identify these things and attributed it to foreign influence. Thus, the discovery of the great Indus Valley civilisation began, when excavations were started in 1920-22 by Daya Ram Sahni at Mohenjodaro and by R D Banerjee at Harappa. The remains found, pushed with a single stroke, the antiquity of the civilisation in Indian sub-continent to third millennium BCE. The large scale excavations at Harappa and Mohenjodaro yielded a detailed picture of this civilisation, which in many spheres excelled the Egyptian and Mesopatamian
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A burnt brick drain in Bhirrana

and put thousand of Harappan sites on the archaeological map. The entire credit of putting Haryana on the archaeological map goes to Prof Suraj Bhan. He carried out extensive exploration in the Saraswati and Drisadvati valley and discovered about 250 sites belonging to various phases of Harappan civilisation and excavated Mitathal (Bhiwani district) in 1967. Later on excavations were carried out by different agencies at a number of sites viz. Banawali, Balu, Rakhigarhi, Kunal, Bhirrana, Farmana, Badli etc. Not even a single detailed report of the excavations is available, but on the basis of the available material we can know about the town planning of the Harappans. The striking feature of the Harappan town planning is citadel and lower town. All the important Harappan centers have both of these, but there are regional variations in them. Like Harappa, Dholavira and Kalibanga have separate citadel. But in Haryana the situation is quite different, here the entire settlement is fortified by a single defence wall and there is an internal wall which separates the acropolis from the lower town. Apart from fortification, emphasis is laid on the streets and lanes. They are properly laid in such a way that each and every house has opening in the main street or lane. The main features of the Harappan town planning are discussed below: In the Harappan town planning, there was provision of a Citadel and Lower town. Almost all the excavated sites like Banawali, Bhirrana, Rakhigarhi and Mitathal in Haryana or out of Haryana have yielded these types of divided cities. Just like Harappa, at Mohenjodaro and Kalibanga, citadel and lower town were located some distance away from each other and had separate fortification wall. In Haryana, the situation is quite different, here citadel and lower town are surrounded by a single defence wall and speared by the internal fortification wall. In Haryana, Banawali and Bhirrana are the two sites giving details of town planning of this period. Rest of the excavated
Streets, lanes and house plan, Bhirrana (After L.S. Rao, 2007)
civilisations. During the partition of India most of the famous sites were located in newly constructed country Pakistan. Only two sites viz. Kotala Nigang Khan in Punjab and Rangpur in Gujarat remained within the Indian border. After independence, scholars like A Gosh, Prof Suraj Bhan and J P Joshi carried out intensive explorations in north-western India
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COVER STORY
Bathing platform, Farmana

sites like Farmana, Rakhigarhi, Balu were excavated on large scale but in comparison to the size of settlements the excavated area was not enough to give much details about the town planning. At Banawali and Bhirrana, similar type of the planning was observed. The entire settlement was surrounded by a common defence wall and an internal parametric wall separated the citadel from the lower town. Evidences of citadel and lower town have come from Mitathal, Banawali, Rakhigarhi and Bhirrana. The fortification of wall of Banawali is trapezoidal in shape. Here no two arms of the defence wall were found either parallel to each other or equal in length. While at Bhirrana, it is more or less rectangular in shape, Balu is surrounded by a square wall. In Kalibanga, situated close to Haryana in Hanumangarh district of Rajasthan, the citadel was designed like a pentagon and lower town like a rectangle. At Rakhigarhi, the acropolis (RGR2) was surrounded by a mud brick wall. The internal or core of the wall was filled with the mud bricks whereas the interior and exterior were found lined with burnt bricks. The northern and southern arm of the defence wall was exposed up to 70 meters. Another feature of the Harappan defence system came from Banawali; entire settlement was surrounded by a V shaped moat. This moat was dug about three furlong from the defence wall. It was about 5.70 to 6.50 m wide at the top and measured about 3.60 m in depth. The excavator was able to locate the moat along with the eastern and northern arm of the fortification. It was probably filled with water. So far as its utility purpose is concerned, it seemed to be a part of defence system. The space between the moat and the wall was enough for the movement of the security guards and others. It also acted as a beam against the water of ditch and fortification wall. The total floor occupied by acropolis at Bhirrana is 2.75 hectare which is about one-third of the total size of the site. Streets and lanes played an important role in the urban planning of the Harappa. At most of the excavated sites such as Mitathal, Bhirrana, Farmana, Rakhigarhi and Balu, streets and lanes intersect at right angle. At Farmana, the main street was about 4 m wide, but later encroachments reduced it to 3.6 m. At Mitathal, one street measuring about 2 m and a lane were found. At Banawali, the formal arrangement of the streets and lanes was in cardinal direction and cut each other at right angle. Streets and lanes were managed in such a way that each house was like a separate sector. No two houses had a common wall. This type of plan was observed at acropolis, whereas in lower town, trapezoidal or conventional parallelogram shaped sectors of houses were found. Here a number of streets met at a point, in radial pattern. At one place near the main entrance, five streets met at a point, out of them three came from the interior of the town and two ran along the outer fortification wall of
COVER STORY
Banawali, not much evidences of drains were encountered, but some drains to let out rain water were found piercing through the defence walls and under gateways. Similar evidences have also been noticed at Bhirrana. A public drain made up of baked bricks was found and proper outlets from the houses were also observed. At Farmana, a drain made up of wedge- shaped burnt bricks and which runs east-west, was found during the excavation. Their sanitary arrangements depended on the use of sanitary pottery jars which served as washbasins, and also for soaking purposes and bathing platforms. Evidences of sanitary system came from Banawali, Rakhigarhi, Farmana and Bhirrana. Excavator of Banawali, R S Bisht claimed that at Banawali a multipurpose ground was observed in the acropolis. It was used for the stadium, performing ritual activities and open market. Similar evidences came from Dholavira, a Harappan site located in Gujarat.
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the city. In Farmana, the main street was about 4 m wide, but later encroachments reduced it to 3.6 m. This space was enough for the bullock cart, which was the only means of transportation during that period. Some cart wheel impressions were also noticed at the southern end of the main street. The average width of the lane is about 1.50 m, and it intersects the main street at right angle. After it runs 19 m straight towards south-west, it turns in the right angle towards the south (see figure-1). Bhirrana excavations enrich our knowledge about the streets and lanes of the Harappan civilisation. Here the major street running north-south was 4.80 m wide, where as the width of the lanes varied from 1.60 m to 2.80 m. Drainage system and refuse water management, too, played a vital role in the urban planning of the Harappans. Sites like Banawali, Rakhigarhi, Bhirrana and Farmana give us detailed information about the Harappan drainage system. At
The evidences came from the excavated sites of Haryana proves that the people in Haryana, knew the concept of town planning 4500 years ago and town planning of Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) is not unique. It is more or less a copy of Harappan town planning. Harappans were the masters of planning, exquisite monumental structures and aesthetic architecture. The concept of town planning, bathroom, washbasin, kitchen and courtyard was first introduced by the Harappans in the region. During the excavations, no objects like scales, compus, measuring tapes etc were found but the town planning itself proves that the Harappan people had good knowledge of trigonometry and other architectural calculations. In short, we can say that the land of Haryana has evidences of the earliest planned cities in the world and of the first in the Indian sub-continent. g The writer is a Research Scholar, Department of History, MDU, Rohtak
A burnt brick drain in Farmana (courtesy V.Shinde)
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COVER STORY
Phases of civilisation
but as the size of the groups began to increase and there was need for more food, these people began to make "specialized tools" by flaking stones, which were pointed on one end. These kind of tools were generally used to kill small animals and for tearing flesh from the carcass of the hunted animals. These tools were characteristic of the Paleolithic Age and were very rough. By this time, human beings had come to make and use fire.
MESOLITHIC AGE
As time passed and the size of families grew in small communities. There was a constant need to feed all the members of the community and to lead a life of subsistence. In the Mesolithic Age, the stone tools began to be made more pointed and sharp. To ensure a life that had abundance of food and clothing (rough animal skin garments were being worn by the Stone Age man), the stone tools began to appear in increasingly specialized way . The simple handheld stone tools were now attached to thick branches from trees with rope made from animal skin and sinew. These tools are known as hand axes, which could be flung at fast-moving animals from a distance. Apart from hand axes, they also produced crude stone-tipped wooden spears, adzes, borers, and burins. This period also saw the domestication of plants and growing of wild varieties of crops. Because of farming, small settlements began to take shape.
Stone Age painting PREHISTORY

The prehistoric period in the history of humankind can roughly be calculated from 200000 BC to about 3500-2500 BC, when the first civilisations began to take shape. The history of India is no exception to the above-mentioned fact. The first modern human beings or the Homo sapiens set their foot on the Indian subcontinent anywhere between 200000 BC and 40000 BC and they soon spread throughout a large part of the subcontinent, including peninsular India. These primitive people moved in groups of few families and mainly lived on hunting and gathering. While the males in the group spent most of their time in hunting, fishing, and gathering food like fruits, roots, and berries, the females gathered food, looked after the children and the dwellings where they lived.
STONE AGE
The age when the prehistoric man began to use stones for utilitarian purpose is termed as the Stone Age. The Stone Age is divided into three broad divisions- Paleolithic Age or the Old Stone Age (from unknown till 8000 BC), Mesolithic Age or the Middle Stone Age (8000 BC-4000 BC) and the Neolithic Age or the New Stone Age (4000 BC-2500 BC) on the basis of the specialization of the stone tools, which were made during that time.
NEOLITHIC AGE
The Neolithic Age (4000 BC-2500 BC) or the New Stone Age was the last phase of the Stone Age and is characterized by very finely flaked, small stone tools, also known as blades and burins. These stone blades are so sharp that the modern blades cannot match their smooth surface and cutting edges. The Neolithic Age also saw the domestication of cattle, horses, and other farm animals, which were used for dairy and meat products. An important invention of this time was the making of the wheel. The Neolithic Age quickly gave way to a number of small "cultures" that were highly technical. These people used copper and bronze to make a range of utilitarian tools. This phase or period is termed as the Chalcolithic Age (1800 BC-1000 BC). g
PALEOLITHIC AGE
The human beings living in the Paleolithic Age were essentially food gatherers and depended on nature for food. The art of hunting and stalking wild animals individually and later in groups led these people to make stone weapons and tools. First, crudely carved out stones were used in hunting,
ART AND CULTURE
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-for girl child

Kavita Singh
rom the time immemorial, artists, writers and thinkers have been found standing in the front row to bring about change in the society through their creative tools and farsightedness and have been successful in infusing fresh blood in the way all rational persons should think and act. It becomes a sort of sacred, moral and creative duty of an artist to reach the masses in order to enlighten them about the rapidly changing patterns in human values on the fabric of society . Though writers and poets create wonderful lyrics and poems on the theme of social change, foremost among the themes being the importance of girl child and her rights, but the visual impact created by artists in their creations on the said theme has more profound impact on the minds of the targeted population. As aptly summed up, a picture can easily carry a weight equal to a thousand words. Visual impact on the mind of the beholder is instant and enigmatic. The skewed sex ratio and the gender bias in favour of male child in Haryana has compelled the pundits of policymaking to formulate campaigns, which may undo this unjustified and unholy bias against the girl child. Value the Girl child was the theme of one such artists workshop in Government college for Girls, Chandigarh which saw the participation of eminent artists as well as the student painters who gave vent to their creative thoughts and talents and produced some fantastic works of art on this theme. This truly is in the right direction as through artistic pleadings one can educate and implore the masses to bring up the girl child and
Woman painters palette
Artists are lending a helping hand to government and society in creating a safe place for the girl child
Painting by the author

give her equal importance, amenities and opportunities. Merely equating a girl child to a devi will not suffice. Concrete steps have to be taken in this direction and art is the best medium one can think of. Scores of imaginative campaigns comprising powerful visual content can initiate the change of mindset. It is very heartening to note that United Nations Population Fund (UNPF) has also taken note of this gender disparity and has launched a campaign titled Ladli which awards prestigious prizes to the journalists who are instrumental in spreading awareness about this curse which is plaguing the society . Though Haryana Government has also started many schemes for the benefit of girl child yet it is pertinent to mention here that government alone cannot start a revolution and the participation of general public is of immense value. The campaigns which can remove gender bias have to be high on artistic content and low on loud eloquence. The situation has presented a challenge to
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ART AND CULTURE
Painting by Amrita Shergil

the artistic fraternity to join hands and defeat the negative aspects of this ageold stigma through their paintings, songs, lyrics and posters. Dedicated efforts through mass media can change the thinking of the people and they will develop love for the girl child. The legendary woman artist Amrita Shergil was perhaps the first such painter who touched upon the plight of a girl child and painted some moving and heart-rending paintings of frail rustic girls and ladies in pensive moods. More recently , the other famous woman artist who was moved by this theme is Arpana Caur of New Delhi. She has narrated the pangs of being a girl in her own inimitable style juxtaposing symbols of needles, threads, scissors, embroideries, stars and gotta tilla in awe-inspiring works which speak volumes of the drudgery and plight of a girl child and a woman. Anupam Sud has bared some of the upper pseudo cultural layers of maledominated society and has delved deep into the depths of a womans mind buried under the loads of injustice and gloom. In a masterly etching titled The Laundry she has expressed her desires to be free from the strings of strange culture and traditions which weigh heavily on her emotions and aspirations. Perhaps the most evocative amongst the women artists is well known artist Anjolie Ela Menon who through her works of young women with blank eyes and mute expressions on their faces
Painting by Arpana Caur

has uncovered the undercurrents of inherent abhorrence of a female child in our society peeping from behind the half shut doors and windows in search of openings and flights. Women trapped in situations not of their own making and the lurking fears and shadows of gloom inside them are depicted with poetic expressions. Similarly, Gogi Saroj Pals painting of a woman/beast not only has mythological connotations but is fraught with all the Freudian implications of a subliminal autobiography . These pictures though a bit shocking in stance and appearance narrate the tales of deprivation and unequal limitations and chains thrust upon a female. There is a yearning to become an equal if not better or bigger person than a male. One of the most sensitive female artists, Arpita Singh has used body of symbols to express the desires and aspirations of a woman through her free flowing scribbling. Her drawings which have a flavour of an urban woman caught in the whirlwind of modernity and unjustified values and her daily struggles for a rightful place in home and professional life. A woman with a girl child II is a very sensitive rendering of her thoughts on this theme and the lurking male violence engulfing her in unfathomed and unsaid sorrows. Similar views and pleadings are the content of marvellous poems written by famous poetess Nirupama Dutt in her
Painting by Anjolie Ela Menon

collection of poems titled The Black Woman. The creative contribution of other leading woman artists like Vasundhara Tiwari, Navjot Altaf, B. Prabha, Madhavi Parekh, Nalini Malini, Jaya Ganguly, Jayashree Chakravaty, Rekha Rodwittya, Shakuntala Kulkarni, Elena Banik have lent deep insight into the realms of womens fight for equality . These artists have painted scores of paintings, drawings and graphic prints highlighting the urgency to treat women as equal partners in all walks of life through the symbols of paper boats, dolls, pixies, butterflies, utensils and lanterns. Other series comprise of a Girl Child in Cactus Garden and some with horrifying crows and sharks lamenting their sorrows and plight. This should be treated as a neverending artistic crusade to place the girl child and the rights of a woman on the same pedestal so that much desired harmony, peace and love prevails in our society . I expect more woman artists to come forward and paint this theme in their own style so that we may set the ball of change in motion especially in Haryana. The brush of an artist will dispel the darkness from the minds of people and a new dawn will emerge where one will be able to see healthy, happy and protected girls smiling all the way .g The writer is Assistant Professor , Department of Fine Arts, Punjabi University, Patiala
SPECIAL REPORT
35
The 4th Municipal General Election

10 municipal councils and 28 municipal committees in Haryana to go to the polls on 20 May 2010
Dharam Vir, Haryana Election Commissioner
a contesting candidate is required to submit in writing his criminal background, if any, details of moveable or immoveable assets and educational qualification. Also, he has to submit along with his nomination paper, an affidavit stating that he is not suffering from any disqualification as provided in section 13 A of the Haryana Municipal Act, 1973, rule 21 of the Haryana Municipal Election Rules, 1978 and section 8 of the Haryana Municipal Corporation Act, 1994, in respect of election to municipal council or committee or corporation. The limit of the expenditure that may be incurred by the contesting candidates or his authorised election agents in connection with the election is Rs 75,000 for a member of municipal corporation, Rs 50,000 for a member of municipal council and Rs 35,000 for a member of municipal committee. The contesting candidates are also required to maintain account of election expenditure and submit the same within 30 days from the date of declaration of the result of the election to the Deputy Commissioner or with any other officers specified by the Commission, failing which the defaulting candidate shall be liable to be disqualified. Meanwhile, in an important decision, the Punjab and Haryana High Court cleared the decks for holding Panchayat elections in the state in two phases in May and June. However the court made it clear that the fate of these elections would depend on the outcome of the petition filed by the residents of Bhiwani and other areas. The term of the elected panchayats has already expired on April 30; therefore elections are to be held before May 31. g
Nishant Prabhakar
he 4th Municipal General Elections for 35 wards of Municipal Corporation, Faridabad, 266 wards of 10 municipal councils and 436 wards of 28 municipal committees are to be held on 20 May 2010 in Haryana. The election code had come into force from 26 April 2010 and will remain in force till 25 May 2010. However, the seven newly established municipal corporations at Yamunanagar, Panchkula, Ambala, Rohtak, Panipat, Karnal and Hisar will not go for the polls. The State Election Commission has purchased 5,314 electronic voting machines (EVMs) and remaining EVMs would be taken from the Chief Electoral Officer, Haryana. Haryana State Election Commissioner Dharam
Vir said, This is for the first time in the country that EVMs are being used in the elections of municipal bodies in the state, hence Haryana gets the first distinction in this respect. The votes polled will be counted immediately after the polling is closed, at the polling station itself on the same day that is May 20, itself. The election result would be declared immediately after the account of ballot papers received from the Presiding Officers of the polling stations of the constituency (ward) is consolidated by the Returning Officer. The election process will be completed on May 25. According to Dharam Vir the criminalization of politics is a cause of concern. Hence, to stop persons convicted by court of law for criminal offences, from entering into the election fray and contesting elections,
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PHOTO FEATURE
Shades of Haryanvi life

Art photographer Rajkishan Nain has over the years captured many shades of Haryanvi life in its various colourful facets. He has become a living legend through his years of devotion to his art; capturing on camera, the ploughmen, the colurful belle, the trees, the cattle, the ponds and the havelis spread across the length and breadth of this ancient land of Haryana. With his camera in his bag, he travels around taking whatever available mode of transport, recording social life, economic activites and the village folks. Haryana Review offers its readers a glimpse of his wonderful photographs.
Before the glimmering landscape fades, On a hard race, oh my oxen run fast.
PHOTO FEATURE
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The ploughman homeward plods his weary way
Rest oh! weary man, let you and the oxen have a hearty meal
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PHOTO FEATURE
Picking the sweet-scented flowers
Behold my son! your father's fields are awash with flowers
PHOTO FEATURE
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A tight embrace for a dear daughter before she departs
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PHOTO FEATURE
The haunting music, the steely muscle and the wonder clay
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SPECIAL ARTICLE
Gender equality:
Miles to go
To attain development in the true sense, women need to be liberated from gender inequality and injustice
Constitution. There has been a recognizable shift from viewing women as targets of welfare policies in the social sectors to regarding them as critical actors of development. India is witnessing, increased compliance of international standards laid down through Beijing Platform for Action, Millennium Development Goals and Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, through progressive legislations and significant judicial decisions. Many gender responsive policies and programmes have been adopted by the government to increase opportunities for women in several critical areas. In recent years, the government has articulated comprehensive policies for empowerment of women through gender mainstreaming and gender budgeting focusing on an explicit vision of equal partnership of women in all walks of life. One important move for empowering women was taken in 1993 through 73rd and 74th constitutional amendment to enhance the womens representation in local governance. Today , one third of seats in local Government bodies are reserved for women and 1 million women are members and chairpersons of local governance bodies. This has brought about a silent revolution in India. Elected Women Representatives are prioritizing provision of drinking water, health, hygiene, establishment of mother and child care centres, road construction etc. A number of them have placed high priority on literacy . They have also been active in campaigns and drives against alcoholism. A few of them have displayed commendable performance of service. Panchayats in India have become
Dr Pankaj Mittal
he empowerment of women is central to the UNs efforts to address social, economic and political challenges across the globe. The movement from the first UN world conference held in Mexico in 1975 to the fourth world conference on women held at Beijing in 1995 has been a journey in search of equality , development and grant of rightful place to women. Until women are liberated from poverty and injustice peace, security and sustainable development stand in jeopardy . One of the proudest achievements of our Constitution is the recognition of right to equality as a fundamental right. India holds the proud distinction of being one of the first countries in the world to give women the right to vote. The provisions of universal adult franchise, non-discrimination on the basis of sex and positive discrimination in favour of women are of the
more responsive to demands of health care and housing since women entered them. The newly elected women sarpanches are slowly learning the intricacies of the administration and procedures. They are now becoming vigilant but need special training to make them confident to meet their responsibilities. In spite of the success story at the level of village Panchayats, the womens political participation at higher level remains low. Political parties tend to choose the male candidates and avoid women candidates because they feel that they lack the skills and the connections necessary to succeed in politics. These processes are disadvantageous for women who are also constrained by their family responsibilities and cannot devote as much time to political activities as their male counterparts. Not only in the sphere of politics, the representation of women in almost all jobs relating to decision-making process has not crossed critical mass. While in Indian Administrative Services and Indian Police Services it is 7.6%, at present, women occupy less than 10% of Parliamentary Seats, less than 6% of Cabinet Positions, less than 4% of seats in High Courts and Supreme Courts and less than 3% of the administrators and managers are women. The representation of women in State Assemblies is also very low. Even after 62 years of independence, India has not seen even a single woman Chief Justice of India. Only four women have been able to reach the Supreme Court so far but none to the post of Chief Justice of India. Even in sphere of education, in spite of increasing number of women teachers, the number of women vicechancellors in universities other than women universities is not more than 2% and same ratio holds good for women principals in co-educational colleges (9 out of 471). Thus in a country like India where half of its population is women, their entry into decision-making bodies, policy making institutions and upper echelons of the society is restricted which minimizes their role in Indian governance and democracy . Indian women are marginalized in governance by a variety of processes that begin right from infancy . Girls are encouraged to play passive roles and are given very little opportunity to make
SPECIAL ARTICLE
43
decision or to develop leadership skills outside the family context. Instead, they are taught to accept the decisions that others parents, teachers, brothers and husbands make on their behalf. As a result women tend to lack the self-confidence and skills needed to function effectively in the private and public sphere. All these facts show that women in India are silent victims of societal prejudices. Looking at this dismal state of affairs, we need to take urgent remedial steps to correct the situation. When we educate a girl today , we help to create a leader for tomorrow, a leader within the family and community perhaps a teacher, an engineer, a lawyer, a doctor, or a mother of a healthy and educated children, a woman who is working hard to make her life and the lives of her family as good as it can be. Education is recognized throughout the world as a powerful tool for a child, for a family and for a whole society to make progress. More and more women leaders are required to come forward to break the gender barriers. It is absolutely necessary that a climate of change is created for the women by women themselves. We must never doubt for a moment that each and every one of us when we work together can meet injustice and create a climate for change. Women have always drawn on the power of collective action to change the world. India presents a very complex educational context where progress made in girls education in the past 10 years is quite visible but more needs to be done to realize gender parity . The rapidly growing economy of India is yet to bring equitable benefits for girls and women living in backward and rural areas in terms of their participation in education. The most significant barrier to a girls education is poverty . The majority of Indian people live in villages, where most of the domestic roles are consciously or subconsciously assumed by women. In a poor family , young school-age girls are required at home to help the family with essential household chores or as a wage labour. Thus, sending girls to the school has an opportunity cost which the poor parents are unwilling to bear.
over the three decades and the growth of female literacy has in fact been higher than that of male literacy rate. While in 1971 only 22 per cent of Indian women were literate, by the end of 2001, 54.16 per cent of females were literate. At present, the growth of female literacy rate is 14.87 per cent as compared to 11.72 per cent of male literacy rate. But it is interesting to note that although female literacy rate has increased from 40 per cent in 1991 to 54 per cent in 2001, the absolute number of illiterates has remained almost the same (193 million in 1991 to 198 million in 2001) mainly because of population explosion. At the same time, there has been a 100 per cent increase in the enrolment of women for higher education since Independence. While in 1950-51, approximately 40,000 women enrolled for higher Inspecting education, today this number has and guiding multiplied over 100 fold to the current level of over 42 lakh Educating a daughter, especially in a women. poor family , is perceived not only as an The objective is not gender parity unnecessary luxury but also as a alone, but rather gender equality in, liability . As dowry is still a widely within and through education. The practiced cultural norm, the birth of a power of education lies not just in daughter in the family is, in the first imparting formal literacy to women, place, a huge financial burden. Secondly , but rather in acquisition of multiple a girl is expected to marry a man who vocational skills to improve their should be in a better social position economic, social, political and civic than her. Therefore, an educated girl can conditions. only marry a more educated boy , and if To conclude, India needs to make dowry payments increase with the gender discrimination a history . education of the groom then, an Gender justice is the only way to educated girl is likely to be more achieve gender equality and freedom expensive to marry off. For a povertyfrom want and fear. This calls for stricken family , it is unthinkable to meet accountability on the part of the dowry demand of an educated Governments, parliamentarians, groom. judges, jurists, educationists, womens The Government has taken many groups, non-governmental affirmative steps to address these organizations (NGOs) and all of us issues. The National Policy on present here, in providing the impetus Education, 1986 and programme of for change. We all must continue to Action 1992 also reaffirmed the work together so that from the smallest governments commitment to village to the largest city , the voices of improving literacy levels, by providing women are heard at the ballot boxes, in special attention to girls and children. the legislatures, in the executives, in The 86th Constitutional Amendment the Court room, in classrooms, in Act, 2002 made free and compulsory corporate groups and above all within education, a fundamental right for all the walls of their homes. The initiative children in the 6-14 age group which has for promoting peace and prosperity now been translated into Right to should come from within the walls of Education Bill. This has shown results, each home. g The writer is Vice-Chancellor , BPS and there has been significant progress Mahila Vishwavidyalaya, Khanpur in the literacy rates. Kalan, Sonepat Womens literacy rate has grown
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REPORT
Counting the heads

Census 2011 is the biggest-ever census exercise done in the history of mankind
Neerja Shekhar, Director, Haryana Census Department, gives details of census operations in Haryana and their significance
Amanbir Kaur Brar
organised its first census in 1872. This is the only source of primary data at village, town and ward level. It provides valuable information for planning and formulation of polices for central and state governments and is widely used by national and international agencies, scholars, business people, industrialists, and many more. India has kick-started 'Census 2011', the biggest-ever census exercise done in the history of mankind. It will provide details of the country's 1.2 billion people and will classify residents according to their gender, religion, occupation and education. The substantial exercise, to be spread over next 11 months, will mark a milestone as the first-ever National Population Register (NPR) will also be prepared. All persons aged above 15 years will be photographed and fingerprinted to create a biometric national database. With this, India will probably become the first democratic nation in the world which will have its population
he census is the most credible source of information on a country's economic, social, cultural and most of the other issues. It brings out details on demography, economic activity, literacy and education, housing and household amenities, urbanisation, fertility and mortality, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, language, religion, migration, disability and many other socio-cultural activities. India
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fingerprinted. The 15th National Census exercise, since 1872, will see over 25 lakh officials capturing the socioeconomic-cultural profile of its citizens. It will cost around 22 billion rupees while the expenditure on NPR will be Rs 3,539.24 crore. The exercise will consume more than 11 million tonnes of paper. The enumerators for the first time will collect information like ownership of mobile phones, computers, internet, having treated or untreated drinking water facility and usage of banking services. They will also seek additional information for the creation of NPR. No information will be collected on castes as no caste-based census has ever been conducted in independent India. But a debate is going on in the Parliament in this regard. Census will be conducted in two phases. The first phase, called the House listing and Housing Census, will be conducted between this April and July. The second phase, called the Population Enumeration phase, will be conducted simultaneously all over the country from February 9 to 28, 2011, and the entire exercise would be completed by March 5, 2011. Census 2011 would be 15th in India since 1872, seventh since Independence and fifth since formation of Haryana. With about two-thirds of the Indian population in rural areas, the census is the main source of data for everyone from manufacturers of cars and marketers of toothpaste to government officials planning and implementing key programmes. Since the first census in 1872, it has also been the key to drawing up constituencies for local and national elections. With the government stepping up the rollout of massive programmes for the poor such as rural jobs and health insurance, the data should also help plug leakages, which a former prime minister once estimated at about 85 percent of the total outlay. The data will also help take the guesswork out of companies' investment and marketing plans in Asia's third largest economy. The government will also, for the first time, spend about 35 billion rupees on preparing a National Population Register (NPR), which will have
In India
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11-month exercise will enumerate country's 1.2 billion population. 2.5 million enumerators will be engaged All 640 districts, 5,767 tehsils, 7,742 towns and more than six lakh villages will be covered. Census staff will visit more than 240 million households Total cost is estimated at Rs 6,000 crore, Estimated cost of the Census is 22 billion rupees and will consume at least 11million tonnes of paper. Computer and mobile phone ownership has been added for the first time.
In Haryana
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53,000 enumerators for census in Haryana First phase from May 1, 2010 to June 15, 2010 Second Phase from February 9 to February 28, 2011 21 districts, 71 tehsils, 106 towns and 6764 villages of the state will be covered.
What is the National Population Register? What is its use? The NPR would be a register of usual residents of the country. The NPR will be a comprehensive identity database that would help in better targeting of the benefits and services under the government schemes/programmes, improve planning and help strengthen security of the country. This is being done for the first time in the country. Whom to contact if your house is not covered? The local Tehsildar/Ward Officer of your area is the designated officer. In case of need, you can also contact the Collector/DC/DM of your District or the Commissioner of your Town.
photographs and fingerprints of all persons above the age of 15 years. The NPR will pave the way for the ambitious Unique Identification scheme, which aims at issuing a smart card and unique identity number to every Indian citizen, enabling easier access to banking, welfare payments and to boost tax collections. It will be for the first time that every person over the age of 15 will be counted and photographed to create a biometric national database. From exclusive apartment blocks in Mumbai to remote rural villages, the 11-month exercise will create a comprehensive picture of modern India and modern Indians. The census-takers also plan to include millions of homeless people. In Haryana, the exercise began on May 1 and it will continue up to June 15. It will involve house listing and housing census in all 21 districts, 71 tehsils, 106 towns and 6764 villages of the state. As per Neerja Shekhar, Director, Haryana Census Department, 56,000 enumerators and supervisors have been appointed and trained for the exercise of database collection. The census will be done in two phases. In the first phase, listing of houses would be done by enumerators and after that National Population Register would be prepared. She asked the residents of Haryana to assist in the collection of data by providing correct information to the enumerators, who would visit their houses from May 1. The second phase i.e population enumeration will be conducted from February 9 to February 28, 2011, with a revision round from March 1 to 5, 2011. g
46
SPORTS
Keeping track of athletics
Vaibhav Sharma
hat is the first thing that hits your mind when you think of sports? The medals, the money, the fame or the scandals? Actually none of these. For sports is, and will always be about one thing: triumph of hope over a dismal reality . And this triumph has been at the heart of Haryana as the state has gone from one milestone to another, crossed many a hurdle to make a place, a name for itself in the field of sports. From the dusty, wearylooking villages have emerged men of immense resolve and great accomplishments. But while sports like boxing and wrestling have flourished, there has been a somewhat unexplainable drought of talent in the field of athletics. Although the state has been upgrading and creating more and more infrastructure, the results have somehow not been anywhere close to the level of expectations. Of course it is easy to question and form an opinion without getting the right perspective, but this indeed is an
intriguing state of affairs. The Haryana government, with an eye on a richer medal haul in future tournaments, has been regularly updating their infrastructure. In addition to the existing stadiums and sports complexes already in place, there is a modern sports complex coming up in Rohtak in an area of about 83.13 acres. Another one is the Regional Centre of Sports Authority of India (SAI) being set up in an area of 83 acres at Joshi Chauhan Village in district Sonipat. This centre will provide international standard playing facilities to players. Also a Special Sports Training Centre at CCSHAU, Hisar has been established by SAI to impart coaching to 100 boys and girls in athletics, boxing, judo and table tennis. In addition to these, the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) has completed the work on a sports complex in sector 3, Panchkula, which is equipped to provide training and competition facilities for cricket and a complete athletics stadium
along with room for other sports like volleyball, basketball and badminton. There is also a sports complex being developed in Sector-38, Gurgaon, by HUDA. Although the complex is yet to be fully operational, the work on the athletics track has been completed. Another sports complex of international standards has been set up at Faridabad in collaboration with the Government of India. So the big question is that with all the ingredients for grooming athletes in place, why has the state not been able to go medal hunting? Why are there no star athletes from Haryana, much like their boxing or wrestling counterparts? The answer is pretty much wrapped within the question itself. Sports like boxing and wrestling have a rural background in the state. Wrestling especially has been a big hit with the rural folk and even with modern techniques coming in to the picture, the interest has not waned. That is where athletics misses a sense of belonging. The sport has not been a part of the evening talks and heroic bed-time stories. Despite some promising athletes like Bhupinder Singh and Seema Antil (discus throw), being consistent performers at the national and international level, there has not been one fairy tale that could have changed the face of athletics in the state.
But with willing people and the state ensuring abundant infrastructure, it should not be too long before athletics finds its due place in Haryana. The state has the potential, and compared to other Indian states, much more facilities and infrastructure too. Also with the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games lined up for this year, and time for the London Olympics also flying away briskly, this might be the apt time for young athletes to devote themselves to preparations for the events and make most of the opportunity to achieve dizzying heights. The country is looking for its heroes who can achieve such levels in athletics which can inspire others. Even after so many years this looks like a challenge. The nation wants its own Bolts, Johnsons and Lewis.but how many states can actually reply back is a different question. Haryana surely can.but will it? That again is a different matter. g
The writer is Sports Correspondent with The Tribune, Chandigarh
MODERN TECHNOLOGY
47
Poor mans refrigerator

Moulding clay, Prajapati Mansukhlal Raghavji has created a wonder fridge which is the best bet for the poor
beverages; they cannot even have a glass of cold water to quench their thirst. Prajapati Mansukhlal Raghavji will get a thousand blessings from the poor for he has invented a poor mans refrigerator from the good old clay . Now it is possible even for the poor man to eat and drink everything chilled and cold in the scorching summers. Priced at Rs 2,000, the refrigerator cools naturally without using any electricity . It is ideal for rural areas with an erratic power supply . Mansukhlal belonging to a community of potters in Gujarat has proved that inventions are not the prerogative of the highly qualified individuals; sometimes simple folks like Prajapati can come out with novel ideas and innovations. Just by thinking out of the box and toiling for days, Mansukhlal came up with the ingenious innovation of Mitticool refrigerator. Touted as mud fridge, it has two large water tanks at the top and bottom that cool the sides. Akin to the clay pots, or matkas that keep water cool in summer, Mitticool can lower the temperature by about 8 degrees Celsius in comparison to the room temperature. The USP of Mitticool lies in the quality and density of mud used which ensures that everything kept inside is protected from the heat outside. Mitticool refrigerator weighs 20 kg (height 18.5 and width 11) and works on the simple principle of evaporation. Water from the upper chambers drips down the side, taking heat from the inside and gets evaporated, leaving the chambers cool. The upper portion of the refrigerator can store about 20 liters of water, while the bottom cabinet has separate space for storing fruits, vegetables and milk. The natural cooling process inside the refrigerator can keep vegetables and fruits fresh for around five days, while milk can be preserved for three days. Mansukhlal was born in a potters family in 1965 in a village called Nichimandal in Morbi in district Rajkot. He started his journey as a supervisor in a company manufacturing roof tiles in Gujarat. But he wasn't happy . The entrepreneur in him compelled Mansukhlal to start his own venture. He took a loan of Rs 30,000 from a money-lender to start an earthenware manufacturing factory in 1988. The idea of fashioning a fridge out of clay came to Prajapati during the 2001 earthquake. He was inspired by a caption that said that the earthquake did not even spare the poor mans fridge. The use of the word fridge made him think of making an affordable eco-friendly fridge for the common man. It is rightly said that necessity is the mother of invention! After more than three years of continuous efforts and failures, in 2004 Prajapati's clay fridge model worked successfully . He called his product 'Mitticool.' Mansukhlal finessed the Mitticool refrigerator after the Gujarat Grassroots Innovation Augmentation Network (GIAN), Ahmedabad, helped him with design inputs. Although it took Prajapati months to fabricate the first fridge, it now takes him 8-10 days to make one Mitticool. Its time for potters in Haryana to take cue from this invention and start manufacturing Mitticool refrigerators so that they can both, earn and serve. g
Shweta Vashishta
ummers are here. With temperatures running high and weather turning dry, the mantra to beat the heat is everything thanda thanda cool cool. Immediately the picture of a refrigerator stocked with ice-cream, pudding, fruits, juices, icecubes and beautiful water bottles neatly lined on the door shelves comes to the mind. But only those who can afford to have a refrigerator can fantasize such delicacies. What about the poor? Leave apart the chilled
48
ENVIRONMENT
Purifying the Elixir of Life

Follow simple methods to purify water at home and make it potable
Nishant Prabhakar
ith two thirds of the earth's surface covered by water and the human body consisting of 75 percent of it, it is evidently clear that water is one of the prime elements responsible for life on earth. Water circulates through the land just as it does through the human body, transporting, dissolving and replenishing nutrients and organic matter, while carrying away waste material. Further in the body, it regulates the activities of fluids, tissues, cells, lymph, blood and glandular secretions. An average adult body contains 42 litres of water and with just a small loss of 2.7 litres, he or she can suffer from dehydration, displaying symptoms of irritability, fatigue, nervousness, dizziness, weakness, headache and consequently reach a state of pathology. Since the water we drink provides for cell function and its volume requirements, the decrease in our daily water intake affects the efficiency of cell activity. As a result, chronic dehydration causes symptoms that equal disease.
OUR WATER TODAY

The population decline of the marine and riparian life, the appearance of green algae in the rivers and the stench and slime that comes as a result of putrefaction in water, are clear signs of the depth and extent of disruption that has been caused to this intricate ecosystem. For example, the river Yamuna has been turned practically into a flowing sewage in it onwards journey from Delhi. Our drinking water today is far from being pure and it contains some two hundred deadly commercial chemicals. Add to this, there are bacteria, viruses, inorganic minerals (making the water hard) and you have a chemical cocktail that is unsuitable (if not deadly) for human consumption. The onus of awareness and action lies entirely upon us, as we need to become our own educators, physicians and innovators in order to ensure pure drinking water for ourselves.
ENVIRONMENT
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HOME REMEDIES TO PURIFY WATER

Having continuous access to a supply of clean water is necessary for survival. Today this is especially true as toxic contaminants and disease-causing pollutants become more of a concern worldwide. People in industrialized societies tend to rely most on municipal water treatment facilities for their water purification needs. Here are several simple methods of purifying water at home or in an emergency situation. 1. Choose a reliable filtration system. This can include using a filter that attaches to the tap on your sink. The tap-mounted unit removes impurities as the tap water is released. Another type of filter that can be used is the filtration pitcher. This looks similar to a water pitcher but it contains a water filter and a holding tank. You fill the pitchers tank with plain tap water. The tank passes a controlled amount of water through its filter and then deposits the filtered water into the pitcher below for your use. 2. Purchase and maintain a supply of purification tablets. Considered to be vital to any disaster relief kit, water purification tablets are an excellent addition to any emergency supplies that you may have set aside. As these may differ slightly in potency depending on the brand, refer to the manufacturers instructions to determine how much water can be treated with one tablet and how long the water will remain safe to use.
3. We can purify water with iodine and it is found to be an effective way. For this, add 2% tincture of iodine in the water i.e. 20 drops per 4 litres of water. Add 40 drops, if the water is cloudy. Stir the solution and allow it to stand for about 30 minutes. Similarly dissolve a heaping teaspoon of high-test granular calcium hypochlorite into 8 litres of water. Stir this water well, to make a disinfecting solution. And finally add the solution to 800 litres of water. This would purify the water. 4. Use unscented chlorine bleach. Only pure and undiluted household bleach should be used for water purification purposes. The amount used depends upon how much water in a container needs to be purified. Using a standard eyedropper, 15 or 16 drops is usually enough, even for several gallons or 3.8 to 4 litres of water. The water should be stirred or agitated well, then allowed to sit for a few minutes. A slight chlorine scent will be noticeable, but pathogens would be killed and the water will be rendered safe to drink. 5. Boil water to purify it. If you have the ability to do so in an emergency, it is always a good idea to boil water in a heat-resistant container in order to destroy microbes and clear away impurities. An open fire or propane stove will suffice if you are outdoors or camping. Bring the water to a rolling boil for up to 5 minutes. If sediments are present, they will rise to the surface in a thin layer. Skim this off with a wide spatula or a large metal spoon and discard it. When the
water has cooled, it may be stored for later use. Using potassium permanganate is also quite effective in purifying water. For this, you need to add about 3 or 4 crystals of the chemical compound per litre of water. Stir the solution well and leave it for about 30 minutes. 6. The most interesting one is the solar water disinfection method. For this, you need to pour water into clear plastic PET bottles and expose it to direct sunlight, for at least 6 hours. The UV rays present in the sun rays help in killing many microbes and also results in clean water. But before using such water, make sure it is left in open so that it is aerated. After all the water has been purified make sure it is stored in a clean container. For better taste the water can be aerated between two clean containers by pouring water from one container to another and then vice-verse, repeating not less than 6 to 7 times. For sweet taste one can add a pinch of salt to purified water. Though these household methods are quite effective in purifying water and making it suitable for drinking, yet some chemical and pathogens cannot be removed. The home made filters which use reverse osmosis are the best for purifying water from all impurities. But what is essentially required is that we human beings start respecting the natural resources and take care of them as if we own them. We should not waste this precious resource and make sure we do not pollute the water bodies whether we go on excursions or on a pilgrimage. g
50
TOURISM
Glitzy Malls
Mughal gardens, Pinjore
Panchkula: On the tourist map

Offering a variety of places of tourists attraction, Panchkula is surely a treat for visitors
Ruchi Sharma
and rarity of cactus plants is the unique attraction of the garden and a major turn on for botanists. Every year in the month of March, a major Cactus Show is organized here and people from all over the region visit it. Lush green and well maintained parks of Panchkula are a delight for the denizens as well as outsiders. Vatika garden with it serene surroundings and a small water body offers a beautiful view which is soothing to eyes. There is an eating joint inside the garden which offers delicious food. Travellers who wish to relax and eat peacefully can plan a stopover here. Adjoining this is Topiary Park which has large figures of animals made with green shrubs, and fountains which illuminate evenings with its coloured lighting. There are a number of eating joints in the city to choose from like Domino's Pizza, Pizza Hut, KFC, Subway , Cafe Coffee Day and Hot Millions. Tourists can spot their favourite eating joint where they can relish their favourite food. Malls like Fun Republic, Shalimar in Panchkula and City Centre Mall in IT Park open wide options of entertainment. One can choose to watch any on-going popular movie or make a choice of eating from the food variety available in the food court. The thought of shopping prominent brands under one roof also excites one, especially women.
ituated in the foothills of Shivaliks, Panchkula not just offers scenic spectacle for the lensman but there is lot more to it. Where the city wears a fresh look in the morning, there it dazzles at night and tempts one to explore the varied facets of the city . Panchkula touches the tri-city Chandigarh and in its vicinity are prominent towns like Pinjore, Kalka and Morni which are known tourist spots. Thus the city and its surroundings hold something for everyone - adventurers, spiritually inclined people, nature lovers and aesthetic lovers. The Cactus Garden, Asias largest outdoor landscaped cacti and succulents garden, is in Panchkula. It showcases a large variety of over 2,500 species of cacti. The diversity in sizes
HEALING SIDE
At a distance of 20 kms from Chandigarh, the village Dab Kori of Panchkula offers perfect destination for nature lovers. The Emerald Green Orchard spreading over an area of 10 acres opens one to a beautiful sight of fruit orchards. The gush of fresh wind
TOURISM
51
Race boating in the lap of nature, Tikkar Taal, Morni

and the soothing green cover welcomes the visitors. This farm is a perfect getaway for those who live in towns but their heart remains in the countryside. One can enjoy sporty activities like badminton, cycling and cricket. Its surrounding villages hold an ideal rural ambience that allows visitors to have the feel of rural life by feeding cattle, milking cow, splashing fresh water from tubewell and riding on tractor and bullock cart. About 11 kms drive from Panchkula, Thapli offers an exotic setting for those who look for an escape in peaceful surroundings. For bird lovers, its a treat. One can plan a night stay and have a worthwhile experience by living in tent house and enjoy on tree house especially meant to be with the nature. Dining in the open inside a Gol Ghar made of wood gives a different pleasure. A sitting pergola outside amidst the greenery gives an opportunity to visitors to catch a glimpse of a variety of birds chirping on trees or flying in the sky and have the feel of fresh air. the hills in their private vehicles. A large number of resorts and rest houses are available on the way for tourists. It is mostly crowed during weekends when families plan a picnic to the hills. The months of September till March are the best time to visit. The two small man-made lakes called Tikkar Taal, bada tikkar and chota tikkar are the major attraction for tourists and campers. Campers can experience the thrills of living in tents by the lakeside. Boating in lake and sports activities on the lawn are other attractive options for the visitors. was built by Maharaja Gopal Singh, the ruler of Manimajra in 1815 AD. The temple is very popular among spiritually inclined people even of other religions. During holy days of Navratras, the devotees throng in lakhs to pay their obeisance. Adjoining it is a large temple built by the Maharaja of Patiala. Patiala royal family helped in the development of the temple. Now government has taken over the charge of the temple and it's one of the best managed temples. Devotees throng twice during Navratras. About 10 kms away from Mansa Devi Shrine, the prestigious Chandimandir Cantonment Headquarters of the Indian Army Western Command with an impressive entrance is located. In Chandimandir, there is a very old temple which is dedicated to goddess Chandi. Nada Sahib, situated on the banks of river Ghaggar, is a pilgrim place for Hindus as with the Sikhs. After the Battle of Bhangani in 1688, Guru Gobind Singh halted here while travelling. Nadu Shah of nearby village served him and his followers with food and milk. Later the sacred spot was discovered and raised by Bhai Motha Singh to perpetuate the memory of the Guru's visit. Every month thousands of devotees visit here on the full moon (Purnima) day . Such beautiful spots and sights are no doubt making Panchkula popular among tourists. g
RESTORING HISTORY
About 22 km from Chandigarh, the Bhima Devi Temple Complex in Pinjore showcases and restores the ruins of an ancient Hindu temple of 8th century to 11th century AD in a museum. Situated adjacent to the temple is the 17th century Pinjore Gardens, globally known as Mughal gardens. It was built by Aurangzebs foster brother using much of the ruins of the Hindu temples destroyed by the Muslim invaders from 13th to 17th century . It is perhaps the loveliest and the oldest garden in northern India. Away from the maddening crowd, set over 1,800 feet above sea level in a beautiful valley overlooking Shivalik hills which is a perfect place for the harmony of mind and spirit.
FOR VENTURERS
Morni hills with matchless scenic beauty are a perfect escape for the venturers. Adventure lovers often visit this place to taste the fright and excitement involved in trekking, camping and boating. Covered with pine trees, it offers suitable climate for trekking. Many nature starved people frequent
SPIRITUAL SIDE
The Mansa Devi temple in Panchkula
52
FESTIVAL
Baisakhi:
the festival of harvest
Baisakhi festival is rooted in the peasant culture and is secular in nature. It denotes arrival of harvest season and is harbinger of prosperity
Shweta Vashishta
ome April 13 and one can hear the beats of dhol reverberating in the sky. Jubilant farmers and their womenfolk shaking a leg together on the beats is the usual sight in villages. All roads lead to the nearby places of worship and rivers. River banks are thronged with people to take a dip into the holy water of the
rivers. Men, women and children adorned in the best of their apparels can be seen offering prayers in the gurdwaras and participating with enthusiasm in langar. Processions with bands playing religious tunes are carried out at different places in cities. All this fervor and feasting is to welcome the festival of Baisakhi. Baisakhi is basically a festival of farmers to celebrate the joy of
harvest. A farmer is all smiles as he is about to get the fruit of his whole years hard labour. One of the most popular festivals of northwest India, Baisakhi is celebrated on a large scale particularly in the states of Punjab and Haryana. It marks a New Years time for the farming community as it is time to harvest Rabi crop. On Baisakhi, farmers thank god for the bountiful crop and
FESTIVAL
harvest festival. Harvest festivals have been held as long as people have been sowing and gathering food. Peasants from various cultures all over the world celebrate the gathering of the harvest. For Americans, this harvest festival is held on the fourth Thursday of November and is called Thanksgiving. Yam festival in Ghana, Chinese Harvest Moon Festival in China, Chu Suk in Korea and Trung Thu in Vietnam are celebrated to mark harvesting. Baisakhi Festival falls on the first day of Vaisakh month (April-May) according to Nanakshahi or Sikh Calendar. For this reason, Baisakhi is also popularly known as Vaisakhi. According to English calendar, the date of Baisakhi corresponds to April 13 every year and April 14 once in every 36 years. This difference in Baisakhi dates is due to the fact that day of Baisakhi is reckoned according to solar calendar and not the lunar calendar. The auspicious date of Baisakhi is celebrated all over India under different names and different set of rituals and celebrations. Baisakhi date coincides with 'Rongali Bihu' in Assam, 'Naba Barsha' in Bengal, Puthandu in Tamil Nadu and 'Pooram Vishu' in Kerala. It is heartening to note that Baisakhi is a secular festival which transcends all barriers of religion and community. Though the reason and way of celebration differs from religion to religion, it is equally significant for all. Baisakhi has a special meaning for the Sikhs. On this day in 1699, their tenth Guru Gobind Singh organized the order of the Khalsa. On this day he administered amrit (nectar) to his first batch of five disciples making them Singhs, a martial community. Yet another legend says that on the day of Baisakhi, Guru Arjan Dev was martyred by the Muslim rulers who in an act of barbaric cruelty threw him alive into a cauldron of boiling oil. Also, the tragic Jallianwala Bagh
53
pray for good times ahead. They buy new clothes and make merry by singing, dancing and enjoying the best of festive food. Everyday farming scenes of sowing, harvesting, winnowing and gathering of crops are expressed through zestful movements of the body to the accompaniment of ballads and dhol music. The Baisakhi festival is an ancient
massacare took place on Baisakhi day in Amritsar in 1919. The day of Baisakhi Festival is also important for the Hindus as it on this day in 1875 that Swami Dayanand Saraswati founded the Arya Samaj - a reformed sect of Hindus who are devoted to the Vedas for spiritual guidance and have discarded idol worship. For the Buddhists, the day of Baisakhi Festival is significant, as according to a popular legend it was on this auspicious day that Gautam Buddha attained enlightenment or Nirvana under the Mahabodhi tree in the town of Gaya. For this reason, the day of Baisakhi is celebrated as Buddha Purnima is several parts of the country. Colourful Baisakhi Fairs are organized to celebrate the day. People participate in these fairs with lots of enthusiasm and charm. Major attractions of Baisakhi fairs are the bhangra and gidda performances besides wrestling bouts, singing and acrobatics. Performance of folk instruments - vanjli and algoza is also quite popular. Food stalls and shops selling trinkets make these fairs even more joyful. As the festival has tremendous importance in Sikh religion, major activities of the day are organized in gurdwaras. People wake up early to prepare for the day. Many also take bath in the holy river to mark the auspicious occasion. After getting ready, people pay a visit to their neighbourhood gurdwara and take part in the special prayer meeting organized for the day. At the end of the Baisakhi ardas, congregates receive specially prepared Kara prasad or sweetened semolina. This is followed by a guru ka langar or community lunch. Another high point of Baisakhi celebrations by Sikhs is the Baisakhi procession or nagar kirtan carried throughout the city under the leadership of Panj Piaras or the Five Beloved Ones. Men, women and children alike participate in the Baiskhi processions with enthusiasm. Mock duels, bands playing religious tunes and performance of bhangra and gidda dance make Baisakhi processions quite colourful and enchanting. Thus, every year Baisakhi brings joy and prosperity for everyone. g
54
SUCCESS STORY
Ability to challenge disability

The mudras have shown amazing results in the concentration of mind. They help in manipulating and redirecting the energy through hands and fingers and back to the body like reflection through mirror and each mudra establishes a different link with specific effect on body and mind. -Ritesh
created his own blog ritesh.blogspot.com and formed a community of patients suffering from cerebral palsy on Orkut. He says, Through online networking sites and blogs, I propagate yogic mudras for the benefit of the people suffering from cerebral palsy and reach out to more such people. For such sufferers, he has also developed new methods of writing through mudras, which help in speedy cure of the disease. Ritesh says, These mudras have shown amazing results in the concentration of mind. They help in manipulating and redirecting the energy through hands and fingers and back to the body like reflection through mirror and each mudra establishes a different link with specific effect on body and mind. Ritesh, since his childhood, had a keen interest in reiki, numerology and spiritual healing, mudras and their effect on human health. With the consultation of the doctor, he developed mudras which relaxed his body . Ritesh also made a film on Vayu mudra and participated in the Indian International Disability Film Festival where his film, 60 Seconds to Fame was screened. He has become a source of inspiration for others. g
Physically challenged prove their mettle
Ritesh at work accepting the challenge

Haryana Review Bureau
erebral palsy is an incurable disease. But if one has the will power, nothing is impossible. A perfect example of this is Ritesh Sinha, who with his resolve has turned his disability into a strength. Karnal-resident Ritesh, 36, was suffering from the disease since birth. There was a time when he could not move without a wheel chair. He took it as a challenge, completed his studies by attending school and college regularly . He secured a certificate in computing, and a postgraduate diploma in computer application. He also did B Sc and attained a Masters degree in information technology . Furthermore, Riteshs determination to fight his disability made him practise yoga for an improvement in his physical condition. Earlier, he was not able to balance his body and had frequent falls. The yoga practice had a magical effect on him and he felt more relaxed while writing and performing other activities. Now he has a better control over his body . He says, My self-confidence has increased and the frequency of incidental falls has reduced drastically . Now I am physically disabled but not helpless. He was in search of a platform where he could guide other patients suffering from cerebral palsy , but there was no hope of assistance from anywhere. This did not deter him. He
he district rehabilitation centre run by the District Red Cross Society at Yamunanagar organised a T20 cricket match between physically challenged persons of Yamunanagar and rest of Haryana. Here the aim was to bring out hidden abilities of physically challenged persons. The physically challenged proved their mettle as equal by winning the match. They proved that they are equal to any normal person and no burden to their family or society . After winning the toss, the team of physically challenged players elected to bat first. They gave the target of 133 runs to the rest of
I wanted to set an example for the physically challenged persons that we are not less in any field as compared to normal persons. -Sourav
Haryana team. With one run the Yamunanagar team won the match. Sourav was elected man of the match and was awarded a cash prize of Rs 500. The winner team was given a cash prize of Rs 4,100 and the runner-up Rs 3,100. Sourav said, I wanted to set an example for the physically challenged persons that we are not less in any field as compared to normal persons. Parveen Kumar, captain of the Yamunanagar team, said he was working as accountant and was not dependent on his family and instead taking care of his family members. g
GUEST COLUMN
55
Weaving Magic with words

A young poet from Haryana transcends boundaries of language to pen beautiful verses which deal with complex human emotions
Dr Dinesh Dadhichi
also remarkable for its intuitive sharing of experiences captured in paradoxes and striking juxtapositions: I know you and I know your smoke filling the room and my lungs a rally of slender charminars conspiring against God or the ice in your fiery eyes that only knowing death can give. I know you, sir with your metaphors run amok your wrist without a watch walls sans a clock. Quite often his explorations into the essence of experience take on a philosophical hue, as in the following lines from Innocence: She came to my corner of the room. It was dark as if the dark was not the absence of light but a way of living; a metaphor beyond meaning for her . An engineer by education, he currently works as a technical writer with Adobe Systems. In the past, he has served as the Editorial Coordinator of LINUX For You, a magazine focused on Linux and open source software. Samartha is also a co-translator (along with Shailendra Shail) of Soumitra Mohan's long Hindi poem, Luqman Ali into English. The translation was published in Chandrabhaga 14/2007. One feels quite confident about the future of this brilliant young poet of Haryana, who has very suitably summed up the whole point of being a poet in the following words: There was this man fiery eyes, cannon balls who went to the little teashop by the road daily yet no one knew him by name But still when he talked he talked of no less than changing a world. g The writer is professor of English at Kurukshetra University
few years ago, this young poet was perceived as a precocious child, who had the knack of penning down verses imbued with the modern spirit. Today his poems are read with an awed expectation that is usually reserved for recognized luminaries in the field of Indian poetry in English. As a matter of fact, he represents the fast promising class of talented young men and women from Haryana, who have carved out a niche for themselves beyond the boundaries of the state in various fields. Samartha Vashishtha has an array of achievements to prove his acumen. Born on June 10, 1983 at Nabha (Punjab), he had the advantage of belonging to a family of poets and intellectuals in Haryana. His grandfather, Khushi Ram Vashishtha, who belonged to Meham, rose in his time to a position which won him the coveted title of the State Poet of Haryana. Samarthas father, Dr. Jitendra Vashishtha, is also known for his poems and ghazals in Hindi. Understandably , therefore, fertile ground had been prepared for Samartha to venture forth in the same field, but he choose the medium in which he had received his education, though fluently writing poems in Hindi also, using modern idiom and style. When his first collection of poems in English, curiously entitled Anhadnad, came out, he was hardly seventeen years old. It includes his early poems, with a preface by the present author. A second one, titled Shadows Don't Live In Walls, was published in 2004 by Writers Workshop, Kolkata. Apart from these books, Samartha has also contributed to some prominent Indian literary journals. His work in English has appeared in Chandrabhaga (Cuttack), edited by Jayant Mahapatra, Sahitya Akademis Indian Literature, The Journal of Literature and Aesthetics (Kerala), The Journal of the Poetry Society (India) and Poetry Chain (Mumbai). Besides, he translates to and from
Samartha Vashishtha
Hindi and Punjabi and has published transliterations of his poems in the leading Hindi journals, Pahal, an influential literary magazine brought out by Gyanaranjan from Jabalpur and Vartaman Sahitya (Ghaziabad), as also in some daily publications. He won the Chosen Poet - II award in The Poetry Society (India) - Poetry Chain Annual Poetry Prizes 2003. Samartha is also a classical vocal musician. His poems stand out as a creative medley of innovative evocations of strikingly rich and fresh images of our humdrum existence. The following extract from a poem, For Father on His Fiftieth Birthday , aptly brings out the sharpness of his expression: I dream of wax wings melting and splashing onto walls and floor as we pass by burning slopes arguing on poetry and love. Similarly , in his poem, Dadiji: The Last Recollections, he states with disarming realism: I hoped the whole day she would rise and throwing away the cotton plugs in her nose would smile through her fallen oral castle; and listen to my exaggerated accounts of my mothers cruelties (she seemed to be the only one who could scold her). She didnt. His glowing tribute to Swadesh Deepak, a renowned author from Haryana, is
56
BOOKS
To know more, read on...

Haryana : A Historical Perspective
By S C Mittal
Publisher: Atlantic Publishers & Distributors, New Delhi 1986
Ancient Kuruksetra, Studies in Historical & cultural Geography

By O P Bhardwaj
Publisher: Haryana publication House, New Delhi ISBN 81-85151-40-7
Haryana : Ancient and Medieval

By H A Phadke
Publisher: Harman publishing House, New Delhi ISBN 81-85151-34-2
The Culture and Civilisation of Ancient India

in historical Outline
By D D Kosambi
Publisher: Vikas Publishing House Pvt Ltd ISBN 0-7069-6454-3
A Few Pages From The History of Haryana

By Bhim Sain Tyagi
Printed at: The Himalia Press, Chandigarh 1985
Sculptures from Haryana

Iconography and Style
By Devendra Handa
Publisher: Aryan Books International, New Delhi ISBN 81-7305-307-3
Haryana Through the Ages

By Buddha Prakash
Publisher: Kurukshetra University
Ancient India
An introductory Outline
By D N Jha
Publisher: Peoples Publication House, New Delhi ISBN 81-7007-039-2
An Epic Pilgrimage
History and Antiquity of Pehowa: Ancient Prithudaka
By Devendra Handa
Jaina Bronze from Hansi

By Devendra Handa
Medieval India
The Study of a Civilization
By Irfan Habib
Publisher: National Book Trust, India ISBN 978-81-237-5255-6
History of Hisar
From Inception to Independence (1354-1947)
By M M Juneja
Publisher: Modern Books company, Hisar 1989
The problems of the Sarasvati River

and Notes on the Archaeological Geography of Haryana and Indian Punjab
By Dilip K Chakrabarti, Sukhdev Saini

Publisher: Aryan Books International, New Delhi ISBN 978-81-7305-381-8
Amazing historical
facts about ancient India
v India invented the number system and Aryabhatta invented the number zero. Chess
(Shataranja or AshtaPada) was invented in India.
v The art of navigation was born in the river Sindhu 6000 years ago. The very word
'navigation' is derived from the Sanskrit word 'Navgatih and the word 'navy' is also derived from the Sanskrit word Nou.
v The world's first university was established in Taxila in 7th century BC. More than
10,500 students from all over the world studied more than 60 subjects.
v The University of Nalanda built in the 4th century BC was one of the greatest
achievements of ancient India in the field of education.
v Bhaskaracharya calculated the time taken by the earth to orbit the sun hundreds
of years before the astronomer Smart did. The time taken by earth to orbit the sun as mentioned in 5th century BC text is 365.258756484 days.
v Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to humans. Charaka, who wrote
Charaka Samhita, a book dedicated to Ayurveda, 2500 years ago, is regarded as the father of medicine. Today, Ayurveda is fast regaining its rightful place.
v Budhayana first calculated the value of pi, and he explained the concept of what is
known as the Pythagorean Theorem. He discovered this in the 6th century BC, long before the European mathematicians.
v Sanskrit is the most suitable language for computer software as reported in Forbes
magazine in July 1987.
v Algebra, trigonometry and calculus came from India; quadratic equations were by
Sridharacharya in the 11th century.
v The largest numbers the Greeks and the Romans used were 10 6(10 to the power of
6) whereas Hindus used numbers as big as 1053 (10 to the power of 53) with specific names, as early as 5000 BCE during the Vedic period. Even today, the largest used number is Tera 1012(10 to the power of 12).
v The earliest reservoir and dam for irrigation was built in Saurashtra by Saka King
Rudradaman I of 150 CE. This reservoir was called 'Sudarshana' and was constructed on the hills of Raivataka.
v Sushruta who wrote Sushruta Samhita in 3rd or 4th century AD is the father of
surgery. 2600 years ago, he and health scientists of his time conducted complicated surgeries like caesareans, cataract, artificial limbs, fractures, urinary stones and even plastic surgery and brain surgery. Usage of anaesthesia was well-known in ancient India. Over 125 surgical equipments were used. Deep knowledge of anatomy, aetiology, embryology, digestion, metabolism, genetics and immunity is also found in many texts.
Registered with the Registrar of Newspapers of India, RNINo 10412 Postal Regd No CHD/123/2009-11
On this side of history

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Gender equality: taking roots

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Understanding our rich past

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Rendezvous with civilisation

The remains of an old fort at Agroha

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Haryana: Cradle of Indian culture

Combination of `V signs and linear strokes were used to indicate volumes

HARYANA REVIEW, MAY 2010

Stone inscription, Agroha

HARYANA REVIEW, MAY 2010

Ancient languages and literature

HARYANA REVIEW, MAY 2010

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Bronze figurine of 'Dancing Girl' found in Mohenjodaro

HARYANA REVIEW, MAY 2010

HARYANA REVIEW, MAY 2010

Our forgotten gods

Vaikuntha from Pehowa

HARYANA REVIEW, MAY 2010

HARYANA REVIEW, MAY 2010

Coin of army chief Veer Dwar found at Rohtak

Casting blocks for coins belonging to Gaudheya Rajput-Khakhrakot (Rohtak)

HARYANA REVIEW, MAY 2010

Coin of Indo-Greek king Eucratides

Casting blocks for coins of Samantdev and Yaudheyas at Khakrakhot (Rohtak)

HARYANA REVIEW, MAY 2010

A peep into our past

Artefacts of Harappan Era

HARYANA REVIEW, MAY 2010

Terracotta Stamps from Jind

HARYANA REVIEW, MAY 2010

The legend of the Saraswati

A temple in Pehowa, where the Saraswati once flowed

HARYANA REVIEW, MAY 2010

HARYANA REVIEW, MAY 2010

Doorway from Visvamitra Ka Tila in the Saraswati Temple

HARYANA REVIEW, MAY 2010

Pasupatinatha (Sravananatha) Temple

THE ANCIENT PRITHUDAKA

HARYANA REVIEW, MAY 2010

Amanbir Kaur Brar

HARYANA REVIEW, MAY 2010

EFFECTS ON DRESS, FOOD AND AMUSEMENT

EFFECT ON THE LANGUAGE

EFFECT ON INDIAN ECONOMY

HARYANA REVIEW, MAY 2010

13TH AND 14TH CENTURY

HARYANA REVIEW, MAY 2010

18TH AND 19TH CENTURY

15TH AND 16TH CENTURY

HARYANA REVIEW, MAY 2010

HARYANA REVIEW, MAY 2010

A burnt brick drain in Bhirrana

HARYANA REVIEW, MAY 2010

Bathing platform, Farmana

HARYANA REVIEW, MAY 2010

A burnt brick drain in Farmana (courtesy V.Shinde)