u/aksharbharat4135

A Macedonian ambassador to Chandragupta called Megasthenes.tells us that Pataliputra was surrounded by massive wooden structures with 64 gates and 570 watchtowers. The city was shaped in Parallelogram. The walkways were Timbre floored. Brics and Stones were used to Construct Important Buildings and Common people used woods .

Kautilya Arthashastra tells us about traffic rules ☺️ : Bullock carts were not allowed to move without Drivers

A child could only drive the cart if accompanied by an Adult .

Reckless driving was Punished except when the nose string of the bullock broke accidentally or if the animal had panicked .

We also know Kautilya did not approve nosy neighbour as there is even rules and fines against interfering in the affairs of neighbours 😂

There were many rules regarding waste disposal,enroachment, agriculture,land revenue and building codes etc

Sources :

Bibliotheca Historica ,Indica XV and Arthashastra Book 2 and 4

Its is India's first greenfield refinery+petrochemical complex inaugurated today by prime minister modi .☺️ actually the thought of this refinery had started in 2004 when crude oil was discovered by vedanta in Barmer basin 😊.then it took 8 years😐 and in 2013 sonia gandhi laid foundation stone 😌. Then Bjp comes in power and Vasundhara Raje reviews the project and finds that the project has quality issues and was not economically viable for scaling and still was costing lots of money 😏

Bjp then redesigned the project and added petrochemical complex to it and made it greenfield.😚 In 2017 prime minister modi renews and passes the project . Congress government comes in power project is officially stalled for 5 years🫠 .then In 2023 again bjp comes in power and construction starts and The Barmer refinery finally gets constructed . This refinery has taken us 20 years to get completed 🫡

It will make rajasthan after gujarat a major refinery state in the coming decades and the crude oil that had to go to Gujarat from Rajasthan now will remain in the state and will make the state more attractive to factories and will create lots of informal and formal jobs . And will be new step in making india a country with large refinery capacity 🤗

Nearchus , Alexander admiral tells us that Indian wore clothes made from white Cotton

The lower garments reached below the knee halfway to the ankle .the upper garment was thrown over the shoulder and a turban was worn on the head .They were Dhoti and Angavastra.Indians have worn them since Vedic times and in still many parts of india they continue to do so especially Dhoti ☺️.

The wealthy Indian mens wore Ivory earings and used Parasol against the sun 🌞.they also wore Leather sandals with elaborate Trimming and Thick soles to make themselves look taller and Noble 😄.

Only Brahmin, saints and monks used to wear Padukas ( wooden sandals ) or be barefoot 😊 Cattle leather was strictly prohibited for all sections of the society.

Sources : Arrians Indica,Chapter XVI

Dharma Shastra.

English translation:

When he had been for secreted eight years, the Beloved of the God, King Piyadasi, conquered Kalinga. A hundred and fifty thousand people were deported, a hundred thousand were killed, and many times that number perished. Afterwards, now that Kalinga is annexed, the Beloved of God very earnestly practised Dhamma, desired Dhamma, and taught Dhamma. On conquering Kalinga, the Beloved of the God felt remorse, for when an independent country is conquered, the slaughter, death, and deportation of the people is extremely grievous to the Beloved of God, and weighs heavily on his mind. Even those who were fortunate to have escaped, and whose love is undiminished, suffer from the misfortunes of their friends, acquaintances, colleagues, and relatives. The participation of all men in suffering weighs heavily on the minds of the Beloved of the God.

He used to call himself piyadassi ( beloved of God ) . Notice that ashoka expresses regret but does not offer to free kalinga and it's inhabitants. The pillars were 40 to 50 feet high and ashok average common people would have been illiterate and would have been unable to read the noble sentiments in the inscription

So I think the edicts are after all what ashoka wanted us to remember of him .

Sources : rock edicts of ashok , hultzsch and nikam & mckeaon.

Kausambi near today Prayagraj India is said to have been founded after the king of Hastinapur a descendant of Pandavas.

King Nicaksu .

He was forced by a devastating flood to shift his capital further east

Spread over and area of 150 to 200 hectares Kausambi had a population of around 36000 people.

Kausambi shows extensive use of kiln fired bricks ,the towns also have drains showcase pits and other urban amenities.

Well planned ring wells and was a centre of cultural activities

Sources :

Matsya Purana , gregory possehl , archaeological survey of India, GR Sharma : excavation of Kausambi .

The islam and christianity has always persecuted non - followers and yet these religions and their followers hypocritically stand for peace and inclusivity and then do backstabbing.

An example of this is Yezidis.

Yezidis a tiny religious group of around 50 lakh to 1 million people. They are found in Kurds of Northern Iraq , eastern Turkey and parts of Armenia. They faced centuries of persecution specially under Ottoman rule and were labelled devil worshippers just how Hindus were labelled. Like Hindus the Yezidis believe in reincarnation and Avatar have a system of endogamous castes.

Their Temple with conical spires are very similar to Hindu temples. The peacock Angel " TAWUSE MELEK " plays a central role in the religion . But interestingly peacock is native to the Indian subcontinent and is not found naturally in the yezidi Lands . They also share R1a1 genetic linkage with indians .

Sources:

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum on the Yazidi genocide. ,Encyclopaedia Britannica ,United Nations ,Academic studies on Yazidi religion.,International Union for Conservation of Nature and zoological references.

Tiny Bishnupriya community now lives in few villages of Assam and manipur .they trace their origin to Mahabharat .they speak a language that is related to assamese and has many tibeto and burman words but still preserve several features of archaic prakit.

The Bishnupriya were a powerful clan in manipur till the nineteenth century when a burmese invasion scattered them.

A period remembered as the Chahi Taret Khuntakpa or the seven years of devastation.

Sources :

Manipur State Gazetteers, linguistic survey of India ,kp sinha : Bishnupriya Manipuris .

French traveller tavernier would speak in his book of seventeenth century

Indian highways would clog by bullock cart caravans that could have as many as 10,000 to 12,000 oxen .

He goes on to describe that when two such caravans met on narrow road there would be traffic jam and it could take 2 or 3 days for them to pass .

Due to war between different kingdoms and tribes in ancient India as described in RigVeda called as Battle of Ten Kings . Dhruya people faced defeat from Bharatha kingdom and were chased away from Punjab to eastern Afghanistan.

Their king Gandhar gave the region his name which can be seen today as afghan city of Kandhar .

The dhruyas would then later migrate further north to central asia and would be called Mlechhas ( foreign barbarians )

But this is it .after this we know nothing more on them and nor do they get mentioned again in puranas .

The Panchavams Brahmana tells us that the river disappeared into the dessert . And there are many folks legends around it .

But scientific studies show that Sutlej and the Yamuna were once tributaries of the Saraswati.This would have made flow of Saraswati larger than Indus and Ganga . Unfortunately Saraswati lost Yamuna due to tectonic event and then lost Sutlej to Indus .This made Saraswati a rain fed river and broke the river into lakes as climate became drier.

And we lost a Great River which has been echoed many times in RigVeda and Vedas .

Many believe that Rigved was written on the banks of Saraswati.

And back in the days Saraswati was considered more pious and pure than Ganga.