This thread i dedicate to the people who know, dont know, wanna know and dont wanna know about the great Mauryan Empire. Its an appeal to all Hindu and Non-Hindu friends to recap our Indian sub continent’s oldest and the most powerful known history and culture.
The Mauryan Era which have major contribution on taking world’s oldest relegion Hinduism from Indus-Basin to the rest of the continent.
The empire which was founded by King Chandragupta and flourished by King and Emperor Ashoka
The kingdom which is the major source of inspiration of emergence of RSS.
Famous bollywood movie Asoka give us a small introductory of this peroid.
The empire which was spread on modern day Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh and some terretories of former USSR
The era on which every Indian is proud of.
I don’t know where he was from but it’s very irritating when people start assuming that presentday regions of NWFP and Afghanistan were always occupied by Pathans, whereas before the Pashtuns arrived those areas were inhabited by an Indic people, Pathans are an Iranic people who arrived later.
What confuses people more is when people like Prithvi Raj Kapoor and Shahrukh Khan who are ethnically Hindko (an Indic group) start claiming to be Pathan only because they can speak a few words of Pashto and because they come from areas which have now come to be dominated by Pashtuns.
The Iranic people were originally Zoroastrian, the Indic people followed Vedicism (Hinduism) and it’s derivatives (Buddhism etc.), both Iranic and Indic people are cousins but not the same, originally they were one Aryan group living in Central Asia but it broke into two the Indic moved to India and over the centuries assimilated with Dravidians and the Iranic with Turkic/Azeri and others..
Im not sure about assimilating with them as turkic are a completely different group. One group comes in mind is Azeri,other than that influence is a geographical.
Interesting obersvation, probably some intermarriages with the turks who came to the region. Lets not forget Iran was uled mostl by turkic origin people (safavid, qajars, etc), although they later on considered themselves iranic.
Alexander (356-323) and Ashoka's father 324 BC Asoka was a ruler by 274 BC, Pathans were in the area before Alexander.
I dont know much aobut history just googled it. The reason for I asked the question because;
[FONT=Times New Roman]Once a Japanese told me that "he believes Buddha and Ashoka was from today’s Pathans origin and he wanted to go to Takht Bhai to learn the language."
You guys will be amazed to know that Ashoka's army used to fight in different 'patalians' to different kingdoms.
I've heard during Kalinga war, another Ashoka's army was invading mesopotamia(present day Iraq & Turkmenistan) which was under the local public rule and Ashoka was in Kalinga with his other'patalians' because he considered defeating Kalingans will be much more difficult than defeating Mesopotamians.
.. after Kalings war Ashoka's mind changed due to extreme bloodshed of the Kalings army and their local people 'common public', he fell in deep remorse.
He then call his western operative army back which had initially defeated mesopotamians and was marching ahead into Russia !
Good point rush, I have never heard the asoka before, so I was caught by surprise. What was the person's backup (the one who said he was a pashtun/afghan)?
I dont know much aobut history just googled it. The reason for I asked the question because;
Once a Japanese told me that "he believes Buddha and Ashoka was from today’s Pathans origin and he wanted to go to Takht Bhai to learn the language."
The Buddha was not a Pashtun, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again the Pashtuns are an Iranic people and not an Indic people like the Buddha or Asoka Mauraya.
The Buddha was a prince from the Shakya tribe who were Kshatriya (warrior/royal caste) Hindus from southern Nepal, his language was Pali and it became the liturgical language of his religion and the Tipitaka is in this language.
In my opinion the ancestors of the Pashtuns first arrived in this region from presentday Iran at round about 140 BC which was well after Buddhism had been established in this region and after the reign of Asoka Mauraiya.
People start assuming that just because Buddhism was once practiced in Afghanistan it was the ancestors of present day Afghans who practiced it, Gandhara (ancient afghanistan/western pakistan) was an Indic state, it’s inhabitants then are different from it's inhabitants today, they spoke Kohistani and Hindko not Pashto.
Tell your friend that the people of Afghanistan today and the people of this region back then are as different as apples and oranges, he wants to learn Pali not Pashto.
lol maybe so, but many pashtun tribes fought agaisnt alexander. Eesepyzye(Yousafzai) being one who fought bravely, they were then known by their proper name Aspazoi, and the afghsn(pashutns) ashvakayanas or asseakenoi of arrian(i believe this was the hellinized version, like pactyan on the eastern frontier of aryana). Yeh we are an iranic people, but there were certain tribes that later on followed buddhism and hinduism, however the biggest influences are from zoroastrianism, so I do agree with you here.
thats why i wondered why Afghanistan is called Ancient India coz Ashoka had great influence over Afghanistan and terretories of former USSR where he build many cities. He used to lengthen and train his armies so as to move and to plan invasions over western kingdoms.
I see this man as a great visionary and the greatest invader.
^ Chandragupta was his grandfather who holded the dream of bharatwarsha, in those days India sub-continent was the richest place in the world which was called Mauryan Empire.
Ashoka had many cousin brothers, i cant tell you much about them coz I am too is in scarcity of their knowledge.
Kaurvaki was Ashoka's only love. She was the princess of Kalinga. When Ashoka invaded Kalinga it is said that Kalinga's women too participated in the war which resulted terrible halaucast where i beleive Kaurvaki was eventually killed by mauryan army. (in the film asoka kaurvaki was seen alive) Although debate isnt exaclty over Kaurvaki was killed or not killed in Kalinga war.
As you also know this war changed Ashokan mindset of streching his empire to the maximum.
Vikramaditya was the King of Ujjain, he was a vedic King and was truly a legend of art and culture.
Frankly spreaking i never read or heard about his disappearance but i am trying to find the answer of your question.
Vikramaditya was truly admired by one of the mauryan king chandragupta II.
The legendary Vikramaditya is a popular figure in both Sanskrit and regional languages in India. His name is conveniently associated with any event or monument whose historical details are unknown. Whole cycles of tales have grown around him. The two most famous ones in Sanskrit are Vetala-Panchvimshati](Permission error - Wikipedia), ('The 25(tales) of the Vampire’) and Simhasana-Dwatrimshika(‘The 32(tales) of the throne’). These two are found in varying versions in Sanskrit and also in the regional languages.
The tales of the vampire(Vetala) tell twenty-five stories in which the king tries to capture and hold on to a vampire that tells a puzzling tale and ends it with a question for the king. If the king speaks, the vampire will fly away, else it will allow itself to be a captive. The king can be quiet only if he does not know the answer, else his head would burst open. Unfortunately, the king being extremely wise discovers that he knows the answer to every question. So this game of catching the vampire and letting it escape continues for twenty four times till the last question puzzles even Vikramaditya. A version of these tales can found embedded in the Katha-Saritsagara.
