Epic 27 year war that saved Hinduism in India

Good analytical observations about post Shivaji-Sambhaji Maratha-Mogul war for supremacy in south India.

"In this war, Aurangzeb’s army totaled more than 500,000 in number (compared to total Maratha army in the ballpark of 150,000). With him he carried huge artillery, cavalry, muskettes, ammunition and giant wealth from royal treasuries to support this quest. This war by no means a fair game when numbers are considered.

The main features of Aurangzeb’s strategy were :-
Use of overwhelming force to demoralize the enemy -
This tactic had proved successful in Aurangzeb’s other missions. Thus he used this even in Maharashtra. On several occasions giant Mughal contigents were used to lay siege to a fort or capture a town.

Meticulously planned sieges to the forts -
Aurangzeb knew that the forts in Sahyadri formed backbone of Maratha defense. His calculation was to simply lay tight siege to the fort, demoralizing and starving the people inside and finally making them surrender the fort.

Fork or pincer movements using large columns of infantry and cavalry -
With large number of infantry and cavalry, pincer could have proved effective and almost fatal against Marathas.

Marathas had one advantage on their side, geography. They milked this advantage to the last bit. Their military activities were planned considering the terrain and the weather.
The main features of Maratha strategy were :-
 
Combined offensive-defensive strategy -
Throughout the war, Marathas never stopped their offensive. This served two purposes. The facts that Maratha army was carrying out offensive attacks in Mughal land suddenly made them psychologically equals to Mughals launching attack in Maratha land, even though Mughals were a much bigger force. This took negative toll on Mughal morale and boosted morale of their own men. Secondly, these offensive attacks in terms of quick raids often heavily damaged enemy supply chains taking toll on Mughal army. The forts formed backbone of Maratha defense. Thanks to Shivaji, the every fort had provision of fresh water. The total forts numbered almost 300 and this large number proved major headache to Aurangzeb.

Strategic fort defense -
Marathas had one big advantage on their side. They were the expert in fort warfare. The game of defense using forts had two components.

First component was the right play of the strategic forts . In modern warfare, you have some strategic assets like aircraft carrier, presence of which needs a substantial change of plans on your enemy side.  And then there are tactical assets, like tanks and large guns, which matter from battle to battle, but can be effectively countered by your enemy without making big plan changes. Similarly there are strategic forts, like Raigad, Janjira, Panhala and Jinji. Then there are number of tactical forts like Vishalgad, Sinhgad, Rajgad, etc."

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History of BiCycles

Innovation	Year	Country	Details
	1817	Germany	Baron Von Drais invents the "running machine" or Laufmaschine. Patented the following year. Known in various forms as : Draisine, Draisienne, Velocipede. English version was the Hobby Horse (Denis Johnson). All have two, in-line wheels and the ability to steer.
Hand Drive	1821	England	Louis Gompertz adds a hand-driven, ratchet mechanism to the front wheel of a Hobby Horse but the innovation, as with Drais' was never really followed up.
	1839-1840	Scotland	Kirkpatrick Macmillan is traditionally credited with a machine in which power was supplied to the back wheel via rods connected to treadle-type pedals. Thomas McCall marketed copies; an 1845 version is in the Dumfries Museum. It is questionable whether significant progress resulted from either.
Rear-Wheel-Drive Bicycle	1843	France	Alexandre Lefebvre is credited with a rear-drive machine; he took it to America twenty years later and it still exists in the "History San Jose" museum (the earliest extant bicycle?).
Pneumatic Tire	1845	England	R. W. Thompson invents the pneumatic tire but with no commercial follow-up.
Treadle Drive	1847	Scotland	Gavin Dalzell builds a two-wheeled hobbyhorse with a treadle-drive, possibly copied from the Macmillan design.
Crank-Driven 4-Wheeler	1851	England	Willard Sawyer exhibits his four-wheeled, crank-driven vehicle at the Great Exhibition and subsequently becomes established as a Velocipede manufacturer.
Boneshaker Bicycle	1864	France	J. Townsend Trench documents his purchase of a velocipede from the Michaux family. Possibly the first record of a "production" front wheel, pedal-driven bicycle (but note that it was not presented untill 1895). This style became known as the "Boneshaker". Historians still debate the claim of Pierre Lallement that he had previously invented the first pedal-driven machine.
	1866	USA	Lallement, now in the USA, gets the backing of an investor, James Carroll, and their patent application is granted; probably the world's first public record of the pedal-powered two-wheeler.
	1870	England	James Starley products the "Ariel" High Wheeler (aka "Ordinary" or "Penny Farthing"). Later versions had front wheel sizes of upto 5 feet.
Wire-Spoked Wheel	1870	England	W. H. J. Grout patents the radially spoked, nipple adjusted bicycle wheel (unlike prior load-bearing wheels). Some credit Meyer with this design two years previosly.
Ball Bearings	1872	German	Friedrich Fischer first mass-produces steel ball bearings, patented by Jules Suriray in 1869.
Caliper Brake	1876	England	Browett and Harrison patent an early caliper brake.
Differential Gear	1877	England	James Starley patent a differential gear; probably the first for a bicycle but the principle was not new.
Internal Hub Gearings	1878	England	Scott and Phillott patent the first practicable epicyclic change-speed gear fitted into the hub of a front-driving bicycle.
Folding Highwheeler	1878	England	Grout patents a folding High Wheeler, the first "portable" bicycle.
	1879	England	Henry J. Lawson patents a rear wheel, chain-driven safety bicycle, the "Bicyclette" (his earlier models were lever driven).
Chain	1880	England	Thomas Humber adapts the block chain for use with his range of bicycles.
Safety Bicycle	1885	England	John Kemp Starley (James Starley's nephew) markets the revolutionary Safety Bicycle (the "Rover") with a chain/rear-sprocket drive and tangentially-spoked, similar sized wheels. Includes many of the major features of modern bicycles.
Seamless Tubing	1886	Germany	The Mannessman brothers are credited with the invention of the process to manufacture seamless steel tubing.
	1888	Scotland	Commercial development of the pneumatic bicycle tire by Dr. John Boyd Dunlop.
	1890s	France	Cycles Aluminium becomes one of the earliest manufacturers of an aluminium bicycle.
Derailleur	1896	England	E. H. Hodgkinson patents a 3-speed Gradient gear, a pre-cursor of the modern derailleur.
Internal Hub Gearing	1896	England	William Reilly patents a two-speed hub gear. His later 3-speed version was put into production by Sturmey Archer in 1902.
Butted Frame Tubes	1897	England	Alfred M. Reynolds takes out a patent on "butted" steel bicycle tubes.
Freewheel	1898	Germany	First major commercialization of the freewheel by Ernst Sachs. William Van Anden had obtained the first freewheel patent in 1869.
	1910	France	The first, easy-to-use derailleur is invented by Paul de Vivie (Velocio) that shifted among four gears at the pedals.
Recumbent	1914	France	Peugeot markets their production recumbent bicycle. Charles Challand had exhibited his "Horizontal Bicyclette Noemale" in Geneva in 1895.
Dual-Suspension Mountain Bike	1915	Italy	Bianchi produced a folding bicycle for the Italian Army with telescoping seatstays, a leaf spring at the bottom bracket, a spring fork and large profile pneumatic tires. Bianchi now calls it the first dual suspension mountain bike! There are earlier versions of military folding bicycles.
	1930	Italy	Tullio Campagnolo intriduces the bicycles hub quick-release.
Recumbent	1932	France	Charles Mochet designs the Velocar, a recumbent bicycle on which Francois Faure breaks both the mile and kilometer records.
	1933-1934	USA	Introduction by Schwinn of the balloon tire and "streamlined" bikes which leads to rugged bikes that can take the abuse of teenage boys and which set a forty-year trend.
Mountain Bike	1938	USA	Schwinn markets the "Fore-wheel" brake, "Cantilever Frame" and the "Spring Fork". Resulted in what was to be the Grandfather of today's mountain bikes.
Folding Bicycle	1939	France	A. J. Marcelin petents "Le Petit Bi", a 16-inch wheeled folding bicycle, remarkably similar to the Moulton and Bickerton of later years.
Shifter	1946	Italy	Campagnolo markets the dual-rod "Cambio Corsa" gear shifter (over ten years after the prototype) widely used for atleast a decade.
Index Shifting	1949	England	The Hercules Herailleur is launched; a rear derailleur with indexed shift levers. Marketed for five years.
Derailleur	1951	Italy	Introduction of Campagnolo's modern Gran Sport derailleur.
	1962	England	Launch of the Moulton small-wheeled bicycle with separately sprung suspension and custom tires. Competed successfully in time trials and track pursuit events.
String-Ray	1963	USA	Schwinn introduces the Sting-Ray that subsequently helped launch the BMX craze.
Rear Derailleur	1964	Japan	The Sun Tour Grand Prix is marketed as the first slant parallelogram derailleur, a design that has held up till the present day.
Index Shifting	1969	Japan	Sun Tour launch their indexed shift lever, the Five-Speed Click, and a combined freewheel-plus-rear hub, the Unit Hub. Neither of them found a market, and were abandoned. Bayliss Wiley in England has also experimented with unit hubs as far back as 1938.
	1970	England	The aluminium Bickerton portable small-wheeler is developed. Followed by the successful Brompton in 1976 and Dahon in 1980.
Bmx (Bicycle Motocross)	1970	USA	The movie On Any Sunday by Bruce Brown debuts. Although it is a motorcycle documentary, a brief scene during the beginning of the movie shows kids on Sting-Ray bikes emulating motocross. This small spark eventually evolves into full-fledged, organized BMX racing by 1974.
Mass-Produced Titanium Frame/Fork	1974	USA	Teledyne markets the first titanium bike that was produced in any quantity (Speedwell of England had some Ti production frames as far back as the 1960s, welded by Lamborghini!) Litespeed brought titanium frames to a broader market in the 1980s.
	1975	USA	The first carbon-tubed, metal lugged frame appears: the Exxon Graftek. Suffered from frequent frame failure. The technology was later perfected by Look, Trek and others.
Aluminium Frames/Bikes	1975	USA	Gary Klein displays his welded and heat-treated aluminium frames at the International Bike show. Alan (Italy) and Vitus (France) were producing their lugged aluminium frames arround the same time. Cannondale launch their "Aluminium for the Masses" in 1983.
	1978	USA	Fomac Corporation designs the Avatar recumbent. It is one of the many styles that constituted the 1980s renaissance of recumbents which included Lightning Cycle winning the HPV-RAAM relay and Easy Racers breaking the 65 mph barrier.
High-Quality Folding Clincher Tire	1978	USA	Specialized introduce the first high-quality foldablr clincher tire (the Turbo) which launches the demise of the tubular.
Aerodynamic Road/Track Bicycles	1980	East Germany	Introduction of aerodynamic bicycles with a stable construction. Culminated in the American "Super Bike" at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.
Mass-Produced Mountain Bike	1981	USA	The specialized Stumpjumper mountain bike is launched nationwide, capitalizing on the Marin Country vogue inspired by Calofornian icons, Gary Fisher, Joe Breeze, Tom Richey et al. (all of whom also produced earlier mountain bikes).
Electronic Cycle Computer	1983	USA	Avocet launch the first electronic cyclometer (bike computer).
Moulton	1983	England	Moulton launches his second generation of "space-frame" small-wheeled bicycles.
Clipless Pedals	1984	France	LOOK markets their clipless pedal (following on an earlier track model launched by Cinelli in 1970; the "Death Cleats", no automatic release).
Index Shifting	1985	Japan	Shimano introduces SIS indexed shifting (learning from their inferior product, the Positron, from 1977).
	1986	USA	Kestrel introduces their production non-lugged, carbon fiber frame and Trek market their first lugged carbon frame.
Suspended Mountain Bike	1987	USA	Paul Turner demonstrates a full suspension bicycle with front and rear shocks. Eventually becomes a partner in Rock Shox. Diversified the sport of off-road biking.
Aero Handlebars	1987	USA	Scott USA manufactures the first modern aerobars, originally the brainchild of Boone Lennon. Pete Pensyres had earlier used his own clip-on style bars in setting his RAAM record.
High-Performance Folding Bike	1989	USA	Hanz Scholz designs the Bike Friday "World Tourist". A reasonably compact folding bicycle that matches the performance of conventional touring machines.
Integrated Brake/Shift Levers	1990	Japan	Shimano introduces integrated brake/gear levers.
Electric Derailleurs	1993	France	Mavic markets their ZAP electronic shifting. Ceases production in 2001. Possible future follow-up by Campangnolo. Browning Research had invented a prototype electronic system in 1974.
Hydraulic Disc Brake	1994	USA	Sachs (SRAM) introduces Power Disc, the first mass-produced hydraulic disc brake system.
	1998	Germany	Rohloff develops the Speedhub, 14 equally-spaced hub gears which are operated by a twist-grip with no overlapping ratios and a gear range as wide as a 27-speed derailleur system.
30-Speed Derailleur Drivetrain	2002	Italy	Champagnolo offers a 30-speed derailleur drivetrain with the Record 3-x-10a adrivetrain.

[Source HeroCycles.com]

Hindukush Mountain - How it was named

Western Afghanistan comprising the provinces of Herat , Kandahar was ruled by Sabuktagin a Muslim ruler from a town named Ghazni. He was facing Raja Jaya Pala who ruled from Kubha (modern Kabul) in Eastern Afghanistan. His kingdom comprised the provinces of Kapisa on the western side of the Hindu Kush Ranges and Punjab on the Eastern side.

The year 980C.E. marks the beginning of the Muslim invasion into India proper when Sabuktagin attacked Raja Jaya Pal in Afghanistan. In 980 C.E. Afghanistan was also a place where the people were Hindus and Buddhists. The name "Afghanistan" comes from "Upa-Gana-stan" which means in Sanskrit "The place inhabited by allied tribes". This was the place from where Gandhari of the Mahabharat came from Gandhar whose king was Shakuni. The Pakthoons are descendants of the Paktha tribe mentioned in Vedic literature. Till the year 980 C.E., this area was a Hindu majority area, till Sabuktagin from Ghazni invaded it and displaced the ruling Hindu king - Jaya Pal Shahi.

The victory of Sabuktagin pushed the frontiers of the Hindu kingdom of the Shahis from Kabul to behind the Hindu Kush mountains. Hindu Kush is literally "killer of Hindus" - a name given by Mahmud Ghazni to describe the number of Hindus who died on their way into Afghanistan to a life of captivity. After this setback, the Shahis shifted their capital from Kubha (Kabul) to Udbhandapura (modern Und in NWFP). Sabuktagin's son Mahmud Ghazni, kept up the attacks on the Shahis and captured Und. Subsequently, the Shahis moved their capital to Lahore and later to Kangra in Himachal.

Upawasa or fasting in antiquity of India

Albiruni visited India in 10th century, in his Tarikh-e-Hind, describes about the various kind of fasting by Hindus, it is interesting to read it in this time.

Fasting is with the Hindus voluntary and supererogatory. Fasting is abstaining from food for a certain length of time, which may be different in duration and in the manner in which it is carried out.

Various methods of fasting.
The ordinary middle process, by which all the conditions of fasting are realised, is this: A man determines the day on which he will fast, and keeps in mind the name of that being whosebenevolence he wishes to gain thereby and for whose sake he will fast, be it a god, or an angel, or some other being. Then he proceeds, prepares (and takes) his food on the day before the fast-day at noon, cleans his teeth by rubbing, and fixes his thoughts on the fasting of the following day. From that moment he abstains from food. On the morning of the fast-day he again rubs his teeth, washes himself, and performs the duties of the day. He takes water in his hand, and sprinkles it into all four directions, he pronounces with his tongue the name of the deity for whom he fasts, and remains in this condition till the day after the fast-day. After the sun has risen, he is at liberty to break the fast at that moment if he likes, or, if he prefers, he may postpone it till noon.

This kind is called upavˆasa, i.e. the fasting; for the not-eating from one noon to the following is called ekanakta, not fasting. Another kind, called kr. icchra, is this: A man takes his food on some day at noon, and on the following day in the evening. On the third day he eats nothing except what by chance is given him without his asking for it. On the fourth day he fasts. Another kind, called parˆaka, is this: A man takes his food at noon on three consecutive days. Then be transfers his eating-hour to the evening during three further consecutive days. Then he fasts uninterruptedly
during three consecutive days without breaking fast. Another kind, called candrˆayan. a, is this: A man fasts on the day of full moon; on the following day he takes only a mouthful, on the third day he takes double this amount, on the fourth day the threefold of it , going on thus. till the day of new moon. On that day he fasts; on the following days he again diminishes his food by one mouthful a day, till he again fasts on the day of full moon. Another kind, called mˆasavˆasa (mˆasopavasa), is this: A man uninterruptedly fasts all the days of a month without ever breaking fast.

Reward of the fasting in the single months.
The Hindus explain accurately what reward the latter fasting in every single month will bring to a man for a new life of his after he has died. They say: If a man fasts all the days of Caitra, he obtains wealth and joy over the nobility of his children.

If he fasts Vai´sˆakha, he will be a lord over his tribe and great in his army.
If he fasts Jyaisht.
ha, he will be a favourite of the women.
If he fasts ˆAshˆad. ha, he will obtain wealth.
If he fasts ´Srˆavan. a, he obtains wisdom.
If he fasts Bhˆadrapada, he obtains health and valour, riches and cattle.
If he fasts ˆA´svayuja, he will always be victorious over his enemies.
If he fasts Kˆarttika, he will be grand in the eyes of people and will obtain his wishes.
If he fasts Mˆarga´sˆırsha, he will be born in the most beautiful and fertile country.
If he fasts Pausha, he obtains a high reputation.
If he fasts Mˆagha, he obtains innumerable wealth.
If he fasts Phˆalguna, he will be beloved.

He, however, who fasts during all the months of the year, only twelve times breaking the fast, will reside in paradise 10,000 years, and will thence return to life as the member of a noble, high, and respected family. The book Vishn. u-Dharma relates that Maitreyˆı, the wife of Yˆajnavalkya asked her husband what man is to do in order to save his children from calamities and bodily defects, upon which he answered: “If a man begins on the day Duvˆe, in the month Pausha, i.e. the second day of each of the two halves of the month, and fasts four consecutive days, washing himself on the first with water, on the second with sesame oil, on the third with galangale, and on the fourth with a mixture of various balms; if he further on each day gives alms and recites praises over the names of the angels; if he continue to do all this during each month till the end of the year, his children will in the following life be free from calamities and defects, and he will obtain what he wishes; for also Dilˆıpa, Dushyanta, and Yayˆati obtained their wishes for having acted thus.”