“Land of the Seven Rivers A Brief History of India's Geography”. With sparkling wit and intelligence, Sanjeev Sanyal sets off to explore India and look at how the countrys history was shaped by, among other things, its rivers, mountains and cities. In some ways, this remains true to this day as the east–west National Highway 2 meets the north–south National Highway 7 at Varanasi”Įxcerpt From: Sanjeev Sanyal. Land of seven rivers ebook &mid History of Indias Geography By Sanjeev Sanyal.

Why did he go all the way to Varanasi to spread his message?Īccording to historian Vidula Jayaswal, this was a natural choice since Varanasi was an important place for the exchange of both goods and ideas because it stood at the crossroads between the Uttara Path and a highway that came down from the Himalayas and then continued south as the Dakshina Path. Instead, he headed west to Varanasi (also called Kashi). However, he did not deliver his first sermon in Bodh Gaya, the nearby towns and villages or even in the royal capital of Rajgir. “The Buddha was born in Kapilavastu (on the Indo–Nepal border) but he attained enlightenment at Bodh Gaya, just south of the old Magadhan capital of Rajgir. Land of the Seven Rivers: A Brief History of India's Geography The ancient rivalry between the two big cats remains embedded in cultural memory even as the animals themselves face extinction.Įxcerpt From: Sanjeev Sanyal. Equally significant is the fact that the Tamil rebels of northern Sri Lanka chose to call themselves the ‘Tigers’. The story tells us that Prince Vijaya was the son of a lion and a human princess, which is why the majority population of Sri Lanka call themselves the Sinhala-or the lion people-and the country’s national flag features a stylized lion holding a sword. According to the Mahavamsa, the Sinhalese people are the descendants of Prince Vijaya and his followers who sailed down to Sri Lanka in the sixth century BC from what is now Orissa and West Bengal. “Interestingly, the lion plays an important role in the Mahavamsa, a Pali epic, that is the foundation myth of the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka.

Land of seven rivers by sanjeev sanyal