1/n Over 2 millennia ago, Chandragupta Maurya’s government had a sophisticated & stringent system to detect, prevent & deal with the problem of illegal immigration & malicious activities by foreign nations. Chanakya’s masterpiece Arthashastra provides key details
2/n The office of the Superintendent of Passports was extremely strict about issuing passports. Two witnesses were needed to establish proof along with documents. Only valid & current passport holders were allowed to enter into, or go out of, the country.
3/n Anyone without a passport was fined 12 Panas. A foreigner guilty of the same was fined an astronomical 1200 Panas & imprisonment. A special department in the City Superintendent's office in border areas was responsible for examining passports again at border crossings.
4/n This office was also supposed to protect timber and elephant forests, maintain border fencing, keep roads in good repair, arrest any criminals or suspicious persons, secure the safety of mercantile traffic, protect cows, and supervise any movement of people.
5/n Tanks, storm shelters, wells, roads & gardens were built at the border to aid the security personnel. Special guards who were expert hunters led packs of specially trained dogs to reconnoitre forests. They used loud sounds to scare away illegal intruders.
6/n At the approach of illegal enemies, there was an early warning system in place to signal trouble to nearby forts so that reinforcements could be sent. They also had messenger pigeons with passes (mudrá) to quickly communicate with headquarters in emergencies.
7/n They were well equipped with supplies to create fire, explosions, and smoke signals at successive distances to thwart the advance of enemies. Revenue collectors in border areas were to stay informed about the causes of emigration and immigration of persons
8/n They were also well informed about the arrival and departure of men and women of doubtful character, as well as the movements of (foreign) spies. Intelligence officers from this office also kept a constant watch on the quantity and price of transactions.
9/n Especially on the radar was merchandise such as minerals, products of gardens, forests, and fields or manufactured articles. Hotels, bars, restaurants etc. along the highway were to report counterfeit currency immediately & counterfeiters were immediately imprisoned.
10/n Any foreign merchandise of superior or inferior quality arriving by land or by water was subject to duties, road-tax, transport-tax, military tax, ferry-fare, and 1/6 of the charges that they paid for lodging & accommodation of merchandise in warehouse (panyágára).
11/n Common citizens traveling along a highway had to report any strangers who displayed symptoms of infectious diseases, doctors treating strangers, weapons, loitering near the capital, forts, palaces, temples, places of pilgrimage, government offices, hospitals or funerals.
12/n Influential citizens had to register foreigners visiting their houses. Any suspicious activity in deserted houses, alcohol producing workshops or bars, gambling houses, near mines, water reservoirs, factories were immediately interrogated & checked for valid identification.
13/n Thus we see that Chanakya & Chandragupta Maurya fully understood the dangers of allowing illegal immigrants to infiltrate the country. They took special precautions & had incredibly sophisticated systems set up to prevent & address enemy forces from infiltrating the nation.
14/n References:
Kautilya's Arthashastra
Chapter XXXIV - Superintendent of Passports
Chapter XXXV - Revenue collectors & Spies
Chapter XXXVI - Duties of City Superintendent
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1/n Did you know Alexander the "Great" was such a great strategist that he thought the Indus river was the source of the Nile in Egypt? Despite spies scouting India's geography before his "conquest", he thought that the Eastern Ocean (Bay of Bengal) lay after the Beas river.
2/n Alexander’s poor knowledge of geography was based on his teacher Aristotle who knew nothing about the Ganges river system. No Alexander writer or geographer before Ptolemy mentions even the Sutlej. Justin’s statement that Alexander conquered Magadha was completely fictional.
3/n The truth is he never even reached the Ganga. The soldiers thought they were just one river away from the edge of India at the river Beas. His army rebelled & refused to go further after the Battle of Hydapses (Jhelum).
1/n Well done Prakash Javedkar!
"Why we are not Hindus" by Murzban Jal is worthy enough to include in govt. funded Sahitya Akademi's library. This book says "Hinduism" itself is not indigenous to India, but a colonial import created by Western Orientalists & Brahmanical elites.
2/n
According to Jal, "The recent attempts to make secular and democratic India into a mythical & phantasmagorical 'Hindu Rashtra' is a sign of economic & cultural subjugation, rising fascism and the complete destruction of the very idea of India."
3/n Murzban Jal is Professor at Centre for Educational Studies, Indian Institute of Education, Pune. Jal is a Marxist & Freudian critical theorist who combines Marxist theory of objectification of humanity with Freud's theory of Neurosis and Psychosis
1/n 4300 years ago, ancient Bharatiyas were practicing brain surgery. A skull from Harappa (2300 BCE) shows incisions in a clear case of brain surgery known as trepanation. Researchers A.R. Sankhyan & GR Schug (Paleoanthropology Lab at AnSI Kolkata) confirmed in a study from 2011
2/n Trepanation involves drilling or cutting through the skull, to treat head injury, remove bone splinters or blood clots caused by a blow to the head. In most cultures, it was for religious rituals. But in this case trepanation was intended as medical treatment for head injury
3/n The Harappan skull displays evidence in form of cranial trauma visible as a long gash with cracked margins. The victim was hit with a hard object. The trephined hole is right next to the wound indicating it was intended as surgery to medically treat the injury..
1/n
Takshashila - Part 1
The Ramayana narrates how Bharata, founded two famous cities—Takshashila for son Taksha & Pushkalavati (Peshawar) for son Pushkala after conquering Gandharva Desa. It was at Takshashila, that Vaisampayana first narrated the Mahabharata to Janmajeya.
2/n Mujma-t-Tawarikh a 12th c. Persian translation of a lost Sanskrit work says: "30,000 Brahmans & families were settled near Sindh by Duryodhana, of Hastinapur” ( Al-Hind, the Making of the Indo-Islamic World By André Wink) This was to create a center of academic excellence.
3/n Acharya Dhaumya at Takshashila is mentioned in Mahabharata, which was 23 generations before Buddha. If we take 60Y /generation, we get 23 * 60 = 1380 years. From Buddha’s accepted date of 500 BC, we add 1380 years to get 1880 BCE as the latest limit for Vedic Takshashila.
1/n Did you know India was the source of all the world's known diamonds, until the discovery of diamonds in Brazil in 1726. India was the only place where diamonds were mined till 18967. Hindus have known about diamonds for more than 7000 years.
2/n They were called “Vajra” as Indra’s weapon of choice because lightning strikes & thunderstorms on colluvial deposits of diamonds would reveal diamonds in the earth. In 600 BCE, the Mahajanapada empire used units of measurements for diamonds.
3/n In Chanakya’s Arthashastra the Superintendent of treasury was an expert of “Ratna Pariksha” to test the quality of gems like diamonds. The fame of India’s invaluable diamonds lured greedy invaders from Central Asia, Arabia & Europe.
1/n In “Hindu Temples - What happened to them - Vol 1” Shree Sitaram Goel provides a revealing insight breaking the myth of the true “liberalism” of the Sufi sect of Islam which is regarded by many Leftist historians & apologists as secular & peace-loving towards Hindus
2/n He provides citations from the books Miftah-ul-Futuh, Tarikh-i-Alai & Ashiqa
by Amir Khusru (1325 CE) the “saintly & spiritual” disciple of Shaikh Nizamuddin Awliya, who is celebrated as a Sufi singer, musician, poet and scholar.
3/n Khusru is hailed as the father of a composite Hindu- Muslim culture & the pioneer of secularism. These “peaceful” excerpts show how happy Khusru was to praise Jalaluddin Khalji, Alauddin Khalji & their military, as he describes their terrible destruction of Hindu temples.