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Events from the year 1579 in India.
Bengal or endonym Bangla is a historical geographical, ethnolinguistic and cultural term referring to a region in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. The region of Bengal proper is divided between the modern-day sovereign nation of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal.
Muslim period in the Indian subcontinent is conventionally said to have started in 712, after the conquest of Sindh and Multan by the Umayyad Caliphate under the military command of Muhammad ibn al-Qasim. It began in the Indian subcontinent in the course of a gradual conquest. The perfunctory rule by the Ghaznavids in Punjab was followed by Ghurids, and Sultan Muhammad of Ghor is generally credited with laying the foundation of Muslim rule in Northern India.
Bengali cuisine is the culinary style of Bengal, that comprises Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura and Assam's Karimganj district. The cuisine has been shaped by the region's diverse history and climate. It is known for its varied use of flavours including mustard oil, as well as the spread of its confectioneries and desserts. There is a strong emphasis on rice as a staple, with fish traditionally the most common protein. Freshwater fish are preferred to seafish, although barramundi, known as bhetki, is also common. Meat is also a common protein among Bengalis with chicken and mutton meat being the most popular. Beef is popular within the muslim community. In more recent times, lentils have begun to form a significant part of the diet. Many Bengali food traditions draw from social activities, such as adda, Poila Boishakh, Mezban, Iftar and Eid feast.
Colonial India was the part of the Indian subcontinent that was occupied by European colonial powers during the Age of Discovery. European power was exerted both by conquest and trade, especially in spices. The search for the wealth and prosperity of India led to the colonisation of the Americas after Christopher Columbus went to the Americas in 1492. Only a few years later, near the end of the 15th century, Portuguese sailor Vasco da Gama became the first European to re-establish direct trade links with India by being the first to arrive by circumnavigating Africa. Having arrived in Calicut, which by then was one of the major trading ports of the eastern world, he obtained permission to trade in the city from the Saamoothiri Rajah. The next to arrive were the Dutch, with their main base in Ceylon. Their expansion into India was halted after their defeat in the Battle of Colachel to the Kingdom of Travancore, during the Travancore–Dutch War.
The history of Bengal is intertwined with the history of the broader Indian subcontinent and the surrounding regions of South Asia and Southeast Asia. It includes modern-day Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura and Assam's Karimganj district, located in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent, at the apex of the Bay of Bengal and dominated by the fertile Ganges delta. The region was known to the ancient Greeks and Romans as Gangaridai, a powerful kingdom whose war elephant forces led the withdrawal of Alexander the Great from India. Some historians have identified Gangaridai with other parts of India. The Ganges and the Brahmaputra rivers act as a geographic marker of the region, but also connects the region to the broader Indian subcontinent. Bengal, at times, has played an important role in the history of the Indian subcontinent.
P. Sachidanandan, who uses the pseudonym Anand, is an Indian writer, writing primarily in Malayalam. He is one of the known living intellectuals in India. His works are noted for their philosophical flavor, historical context and their humanism. He is a recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award and three Kerala Sahitya Akademi Awards. He is also a recipient of Ezhuthachan Puraskaram, Vayalar Award, Odakkuzhal Award, Muttathu Varkey Award, Vallathol Award and Yashpal Award. He did not accept the Yashpal Award and the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Novel.
The Santa Cruz Cathedral Basilica, also known as Kotta Palli or Kottepalli, is located in Fort Kochi, Kochi. It is one of the thirty-four basilicas in India and one of nine in Kerala. This heritage edifice of Kerala is renowned for its Indo-European and Gothic architectural style. It serves as the cathedral church of the Diocese of Cochin.
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another, they existed between 1612 and 1947, conventionally divided into three historical periods:
Vaṅga was an ancient kingdom and geopolitical division within the Ganges delta in the Indian subcontinent. The kingdom is one of the namesakes of the Bengal region. It was located in southern Bengal. Vanga features prominently in the epics and tales of ancient India as well as in the history of Sri Lanka.
Dutch India consisted of the settlements and trading posts of the Dutch East India Company on the Indian subcontinent. It is only used as a geographical definition, as there was never a political authority ruling all Dutch India. Instead, Dutch India was divided into the governorates Dutch Ceylon and Dutch Coromandel, the commandment Dutch Malabar, and the directorates Dutch Bengal and Dutch Suratte.
Bhawaiya is a musical form or a popular folk music that originated in Northern Bengal, especially the Rangpur Division in Bangladesh, Cooch Behar district of West Bengal, India, and the undivided Goalpara district of Assam, India. It has recurrent themes of the "working class", mahouts, mahishals, and gariyals. Lyrics express pangs of separation and loneliness of their womenfolk, with elongated tones accentuating pain, longing and "deep emotion". Bhawaiya is generally believed to have originated in the 16th century under Biswa Singha, and has evolved into stage performances since the 1950s. The lyrics of Bhawaiya songs are non-denominational. Bhawaiya is really popular during the Bengali occasion of Eid Al Fitr and Eid Al Adha.
The 101st Regiment of Foot (Royal Bengal Fusiliers) was an infantry regiment of the Bengal Army and British Army that existed from 1652 to 1881. The regiment was raised in India in 1652 by the East India Company as the company's first non-native infantry regiment. Over the following two centuries, the regiment was involved in nearly all of the East India Company's conflicts which consolidated British rule over India. The Royal Bengal Fusiliers was transferred to the command of the British Army in 1862 following the Indian Mutiny of 1857 and the end of Company rule in India. Under the Childers Reforms it amalgamated with the 104th Regiment of Foot (Bengal Fusiliers) to form the Royal Munster Fusiliers in 1881.
Bangladesh's military history is intertwined with the history of a larger region, including present-day India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar. The country was historically part of Bengal – a major power in South Asia and Southeast Asia.
The Bengal Sultanate was a late medieval sultanate based in the Bengal region between the 14th and 16th century. It was the dominant power of the Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta, with a network of mint towns spread across the region. The Bengal Sultanate had a circle of vassal states in the Indian subcontinent, including parts of Odisha in the southwest, Arakan in the southeast, and Tripura in the east.
Chittagong, the second largest city and main port of Bangladesh, was home to a thriving trading post of the Portuguese Empire in the East in the 16th and 17th centuries. The Portuguese first arrived in Chittagong around 1528 and left in 1666 after the Mughal conquest. It was the first European colonial enclave in the historic region of Bengal.
Sahapedia is a website which seeks to make the culture and history of India accessible to all. Sahapedia is a portmanteau of the word Saha and encyclopedia. Saha is Sanskrit for "together with". It uses a method of collaboration between scholars and lay people contributing content to the portal. Once lay people register they are able to contribute to the portal once approved by editors. The site seeks to take the middle path between scholarly contribution and the open contribution system seen on Wikipedia. It serves as a portal with content in the form of articles, videos, image galleries, interviews and events listing.
Muslin, a Phuti carpus cotton fabric of plain weave, was historically hand woven in the areas of Dhaka and Sonargaon in Bangladesh and exported for many centuries. The region forms the eastern part of the historic region of Bengal. The muslin trade at one time made the Ganges delta and what is now Bangladesh into one of the most prosperous parts of the world. Of all the unique elements that must come together to manufacture muslin, none is as unique as the cotton, the famous "phuti karpas", scientifically known as Gossypium arboreum var. neglecta. Dhaka muslin was immensely popular and sold across the globe for millennia. Muslin from "India" is mentioned in the book Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, authored by an anonymous Egyptian merchant around 2,000 years ago, it was appreciated by the Ancient Greeks and Romans, and the fabled fabric was the pinnacle of European fashion in the 18th and 19th century. Production ceased sometime in the late 19th century, as the Bengali muslin industry could no longer compete against cheaper British-made textiles.
The East Indian language or East Indian dialect, also known as Mobai Mahratti and East Indian Marathi, is the form of Marathi-Konkani languages spoken in Bombay (Mumbai). It has a significant amount of Indo-Portuguese loanwords. It does not have a unique script of its own: Devanagari and the Roman script are used by most of its speakers, who are the native Christians of the Seven Islands of Bombay in the northern Konkan division. Though the dialect is losing popular usage due to immigration, depopulation, and Anglicisation among most of the younger generation. It is still used by some for songs and dramas, as well as in Christian worship since the Novus Ordo was approved in the 1960s.
Arakan is the historical geographical name of Rakhine State, Myanmar. The region was called Arakan for centuries until the Burmese military junta changed its name in 1989. The people of the region were known as Arakanese.
Partha Sarathi Gupta was an Indian professor of British and European history at Delhi University and president of the Indian History Congress. He was firstborn son of Ashoka Gupta and Saibal Gupta, an Indian Civil Services officer in Bengal state of British India. His childhood memory of watching Mahatma Gandhi's walk through riot-torn Noakhali in 1946 where his mother joined in the walk had a long-lasting impact. He was awarded Eshan scholarship for the highest marks in West Bengal in Presidency College, Calcutta. Fellow students included Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences winner Amartya Sen and member of planning commission Sukhamoy Chakravarty in 1953.