Marco Polo was a Venetian merchant, explorer and writer who travelled through Asia along the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295. His travels are recorded in The Travels of Marco Polo, a book that described the then-mysterious culture and inner workings of the Eastern world, including the wealth and great size of the Mongol Empire and China under the Yuan dynasty, giving Europeans their first comprehensive look into China, Persia, India, Japan, and other Asian societies.
Colonel Sir Henry Yule was a Scottish Orientalist and geographer. He published many travel books, including translations of the work of Marco Polo and Mirabilia by the 14th-century Dominican Friar Jordanus. He was also the compiler of a dictionary of Anglo-Indian terms, the Hobson-Jobson, with Arthur Coke Burnell.
Manipur is a state in northeast India, with the city of Imphal as its capital. It is bounded by the Indian states of Nagaland to the north, Mizoram to the south and Assam to the west. It also borders two regions of Myanmar, Sagaing Region to the east and Chin State to the south. The state covers an area of 22,327 km2 (8,621 sq mi). The official and most widely spoken language is the Meitei language. Native to the Meitei people, it is also used as a lingua franca by smaller communities, who speak a variety of other Tibeto-Burman languages. Manipur has been at the crossroads of Asian economic and cultural exchange for more than 2,500 years. This exchange connects the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia to Southeast Asia, East Asia, Siberia, regions in the Arctic, Micronesia and Polynesia enabling migration of people, cultures and religions.
Donyi Polo is the designation given to the indigenous religion, of animistic and shamanic type, of the Tani and other Sino-Tibetan peoples of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam in Northeast India. The name "Donyi-Polo" means "Sun-Moon", and was chosen for the religion in the process of its revitalisation and institutionalisation started in the 1970s in response to inroads made by Christianity and the possibility of absorption into Hinduism.
Subbiah Muthiah was an Indian writer, journalist, cartographer, amateur historian and heritage activist known for his writings on the political and cultural history of Chennai city. He was the founder of the fortnightly newspaper Madras Musings and the principal organizer of the annual Madras Day celebrations. Muthiah was also the founder-President of the Madras Book Club.
Muzaffar Ali is an Indian filmmaker, fashion designer, poet, artist, cultural revivalist, and social worker.
Dean Polo is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Richmond Football Club and the St Kilda Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).
Elephant polo is a variant of polo played while riding elephants. It is played in Nepal, Rajasthan (India), and Thailand. England and Scotland regularly field teams. Equipment consists of a standard polo ball and a 1.8 metres (5.9 ft) to 3 metres (9.8 ft) cane sticks with a polo mallet head on the end. The pitch is three-quarters of the length of a standard polo pitch, due to the lower speed of the elephants. Two people ride each elephant; the elephants are steered by mahouts, while the player tells the mahout which way to go and hits the ball.
Rao Raja Hanut Singh was a British Indian Army soldier and polo player.
Konidela Ram Charan is an Indian actor, film producer, and entrepreneur who primarily works in Telugu cinema. He is one of the highest-paid actors in Indian cinema and has featured in Forbes India's Celebrity 100 list since 2013. Charan is the recipient of several awards, including four Filmfare Awards and two Nandi Awards.
Kuldeep Singh Garcha is a notable former polo player of India. He had handicap of five goals and captained and coached the Indian polo team for several years. He was awarded "Arjuna Award" for achieving excellence in sports.
Vishal Singh Rathore is a professional polo player from Rajasthan India, he is also known for his horse riding skills and polo pony training. He currently plays for Rajasthan Polo Club and has been the captain for the India national team 7 times.
Merrill M. Moses is a United States Olympic silver medalist, three-time Olympian, and three-time Pan American Games gold medalist water polo goalkeeper. He played college water polo for Pepperdine University, where he was an All-American and helped lead the team to the 1997 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship. Moses is now associate head coach in water polo at Pepperdine.
Saroj Ghose is an Indian science popularizer and museum maker. He was the director of Birla Industrial & Technological Museum and director general of the National Council of Science Museums, Government of India. He was also the President of the International Council of Museums in Paris during 1992–98. He won many awards including one for "Best Effort in Science Popularisation Amongst Children". He has also mentored some of India's best Museum Developers.
Padmanabh Singh is an Indian Polo player and member of the erstwhile royal family of the Jaipur State.
Chovgan, Chowgan or Chogan, is a team sport with horses that originated in ancient Iran (Persia). It was considered an aristocratic game and held in a separate field, on specially trained horses. The game was widespread among the Asian peoples. It is played in Iran, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
Sadashiv Vasantrao Gorakshkar was an Indian writer, art critic, historian, museologist and a director of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, erstwhile Prince of Wales Museum, Mumbai. He is credited with the restoration of Lakshmibai Pitre Kalasangrahalaya, a museum in Devrukh, Maharashtra to its present state.
Hakim Abdul Hameed was an Indian physician of the traditional medicine system of Unani, the founder chancellor of Jamia Hamdard, and a former chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University. His ancestors came from Kashgar to the Indian subcontinent, in the reign of the Mughal emperor, Shah Alam. He was the founder and chief trustee of Hamdard Laboratories. He was honoured by the Government of India in 1965, with the award of Padma Shri, the fourth highest Indian civilian award and in 1992, the government awarded him the third highest Indian honour of Padma Bhushan. He was the elder brother of the Hakeem Muhammad Saeed.
Prakash Chand Surana was an Indian jeweler, business person, philanthropist and a music connoisseur, known for his efforts to promote Hindustani music. He was the co-founder of Shruti Mandal, a music community in Jaipur and served as its president, under the aegis of which he reportedly attempted to revive Jaipur gharana tradition. Founded in 1964, the forum has hosted, over the years, such musicians as Kumar Gandharv, Ravi Shankar, Zakir Hussain, Bhimsen Joshi and Hariprasad Chaurasia. Born in 1939 in Jaipur in the Indian state of Rajasthan in a Marwari family, he inherited the family jewelry business and contributed to reviving the Kundan meenakari tradition of jewelry making. Surana, who was married to Shobha Devi and had four children- Chandra, Manju, Pracheer & Priti, died on 5 February 2015, succumbing to a cardiac arrest. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian honour of the Padma Shri, posthumously in 2016, for his contributions to arts. He was also a recipient of Sawai Bhawani Singh Award for excellence in business and industry and Dagar Gharana Award of the Maharana of Mewar Foundation.
Kedar Nath Sahoo was an Indian classical dancer, known as one of the leading exponents of the Seraikella tradition of Chhau dance. He served as the founder director of the Government Chhau Dance Centre of the Government of Jharkhand where he served from 1974 to 1988. During the early stages of his career, he performed with the troupe led by Kumar Bijay Pratap Singh Deo, but later led his own group of dancers for performance in many places in India and abroad including Eastern Europe, South America and Southeast Asia. His students included many notable dancers like Sharon Lowen, Gopal Prasad Dubey and Shashadhar Acharya. He was a recipient of the 1981 Sangeet Natak Akademi Award and the Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian honour of the Padma Shri, in 2005, for his contributions to arts. Towards the latter part of his life, his health failed and he died on 8 October 2008 at his home in Kansari tola, aged 88. He was married, and had five sons and four daughters.
