Chauth and Sardeshmukhi were two types of taxes collected in India, which were particularly collected by the Maratha Empire during the medieval times in our history. These two taxes were the most important taxes in the taxation system during the Marathas ruler which was founded by a great Maratha leader Shivaji (1627-1680).These taxes have provided a part of the revenue for Maratha administration. However, these two taxes were neither introduced nor were original sources of revenue for Marathas. These two are security taxes.Chauth is the tax which the small kingdoms or Dynasties have to pay to Marathas which was in ... Read More

World War I took place from 1914 to 1918 and huge mass destruction followed the occurrence of the war. Here are some less known facts about World War 1:In World War I, a fake Paris was built to fool the German pilots.There were special battalions for short heightened soldiers.Many young soldiers participated, the youngest one being only 8 years old.Earlier to this war, females were restricted to home and house chores, but later even they fought in huge numbers, so much so that their skin got yellow due to chemicals as if they had jaundice.There were gender roles assigned even ... Read More

It is said that "Cleanliness is next to Godliness.” When we people try our level best to look presentable and feel good by maintaining our personal and community hygiene, one is curious to know whether this concern of hygiene is recent or was a part of people’s attitude even before?Let us look at the way people used to maintain their hygiene in medieval ages.Menstrual Hygiene: Women use sanitary napkins and tampons for menstrual hygiene nowadays. But at that time, they would have definitely used rags and thrown them away. Some may have indeed washed and re-used the cloth. In Victorian ... Read More

The Middle Ages witnessed a different diet depending on the class of society to which an individual belonged. Rich people had a different diet than poor people.Poor people fed themselves on barley or porridge. Bread was eaten by them too. But Rich people consumed those items which were a symbol of richness like pork and chicken. Even the spices were costly for rich people like saffron, black pepper, cardamom. The poor ones had to stick to more vegetables and fewer spices. The poor folk fed on legumes and pulses like chickpeas, but the aristocratic class did not.Following practices were even ... Read More

Saraswati River is an ancient river of India, which was considered auspicious as per the Vedas. Not only in the four Vedas, such as Rig Veda, Sama Veda, Yajur Veda, and Adharwana Veda, was the Saraswati river spoken about, but also in the Valmiki Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the 18 Puranas, Manusmrithi and many other scriptures have highlighted its importance.This river which used to flow on the surface of the earth around 5, 000 years ago, (around 6000 to 3000 BC), later on, became an underground river flowing 60 meters below the ground. Many of the modern Indians, didn’t believe it ... Read More

Indus Valley Civilization was one of those early urban civilizations that were originated in 2300 BC which was developed in the river basins of Sutlej, Ravi, and Indus. When the archaeologists started exploring this place, many proofs regarding the Harappan culture and Indus Valley trade were found. Historians claim that this was the land of early development where trade and agricultural economy came into existence.Agricultural TradeWith the rivers surrounding their area, the land was fertile and they used to cultivate many crops such as Barley, Wheat, Melon seeds and oil crops like Sesame, Mustard, and Dates. These were traded by ... Read More

Imagine being in ancient times, where there is no modern day technology, equipment and advance education like engineering and yet being able to build a massive structure with just using mud and minimal resources.The Harappans built a well-equipped structure with all amenities, more than 5, 000 years ago which can even be witnessed until this day!!The Great Bath is an ancient public water tank where people used to take bath. This tank measured 7-meter wide, 12-meters long and 2.4-meters deep. There are two staircases to enter the water tank from either side, North and South. The small sockets at the ... Read More

The Indus valley civilization which existed during 3300 to 1300 BC is also known as Harappan Civilization. This area was named as Indus valley as it was situated on the banks of river Indus, whose source is the perennial waters of Himalayan Mountains. This Indus valley extended from a North-western part of India to modern-day North-east Afghanistan and Pakistan.During their survey, the scholars came to know that the origin of Harappan civilization could be from Mehrgarh which is in the foothills of a mountain pass in Modern-day Balochistan, that is in western Pakistan. Whereas the extension of this civilization can ... Read More

The Indus valley people were probably the first-ever skilled craftsmen, who made wonders with minimum resources they have. They have achieved many notable advancements during the 3300 to 1300 BC when their civilization flourished.City-PlanningThey made their living area and housing in a well-structured manner. They used baked bricks and lime for construction, where the bricks used were in uniform size and moisture-resistant. They used to apply gypsum and natural tar to make them waterproof. The structure of the city was greatly planned with the residential area on the higher land and water storages on the lower part.They displayed excellent architecture ... Read More

The Earliest part of Human evolution was found to be dated around 2.5 Million years ago. It was understood that the earth was even colder and mostly filled with ice, where only a few of the beings were humans summing up to around one million in the whole world. There were no pieces of evidence of any human existence before stone age.Stone to BronzeStone age is understood as the period from the first use of stone tools to the first use of Bronze. Though there was no proper evidence of 98% of the early humans, the surveys made by Archeologists, ... Read More