the-french-artist/wikipedia_20220301.simple_sentence_split huggingface dataset:
1640s disestablishments in Asia
Saraswati is one of the Hindu goddesses.
The Vedas also mention her name.
She is the goddess of speech, learning and knowledge.
The legend states that she created the Sanskrit language and invented the vina, a musical instrument similar to a lute.
The legend also says that she is the wife of Brahma, one of the gods of the Hindus.
Mata Saraswati was born from the Samudra Manthan that arranged between the Devatas and the Asuras.
She was born from the sea and was married to Lord Brahma thereafter.
In another legend, Brahma created her by his imagination.
However, she turned out to be so beautiful that he could not takes his eyes off her.
Since he had five heads - four in the four cardinal directions - and one on top, his head kept turning in whichever direction Saraswati went.
Saraswati is mentioned in the Vedas, the Brahmans, the Aranyaks, the Upanishads and the Mahabharat.
She is dressed in white, carries a book and a lotus.
Her favorite instrument is a lute and she rides a swan.
Generally, an image or a statue of Saraswati shows her with four arms.
Two arms hold the vina.
In other arms she holds a book and a lotus flower.
Holi is one of the major festivals of Hindus.
It is celebrated in South Asian countries, especially in India and Nepal.
Hiranyanaksap wanted to kill his son, so he called his sister, Holika.
She had a magic robe.
This robe had the power to save the wearer from burning in fire.
Hiranyakashyap ordered his sister to sit on a burning fire along with Prahlad.
He thought that his sister would not be harmed by the fire of the magic robe and Prahlad would be burnt to death.
But the result was the opposite of what the evil demon king planned.
Thus Prahlad came out of the burning fire safely and Holika was burnt to death.
Holi is the festival of colours.
It is celebrated with colors to mark the victory of virtue and goodness over evil.
The festival is celebrated for two days.
The 2nd day, Rang Panchami marks the closing day of the Holi festival.
People are seen with different varieties of colors on Holi.
They put colors on each other, sing, dance.
They worship Lord Krishna and put colors on his idol.
How to practice safe Holi, Government of India
Holi in pictures from The Guardian
Hindu festivals
Beaminster is a town in Dorset, England.
The town has a population of 3,000.
Beaminster is known for a nine-day music and art festival called the Beaminster Festival.
The festival is held every year.
Electronic music is music which is made with electronic equipment such as synthesizers or computers.
Sometimes electronic music artists create special sounds using tape recorders too.
After World War II, when tape recorders had been invented and were becoming popular, composers started to use them to make music.
The tape recorder was needed for the performance.
Composers used them to combine lots of different sounds.
Sometimes it was music played on ordinary (acoustic) instruments which was then changed in some way by the tape recorder.
Sometimes they took sounds from everyday life such as the sound of water, traffic noise or bird song.
All these noises were put together in the way the composer wanted by using the tape recorder.
Tapes of sounds were often cut into pieces, then the pieces were 'spliced' – put back together in a different order.
The results were often very interesting, but there were problems.
Some people asked: “Is it music?”
Others thought it was boring to just look at a tape recorder during a concert instead of being able to watch live musicians play.
Composers in Paris were experimenting with electronic music in the 1940s.
They called it “Musique concrète” because they used natural, concrete sounds. (“
Concrete” in this sense meant the opposite of “abstract” music which was written down for performance).
The sounds were played back at different speeds, combined in lots of ways, played backwards or played continuously (repeated in a 'loop'), or played into a mixer and re-recorded onto another tape recorder.
The sounds could be filtered.
Effects such as vibrato or echo could be added.
Sometimes composers used synthesizers which were machines that could make electronic music in real time.
They sounded more like normal instruments than the sound effects on a tape recorder.
Composers who have used these ways of making music include John Cage (1912-1992), Bruno Maderna (1920-1973) and Karlheinz Stockhausen (b.1928).
Very often composers combined electronic music with ordinary instruments being played.
Bands like Twenty One Pilots, Taylor Swift, and Vance Joy among many others employ electronic sounds amongst their music.
Rap Music
Kendrick Lamar, Eminem, Lil Wayne and many other have added electronic music into their rap music.
In popular music, the use of electronics to create new sounds began in the 1960s.
Producer Joe Meek and inventor Bob Moog both expanded the range of sounds that could be used in pop music, and by the end of that decade electronics had become accepted in the industry.
In the next few years the work of people like Giorgio Moroder, Jean-Michel Jarre, Brian Eno and Kraftwerk made electronic music famous.
In the early 1980s electronic music became fashionable, and bands like New Order, The Human League, Pet Shop Boys and Depeche Mode became famous.
Sometimes these bands would mix electronic music with rock music.
EDM music
A subgenre of electronic music is electronic dance music, or EDM.
Electronic dance music is a form of electronica which is generally made with the intention of being danced to, thus making it generally club-friendly and often (but not always) up-tempo in nature.
Whilst a lot of electronic genres are also classified as EDM, not all forms of electronic music fall within the specific category.
Examples of EDM genres include post-disco, deep house, techno, Eurodance, trance, trip hop, drum and bass and dubstep, as well as several others.
In 2018, Billboard released a market statistic that proved the value and worth of the electronic dance music market.
In this statistical statement, the company shows a 12-percent growth within one year where many changes took place with this musical revolution.
One of the biggest helpers in this EDM market growth was YouTube.
Other genres of music
all sorts of genres of music even whale songs, ambient music, sounds of nature and sound effects have been distorted by some electronic sound, also to record sounds from space astronauts use electronic equipment to compress noise into a singularity.
New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians 1980; ISBN 1-56159-174-2
Reggae is a music genre that began in Jamaica in the late 1960s.
Most music from Jamaica comes from the reggae style.
The music has regular chops on the back beat (off-beat).
These are called “skank”, and are played by a rhythm guitarist.
The bass drum hits on the second and fourth beat of each measure (each bar).
These are called the “drop”.
Reggae bands also use a bass, a keyboard or organ, and horns.
Reggae music is often used by Rastafarian groups.
They are usually songs about religion, love and social problems.
Bob Marley (1945-1981) was a famous reggae artist.
Bebop or bop is a kind of jazz that became popular near the beginning of the Second World War, in the mid-1940s.
Bebop is often fast.
The musicians improvise using a small group of chords which are repeated again and again.
Charlie Parker (1920-1955), who was  famous for his saxophone playing, was a bebop artist.
The famous trumpet player Dizzy Gillespie (1917-1993) was also a renowned artist of this genre.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), or nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (NMRI), are techniques that doctors use to give a visual representation of soft tissue (flesh) inside the body.
Magnetic resonance uses nuclear magnetic resonance to generate these images.
To take an MRI image, the patient lies on a movable bed.
The bed enters a strong magnetic field and then radio waves are applied for a short time in a different direction.
This sudden shift causes certain atoms in the patient's body to make special signals.
The MRI scanner detects those special signals.
The MRI is used to diagnose disorders of the body that cannot be seen by X-rays.
The MRI is painless and has the advantage of avoiding the dangerous X-ray radiation.
It is an expensive medical procedure, due to the high cost of the equipment.
Some metallic objects may distort the image, like hip, shoulder and knee replacements but the exam can still be done.
Cochlear (ear) implants, some (older) aneurysm clips in the brain, and most pacemakers are not MRI compatible.
Obese and severely claustrophobic patients often need sedation and/or imaging with an "open" magnet, which is much less confining.
Contrast agents may or may not be indicated for some patients, and those with compromised kidney function may not be able to receive the contrast, due to a serious but rare skin reaction.
Which parts of the body MRI scans study
MRI scans can be used to study the brain, spinal cord, bones, joints, breasts, the heart and blood vessels.
It can also be used to look at other internal organs.
MRI scans can be used to find blood clots as well.
Neurosurgeons use an MRI scan not only in defining brain anatomy but in evaluating the integrity of the spinal cord after an injury.
An MRI scan can evaluate the structure of the heart and aorta, where it can detect aneurysms or tears.
Furthermore, MRI is nowadays used intraoperatively.
It provides valuable information on glands and organs within the abdomen, and accurate information about the structure of the joints, soft tissues, and bones of the body.
Often, surgery can be deferred or more accurately directed after knowing the results of an MRI scan.
TRTF/EMRF: The history of MRI (Peter A. Rinck, ed).
url = http://www.magnetic-resonance.org/ch/20-01.html
Guadalupe Portal; Aliosvi Rodriguez Whole body magnetic resonance imaging in early diagnosis in Trinidad BMJ (2010) ISSN 1756-1833  url = http://www.bmj.com/rapid-response/2011/12/19/re-whole-body-magnetic-resonance-imaging
A Guided Tour of MRI: An introduction for laypeople  National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Video: What to Expect During Your MRI Exam from the Institute for Magnetic Resonance Safety, Education, and Research (IMRSER)
3D Animation Movie about MRI Exam
Magnetic resonance imaging -Citizendium
When there is a war or some other armed conflict in a country, many people will try to flee (run away) from that country.
They will go to other countries, around the country where there is no war.
Because they fled, they are called refugees.
If there are just a few refugees coming into a country it is generally no problem to get housing for them somewhere.
However, if there are many (or if the government of a country expects many) refugees, it may build what is called a refugee camp.
This is usually done by putting many tents, and a few toilets and showers on an unused plot (stretch) of land.
This is usually land where no one wants to live.
This has not been the case for the refugee camps in the Gaza Strip, for example.
Those camps have existed since the mid 1970s.
Burj el-Barajneh refugee camp in the Lebanon
Transitional shelter
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East
Camp Management Toolkit  published by Norwegian Refugee Council
Shelter Library  Resource for organisations responding to the transitional settlement and shelter needs of displaced populations
U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants' Campaign to End Refugee Warehousing  in refugee camps around the world, people are confined to their settlement and denied their basic rights.
Rubber is a material, which can stretch and shrink.
It is a polymer.
It can be produced from natural sources (e.g. natural rubber) or can be synthesised on an industrial scale.
Many things are made from rubber, like gloves, tires, plugs, and masks.
A few things can be made only from rubber.
Sometimes the word means only natural rubber (latex rubber).
Natural rubber is made from the white sap of some trees such as the Hevea brasiliensis (Euphorbiaceae).
Other elastomers, called synthetic rubbers, are made by chemical processe..
Rubber can stretch and shrink.
Rubber can contain gases.
Rubber can fetch off lightning And/or electricity.
Hevea brasiliensis is the tree that most rubber comes from.
Other plants that have the special sap (called latex) are figs (Ficus elastica), Castilla (Panama rubber tree), euphorbias, lettuce, the common dandelion, Taraxacum kok-saghyz (Russian dandelion), Scorzonera tau-saghyz, and Guayule.
In the 1800s, most sap to make rubber came from South America.
In 1876, Henry Wickham got seeds from rubber trees in Brazil, and took them to Kew Gardens, England, and sent them to Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Indonesia, Singapore and British Malaya.
Later, Malaya (now Malaysia) made the most rubber.
People tried to grow rubber in India, in year 1873 at the Botanical Gardens, Kolkata.
The first Hevea farms in India were made at Thattekadu in Kerala in 1902.
The Congo Free State in Africa also grew a lot trees for rubber at the start of the 20th century, and most of the people who worked on those farms were forced labor.
Liberia and Nigeria also started growing trees to make rubber.
Industrial development
Charles Marie de La Condamine presented samples of rubber to the Académie Royale des Sciences of France in 1736.
In 1751, François Fresneau read a paper to the Académie (eventually published in 1755), which described many of the properties of rubber.
This has been referred to as the first scientific paper on rubber.
In 1770, British chemist Joseph Priestley noticed that rubber was very good for removing pencil marks on paper.
Natural rubber melts in heat and freeze in the cold.
In the 20th century, synthetic (artificial) rubbers such as Neoprene began to be used.
They were much used when World War II cut off supplies of natural rubber.
They have continued to grow because natural rubber is becoming scarce and also because for some uses they are better than natural rubber.
Uses of rubber
Rubber moulded products are widely used industrially (and in some household applications) in the form of rubber goods and appliances.
Rubber is used in garden hoses and pipes for small scale gardening applications.
Most of the tyres and tubes used in automobiles are made up of rubber.
Therefore, rubber plays a very important role in the automobile industry and the transportation industry.
Rubber products are also employed in matting and flooring applications.
A argument is a way to persuade someone of something.
Reasons are given to accept the conclusion.
The general structure of an argument in a natural language is that premises (propositions or statements) support the claim or conclusion.
There can be a "strong argument" or a "convincing argument" (for example, a good reason for why something should be done).
Arguing is the process of conducting an argument.
The opposite is a "weak argument" or an "unconvincing argument".
Arguments can be valid or invalid or a combination of both.
Some arguments may appear reasonable, but they turn out to be misleading or wrong.
The 2003 invasion of Iraq (March 20, 2003 - May 1, 2003) was the war fought by the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Poland and some other countries against Iraq, to end the rule of Saddam Hussein.
The main reason that the war started was said to be because the British and American Governments believed that Iraq had dangerous weapons of mass destruction (such as chemical or nuclear weapons) that could be used against other countries.
This turned out after the invasion to not be true.
Another reason for the start of the war was that many people thought that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, one of the leaders of al-Qaeda, was hiding in Iraq after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Though Saddam Hussein was not involved in the planning of the September 11 attacks, many people accused him of giving al-Qaeda a safe place to hide from the United States.
The war was extremely controversial.
Many British and American people blamed British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the American President, George W. Bush.
Paratroopers landed in the far north of Iraq and a few soldiers attacked from the sea, but most invaded from Kuwait in the south.
4,734 NATO soldiers were killed in Iraq war including 4,600 U.S. servicemen, 179 UK servicemen and 139 Other NATO soldiers with a total of 4900 casualties.
31,882 U.S. servicemen and over 3,600 UK servicemen were wounded in Iraq.
More than 100,000 Iraqi civilians who were not soldiers were also killed.
On April 18 2010, ISIS leaders Abu Ayyub al-Masri and Abu Abdullah al-Rashid al-Baghdadi were killed in a raid  of Tikrit in a safe house.
Encyclopedia Britannica's Article on 2003 War
Architects of Illegal American-Iraq 2003 war: George Bush jr, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld found guilty of war crimes!
War Report.
More than 5,000 articles, documents and analyses of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, updated four times a week—Project on Defense Alternatives.
CIA’s final report
Occupation of Iraq Timeline at the History Commons
Morgues so full, bodies turned away
The War In Context News aggregator
ProCon's examination of Iraq Invasion
by Professor Dr. Sedat Laciner, "Ten Impasses of the Resistance in Iraq"
Amnesty International Report on Iraq
2003 in Asia
21st century in Iraq
fi:Liittouman hyökkäys Irakiin vuonna 2003
A helmet is a hard or cushioned hat which is worn to protect a person's head.
There are many different types of helmets.
Some helmets are made from metal.
Other helmets are made from plastic.
Helmets often have fabric cushions inside and fabric straps to hold the helmet on a person's head.
Soldiers wear steel helmets to protect their heads from explosions and flying bits of metal.
Construction workers wear plastic helmets to protect their heads from falling objects.
Welders wear special helmets with a dark window that lets less light through.
This protects their eyes from the bright light of welding.
People who ride bicycles or horses wear plastic helmets with foam, to protect their heads in case they have an accident.
Motorcycle riders wear similar but stronger helmets.
People who rock climb wear helmets in case they fall.
Cavers wear helmets to protect their heads from bumping into rocks in a cave.
Helmets are also worn for protection by participants of numerous sports including horse racing, baseball, ice hockey, and cricket.
A coonskin cap is a hat made from the fur of a raccoon.
Usually, the tail of the racoon is attached to the back of the hat.
The coonskin cap is a symbol of the early United States frontier.
Coonskin caps were first worn by the Native Americans who lived around Tennessee and Kentucky.
The American settlers who moved to this area liked the caps and wore them themselves.
Some famous American pioneers who wore coonskin caps are Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone.
The Crazy Horse Memorial is the world's largest mountain sculpture in progress.
It is in the Black Hills of South Dakota, USA.
The statue depicts Crazy Horse, a famous Lakota warrior.
Korczak Ziolkowski started the project in 1948 at the request of Chief Henry Standing Bear and other Native American elders.
The statue is meant to be a memorial to the spirit of Crazy Horse as well as the Native American people.
Ziolkowski believed in individual initiative and private enterprise, and as such, never accepted government funding.
He continued to work on the memorial until his death in 1982.
Ziolkowski's wife and family have continued to work the Crazy Horse Memorial.
Completion of the project is currently unknown because of several factors including weather, the availability of financing and the challenges of the mountain engineering.
The face of Crazy Horse was completed and dedicated in 1998.
Work on the memorial continues today and current plans include blocking out the face of the horse itself.
Monuments and memorials in the United States
1727 to 1800 – Lt.
Francisco de Melo Palheta smuggles coffee seeds to Brazil in a bouquet starting a coffee empire.
June 11 – George, Prince of Wales becomes King George II of Great Britain.
November 18–Earthquake in Tazriz, Persia – about 77,000 dead
Last execution for witchcraft in Scotland
First Amish move to America
The Royal Bank of Scotland is founded by royal charter in Edinburgh.
Catholic Charities is founded in New Orleans, United States, by the French Ursuline Sisters.
– Isaac Newton, English scientist (b. 1643)
The Town on Queen Anne's Creek, North Carolina is renamed Edenton in honor of North Carolina Governor Charles Eden.
It is later incorporated in 1722.
The Tuscarora fled North Carolina as a result of European colonisation
Edmond Halley appointed Astronomer Royal
The Academia Real da Historia is founded in Lisbon, Portugal
Jonathan Swift begins Gulliver's Travels
Emperor Kangxi announced that all western businessmen could only trade in Guangzhou.
January 25 – Amaro Pargo receives the title of Hidalgo (nobleman).
February 8 – Catherine I became empress of Russia.
February 20 – The first reported case of white men scalping Native Americans takes place in New Hampshire colony.
March 2 – In London, night watchman finds a severed head by the Thames; it is later recognized to be that of the husband of Catherine Hayes.
She and one accomplice are later executed.
May 21 – The Order of Alexander Nevsky was instituted in Russia by an empress Catherine I.
May 24 – Jonathan Wild, fraudulent "Thief Taker General", is hanged in Tyburn, England for actually aiding criminals.
February 4 – Dru Drury, English entomologist (d. 1804)
February 5 – James Otis, American lawyer and patriot (d. 1783)
February 15 – Abraham Clark, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (d. 1794)
February 25 – Karl Wilhelm Ramler, German poet (d. 1798)
March 11 – Henry Benedict Stuart, pretender to the British throne (d. 1807)
March 17 – Lachlan McIntosh, Scottish-born American military and political leader (d. 1806)
March 20 – Abd-al-Hamid I, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1789)
Samuel Ashe, Governor of North Carolina (d. 1813)
Thomas Cushing, American Continental Congressman (d. 1788)
March 28 – Andrew Kippis, English non-conformist clergyman and biographer (d. 1795)
April 2 – Giacomo Casanova, Italian adventurer and writer (d. 1798)
April 6 – Pasquale Paoli, Corsican patriot and military leader (d. 1807)
April 23 – Saint Gerard Majella, Catholic saint (d. 1755)
April 25 – Augustus Keppel, 1st Viscount Keppel, British admiral (d. 1786)
May 12 – Louis Philip I, Duke of Orléans, French soldier and writer (d. 1785)
May 25 – Samuel Ward, American politician (d. 1776)
July 1 – Comte de Rochambeau, French soldier (d. 1807)
July 24 – John Newton, English cleric and hymnist (d. 1807)
August 21 – Jean-Baptiste Greuze, French painter (d. 1805)
August 29 – Charles Townshend, English politician (d. 1767)
September 5 – Jean-Étienne Montucla, French mathematician (d. 1799)
September 12 – Guillaume Le Gentil, French astronomer (d. 1792)
September 16 – Nicolas Desmarest, French geologist (d. 1815)
September 24 – Arthur Guinness, Irish brewer (d. 1803)
September 25 – Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot, French automobile pioneer (d. 1804)
September 29 – Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive, British general and statesman (d. 1774)
October 12 – Etienne Louis Geoffroy, French pharmacist and entomologist (d. 1810)
October 21 – Franz Moritz Graf von Lacy, Austrian field marshal (d. 1801)
December 11 – George Mason, American founding father (d. 1792)
December 18 – Johann Salomo Semler, German historian and Bible commentator (d. 1791)
January 6 – Chikamatsu Monzaemon, Japanese dramatist (b. 1653)
February 8 – Tsar Peter I of Russia (b. 1672)
March 2 – José Benito de Churriguera, Spanish architect and sculptor (b. 1665)
April 8 – John Wise, English clergyman (b. 1652)
May 24 – Jonathan Wild, English criminal (b. 1683)
June 29 – Arai Hakuseki, Japanese poet, politician, and writer (b. 1657)
October 10 – Philippe de Rigaud Vaudreuil, Governor-General of New France
October 11 – Hans Herr, Swiss-born Mennonite bishop (b. 1639)
October 24 – Alessandro Scarlatti, Italian composer (b. 1660)
October 31 – Ali Othman, Vampire(b.
December 7 – Florent Carton Dancourt, French dramatist and actor (b. 1661)
José Mora, Spanish sculptor (b. 1638)
Nguyễn Phúc Chu, Vietnamese ruler (b. 1675)
Dwarka (with other spelling as Dvarka) was a city of Ancient India.
The city was one of seven holy cities of the Hindus.
It is also one of the four most important places of pilgrimage for the Hindus.
Hindus call such four places as Dhams.
Dwarka is located in the western part of India in Gujarat state.
During the birth day of Krishna, and the Hindu festivals of Holi and Divali, thousands of Hindus visit the place.
In Ancient India, the place was the capital of the kingdom ruled by Krishna and his clan of the yadavas.
Soon after the death of Krishna, the city went below the sea.
http://www.dwarkadhish.org/
The Ramayana is an ancient Sanskrit epic about Rama and Sita.
It is one of the two most important ancient epics of India, the first one being the ancient Mahabharata.
The epic was originally written by sage (rishi) Valmiki of Ancient India.
The book has about 24,000 verses and is divided into seven parts.
The story of the Ramayana is about Prince Rama who has been exiled from his kingdom of Ayodhya.
He goes on to kill king Ravana of Lanka in a long battle to get back his wife Sita.
Seven different versions of the book are available.
It has been translated into all the major languages of the world.
The different parts of the Ramayana are also called books.
These seven parts or books are noted below:
The first book is Balakand, meaning the book of childhood.
The second book is Ayodhyakanda, meaning the book of Ayodhya.
The third book is Aranyakanda, meaning the book of the forests.
The fourth book is Kishkindhakanda, meaning the book of Kishkindha.
The fifth book is Sundarakanda, meaning the book beautiful.
The sixth book is Yuddhakanda, meaning the book of the war.
The seventh book is Uttarakanda, meaning the book of after events.
There are different views about the time the Ramayana was written.
Some people believe that it was written 2,500 years ago.
Others think that it was written around 1,800 years ago.
All agree that the book is very old and was written before the Mahabharata.
The Ramayana is still very popular today.
Every autumn the Ramlila (Rama play) is performed at the festival of Dassehra.
A huge model of Ravana is set alight.
This symbolizes the triumph of light over darkness.
It is also believed that he turned in to Krishna and also many more things are believed.
A Tamil version of the book was written between the 9th and 10th centuries.
The writer of this book was Kamban.
This version is known as Iramavataram, which means the coming of Rama.
In the 16th century, Tulasidas wrote a Hindi version of Ramayana.
This was named Ramacharitmanasa.
Over many centuries, the story of Rama reached places in other countries like Indonesia and Malaysia.
The Ramayana has been translated into most of the major languages of the world.
The Ramayana was used in Ancient India for the teaching of young children.
It was mainly used for acting out their religious beliefs so that their children knew that they were to worship the main Hindu beliefs that were: Brahman, Multiple Gods, Dharma, Samsara, and Karma.
The Mahābhārata (; , , ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India.
The other is the Rāmāyaṇa.
It tells if issues between two groups of cousins in the Kurukshetra Warm It also tells the fates of the Kaurava and the Pāṇḍava princes and their successors.
The Mahābhārata includes  philosophical and devotional material, It has a discussion of the four "goals of life" or puruṣārtha (12.161).
The stories in the Mahābhārata include the Bhagavad Gita, the story of Damayanti, the story of Shakuntala, the story of Pururava and Urvashi, the story of Savitri and Satyavan, the story of Kacha and Devyani and the story of Rishyasringa.
It also has a shortened version of the Rāmāyaṇa.
The Mahābhārata is normally said to be written by Vyāsa.
Most of it was probably put together between the 3rd century BCE and the 3rd century CE.
The oldest parts o it are not much older than around 400 BCE.
The text probably became in its final form by the early Gupta period (c. 4th century CE).
The Mahābhārata is the longest epic poem known.
It has been said to be "the longest poem ever written".
Its longest version has over 100,000 śloka or over 200,000 individual verse lines.
It also has and long sections of prose.
The Mahābhārata has about 1.8 million words in total.
It is about ten times the length of the Iliad and the Odyssey combined, It is about four times the length of the Rāmāyaṇa.
The importance of the Mahābhārata to world civilization has been compared to that of the Bible, the Quran, the works of Homer, Greek drama, or the works of William Shakespeare.
It is sometimes called the fifth Veda.
Protagonists(weightage%)
Karna(35%)- Karna is the central protagonist of the Mahabharata written by Vyasa.
The poem Jaya had been written mainly to commemorate Karna and Yudhisthira.
He possessed all the qualities of his brother.
Padmavati, wife of Karna is the main character of post-Kurukshetra Mahabharata.
She was brought to Pandavas after the end of war.
Yudhisthira(14%) - Yudhisthira was considered the actual protagonist of the epic- Mahabharata after Karna.
He was the king of the earth and the leader of successful Pandava team
Bhima(8%)-He killed the most number of enemies and villains of that era.
He killed the 100 Kauravas, Jarasandha, Hidimba, Keechak etc.
Arjuna+Nakula+Sahdev(8%)- He wad the rival of Karna(the protagonist of the epic).
He was the listener of Bhagwada Gita.
Sage Vyasa taught this epic to his son Suka and his students Vaisampayana and others.
King Janamejaya, the son of Parikshit and grandson of the heroes of the epic, performed a great sacrifice (yajna).
The epic was retold by Vaisampayana to Janamejaya at the advice of Vyasa.
Later on, the other sage Suta retold the Mahabharata similar to Vaisampayana to Janamejaya, to Saunaka and others, during a sacrifice performed by Saunaka in Naimisaranya, which is near Sitapur in Uttar Pradesh.
Parvas
Noted below are few words about the eighteen sections of the Mahabharata.
In Mahabharata, these sections are called parvan.
A parvan means a book.
The names of all parvas or books of the Mahabharata are noted below.
Karna and the Pandavas
When Yudhisthira got to know Karna was his eldest brother, he called Vedavyasa and heard the story of Karna from Narada.
Narada narrated the story of Karna to Vedavyasa and 7 saptarishis along with Yudhisthira.
The 7 saptarishis and 5 Pandavas went on and further sung glories of Karna in their kingdom.
Yudhisthira commemorated Karna by naming the Ashwamedha horse- ShyamKarna.
After the narration of Narada, Vyasa penned the "Jaya" epic keeping Karna and Yudhisthira as its central protagonists of 8800 shlokas.
Vyasa narrated Mahabharata had been written to commemorate Karna's sacrifices and Yudhisthira's crowning as the king of earth.
Donation for it's compilation
In the year 1932, The Bhandarkar oriental research institute located in Pune, needed money for the compilation and publication of the Holy Mahabharata and a guest house.
A formal request was made to the seventh Nizam of Hyderabad State, Mir Osman Ali Khan who in no time released a farman to donate Rs.1000 per year for a period of 11 years.
Whereas, Rs.
50,000 was offered for the guest which is known as "Nizam guest house".
Manipur of Odisha
Mahabharata Online - The Complete Translation of Vyasa Mahabharata and Stories from Mahabharata
Some nice info on Hinduism including the Mahabharata
The Hajj ("pilgrimage") is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, the most holy city of the Muslims, and a Fard or mandatory religious duty for Muslims that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by all adult Muslims who are physically and financially capable of undertaking the journey, and can support their family during their absence.
It is one of the five pillars of Islam, alongside Shahadah, Salat, Zakat, and Sawm.
The Hajj is the largest annual gathering of people in the world.
The state of being physically and financially capable of performing the Hajj is called istita'ah, and a Muslim who fulfills this condition is called a mustati.
The Hajj is a demonstration of the solidarity of the Muslim people, and their submission to God (Allah).
The word Hajj means "to intend a journey", which connotes both the outward act of a journey and the inward act of intentions.
The pilgrimage occurs from the 8th to 12th (or in some cases 13th) of Dhu al-Hijjah, the last month of the Islamic calendar.
Because the Islamic calendar is lunar and the Islamic year is about eleven days shorter than the Gregorian year, the Gregorian date of Hajj changes from year to year.
Ihram is the name given to the special spiritual state in which pilgrims wear two white sheets of seamless cloth and abstain from certain actions.
The Hajj is associated with the life of Islamic prophet Muhammad from the 7th century, but the ritual of pilgrimage to Mecca is considered by Muslims to stretch back thousands of years to the time of Abraham.
During Hajj, pilgrims join processions of hundreds of thousands of people, who simultaneously converge on Mecca for the week of the Hajj, and perform a series of rituals: each person walks counter-clockwise seven times around the Ka'aba (the cube-shaped building and the direction of prayer for the Muslims), runs back and forth between the hills of Al-Safa and Al-Marwah, drinks from the Zamzam Well, goes to the plains of Mount Arafat to stand in vigil, spends a night in the plain of Muzdalifa, and performs symbolic stoning of the devil by throwing stones at three pillars.
The pilgrims then shave their heads, perform a ritual of animal sacrifice, and celebrate the three-day global festival of Eid al-Adha.
Pilgrims can also go to Mecca to perform the rituals at other times of the year.
This is sometimes called the "lesser pilgrimage", or Umrah.
However, even if they choose to perform the Umrah, they are still obligated to perform the Hajj at some other point in their lifetime if they have the means to do so, because Umrah is not a substitute for Hajj.
As an industry
Saudi Arabia's economy greatly benefits from Hajj tourism and has invested in hotel businesses as well as infrastructure to accommodate and profit from Hajj and Ummrah tourism.
Religion in Saudi Arabia
The English Civil War happened in the middle 17th century.
The term civil war is a war where the sides involved in the fighting are from the same country.
At the centre, there was a struggle between King Charles I and the Parliament of England over how England should be ruled.
The King wanted to rule without Parliament telling him what to do.
At first Parliament wanted to reduce the King's power, but later it decided that the country did not need a king.
King Charles's supporters were known as the Royalists, and were nicknamed "Cavaliers".
Parliament's supporters were known as the Parliamentarians, and were nicknamed "Roundheads".
From 1639 to 1653, there was fighting in England, Scotland and Ireland, three separate countries that were ruled by the same king.
The fighting that took place in each of these countries broke out at different times and for different reasons.
In England, it lasted from 1642 to 1651.
Some people think of this as one big war, while others think of it as three separate wars: the First English Civil War (1642-46), the Second English Civil War (1648) and the Third English Civil War (1649-51).
The wars are also sometimes known as the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, including the Bishops' Wars in Scotland in 1639 to 1640 and the Irish Rebellion from 1641 to 1653.
The Parliamentarians won the war.
Charles I was captured, put on trial and in 1649 he was executed.
His son Charles II then tried to take over the country, but lost and escaped abroad.
As a result, the three kingdoms spent 11 years without a king.
For most of this time, they were run by Oliver Cromwell, a former Parliamentarian general.
After Cromwell's death, the monarchy was restored under Charles II.
However, kings were never as powerful as they had been before the war.
Power and money
In the 17th century, the king had a lot of power over England with one exception: he could only raise taxes if the English Parliament agreed to it.
This was because Parliament represented the gentry (middle class), and no king could raise taxes without the help of the gentry.
Scotland and Ireland also had parliaments, but with not nearly as much power.
When King James VI of Scotland inherited the throne (becoming James I of England), he disliked having to work with parliament.
He was more used to ruling in Scotland, where the king was far more powerful.
James I also spent more money than previous kings and queens.
Both James I and his son Charles I believed in the "divine right of kings", meaning that they believed that God gave kings the right to do anything they wanted over their lands.
But there was a difference between the two: James I accepted that he could not get what he wanted all the time, whereas Charles I always wanted to get his own way.
After becoming king in 1625, Charles I quickly got into arguments with members of Parliament.
From 1629 to 1640, he shut Parliament down and ruled without it.
This was legal, as long as he did not raise taxes.
He used some legal tricks to raise money without bringing back Parliament.
For example, he used "ship money", a tax that had been paid by coastal towns in times of war.
Charles I started charging it to all towns when there was no war.
This was unpopular, but judges decided that it was legal.
The period from 1629 to 1640 was known as the "Eleven Years' Tyranny" by the king's enemies.
In the previous century, the Protestant Reformation and England's break with the Catholic Church had encouraged new ideas and struggles.
In England, there was movement called the Puritans, because they wanted a "pure" religion.
They believed that the Church of England was too much like the Roman Catholic Church it had broken away from.
In particular, they did not want the church to have bishops.
There was a similar movement in Scotland.
The Church of Scotland also had bishops, but it had many differences with the Church of England.
On the other hand, Charles I and Archbishop William Laud tried to change the Church of England.
They brought back incense, bells and decorations to churches.
These were things that were found in Catholic churches.
This worried the people who hated Catholicism, especially the Puritans.
Charles I also married a French princess, Henrietta Maria, who was a Catholic.
Build-up
In 1637, Charles I tried to introduce a new prayer book in Scotland that was very similar to the English Book of Common Prayer, without asking Scotland's Parliament or church.
Many Scots hated the prayer book, seeing it as an attempt to change the religion of their country.
Riots broke out in Edinburgh, and unrest spread throughout Scotland.
A rebellion movement began in Scotland, which became known as the Covenanters.
In 1639, the rebellion led to the Bishops' Wars in Scotland.
The war cost so much money that the King called a new Parliament in England to raise taxes.
But the members of Parliament did not want to work with Charles, and instead they complained about the king's actions (such as ship money) during the "Eleven Years' Tyranny".
He shut Parliament down again, but the King struggled to stop the Covenanters without new taxes.
Another problem was that many English people agreed with the Covenanters and did not want to help fight them.
The Covenanter army invaded England and marched into Northumberland and County Durham.
They refused to leave unless they were paid money.
To raise that money, the King had no choice but to call another Parliament.
This became known as the "Long Parliament".
Over two-thirds of the elected members of the Long Parliament were opposed to the king.
John Pym was their leader.
The Long Parliament passed laws to stop the king from shutting it down and removed many of the king's allies.
They even had his friend Earl of Strafford executed.
In 1641, a rebellion broke out in Ireland.
The rebellion was caused by Irish Catholics who were fearful of the Protestants in the Long Parliament and the Scottish Covenanters.
The King now needed money to fight this rebellion, which strengthened Parliament.
Parliament would also took control of the army in 1642.
In January 1642, Charles I marched into Parliament with guards, to arrest five members of Parliament (including Pym) who disagreed with him.
The five men found out he was coming and escaped.
No king had ever entered the main chamber of Parliament before, and many members were shocked he would do this.
It was disaster for Charles.
He failed to catch his enemies, and many members of Parliament who had not been enemies of the king became afraid of him.
They decided that the only way to protect themselves was a raise an army against the King.
First English Civil War (1642-46)
In mid-1642, both sides started travelling around the country to gather supporters and weapons.
On 22 August, King Charles raised the royal flag in Nottingham.
By doing this, he was announcing that he was at war with Parliament.
The King found more support in the countryside, poorer parts of the country and northern and western England.
Parliament found more support in most cities, ports, richer parts of the country and southern and eastern England.
People who were secretly Catholic mostly supported the King.
The Royal Navy and most Puritans supported Parliament.
Some areas supported Parliament because of local problems, such as the land drainage works in The Fens.
The Royalist armies were led by Prince Rupert, the King's nephew.
The Parliamentarian armies were at first led by the Earl of Essex.
The Royalists decided they would try to fight the Parliamentarians quickly, and so went to meet them in Warwickshire.
The first major battle was the Battle of Edgehill in October 1642.
The battle ended in a draw.
The King tried to return to London but was blocked by the Parliamentarian army.
He moved with his armies to Oxford, where he had more loyal followers.
The first year of the war went fairly well for the Royalists.
They strengthened their control over the north and west.
Their progress was slower in the Midlands, though they did capture Lichfield.
After mid-1643, the Parliamentarians started to do better.
They won battles in Lincolnshire, in the east and at Newbury to the west of London.
King Charles made a deal with the Irish rebels to stop the fighting in Ireland, freeing up soldiers that could fight for him.
Parliament made a deal with the Scottish Covenantors, who would help them.
Parliament were also helped by a talented army leader called Oliver Cromwell.
He led a cavalry (horse riders) unit called the "Ironsides".
The Ironsides were better organised than most cavalry units, which made them far better at fighting.
Helped by the Scots and the Ironsides, Parliament won a major victory the Battle of Marston Moor in July 1644.
They took control of northern England.
The Royalists were weakened but not yet defeated.
They won the Battle of Lostwithiel in Cornwall, defeating Essex's soldiers.
They also managed to fight to a draw at a second Battle of Newbury in October.
In 1645, Parliament organised its soldiers into the New Model Army.
The Earl of Essex was replaced by Sir Thomas Fairfax.
Oliver Cromwell became Fairfax's deputy.
The New Model Army was better organised than any army that had come before it.
They defeated the King's largest army at the Battle of Naseby in June 1645.
Most of the Royalist soldiers at Naseby were taken prisoner.</small> King Charles escaped Naseby but left behind his baggage, which had letters inside them.
The Parliamentarians opened them and found out that the King was trying to get help from the Irish Catholics and from Catholic countries.
The King lost support because of this.
The other main Royalist army was defeated at the Battle of Langport in Somerset, one month later.
The Parliamentarians took control of South West England, where they had been weak.
King Charles tried to gather his remaining supporters in the Midlands.
Many fortress towns in the area from Oxford to Newark-on-Trent were still loyal to him.
In May 1646, Charles met a Scottish army in Nottinghamshire.
The Scots took him prisoner.
Second English Civil War (1648)
Although the Parliamentarians had won, they were divided on how to run the country.
One big argument was over religion.
Most members of Parliament wanted a Presbyterian national church.
The New Model Army favoured allowing local churches to run themselves without there being a national church.
The defeated Royalists supported the existing Church of England, though some were secretly Catholic.
Parliament and the Army both tried to win support of the King and the Scottish Presbyterians.
King Charles was in prison and was passed between the groups.
He refused to make a deal any of them, because he believed that only he had the right to rule over England.
He pretended he was interested in making a deal while he planned to take back control of the country.
The divisions became worse when Parliament tried to disband the New Model Army.
A second war broke out when some Scottish Presbyterians (called the Engagers) and some English Presbyterians allied with the King.
They agreed to support him in return for making the English and Scottish churches into Presbyterian churches.
The Scots invaded England, while Royalist rebellions broke out in various parts of England.
Some of the rebellions were defeated very easily.
The rebellions in Wales, Kent, Essex and Cumberland were stronger but were put down by the New Model Army.
The Royalists and Scots were defeated at the Battle of Preston in August 1648.
Execution of King Charles I
The New Model Army was in control.
In an event called "Pride's Purge", army Colonel Thomas Pride removed all members of Parliament who had not supported the Army.
Only 75 members were left.
The Army put them in charge of the country, and this Parliament was called the Rump Parliament.
The Rump Parliament decided they would not work with King Charles any more.
They put him on trial.
On 27 January 1649, the trial found him guilty of treason and called him a "tyrant, traitor, murderer and public enemy".
He was beheaded three days later.
Many historians say that the execution of King Charles was an important moment in English history, and even in the history of the Western World.
No European monarch had ever been put on trial by their own people before.
Other countries in Europe said the execution was wrong, but they did not do much else.
Not all Parliamentarians supported the execution.
Fairfax thought it was wrong.
He resigned as leader of the New Model Army, and was replaced by Oliver Cromwell.
The next king would have been Charles' son Prince Charles, the future King Charles II.
Parliament announced instead that England would become a republic, called the Commonwealth of England.
However, Prince Charles could still become King of Scotland.
Third English Civil War (1649-51)
In 1649, the Marquess of Montrose started a rebellion in Scotland in support of King Charles II.
Rather than support Montrose, Charles decided to ally with the Scottish Covenantors.
They feared the Commonwealth of England would stop Scotland from having a Presbyterian church.
Montrose was defeated by Scottish armies in April 1650.
In June, Charles landed in Scotland and signed an agreement with the Scottish Covenantors.
Cromwell travelled to Scotland and arrived the following month.
Over the next year, it took control of the main parts of Scotland.
When Charles fled to England, Cromwell followed him, leaving George Monck to finish winning the war in Scotland.
When this was done, Scotland became part of the Commonwealth of England.
Charles' army marched across England to the western regions where the Royalists had the most support.
However, they could not find as many supporters as they wanted.
Cromwell found them and defeated them at the Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651.
Charles fled to The Netherlands.
He would not return until 1660.
Irish rebellion
The Irish rebellion that started in 1641 would continue until 1652.
It was mainly fought by Irish Catholics against armies of the English Parliamentarians, Scottish Covenantors and Protestant settlers in Ireland.
At first the rebels fought English Royalist armies as well, but this mostly stopped after September 1843.
Seven months after the rebellion began, the rebels created their own government in Kilkenny.
This was known as the Irish Catholic Confederation.