The Kachari Civilization, the most widespread civilization, temporally and spatially, in the Greater Brahmaputra Valley (Northeast India) and beyond, is the least studied on the subcontinent. Over two centuries ago, British colonials discovered remains of a fortified brick city in Dimapur, Nagaland, attributed to the Kachari Kingdom belonging to the medieval period, revealing a sophisticated arched gateway, carved sandstone pillars, temples, tanks, canals, and causeways, yet it remained uninvestigated by archaeologists until this project. Nothing was known beyond the few standing relics and their relations with the invading Ahoms. The site’s destruction due to various construction projects prevented accomplishing the many desired objectives, chiefly to establish cultural and chronological sequences. Despite encountering overwhelming obstacles, this paper highlights new evidence, including ceramics and C¹? dates, retrieved from the circumscribed excavations (extended trial trenches), revealing that Dimapur, the Kachari Kingdom’s first capital, predates the advent of the Ahoms in 1228 by more than a millennium.

Keywords: Brick City; Carved Pillars; Ceramics; Rajbari Dimapur; Gateway; Kachari Civilization; Kachari Kingdom; Radiocarbon Dates

The Indus script dated to a period earlier than 2600BCE, reflects the fundamental changes in social, political and ritual organization of the Harappan civilization that accompanied the formation and consolidation of cities when the first inscribed era of economic and political hegemony emerged that lasted for 700 years. This paper makes an attempt to understand the emergence of the Indus script, the challenges behind the decipherment of the script and also to understand how the script was used and the probable reasons behind its disappearance.

Keywords: Indus, Script, Logo syllabic, Decipherment, Disappearance.

Apparajupalli village is situated on the way from Chintakommadenne to Polathalashiva temple in the Chintakommadenne mandal in the Kadapa district of Andhra Pradesh. Towards south of the present village with a distance of one kilometre on hill slopes there is a megalithic site situated with stone circles with cairn packing measuring 5-6 meters in the diameter. In this site nearly twenty burials were encountered but most of the burials were disturbed by natural phenomena. Besides pottery and iron and stone objects, beads of different materials as well as a varied assortment of jewellery were also found. The most important among the burial furnishings is the pottery, which consisted mainly of the black and red, the black polished, and coarse red wares, etc. Moreover, cereals and animal skeletons were also noticed. It is proposed to examine these remains in the light of recent explorations in Kadapa.

Keywords: Apparajupalli, burials, coarse red wares, megalithic, pottery.

Since ancient times, several indoor games have been widely played in India and in other parts of the world. These indoor games are primarily for entertainment; however, in the Great Epic Maha?bha?rata a game of dice, primarily a mode of entertainment was used for political gains. When playing these games, players usually gamble based on Indian knowledge. However, outside India, it may vary depending on the player’s interests. The level and seriousness of the game of dice in the case of the Maha?bha?rata ultimately resulted in war. In the Pauranic tradition, this dice game also played an important role between the Great God S?iva and his spouse Pa?rvati?. In Sanskrit texts, the word li?la? is often mentioned, suggesting various types of divine plays. These include playful activities by divine beings, intended to promote hidden messages as in the case of Krishna and the activities that he performs at different stages of life. If it is about feelings or love, then it is Ra?sa li?la?; the narrative of activities during childhood would be called B?l li?la?, etc. Indian history and literature has featured a variety of games involving numbers and played while something was at stake. These are called Causara, Caupad?a, Dyu?tyakri?d?a?, Caturan?ga, S?ataranja etc. The common factor is the use of numbers or dice, which is why they are called Aks?akri?d?a? in the present study. Only a few used dice while in some games it was not necessary. This study focuses on the representation of the Aks?akri?d?a? in visual arts based on archaeological and literary evidence. Additionally, there are overlaps and disparities between projected text and art. The latent nature of the game and changes in its association over time has also been discussed.

In this paper, an attempt shall be made to contextually study and delineate the ways and means by which rulers attempted to utilise temples for their political ends, and the functions and actions through which the temple of Goddess K?m?khy? cemented political power of ambitious K?mar?pa Kings. This paper attempts to put temples in analytical tradition beyond their architectural significance, and highlights the confabulation of matrices of power and divine devotion, and how a complex amalgamation of the two related but different terms crafted variegated relations between rulers, their states, their deities and their subjects, where the chief mediator was the temple, a centre of piety and power.

Keywords: ??kta-p??ha, K?m?khy?, Power, State-systems, K?mar?pa

The present paper examines the relationship between languages and politics in terms of subject matter and objectives of language policy and language planning, the status and content of languages as the subject of language policy, language policy settings, model of language status and language policy in countries around the world, majority and minority language and the like. It also examines these issues of language policy and their operation in modern India vis. a vis. the presence of a national and official language and the influence of parties on political policy in resolving conflicts through language.

Keywords: politics, language policy, official language, national language, linguistic diversity.

Var?hamihira’s most famous work was B?hat Sa?hita. It is an encyclopedic work on architecture, temples, planetary motions and many other topics.The B?hat Sa?hita described various morphologic and physiologic features of vegetation as hydrologic indicators to locate sources of ground water at different depths.Hence, the B?hat Sa?hita establishes Var?hamihira as the first hydrologist who codified all the then existing knowledge on the subject in his magnum opus.Altogether, there are more than 545 herbs, shrubs, trees and crops that were mentioned in the two parts ofB?hat Sa?hita. The v?k??yurveda chapter deals with treatment of plant diseases and prescriptions of remedies, nutritional and other aspects of plant life.The plants that are revealed in the B?hat Sa?hita can be classified into huge trees, edible fruit trees, shrubs, herbs, creepers, water plants, grasses, pulses, cereals, wild cereals and others, as per the Bentham and Hooker taxonomic system of plant classification. Till date, there is no systematic study on the flora or botany of this historical work on B?hat Sa?hita. Therefore, a systematic floristic study and the uses of these plants/trees are comprehensively discussed in this review article.

Keywords: Var?hamihira, B?hat Sa?hita, plants, flora, plant indicators, floristic analysis

There were several zamindar families in Bankura district of West Bengal. Some of them became zamindars during the reign of the Malla dynasty of Bishnupur while others became zamindars after the decline of the Malla kingdom. These zamindars erected numerous small and big temples in their territories. These temples enshrining deities are in various forms. The Malla kings and the zamindars of Bankura district created a separate style of architecture from other part of India. This paper is an attempt to examine the unique features of these temples and to define their structural and historical importance. It is primarily based upon a personal survey of various temples built by the zamindars in different villages and towns of Bankura district of
the present state of West Bengal.

Keywords: Ajodhya, Ratna, Chala, Deul, temple, zamindar