Portal:India/Did you know 9

This page is currently inactive and is retained for historical reference.
Either the page is no longer relevant or consensus on its purpose has become unclear. To revive discussion, seek broader input via a forum such as the village pump.

This is a selection of articles on Wikipedia that appeared on the India Portal's Did you know section. (Archives are in sets of approximately 50 items each)

Current Archive: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12

...that Job Charnock landed at Jorabagan, Sutanuti ghat in 1690, which is believed by many to be the starting point of the metropolitan growth of Kolkata?
...that upon his 1915 arrest from the lines of the 12th Cavalry at Meerut, Vishnu Ganesh Pingle is said to have had enough explosives to blow up an entire regiment?
...that Pampa Sarovar, the place in Hindu mythology where Shiva's consort Parvati performed penance to show her devotion to him, is a lake in Karnataka?
...that the Hindu serpent goddess Manasa, the "destroyer of poison", is worshiped mostly in the rainy season when the snakes are most active?
...that the Peshwa general Chimnaji Appa built the Vajreshwari temple to thank the goddess Vajreshwari for the conquest of the Bassein Fort in 1739?
...that Pratap Singh was the last ruler of Thanjavur to be officially referred to by the English East India Company as "His Majesty"?
...that Azizul Huque gave up his Knighthood after the Calcutta Riots in 1946?
...that actor Ben Kingsley has been cast in the lead role of the upcoming film reportedly inspired by the life of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, Guru of Sex?
...that India's Red and White Bravery Awards were renamed the Godfrey Phillips National Bravery Awards after protests claimed it provided surrogate advertising for Red and White brand cigarettes?
...that Colombia and India established diplomatic relations on January 19, 1959?
...that in Hindu mythology, after Lakshmindara, son of Chand Sadagar, died of snakebite on his wedding night, his bride Behula accompanied his corpse on a raft floating in a river?
...that according to Hindu mythology, the Tandava, a vigorous dance by Hindu god Shiva (pictured), is the source of the cycle of creation, preservation and dissolution of the universe?
...that social activists opine that the extension of the Kolkata Metro on pillars on the bed of Adi Ganga will destroy the waterway?
...that boats crammed with people from both India and Bangladesh, flying the flags of their respective countries, converge on the Ichamati River, the international border, to immerse the idols after Durga Puja?
...that the Carolina dayflower (pictured) is actually from India and was named in the United States nearly a century before it was described in its native country?
...that maidams were burial sites of the Ahom Kingdom's royalty and aristocracy that were similar to the Egyptian pyramids, but much smaller in scale?
...that the Saraswati River, a distributary of the Bhagirathi in West Bengal, is now dead but was active till around the 16th century AD?
...the Battle of Bhangani was the first battle fought by Guru Gobind Singh, the last human Sikh Guru?
...that Shamsunnahar Mahmud and Roquia Sakhawat Hussain were Muslim feminists of the Bengal renaissance?
...that Indian schoolteacher D. R. Kaprekar discovered properties in number theory including a number and a constant named after him?
...that a possible local subsidence forced the Jalangi River, in West Bengal, to flow in a south westerly direction, reverting the earlier trend of rivers in the region flowing in a south easterly direction?
...that K. Chidananda Gowda, the former Vice-chancellor of the Kuvempu University in India, is the son-in-law of the Kannada playwright Kuvempu, the university's namesake?
...that the Indian novelist M. K. Indira started writing novels only after the age of forty-five?
...that Ashta Lakshmi are a group of Hindu goddesses who preside over eight sources of wealth?
...that although the Azad Hind Stamps (pictured) are Cinderella stamps, the Indian Postal department deems them postage stamps?
...that the establishment of Mahendra Pratap's Provisional Government of India was one of the reasons that the Rowlatt Commission was set up to investigate German and Bolshevik links to nationalist terrorism in British India?
...that the publishers of Hindustan Ghadar are said to have memorised over a thousand of its subscriber's names to prevent these being known to British Intelligence?
...that Bangalore Gayana Samaja, which celebrated its centenary in the year 2005, is one of the oldest cultural organisations in Bangalore?
...that there is no statutory body in India to investigate academic misconducts such as scientific plagiarism?
...that the Raichur Thermal Power Station is the first thermal power plant to be set up in the Indian state of Karnataka and accounts for about 40% of the total power generated in the state?
...that the slang term brass razoo is speculated to have originated from Egyptian or Indian currency?
...that Shaukat Usmani was a candidate for the Communist Party of Great Britain in the 1929 UK general election while imprisoned in India?
...that Prema Karanth is the first woman to direct a Kannada film?
...that in the year 2004, both the Tamil and Telugu language versions of the Kannada novel Parva won the Sahitya Akademi of India's translation award?
...that the first temple to be built in soap stone was constructed in Western Chalukya architecture (pictured), in the Karnataka, India?
...that archaeological evidence has shown that the Indian threadfish (Alectis indicus) has long been a resource for humans, with prehistoric and more modern sites in the United Arab Emirates preserving its remains?
...that G. Venkatasubbaiah is regarded as the father of the modern Kannada dictionary?
...that Unnale Unnale was the director Jeeva's final film before his death?
...that nine workers died at India's Visvesvaraya Iron and Steel Limited due to a blast that occurred when leaking water was accidentally mixed with molten steel?
...that before the launch of a satellite, a group of scientists from ISRO's Master Control Facility at Hassan offer prayers to a miniature model of the satellite and donate it to a temple in Dharmasthala?
...that early Indian Christians were Nestorians until the arrival of Portuguese in the 16th century introducing Roman Catholicism to the country?
...that by the end of 19th century, there were an estimated two thousand English language schools in the Kingdom of Mysore?
...that Shyampukur was the site of one of the two tents Jamshetji Framji Madan set up to screen films when he entered the ‘bioscope’ scene in Kolkata in 1902?
...that Gopal Chandra Bhattacharya has won the Ananda Purashkar and the Rabindra Puraskar, prestigious awards for Bengali literature, for his writing on insects and popular science?
...that Swami Vipulananda was the founding Professor of Tamil at both University of Ceylon and Annamalai University?
...that the Mahāvyutpatti is the first substantial bilingual dictionary known?
...that technology from 18th-century France and China was used to improve the economy of Mysore kingdom?
...that one of the first discoveries of atmospheric neutrinos was made at India's Kolar Gold Fields?
...that a three-horse omnibus plied briefly between Dharmatala, a neighbourhood in Kolkata, and Barrackpore in November 1830?
...that Hema Sardesai is the only Indian singer to have won the Grand Prix award at the International Pop Song Festival in Germany?