THE WORLD CIVILIZATIONS AND INDIA , PART-1

The world civilizations and INDIA would be my new blog series having a fine and thoughtful look over the Civilization and culture of the different countries of the world and how they have influenced or interacted with that of INDIA and vice versa . The aim of my blog is not to find accuracy of the facts but to have emphasis on analyzing the facts so that child like curiosity could be created among our readers in favour of my blogs . It would , however , be unethical to desist from the accuracy of the facts for a researcher like me but I think elements of uniqueness and pleasure must be there ; so that my reader should not take it otherwise . That they should not have a feeling like this that I am only teaching them through my blogs and the blogs have no elements of amusement as such . In this pleasure loving world of our we want to take everything pleasantly . And fact is that the World Civilizations have full of elements of surprise and curiosity that we must know . Let us start with the Civilization and Culture of MEXICO and their interactions with that’s of INDIA .

THE MAYA CIVILIZATION OF MEXICO The MAYA Civilization of MEXICO is one of the oldest Civilizations of the world . Archeologists are of the opinion that the MAYA civilization dates back to about 2000 BC or even older than that when MAYA people started settling down in the villages and developed agriculture . The first MAYA CITIES , however , developed around 750 BC . From 500 BC onwards monumental architectures like large temples constrction etc started coming into existence . A MESOAMERICAN CIVILIZATION known for its logosyllabic scripts , the MAYA CIVILIZATION was full of the knowledge of art , architecture , mathematics , astronomy , how to make calenders of their own and , of course , had a highly developed writing system as such . About six million people speaking different surviving MAYA languages spread in different countries of the present day like MEXICO , GUATMALA , HONDURAS , BELIZE , EL SALVADOR etc . The concept of large city emerged with coming into existence of city like TIKAL , CALAKMUL , and central MEXICAN city of TEOTIHUACAN etc . Large temples with elaborate stucco facades could be see every where . 9th century onwards , however , large scale political collapse in the MAYA region could very much be observed with the continuous warfare , the abandonment of cities and the shifting of population towards northward . As a result , one can see the rise of CHICHEN ITZA in the north and the expansion of an aggressive regime of K’ICHE in GUATMALA Highlands . With colonization of the MESOAMERICAN region by the SPANISH EMPIRE in the 16th century onwards saw the fall of last large MAYA CITY of NOJPETEN .

So far as the system of the government during the classical period ( 250 BC – 9th century AD ) and before coming of SPANISH in the region was concerned , the concept of Divine Kingship prevailed , meaning by the King was only a mediator between the Subject and the God . The system of Kingship was Patrilineal and successor generally was the eldest son somewhat similar to that of the ancient Indian political system . The closed patronage system was the speciality of the prevailing political system , resembling also to the ancient Indian system of courtiers , ultimately reduced considerably the previously exclusive power of the King . Similarly as the MAYA people were quite versatile in building big cities and grand palatial Monuments as such . It is said that during the MAHABHARTA PERIOD , the ancient city of INDRAPRASTHA , the magical city of the PANDVAS , was built by the Engineers of the MAYA CIVILIZATION ( Reference in the Mahabharata is of May Engineers i.e. MAYA ENGINEERS ) . It was such an exclusively decorated city that even DURYODHANA , the cousin but the enemy of the PANDVAS , could not hide his wishes to look into the city of INDRAPRASTHA . And he visited there and he became so surprised to look into the grandeur of of the city . He wrongly considered a place of water where there was no water at all . And where he presumed the place as dry , he sunk into it with his clothes . DRAUPADI , the wife of five PANDVAS , when saw DURYODHANA sinking in the quagmire , had a horse laugh at the scene , which many scholars think , became , later on , one of the causes of the war of MAHABHARATA . Such was the magic of the palace of the PANDVAS constructed in the ancient city of INDRAPRASTHA by the Engineers of the MAYA CIVILIZATION .

HERNAN CORTES , a SPANISH explorer and conquistador when reached MEXICO in 1519 , and overthrew the AZTEC EMPIRE , he was awarded with the title of MARQUES del Valle de Oaxaca . He followed the policy of allying with some of indigenous people against others and got success . He married a native woman DONA MARINA whom he used as an interpreter . He came to know many things about MEXICO from her . He saw the city full of stucco facaded grand buildings , temples and large palatial Monuments . The population of the city that time was of about two lakhs . He saw broad roads around the city . And he also saw canal beside the roads . Carts used to move on the roads and boats in the canals . But the SPANISH conquerors had destroyed those grandeur of the city and all the canals were filled with the remains of those dilapidated Monuments . Before the SPANISH came to MEXICO the local inhabitants were AZTEC and MAYA . They were , apart from being warriors , an agriculturalists of the first order . They used to cultivate sugarcane , bananas , maize and rice of special flavors in the plains and coffee on the plateaus . Fruits grown in MEXICO were very palatable and flavorsome . MEXICO was also famous for tobacco cultivation . Similarly , the country had different colours of flowers grown with different fragrances . So far as minerals were concerned , about 40% of silver produced in the world came from MEXICO itself . It is said that an important citizen of the city had constructed a road from his house to the local church with silver as such during the period of the marriage of his daughter . It shows how much silver was produced in MEXICO . And how much affluent was she …..etc .

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