Category: Biography Story

Chandragupta Maurya, also known to the Greeks as Sandrakottos or Sandrokottos, was the founder and the first ruler of the Maurya Dynasty and is credited with establishing the first pan-Indian empire. He established a vast centralised empire with the help of his mentor and later minister Chanakya or Kautilya, the details of whose functioning, culture, military, and economy are well preserved in Kautilya’s Arthashastra. The Mauryan dynasty was established by Chandragupta Maurya in 322 BC. He defeated the last Nanda ruler with the help of Kautilya and established the Mauryan empire. Chandragupta, along with Bindusara and Ashoka, glorified the Mauryan empire and also ancient India. They were able to control entire north India, including the Gangetic valley, thus achieving political unity. Earlier, there was a republican and oligarchical form of government, and Mauryans replaced it with a monarchy. They established their capital at Pataliputra, also known as Patna, which is in the current day’s Bihar. 

The life and achievements of Chandragupta are represented in ancient and historical Greek, Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain texts, though the details differ greatly. The historical sources that describe Chandragupta Maurya’s life differ greatly in detail.

In this Chandragupta biography, we will study Chandragupta Maurya story of his early life, and as a ruler of the Mauryan empire, we will learn about Chandragupta Maurya kingdom, His date of death. The empire also contributed towards literature, art and architecture apart from bringing political unity. 

Chandragupta Maurya History About his Early Life

• Much about the Chandragupta Maurya time period and its origins are still unknown. The majority of what is known about him is based on legends and mythology rather than historical facts.

• According to some records, Chandragupta Maurya was born in 340 BC in Pataliputra.

• The only definite inscriptional reference to Chandragupta history is found in the Junagarh inscription from the 2nd century CE.

• The social origins of Chandragupta history, especially his caste, are still disputed.

• Different versions can be found in Buddhist, Jain, and ancient literary works. He is variously identified as a member of the Kshatriya Moriya clan ruling Pippalivahana on the present-day Indo-Nepal border, as a peacock-tamer, as the son of a woman named Mura, and even as being closely or distantly related to the Nandas.

• As a result, historians disagree about his social roots. According to some historians, he seemed to have come from a common family and was not a prince but rather a commoner with no direct claim to the throne of Magadha.

• Other historians say that he was a member of the Moriya or Maurya tribe, which had fallen on hard times by the 4th century BCE, and that Chandragupta grew up among peacock-tamers, herdsmen, and hunters.

• He is referred to as a Kshatriya in Buddhist scriptures and mediaeval inscriptions. As a result, it is possible that he belonged to a Kshatriya or related caste, as the Brahmin Kautilya would not have selected him for rulership if he had not been a Kshatriya or related caste.

• Even though he came from a modest family, Chandragupta didn’t believe his upbringing had anything to do with his political ambitions. In any case, Chandragupta was almost certainly active in the pursuit of his goals as a young man, according to historical facts.

• He was very ambitious from childhood and took advantage of the disrupting Nandas and defeated the last Nanda ruler Dhanananda with the help of Kautilya, and established the Mauryan dynasty.

• North-west of India was under the control of Seleucus Nikater, Chandragupta defeated him, and In the treaty, he married the Daughter of Seleucus and also offered 500 elephants to him and united the north-west with the mainland of India. 

• He was a monarch and kept all the matters, especially those related to the polity, administration and military, in his hands. The impeccable finding of his kingdom is, they maintained an extraordinary and huge army. 

Chandragupta Maurya History About His Family

• Chandragupta Maurya was married to Durdhara.

• Chandragupta Maurya had one son Bindusara.

• Ashoka, Susima, Vitashoka were the grandchildren of Chandragupta Maurya.

• Later his grandson Ashoka the Great went on to become one of India’s greatest emperors.

Chandragupta Maurya Story About His Career

• Legend has it that Chandragupta Maurya met Alexander and was given permission to serve in his army so that he could learn about Macedonian warfare and how it could be used against ancient Indian warfare techniques, in addition to his own military training.

• Some historians claim it was impractical for Chandragupta, who lived in the Magadha empire, to fly all the way to the northwest to meet Alexander, even if the thought had occurred to him at all. Rather, he met Dhana Nanda and enlisted in his army.

• Whatever Chandragupta’s early steps in his career were, his relationship with the statesman-philosopher Kautilya can be mentioned with certainty.

• He was his greatest ally, tutor, and guide, and he was the one who influenced not only his career but the Mauryan empire’s direction under Chandragupta as well. Vishnugupta Chanakya, also known as Kautilya, had made the decision to lead the charge in restoring and reshaping the Indian polity.

• Though originally from Magadha, Kautilya became a student and later a teacher at Takshashila (now Taxila in modern-day Pakistan) and thus witnessed the political turmoil caused by the Macedonian invasion in north-western India.

• This led him to consider the creation of a centralised pan-Indian empire capable of repelling invaders and restoring order. For obvious purposes, the presence of various republics and kingdoms that are disunited and perpetually at odds with one another does not do so.

• He considered Magadha to be the empire in question, and his suggestion was met with scorn and insults from Dhanananda, accompanied by Kautilya’s determination to overthrow the incumbent king.

• Magadha was the only territorial force capable of preserving order in the midst of turmoil. It had a military position that was practically unrivalled, which was critical for the survival of the kind of empire that Kautilya desired.

• It was able to sustain a degree of stability that other kingdoms could not. Kautilya was adamant about keeping Magadha at the core of his strategy, regardless of whether it was under the Nandas or anyone else.

• As a result, he chose to replace Dhanananda with a more qualified and competent nominee. Chandragupta Maurya was the man chosen.

• Kautilya mentored him for the job, preparing him for the takeover of Magadha and all that came with it. In terms of war, diplomacy, and covert operations, Chandragupta’s own calibre was thus honed.

• Chandragupta was raised under Kautilya’s mentorship and thus prepared for his future position as emperor.

• Kautilya chose the war-by-other-means strategy after realising that a confrontation with Magadha would necessitate far more than a powerful army.

• He used a variety of intrigues, counter-intrigues, plotting, and counter-plotting to undermine Dhanananda’s position by removing his main allies, loyalists, and supporters, most notably his chief minister Rakshasa.

• Chandragupta was able to hold the throne at Pataliputra by using both military and non-military means. Dhanananda was either killed, or he fled.

Chandragupta Maurya Period

• Chandragupta, now on the imperial throne, focused his efforts on expanding his empire.

• The Mauryan armies travelled as far as the western coast of India and southern India, especially present-day Karnataka.

• The Mauryan empire at this time comprised not only the present-day states of Bihar and Orissa but also western and north-western India, as well as the Deccan in the north-west, and they ruled over areas that were not even part of the British empire. The empire did not extend to the extreme south and north-east of India.

Chandragupta Maurya Kingdom Administration

• The Mauryan administration was a centralised administration to the possible extent. There were departmental heads for the military, spy system, judiciary, revenue etc., but all of these departments were headed by the King in general. His decision was final and limited. The king considered his subjects as children rather than people. He was subjected to look after their needs and protect them from any types of attacks and threats. 

• Chandragupta established a complex imperial administration structure. He held the majority of the power, and he was supported in his duties by a council of ministers.

• Princes served as viceroys throughout the empire, which was divided into provinces. This gave the royals, especially the ones who went on to become Emperor, the required administrative experience.

• The provinces were divided into smaller units, and administrative arrangements for both urban and rural areas were made. The capital city of Pataliputra was the most famous of these.

• Six commissions, each with five members, were in charge of the administration. Maintenance of sanitation services, treatment of foreigners, birth and death registration, weights and measures control, and other duties were assigned to them. Several forms of weights used during this time period have been found in different locations.

Chandragupta Maurya Kingdom Military

• The Mauryan empire had a massive army. The state recruited, prepared, and equipped troops (maula).

• Many cultures and forest tribes (atavika) were renowned for and prized for their military prowess.

• Mercenaries (bhrita) and corporate guilds of soldiers (shreni) both existed in large numbers and were recruited as needed.

• Infantry, cavalry, chariots, and elephants made up the army’s four arms (chaturanga). A 30-member war office, made up of six commissions, was in charge of these different weapons, as well as the navy and transportation.

• 600,000 infantry, 30,000 cavalries, and 9,000 elephants belonged to Chandragupta. The number of chariots was estimated to be about 8,000. They were all deployed information (vyuha) on the battlefield, as determined by the commanders, based on factors such as the terrain and the nature of one’s own and the enemy’s armies.

• The teaching of men and animals was given a lot of consideration. The king and princes had received extensive training in warfare and leadership. They were supposed to be brave, and they often led their armies and took part in defence of forts themselves.

• Chandragupta’s navy primarily served as a coast guard and guarded the empire’s extensive waterways-based trade.

• Bows and arrows, spears, double-handed broadswords, shields with round, rectangular, or bell-shaped shields, javelins, lances, axes, pikes, clubs, and maces were among the weapons used.

• Soldiers were either bare-chested or wrapped in quilted cotton coats. They often wore defensive armour in the form of thickly coiled turbans, frequently secured with scarfs tied below the chin and bands of fabric tied around their waists and chests. In the winter, women wore tunics.

• The Mauryans’ vast military was bolstered by the empire’s vast scale and the wealth that fell under its control as a result. Since the state essentially dominated all economic operations, it was able to command a vast amount of revenue and financial capital.

Chandra Gupta Dynasty War With the Greeks

• Chandragupta clashed with Seleucus I Nicator, Alexander’s heir in the east, with the intention of undermining Greek influence while expanding one’s own territory and strength. The war came to an end in 301 BCE when peace was concluded.

• Arachosia (Kandahar in modern-day Afghanistan), Gedrosia (southern Baluchistan in modern-day Pakistan), and Paro Amisadai (the area between Afghanistan and the Indian Subcontinent) were all acquired by Chandragupta. The Greeks were given 500 elephants and had a marriage alliance with Chandragupta Maurya.

Chandragupta Maurya Death

• The circumstances surrounding Chandragupta Maurya death date, as well as the year in which he died, are unknown and debated.

• Chandragupta is said to have adopted Jainism in his later years, according to both historical evidence and common opinion.

• Inscriptions from the 5th to 15th centuries CE in Karnataka mention Chandragupta in relation to the Jain saint Bhadrabahu.

• Chandragupta most likely abdicated, became an ascetic, followed Bhadrabahu to Karnataka, and later died by fasting until death, a practice known as sallekhana in Shravanabelagola.

• Chandragupta Maurya ruled the Mauryan empire for 24 years. He was succeeded by his son Bindusara and later by Ashok the Great.

In this Chandragupta biography, we got to know Who was the first ruler of the Mauryan Empire, Chandragupta Maurya’s life and achievements, the Career of Chandragupta Maurya, his family, his administration and military, and his death.

Conclusion

Chandragupta Maurya was a pivotal figure in India’s history, forming the first government to unite much of South Asia. The Maurya Empire was established by Chandragupta Maurya in ancient India. Thus, Chandragupta left a legacy that has been preserved in the pages of the Arthashastra. He not only built an empire on his own, despite all obstacles, but he also established sound governance principles and worked tirelessly for its expansion. These accomplishments made him one of ancient India’s most powerful rulers and a near-mythical figure in folklore.

Jesus is also known as Jesus of Nazareth or Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was a Jewish religious leader and missionary in the first century. It is the central figure of Christianity, the largest religion in the world. Most Christians believe that the birth of Jesus Christ is the incarnation of God the Son and the long-awaited Messiah that was predicted in the Old Testament. Almost all modern ancient scholars agree that Jesus’ story exists in history. Although the exploration of the historical Jesus has been the historical reliability of the gospel books and how the Jesus represented in The Bible faithfully reflects the historical Jesus. It also produced some uncertainty, since the only record of Jesus’ life story is contained in the gospels. Jesus was a Galilean Jew, and was baptized by John the Baptist and began his own ministry. His teachings were originally preserved through oral transmission, and he is often referred to as a “rabbi” himself. Jesus debated with other Jews how to better follow God, participate in healing, teach with parables, and gather followers. Traditionally it is believed in Jesus Christ story that he was arrested and tried by the Jewish authorities, turned over to the Roman government, and nailed to the cross by order of the Roman governor Pontius Pilate. In Jesus Christ biography it is written that after his death, his followers believed that he rose from the dead, and the community they formed eventually became the early church. 

Jesus Christ Story

Jesus’ story in English and Christian doctrine includes the following beliefs that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, performed miracles, established a Christian church, was nailed to the cross for atonement, rose from the dead, and ascended to the Darling. From there he will return. Christians generally believe that Jesus allows people to be reconciled to God. The Nicene Creed states that Jesus will judge the living and the dead before or after his resurrection events related to the second coming of Jesus in Christian eschatology. The vast majority of Christians worship Jesus as the incarnation of the Son, the second person of the Trinity. A small number of Christian denominations reject Trinitarianism in whole or in part, believing it to be unscriptural. The birth of Jesus is celebrated as Christmas on December 25 of each year. He was nailed to the cross on Good Friday and rose again on Easter Sunday. The widely used calendar age “AD” means after death. Jesus is also outside Christianity and is worshiped in religions such as Manichaeism, and Islam. Manichaeism was the first organized religion to worship Jesus outside of Christianity and considered him an important prophet. In Islam, Jesus is considered the penultimate prophet of God and Messiah. Muslims believe that Jesus was born of a virgin, but that he was neither God nor the Son of God. The Quran states that Jesus never claimed to be holy. ​​Most Muslims do not believe that he was killed or nailed to the cross, but God raised him to heaven while he was still alive. In contrast, Judaism refused to believe that Jesus was the expected Messiah, thinking that he did not fulfill the Messiah’s prophecy and that he was neither holy nor resurrected.

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Early Life of Jesus Christ

Here, we will see about the Birth of Jesus Christ. Jesus’ childhood home was identified as the city of Nazareth in Galilee in the Gospels of Luke and Matthew, where he and his family lived. Although Joseph appeared in the description of Jesus’ childhood, he was not mentioned later. The other members of his family, his mother Mary, his brother Jacob, Joseph, Judas and Simon, and his anonymous sister, are mentioned in the Gospels and other sources. The Gospel of Mark records that Jesus confronted his neighbors and relatives. Jesus’ mother and brothers came to pick him up because people said he was crazy. Jesus replied that his followers are his real family. In John, Mary followed Jesus to the cross and he expressed his concern for her happiness. The Gospels indicate that Jesus could read, paraphrase, and debate scripture, but this does not necessarily mean that he received formal training in copying. According to Jewish law, when Jesus appeared in the temple as a child, a man named Simeon told Mary and Joseph that Jesus “will be a sign of contradiction, and the sword will pierce your own soul. Then, the secret ideas of many people will be exposed. A few years later, when Jesus disappeared while visiting Jerusalem, his parents found him sitting among the teachers in the temple, listening to them and asking questions, and the people were amazed at his understanding and answers. Mary rebuked the missing Jesus, Jesus replied that he should be in his father’s house.

Followers of Jesus 

In Jesus christ story in English it is seen that at the beginning of his ministry, Jesus named the twelve apostles. In the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, although Jesus only asked them briefly to join him, the first four of Jesus’ Fishermen are described as immediately agreeing and abandoning their nets and boats. In John, the first two apostles of Jesus were disciples of John the Baptist. The Baptist saw Jesus and called him the Lamb of God, two people hear this and follow Jesus. In addition to the twelve apostles, the Plain Sermon at the beginning of the paragraph identifies a longer one. Furthermore, in Luke, Jesus sent his 70 or 72 followers to prepare cities for their future visits in pairs. They were instructed to accept hospitality, heal the sick, and spread the news of the coming kingdom of God. In Mark’s Gospel, the disciples were particularly slow. the miracle of Jesus, his parable, or the meaning of resurrection from the dead. When Jesus was later arrested, he was abandoned. 

Genealogy 

Jesus’ biography reveals to us that the birth of Jesus Christ was in a Jew family, born by Joseph’s wife Mary. Matthew and Luke provide two accounts of their genealogy. Matthew traced the ancestors of Jesus to Abraham through David. Luke traced the descendants of Jesus from Adam to God. The lists between Abraham and David are the same, but completely different on this point. Matthew is 27 generations from David to Joseph, while Luke is 42 years old, and there is almost no overlap between the names on the two lists. Various theories have been proposed to explain why these two genealogies are so different. Matthew and Luke described the birth of Jesus, especially when Jesus was born in Bethlehem by a virgin named Mary in order to fulfill the prophecy. Luke’s account emphasizes the events before Jesus’ birth, centering on Mary, while Matthew’s account focuses on events after Jesus’ birth, centering on Joseph. Both records confirm that Jesus was born in Bethlehem by Joseph and his fiancée Mary, and both support the doctrine that Jesus was born of a virgin, according to which Jesus was miraculously born of the Holy Spirit The ground conception was in Mary’s womb when she was still. Virgin. At the same time, at least in Luke’s Acts, there is evidence that, like many people in ancient times, Jesus was considered to have dual paternity because someone affirmed that it was descended from David Or from the waist. Joseph treats him as his own and will give him the necessary Davidic blood. In Matthew’s Gospel, Joseph worried that his fiancée Mary was pregnant, But in the first of Joseph’s three dreams, the angel assured him that he was not afraid to marry Mary as his wife. His son was conceived by the Holy Spirit. In Matthew, the Eastern wise men or sorcerers gave gifts to the young Jesus as the King of the Jews. They found him in a house in Bethlehem. Jesus is now a child, not a baby. Matthew is concerned about an event after the birth of Luke when Jesus was a baby. When Matthew Herod heard the news of Jesus’ birth, he wanted to kill him and ordered the murder of a child under two years of age in Bethlehem. But an angel warned Joseph in his second dream that the family fled to Egypt and then returned and settled in Nazareth. In Luke, Mary learned from the angel Gabriel that she would conceive and give birth to a baby boy named Jesus through the Holy Spirit. When Mary was about to give birth, she and Joseph traveled from Nazareth to Joseph’s ancestral home in Bethlehem, where they ordered the census registration of Caesar Augustus. When Mary gave birth to Jesus there, because they couldn’t find a place in the hotel, she put the newborn baby in the manger. An angel announced the birth of a group of shepherds who went to Bethlehem to meet Jesus and then spread the news abroad. After presenting Jesus in the temple, Joseph, Mary, and Jesus returned to Nazareth. 

Baptism 

In Jesus christ story, the synopsis of Jesus’ baptism precedes the message about John the Baptist. They show that John preached confession and repentance to alleviate sins and encouraged charity to the poor because he baptized people in the Jordan region around Perea and prophesied. The Arrival of someone “more powerful” than him. Later, Jesus called John the “Elijah to come”, expected in “the great and terrible day of the Lord” The prophet who came before. Similarly, Luke said that John had the power of the spirit and Elijah. In the Gospel of Mark, John the Baptist baptized Jesus. When he came out of the water, he saw the Holy Spirit descending on him like a dove. He heard a voice from heaven proclaiming that he was the Son of God. God. This is one of the two events described in the Gospels. The voice from heaven called Jesus the son and the other was transformation. Then the Holy Spirit led him into the desert, where he was tempted by Satan. Jesus began his ministry after John was arrested. The baptism of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew is similar. Here, before Jesus was baptized, John protested: “I need to accept your baptism.” Jesus instructed him to continue to be baptized, “to do all righteousness.” Matthew also elaborated on these three temptations. Satan offered Jesus in the desert. In the Gospel of Luke, after everyone was baptized and Jesus was praying, the Holy Spirit descended like a dove, John implicitly recognized Jesus after sending his followers to question Jesus. Jesus’ baptism and temptation were to prepare his public ministry. The Gospel of John omits the baptism and temptation of Jesus. Here, John the Baptist testified that he saw the Holy Spirit descend on Jesus. John publicly declared that Jesus was the lamb sacrificed by God, and some of John’s followers became disciples of Jesus. In this Gospel, John denies being Elijah. Before John was imprisoned, Jesus led his followers to baptize the disciples. They baptized more people than Juan. 

William Shakespeare was an English poet, actor, and playwright, and is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the world. No birth record exists of William Shakespeare, but an old church record exists that says that he was baptised in April, 1564, at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon. He is called the “Bard of Avon” and is often referred to as England’s National Poet. William Shakespeare is considered to be the greatest dramatist of all time.

Throughout his career, he worked on 37 plays, 154 sonnets, and two long narrative poems. His plays are very famous and have been translated into every language present on this planet, and are considered to be the most performed plays of any other playwright. William Shakespeare passed away on April 23, 1616, in Stratford-upon-Avon.

About Shakespeare’s Life

William Shakespeare’s Full Name: William Shakspere’s full name is the same only. He is also known as “the Bard of Avon”.

William Shakespeare’s Birth Date: April 1564

William Shakespeare’s Death: April 1616

Who is William Shakespeare?

Who William Shakespeare is is a smaller question as he had a bigger contribution towards society.  William Shakespeare was the greatest English poet, actor, and playwright of the Renaissance era. He was baptised on 26 April, 1564, at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon. From 1594 onwards, he was a very important member of the King’s Men company of theatrical players. For more than 450 years, Shakespeare’s writing is celebrated throughout the world as his writing captures human emotions perfectly. In spite of being known all around the world, William Shakespeare’s life has been a mystery.

The outline of his life has been provided through his work on various poems, sonnets, plays, and others. Other sources that provide information about his life are official documentations, such as church and court records. However, seven years of his life have not been recorded as his work and the documents at the church only provide a brief sketch of specific events in his life and yield little insight into the man himself.

William Shakespeare’s Birth Date

According to the church record, William Shakespeare was baptised at the Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon on April 26, 1564, but no official birth record exists to his name. Many scholars believe that he was born on April 23, 1564, and because of this reason, many scholars celebrate it as Shakespeare’s birthday.

John Shakespeare, a leather merchant, was his father and a local landed heiress by the name of Mary Arden was his mother. He was the third child of his father. Joan and Judith were the two older sisters of Shakspeare. He also had three younger brothers by the names Gilbert, Richard, and Edmund. John Shakespeare was a very successful merchant and held the position of alderman and bailiff, an office resembling a mayor’s. Records suggest that John Shakespeare’s fortune declined in the late 1570s. There is no official record of Shakespeare’s schooling, but many scholars believe that he attended the King’s New School in Stratford, which helped him in learning reading and writing. That school was 400 m away from his home. During the Elizabethan era, the quality of grammar schools were high. The royal decree standardised the Latin text and the school had an intense grammar education that was based on Latin classical authors. 

On November 28, 1582, Shakespeare married Anne Hathway in Worcester, in Canterbury Province. Shakespeare was 18 and Anne Hathway was 26 when they married each other, and they had three children. Their first daughter, Susanna, was born on May 26, 1583. Two years later, they were blessed with twin daughters, named Hamnet and Judith.

There are seven years of Shakespeare’s life where there is no record of his life after the birth of his twins. Many scholars call this period the “Lost years”. These “lost years” gave birth to many stories about Shakespeare by the biographers. The first biographer of Shakespeare, Nicholas Rowe, told a story of Stratford, which was legendary. According to it, Shakespeare left the town and went to London, in order to escape from the prosecution for poaching deers in the estate of Thomas Lucy. By writing a ballad about Lucy, Shakespeare was supposed to take revenge on him. Another story came up about Shakespeare that he started his career in theatres by minding the horse of the theatre patrons in London. It was reported by John Audrey that Shakespeare was a country master. Scholars of the twentieth century suggested that Alexander Hoghton of Lancashire employed Shakespeare as a school master. Alexander Hoghton was a landowner, catholic by religion, named William Shakeshafte in his will. There is not much evidence to substantiate these stories which were heard and collected after his death, and it was also true that Shakeshafte was a common name in Lancashire. 

Shakespeare as an Actor and a Playwright

In 1592, Shakespeare began his career as a playwright and an actor in London and also produced several plays.

He continued to write and perform plays and in 1593, Shakespeare was able to attract the attention of the Earl of Southampton, Henry Wriothesley, to whom he dedicated two poems, “Venus and Adonis” published in 1593, and “The Rape of Lucrece” in 1594. These poems showed the guilt and moral confusion that results from uncontrolled lust. Both of these poems were very popular and were reprinted many times during Shakespeare’s lifetime.

The third poem by the name of A Lover’s Complaint also became very famous and was printed in the first edition of the Sonnets in 1609.

By 1597, Shakespeare had already written and published around 15 plays. In 1599, Shakespeare, with the help of his friends, built his own theatre on the south bank of the Thames River. The theatre was named Globe Theatre.

The exact chronology of Shakespeare’s plays is very difficult to determine, but many scholars believe that over the course of two decades, from about 1590 to 1613, he wrote a total of 37 plays based on themes like tragedies, comedies, histories, and tragicomedies.

Shakespeare’s first plays were based on history. Plays like Henry V, Henry VI, and Richard II were dramas that portrayed the destructive result of a corrupt ruler.

William Shakspeare also wrote the famous Roman political drama, Julius Caesar, through which Shakespeare wanted to give a message of how arrogance can have a deadly result.

Shakespeare is also very known to have written many comedies during his early periods, such as the romantic Merchant of Venice, the witty and wordplay-filled Much Ado About Nothing, the whimsical A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the charming As You Like It, and Twelfth Night.

Before 1600, he wrote several plays, such as The Comedy of Errors, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, King John, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Henry V, and The Taming of the Shrew.

In 1600, William Shakespeare wrote many tragedies, such as Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth. Many people praise these plays as Shakespeare’s characters showed powerful impressions of human temperament that are considered to be timeless and universal.

The play that has stood the test of time is Hamlet, which explores retribution, incest, hatred, betrayal, and moral failure. The moral failure that the characters have shown in his plays drives the twists and turns of his plots. Hamlet has been adapted into movies in many countries and is considered to be one of the best plays ever written. In his final period, William Shakespeare turned towards tragic comedies and romantic dramas, such as Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale, and The Tempest.

William Shakespeare Biography in Short

William Shakespeare was baptized on 26th April 1564, at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon. He was a great poet, actor, and playwright. His life has been a mystery for many but one thing is for certain, he has the greatest contribution to Society. After his marriage to Anne Hathaway in 1582, he was blessed with three daughters. Susann was the firstborn and later, after two years of marriage, he was blessed with two twin daughters by the names of Judith and Hamnet.

There are no records of Shakspeare’s life from the year 1582 to 1592. These years are called the “Lost Years”. From 1592, he got involved in writing and acting in the London theatre. Later in 1593, he published two poems, “Venus and Adonis’’ and ‘’The rape of Lucrece’’, which made him a household name. He wrote a lot of plays and they were performed by many around the world. The fortune he earned and the popularity he had let him build the Globe Theatre.

Shakespeare wrote 37 plays and they were divided into histories, comedies, romance, and tragedies. His most famous works are Henry IV, Richard III, Romeo and Juliet, Taming of the Shrew, The comedy of errors, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Measure for measure, Winter’s Tale, and so on. In the last years of his life, he decided to go back to Stanford, where he died in 1616. The reason for his death is unknown, but many scholars believe that he was very ill at the time of his death.

Many plays of Shakespeare were published in editions of diversifying the accuracy and quality of his lifetime. Two actors and friends of Shakespeare in 1623, Henry Condell and John Heminges published the First Folio, which is a more conclusive text, a collected edition of the dramatic works of Shakespeare’s that consists of all his plays, except two. A poem by Ben Jonson was its preface that praised Shakespeare with the famous tag that meant his work wasn’t for any age span but for the whole time of life. 

William Shakespeare’s life has been a mystery to many, but his plays remain highly popular today and are constantly studied and performed all around the world.

Chandragupta 1 was the third ruler of the Gupta dynasty. who ruled over northern India. He was the first ruler of the Gupta dynasty, according to his title Maharajadhiraja (“king of great kings”). Although a generally accepted hypothesis among modern historians is that his marriage to the Lichchhavi princess Kumaradevi helped him expand his political control, it is unclear how he turned his small ancestral kingdom into an empire. The Gupta empire was further extended by their son Samudragupta.

Chandragupta1 He took over his father Ghatotkacha in 320 AD. Chandragupta I have assumed the title of “Mahara Jadillaja” or “King of Kings” which proves that Chandragupta 1 was more noble and powerful than the two early kings. Sri Gupta and Ghatotkacha used only the title “Maharaj”. The Gupta dynasty in Indian history is said to have started in the time of Chandragupta I. It began with the inauguration of the throne between 319 and 320 AD to commemorate the year Chandragupta took office. 

Information About the Founder of Gupta Dynasty

Father: Ghatotkacha (king)

Spouse: Kumaradevi

Children: Samudragupta, Prabhavati Gupta

Reign: c. 319-335 or 319-350 CE

Coronation: c. 319-320 CE

Who Founded Gupta Dynasty?

Chandragupta was the son of Gupta king Ghatotkacha and the grandson of the dynasty’s founder Gupta, both of whom are referred to in the Allahabad Pillar inscription as Maharaja (“great king”). Chandragupta took the title Maharajadhiraja (“great king”) and issued gold coins, suggesting that he was the founder of the Gupta dynasty. However, this is only an assumption, and the identity of the Gupta era’s founder is unknown.

The Allahabad Pillar inscription indicates that Chandragupta I reigned for a long time, as he named his son as his successor, probably after reaching old age. However, the precise length of his reign is a matter of contention. Chandragupta ruled in the first quarter of the fourth century CE, but his reign’s exact period is unknown. His assumption of the title Maharajadhiraja has led to speculation that he established the Gupta calendar period, with the epoch marking his coronation.

The Following are some Estimates for Chandragupta’s Reign:

A. S. Altekar: 305-325 CE.

S. R. Goyal: 319-350 CE.

Tej Ram Sharma: 319-353 CE.

Upinder Singh: 319-335 CE or 319-350 CE.

Marriage of the Gupta Empire Founder

Chandragupta, the founder of the Gupta dynasty, married Kumaradevi, a Lichchhavi princess. During the time of Gautama Buddha, an ancient clan known as the Lichchhavi was headquartered in Vaishali, present-day Bihar. In the first millennium CE, a Lichchhavi kingdom existed in what is now Nepal. The identity of Kumaradevi’s Lichchhavi kingdom, on the other hand, is unknown.

The Lichchhavi dynasty of Nepal claims that their legendary ancestor Supushpa was born in the royal family of Pushpapura, which is Patliputra in Magadha, according to an inscription from the 8th century. The Lichchhavis ruled at Pataliputra during Samudragupta’s reign, according to historians like V. A. Smith. This inscription, on the other hand, says that Supushpa ruled 38 generations before the 5th-century king Manadeva, or centuries before Chandragupta’s reign. As a consequence, even if the argument in this inscription is valid, it cannot be used as proof of Lichchhavi’s rule at Pataliputra during Chandragupta’s reign.

Since Nepal (that is, Nepal) is stated as a distinct, subordinate kingdom in Samudragupta’s Allahabad Pillar inscription, the Lichchhavi kingdom of Kumaradevi is unlikely to have been located in modern-day Nepal. Due to a lack of other evidence, historian R. C. Majumdar believed that the Lichchhavis ruled at Vaishali during Chandragupta’s reign, which is the only other base of the clan known from historical records.

Chandragupta’s gold coins feature portraits of Chandragupta and Kumaradevi, as well as the legend Lichchhavayah (“the Lichchhavis”). In the Gupta inscriptions, their son Samudragupta is referred to as Lichchhavi-dauhitra (“Lichchhavi daughter’s son”). Except for Kumaradevi, none of the dynasty’s queens’ paternal families are mentioned in these inscriptions, suggesting that the Gupta family thought Kumaradevi’s marriage to Chandragupta was important.

It’s more likely that Chandragupta’s marriage allowed him to broaden his political power and dominions, allowing him to take the title Maharajadhiraja. The inclusion of the Lichchhavis’ name on the coins is most likely a sign of their contribution to the Gupta power expansion. Chandragupta was most likely the ruler of the Lichchhavi territories after the union. Alternatively, the Gupta and Lichchhavi states should have combined, with Chandragupta and Kumaradevi as sovereign rulers of their respective states before the reign of their son Samudragupta, who became the supreme ruler of the unified kingdom.

The traditional genealogy shows that Chandragupta was married to the Licchavi royal Kumara Devi. Samudragupta was born from this marriage. The importance of this alliance is quite controversial among historians. Chandragupta married the Lichchhavi princess Kumara Devi because the Lichchhavi royal family is the name of an ancient clan headquartered in what is now Vaishari, Bihar, during the Gautama Buddha era. Numismatist John Allan theorized that Chandragupta defeated the Lichchhavi Kingdom at Vaishali and that the marriage of KumaraDevi to him was part of a peace treaty.  He suggested that the Gupta dynasty regarded marriage as honorable simply because of the ancestors of the ancient Licchavi royal family.  However, the old text Manusamhita considers the Licchavi royal family to be “unorthodox and impure” (vratya). Therefore, it is unlikely that the Gupta dynasty proudly referred to the ancestors of the Lichchhavi royal family in Samudragupta to enhance their social status. Also, it is unlikely that the Gupta dynasty named the Licchavi royal family after defeating the dynasty’s coins.

The Marriage most likely helped Chandragupta expand his political power and dominance over various other regions, which allowed him to keep the title of Maharajadhiraja. The appearance of the name of the Lichchhavi royal family on the coin may symbolize its contribution to the expansion of Gupta’s power.  After his marriage to the Lichchhavi princess, Chandragupta became the ruler of the Lichchhavi royal family. Alternatively,  the states of Gupta and the Lichchhavi royal family formed a union, with Chandragupta and Kumaradevi being the sovereigns of their respective states, and their son Samudragupta becoming the future ruler of the Gupta dynasty. 

Size of Chandragupta’s Kingdom

The size of Chandragupta’s empire is uncertain, but considering that he was the first ruler of the Gupta dynasty, it had to be much larger than that of the earlier Gupta kings.

Several kings were subjugated by Samudragupta, according to the inscription on the Allahabad Pillar. Several modern historians have attempted to assess the size of the territories that he would have inherited from Chandragupta based on the names of these kings. These historians theorize that northern Bengal was a part of Chandragupta’s kingdom because the king of the northern part of the Bengal region is not mentioned among the kings subjugated by Samudragupta. However, such conclusions cannot be drawn with certainty since the identification of some of Samudragupta’s subjugated kings is disputed.

Nonetheless, the inscription’s data can be used to classify the territories that were not part of Chandragupta’s kingdom:

• Samudragupta defeated the kings of present-day western Uttar Pradesh, so Chandragupta’s kingdom possibly did not stretch far beyond Prayaga (modern Prayagraj).

• Since Samudragupta defeated the kings of the forest zone, which is associated with this area, Chandragupta’s kingdom in the south did not include the Mahakoshal area of Central India.

• Since the Allahabad Pillar inscription mentions Samatata as a frontier kingdom in that area, Chandragupta’s kingdom in the east did not include southern Bengal. Furthermore, the inscription on the Delhi Iron Pillar indicates that the later king Chandragupta II defeated the Vanga kingdom in that area.

• The Allahabad Pillar inscription describes Nepali (modern-day Nepal) as a frontier kingdom in the north.

Coinage in the Gupta Dynasty

Mathura, Ayodhya, Lucknow, Sitapur, Tanda, Ghazipur, and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh; Bayana in Rajasthan; and Hajipur in Bihar have all discovered gold coins with portraits of Chandragupta and Kumaradevi. The portraits of Chandragupta and Kumaradevi on the obverse of these coins are followed by their names written in Gupta script. The legend “Li-ccha-va-yah” appears on the reverse, which portrays a goddess sitting on a lion. Chandragupta and Kumaradevi are most likely represented as joint rulers on the coins. The name of the woman depicted on the reverse of these coins is unknown. She was unlikely a Gupta queen, as the depiction of a female figure seated on a lion is typical of a goddess in Indian historical art.

Chandragupta 1, the son of Ghatotkacha, was a much stronger ruler than his two predecessors. This is not only indicated by the higher title Maharaja di Raja, in contrast to his two predecessors Maharaja but also proven in the number of gold coins he has issued. He was the first Gupta king to issue gold coins.  Most of the coins were attributed to Chandragupta 2, his grandson. 

Chandragupta I-KumaraDevi Coin type is the earliest coin of the Gupta dynasty.

The Successor to the Gupta Empire Founder

Samudragupta’s father Chandragupta chose him as the next ruler, according to the Allahabad Pillar inscription and the Eran stone inscription. Chandragupta appointed him to “secure the earth,” according to the Allahabad Pillar inscription, indicating that Chandragupta renounced the throne in his old age and appointed his son as the next ruler. The discovery of coins from a Gupta ruler named Kacha has fuelled speculation about Chandragupta’s successor. One theory suggests that Kacha was another name for Samudragupta. Another hypothesis is that Kacha, Samudragupta’s older brother, succeeded their father Chandragupta.

The Extent of His Kingdom 

As is clear from his title Maharajadhiraja, little is known about Chandragupta, except for his ancestors, marriage, and the range of power of Gupta. The territorial scope of the Kingdom of Chandragupta is unknown, but Chandragupta must have been much larger than the territory of the former King Gupta because it had the title of Maharajadhiraja. Modern historians sought to determine the extent of his kingdom based on information from the inscriptions in the column of Allahabad issued by his son Samudragupta. 

The inscription in the column of Allahabad bears the names of several kings conquered by Samudragupta. Based on the identities of these kings, some modern historians sought to determine the range of  territory  he covered from Chandragupta

Successor 

The inscriptions on the pillars of Allahabad in Samudragupta and the inscriptions on the stones of Elan state that his father Chandragupta chose him as the next king. The inscription on the pillars of Allahabad indicates that Chandragupta has appointed him to “protect the earth” and that Chandragupta has stepped down from his old throne at an old age and made his son the next king.

Dr Martin Luther King Jr. was America’s most prominent civil rights activist, and many consider him to be the greatest American leader of the 20th century. His leadership was instrumental in the United States for ending legal apartheid and empowering the African-American community. He was first and foremost a moral leader who advocated peaceful resistance as a way of bringing about political change, stressing that biblical values led by love would prevail over hate and fear-driven politics. He was a gifted orator, best known for his “I Have a Dream” speech delivered on August 28th 1963, at the March on Washington. 

In 1968, he was killed by an assassin’s bullet at the age of 39. Martin Luther King Jr.’s influence and legacy extended beyond the United States, affecting the fight against apartheid in South Africa. King is only one of three Americans and the only African-American to have a national holiday, which is observed on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which falls on the third Monday in January, close to his birthday.

Martin Luther King Information

• Martin Luther King jr birth date: January 15, 1929

• Martin Luther King jr Birthplace: Atlanta, Georgia, U.S

• Martin Luther King jr wife: Coretta Scott ​(m. 1953)

• Martin Luther King jr children: Yolanda, Martin, Dexter, Bernice

• Martin Luther King jr death date: April 4, 1968 (aged 39)

• Martin Luther King jr death place: Memphis, Tennessee, U.S

• Martin Luther King jr cause of death: Assassination by gunshot

About Martin Luther King Jr

Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15th 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia, to Rev. Martin Luther King Sr. and Mrs Alberta Williams King. The boy’s father, Reverend Martin Luther King, was pastor of Atlanta’s historic, prominent, and prestigious Ebenezer Baptist Church. 

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was a cornerstone of Atlanta’s black middle class. He governed his household with the zeal of an Old Testament patriarch, and he provided a lifestyle in which his children were educated, safe, and well-fed. By the Reverend King’s order, his son (Martin Luther King Jr.) used the moniker “M.L.” during his childhood.

M.L. was born a strong and healthy baby, preceded by his sister, Willie Christine, and followed by his brother, Alfred Daniel, or A.D. The church served as the nucleus around which the King family’s life revolved. The sanctuary was also just three blocks from the large house on Auburn Avenue. 

M.L. joined Booker T. Washington High School in 1942, at the age of 13, after being slipped into grade school a year early by his parents and being bright and gifted enough to miss a few grades along the way.

He passed Morehouse College’s entrance exam two years later as an outstanding high school junior, graduated from Booker T. Washington after eleventh grade, and enrolled in Morehouse at the age of fifteen. There, he was mentored by Benjamin Mays, the school’s president and a civil rights veteran. 

King earned a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Morehouse College in 1948. He then enrolled at Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania, where he was elected student body president and later graduated with a Bachelor of Divinity degree as class valedictorian in 1951.

He graduated from Boston University with a Doctor of Philosophy in Systematic Theology in 1955. As a result, from the age of 15 to 26, King embarked on an intellectual pilgrimage. He systematised a theological and social outlook through it, which was marked by unusually profound observations and an unwavering belief in the power of nonviolence and salvation through undeserved suffering.

Who was Martin Luther King jr’s Wife?

Martin Luther King Jr. married Coretta Scott on June 18, 1953, after a whirlwind 16-month courtship. The wedding ceremony was conducted by King’s father at Scott’s parents’ home in Marion, Alabama.

Martin and Coretta Scott King had four children together-

• Yolanda Denise 

• Martin Luther III 

• Dexter Scott 

• Bernice Albertine

While their views on a variety of contentious topics vary, all four children followed in their father’s footsteps as civil rights activists. On January 30th 2006, Coretta Scott King died.

Martin Luther King Information on Career and Activism

To grasp the magnitude of King’s 13-year crusade for freedom and justice, split his career into two periods: before and after the Selma, Alabama campaign. 

The Montgomery Bus Boycott began in December 1955 and ended on March 25th 1965, with the popular voting-rights march from Selma to Montgomery. During the first century, King’s sublime oratory and equally sublime bravery were fuelled by his belief in divine justice and his vision of a new Christian social order.

This resulted in a widespread acceptance of the principle of “noncooperation with evil” by Civil Rights Movement supporters. They opposed the social evils and injustices of segregation by peaceful, passive resistance, refusing to follow and/or comply with unfair and immoral Jim Crow rules. The beatings, jailings, abuses, and brutality that followed became the price that these demonstrators had to pay for their unparalleled victories.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

This initiative lasted from December 2nd 1955 to December 21st 1956, culminating in the Supreme Court declaring Alabama’s bus segregation scheme unconstitutional. King’s leadership had wrought a remarkable victory, as Montgomery blacks showed bravery, conviction, solidarity, and noble devotion to Christian values, and eventually accomplished their goal of desegregating the city’s buses, following Mrs Rosa Parks’ valiant stand and against the ensuing outcry of white hate and brutality. It was through this triumph that King and his ecclesiastical colleagues elevated the iconic status of the black clergyman as a pioneer in the fight for civil rights to new heights.

Birth of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Following the success of the Montgomery campaign, King saw the need for a mass movement to build on the victory. On August 7-8, 1959, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was established, and King was unanimously elected president. This was a coalition that added a distinct emphasis to the already developed mix of major civil-rights organisations.

Stride Toward Freedom

On June 13th 1957, King met with Vice President Richard M. Nixon with his best friend, the Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy. King, A. Philip Randolph, Roy Wilkins, and Lester Granger met with President Dwight D. Eisenhower a year later, on June 23rd 1958. Both Nixon and Eisenhower turned down the SCLC chief, and King eventually gave up on the possibility of collaborating with either of them.

From 1957 to 1959, King fought to-

(1) keep the Civil Rights Movement united; 

(2) raise much-needed funds; 

(3) systematise and disseminate the philosophy and practise of nonviolence, and 

(4) establish himself as a shrewd author.

Following the deranged Mrs Izola Curry’s stabbing attempt on his life on September 20th 1958, King endeared himself to millions of black and white Americans around the country when he forgave the woman and declined to press charges against her.

On November 29th 1959, the SCLC chief resigned as pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church and spent the next three years witnessing historic events unfold in cities across the South. In 1960, he returned to his hometown of Atlanta and joined his father as co-pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church.

He used this forum to promote the SCLC’s and the Civil Rights Movement’s goals while also attempting to maintain unity and peace among the SCLC, the NAACP, and the National Urban League. 

Throughout 1960, King was inspired by the unexpectedly positive growth of student sit-in protests around the South. The SCLC president was ecstatic that black students on so many campuses were now joining the fight. As the sit-ins grew in popularity, King boldly and firmly proclaimed his full support for their strategic bravery in the fight to desegregate eating establishments in Southern cities.

Thousands of blacks and sincere whites throughout the country pledged their allegiance to the cause using Bible-based methods of applied nonviolence (protest marches, sit-ins, and Freedom Rides). The administrations of Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson had backed him up. Despite persistent misery, defeats, and notable failures, such as in Albany, Georgia (1961-1962), where the civil rights movement was completely and resoundingly defeated in its campaign to desegregate public parks, pools, lunch counters, and other services, progress was made. King and his lieutenants assessed their weakness and concluded that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had sided with the Albany segregationists.

During the late fall and early winter of 1962, King forged a new resolve through a series of speeches and written papers. From his discussions with Alabama’s Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, the head of the SCLC’s Birmingham auxiliary, the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR), the SCLC leader devised a plan in which a successful direct-action campaign in Birmingham would compensate for the failure in Albany and finally end legal segregation in Birmingham.

Martin Luther King Jr’s Letter From Birmingham Jail

From February to May 1963, King, Shuttlesworth, Abernathy, and others drew national attention to Birmingham with their effort to deracinate the city’s strict segregation policies and expose the world to the viciousness and brutality of the segregationists in this culture. It was bad enough that racism existed at lunch counters and in recruiting practises. 

The brutality of Police Commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor’s men, who unleashed dogs and firehoses on the peaceful protesters, contributed to the embarrassment. And King was determined that he and his people would awaken America’s spiritual conscience in the streets of Birmingham.

Walk to Freedom with Martin Luther King Jr.

King was in Detroit, Michigan, sixty-six days before the famous March on Washington, at the behest of his ecclesiastical associate, the Rev. C.L. Franklin. Franklin was a member of a group that included James Del Rio, a powerful local black millionaire, and other members of the Detroit Council for Human Rights. By orchestrating a major show of support, these activists were determined to engineer a significant Kingian breakthrough in the North and, as a result, open up a new Northern front. 

Detroit, as a booming black labour town, had a strong black middle class that had grown out of the workers of its car factories. Detroit’s “Walk to Freedom With Martin Luther King Jr.” was held on June 23, 1963, along the city’s Woodward Avenue, and was organised by Tony Brown, a respected local newspaper journalist. 

A throng of 250,000 – 500,000 people marched in lockstep with the SCLC president as one single wave of humanity. The march came to an end at Covall Hall Auditorium, where King took the stage and delivered the “I Have A Dream” speech, which he would repeat sixty-six days later at the Lincoln Memorial in front of a packed house. The event was described as “extraordinary” in Business Week magazine on June 29, 1963. King was hailed as the personification of nonviolence.

And, after the success of the Birmingham movement, he was gaining regular credibility at the time of the Detroit march. The Detroit march received extensive media coverage, reinforcing the lesson King had learned from the South’s Freedom Rides, achieving genuine success in civil rights movements required doing something dramatic enough to elicit national media attention. None of his generation’s black leaders had understood the lesson better than the SCLC president.

Campaigns in Selma and Chicago

By Christmas of 1964, the plans for “Project Alabama” had been finalised. The aim was to highlight the need for a federal voting-rights law that would give legal weight to the enfranchisement of African-Americans in the South. The protest marches and demonstrations from January to March 1965 demonstrated to Selma that the SCLC leader and his supporters were serious and playing for keeps.

During King’s leadership of the Selma Movement, the city was visited by Malcolm X, who had flown in, addressed a crowd at Brown Chapel, given Coretta a message for King, and then left. Malcolm X was murdered by blacks in New York City two weeks later.

As blacks fought to make the right to vote a reality for themselves and all Americans, King’s arrest in Selma on February 1st 1965, drew national attention as well as the attention of the Johnson White House. 

On March 7, a procession from Selma to Montgomery’s State Capitol building began. King was unable to lead it because he was in Atlanta. State troopers armed with tear gas, billy clubs, bullwhips, and rubber tubing covered in barbed wire confronted the marchers. Using these guns, the troopers targeted the defenceless, unarmed protesters with such ferocity and wrath that 70 blacks were hospitalised and another 70 were treated for injuries by the end of the ordeal. 

The news of the violence shook the nation as it had never been shaken before that night when a film clip from Selma’s “Bloody Sunday” disrupted the broadcast of ABC Television’s Sunday-night movie, Judgment at Nuremberg. The national uproar was deafening, and the public backed the battered demonstrators. King led a second march on March 9 as a wave of public support bolstered his Selma Movement.

A wall of highway patrol officers hindered the march of 1,500 black and white demonstrators from crossing the Pettus Bridge. The demonstrators were told to stop marching. King protested, but it was in vain. At that point, the SCLC leader agreed not to press the issue and avoid a confrontation. Instead, he instructed his followers to kneel and pray before abruptly turning around. Many young Black Power radicals were enraged by King’s decision, which they already saw as too cautious and conservative.

The moral support of these radicals was withdrawn. Nonetheless, the country had been awakened by the events in Selma, which caused widespread outrage and led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

On March 25, King and 25,000 of his supporters, escorted by 800 federal troops, completed a four-day, triumphant Selma-to-Montgomery march. The SCLC president had earned the title of “fresh Moses” by blacks, anointed to lead America on a modern-day Exodus to New Canaan.

Martin Luther King’s Assassination and its Aftermath

In the spring of 1968, King’s preparations for the Poor People’s March were thwarted by a trip to Memphis, Tennessee, to express support for a sanitation workers’ strike. The arrival of the SCLC chief in Memphis on April 3 caused a stir in the city and drew a slew of television photographers and camera crews. Two thousand supporters, as well as a huge press and television crew, gathered at Mason Temple that night to hear the twentieth century’s most peaceful warrior deliver a speech. King had been hesitant to appear, but he eventually agreed to do so for the sake of the people who adored him.

His “I’ve Been To The Mountaintop” voice, which encapsulated and reaffirmed his life that night, was destined to become famous. To those who knew him at the time, King had given the impression that his life was coming to an end. The next day, at 6:01 p.m., as the SCLC chief stood on the second-floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel where he was staying, a loud crack of a high-powered rifle was heard, and a bullet decimated the right side of King’s face with such force that it violently knocked him backwards.

Rev. Ronald Denton Wilson later told The New York Times that his father, Henry Clay Wilson, was the assassin of Martin Luther King Jr., not James Earl Ray. Rev. Wilson claimed that his father was the leader of a small group of assassins; that prejudice played no role in the assassination; that Henry Clay Wilson shot King because the former suspected the latter of being involved with the Communist movement; and that James Earl Ray was set up to take the fall for the assassination.

Legacy, Awards, and Achievements

At least fifty honorary degrees were bestowed on King by colleges and universities. On October 14, 1964, King received the Nobel Peace Prize for leading peaceful opposition to racial prejudice in the United States, making him the (at the time) youngest recipient of the prize. 

The American Jewish Committee awarded him the American Liberties Medallion in 1965 for his “exceptional advancement of the values of human liberty.”

The NAACP presented him with the Spingarn Medal in 1957. He received the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story” two years later.

The Margaret Sanger Award was given to King by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America in 1966 for “his valiant opposition to bigotry and his lifetime contribution to the promotion of social justice and human dignity.”

In 1966, King was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as a fellow. 

In November 1967, he travelled to the United Kingdom for a 24-hour trip to receive an honorary degree from Newcastle University, making him the first African-American to do so.

In 1971, the civil rights activist was posthumously awarded the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Recording for “Why I Oppose The War In Vietnam,” while being nominated for three Grammy Awards.

President Jimmy Carter bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom on King posthumously in 1977.

In 2004, King and his wife received the Congressional Gold Medal.

On August 12, 1919, Vikram Sarabhai was born in Ahmedabad, India. His full name is Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai and he was the son of Ambalal Sarabhai who was a Gujarati industrialist. Dr. Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai was an Indian physicist and an astronomer who started the space research organization and initiated the nuclear power plant in India. Because of his achievement, he is regarded as the Father of the Indian space program. He was honoured with Padma Bhushan in 1966 and the Padma Vibhushan in 1972. Vikram Sarabhai passed away on December 30, 1971, in Kovalam. 

In this article on Vikram Sarabhai biography, we are going to discuss who is Vikram Sarabhai, Vikram Sarabhai education, and the achievements he accomplished throughout his life. 

Vikram Sarabhai Information

Full Name: Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai

Date of Birth: August 12, 1919

Death Date: December 30, 1971

Cause of Death: Cardiac arrest 

Age(at the time of death): 52 

Information about Vikram Sarabhai

Vikram Sarabhai was born on August 12, 1919, in a Gujarati industrial family. His father’s name was Ambalal Sarabhai who was an industrialist, a philanthropist, and the founder of the Sarabhai group of companies. His mother’s name was Sarla Devi and he was the Eighth son of Ambalal Sarabhai. In 1942, Vikram Sarabhai married Mrinalini who was a classical dancer by profession. The couple had two children. His daughter’s name is Mallika, who went on and became an actress and an activist. His son’s name is Kartikeya who is one of the world’s leading environmentalist educators and a dedicated community builder, he was awarded the Padma Shri in 2012. During his lifetime, Vikram Sarabhai practised Jainism and had dedicated his life to building the Indian space program and that is why he is called the Father of the Indian space program. 

Vikram Sarabhai Education

Vikram Sarabhai came from the famous Sarabhai family who was a major industrialist committed to the Indian Independence movement. Vikram Sarabhai attended the Gujarati college in Ahmedabad to complete his higher studies and after doing so he then took admission to the University of Cambridge in England where in 1940, he gave his final honour exam in the Natural Sciences.

Sarbhai returned to Cambridge post world war 2 to pursue his doctorate and in 1945 he submitted a thesis on “Cosmic Ray Investigation in Tropical Latitudes”.

Vikram Sarabhai Achievements 

Dr. Vikram Sarabhai is considered the father of the Indian space program. He was a great institution builder and helped in establishing a large number of institutions in diverse fields. After returning from Cambridge in 1947, he requested his friends and family members to help him in opening a research institution near his home in Ahmedabad, thus at the age of only 28, he founded the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) in Ahmedabad on November 11, 1947.

The Physical Research Laboratory was the first of many institutions which Vikram Sarabhai created and cultivated. He served in the Physical Research Laboratory from 1966 to 1971. 

Vikram Sarabhai was also very active in his family’s industry and the business which it had. After Independence in 1947, Vikram Sarabhai founded the Ahmedabad Textile Industry’s Research Association and then actively looked after it until 1956. Seeing the immediate need for management professionals in the country, Vikram Sarabhai also helped in setting up the Indian Institute of Management at Ahmedabad in 1962. 

The Indian National Committee for  Space Research (INCOSPAR) which was later renamed the Indian Space Research Organization(ISRO) was established by Vikram Sarabhai in 1962.

After the death of the beloved physicist Homi Bhabha in 1966, Vikram Sarabhai was appointed as the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission of India. He is also credited for setting up the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station in Southern India. Vikram Sarabhai also helped in developing indigenous nuclear technology for defence. 

Vikram Sarabhai Discoveries

Vikram Sarabhai helped in setting up many institutions all around the country and here are some of the well-known institutions established by Dr. Vikram Sarabhai. 

1. In 1947, Vikram Sarabhai established the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) in Ahmedabad. PRL is a National Research Institute for space and allied sciences. 

2. Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad founded on 11 December 1961 is considered to be the best institute of management in the country. 

3. Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL), Jaduguda, Bihar was founded in 1967, under the department of atomic energy. 

4. Vikram A. Sarabhai Community Science Centre (VASCSC) or the Community science centre was established in 1960 at Ahmedabad. VASCSC is working towards popularizing science and mathematics education among students, teachers, and the public. Its main objective is to improve and find innovative methods of scientific education.

5. Darpan Academy for Performing Arts, Ahmedabad was founded in 1949 along with his wife and now directed by his daughter Mallika Sarabhai for the last three decades. 

6. Faster Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR), Kalpakkam was founded in 1985 and it is the testbed for fast fuel reactors and materials.

7. Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL), Hyderabad was founded in 1967 to create a strong indigenous base in electronics. 

8. Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram founded on 21 November 1963, is a major space research centre of the ISRO which mainly focuses on rocket and space vehicles for the Indian satellite program. 

9. Space Applications Centre( SAC), Ahmedabad was founded in 1972. The Space Applications Centre has played an important role in realizing the vision and the mission of ISRO. 

10. Variable Energy Cyclotron Project or the VECC is located in Calcutta and was founded in 1972. VECC performs research in basic and applied nuclear sciences and the development of the nuclear particle accelerator. 

Vikram Sarabhai Inventions/Indian Space Research Organization

The establishment of the Indian space research organization by Vikram Sarabhai is considered to be his greatest achievement. When he returned to India after completing his Doctorate from Cambridge University in London in 1947, he was able to convince the newly formed independent Indian government of the importance of a space program for a developing country like India. Dr. Sarabhai was also supported by Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha who is widely regarded as the father of the Indian nuclear science program. He supported Dr. Sarabhai in setting the first rocket launch station in India. At Thumba near Thiruvananthapuram on the coast of the Arabian sea, the first rocket launch centre was established

The inaugural flight was launched on November 21, 1963, with sodium vapour payload after a remarkable effort in setting up the infrastructure, personnel, communication links, and launch pads. 

Dr. Vikram Sarabhai was constantly in negotiations with the other leading country’s space organization such as NASA and because of his efforts, the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE) was launched during July 1975 – July 1976.

Dr. Vikram Sarabhai was very much interested in science education and founded the Community Science Centre at Ahmedabad in 1956. It is also called Vikram Sarabhai Community Science Centre (VASCSC). He also started a project for the fabrication and the launch of an Indian satellite.

Vikram Sarabhai worked very passionately to ignite India’s first satellite, Aryabhatta but unfortunately, he passed away four years before the launch of the satellite. Dr. Vikram Sarabhai was honoured with Padma Bhushan in 1966 and Padma Vibhushan in 1972 to remember and celebrate his life and the legacy he left behind.