Madras Presidency Coins

Madras, also known as Fort St George, was founded in 1640. It was the first territorial acquired by East India Company and it was the oldest among all the three presidencies (Madras, Bombay and Bengal). Madras Presidency was also known as Madraspatinam or Chinapatinam. The company obtained a small piece of land just outside the walls of Fort St George and started building a mint on March 1, 1640.

On this post I publish some of my European mint madras presidency coins, I will post more madras presidency coins in near future

Excellent Coin Of Madras Presidency XX Cash (20 Cash) European Mint Style Year 1808

Excellent Coin Of Madras Presidency X Cash (10 Cash) European Mint Style Year 1808

Excellent Coin Of Madras Presidency X Cash (10 Cash) European Mint Style Year 1803 Rare Year

East India Company Coins

On the last day of 1600AD the company of the Merchants of London trading into East Indies, got the royal charter from Queen Elizabeth to monopoly for trade for 15 years. In 1608 AD the English company made its first attempt to establish a factory in India. But in 1618 East India Company got permission to establish a permanent factory at Surat and gradually in later years, it established factories at different parts of India. These East India Company traders gradually got involved in local politics and ultimately succeeded in becoming the rulers of India. Thus whole of India was under their control by 1834 AD. In 1857 AD the Indian People revolted against East India Company’s rule. It resulted in transfer of power from East India Company to British Monarchy. This rule resulted in the end of East India Company in India. The struggle for Independence continued by people of India till they succeeded in 1947 AD, when India got independence from British rule.

COINAGE DURING EAST INDIA COMPANY RULE

1) In the very early stages the EAST INDIA COMPANY imported special coins from England for the use in their factory and trades with other European Companies.

2) Later, EAST INDIA COMPANY got royal permission to mint their coins locally with English inscription for the local use of these coins with the people near by factories East India Company.

3) For the company’s trade, far away from their factories they got the coins minted by Moghul Emperors. These coins were in Moghul style with Persian inscriptions. They were minted at Moghul mints from the bullion supplied by East India Company.

4) From 1716 AD to 1835 AD as the EAST INDIA COMPANY became politically strong, they minted their own coins in EAST INDIA COMPANY mints, but in Moghul style. Those EAST INDIA COMPANY coins were almost similar to Moghul coins. The borderline to separate EAST INDIA COMPANY coins or distinguish them from Moghul coins is blurred and hence difficult.

5 )From 1835 AD uniform coinage in European style, with the effigy of British monarch, replacing the Moghul emperor’s name were issued

6)From 1862 to 1947 AD coins were continued to issued with effigy of succeeding British Monarchs, till India got independence in 1947 AD

Some of my collections

East India Company 4 Pies Coins Year 1824 Very Rare

East India Company 4 Pies Coins Year 1825 Very Rare

East India Company 2 Pies Coins Year 1825 Very Rare

East India Company Half Anna Year 1835

East India Company Quarter Anna Year 1835

Chand Baori The Surprising well

Chand Baori, in the village of Abhaneri near Bandikui, Rajasthan. Stepwells, also called bawdi or baoli are in essence wells in which the water can be reached by descending a set of steps. They may be covered and protected, and are often of architectural significance.

Built back in the 10th century, the incredible well of Chand Baori, India was a practical solution to the water problem in the area. The arid climate forced the locals to dig deep for a dependable water source, one that would last throughout an entire year. Chand Baori well is 30 meters deep, it has 13 floors and 3,500 steps. Legends say that ghosts build it in one night and that it has so many steps to make it impossible for someone to retrieve a coin once it’s been dropped in the well.

India's purchase of anti-missile system to counteract China's DF missiles ?

India's test fire of anti-missile interception

India, the regular customer in the world arms market, now plans to spend three billion US dollars to buy anti-missile systems.According to reports from US media, the Pentagon's report on the Peoples' Liberation Army (PLA) deploys DF-21 medium-range ballistic missiles in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Therefore, India holds the opinion that the slow development of its home-made anti-missile systems cannot fulfill strategic needs and it thus seeks to purchase the most advantaged anti-missile systems globally to strengthen its defense capability. More after the break...

Reports say US Patriotic-3 and Israel's Iron Dome and David's Sling missile defense systems are all in India's favour. The contract of Patriotic-3 is likely to be announced before US President Barack Obama visits India in November. Meanwhile, India and Israel both show their willingness to make such a deal for anti-missile systems. However, India must first gain US permission before its purchase of Israel's anti-missile systems, because the development of these weapons relies on the funds and technology of US.

US Patriotic-3 missile system

Israel's Iron Dome missile defense systems

Israel's David's Sling missile defense systems

Analysis points out India's urgent purchase of anti-missile systems results from the pressure of Chinese missiles. Indian defense officials state China targets its hundreds of nuclear missiles at India.According to reports, US's recent report of Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China points out in order to enhance military deterrence, PLA deploys more advanced solid fueled CSS-5 (DF-21) nuclear missiles with better anti-destruction performance in the area nearer to the China-India border. India worries that its home-made anti-missile systems are still under development and cannot be put into real battles in a short time. Therefore, it's necessary to bring in the west's more advanced weapons.

China's DF missiles

Indian military experts have stressed many times that China has geological advantages over India when a battle breaks out between China and India. The China-India border is about 5,000 kilometers away from Beijing, while it's only more than 900 kilometers away from New Delhi, which means PLA could launch attack on India's main military targets in the north of India within more than ten seconds by deploying DF-11/15 strategic ballistic missiles. Furthermore, the more powerful DF-21 medium-range missiles have bigger military deterrence to India's military. Therefore, India urgently seeks to purchase advanced and reliable anti-missile systems.

According to Indian media, India's indigenous anti-missile weapons include Advanced Air Defence (AAD) missiles and surface-to-surface "Prithvi" missiles. It's reported that totally five test fires gained good results. An Indian defense expert states the Advanced Air Defence (AAD) missile has better performance than Patriotic-3. He also says India is expected to become the fourth state capable of intercepting missiles with a range of 5,000 kilometers after US, Russia and Israel.

However, an Indian missile expert points out the fatal weakness of India's missile defense is the poor foundation of the national industry. Even though there are foreign technologies, some key parts related with interception missiles cannot be produced at home but can only rely on exports.

Cars Are Racing Out Of India

Last month, Maruti Suzuki India decided to abandon its M800. With the new emission norms haunting the car makers, many have started following Maruti Suzuki’s footsteps. Many more cars may leave India by 2015-16 when the whole nation will have to abide by the Bharat Stage IV. The Kizashi may be the one earning Maruti Suzuki’s bread and butter.

Maruti Suzuki India

After the phasing out of the M800, Fiat India decided to send its Palio out of 13 cities. Fiat aims at Grand Punte as it will be the breadwinner of the Fiat family. The Palio was given a facelift in March 2008 and was believed to come up with a more rejuvenated version. However, Fiat has now dropped the idea of giving the Palio a 1.2 Litre engine. The Grand Punte will be replacing the Palio in the Indian market. Selling lesser than 50 units a month is a real sad figure. Hence, in a way, Fiat must have made the right choice of letting the Palio die the slow death.

Fiat Palio

The Grande Punto carries three exciting versions; the Active, the Dynamic and the Emotion. The car too is believed to be as interesting as the names. As the “Indian Car of the Year 2002” steps out of 13 major Indian cities, one can only hope that the Grand Punte lives to Fiat India’s dreams. The escape race does not end with Maruti Suzuki and Fiat. Honda too is following the two. The BS-IV norms have nothing to do with this farewell. It is the import duty this time.

Fiat Grande Punto

Honda Siel Cars India (HSCI) has thought of discontinuing the sale of its Civic Hybrid in India. Surprisingly, it is not even a year since the launch of the vehicle. Indians would be able to avail the Honda Civic Hybrid only as a direct import. In November 2008, Honda had announced a 40 per cent price cut on the Civic Hybrid. This actually came as a shock to the Indian auto industry such a thing had never happened earlier. Honda Civic Hybrid, however, was a not a very popular model then. But the announcement was just made and Honda received around 235 bookings within a period of just four days. This again was a surprise. Before that, over a period of five months, Honda had not received even one-fifth of the bookings that they got in these four days. The sales figures did not remain that high for long.

Honda Siel Cars India

The Civic Hybrid found it very difficult to please the Indian car buyer. The price tag being a little heavy on an average Indian’s pocket was the main reason for the decline in sales. The hybrid car, before the discount, carried a tag of Rs.21.50 Lakh. This was twice the amount carried by its petrol variant. The main reason for this again, was the heavy import duty which was a 105%. May be, if the government supports the import of hybrid cars, lesser cars will leave the nation.

The Honda Civic Hybrid

Learning the Languages of India

India is a very diverse country, geographically, culturally, religiously and linguistically. Some of the languages in India are popular on a national level, while others are regional. Most of the languages have ancient routes, such as Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, Austro-Asiatic and Tibeto-Burman. There are a handful of isolated languages, but they are not very mainstream.

Each state in India has its official language, besides Hindi and English, and there are a few hundred mother tongues. Sanskrit, the ancient Indian language, has ceased to be used colloquially in the modern day world, but it is one of the oldest recorded languages in the world. Expats who relocate to India may be fine just knowing Hindi and English in certain areas, but will have to learn regional languages in others.

Hindi

Hindi is the official language of India, and is the mother tongue of about one fifth of the country’s population; there are about 487 million speakers. This language is mostly condensed in the north, in an area called the “Hindi-belt,” or “cow-belt.” There are many different accents and versions of Hindi, but most Indians have some functional knowledge of how to communicate with this language.

English

After Hindi, English is second as an official language, and is used for many authoritative and legislative procedures. Indian English comes from the period of British colonialism of the country, but there are fewer than one million people who identify English as their mother tongue. English is a very popular second or third language for Indians, however. There are many different accents of Indian English, but the vocabulary is fairly uniform.

Bengali

Bengali is the official language of West Bengal, and is spoken by over 200 million people in West Bengal and in Bangladesh.

Punjabi

Punjabi is the official language of the state of Punjab, and there are about 88 million native speakers. It is the central languages of the Sikhs and is very common in Pakistan. There are many different dialects of Punjabi, which is an Indo-Aryan language.

Urdu

Urdu is the official state language of Jammu and Kashmir, and is spoken by about 28 million Indians (and 104 million people). It has the same routes as Hindi, but takes more influences from Persian and Arabic, and is written in Persio. Urdu is also a central language of the country of Pakistan.

Tamil

Tamil is the official language of the state of Tamil Nadu, and is a very old Dravidian language with known inscriptions before 500 BC. Today, there are over 73 million speakers of Tamil, some of which also live in Sri Lanka and Malaysia.

Sindhi

Sindhi is mostly spoken in the northwest area of India, and is an Indo-Aryan language. It is also the third most common language in Pakistan, where there is a region called Sindh.

Telugu

Telugu is the official language of Andhra Pradesh, and it dates back to the first century AD. It has Dravidian routes.

Oriya

Oriya is the official language of Orissa, and it has Indo-Aryan routes. It is similar to Bengali and Assamese, and there are a few different dialects of Oriya.

Assamese

Assamese is the official language of Assam, and is spoken by over half of that state’s population, and also in parts of the Brahmaputra Valley. It is the most eastern of the Indo-Aryan languages. Assamese sounds like Bengali, and the languages are extremely similar.

Gujarati

Gujarati is an Indo-Aryan language, and is the official language of Gujarat, spoken by about 70% of its population. It is also common in the states of Maharashtra and Rajasthan. It is one of the easier languages to learn, as it is clear and concise.

Marathi

Marathi is the official language of the state of Maharashtra, and is concentrated in the west and center of India. It is believed to be 1300 years old, having evolved out of Sanskrit. It is the fourth most spoken Indian language. There are 42 different dialects of this language alone!

Kashmiri

Kashmiri is concentrated around the Kashmir Valley, and about half of the people in the state of Kashmir speak it. There are also some speakers of Kashmiri in Pakistan.

Kannada

Kannada is a Dravidian language of Karnataka, and is spoken by about 65% of that state’s population. Contemporary Kannada literature is the most successful in India.

Bodo

Bodo comes from Assam-Burmese routes, and is mainly spoken by the Bodo people in Assam, in northeast India.

Dogri

Dogri is an Indo-Aryan language, which is spoken in parts of Jammu, and also in Northern Punjab and in Pakistan.

Manipuri

Manipuri is commonly called “Meitei,” and it is the official language of the state of Manipur, which is in the Himalayas.

Malayalam

Malayalam is used mostly in Kerala, which is a state full of intellectuals and has a high literacy rate. It is a Dravidian language that stems from the 10th century. It is also written in an Arabic script by some Muslims. It is spoken by almost 36 million people, and it derived from ancient Tamil.

Exploring the Rivers of India

Rivers are an important part of Indian geography and Indian society. Most major cities in India are located by river banks, and their water provides much irrigation, transportation, livelihood and electricity throughout the country.

These rivers determine much of the course of action of India, as when they flood or dry up, everything is affected, for better or for worse. Some of these great rivers also have religious and mythological significance, and have been the site of many ancient societies.

All of India’s major rivers come from three main watersheds. The first is the Himalaya and Karakoram Ranges; the second is the Vindhya and Satpura Ranges; the third is the Sahyadri or Western Ghats region. Most rivers go into the Bay of Bengal, but some empty out into the Arabian Sea. There are a few major river networks in India, and then there are dozens of tributaries that flow off from them.

Indian River Systems

The Indus River System is mainly in Pakistan, but some of it is in India. the country of India derived its name from this river, and it is important in the country’s history and heritage. The ancient Indus Valley civilization thrived off of this river and its floodplain, which is one of the world’s oldest known civilizations. They built their settlements around its banks, and created an advanced drainage system for the water.

The river itself originates in Tibet, and is largely fed from the snow of the Himalayas. The Indus River is one of the few rivers in the world that has the sensation of tidal bore, which is when the incoming tidal water forms waves, and the waves travel up the river against the current.

The Brahmaputra River System starts off in Mansarovar Lake (in Tibet), and most of it is outside of India, flowing throughout Tibet and Bangladesh. It is common for this river to flood during monsoon season, which i s June through October, which often results in flash floods, deforestation and soil erosion. The Brahmaputra is one of the longest rivers in Asia.

The Narmada River System flows throughout central India. People associate the regions of North India and South India as dividing through this river. Its name in Sanskrit means “the Giver of Pleasure.” It runs from east to west, and empties into the Arabian Sea. It mostly flows throughout steep banks, so it is difficult to irrigate and navigate.

Marble Rocks

One famous spot on the Narmada River is Marble Rocks, a gorge in Bhedaghat (close to Jabalpur). These white limestone and basalt rocks are covered with green and black volcanic seams, and are fascinating to look at from a boat. Some of these rock formations reach up to 100 feet, while the river flows between them. The Narmada is also considered a holy river in India, in which one can be purified by washing in the waters.

The Tapti River System flows from east to west in central India. It originates in the Satpura Range, and then flows into the Gulf of Cambay of the Arabian Sea.

The Godavari River System has the second largest stretch of river within India, and its water appears to be brownish. It originates in Trimbakeshwar, which is near Mumbai, and empties into the Bay of Bengal. The river becomes very wide during monsoon season, and then mostly dries up during the winter. It is a sacred river to Hindus, and there are holy pilgrimages to the water, as well as religious festivals held every 12 years.

The Krishna River System originates in Mahabaleswar and empties into the Bay of Bengal. It is located in central-southern India. Its name means “dark” in Sanskrit. It has one of the most fertile deltas in India, but it can get very dangerous and cause lots of damage during monsoon season, when it reaches over 75 feet in depth.

The Kaveri River System, or the Dakshin Ganga, has religious significance to Hindus. This river was also the water source for many ancient kingdoms in Southern India. It originates in the Western Ghats, and flows into the Bay of Bengal. Its basin is approximately 27,700 square miles. This is an important river, with a developed hydroelectric power system, and use for irrigation and consumption. One important spot for hydroelectric power is Shivanasamudra Falls. These water falls were the source of the first hydroelectric power station in Asia.

The Mahanadi River System is a large delta that goes through much of India, and drains into the Bay of Bengal. Its source is hard to determine, because it comes from a network of different mountain streams. It has a high content of silt deposit, and it can cause deadly floods. Several hydroelectric power plants are powered by the Mahanadi River System. Its drainage area is an estimated 51,000 square miles.

Three Lakes of India: Dal Lake, Vembanad Lake and Chilka Lake

If you are relocating to India, do not miss out on these lakes.

Dal Lake

This lake is located in northern India, in the district of Kangra, which is located in the state of Himachal Pradesh. It is about ten square miles in size. It is divided into three major parts: Gagri bal, Lokut Dal and Bod Dal. If you are into botany, this is a great place to be, as there are many orchards and gardens to visit. Some plants include lotus flowers, water lilies and water chestnuts. Locals grow vegetables in the water in the summer months. Most of the inhabitants on this lake make a living off of fishing or hosting tourist attractions. There is even an ancient Shiva temple on this lake that was constructed in 371 BC. It is surrounded by mountains on three sides, and there are hundreds of house boats.

Vembanad Lake

This lake is located in Kumkarakom, and it is the largest freshwater lake in Asia, and it is connected to a network of canals throughout the region. Some plants on the lake include paddy fields, coconut groves and white lilies. It is located in proximity to the Kumarakom Bird Sanctuary, which is worth a visit. Or if you aren’t into domesticated birds, the lake hosts many Siberian Cranes, waterfowl, heron, teal, larks and more. Floating around this lake, you can see some of the house boats and fishermen. There are also annual boat races, such as the Snake Boat Race.

Chilka Lake

This lake is located on the east coast of Orissa India, and it is the largest brakish salt water lagoon in Asia. It is located in proximity to Puri, and there are several islands around the lake, such as Kalijai Island, Honeymoon Island and Breakfast Island. The major places to enter this lake are Balugaon and Rambha. The best time to visit is between October and June. There is a bird Sanctuary on Nalabana Island with native and other captive exotic birds. There are many species of birds present outside the sanctuary, as well as 226 species of fish, spotted deer, hyenas and blackbuck. It is a very popular place for bird watchers, but people also come here to fish. The island of Kalijai is a popular religious destination.