Originally posted by: chahat4u
Thanks for this post. Much needed; was searching for info. Since I had heard it was Dhananda and not Padmanand who Chandragupta had overthrown.
Originally posted by: RadhikaS0
AbhayThanks for an informative and in-depth post on the Nandas. I am sure that most people who are interested in ancient history as well as those who are looking for more background info to the new show on Chandragupta Maurya on TV will find the article educative and relevant. Esp as it's difficult to come across a compilation of most of the known info about the Nandas at one place.You started your post with the Dancing Girl of Mohenjodaro. I want to share something about her.Though it can't be established with certainty that she was indeed freeze-framed in a dancing pose, there is an interesting story behind how she got the nomenclature of Dancing Girl. The politics surrounding the abolition of the Devadasi tradition in India of the 1920s had much to do with this.When this impudent young teen was discovered around the time, she got enmeshed in the Devadasi debate with classical dance revivalists citing her to claim that dance as a cultural tradition in India was 5,000 years old and should not be shunned as something dishonourable in a "decent" society.This entrancing story was revealed by H.D. Sankalia, one of the archaeologists associated with the excavation of Mohenjodaro.This charming, very typically a modern, brash teen in her body language, is now at the limelight again as a Pakistani lawyer has demanded that she be returned "home" to the Lahore Museum. Remains to be seen if we lose the "face" of the Indus Valley civilization from our own National Museum.
😃 Thanks 😃 😃 😃 😃 😃 😳 😳 😃 😃 😳 Good Job ! ! 😳 😃 Nice ! ! 😉 😆 😳 😆 😃 😉 😆 😆 ! ! 😉 😳 😳 😳 😳 😃 😃 😃 😉 😆 😆 😉 😆 😆 😆😃 😳 😃 😃 😃
Originally posted by: mandy001
Will read it soon, but plz pm me when u ll post anything
Originally posted by: sharmacatty
Thankyou for the pm,abhay.
I have to read your last 2 posts too. Will read soon!!
Originally posted by: harshu27
thnx fr d pm abhay will read ur post and come up wid d comments if i have any doubts...😃
Originally posted by: history_geek
Thanks Radhika!
These details are priceless. I was aware of everything except the involvement of this "dancing girl" in the Devadasi debate. So, will look into the antecedents of this debate. I have nothing to add to your well written comment, save the last paragraph. I was following this news very closely, so would write on this topic.
To start with, it is interesting that, a Tehreek-i-Insaaf MPA, recently asked for a ban on compulsory dance classes in schools, and on other hand a barrister from our neighboring country has demanded return for the dancing girl. The claim being - the sculpture was taken away from there 60 years back. However, another story suggests that the statue was taken to Delhi much before Partition by Mortimer Wheeler, the then DG of ASI.
Very few of us know that this demand was not made for the first time. At the time of the Shimla Agreement in 1972 (after surrender of Pakistan in 1971 war) , Prez Z.A. Bhutto requested the the then PM, Indira Gandhi, to return the "dancing girl" to its "home" ; as Bhutto hailed from Larkana district where the ancient city of MohenjoDaro is situated. Political scientists suggest than the motive of Bhutto was to win the people of Sindh to his side.
Same was done by his grandson, Bilawal Bhutto few years back. In fact he went to the extent of organising a Sindh festival at the site of the ancient city, hailing Mohenjo-Daro as a symbol of the ancientness of the Pakistani civilisation.
But, there are 2 problems.
First,
In contrast to the claims of "ancientness" made by Mr. Bhutto, the ground reality is something else. History textbooks in our neighboring country give an impression that the "actual" history started from the invasion of Sindh by Md. Bin Qasim, in 7th century AD ; though they teach about the Indus Valley..but...
- You may like to read this book, will take maximum 3 days : The Murder of History : A Critique of History Textbooks Used in Pakistan, By Khursheed Kamal Aziz (available on Amazon) . Review can be read here : http://www.dawn.com/news/1101992
- There is another source, from the website of UNESCO, Pakistan itself. Read the Report of the project : "A Civil Society Initiative in Curricula and Textbooks Reform" , from here : http://unesco.org.pk/education/teachereducation/reports.html . See report number 22, contains 154 pages, 4-5 hours read.
The second problem is the major one. And the actual hurdle.
Our neighbor can claim for the return of the "dancing girl" under UNESCO's Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. This is a treaty which reflects the post-colonial milieu of its time where archaeological items were claimed by host countries from former colonial masters who had taken these away.
The treaty, however, focuses on items transferred to another country illegally. So, in present case, Pakistani diplomats would have to present the former British government as an "illegal government" and, hence, the transfer as illicit. But since the Pakistani state is a direct descendant of the colonial set-up, challenging its legitimacy would be akin to challenging its own legitimacy.
So, let us see what happens. :D
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