Your favourite Mithai?

[Don]

Re: Your favourite Mithai? yaar rassgolla becomes toooo sweet no? motichur i very like, very nice.

[gator]

Re: Your favourite Mithai?

yaar rassgolla becomes toooo sweet no?

nooo.... i, usually empty the tin the day i bring it home....

[Don]

Re: Your favourite Mithai?

Gambo and Mandrake are right on the money. My birth place as well as the town closest to my heart then and now is Gaya, Bihar. Mandrake you mentioned your relatives are from there, do they still live there? And Gambo do tell me if you have some relatives in Gaya too. Don Gaya is one of the oldest surviving cities of the world. Much like Varanasi or Mathura. In some ways Gaya is unique due to its culture. Within 100-200 km of Gaya you have some of the holiest places for Hindus, Jains, Buddhists and Sikhs. And I do not mean small holy sites but sites with huge significance. For example , Bodh Gaya has to be one of the top 3, maybe topmost, place for Buddhist piligrims around the world. Within 100-150 km radius you have the birthplace of Sikh's guru Hargobind Singh(one of the Akal Takht's for Sikhs), remains of Buddhist remains at Nalanda/Rajriha, one of the holy places for Jains(Parasnath) etc. Not to mention the relevant for Hindus. It really is a place with great culture and history. And offers some fantastic mithais as well. Of course with current law and order the way it is not many Indians are aware of places like Gaya. *****

Ah very informative posts thx lurks. Gaya sounds like a hub of ancient indian civilization.

[Don]

Re: Your favourite Mithai?

yaar rassgolla becomes toooo sweet no?

nooo.... i, usually empty the tin the day i bring it home....

:lmao: :lmao:

[apocalypse]

Re: Your favourite Mithai? Have not tasted any sweets since last 5 months

[Lurker]

Re: Your favourite Mithai?

yaar rassgolla becomes toooo sweet no?

nooo.... i, usually empty the tin the day i bring it home....

Hahahaha..Spoken like a true food afficiando. :lmao: :lmao: xxx

[CC1981]

Re: Your favourite Mithai?

Gaya sounds like a hub of ancient indian civilization.

Ancient Bihar/eastern-UP/chotanagpur plateau area ( which spills into West bengal too) = heart of the India we know (ie, India with written history). That whole i mentioned above was known in the ancient times as Magadh. Magadh is to Indian civilization what Rome is to the Romans..or Athens is to the Greeks, Babylon is to mesopotamia, etc etc. Ie, Bihar may be a backwards state today with some of the highest levels of poverty & corruption in India. But Bihar back in the day was the central nexus of ancient India.

[CC1981]

Re: Your favourite Mithai?

yaar rassgolla becomes toooo sweet no? motichur i very like, very nice.

If rasgullas are too sweet, what about chocolate ?! :huh:

[Don]

Re: Your favourite Mithai? I cant eat pure choclate either thats why my fav choc is Dairy milk with fruit and nut. Now that i very like. Sounds like Magdha was a very happenning place back in the day. Does Avadh command the same respect and history?

[King]

Re: Your favourite Mithai? Lurker, are there any historical remains in Gaya and surroundings? I know for sure in India there are so many historical spots but never in the map. Last time I visited I had gone out with couple of my cousins to country side and saw one of the old ruins that was an architecture beauty but I was told that was few centuries old temple but has no significance among the ones living there. I felt a little pity considering it was neither listed in the map or was there any written history for the ruin. Here we marvel at buildings that are standing for over 100 years and is one of the important monument for the town :shrug:

[CC1981]

Re: Your favourite Mithai?

Does Avadh command the same respect and history?

No. I know this might piss off some of the southies here but really, there is no comparison with Magadh with any other region/ancient kindgoms of India. Everyone has had their five minutes on the stage - Harshavardhana & the Kushans brought prominance to Delhi region, the Rajputs had their time, Madhya Pradesh had its prominent era through Ujjain, Orissa had the Kalinga democracy, Bengal had the Pals, Tamil had the Cholas, Kannadigas had Vijayanagara, north deccan had the Satavahanas and Marathas, Gujjus had Toramana, etc etc. But nobody had almost a thousand years of being the top dawg like Magadh. Not only was Magadh the most powerful kingdom & source of the biggest empires in India for around a thousand years ( between 700 BCE and 650 CE, Magadh was the top dawg, second only between 150 BCE -150 CE), it was the center of our spirituality, philosophy and culture too. Magadh was the home of the Nanda dynasty. Before them, it was the Shrisungha dynasty- both the top dawgs in the gangetic basin for their time. Then came the Mauryan empire & Gupta empires. The two pinnacles of our ancient civilization that are unmatched in subcontinental history : The Mauryas & Gupta- they tower over everyone else, including the Vijayanagaras, Satyavahanas, Cholas & Pals. And both these top two dynasties were Magadhi.

[Lurker]

Re: Your favourite Mithai?

Lurker' date=' are there any historical remains in Gaya and surroundings? I know for sure in India there are so many historical spots but never in the map. Last time I visited I had gone out with couple of my cousins to country side and saw one of the old ruins that was an architecture beauty but I was told that was few centuries old temple but has no significance among the ones living there. I felt a little pity considering it was neither listed in the map or was there any written history for the ruin. Here we marvel at buildings that are standing for over 100 years and is one of the important monument for the town :shrug:[/quote'] Ravi. It is indeed very sad that we do not appreciate the culture that we find around us back in India. The other day I was at work and I have a friend who has bought a new house. Well actually it is about 100 years old and just because of that factor the price was well above the marker rate. When he mentioned all excitedly how lucky he is to get such a house and found I didnt share his excitment he asked me why I wasnt happy. Well my reasons were rather simple, my own house back home is much more older than that. Agreed it is not the way it was when it was built first time but it has been around for well over a century, true for a lot of us here really but does it generate the same excitment amongst us? Okay coming back to remains at Gaya. Yes some remain but needless to say a lot others have been razed to the ground and newer establishment erected on them. The most prominent is this. This is the main Mahabodhi temple. At the back of the temple is the banyan tree under which Buddha meditated and gained Knowledge. Some say the temple was originally built by Ashoka himself. Others that it was built around 1 AD. It was "discovered" by British about 2 centuries back. I say discovered because the temple is at a lower level than the ground(there is a flight of stairs that take you to temple) and it had all been covered by sand. This temple is perhaps most significant one for Buddhist and is held in high esteem by Hindus as well. When I was a kid every single year Dalai Lama would be here on Buddha Jayanti without fail....maybe still does. Then there is VishnuPad(Vishnu - Lord Vishnu, Pad- feet). This is the temple erected by Ahilya Bai in 17th century or later. This temple has the footprints of Lord Vishnu and hence is a favorite place to visit for the Vaishnavites. Actual temple. A couple of structures to suggest the culture of Gaya. xxx

[Lurker]

Re: Your favourite Mithai?

Magadh was the home of the Nanda dynasty. Before them, it was the Shrisungha dynasty- both the top dawgs in the gangetic basin for their time. Then came the Mauryan empire & Gupta empires. The two pinnacles of our ancient civilization that are unmatched in subcontinental history : The Mauryas & Gupta- they tower over everyone else, including the Vijayanagaras, Satyavahanas, Cholas & Pals. And both these top two dynasties were Magadhi.

Quite true. The interesting thing to note here is that Magadha was NOT the only major dynasty that originated in this area. At the North of Magadha was another powerful dynasty called VAISHALI(modern Muzzafarpur and surrounding areas). VAISHALI was as prosperous and in some ways even more. It is supposed to be the first Republican form of Government and also the birthplace of Jainism. In one of my earlier posts I had mentioned Parasnath, a Jain site around Gaya. Well Parasnath is the site where 20 out of 24 Jain Tirthankars meditated and hence is high on Jain radar. If you went up further North you had Mithila(modern day Begusarai/Saharsa and areas close to Nepal). This is also the birth place of Sita(Sitamarhi is the town named after her). It is fascinating to just imagine the culture in this area then. By the area I mean pretty much area from Western UP all the way to modern Darjeeling. In fact if you read Mahabharta you would find some odd names mentioned, countries/provinces that faught in the war. Do you remember what was the title of Karna? Angaraj. Anga at the time would contain part of Bihar, Bengal and Orissa. Indeed Angika is a language that is still spoken in many parts of Bihar/Bengal border. xxx

[Mandrake]

Re: Your favourite Mithai? yep Lurker...I have a large family from my mom's side still residing in Gaya..the last I visited the place was in 2004. I was born and raised in Ranchi...infact the same colony and school MSD hails from.I used to visit Gaya frequently as a child.Though the town itself has not much to offer but Bodh Gaya on the outskirts has some awesome temples....kind of like an oasis in the dirt and poverty of Bihar.

[CC1981]

Re: Your favourite Mithai?

nga at the time would contain part of Bihar, Bengal and Orissa.

I think Anga is modern day Orissa/chattisgarh region. Anyways, i try to keep 'mythology' and history seperate. I know its a thin line, if there is one at all but when i say history, i mean history that can be verified through archaeological and historic evidence. Hence i do not bring in the mythological history of ancient India based on the Mahabharatas or the Purans. They are of same ambiguity as Homeric greek mythologies i think. Vaishali was very prosperous and so were Avanti & Kuru. But Vaishali got absorbed into Magadh along with Malla & Vanga. 'Magadh' that we know of, ie from atleast 700 BCE Shrishunga Dyasty time, is more or less the area encompassed between eastern UP ( Muzaffarabad ? approximate), the Tarai hills of northern Nepal, the Hugli river ( Ganga that flows through Kolkata) & chotanagpur. Ie, if Magadh was reconstructed today, it'd be Bihar, Jharkhand, bits of eastern UP, bits of Nepal, bits of western West bengal, Northern Orissa and Chattisgarh.

[Lurker]

Re: Your favourite Mithai?

yep Lurker...I have a large family from my mom's side still residing in Gaya..the last I visited the place was in 2004. I was born and raised in Ranchi...infact the same colony and school MSD hails from.I used to visit Gaya frequently as a child.

How small is this world! I mean if you were raised in Ranchi and went to school there, theres a great chance that we would have crossed path sometimes. I have a lot of relatives in Ranchi, my Dad was posted at Ranchi for a few years, brother went to RMCH, darn I probably spent a month or two, if not more every year for a decade or so in Ranchi. Now keeping in sync with the topic maybe I should remind you of Punjab Sweet House and its Gajar ka Halwa yum yum! xxx

[King]

Re: Your favourite Mithai?

Some say the temple was originally built by Ashoka himself. Others that it was built around 1 AD. It was "discovered" by British about 2 centuries back. I say discovered because the temple is at a lower level than the ground(there is a flight of stairs that take you to temple) and it had all been covered by sand.

Wow.... that is one beautiful structure. How could one let it go under the sand in the first place if it were such an important monument? The banyan tree was recognized but the temple was left to go under sand :shrug: Sad stuff.

[Lurker]

Re: Your favourite Mithai?

Anyways, i try to keep 'mythology' and history seperate. I know its a thin line, if there is one at all but when i say history, i mean history that can be verified through archaeological and historic evidence. Hence i do not bring in the mythological history of ancient India based on the Mahabharatas or the Purans. They are of same ambiguity as Homeric greek mythologies i think.

Fair enough CC. I keep them seperate as well. Its just that you are perhaps talking strictly of Magadha while I am talking more from a cultural history of the area meaning history, religion and so on. Heck I had actually started from mithais!! xxx

[CC1981]

Re: Your favourite Mithai? PS: i don't know how many of you are aware but there is a very interesting link between north India and Kyrghistan of today that has been noticed by some historians. First, the realm of the 'uttara kuru' is mentioned, lying well north of the 'uttara patha' (the northern path). 'Uttara Patha' was the sort of road & trade link connecting Punjab/Haryana with central asia, the route passing through some ancient centers of civilization such as Purushapura, Takshashila, Kabul & Bactria. So approximately, this land of 'uttara kuru' corresponds to the area of modern day Kyrghyztan & eastern Uzbekistan. It is also interesting to note that the instance where Bhisma stole the princesses for his half-brother & then faced up to the challenging prince ( i forget the names, this is early part of mahabharata), this is the exact same tradition for marriage in Kyrghyzthan today. Some historians have hypothesised that the Kuruvanshis were linked to the Uttara Kurus and may've even been part of a 'super-Kuru' empire spanning north India to modern day Kyrghyzthan.

[Lurker]

Re: Your favourite Mithai? ^^ I have heard that. Have also heard that many Russian(and surrounding) languages have words that are quite close to Sanskrit or other Indian languages. I can not recall from top of my head but I have certainly heard about the connection.