The book being presented is an attempt to convey to the people of this ancient nation and the world about an overlooked fragment of a glorious ancient heritage of a nation, called Bharat Varsh. A subcontinent integrated and unified for the first time as a nation by Emperor Bharat, son of King Dushyant and Shakuntala. With the flow of time, though the nation created as Bharat Varsh, retained its identity and boundaries, the name itself was lost and surprisingly went out of usage. Not only the name, strangely all the historical details and events connected with the creator of this nation, somehow disappeared. No information is available in any of the ancient history books, written by eminent historians of this nation, about the period of reign of Emperor Bharat and neither is there any documented information available about the social, cultural, economic or political conditions which prevailed during his reign. The nation created by Emperor Bharat continued to prosper after his death and achieved great heights in various fields, which included language, mathematics, science, astronomy, astrology, agriculture, spirituality etc. but inexplicably though the reference to its creator, does not find mention in ancient documents, except a few.
Sometimes, between the dawn of civilisation on this huge land mass, which blossomed along the bank of river Sarasvati and long before the great war of Mahabharat, fought between brothers, on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, a child was born, who was brought up in an ashram situated on the bank of river Malini. It was the ashram of rishi Kany. The ashram was known as Kanvashram. It was the first Vedic education, cultural and spiritual centre of repute in this subcontinent, where hundreds if not thousands of students toiled to acquire knowledge. Kanvashram was in fact the first university established on this planet Earth. This subcontinent at that juncture was referred to as Arya Vrat, a place where Arya resided. Arya is a word that defines a human in Sanskrit, as the best or perfect or possibly both. It is a word, like many other words, which have no parallel word in the English language. The child brought up in Kanvashram subsequently grew up and became a mighty Emperor. With his velour, courage and foresight he unified this huge stretch of land, for the very first time, into a nation and ruled it for many years. He was called भरत (Bharat). Many centuries and many generations later, it was his descendants who fought the great war, described in the world's largest ancient epic Mahabharat. The war was fought for possession of land and resources. The two armies, consisting of elephants, chariots, horsemen and foot soldiers clashed on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. Presently a town Kurukshetra, exists in the state of Haryana, India.
Geographical description of this great and ancient nation Bharat Varsh, which stretches from the majestic snow-covered Himalayas in the North to the mighty Indian Ocean to its South, is aptly described in a shlok in Vishnu Puran, an ancient epic of this nation, written about a couple of thousand years ago.
उत्तरं यत् समुद्रस्य, हिमाद्रेश्चैव दक्षिणम् ।
वर्षम् तद् भारतम् नाम, भारती यत्र सन्ततिः
Lying North of the mighty ocean and South of the snow-covered mountains is a nation named Bharat Varsh, whose inhabitants are the descendants of Bharat (भरत). The shlok in Sanskrit has been invariably quoted in the first few pages of most ancient history books in circulation in this nation, written by eminent historians. However, no further information is given in any of these books, about the nation Bharat Varsh nor any reference to its ruler Bharat. Neither is there any information about his reign or any mention of economic, cultural or social conditions which prevailed in his kingdom. The extent of boundaries of his nation also finds no reference anywhere. Emperor Bharat, the creator of this nation Bharat Varsh, in simple words, has been ceremoniously put aside for reasons unknown. To know more about this huge subcontinent called Bharat Varsh, in the right perspective, it is necessary to go back in time to when it all began.
The geographical alignment of the land mass of the world as we see today, came into being very recently. It can be considered recent when compared with the age of the planet Earth being -4.5 billion years. The present configuration of the continents formed about 50-55 million years ago. As per geologists, there existed a supercontinent that broke up due to tectonic movement of the earth's crust about 180 million years ago. This supercontinent was called Gondwana. Breaking up of the supercontinent released a land mass in the form of an island. A major event occurred when this drifting island collided with the Euro-Asian plate. The collision set forth a series of events, which ultimately culminated in the development of the most advanced civilisation on this drifting island, now a subcontinent. Creeping at snail's pace in a North North-East direction for about 100 million years, this island travelled a great distance, before it ultimately collided with the Euro-Asian plate. After the initial contact, this huge land mass continued to push further and created the longest and greatest mountain range, now known to us as Himalayas. The formation of the youngest and highest mountain range on the planet created a new weather pattern in the region. About 10 million years ago, a periodic yearly cycle of rain in the region commenced, now referred to as Monsoon.
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