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GS Paper: GS1

  • The Atlantic Niño’s role in India’s erratic monsoon

    Context

    Last month, farmers from Madhya Pradesh threatened to take IMD to court for the inaccurate monsoon forecast this year. A question was also raised in Parliament about whether the Arctic warming had led to an erratic monsoon this year.

    Understanding the role of Atlantic Niño in monsoon prediction

    • Monsoon predictions are a monumental challenge, especially when it comes to the spatial distribution and the northward migration of the monsoon trough.
    • Forecast models tend to rely heavily on El Niño for monsoon predictions.
    • But only about 50 per cent of the dry years are explained by El Niño.
    • Clearly, Atlantic Niño is a significant player in monsoon evolution and models and forecasters must pay attention to this Atlantic teleconnection.
    • Atlantic Niño is El Niño’s little cousin in the Atlantic, also known as the Atlantic Zonal Mode.
    • Indian scientists from INCOIS have argued that the Atlantic Niño is in fact predictable up to three months in advance.
    • Every few years, from June to August, there is a warming in the eastern equatorial Atlantic, which does not get as much attention as its big brother El Niño.
    • The biggest rainfall deficits from the Atlantic Niño tend to occur over the Western Ghats and the core monsoon zone.

    How Atlantic Niño plays a role if Indian and Atlantic Oceans are not connected?

    • The Atlantic and Indian Oceans are not directly connected in the tropics via the ocean.
    • The Atlantic Niño affects the monsoon by producing atmospheric waves, which propagate into the Indian Ocean.
    • These waves affect air temperatures over the Indian Ocean and influence the land-ocean thermal contrast as well as Low Pressure Systems (LPS).

    Way forward

    • Overall, monsoon prediction skill has gone up in the IMD but even a 70 per cent accuracy means the forecasts will be wrong 30 per cent of the time.
    • Many of the Atlantic Niños occur during non-El Niño years and this offers a window of opportunity to increase forecast skills based on the accurate prediction of the Atlantic Niño.

    Conclusion

    No forecasts will ever be 100 per cent accurate. Climate scientists are also aware of the monsoon prediction challenge and they will continue to try to improve monsoon forecasts.

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    Back2Basics:  El Niño and La Niña

    • These periodic weather patterns occur as a result of fluctuating ocean temperatures in one part of the world, namely the east-central equatorial Pacific Ocean.
    • This can lead to extreme weather.
    • When warm water builds up along the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, an El Niño occurs.
    • Conversely, when cool water builds up along the same region, a La Niña occurs with the opposite impact.

  • Cyclone Gulab

    As a very rare occasion during monsoons, Cyclone Gulab has been developed in the Bay of Bengal and later made landfall close in Andhra Pradesh.

    Tauktae, Amphan, Fani, Titli, Bulbul, Gaja… And now Gulab. As and when cyclones with intriguing names approach the Indian coasts, a common question comes to our minds: Who names these storms?

     

    This time it is Pakistan, not India, who proposed this name Gulaab!

    About Tropical Cyclones

    • A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure centre, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rains.
    • Depending on its location and strength, a tropical cyclone is referred to by different names, including hurricane, typhoon, tropical storm, cyclonic storm, tropical depression, or simply cyclone.
    • A hurricane is a tropical cyclone that occurs in the Atlantic Ocean and the northeastern Pacific Ocean, and a typhoon occurs in the north-western Pacific Ocean.
    • In the south Pacific or the Indian Ocean, comparable storms are referred to simply as “tropical cyclones” or “severe cyclonic storms”.

    Cyclone Gulab

    • Three factors —in-sync phase of Madden Julian Oscillation (MJO), warm sea surface temperatures over the Bay of Bengal, and the formation of a low-pressure system.
    • The system’s intensification phases between low pressure – well-marked low pressure – depression – deep depression and to finally becoming Cyclone Gulab was rather rapid, even as the system moved closer to the south Odisha – north Andhra Pradesh coast, where it also made landfall.

    What makes Gulab special?

    • India has a bi-annual cyclone season that occurs between March to May and October to December. But on rare occasions, cyclones do occur in June and September months.
    • Cyclones are less common during the June to September monsoon season, as there are limited or almost no favourable conditions for cyclogenesis due to strong monsoon currents.
    • This is also the period when the wind shear — that is, the difference between wind speeds at lower and upper atmospheric levels — is very high.
    • As a result, clouds do not grow vertically and monsoon depressions often fail to intensify into cyclones.
    • So it can be stated that this year, the cyclone season commenced earlier than usual. The last time a cyclone developed in the Bay of Bengal in September was Cyclone Day in 2018.

    Also read

    [Burning Issue] Tropical Cyclones and India

     

     

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  • National Mission on Cultural Mapping

    Having made little progress since its launch in 2017, the National Mission on Cultural Mapping has now been handed over to the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA).

    About the National Mission on Cultural Mapping

    • The NMCM is a mission mode project of the Ministry of Culture. It was incepted in 2015.
    • It is aimed to address the necessity of preserving the threads of rich Indian Art and Cultural Heritage, convert vast and widespread cultural canvas of India into an objective Cultural Mapping while creating a strong “Cultural Vibrancy” throughout the nation.
    • It will identify, collect and record cultural assets and resources. It correlates this to planning and strategizing.
    • A portal and a database listing organisations, spaces, facilities, festivals and events will be created.
    • This database can be used to preserve culture and provide or ameliorate livelihoods.

    Objectives of the Mission

    Under this Mission, at broad-level, there are three important objectives as follows:

    1. National Cultural Awareness Abhiyan: Hamari Sanskriti Hamari Pahchan Abhiyan (Our Culture Our Identity)
    2. Nationwide Artist Talent Hunt/Scouting Programme: Sanskritik Pratibha Khoj Abhiyan
    3. National Cultural Workplace: Centralised Transactional Web Portal with database and demography of cultural assets and resources including all art forms and artists.

    Significance of the mission

    • Revival and safeguarding of oral traditions
    • Fostering Cultural Awareness
    • Cultural Preservation
    • Sustainable Employment to creative industries
    • Optimal Resource Allocation and Utilization:
    • Creation of objective Database for inclusive growth of cultural heritage

     

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  • Complex count: On caste census

    These days, many states are urging the Centre to include a caste-wise census in the Census of India to have substantial data for reservations of certain dominant caste groups.

    Background

    Caste census of Backward Classes difficult: Centre

    Reaction by the Centre

    • In this backdrop, the Union government’s assertion in the Supreme Court that a census of the backward castes is “administratively difficult and cumbersome” may evoke varying responses.
    • There are two components to the Government’s stand:
    1. Jeopardizing the Census: It asserts that it is a policy decision not to have caste as part of the regular census and that, administratively, the enumeration would be rendered so complex that it may jeopardise the decennial census itself.
    2. Adding more vagueness: It cites the difficulties and complexities inherent in getting an accurate count of castes, given the mind-boggling numbers of castes and sub-castes, with phonetic variations and similarities.

    This is the reason that the data from the 2011 SECC were not acted upon because of “several infirmities” that rendered them unusable.

    Why is caste census not feasible?

    • Hurdle to casteless society: The idea of a national caste census is abhorrent when the stated policy is to strive for a casteless society.
    • Political polarization: Political parties with their base in particular social groups may find a caste enumeration useful, if their favoured groups are established as dominant in specific geographies.
    • Electoral impact: Politicians may find the outcome inconvenient, if the precise count turns out to be lower and has a negative bearing on perceptions about their electoral importance.

    Limitations of SECC, 2011

    • Completeness and Accuracy: Even in the Censuses up to 1931, when caste details were collected, they were wanting in completeness and accuracy.
    • Lakhs of Caste: Further, the data contained 46 lakh different caste names, and if subcastes were considered, the ultimate number may be exponentially high.

    Need for such census

    • Quantifiable data: It may also be a legal imperative, considering that courts want ‘quantifiable data’ to support the existing levels of reservation.
    • Basis for Affirmative actions: It will be useful to establish statistical justification for preserving caste-based affirmative action programmes.

    These points do merit consideration, and even those clamouring for a caste census cannot easily brush them aside.

    Way forward

    • A caste census need not necessarily mean caste in the census.
    • It may be an independent exercise, but one that needs adequate thought and preparation, if its ultimate goal is not for political or electoral purposes, but for equity in distribution of opportunities.
    • A preliminary socio-anthropological study can be done at the State and district levels to establish all sects and sub-castes present in the population.
    • These can be tabulated under caste names that have wider recognition based on synonymity and equivalence among the appellations that people use to denote themselves.
    • Thereafter, it may be possible to do a field enumeration that can mark any group under castes found in the available OBC/BC lists.

    Conclusion

    • A caste census may not sit well with the goal of a casteless society, but it may serve, in the interim, as a useful, even if not entirely flawless, means of addressing inequities in society.

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  • In news: Battle of Chamkaur (1704)

    The new Punjab CM represents the Assembly constituency of Chamkaur Sahib, which is of significance in Sikh history.

    For such history-related topics, one must not forget to note the contemporaries of a particular period.

    The Battle of Chamkaur

    • The coalition forces of Mughals and hill rajas led by Wazir Khan, the Nawab of Sirhind, had laid siege to Anandpur Sahib in the hope of capturing Guru Gobind Singh in May 1704.
    • After seven months of fighting and heavy losses, the coalition forces offered a safe passage to the Guru and his followers.
    • The heads of the coalition pledged they would not harm the Guru, his family, or his soldiers.
    • The peace treaty was sent in the name of Emperor Aurangzeb himself.
    • But when Gobind Singh and his followers stepped out of the Anandpur Sahib fort on the night of December 20, they were attacked.
    • Historically, this was where that Guru Gobind Singh lost two of his elder sons in a battle with the coalition forces of Mughals and the hill rajas.

    What happened at Chamkaur Sahib?

    • The Guru, accompanied by panj piaras (the five Sikhs he had initially baptised), his elder sons and around 40 soldiers, regrouped in a fortress-like two-storey house, with high compound walls made of mud.
    • They were surrounded by an army commandeered by Wazir Khan and Sher Mohammed Khan, the younger brother of Malerkotla’s chieftain.
    • The Guru sent out soldiers in small squads for hand-to-hand combat. Two such attacks were led by his sons, both of whom died fighting.
    • Three of the panj piaras — Mohkam Singh, Himmat Singh and Sahib Singh — too died fighting.

    How did the battle conclude?

    • When very few soldiers were left, they decided the Guru should leave so that he could carry on his mission.
    • It was at the Chamkaur fort that panj piaras issued an edict (hukumnama) ordering the Guru to leave.
    • This was the first edict issued by panj piaras after the formation of the Khalsa on April 13, 1699.
    • Before leaving, the Guru gave his attire and distinguishing kalgi to Sangat Singh, a Mazhabi Sikh who resembled him.
    • Three other soldiers too left the fort, and went in separate directions. The following day, the enemy forced their way inside to find only two soldiers who fought till their last breath.
    • Five days later, Guru Gobind Singh’s two younger sons, aged nine and seven, were bricked alive for refusing to convert.

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  • Arctic ice is disappearing: How clouds interact with sea ice change

    Temperatures in the Arctic, for example, have been rising much faster than the rest of the planet. Experts, for the longest time, have attributed the crisis to how clouds interact with sea ice, essentially frozen seawater.

    Role of Polynya

    • Decades of research have pointed that the losses in Arctic Sea ice cover allow for the formation of more clouds near the ocean’s surface.
    • New research by NASA has now shown that more heat and moisture is released through a large hole in sea ice called a polynya, which fuels the formation of more clouds.
    • This traps heat in the atmosphere and hinders the refreezing of new sea ice.

    What is Polynya?

    • A polynya is an area of open water surrounded by sea ice.
    • It is now used as a geographical term for an area of unfrozen seawater within otherwise contiguous pack ice or fast ice.
    • It refers to a natural ice hole and was adopted in the 19th century by polar explorers to describe navigable portions of the sea.
    • There are two main types of polynyas:
    1. Coastal polynyas, which can be found year-round near the Antarctic and Arctic coasts and are mainly created by strong winds pushing the ice away from the coast, and
    2. Mid-sea or open-ocean polynyas, which may be found more sporadically in the middle of an ice pack in certain locations, especially around Antarctica.

    What is the new research about?

    • The research stated that low clouds over the polynya emitted more energy or heat than clouds in adjacent areas covered by sea ice.
    • The polynya did refreeze, but only after the increased cloud cover and heat under the clouds persisted for about a week.
    • The extra clouds and increased cloud radiative effect to the surface remained for some time after the polynya froze.
    • The sea ice acts like a cap or a barrier between the relatively warm ocean surface and the cold and dry atmosphere above, so more heat and moisture from the ocean into the atmosphere.
    • This warming slows down the growth of the sea ice.

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  • A climate change narrative that India can steer

    A recent report by the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) reveals that India has warmed up 0.7° C during 1901-2018.

    What was the report?

    Title: Assessment of Climate Change over the Indian Region (by MoES)

    (a) Climate severity

    • The 2010-2019 decade was the hottest with a mean temperature of 0.36° C higher than average.
    • Heatwaves continued to increase with no signs of diminishing greenhouse gas emissions despite lower activity since the novel coronavirus pandemic.
    • India may experience a 4.4° C rise by the end of this century.
    • Within 2050, rainfall is expected to rise by 6% and temperature by 1.6° C.
    • India’s Deccan plateau has seen eight out of 17 severe droughts since 1876 in the 21st century (2000-2003; 2015-2018).

    (b) Land degradation

    • To make things worse, India lost about 235 square kilometres to coastal erosion due to climate change-induced sea-level rise, land erosion and natural disasters such as tropical cyclones between 1990-2016.

    (c) Rising Internal Displacement

    • According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, India’s Internally Displaced Populations (IDPs) are rising due to damaging climate events.
    • Uttarakhand residents began deserting their homes after the Kedarnath floods in 2013 due to heavy precipitation that increases every year.
    • Recent figures are more alarming with 3.9 million displaced in 2020 alone, mostly due to Cyclone Amphan.

    India’s commitment to Climate Mitigation

    • India held the top 10 position for the second year in a row in 2020’s Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI).
    • The country received credit under all of the CCPI’s performance fields except renewable energy where India performed medium.
    • India vowed to work with COP21 by signing the Paris Agreement to limit global warming and submitted the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).
    • It set a goal of reducing emissions intensity of GDP by 33%-35% and increasing green energy resources (non-fossil-oil based) to 40% of installed electric power capacity by 2030.
    • India cofounded with France at COP21, in 2015, the International Solar Alliance (ISA).

    Core concern

    (a) Good policies, weak practices

    • The question is, are these global alliances and world-leading policies being practised or are merely big promises with little implementation?
    • Despite leading ISA, India performed the least in renewable energy according to the CCPI’s performance of India.

    (b) Low compliance

    • India is not fully compliant with the Paris Agreement’s long-term temperature goal of the NDCs and there are still risks of falling short of the 2° C goal.
    • According to India’s carbon emission trajectory, the country is en route to achieve barely half of the pledged carbon sink by 2030.
    • To achieve the Paris Agreement’s NDC target, India needs to produce 25 million-30 million hectares of forest cover by 2030 — a third of current Indian forestation and trees.
    • Going by the facts, it seems India has overpromised on policies and goals as it becomes difficult to deliver on the same.

    Why COP26 matters

    • The Glasgow COP26 offers India a great opportunity to reflect on the years since the Paris Agreement and update NDCs to successfully meet the set targets.
    • India is expected to be the most populated country by 2027, overtaking China, contributing significantly to the global climate through its consumption pattern.
    • India is in a rather unique position to have a significant influence on global climate impact in the new decade.

    Conclusion

    • India believes that climate actions must be nationally determined.
    • However, the Paris Agreement for developing countries should be at the core of decision-making.
    • India has the ability to improve its global positioning by leading a favourable climate goal aspiration for the world to follow.
    • The country has the opportunity to not only save itself from further climate disasters but also be a leader in the path to climate change prevention.

    Back2Basics: COP26, Glasgow

    • The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP26, is the 26th United Nations Climate Change conference.
    • It is scheduled to be held in the city of Glasgow, Scotland between 31 October and 12 November 2021, under the presidency of the United Kingdom.
    • This conference is the first time that Parties are expected to commit to enhanced ambition since COP21.
    • Parties are required to carry out every five years, as outlined in the Paris Agreement, a process colloquially known as the ‘ratchet mechanism’.

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  • Caste census of Backward Classes difficult: Centre

    The government has made it clear in the Supreme Court that a caste census of the Backward Classes is “administratively difficult and cumbersome”.

    About Socio-Economic and Caste Census

    • The SECC 2011 was conducted for the 2011 Census of India.
    • Then government approved the Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011 to be carried out after discussion in both houses of Parliament in 2010.
    • The SECC 2011 was conducted in all states and union territories of India and the first findings were revealed in July 2015.
    • SECC 2011 is also the first paperless census in India conducted on hand-held electronic devices by the government in 640 districts.
    • SECC 2011 was the first caste-based census since 1931 Census of India and it was launched on 29 June 2011 from the Sankhola village of Hazemara block in West Tripura district.

    Issues with SECC

    Ans. Data NOT available

    • The SECC data is stored in the Office of the Registrar General and had not been made official.
    • It cannot be used as a source of information for population data in any official document.

    What did the Centre say?

    • The Centre reasoned that even when the census of castes were taken in the pre-Independence period, the data suffered in respect of “completeness and accuracy”.
    • It said the caste data enumerated in the Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) of 2011 is “unusable” for official purposes as they are “replete with technical flaws”.
    • The infirmities of the SECC 2011 data makes it unusable for any official purposes and cannot be mentioned as a source of information for population data in any official document.
    • Besides, the Centre said, it was too late now to enumerate caste into the Census 2021.

    Why not OBCs?

    • Unlike the constitutional mandate for collection of census data on SCs and STs, there is no obligation to provide the census figures of OBCs.
    • The census data on SCs and STs are used for delimitation of electoral constituencies as well as for reservation of seats, as mandated under the Constitution.

    Reason: Official discouragement of Caste

    • The center was replying to a writ petition filed by the State of Maharashtra to gather Backward Classes’ caste data in the State while conducting Census 2021.
    • The Centre clarified that exclusion of information regarding any other caste — other than SCs and STs — from the purview of the census is a “conscious policy decision”.
    • The government said caste-wise enumeration in the Census was given up as a matter of policy from 1951.
    • It said there was a policy of “official discouragement of caste”.

    What is the plea about?

    • To Maharashtra’s plea to reveal the SECC 2011 “raw caste data” of Other Backward Classes (OBC), the Centre said the 2011 Census was not an “OBC survey”.
    • It was, on the other hand, a comprehensive exercise to enumerate the caste status of all households in the country in order to use their socio-economic data to identify poor households.

    Why is the Centre reluctant?

    • The Centre explained that a population census was not the “ideal instrument” for the collection of details on caste.
    • There is a “grave danger” that the “basic integrity” of census data would be compromised.
    • Even the fundamental population count may get “distorted”.

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  • Key Findings about the Religious Composition of India

    The religious composition of India’s population since Partition has remained largely stable according to a new study published by the Pew Research Centre, a non-profit based in Washington DC.

    About the report

    • The study, based on data sourced from India’s decennial census and the National Family Health Survey (NFHS), looked at the three main factors that are known to cause changes in the religious composition of populations — fertility rate, migration, and conversions.
    • Both Hindus and Muslims, the two largest religious groups, shown not only a marked decline but also a convergence in fertility rates.
    • In terms of absolute numbers, every major religion in India saw its numbers rise.

    Significance of the report

    • These findings, which come as a complement on religious tolerance and segregation in India.
    • It is significant in the context of two major issues that have occupied centre stage in recent times — the controversy over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
    • This report also gives a strong message to those fundamentalists who perceive India as a living hell for minorities.

    Key findings

    (a) Fertility Rates are declining

    • With regard to fertility rates, the study found that Muslims, who had the highest fertility rate, also had the sharpest decline in fertility rates.
    • From 1992 to 2015, the total fertility rates of Muslims declined from 4.4 to 2.6, while that of Hindus declined from 3.3 to 2.1.
    • This indicates that the gaps in childbearing between India’s religious groups are much smaller than they used to be.
    • The average fertility rate in India today is 2.2, which is higher than the rates in economically advanced countries such as the U.S. (1.6), but much lower than what it was in 1992 (3.4) or 1951 (5.9).

    (b) Marked slowdown

    • Although growth rates have declined for all of India’s major religious groups, the slowdown has been more pronounced among religious minorities, who outpaced Hindus in earlier decades.
    • From 2001 to 2011, the difference in growth between Muslims (24.7%) and Indians overall (17.7%) was 7 percentage points.
    • India’s Christian population grew at the slowest pace of the three largest groups in the most recent census decade — gaining 15.7% between 2001 and 2011, a far lower growth rate than the one recorded in the decade following Partition (29.0%).

    (c) ‘No’ Religions group

    • Interestingly, out of India’s total population of 1,200 million, about 8 million did not belong to any of the six major religious groups.
    • Within this category, mostly comprising adivasi people, the largest grouping was of Sarnas (nearly 5 million adherents), followed by Gond (1 million) and Sari Dharma (5,10,000).

    (d) Migration

    • The study says that since the 1950s, migration has had only a modest impact on India’s religious composition.
    • More than 99% of people who live in India were also born in India, and migrants leaving India outnumber immigrants three-to-one, with “Muslims more likely than Hindus to leave India”, while “immigrants into India from Muslim-majority counties are disproportionately Hindu.”

    (e) Religious conversions

    • Religious conversion has also had a negligible impact on India’s overall composition, with 98% of Indian adults still identifying with the religion in which they were raised.

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  • Gupta Era Temple uncovered in UP

    Last week, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) discovered remains of an ancient temple dating back to the Gupta period (5th century) in a village in Uttar Pradesh’s Etah district.

    Findings of the excavation

    • The Bilsarh site was declared ‘protected’ in 1928.
    • Every year, the ASI undertakes scrubbing work at the protected sites.
    • This year, the team discovered two decorative pillars close to one another, with human figurines resembling an ancient temple.
    • The stairs of the temple had ‘shankhalipi’ inscriptions, which were deciphered by the archaeologists as saying, ‘Sri Mahendraditya’, the title of Kumaragupta I of the Gupta dynasty.

    You will find tons of PYQs on Gupta Period. Try this recent one:

    Q. With reference to the period of Gupta dynasty in ancient India, the towns Ghantasala, Kadura and Chaula were well known as:

    (a) ports handling foreign trade

    (b) capitals of powerful kingdoms

    (c) places of exquisite stone art and architecture

    (d) important Buddhist pilgrimage centres

     

    [wpdiscuz-feedback id=”1ct5k7tlw1″ question=”Please leave a feedback on this” opened=”1″]Post your answers here.[/wpdiscuz-feedback]

    Who was Kumaragupta I?

    • Kumaragupta I was an emperor of the Gupta Empire of Ancient India.
    • A son of the Gupta emperor Chandragupta II and queen Dhruvadevi, he seems to have maintained control of his inherited territory, which extended from Gujarat in the west to Bengal region in the east.
    • In the 5th century, Kumaragupta I ruled for 40 years over north-central India.
    • Skandagupta, son and successor of Kumaragupta I is generally considered to be the last of the great Gupta rulers.
    • He assumed the titles of Vikramaditya and Kramaditya.

    What is the Shankhalipi script?

    • Shankhalipi or “shell-script” is a term used by scholars to describe ornate spiral characters assumed to be Brahmi derivatives that look like conch shells or shankhas.
    • They are found in inscriptions across north-central India and date to between the 4th and 8th centuries.
    • Both Shankhalipi and Brahmi are stylised scripts used primarily for names and signatures.
    • The inscriptions consist of a small number of characters, suggesting that the shell inscriptions are names or auspicious symbols or a combination of the two.

    Chronology and meaning

    • The script was discovered in 1836 on a brass trident in Uttarakhand’s Barahat by English scholar James Prinsep, who was the founding editor of the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.
    • A year later, he came across two more similar scripts at Nagarjuna group of caves in the Barabar Hills near Gaya.
    • Prominent sites with shell inscriptions include the Mundeshwari Temple in Bihar, the Udayagiri Caves in Madhya Pradesh, Mansar in Maharashtra and some of the cave sites of Gujarat and Maharashtra.
    • In fact, shell inscriptions are also reported in Indonesia’s Java and Borneo.
    • Scholars have tried to decipher shell script but have not been successful.

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    Back2Basics: Gupta Empire

    • The Gupta Empire was an ancient Indian empire which existed from the early 4th century CE to late 6th century CE.
    • This period is considered as the Golden Age of India by historians.
    • The ruling dynasty of the empire was founded by the king Sri Gupta; the most notable rulers of the dynasty were Chandragupta I, Samudragupta, and Chandragupta II alias Vikramaditya.
    • The 5th-century CE Sanskrit poet Kalidasa credits the Guptas with having conquered about twenty-one kingdoms, both in and outside India, including the kingdoms of Parasikas, the Hunas, the Kambojas, tribes located in the west and east Oxus valleys, the Kinnaras, Kiratas, and others.
    • Many of the literary sources, such as Mahabharata and Ramayana, were canonized during this period.
    • The Gupta period produced scholars such as Kalidasa, Aryabhata, Varahamihira, and Vatsyayana who made great advancements in many academic fields.