Puffin Book of 1000 Fun Facts , livre ebook

Penguin Books Ltd - Puffin Books

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

90 pages

English

Vous pourrez modifier la taille du texte de cet ouvrage

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

A propos
Informations
Extrait

Description

Discover some fascinating trivia in this compilation of 1000 fun facts from the worlds of science, literature, history, entertainment and more. This book reveals facts you may never have heard of before such as: which is the most stolen book in the world, how can one marry a dead person, and how did the word dude originate?

Informations

Publié par	Penguin Books Ltd
Date de parution	15 novembre 2013
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9789351184058
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0350€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Penguin

THE PUFFIN BOOK OF 1000 FUN FACTS
PUFFIN BOOKS
Contents
India
Around the World
Plant Life
Animal Kingdom
History
Art and Culture
Food and Drink
The Human Body
Weird and Wonderful People
Science, Maths and Technology
Sports and Games
Language and Literature
Mixed Bag
Follow Penguin
Copyright Page
India

1
Saint Gyandev invented the board game Snakes and Ladders in the 13th century. He called it Mokshapat , in which the ladders symbolized virtues and the snakes represented vices.

The Days of Yore

2. Through the ages, India has gone through multiple conquests and invasions. But India has never invaded any country in its entire history!
3. It was the Mughals who ruled India for the longest time. Can you believe that for nearly 200 years (1526-1707), an unbroken succession of Mughal emperors ascended the throne of India?
4. Diamonds were first discovered in India, in the Golconda riverbeds, 4000 years ago. In fact, India was the only source of diamonds in the world until 1896!
5. Did you know that badminton originated in India and that it was initially called Poona ? When the Duke of Beaufort learnt the game and introduced it in England, the Englishmen found the name weird and were reluctant to play it. The Duke renamed it badminton , after the name of an estate he owned, and the game caught on!
6. Around 600 BCE , criminals would get their noses chopped off as punishment. The skin from their foreheads was taken to reconstruct their damaged noses. Now we know how plastic surgeries were done in ancient India!
7. Four major religions originated in India-Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism and Buddhism. 25 per cent of the world s population follows one of these religions even today!
8. The Iron Pillar in Delhi stands testimony to the artistry of ancient Indian blacksmiths. The pillar has withstood corrosion for 1600 years!
9. Did you know that cotton was first spun and woven in India? The Mughals referred to the fabric as the cloth of running water or morning dew .
10. The first woman leader of India, Razia Sultana (1205-1240), ruled only for three years, and was murdered soon after.
11. During the Vedic era, the sovereignty of a king was marked by the sacrifice of a horse.
12. The knowledge system that existed in ancient India, known as the Chaturdasha Vidya, had 14 disciplines, divided into three broad categories-the Vedas, the Vedangas and the Upangas.
13. Did you know that the world s first university was established in India? Takshila University, established in 700 BCE , taught about 60 subjects to more than 10,000 students from all over the world. The University of Nalanda, another reputed educational institution in India, was established in the 5th century.
14. Artists trained in the Kangra school of art would use strange substances to paint, like blood and crushed beetles, and their brushes were often made of a single hair!
15. One of the earliest schools of medicine known to mankind is Ayurveda. It was consolidated by Charaka (considered the father of medicine ) nearly 2500 years ago!
16. How complicated is it to treat urinary stones, fractures or cataracts? How challenging is it to perform brain surgeries, caesareans and cosmetic surgeries? With the advancements in the field of medicine today, these procedures aren t very difficult any more. But did you know that Sushruta, the father of surgery , used to conduct these complicated procedures 2600 years ago without all the sophistication we have today?
17. Ancient Indian medicine was quite advanced for its times, which is proved by the fact that anatomy, aetiology (study of the causes of diseases), physiology, genetics, immunity, digestion, metabolism and the usage of anaesthesia are mentioned in the ancient texts of India.
18. The first successful eye transplant (corneal transplant) was performed in India. It was done by a British army surgeon who restored his pet antelope s vision by taking the cornea of a recently killed antelope.
19. Though the technique of acupuncture was perfected in China, it originated in India 3000 years ago. On the other hand, homeopathy originated in Germany, though most of the practitioners are from India.
20. The art of hypnotism was evolved by Abade Faria, a Goan priest. His statue stands in Panjim. This Goan has been immortalized in the classic novel The Count of Monte Cristo , written by Alexander Dumas.
21. Aryabhata, the famous Indian mathematician and astronomer, invented the zero. To honour his invaluable contributions to the field of astronomy, a crater in the moon has been named after him. In fact, the first satellite launched by India was also named after him.
22. Arabic numerals were not invented in Arabia. They were invented in India.
23. The decimal number system and the place value system in mathematics were developed in India as early as 100 BCE .
24. Calculus, trigonometry and algebra originated in India.
25. The Indian mathematician Budhayana calculated the value of pi and also explained the Pythagorean Theorem in the 6th century. Sridharacharya, another Indian mathematician, used quadratic equations in the 11th century.
26. While the largest number used by the Greeks and the Romans was just 106, Indians used numbers as large as 10 53 during the Vedic age (5000 BCE ).
27. India derives its name from the river Indus. The valleys around this river were home to the earliest settlers of the country. The Aryans referred to the Indus as Sindhu, and the Persians converted the name to Hindu once they invaded the country. The words Hindu and Sindhu were combined to form Hindustan (which translates to land of Hindus ). But the official Sanskrit name of India is Bharat, and that was how it was referred to during the Golden Age (Satya Yuga).
28. Sanskrit is said to be the mother of all languages. In fact, it is the only language that has a precise syntax and grammar and hence, suitable for developing computer software!

Sacred Spaces

29. Many South Indian temples are famous for their musical stone pillars. A single pillar is chiselled into seven to 16 bars. When you tap the bars with a wooden mallet, you can hear distinct notes, just like from a xylophone.
30. The Brihadeswara temple in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, is the world s first granite temple. The shikhara or the rising tower is made from a single 80-tonne block of granite rock. This temple was built during the reign of Rajaraja Chola in just five years (between 1004 CE and 1009 CE ).
31. The Rameshwaram temple in Tamil Nadu has one of the longest corridors in the world (4000 feet in length), with 985 richly carved pillars on both sides.
32. One of the world s oldest rock forts is in Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu. This hill fort, constructed on a 273-feet-high rock, was built billions of years ago. In fact, Tiruchirappalli also has the world s oldest surviving dam-Kallanai. Built during the Chola rule, it stretches to about 24 km across the river Kaveri.
33. A simple handclap at the entrance of the Golconda Fort near Hyderabad, which is 400 feet below the topmost pavilion, can be heard clearly by a person standing at the top!
34. The Kailash temple at Ellora, Aurangabad, was excavated after 20,000 tonnes of rock were chiselled out. There was no mechanical aid to carry out this tedious project. Apparently, the whole temple was carved out of a single hill and created by digging a 30-metre-deep trench on all three sides, leaving just a block of rock for the temple.
35. The sacred fire of the Parsi community that burns in Udwada in Gujarat was brought to India around 1300 years ago from Iran.
36. Chaumukha (the four-faced shrine) at Ranakpur, Rajasthan, is dedicated to the first Jain Tirthankar, Adinath. The 29 halls of the shrine have 1444 pillars, each of which is exquisitely carved, and no two pillars resemble each other. Further, these pillars are strategically placed in a way that the view of the deity is unobstructed from anywhere.
37. The Se Cathedral in Goa has an unusual bell. Its din can be heard nearly 14 km away at Panjim! But weirdly enough, a person standing right next to the bell only hears a soothing, melodious sound.
38. Until about 2000 years ago, the Buddha was never represented as a human. The first human form of the Buddha was carved in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh.
39. Do you consider rats pests? The pilgrims of the Karni Devi temple near Bikaner, Rajasthan, regard them as kabas or children and worship the rats as the descendants of the deity!
40. The construction of the Somnath Shiva temple in Gujarat is such that there is no land between it and the South Pole.
41. The largest natural cave in the Himalayas is situated at a height of 12,729 feet. It is a major attraction for tourists, especially during the months of July and August, when a shiva linga of pure ice gets naturally formed. A clear explanation about how it is formed is still not known. It is believed that the linga waxes and wanes depending on the full moon or the new moon phases.

Monuments and Marvels

42. A 1000 elephants carried the material required to build the Taj Mahal from various parts of India to the construction site.
43. The 72.5-metre-high Qutub Minar, situated in Delhi, is the world s tallest free-standing brick minaret. This marvellous UNESCO World Heritage Site consists of five distinct storeys, with 379 stairs leading to the top.
44. The Bhimbetka rock shelters in Madhya Pradesh are home to some of the earliest known prehistoric paintings of the world. Painted with natural colours, vegetable dyes, roots and animal fat, these beautiful pictures have not faded over time, even though they are almost 12,000 years old!
45. Dholavira, a prominent archaeological site in Gujarat, dates back to the Indus Valley Civilization and is the fifth largest Harappan site. This region had one of the earliest sophisticated water conservation channels in the world. The