The Vedic age and the centuries that followed have always fascinated me. Today, our religious discourses and mythologies have become the primary source of information on that era. This page tries to uncouple the myth from the reality. Our post colonial history is common knowledge but south Asia's classical history remains shrouded. This is because our oral tradition has lead to a loss and corruption of information. The Vedic Age will provide snippets and flashes from the bronze and iron age of south Asia. This page attempts to create original content to pique your curiosity and make this aspect of our history mainstream.
The Matrika are a group of seven to eight goddesses who always appear together. They are Bramhani, Vaishnavi, Maheshwari, Indrani, Kaumari, Varahi, Chamunda and Narasimhi. They were attributed with inauspicious roles in the earlier Dravidian traditions and were even considered dangerous but later during the Aryan age they were worshiped for their fecundity and protective abilities esp. towards children.
Legend
Bahubali was the second son of the founder of Jainism, King Rishabha. After Rishabha decided to become a monk, he decided to divide his kingdom among his 100 sons. The eldest Bharata -after whom India is named- was assigned the city of Ayodhya and Bahubali the city of Taxila. Bharata later decided to usurp the city-states from his brothers to unite it into a single empire.
Bahubali was the only one who could defy him and he challenged Bharata, the world conqueror to a duel. To prevent the terrible aftermath of such a fight, the ministers in their court deliberated that since it was impossble to physically destroy the bodies of the brothers, the duel would comprise of a staring contest, a water duel and wrestling.
Bharata lost to his younger brother Bahubali in all three contests. Defeating his brother for material gains filled Bahubali with despair and he decided to renounce everything and become a monk. He pursued enlightenment with great resolve but was not able to achieve it as worldly matters still troubled him. His sisters worried about him and approached tirthankara Adinath for advice. Adinath told the sisters that Bahubali was standing on an elephant and he would be able to achieve enlightenment as soon as he steps off it. The sisters approached Bahubali with this message and he immediately realized that the elephant was his ego and he had not managed to let go of his pride. Soon after this realization he attained enlightenment.
History
There are 5 statues of Bahubali erected in the Deccan. The largest of which is called the Gommateshwara statue at Shravanbelagola, Karnataka. It is ~55ft high statue carved out of single piece of granite rock and is regarded as the largest monolithic statue in the world. It was commisioned by Chavundaraya, a commander in the Talakada dynasty.
More than 800 inscriptions in Kannada, Sanskrit, Marathi, Konkani, Tamil, Marwari and Mahajani languages have been found at Shravanbelagola and is the earliest record of Konkani script.  These inscriptions indicate that the Western ganga dynasty was an important and powerful dynasty with a lot of diversity and culture. The inscriptions are also historical in nature describing the rise of the Western Ganga, Hoysala, Rashtrakuta, Wodeyar dynasties and the Vijayanagar Empire.
North meets South India. A cultural cross bridge.
After the fall of Maurya in 230 BCE an Empire called the Satavahana (also known as Andhra) arose in the central Indian peninsula.
Their dynastic rule remained unbroken for 450 years and were the Empire that withstood the onslaughts of Indo-Scythians (Sakas), Ionian Greeks (Yavanas) and Indo-Parthians (Pahlavas) from the west.
Their military and naval might was something to boast about as Megasthenes the Greek chronicler wrote that Andhras possessed 1,00,000 infantry, 2000 cavalry, 1000 elephant units and 30 well fortified towns.
The most important aspect of Satavahana Empire according to us was that it brought about an intermingling of cultures from north India to the south. Racially, the people of Deccan -where the Empire was located- had a diverse ancestry. A mixture of aboriginal Dravidians, Sakas, Pahlavas and the Yavanas.
On a rock edict found in the Empire- “Here in the king’s domain among the Yavanas, the Khambhojas, the Nabhakas, the Nabhapamkits, the Bhojas, the Pitinikas, the Andhras and the Palidas, everywhere people are following Beloved-of-the-gods’ instructions in Dhamma.”
The Satvahanas played a vital role in trade, transfer of ideas and culture from the Indo-Gangetic plain to the southern tip of India and beyond to south-east Asia.
The Vedic Age 