Seva Lamberdar wrote:You forgot to mention in the above about Akbar changing the name of north Indian Hindu holy city Prayag to Illahbad (later Allahbad).

Rashmun wrote:

Seva Lamberdar wrote:You forgot to mention in the above about Akbar changing the name of north Indian Hindu holy city Prayag to Illahbad (later Allahbad).

The name of the city is spelled as Illahabad is both hindi and urdu to this day. The British could not pronounce Illahabad so they made it Allahabad.

Rashmun wrote:

Illahabad is a more secular word: Illahi is God. So Illahabad is city of God.

Rashmun wrote:

Rashmun wrote:

Seva Lamberdar wrote:You forgot to mention in the above about Akbar changing the name of north Indian Hindu holy city Prayag to Illahbad (later Allahbad).

The name of the city is spelled as Illahabad is both hindi and urdu to this day. The British could not pronounce Illahabad so they made it Allahabad.

Illahabad is a more secular word: Illahi is God. So Illahabad is city of God.

smArtha wrote:

Rashmun wrote:

Illahabad is a more secular word: Illahi is God. So Illahabad is city of God.

 Elaichi is more secular than Illahi. And Prayag meaning confluence (of rivers in this case) is more geographically appropriate and supremely secular than some Allah or Illahi prefix.

Rashmun wrote:Bengali New Year: how Akbar invented the modern Bengali calendar

The Mughal Emperor fused Hindu and Islamic dating systems to create a new calendar that is still in use today.

More than two decades into his rule, Emperor Akbar, third in the Mughal line, had set up, what was at the time, the most powerful empire on Earth.  Secure in his power, the emperor’s attention shifted to the more intellectual side of things: religion, philosophy and the arts. Amartya Sen’s book, The Argumentative Indian, mentions how Akbar's interest in various religions led him to dabble in the calendars of various faiths as well. As a result, as Sen put it, he invented “a combined calendar which paralleled his interest in floating a combined religion, the Din-e-Ilahi”. This calendar, modestly titled the Tarikh-e-Ilahi, calendar of God, was introduced in the year 1584 AD...

The Tarikh-e-Ilahi was introduced for the entire Mughal Empire and, like the Din-e-Ilahi, it really didn’t last much beyond Akbar’s lifetime. The one exception was in Bengal, where it became integral to both agriculture as well as the Hindu religion.

https://scroll.in/bulletins/40/delays-in-indias-infrastructure-projects-has-a-large-impact-on-key-social-indicators

smArtha wrote:

Rashmun wrote:Bengali New Year: how Akbar invented the modern Bengali calendar

The Mughal Emperor fused Hindu and Islamic dating systems to create a new calendar that is still in use today.

More than two decades into his rule, Emperor Akbar, third in the Mughal line, had set up, what was at the time, the most powerful empire on Earth.  Secure in his power, the emperor’s attention shifted to the more intellectual side of things: religion, philosophy and the arts. Amartya Sen’s book, The Argumentative Indian, mentions how Akbar's interest in various religions led him to dabble in the calendars of various faiths as well. As a result, as Sen put it, he invented “a combined calendar which paralleled his interest in floating a combined religion, the Din-e-Ilahi”. This calendar, modestly titled the Tarikh-e-Ilahi, calendar of God, was introduced in the year 1584 AD...

The Tarikh-e-Ilahi was introduced for the entire Mughal Empire and, like the Din-e-Ilahi, it really didn’t last much beyond Akbar’s lifetime. The one exception was in Bengal, where it became integral to both agriculture as well as the Hindu religion.

https://scroll.in/bulletins/40/delays-in-indias-infrastructure-projects-has-a-large-impact-on-key-social-indicators

The most whimsical and lousiest basis for a Calendar I had come across so far

The new calendar that was devised was a bit complex. Its first year, just like the Islamic calendar, was the date of the Hijra, Prophet Mohammed’s emigration from Mecca to Medina. From this year 1 to Akbar’s coronation (in 1556 AD), the calendar ticks off the years as a lunar calendar. Up till here, the Tarikh-e-Ilahi and the Islamic calendar are in step: for both, Akbar's coronation occurs in the year 963. From this annum onwards though, things change – after all, it’s a big year: the Emperor's coronation. From the coronation onwards, the years start to tick off as per the old traditional Bengali calendar, which was a solar one, and solves the problem of mismatched seasons.

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:Purely from a literary standpoint I find Prayag more poetic and geographically descriptive than the bland Allahabad.

My native place has a similar name. It is the confluence of five rivers and is called Thiru-ai-Aru (or Thirvaiyyaru). Interestingly the local deity (Shiva) is referred to Thiru Aiyarappan or simply Aiyarappan in Tamil and as Panchapakesan in Sanskrit. I think this is the norm in Southern Indian Hinduism-- deities are named after place names, not the other way round.

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:Maybe they should call the local deity Allahabadeshwar. Will be a nice synthesis that'll make you happy.

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:See how this YouTube video uploader, obviously a Tamilian spells it:

https://youtu.be/M556DuCx8Hs

Rashmun wrote:

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:Maybe they should call the local deity Allahabadeshwar. Will be a nice synthesis that'll make you happy.

not possible since there are multiple deities associated with Allahabad. To begin with, there is an old Hanuman temple situated on the banks of the ganges. This is one of only two Hanuman temples i know of in all of India where the main Hanuman deity is lying (on his back) inside the sanctum sanctorum of the temple. (The other such Hanuman temple is in Khuldabad, Maharashtra. In the Maharashtrian Hanuman temple, women are not permitted inside the sanctum sanctorum because Hanuman is a bachelor and he is lying on the floor, bla bla. In the Uttar Pradeshi Hanuman temple, women are permitted inside the Hanuman temple sanctum sanctorum even though he is lying on the floor.)*

Then there is one temple for the mother goddess which is believed to be located at the spot where Sati's finger had fallen (refer to shiva dancing the tandava dance with sati's corpse in his arms and what ensues next.)

there is also a Shiva temple in Allahabad, and also a South Indian style temple which is more recently built.

*My favorite Hanuman temple of all is the Sankat Mochan temple in Benaras. Even the name 'sankat mochan' is soothing.

Rashmun wrote:

Seva Lamberdar wrote:You forgot to mention in the above about Akbar changing the name of north Indian Hindu holy city Prayag to Illahbad (later Allahbad).

The name of the city is spelled as Illahabad is both hindi and urdu to this day. The British could not pronounce Illahabad so they made it Allahabad.

Seva Lamberdar wrote:

Rashmun wrote:

Seva Lamberdar wrote:You forgot to mention in the above about Akbar changing the name of north Indian Hindu holy city Prayag to Illahbad (later Allahbad).

The name of the city is spelled as Illahabad is both hindi and urdu to this day. The British could not pronounce Illahabad so they made it Allahabad.

Isn't the significance / meaning same for Illahabad and Allahabad, like in the case of Ibrahim and Abrahim?

Rashmun wrote:

Seva Lamberdar wrote:

Rashmun wrote:

Seva Lamberdar wrote:You forgot to mention in the above about Akbar changing the name of north Indian Hindu holy city Prayag to Illahbad (later Allahbad).

The name of the city is spelled as Illahabad is both hindi and urdu to this day. The British could not pronounce Illahabad so they made it Allahabad.

Isn't the significance / meaning same for Illahabad and Allahabad, like in the case of Ibrahim and Abrahim?

no. Illahi = God. So Illahabad means city of God. Allahabad means city of Allah. Illahi is a more secular word since it is applicable to the God of any religion.

Seva Lamberdar wrote:

Rashmun wrote:

Seva Lamberdar wrote:

Rashmun wrote:

Seva Lamberdar wrote:You forgot to mention in the above about Akbar changing the name of north Indian Hindu holy city Prayag to Illahbad (later Allahbad).

The name of the city is spelled as Illahabad is both hindi and urdu to this day. The British could not pronounce Illahabad so they made it Allahabad.

Isn't the significance / meaning same for Illahabad and Allahabad, like in the case of Ibrahim and Abrahim?

no. Illahi = God. So Illahabad means city of God. Allahabad means city of Allah. Illahi is a more secular word since it is applicable to the God of any religion.

and what does Prayag mean?