Shahanshah Akbar

Abu'l-Fath Jalal-ud-Din Muhammad Akbar also known as Shahanshah Akbar-e-Azam (14 October 1542

 – 27 October 1605), was the third Mughal Emperor. He was of Timurid descent; the son of Emperor Humayun, and the grandson of the Mughal Emperor Zaheeruddin Muhammad Babur, the ruler who founded the Mughal dynasty in India. At the end of his reign in 1605 the Mughal empire covered most of northern and central India. He is most appreciated for having a liberal outlook on all faiths and beliefs and during his era, culture and art reached a zenith as compared to his predecessors.

Akbar was 13 years old when he ascended the Mughal throne in Delhi (February 1556), following the death of his father Humayun. During his reign, he eliminated military threats from the powerful Pashtun descendants of Sher Shah Suri, and at the Second Battle of Panipat he decisively defeated the newly self-declared Hindu king Hemu. It took him nearly two more decades to consolidate his power and bring all the parts of northern and central India into his direct realm. He influenced the whole of the Indian Subcontinent as he ruled a greater part of it as an emperor. As an emperor, Akbar solidified his rule by pursuing diplomacy with the powerful Hindu Rajput caste, and by marrying a Rajput princess.

Akbar's reign significantly influenced art and culture in the country. He was a great patron of art and architecture  He took a great interest in painting, and had the walls of his palaces adorned with murals. Besides encouraging the development of the Mughal school, he also patronised the European style of painting. He was fond of literature, and had several Sanskrit works translated into Persian and Persian scriptures translated in Sanskrit apart from getting many Persian works illustrated by painters from his court. During the early years of his reign, he showed intolerant attitude towards Hindus and other religions, but later exercised tolerance towards non-Islamic faiths by rolling back some of the strict sharia laws. His administration included numerous Hindu landlords, courtiers and military generals. He began a series of religious debates where Muslim scholars would debate religious matters with Hindus, Jains, Zoroastrians and Portuguese Roman Catholic Jesuits. He treated these religious leaders with great consideration, irrespective of their faith, and revered them. He not only granted lands and money for the mosques but the list of the recipients included a huge number Hindu temples in north and central India, Christian churches in Goa.

Tirthankara Mahavira

Vardhamāna Mahāvīra (599–527 BCE) is the name most commonly used to refer to one of the tirthankara of Jainism. Mahavira who was one of the major propagators of Jainism. According to Jain tradition, he was the 24th and the last tirthankara.

Life

The ancient texts refer to Mahavira as Nayaputta (son of Nayas). This referred his clan of origin,

which is translated in sanskrit as jnatra. The acharanga sutra of svetambara describes Mahavira as all-seeing not all-knowing. Sutrakritanga however elaborates the concept as all knowing and provides details of other qualities of Mahavira.

Birth

Mahavira was born in a place called Kuṇḍagrama. It is a place said to be near Vaishali. However, historians cannot yet pinpoint where exactly this place Kundagrama was. He was the son of Siddartha and Trishala. He was born on the 13th day under the rising moon of Chaitra (12 April according to the Gregorian calendar). While still in his mother's womb it is believed he brought wealth and prosperity to the entire kingdom, which is why he was named Vardhaman. An increase of good things, like the abundant bloom of beautiful flowers, was noticed in the kingdom after his conception. Trishala had a number of auspicious dreams before giving birth to Vardhaman (14 according to the Svetambaras and 16 according to the Digambaras), signs foretelling the advent of a great soul. Vardhaman's birthday is celebrated as Mahavir Janma Kalyanak, the most important religious holiday of Jains around the world.

Transfer of embryo

WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship

The WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship is one of the annual World Golf Championships. It is a knockout event and is generally staged in late February. It is sponsored by Accenture, the world's largest consulting firm.

The Championship is a single-elimination match play event. The field consists of the top 64 players available from the Official World Golf Rankings, seeded according to the rankings. The prize money for 2012 was $8.5 million, with the winner taking $1.4 million and the Walter Hagen Cup. Prize money is official on the PGA Tour, the European Tour and the Japan Golf Tour.

Since 2011, all matches have been over 18 holes with extra holes played until there is a winner. From 1999 to 2010 the final was played over 36 holes. The losers of the semi-final matches play an 18-hole consolation match for third place. The format is a five-day, six-match tournament starting on a Wednesday. For the first four days (Wednesday through Saturday) a single round of matches are played, with the semi-finals, third-place match and final played on the Sunday. When the final was over 36 holes, the quarter-finals and semi-finals were both played on Saturday.

Weather conditions meant that changes were made to this format in 2005, 2011, and 2013. In 2005 the start was delayed by a day, with both the second and third rounds being played on the following day. In 2011, with the danger of bad weather on the Sunday, the quarter-finals and semi-finals were both played on the Saturday. In 2013, snow meant that the first round was not completed until Friday morning. The second round was played on the Friday while the third and fourth rounds were both played on the Saturday.

Earthquake

An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time.

Earthquakes are measured using observations from seismometers. The moment magnitude is the most common scale on which earthquakes larger than approximately 5 are reported for the entire globe. The more numerous earthquakes smaller than magnitude 5 reported by national seismological observatories are measured mostly on the local magnitude scale, also referred to as the Richter scale. These two scales are numerically similar over their range of validity. Magnitude 3 or lower earthquakes are mostly almost imperceptible or weak and magnitude 7 and over potentially cause serious damage over larger areas, depending on their depth. The largest earthquakes in historic times have been of magnitude slightly over 9, although there is no limit to the possible magnitude. The most recent large earthquake of magnitude 9.0 or larger was a 9.0 magnitude earthquake in Japan in 2011 (as of October 2012), and it was the largest Japanese earthquake since records began. Intensity of shaking is measured on the modified Mercalli scale. The shallower an earthquake, the more damage to structures it causes, all else being equal.

At the Earth's surface, earthquakes manifest themselves by shaking and sometimes displacement of the ground. When the epicenter of a large earthquake is located offshore, the seabed may be displaced sufficiently to cause a tsunami. Earthquakes can also trigger landslides, and occasionally volcanic activity.

In its most general sense, the word earthquake is used to describe any seismic event — whether natural or caused by humans — that generates seismic waves. Earthquakes are caused mostly by rupture of geological faults, but also by other events such as volcanic activity, landslides, mine blasts, and nuclear tests. An earthquake's point of initial rupture is called its focus or hypo center  The epicenter is the point at ground level directly above the hypo center.