Chalukya Heritage: Aihole and Pattadakal

Chalukya Geneology: those in green are
known to provide more patronage to
temple building

At around 135 km from Hospet [and 500 km from Bangalore], Badami is a small town in Bagalkot district of North Karnataka but it used to be the capital of the great Chalukya kingdom during the period C. 550-754 A. D. It is told that Aihole [old Aryapura] had the honour of being the capital of Chalukya dynasty before the capital moved to Badami. Pattadakal a small village at around 30 km from Badami and 10 km from Aihole used to be the place for coronation of Chalukyan Kings at that time. But today Aihole, Pattadakal and Badami are known more as the tourist spot, a place that boasts of great architecture heritages of ancient Chalukya empire, the empire that used to cover from the present western karnataka/goa coast to entire Kaveri/Narmada basin under its rule at its peak.
Historians largely credit Pulakesin I [literally means tiger-haired] to establish the Chalukya empire at around 550 AD a little after Gupta empire declined. Although historians differ about the origin of Chalukyas, the Chalukya period is considered to be the golden age of Karnataka history.
The most prominent among the Chalukyan Kings were Pulakeshin I and II and Vikramaditya II. They were attributed to most of the development and expansion that happened under this dynasty. They were also recognized to have hugely contributed to cultural development of the state. Hsüan-tsang who visited Harshavardhana in north also travelled to Badami during the rule of Pulakesin II. The Chalukya patronage not only contributed immensely to the development of Kannada as the language [there are quite a few inscriptions in Badami, Aihole and Pattadakal which are in Saskrit but written in old Kannada script showing the evolution of Kannada as a language] , it also helped maturing dravidian style of architecture. Both Aihole and Pattadakal show some of the glorious development of south Indian temple architectures. History attributes Kirtivarman I and Mangalesha for construction of Badami cave temples [covered in my last post] but it was Pulakesin II who oversaw the development of different temples in Aihole.

Aihole Temple complex

Present ASI heritage site of Aihole is a complex of 22 temples built at different times during Chalukyan period. Typical features unique to Badami Chalukyas architecture include mortarless assembly, an emphasis on length rather than width or height, flat roofs, richly carved ceilings, and, sculpturally, an emphasis on relatively few major figures, which tend to be isolated from each other rather than arranged in crowded groups. The aesthetic sensibility of sculpture from this period also seems to retain a certain classical quality whose impulse does not carry over into later periods of Indian art (Susan Huntington, 1985). Aihole served as the laboratory of rock craftsmanship. They mixed contemporary south-indian and north indian styles to bring up something unique. Usage of curved towers decorated with blind arches came from northern India. Plastered walls with panel inserts are a southern Indian style. Two temples in this complex are worth a little elaboration.

Durga Temple from Front

Lad Khan temple [photo] is one of the first of Chalukyan temples, some believe to be constructed as a sample in 450 A.D, perhaps for Lord Shiva. The mukha mantapa in front of the sanctum has a set of 12 carved pillars.There are also stone grids on the wall carrying floral designs. The windows are filled with lattice style which is a north Indian style.

Durga Temple at Aihole from the backside

Durga temple or fortress temple is the best known of the Aihole temples and is very photogenic. It is apsidal in plan, along the lines of a Buddhist chaitya, a high moulded adisthana and a tower - curvilinear shikhara. A pillared corridor runs around the temple, enveloping the shrine, the mukhamantapa and the sabhamantapa. All through the temple, there are beautiful carvings. The temple appears to be of the late 7th or early 8th century. ASI note suggests that the temple initially was designed for Sun-god and later converted to Durga temple.

Pattadakal

Pattadakal temple complex: seen both the Nagara style and
Vimana style temples

Pattadakal was another place where Chalukya empire patroned evolution of temple architecture. Historians believe that Pattadaakal helped maturing Vimana-style of temple architecture seen in all south india and also was used to build the Kailasnath temple in Ellora. The complex shows various temples built either in North Indian Nagara style [Kashi Vishwanath temple] or mix of north and dravidian style or fully evolved Dravidian Vimana style. Virupaksha temple built by Queen Lokamahadevi (Trilokyamahadevi) in around 745AD to commemorate  victory of Vikramaditya II over the Pallavas of Kanchi resembles the famous Kanchi temple of Pallava empire. The temple is richly decorated with stone engraving depicting stories of Ramayana and Mahabharata all around. The Shivalingam in the temple is still worshipped today. There is another temple identical to it but smaller than the original Virupaksha temple and ASI note says that it was built by the second queen of Vikramaditya II, who incidentally was sister of Queen Lokamahadevi.
More photos are available at Picasa album.

How to go there

Badami is the nearest railway station for Pattadakal. Badami (Station Code:BDM ) itself is on the less busy Solapur-Gadag route. This means, there are not many long distance trains connect Badami directly with other metro cities in the region. Hubli and Hospet are the major junctions nearby. Hubli is connected to Bangalore and has many trains running between Bangalore and Hubli.  This site provides a comprehensive list of alternative routes. But my personal suggestion would be that you club this with Hampi. That way you can stay in Hampi and take a tourist cab [pelnty available] from Hampi/Hospet for a day trip to Badami.  Since Aihole and Pattadakal are nearby, you can cover them in one day.

Reference

http://www.preservearticles.com/2011101715538/short-essay-on-the-chalukyas-of-badami.html
http://ratnagiri.nic.in/Gazetter/GOM/his_chalukyas.html

Ajanta to Mahabalipuram: in search of India's rock-cut architecture

Mahisasurmardini engraving in Cave 1

The security staff warned, "Ma'am, be careful with your purse, monkeys already snatched bags from three ladies today!" That also could be good news since monkeys would be busy in exploring the content of snatched bags and would allow other bags to stay where they are, I thought.
We were standing in front of Badami caves, an extraordinary piece of pre-medieval rock-cut architecture. The four cave ensemble was carved out of sandstone during 6th-7th century AD under the patronage of Chalukya dyansty. The first one is dedicated to Lord Shiva, the second and the third to Lord Vishnu and the topmost one is the only non-Hindu cave dedicated to Lord Mahavira. Richness of the sandstone carving at a gigantic scale in first three caves leaves one in search for words. The only comparison if at all, one can have is with Ellora and Ajanta, although Ajanta caves were cut much earlier. Beside the architectural marvels of these millenium-old man-made cave temples, what intrigued me is how the masonry skill, architectural knowledge and engineering know-how flourished and flowed across distant regions of India where most of the travel used to be long and arduous in the absence of a large-scale tranaport system.
This post is my own journey of appreciation of  some of the greatest heritages of India: the Ajanta and Ellora caves, Mahabalipuram or Mamallapuram and Badami cave.
Geographically Ajanta and Ellora caves are in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, Mahabalipuram is in Taminadu and very near to Chennai while Badami is in north Karnataka. One common thread between the four are that all of them are rock-cut architectures; some involve chiselling the full structure from single monolithic rock while other invove cutting the basalt or sandstone rock face to create the space for temple.
Historically Ajanta caves date back from 2nd century BCE till 5th century AD. Badami caves date back to 6th century AD and Mahabalipuram construction are considered to happen during 7th century AD. The Buddhist caves in Ellora are belived to be built during 5th-7th century AD, the Hindu caves were built between 6th and 8th century and the Jain caves were believed to be built between 8th and 9th century AD. It is quite appparent that if one excludes Ajanta, rest of the temple sites are almost contemporary.
Royal Patronage
Building such large structure out of stone requires huge man power and would not have been possible without royal patronage. It is intersting to note that in the long history of Indian Royal empires and kingdoms, there are only few dynasties that were found a mention who patronized stone-based architecture.

Ajanta Caves
It is believed that early Ajanta caves were built under patronage of  Satavahana dynasty [230 BCE - c. 220 CE], the later ones [during 5th century] were built during Vakataka rule. Historians believe most of the later caves were built  from 460 to 480 CE, during the reign of Emperor Harishena of the Vakataka dynasty.


Ellora Caves

Kailas temple at Ellora

Ellora Buddhist caves, Wiki claim to be built under patronage of Satvahana dynasty but the time does not appear to agree. In fact it could as well be that people abandoned Ajanta after fall of Harishena and came to Ellora and built the temples. Patronage of Hindu temples appear less uncertain with early temples understood to be constructed during the Kalachuri period and the most complex and rich ones including the famous Kailas temple to be commissioned by Rashtrakuta empire. Incidentally Kailas temple, the most intricately constructed Shiva temple is carved out of large monolithic rock top-down and was preceded by two similar looking but abandoned temples. It is considered one of its kind in the world for both the richness of the carving and engineering ingenuity. It appears to have taken 100 long years to complete this temple, as per the historians.Maintaining engineering consistency over hundred years when a single error can bring down the entire architecture is by itself a feat that hardly can be found any parallel for, anywhere.
Badami Caves

Entering Badami Caves

History is less uncertain about Badami caves which is recorded to be built by Kirthivarman (567-598 AD) and his brother Mangalesha I (598-610 AD), the sons of Pulakesi I,  the founder of Chalukya dynasty. It is worth noting that Pallavas and Chalukyas fought many wars and later, both got consumed by Rashtrakuta empire.


Mahabalipuram Rock Art

Shore Temple

One rock-cut temple in Mahabalipuram

Mamallapuram rock architectures that include shore temple, Five rathas, Arjun's penance and other isolated stone-works were sponsored by Pallava dynasty who ruled from Kanchipuram. All of them were carved out from monolithic rocks that were locally available. Some of the strcuture sunk under water at later times because of a Tsunami but most of the major artwork are still intact.
Art historian Percy Brown, traces the possible roots of the Pallava Mandapa to the similar rock-cut caves of Ajanta Caves and Ellora Caves. Referring to Narasimhavarman's victory in AD 642 over the Chalukyan king Pulakesin II. Brown says the Pallava king may have brought the sculptors and artisans back to Kanchi and Mamallapuram as 'spoils of war'.
 Connecting them together

Lomas Rishi cave
[http://www.mapability.com/travel/p2i/images/93-034-04.jpg]

Earliest evidence of Indian rock-cut craftmanship that survived the grind of time is barabar cave temple, built during Mauryan period, actually by Ashoka. One look at the Lomas Rishi entrance engraving reminds one of Ajanta Chaityas, only the latter is built in more exquisite and grander style. It is interesting to note that Barabar cave in Bihar was not a Buddhist shrine. "Being a sincere Buddhist the emperor Asoka was tolerant of the other religions in his vast realm . Proof of this are the remarkable caves he had cut on the stark and rocky Barabar Hills for the use of Ajivaka ascetics."[source]. Ajivaka school of Jainism was started by a Buddha-contemporary named Makkhali Gosala.

Front facade of one cave in Ajanta

The structure that entirely carved out of granite was supposed to resemble timbre structure that used to be predominatly used during that time for building temple. Probably this was the first time one Timbre artisan tried his hand on granite and with his overwhelming success, made the rock-engraving hugely popular for following generations. British library text says, " Along with the other cave-temples in the Barabar hills, the Lomas Rishi cave, provided a prototype for the larger Buddhist Chaitya halls that are found in Maharasthra such as Ajanta or Karli and were very influential to the tradition of South Asian rock-cut architecture."
  So, the artistry and skill got improved over generations, from early Ajanta caves to Ajanta caves of 4th century AD. After Ajanta caves were abandoned, the artisans moved to Ellora and Elephanta caves and then to Badami and at a later point to Mahabalipuram. Unfortunately ancient Indians are not known to maintain objective history, but if we had, we could find that there is connection with Aihole, Pattadakal and other rock architectures too.
It, however, appears that irrespective of which dyansty rules or which religion prevails, the craftmanship flowed between different places and rules in ancient period demonstrating respectful tolerance of religions and ethnicities and respect for craftsmen. Respect for multiculturalism was one of the most ancient hallmark of Indian ethos, which probably was lost sometime during mediaval period. That way ancient India was equally modern in perspective as we are today, perhaps a little more?

In search of Bengali root

Years back I had an interesting encouter in a so called jungle resort in Masinagudi (Tamilnadu), where we stayed for a couple of days. We had a young man as our guide. He could speak Tamil fluently which we did not understand and had a limited vocabulary with English which was our only common language of communication. He told us that he was born in Srilanka and was brought up in a local Christian church and though he never went to school, he learnt many things from the learned people who happened to visit the place. When he asked us where we are coming from, one of my young Bengalee friends explained to him that he comes from Calcutta which is the capital of West Bengal, a state in the eastern part of India. To that our guide affirmed him that he knew about Bengal. He also told us with absolute certainty [he had a tone that fathers use when they teach their kids not to question the authority of a father's knowledge] that  all Bengalees are originally Tamil and the Tamils migrated many centuries back to Bengal and became Bengalees. Being outstripped of his originality in such a cavalier manner, our Bengalee friend was naturally enraged. Others cajoled him not to take it too seriously since the guide is telling him what the guide has heard and that the guide was not particularly an expert in the field.
If you thought that it was only the Bengalees who react in that manner, few days back I met a Malayali gentleman who was so taken into believing that Syrian catholic Malayalis are not from India, that he was willing to fund a blood sampling study to establish the truth beyond anyone's doubt.
Fact is our regional or clanish identity is at the very root of our self-identity but however one likes to believe that they are direct descendent of Moses or Lord Rama, ours is a common history of migration.

Early Human Inhabitation to Early Human Civilization in India
It is now established scientifically that human species i.e. Homo Sapiens came to being in African continent and has moved to different areas of the planet from there. Migration is a natural process of the growth and expansion of population. Continental migration of human species particularly Homo sapiens started almost 60,000 years ago [Homo Erectus moved many thousands of years before that] and as established by Mitochondrial DNA research, the migration route covered Indian subcontinent squarely. The research also establishes that migration happened multiple times with natural disaster taking the role of the mighty Devil that periodically wiped out species from many parts of the planet [see National Geographic Atlas of the Human Journey for more details].

 Cave painting at Paachmari

Undoubtedly the group of australoids who migrated 60,000 years ago were a bunch of hunters/gatherers, still a long way to evolve into a collective who can build intelligent self-contained colony. In fact there are cave paintings, in Paachmari and Bhimbekta caves in Madhyapradesh, India that ASI has dated to be at least from 12,000- 10,000 BCE. The drawings demonstrate that  minds of these early human population in India were mostly preoccupied with animals that they hunt. It probably took at least another 5000 years before they adopted agriculture for their livelihood.

MehrGarrh earthen pot 7000 BCE

That brings us to the question of earliest civilization in Indian subcontinent. The latest evidence shows that India had established agrarian civilization as early as 7000 year BCE. The Mehrgarh excavation brought first time to our knowledge that India had civilizations well before Harappa era. They establsihed knowledge of  building mud-houses and farming wheat and barley. A stone axe and mud-brick house complex were found that date to early Mehrgarh period. Discovery as late as in 2006 established that they were the first in the world to demonstrate proto-dentistry capability. "Here we describe eleven drilled molar crowns from nine adults discovered in a Neolithic graveyard in Pakistan that dates from 7,500 to 9,000 years ago. These findings provide evidence for a long tradition of a type of proto-dentistry in an early farming culture" [source: wiki/nature]
There is however no evidence of any written language which means that tracing our present language-based identity to Mehrgarh era is moot.
Early Languages in India and Bengali
Linguists claim that earliest spoken language in India was proto-dravidian. Linguistic reconstruction suggests that Proto-Dravidian was spoken around the third millennium BC, possibly in the region around the lower Godavari river basin in peninsular India. The material evidence suggests that the speakers of Proto-Dravidian were the culture associated with the Neolithic complexes of South India The next phase in the reconstructed proto-history of Tamil is Proto-South Dravidian. The linguistic evidence suggests that Proto-South Dravidian was spoken around the middle of the second millennium BC, and that proto-Tamil emerged around the 3rd century BC.[source: wiki]
Compared to that, Sanskrit appears only with the Indo-Aryans i.e. at around 1500 BCE. Now as far as Bengali is concerned, the language did not exist before Christ era. Historical evidence tells us that Bengali evolved from Prakrit at around 9th-10th century AD, although Prakrit was not a single language. Prakrit more likely refers to all the dialects spoken in North India when Sanskrit became the language of elites, particularly the academics. Prakrit and Pali are considered to be direct descendent of Sanskrit. They came almost at the same time and were spoken during Buddha's time i.e. as early as 600-700 BCE. In other words, Tamil although is far more ancient language compared to Bengali, Bengali as the language does not appear to share the root with Tamil. Bengali is decidedly an Indo-Aryan language while Tamil is rooted to its dravidian origin.
Language is not the only artefact
 However it will be a mistake to look at the identity issue only through the lens of language. Culture is much larger aspect of identity and language is just one constituent of the culture, a mere communication tool for the population sharing the culture. Migration is more ancient aspect of human civilization and migrant community is known to adopt the culture of teritory that they migrate to. Therefore a better approach would be to trace the migration history to Bengal.
Early Settlers in Bengal to Bengali Empire
"Historians believe that Bengal, the area comprising present-day Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, was settled in about 1000 B.C. by Dravidian-speaking people who were later known as the Bang. Their homeland bore various titles that reflected earlier tribal names, such as Vanga, Banga, Bangala, Bangal, and Bengal." [source: Bangladesh: A country study. Library of Congress. ]
Some argue that the name Bengal is derived from Vanga (Bôngo), which came from the Austric word "Bonga" meaning the Sun-god.
"Stone age tools dating back 20,000 years have been excavated in the state. Remnants of Copper Age settlements in the Bengal region date back 4,000 years. Stone tools provide the earliest evidence of human settlements. Prehistoric stone implements have been discovered in various parts of West Bengal in the districts of Midnapur, Bankura and Burdwan, and also at Sagardighi. But it is difficult to determine, even approximately, the time when people using them first settled in Bengal. The original settlers spoke non-Aryan languages— they may have spoken Austric or Austro-Asiatic languages like the languages of the present-day Kola, Bhil, Santal, Shabara, and Pulinda peoples. At a subsequent age, peoples speaking languages from two other language families— Dravidian and Tibeto-Burman—seem to have settled in Bengal." [wiki]
But there is also mention of Vanga empire in Mahabharata. Vanga was neighbour to Anga which was ruled by Karna.  Bhagadatta was mentioned as the King of Vanga who joined the Kauravas in the battle of Kurukhestra.
 According to Mahavamsa, the ancient Buddhist literature, the Vanga prince Vijaya Simha conquered Lanka (modern day Sri Lanka) in 544 BC and gave the name "Sinhala" to the country. Bengali people migrated to the Malay Archipelago and Siam (in modern Thailand), establishing their own colonies there. ^[source]  Notwithstanding the fact that historians suffer hugely from lack of objective evidence here, one curious piece of information is that present Sinhala [source] is considered an Indo-aryan language like Bengali although regional proximity demands that it should belong to Dravidian language class. Closest relative of Sinhala is the language of the Maldives and Minicoy Island (India), Dhivehi, places that are claimed to be colonized by Bengalees. This kind of supports that claim made in Mahavamsa.
  Coming back to early migration, This page claims that the civilization that flourished in this region before the Aryans came, was the Alpine civilization. The Alpines (Eastern Bracycephalic) from Taklamakan Desert in Central Asia settled in eastern India (Bengal, Orissa and the plains of Assam) and formed the main elements of today's Bengali people. The Alpines were divided into various indigenous tribes: Vanga (south Bengal), Pundra (north Bengal), and Rarh/Suhma (West Bengal) according to their respective Totems.
Greek accounts mention of Gangaridai [spelt differently in different places but is consdered largely the area known as Bengal] empire that existed in the Ganges valley when Alexandar invaded Indus valley. "Among the southern countries the first under the Kaukasos is India, a kingdom remarkable for its vast extent and the largeness of its population, for it is inhabited by very many nations, among which the greatest of all is that of the Gandaridae, against whom Alexander did not undertake an expedition, being deterred by the multitude of their elephants. This region is separated from farther India by the greatest river in those parts (for it has a breadth of thirty stadia), but it adjoins the rest of India which Alexander had conquered, and which was well watered by rivers and highly renowned for its prosperous and happy condition." –Diodorus Siculus (1st century AD). Quoted from Ancient India as Described in Classical Literature, John W. McCrindle, p. 201.
According to Dr. N.K. Sahu's opinion, the illustrious Ganga Dynasty of Orissa (and also Karnataka) were the descendants of the Gangaridai people who migrated to South India from Tamluk (Midnapur) in South Bengal. He further implies that the Gangaridai people inhabited the entire eastern coast of India stretching from Bengal to Kalinga.
"The Nandas who ruled in the 4th century BCE originated from Bengal and they defeated the Shishunaga dynasty around 450 BCE and joined the crowns of Gangaridai (Bengal) and Prasii (Magadha).  Dhana Nanda was the king of this empire during the invasion of Alexander the Great." –Bangladesher Itihash.
Middle Ages till British Rule
 During pre-middle ages [750–1174 AD], the Pala dyansty ruled a large part of Indian subcontinent. Their patronage on Buddhism saw establishment of the largest Buddhist Vihara [Sompura] of India and rise of Tibetan Buddhism [which owes its existence to another Bengali named Atish Dipankar].  While Pala dynasty appeared to have risen from Bengal, the next powerful dynasty in Bengal i.e. Sena dynasty, historians believe to have come to Bengal from Karnataka region. Sena dynasty is attributed to bring back Hinduism and strong caste-system to Bengal.
Muslim dynasties took over shortly after Sena period and ruled Bengal off and on till British won the battle of Plassey in 1757 and established Calcutta as the capital for India for next hundred years.

To conclude, it appears that for a very long time, Bengal has been a prosperous melting-pot of different ethnicities irrespective of language and religion. Although the present Bengalees owe their ethnicities to Dravidian, Aryan, Mongoloid and Australoid predecessors, perhaps that mixing of ethinicities have given them the intellectual diversity and other uniquely Bengalee traits which they are so known for. It also appears that ancient migrants in Bengal adopted Sanskrit as the language pretty early and merged into Indo-Aryan population perhaps many centuries before Buddha was born [5th century BCE]. Because their language at that time was already distinctly Indo-Aryan although not quite Bengali as Bengalees speak today, when they migrated to Srilanka and the far east islands, their language remained Indo-Aryan even after natural evolution of languages, which in a way explains why Sinhala is a distinctly Indo-Aryan.
It appears therefore that the guide's conviction was not entirely misplaced.

How India brought in low-cost computing for masses

More than a decade back, C-DAC launched a word processor called LEAP and an MS-word pluggin which could help people to type in Indian languages using their computer. C-DAC used to provide a layout mapped on standard English keyboard. One could take a print-out and fix that on his/her keyboard to directly type into that language. C-DAC's original software used to support Hindi (devanagari script), Bengali, Gujarati and few more other scripts. That time there was no standard font or codes available and they had to design their own codes. Luckily life is lot simpler now with wide acceptance of Unicode model. Unicode model 6.0 now defines code for eleven Indian language scripts. Good thing about Unicode is it inherently supports transliteration between different languages. It achieves this by providing unique code to each script in a normalized fashion and by requiring that there is a mapping of the codes to English keyboard. Also Unicode Consortium is a large international body with representatives of various nations involved. It, for example, has representatives from Govt of India and India has taken active participation in codifying Indian scripts.
Due to its wide acceptance, multi-lingual support is lot easier to implement for computer applications. Most popular Computer Operating systems such as windows or Mac or android, support Unicode system today. But that is only half of the solution.
While Unicode made it easier to map the language scripts, a big hurdle for Indian users who do not know English, is about using the keyboard. The default keyboard hardware with computer is always tied to English alphabet and mapping to other language is not always tidy. For everyday use, one needs a keyboard that is designed keeping the alphabet of the language of the user in mind. But manufacturing keyboard for different languages makes the product costly, making it somewhat unaffordable for mass use.
That problem, however, can be avoided if the keyboard layout becomes completely virtual. A virtual keyboard layout is simply a Graphical interface and can be designed in software and rendered on a touch screen. So, if one can remove the traditional keyboard, supporting native language in computer is lot easier. With the recent popularity of tablets, the opportunity has presented itself! Thanks to Mr. Steve Jobs and extremely coveted design of iPad, all tablets today support only the touch screen for both display and input device. Keyboard and Mouse are cannibalized in the new world of tablets. This makes it exceedingly easy for manufacturers to create a generalized hardware assembly and produce Hindi, Bengali, Tamil or Chinese tablets without any manufacturing cost. One can develop extremely inexpensive Oriya or Telegu tablet just by enabling the specific language support in the operating system which in many cases is Android by default since it is free.

Aakash Tablet UbiSlate

In other words, tablets provide the technology solution for the problem. It is a computer connected to internet and also can speak Indian languages.
But there is the 3rd aspect that also requires to be addressed to make the tablet affordable for the mass. Govt of India's initiative with Akaash tablet is the right approach to address that dimension. In the support from the Government, Aakash manufacturers found the right incentive to engineer a truly low-cost tablet for Indian users. With Akaash the children learning in his/her vernacular now not only can communicate, he/she can use the computer in his/her language.
This will enable a large section of Indian children who were outside the expensive English school teaching. This indeed is a great example about how the technology can be used to enable the mass.

will India leapfrog to 4G directly?

All the recent news in the aftermath of cancellation of 122 2G licenses, India's wireless telecom segment looks a bit uncertain. At least two foreign operators publicly stated that they are exiting India. However if one looks carefully, there are more positives than the negatives. The verdict makes every stakeholder more careful and focused on the long term. Also DoT's Telecom spectrum handling is expected to be more transparent and consistent across. The fact that India's mobile population is growing and has much younger user-base, makes it more attractive to the operators compared to other markets. Also it appears that India's mobile users are getting more interested to use their mobile phone for internet access. That will eventually make mobile data traffic way higher that voice traffic which opens a multiple avenues for new revenue generation compared to plain voice traffic.
  As per the September, 2011 data from TRAI, India's mobile subscription base stands at 907 million and most of them are on the voice network. A large chunk of this userbase is expected to upgrade themselves to smartphones and are expected to generate more data traffic than voice.
With 2G network still growing in India and are expected to continue the trend for another year or so, India's challenge is to allow the 2G operator continue generating revenue while preparing the network for high speed wireless broadband.
In 2010, India had the first auction of Broadband Wireless Access spectrum. The 4G Auction carried on the back of 3G Auction saw 5 winners: Infotel (22), Qualcomm (4), Bharti (4), Tikona (5), Aircel (8) and Augere (1) excluding state-owned BSNL and MTNL. It is interesting to note that top 3 winners are new operators. More interesting aspect is that almost all of them signed up for LTE technology. Now LTE is the most dominant 4G technology with an adoption slowly encompassing the whole world, as per the latest report from GSA (Global Mobile Supplier Association).
For record, GSA report from January, 2012 tells that 285 operators globally are investing in LTE. And DailyWireless reported last year that all the 4G auction winners [barring state-owned operators] have chosen LTE-TDD as the technology.
It is particularly important to mention that China too has chosen the LTE-TDD as the technology for their 4G network. With World's two most populous nation picking LTE-TDD, it is quite apparent that LTE-TDD will enjoy the dominance across world.
What is LTE-TDD
LTE-TDD or Long Term Evolution - Time Division Duplexing [for unpaired bands] was standardized in 3GPP Release 8 as the fourth generation cellular wireless technology. While the back-end is all-IP nework [unlike 3G], LTE comes in two different Radio access variants: Time Division and Frequency Division. TDD variant is asymmetric [between uplink and downlink speed] and therefore promises higher spectral efficiency [i.e. more bits per frequency channel]. Since it uses single carrier frequency, it is also relatively simpler to deploy. Recent trials from Ericsson, Huawei and others claim to reach downlink data rate of 100 MBPS, making it ideal for IP-TV type of broadcast service. With dynamic asymmetric configuration the downlink rate can be  4-9 times faster than uplink rate making it adaptable for different types of data services.
The architecture is made such that an operator can have both TD and FD network helping immensely to retain CAPEX investment made in either of the technologies. 3GPP identified 30+ frequency bands so that spectrum availability does not become a constraint. It can interwork with 3G technologies which means migration from 3GPP is smooth. Since LTE can be deployed over older GSM/GPRS bands, it can also become the upgrade technology for 2G. However that will require complete overhauling of network infrastructure.
There is one chink though, 3GPP did not define the voice technology for LTE. To address the gap, GSMA adopted the GSMA voice over LTE initiative that tries to define VoIP service over 3GPP standardized IMS [IP Multimedia Service] although that service is not part of LTE standard.

Salient points about LTE-TDD

• Technical Standards part of 3GPP release 8
• High theoretical peak user rates of 170 / 54 Mbps (downlink/uplink, 20 MHz)
• Asymmetric uplink/downlink rates to match traffic types for good efficiency
• Peak spectral efficiency as good as competitive standards e.g. WiMAX
• Network infrastructure compatible with LTE-FDD
• Voice over LTE standard is being developed by GSMA
• emerging as the most dominant 4G technology as per the operator adoption is concerned

Migration Path

Migration path from 2G to 4G can be through 3G or bypassing 3G depending on how much the operator is invested in 3G and how many subscribers have adopted 3G. Given that India is lagging behind other countries in 3G adoption, it probably could leapfrog to 4G directly since in India 4G band is allocated far outside the GSM/GPRS band. It is interesting to note that both China and India have allotted the 2.3 GHz band [3GPP band 40] for LTE-TDD service. It would not only save the operator CapEx of 3G infrastructure, it also will be operationally simpler with 4G deployement requiring new model of handset.

Incidentally China Telecom is the first large provider to commit itself to LTE-TDD. In India TRAI is recommending LTE-TDD for femtocells. Femtocells are very small cells, with a diameter of few meters, recommended for wireless broadband access in urban areas.
It's still far by at least one and half years
While the commitment to the technology is quite strong and trials in different parts of the world are very promising, it also should be noted that commercial availability of this technology [both network and handset] is still one and half years farther making it all the more attractive choice for leapfrogging especially for those operators who have a very small 3G footprint. In the meantime, if you are buying a smartphone try not to spend a lot of money since you may need to replace it soon!
Further Updates
There was one aspect that I intentionally did not touch upon. India's Telecom Policy 2011 draft [to be published this April] did not mention about DoT approach on 4G. As if to answer that yesterday Mr. Kapil sibal announced that further auction for 4G is to happen this year. It is to be noted that BSNL has surrendered their 4G spectrum [that was allotted to them in 2010] to Govt. couple of months back. Govt. also can refarm unallotted 2G and 3G spectrum for 4G which means that there are enough spectrum available to launch 4G service.
Update from March, 6, 2012:
Govt. decided to refarm 700 MHz spectrum for 4G service, pooling up more spectrum for 4G auction.[ Report: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-business/article2965040.ece]

From independent standpoint, right approach should be that Govt allot unified licenses to the operators and auction spectrum without association specific generation of technologies and let the operators decide which band they want to use for 2G or for 4G. To protect 2G investment of new operators, Govt is very likely to continue bar roaming in 3G and 4G for next couple years but eventually all technologies will merge to 4G with unrestricted roaming across circles and technologies [i.e. 2G/3G/4G]. That will take some time but handset manufacturers also need some time to build truly multimode [2G,3G,4G] handset. In summary, India's cellular wireless segment is going to be exciting for at least next four years.

What value would FaceBook have if it was based in India?

Apparently my last post did not bring enough contentment to me, hence another post on a similar note. While Facebook IPO [future], LinkedIn and Twitter valuation clearly established the potential of the Identity-realty, the question whether that valuation transcends the boundary is not answered. To make it simpler, let's just consider this question: Would FaceBook be valued equally had it been based in India or China? The question is not as frivolous as it may sound to some. If you look at the user base of Facebook, India provides second largest user-base with 43 million users just after its home turf i.e. USA with 155.5 million users [source: http://www.socialbakers.com/facebook-statistics/]. Moreover while the user-base in USA contracted over last few months, Indian user-base continues to grow. In fact Facebook clearly states in its SEC filing that India is going to be the biggest driver for their growth in next few years. 1.2+ billion population with only 15% penetration, how can anyone ignore the potential!
Similar statistics can be found with Twitter and LinkedIn too, but that is beside the point. Fact is today's valuation of Facebook is done in USA by the USA analysts using the benchmark that is largely driven by USA economic parameters. The fact that Facebook has users across 200 countries, the fact that 3/4th users are from outside the USA, makes it a truly international entity. Even to think of it, a social platform that assimilates so many different cultures and languages, nation boundaries with its local laws under a single computing infrastructure is by itself an enormous feat, only to be matched with that of its mother invention i.e. internet. But I think what makes the difference here is that Facebook has created multiple revenue channels, that it has generated a $1 billion cash reserve before it goes for IPO, that its revenue has grown spectacularly since last year, that it is seen as the second best platform for online advertising after Google, that the online advertising market is seen as an area with immense potential, that it has created a platform that most big companies and even Govt. agencies find difficult to stay away from and more importantly that it has invested heavily in building massive analytics engine that can analyze and provide online reports to suit the customer's need in almost real time. An advertiser can monitor effectiveness and progress of any single advertising campaign that it has launched and get cues on how to make it more PERSONALIZED ..yes PERSONALIZED for every individual user.
As many observed already, the biggest promise of online advertising is its ability to enable the advertisers to reach a customer when he needs the product/service most. Facebook not only understood that, they committed themselves to create the massive engine that sifts through all the online updates in real time and make accurate prediction about user's i.e. customer's behaviour.
This, however is the need for advanced users, those who use smartphones or at the least internet. In India TV Ads still form the biggest share of advertising expense and total annual budget for online advertising is hardly more than few hundred of millions of dollars, which mostly, again, come from American companies.
Does that mean that India does not have any hope for internet-based online service delivery? Actually not that bad if you look at the following two recent reports from IndiaDigitalReview portal. The first one says, "according to India e-Marketing Outlook 2012, conducted by Octane.in, Social Media and Email Marketing will emerge as the top two online marketing initiatives that will see an increase in marketing investments in 2012, as compared to 2011."
Next one tells us that Flipkart, an Indian equivalent of Amazon online shop has raised $150 million of series D funding which pulls the capital infusion value to $850 million. That is a huge number considering that Flipkart sells products to mostly English-speaking internet-savvy customers and its market is entirely limited to Indian subcontinent [where Amazon does not sell] and many of the science and technology books [Books constitutes large chunk of Flipkart's retail portfolio] are to be exported from either USA or UK. One must not forget that its annual revenue this year reached Rs 50 crores. In fact that figure pushed Amazon to launch its India-equivalent service with junglee.com.
   That takes us to the question we started with. What would be the valuation of Facebook if it was based in India? If one could, and there is a biiiiig IF, build Facebook [with the totallity of what it has today] from India, I think, learning from Flipkart experience, it would have reached at least one tenth of its present valuation if not more. And that is not too low considering India's GDP is just little more than a trillion dollar and that more than half of its population is still outside any advertising net.

In the Identity-realty market

• Financial Times report today that Facebook is very likely file for IPO in this year. Analysts expect Facebook valuation to be in the order of $80-$100 billion. 
  Facebook Statistics claim that they have 800 million active users.
• Twitter, as per the last valuation in 2011, is worth $8 billion. It is eyeing 2013 for IPO. 2011 Dec statistics tell that they have crossed 100 million user base.
• LinkedIn last year went for IPO and now its valuation is $7.2 billion. As per the LinkedIn statistics, the total user base in LinkedIn today is 135 million. LinkedIn is expected to touch an annual revenue of $139 million.

Just for a comparison benchmark, IBM's valuation after 100 years of its existence and annual revenue of around $100 billion is $226 billion.
Now consider the revenues of these 'social network' ventures.

• Facebook for instance has three quarter revenue of $2.5 billion.
• Twitter's revenue as per their forecast would be $140 million this year. 
• LinkedIn too is expected to touch an annual revenue of $139 million.

One obvious pattern is that the share-value is not proportional to the revenue for these ventures. It is clear that people are paying more for these companies not for their immediate earning, but what they promise in the long run. But what drives that valuation? If it is not earning, it must be their adoption base and the rate at which they are bringing new users. 800 million is a big number! Although there are lot of discourses about how LinkedIn's Value-prop is wide apart from that of Facebook, there is little doubt that user-base is the basic ingredient of growth and valuation for all these ventures and many others like GroupOn etc. In this social digital era, the capital of social network is user-base and the currency is user's i.e. Your digital identity. Remember what your Dad said? Nothing comes free, dear, in this world! You pay with your digital identity [uniqueness is your basic value] to avail free subscription to the service and the service provider appropriates the value of your identity by aggregating them and creating a virtual market for other businesses e.g. LinkedIn's sizable income comes from payment from Hiring agencies.
So how does it affect you? A lot or not much depending on your perspective. If you are a celebrity, your digital footprint practically defines your public image and you will be extremely careful to maintain what you intend it to portray about you. But if you are a celebrity, you are also a hot property for all these social ventures and to ensure that property remains hot, they need frequent updates about you, from you. Apparently there is a conflict of interest between you and the social venture here.
What if you are not a celebrity?
One nagging aspect of the Internet footprint is there is nothing transitory. Unlike your real conversation, the digital footprint of yours is permanent in nature. They will remain there even after 10-20 years, indexed and ordered by search engines for anyone else to simply search and find out. So even if you are not exactly a public persona, you are public for those who want to find out information or history about you. Liability of the analysis and interpretation of those information that you casually shared in those social sites [blog posts such as this, twitter posts, facebook scruples] are transferred on you with direct impact on how you are viewed as a person. Imagine your new date coming to meet you armed with all these information and validating them as you try to impress her! Or your potential employer collecting all these information before they decide whether to call you or not?
Fact is these kind of researches were carried earlier too, it is just that these online social portals make the information ordered and accessible at the click of a mouse and that is something new.
So what do you do now? Will you stay away from all the fun and frolics of these social casinos? Can you? I doubt it! After all, need to belong is one of our basic needs. Like I mentioned in my last post, each technological shift brings new type of behavioural shift in us. While the immediate and boundary-less updates and faceless nature of the conversations [visual and textual] are the gifts that we will continue to enjoy, we will also learn to live with the liability of information-persistence that these gifts bring with it. Perhaps it will help us to evolve collectively as a better race.
But one thing is for sure, there is no way back!