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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Sri Vijaya Puram, Chola Empire
Why in the News?
Union Home Minister announced that Port Blair, the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, will be renamed Sri Vijaya Puram.
On December 30, 2018, three islands in the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago were renamed by the Government of India to honor Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and to commemorate India’s independence struggle:
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Historical Importance of Port Blair
- The city was named after Lieutenant Archibald Blair, a British naval officer who served during the early 18th century.
- The infamous Cellular Jail, known as Kaala Paani, was established in 1906.
- Many prominent freedom fighters, including Veer Savarkar, were incarcerated here under oppressive circumstances.
- It is also the place that hosted the first unfurling of our ‘Tiranga’ by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.
Behind the new name ‘Sri Vijaya Puram’: Chola History
- The Chola Empire, under Rajendra Chola I, used the Andaman Islands as a strategic naval base in the 11th century.
- He launched a naval expedition to attack the Srivijaya Empire in present-day Indonesia.
- His victory over Srivijaya resulted in the capture of the king Sangrama Vijayottunggavarman and looting valuable treasures, further cementing the Chola dominance.
- The Thanjavur inscriptions (1050 CE) refer to the islands as Ma-Nakkavaram (great open land), later evolving into the name Nicobar Islands.
PYQ:[2014] Which one of the following pairs of islands is separated from each other by the ‘Ten Degree Channel’? (a) Andaman and Nicobar (b) Nicobar and Sumatra (c) Maldives and Lakshadweep (d) Sumatra and Java |
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