title: Roger Kirby

text: Kirby subsequently became one of the first urologists in the UK to perform open radical prostatectomy for localised prostate cancers. After watching American urologist Patrick C. Walsh at the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, perform open radical prostatectomies for prostate cancer, while simultaneously preserving pelvic nerves, he became a staunch advocate of the procedure. In 1995, he became a professor of urology and director of Postgraduate Education at St George's Hospital, London. By 2005, using a suprapubic transverse incision, Kirby was performing around 130 of these operations a year. Most of these procedures were performed with colleague and anaesthetist Peter Amoroso.


title: Roger Kirby

text: In 2005, Kirby established The Prostate Centre in Wimpole Street, London. He had previously been watching the development of robotic prostatectomies, and in 2005, for the purpose of performing laparoscopic prostatectomies, a da Vinci surgical robot was acquired. This provided better vision of the pelvic nerves and at the age of 55, he became one of the first surgeons in England to use one. From 2005, the Centre therefore offered minimally invasive laparoscopic prostatectomy with a more holistic approach, advising on a wide range of men's health, including diet and exercise.


title: Roger Kirby

text: Over the course of his surgical career, he undertook over 2000 radical prostatectomy operations, of which most of the later ones were robotic.


title: Roger Kirby

text: In 1995, Kirby helped found two charities: Prostate Research Campaign and The British Urological Foundation, later renamed The Urology Foundation, which was established with funds from the "British Journal of Urology International" and the British Association of Urological Surgeons. His fundraising activities have included climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, trekking in Nepal and cycling across the Andes. By 2005, he had completed three London Marathons.


title: Roger Kirby

text: In 2010, he stepped down as chairman of Prostate UK to become trustee of the newly merged charity Prostate Action. The Prostate Cancer Charity founded by Jonathan Waxman subsequently merged with Prostate Action in 2012 to form one organisation under the title of Prostate Cancer UK, of which Kirby became vice-president. He is also affiliated with the King Edward VII's Hospital, a charity-registered private hospital in Marylebone, west London.


title: Roger Kirby

text: Some of his fundraising activities have been accomplished with his late colleague, John M. Fitzpatrick and in 2018, he hiked with Sir Marcus Setchell. Kirby's efforts to raise awareness of prostate issues have also involved raising significant funds for prostate charities.


title: Roger Kirby

text: In 2005, Kirby was jointly awarded the St Peter's Medal by the British Association of Urological Surgeons.


title: Roger Kirby

text: Until 2015, he was council member, secretary and trustee of the British Association of Urological Surgeons. Subsequently, he was elected president of the urology section of the Royal Society of Medicine RSM for 2016/17.


title: Roger Kirby

text: In 2016 he received the Royal College of Surgeons' Clement Price Thomas Award. In the same year, he stepped down from the board of trustees of the Urology Foundation and was subsequently made its life president, and took up the role of chair of the academic board of the RSM, In 2019, he was elected to become president of the RSM for 2020, succeeding Sir Simon Wessely. His inauguration as president of the RSM took place on 28 July 2020.


title: Roger Kirby

text: Kirby married Jane, who edited "Country Living" magazine before working as the business manager at her husband's clinic. They have three children including Joe Kirby who is a teacher and Vanessa Kirby, who is an actress.


title: Roger Kirby

text: Kirby checked his PSA annually, constructing his own personal PSA slope which remained low. However, in 2012, at the age of 61, he noticed a rise and following a 3-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging, transrectal ultrasound-guided biopsy and bone scan, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and underwent surgical treatment for the condition he had treated throughout his surgical career. A Gleason 3+4=7 1.3cc adenocarcinoma was completely resected and he made a full recovery.


title: Roger Kirby

text: Following treatment, he was one of four surgeons who freely discussed the diagnosis, treatment and its implications, and featured in a "Tale of Four Prostates" with an accompanying video in 2013. He stated that he "hope(d) that the openness about our own diagnoses and management will help to dispel the taboo that still haunts this most common of cancers of men".


title: Roger Kirby

text: Kirby has published more than 350 peer-reviewed scientific publications, authored 68 books and founded two scientific journals: "Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases" and "Trends in Urology and Men's Health". He has also been an associate editor of the "British Journal of Urology International".


title: Roger Kirby

text: In "The Prostate: Small Gland Big Problem", one section was written by Clive Turner, who had undergone a radical prostatectomy himself and subsequently counselled other men considering the same option. In his textbook "Men's Health", dedicated to premature death in men, particularly his father, he, his brother Mike Kirby and colleague Carson Cully III, attempt to address the gender gap in mortality. His book "Fast facts: Prostate Cancer" entered its tenth edition in 2020.


title: Rosa chinensis

text: Rosa chinensis (), known commonly as the China rose, Chinese rose, or Bengal rose, is a member of the genus "Rosa" native to Southwest China in Guizhou, Hubei, and Sichuan Provinces. The first publication of "Rosa chinensis" was in 1768 by Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin in "Observationum Botanicarum", 3, p. 7 & plate 55.


title: Rosa chinensis

text: It is a shrub that reaches 1–2 m and grows in hedges or forms thickets. The leaves are pinnate, have 3–5 leaflets, each 2.5–6 cm long and 1–3 cm broad. In the wild species (sometimes listed as "Rosa chinensis" var. "spontanea"), the flowers have five pink to red petals. The fruit is a red hip one to two cm in diameter. The strong branches have a smooth purplish-brown bark, and there may be many to no curved, stocky, flat spines.


title: Rosa chinensis

text: The alternately-arranged leaves, 12 to 27 cm long, are pinnately divided. The petiole and the rachis are sparsely spiny, with glandular hairs. The leaf blades usually have three or five or, rarely, seven leaflets, 2.5 to 6 centimeters in length, with a width of 1 to 3 centimeters, ovate or ovate-oblong with a weak-rounded or broad and wedge-shaped base, a more-or-less long, tapered apex and sharply toothed edge. The upper surface is shiny and dark green.


title: Rosa chinensis

text: In China, the flowering time of "R. chinensis" ranges from April to September. Rarely, the flowers are solitary; usually appearing in groups of four or five. The 2.5 to 6 cm long pedicel has variable hairiness. The one to three naked bracts are linear, with a pointed apex and a smooth or glandular margin. The flowers have a mild fragrance.


title: Rosa chinensis

text: The hermaphrodite flowers have radial symmetry, with a diameter of four to five cm, and may be double. There are cultivated forms with simple to more or less strongly double flowers, which are also wild in China and nearby areas of temperate latitudes. The bald flower cup is egg-shaped, spherical or pear-shaped. The early-dropping sepals are ovate or sometimes leaf-like, simple or lobed, cupped towards the apex. The five to several or many petals are white-over-pink to red or purple, obovate with a wedge-shaped base and a rounded apex. There are many stamens. The free, hairy style is almost as long as the stamens. In China, the fruits ripen from June to November, turning red. They are egg-shaped to pear-shaped, with a diameter of one to two centimeters.


title: Rosa chinensis

text: Various forms of "Rosa chinensis" have been cultivated in gardens in China for a long time; therefore, it is not easy to distinguish between wild forms and cultivated forms. Many varieties of garden roses have been bred from "Rosa chinensis". The species is extensively cultivated as an ornamental plant, and numerous cultivars have been selected, which are known as the China roses. It has also been extensively interbred with "Rosa gigantea" to produce "Rosa × odorata" and by further hybridization the tea roses and hybrid tea roses, and is the source of summer-blooming varieties and those with continuous flowering.


title: Rosa chinensis

text: Cultivars developed from "Rosa chinensis" have been important in the breeding of many modern garden roses by providing the repeat-blooming characteristic, although this is not a feature of the wild species. The many forms of "Rosa chinensis" are also used in many other ways. The young vegetative plant parts, flower buds and flowers are brewed and eaten as a kitchen herb, for example, as a soup. From the rosehips, a thin fleshy layer that surrounds the seeds is eaten raw or cooked. The seed hair must be removed; It has to be handled very carefully. The seed hairs must not get into the mouth and throat. The seeds are a good source of vitamin E. The seeds can be ground and mixed with flour or added to other foods.


title: Unit of alcohol

text: Units of alcohol are used in the United Kingdom (UK) as a measure to quantify the actual alcoholic content within a given volume of an alcoholic beverage, in order to provide guidance on total alcohol consumption.


title: Unit of alcohol

text: A number of other countries (including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the US) use the concept of a "standard drink", the definition of which varies from country to country, for the same purpose. "Standard drinks" were referred to in the first UK guidelines (1984) that published "safe limits" for drinking, but these were replaced by references to "alcohol units" in the 1987 guidelines and the latter term has been used in all subsequent UK guidance.


title: Unit of alcohol

text: One unit of alcohol (UK) is defined as 10 millilitres (8 grams) of pure alcohol. Typical drinks (i.e., typical quantities or servings of common alcoholic drinks) may contain 1–3 units of alcohol.


title: Unit of alcohol

text: Containers of alcoholic drinks sold directly to UK consumers are normally labelled to indicate the number of units of alcohol in a typical serving (optional) and in the full container (can or bottle), as well as information about responsible drinking.


title: Unit of alcohol

text: As an approximate guideline, a typical healthy adult can metabolise (break down) about one unit of alcohol per hour, although this may vary depending on sex, age, weight, health and many other factors.


title: Unit of alcohol

text: The number of UK units of alcohol in a drink can be determined by multiplying the volume of the drink (in millilitres) by its percentage ABV, and dividing by 1000.


title: Unit of alcohol

text: The formula uses . This results in exactly one unit per percentage point per litre, of any alcoholic beverage.


title: Unit of alcohol

text: The formula can be simplified for everyday use by expressing the serving size in centilitres and the alcohol content literally as a percentage:


title: Unit of alcohol

text: Thus, a 750 ml bottle of wine at 12% ABV contains 75 cl × 12% = 9 units. Alternatively, the serving size in litres multiplied by the alcohol content as a number, the above example giving 0.75 × 12 = 9 units:


title: Unit of alcohol

text: Research in the UK has shown that including pictures of units and a statement of the drinking guidelines could help people understand the recommended limits better.


title: Unit of alcohol

text: UK alcohol companies pledged in March 2011 to implement an innovative health labelling scheme to provide more information about responsible drinking on alcohol labels and containers. This voluntary scheme is the first of its kind in Europe and has been developed in conjunction with the UK Department of Health. The pledge stated:


title: Unit of alcohol

text: There are five elements included within the overall labelling scheme, the first three being mandatory, and the last two optional:


title: Unit of alcohol

text: Drinks companies had pledged to display the three mandatory items on 80% of drinks containers on shelves in the UK off-trade by the end of December 2013. A report published in November 2014, confirmed that UK drinks producers had delivered on that pledge with a 79.3% compliance with the pledge elements as measured by products on shelf. Compared with labels from 2008 on a like-for-like basis, information on Unit alcohol content had increased by 46%; 91% of products displayed alcohol and pregnancy warnings (18% in 2008); and 75% showed the Chief Medical Officers' lower risk daily guidelines (6% in 2008).


title: Unit of alcohol

text: It is sometimes misleadingly stated that there is one unit per half-pint of beer, or small glass of wine, or single measure of spirits. However, such statements do not take into account the various strengths and volumes supplied in practice.


title: Unit of alcohol

text: For example, the ABV of beer typically varies from 3.5% to 5.5%. A typical "medium" glass of wine with 175 ml at 12% ABV has 2.1 units. And spirits, although typically 35–40% ABV, have single measures of 25 ml or 35 ml (so 1 or 1.4 units) depending on location.


title: Unit of alcohol

text: The misleading nature of "one unit per half-pint of beer, or small glass of wine, or single measure of spirits" can lead to people underestimating their alcohol intake.


title: Unit of alcohol

text: Most spirits sold in the United Kingdom have 40% ABV or slightly less. In England, a single pub measure (25 ml) of a spirit contains one unit. However, a larger 35 ml measure is increasingly used (and in particular is standard in Northern Ireland), which contains 1.4 units of alcohol at 40% ABV. Sellers of spirits by the glass must state the capacity of their standard measure in ml.


title: Unit of alcohol

text: On average, it takes about one hour for the body to metabolise (break down) one unit of alcohol. However, this will vary with body weight, sex, age, personal metabolic rate, recent food intake, the type and strength of the alcohol, and medications taken. Alcohol may be metabolised more slowly if liver function is impaired.


title: Unit of alcohol

text: From 1992 to 1995, the UK government advised that men should drink no more than 21 units per week, and women no more than 14. (The difference between the sexes was due to the typically lower weight and water-to-body-mass ratio of women). "The Times" claimed in October 2007 that these limits had been "plucked out of the air" and had no scientific basis.


title: Unit of alcohol

text: This was changed after a government study showed that many people were in effect "saving up" their units and using them at the end of the week, a form of binge drinking. Since 1995 the advice was that regular consumption of 3–4 units a day for men, or 2–3 units a day for women, would not pose significant health risks, but that consistently drinking four or more units a day (men), or three or more units a day (women), is not advisable.


title: Unit of alcohol

text: An international study of about 6,000 men and 11,000 women for a total of 75,000 person-years found that people who reported that they drank more than a threshold value of 2 units of alcohol a day had a higher risk of fractures than non-drinkers. For example, those who drank over 3 units a day had nearly twice the risk of a hip fracture.


title: Alwar

text: Alwar (Pronunciation: ]) is a city located in India's National Capital Region and the administrative headquarters of Alwar District in the state of Rajasthan. It is located 150 km south of Delhi and 150 km north of Jaipur. At present the district is famous for production of Mustard Crop in the region, manufacturing of Ray Ban eyeglasses, Beer production plants and frozen food industry.


title: Alwar

text: There are many theories about the derivation of the name Alwar. Cunningham holds that the city derived its name from the Salva tribe and was originally Salwapur, then Salwar, Halawar and eventually Alwar, According to another school it was known as Aravalpur or the city of Aravali. Some others hold that city is named after Alaval Khan Mewati (Khanzada prince who wrested Alwar from Nikumbh Rajputs). A research conducted during the reign of Maharaja Jai Singh of Alwar revealed that Maharaja Alaghraj, second son of Maharaja Kakil of Amber. ruled the area in the eleventh century and his territory extended up to the present city of Alwar. He founded the city of Alpur in 1106 Vikrami Samvat (1049 A.D.) after his own name which eventually became Alwar. It was formerly spelt as Ulwar but in the reign of Jai Singh the spelling was changed to Alwar.


title: Alwar

text: The ancient name of Alwar is Salva or Salwa (tribe).Alwar was a part of the Matsya Kingdom, one of the 16 ancient Mahājanapadas. In late Vedic texts (such as the Jaiminiya Brahmana), the Salva or Salvi tribe is described as a non-Vedic tribe that occupied Kurukshetra and conquered the Kuru Kingdom


title: Alwar

text: The Salvas settled along the Yamuna river and the Alwar province of Rajasthan after attacking the Kuru kingdom, and they later accepted Vedic culture by the end of the Vedic era as they converged with the remaining Kurus and the Surasena mahajanapada, near Matsya kingdom.


title: Alwar

text: From time to time, a different Rajput sub-clan came to rule Alwar. Examples include the Nikumbh, the Khanzada Rajputs, the Badgujar Rajput, and finally the Naruka (Kachwaha) Rajputs who took the control over this area. The Maratha Empire also ruled this region for a short period. A Rajput, Partap Singh, took the Alwar Fort from the Jat Raja of Bharatpur and laid down the foundation for modern day Alwar.


title: Alwar

text: Hemchandra Vikramaditya (Hemu), born in Machari, Rajgarh, a village in Alwar, was a Hindu emperor of North India during the 16th century. This was a period when the Mughals and Afghans were vying for power in the region. Hemu captured Delhi on 7 October 1556 after defeating the Mughal forces in the Battle of Delhi in the Tughlaqabad area in Delhi, and became the "de facto" emperor. He won twenty-two battles in succession and became the last Hindu emperor of Delhi. In 1556, after his defeat in the Second Battle of Panipat, he was executed and Mughal regime was restored in North India.


title: Alwar

text: Alwar State, a princely state established in 1770, was established by a Kachwaha Rajput named Pratap Singh who was earlier a jagirdar of "Dhai Gaon" (two-and-a-half villages) near Machari. His successor "Bakhtawar Singh Kachwaha" was defeated after launching an armed incursion into neighbouring Jaipur State (ruled by their Kachwaha seniors, erstwhile overlords of his predecessor) and being forced to accept the consequent treaty mediated by East India Company prohibiting him from political relations with other states without the consent of the colonial British. According to the "Gazetteer of Ulwar" published by the British raj, Alwar State was subdivided into four regions:


title: Alwar

text: Alwar acceded to the dominion of India following the independence of India in 1947. On 18 March 1948, the state merged with three neighbouring princely states (Bharatpur, Dholpur and Karauli) to form the Matsya Union. On 15 May 1949, it was united with neighbouring princely states and the territory of Ajmer to form the present-day Indian state of Rajasthan. Alwar was designated as part of the National Capital Region, resulting in additional development projects including rapid-rail to Delhi and drinking water improvements. The military cantonment of Itarana lies on the outskirts of Alwar.


title: Alwar

text: The Fairy Queen, a national treasure (cultural artifact) of India and the world's oldest working locomotive engine (c. 1855 CE), operates as a tourist luxury train between Delhi and Alwar.


title: Alwar

text: Bala Qila (lit. "High Fort"), also known as Alwar Fort, is a fort approximately 300 meters above the city, founded by the 15th-century Khanzada Rajput ruler Hasan Khan Mewati and built on the foundations of a 10th-century mud fort. Situated on the Aravalli Range, the fort is 5 kilometres long and about 1.5 kilometres wide with turrets, a large gate, a temple, and a residential area.


title: Alwar

text: The City Palace, also known as Vinay Vilas Mahal, built in 1793 CE by Raja Bakhtawar Singh, blends the Rajputana and Islamic architectural styles and has marble pavilions on lotus-shaped bases in its courtyard. The palace houses a state museum with a collection of manuscripts, including one depicting Emperor Babur’s life, Ragamala paintings and miniatures, and historic swords that once belonged to Muhammad Ghori, Emperor Akbar and Aurangzeb; and a golden Durbar hall. This palace that once belonged to the Maharaja (lit. Great Ruler) has now been converted into a District Administrative office also housing the District Court.


title: Alwar

text: The Sariska Tiger Reserve, a National Park and Tiger Reserve, is located in the Aravali hills only a few kilometres away from Alwar. Declared a Wildlife reserve in 1955 and a National Park in 1982, it is the first reserve in the world to have successfully relocated tigers. The sanctuary, which became a part of India's Project Tiger in 1978, also preserves other species including rare birds and plants.


title: Alwar

text: Bhangarh Fort, branded as the fourth most haunted palace in the world, and the most haunted palace in Asia, is a 17th-century fort built by Bhagwant Das for his younger son Madho Singh I. The fort, a monument protected by the Archaeological Survey of India and is known for its association to legends and paranormal activities, is a tourist attraction for visitors across the world.


title: Alwar

text: Siliserh Lake is 19th century lake created by Maharaja Vijay Singh of Alwar, situated 8 miles southwest of Alwar.


title: Alwar

text: Hill Fort Kesroli, a 14th-century fort, has now been converted into and is conserved as a heritage hotel.


title: Alwar

text: As of 2019, the most common modes of medium-distance transport in Alwar are government-owned services such as railways and buses, as well as privately operated lok pariwahan buses, taxis and auto rickshaws. Bus services operate from the Alwar old Bus Station which is 5 km away from the Alwar railway junction. In addition to this it is also planned that a metro rail system from Delhi to Alwar via Behror route will be started. The nearest airports to Alwar are Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi (143 km away), Jaipur International Airport (150 km away), and an airport currently under development in Bhiwadi airport (90 km away). Alwar Junction railway station, on the Delhi–Jaipur line, is connected with Delhi, Jaipur, and Mumbai. Alwar is connected by roads from major cities of Rajasthan and nearby states.


title: Alwar

text: Alwar is located at . It has an average elevation of . The Ruparail River is a major river near the city. Alwar is fairly rich in mineral wealth; it produces marble, granite, feldspar, dolomite, quartz, limestone, soap stone, barites, copper clay, copper ore and pyrophylite.


title: Alwar

text: At the time of the 2011 census, the population of Alwar city and Alwar district were 341,422 and 3,674,179 respectively, with Hindus representing 90.7% of the population, Muslims representing 4.3%, Sikhs representing 2.6%, Jains representing 2.1%, and the remaining 1.3% belonging to other religions.


title: Alwar

text: Raj Rishi Bhartrihari Matsya University was established in 2012–13 . Alwar has several schools such as Alwar Public School, Shri Oswal Jain Senior Secondary School, St. Anselm's Senior Secondary School, Kendriya Vidyalaya, Adinath Public School, Knowledge City School, Chinar Public School, Lords International School, Sri Guru Harkrishan Public School, Step By Step Senior Secondary School, Raath International School, National Academy and Silver Oak, and colleges (Raj Rishi college, Siddhi Vinayak College, Presidency College, Government Law College, KCRI College, IET College). The Employee's State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) Medical College is constructed with a whooping INR 800 crore budget and started operating from 2017.


title: Kusum Dola

text: Kusum Dola was an Indian Bengali television soap opera which aired on Bengali Entertainment Channel Star Jalsha and is available on the digital platform Hotstar. It premiered on 22 August 2016, and was telecast daily. It was produced by Magic Moments Motion Pictures of Saibal Banerjee and Leena Ganguly. In January 2018, it had a TRP of 11.2. The series ended on 2 September 2018, airing 731 episodes; and was replaced by "Irabotir Chupkotha".


title: Kusum Dola

text: "Kusum Dola" is a series which starred Madhumita Sarkar, Rishi Kaushik and Aparajita Ghosh Das in lead roles, the latter two for the third time since their corresponding portrayal of the characters "Indra" and "Mohor" in the 2005 Zee Bangla television drama serial "Ekdin Pratidin", and their respective characterizations of "Ujaan" and "Hiya" in the 2008 Star Jalsha romantic drama series "Ekhane Aakash Neel", which ended in 2010.


title: Kusum Dola

text: Iman Mukherjee aka Emon is a kind-hearted, studious, and short-tempered girl who aspires to be a doctor lives with her father Police Officer Jayanta Mukherjee in Sundarpur, a village in North Bengal. She is supposed to go to Kolkata to study in a medical college and to achieve this Jayanta decides to take early retirement from his job. On the other hand, Ranojoy Chatterjee aka Rono, a Kolkata-based IPS Officer decided to go to Jaisalmer on a vacation. On the trip to Jaisalmer, Ranajay meets Roopkatha. They develop romantic feelings but are unable to express them. As they bid adieu, Rono promises to call her.


title: Kusum Dola

text: Meanwhile, in Sundarpur, Iman is disturbed and tortured by Gogna, a local goon almost every day. Gogna is obsessed with Iman and wants to marry her. When Jayanta came to know about it, he arrests Gogna and punishes him in the police station. But then he receives a call from Akhil Ghosh, a minister and orders him to release Gogna. But when Jayanta refuses, Akhil and his goons came to the police station and starting wreaking havoc and held Jayanta at gun point. Iman comes to the police station and is shocked to see Jayanta held at gun point, when she came to rescue him Akhil's goons held her at gun point too. Akhil threatens to kill Iman if Jayanta doesn't release Gogna. Having no other choice Jayanta is forced to release Gogna but warns Akhil that one day he and Gogna will pay for their sins. To take necessary steps against Gogna and Akhil, Jayanta files a request for an IPS officer to be posted in Sundarpur to deal with those goons.


title: Kusum Dola

text: Ranajay gets posted to Sundarpur and learns about Gogna's misdeeds from Jayanta and warns him to stay away from Iman. Meanwhile, Jayanta decides to postpone his retirement to assist Ranajay in arresting Gogna. Iman is upset with this decision and blames Ranajay, leading to them having a heated conversation.


title: Kusum Dola

text: On the other hand, Ranajay's brother Badshah's is going to marry a dejected Roopkatha, who is sad as Ranajay didn't contact her and thinks him to be a cheater. Ranajay learns about Badshah's wedding and decides to visit Kolkata for a few days. He's shocked to see that Roopkatha is Badshah's bride whereas Roopkatha is also shocked to learn that Ranajay is Badshah's brother.


title: Kusum Dola

text: Ranajay confronts Roopkatha and while the misunderstanding is cleared, Ranajay refuses to break his brother's marriage but promises Roopkatha he would never love another woman. Meanwhile, Gogna decides to take advantage of Ranajay's absence and abduct Iman to marry her. When Jayanta was returning to Sundarpur from work, Gogna abducts him and takes him to his den. Iman worries about Jayanta when he doesn't return home and decides to search for Jayanta. When she goes out to search for him, Gogna abducts her too and takes her to a temple to forcefully marry her. The local villagers call Ranajay and informs him about Jayanta and Iman's abduction and requests him to come and rescue them. Ranajay leaves the wedding to return to Sundarpur making Roopkatha upset. Gogna threatens to kill Jayanta if Iman doesn't marry her, having no other choice Iman agrees to marry him. Ranajay and the local police reaches the spot before Gogna could marry Iman. Gogna tries to escape with Iman but is shot in the hand by Ranajay, who rescues both her and Jayanta. Roopkatha calls Ranajay to know why he left her wedding suddenly. Ranajay explains her the situation and again promises her that she will always have a place in his heart. Badshah overhears their conversation and decides to leave his house not wanting to get in between Ranajay and Roopkatha. Badshah told his family that he needs to go to an army operation, making them sad. His family get a call from Badshah's office and learn that he's missing, leaving them shocked. Roopkatha informs Ranajay about his brother's disappearance. Ranajay, extremely sad over his brother's disappearance, assures her that Badshah is alive and will return one day.


title: Kusum Dola

text: In Sundarpur, Ranajay, Jayanta and the police plan a sting operation to catch Gogna. Iman, being worried about Jayanta requests Ranajay to not include him in the operation but Ranajay refuses. Iman also requests Jayanta to not take part in the operation but he doesn't listen to her either, telling that he will retire after arresting Gogna. In the operation, Gogna shoots Jayanta leaving him injured. He is eventually arrested by Ranajay and the police and threatens Ranajay that one day he will come back for revenge and Ranajay will have the same fate as Jayanta. Ranajay takes Jayanta to the hospital where he requests Ranajay to look after Iman if he dies. Ranajay informs Iman about Jayanta's condition, a dejected Iman blames Ranajay and holds him responsible for Jayanta's condition. Despite the doctor's efforts, they were unable to save Jayanta and he died. Devastated, Iman tries to commit suicide but was saved by Ranajay, who donates blood for her. Villagers request Ranajay to marry Iman. Iman rejects the proposal but Rono decides to marry Imon to take care of her. He requests Roopkatha to visit Sundarpur but doesn't tell her about his marriage. Ranajay tells Iman of his commitment to Roopkatha and Iman agrees that she will not expect anything from him as a husband and tells him she can never be his wife and will leave him after she becomes a doctor. Roopkatha visits Sundarpur and is shocked to see that Ranajay and Iman got married. Later, Ranajay decides to return to Kolkata along with Iman. Ranajay's family members refuse to accept Iman as Ranajay's wife. Feeling betrayed by Ranajay, Roopkatha inflicts her frustrations on Iman. Ranajay gets emotionally attached to Iman seeing her efforts to help his family members, despite their behaviour towards her and subsequently falls in love with her, but cannot confess.


title: Kusum Dola

text: During Durga Puja celebrations, Iman helps Ranajay's sister, Koli, reunite with and marry her lover, Dipto. Emon brings Badshah back into the house. Badshah wants to free Roopkatha from their namesake relationship but she proposes they continue using it to stay close to Rono. Emon finally confesses love to Rono on his birthday. A devastated Roopkatha tries to accuse Rono of impregnating her but seeing Emon's faith in Rono's innocence, she backs down and is about to leave the house when she is asked to stay by Badhsah and the family. Gogna arrives at Kolkata and abducts Iman and misbehaves with her. Iman fought with Gogna and his goons and is eventually rescued by Ranajay, who arrests Gogna again.


title: Kusum Dola

text: Meanwhile, Ranajay's friend Krishnamoy, a naxalite, dies leaving his pregnant widow, Shruti, in Ranajay's care. Emon and the family suspect Ranajay of having an affair when he impersonated as Shruthi's husband and Shruti's child, Michhil's father, Emon files for a divorce. Ranajay is forced to leave the house and Shruti develops romantic feelings for him. Iman learns about her pregnancy, but is abducted by the supposedly-dead Krishnamoy who seeks revenge from Ranajay, having misunderstood his relationship with Shruti. Iman is rescued by Ranajay, whom she once again misunderstands and files a lawsuit against Ranajay for infidelity. In court, Ranajay is proved innocent and Iman repents for her actions. Also, the court declares Ranajay and Iman's divorce to be null and void. Ranajay goes to meet Krishnamoy to plead with him to change his ways for Shruti and their baby but Krishna, in a fit of rage, shoots Ranajay, who is saved after Shruti donates blood for him. Krishna is arrested.


title: Kusum Dola

text: Post recovery, Ranajay and Iman resolve their differences and reunite. Gogna returns again and kidnaps Iman, but is shot by Ranajay who comes to Emon's rescue. After Iman (now a medical intern) treats Gogna and saves him, he repents for his past actions and decides to mend his ways. Roopkatha and Badhsah confess their feelings for each other and decide to start out afresh.


title: Kusum Dola

text: Shruti is revealed to be in the last stages of breast cancer and is dying. When Ranajay is unable to make it to Iman's delivery, due to Shruti's operation, Iman breaks all ties with Ranajay and later, leaves for Ujanpur with her new-born daughter, Pekhom. Ranajay applies for a transfer to be with Iman and Pekhom. Shruti finally dies in Ujanpur Hospital only after expressing her desire to Ranajay and Iman to reunite.


title: Kusum Dola

text: Later, Ranajay is forced to arrest Iman, regarding her role in the accidental death of a patient named Parasar. He arranges for her bail, and decides to find out the true culprits as well as the persons responsible for illegal trafficking of new born children from the hospital. Madhuparna defends Iman as her lawyer, and after Nurse Ratnabali is proven guilty, Imon is released. Iman and Ranajay finally resolve their differences and relocate themselves to Kolkata returning to the Chatterjee House.


title: Kusum Dola

text: Roopkatha grows jealous and agitated over Iman's happy and peaceful life, which she herself yearns for, having no children of her own. She acts out and to pacify her Iman gives her daughter Pekhom's charge to Roopkatha, who quickly becomes over-possessive of Pekhom. Krishnamoy too arrives, having been released from jail, to take his son Michhil back with him, leaving Ranajay heartbroken.


title: Kusum Dola

text: Iman plans a family trip during which Badshah suffers a heart attack and suddenly dies. A desolate Roopkatha blames Iman. Roopkatha attempts suicide but is rescued by Ranajay. After Roopkatha is diagnosed with severe depression, Ranajay stands by her to help her recover as she begins to seek him as the loved one to fill in her loneliness.


title: Kusum Dola

text: Ranajay's family wants Roopkatha out of the house to avoid any further tensions but Ranajay dismisses the idea. Iman and other family members feel insecure due to Ranajay's growing proximity towards Roopkatha, and everyone suspect them of having an affair. A mentally unstable Roopkatha assumes herself to be pregnant and believes it to be Rono's child leading a heart-broken Iman to leave the house with Pekhom and working overtime to make ends meet. It is revealed that Roopkatha is not pregnant and instead has a tumour in her uterus that poses a threat to her life. Roopkatha struggles to accept the fact and is finally made to the leave the Chatterjee house for her own betterment so that she can start her life afresh. Iman and Ranajay, however, remain separated.


title: Kusum Dola

text: Five years later, Roopkatha, now a college professor, meets Iman, now a professional doctor, to invite her to her wedding with Ranajay. Later, she visits the Chatterjee house to invite them to her wedding with Ranajay. Secretly, Roopkatha plans to reunite Iman-Ranajay by remarrying them on the day of her wedding and their 12th marriage anniversary. Meanwhile, Iman receives the "Konya Rotno" award. Imon, as per Roopkatha's request, manages to bring the Chatterjees to Roopkatha's wedding, much to their distaste, as all assume that Roopkatha is marrying Ranajay. However, Roopkatha surprises everyone by introducing Alok as her groom.


title: Kusum Dola

text: Iman and Ranajay have an emotional confrontation, marking their reunion, sorting out all their differences. His family members also realize his innocence and reunite with him, welcoming him and Iman back into their family. Lastly, Roopkatha, taking the heartfelt apologies, blessings and good wishes from the Chatterjees, marries Alok, marking a new phase in her life, as the series ends on a joyous note.


title: Kusum Dola

text: Screenwriter Leena Gangopadhyay who has previously written down the script for Bengali TV shows like ETV Bangla's long-running drama series "Sonar Horin" and another daily soap "Binni Dhaner Khoi", Zee Bangla's partition-themed love saga "Keya Patar Nouko", and Star Jalsha's serials "Ishti Kutum" and "Jol Nupur"; developed the central idea for "Kusum Dola".


title: Kusum Dola

text: She made the main female protagonist, tentatively named "Shimul", a village girl who is bright in her studies and quite upfront by nature. Circumstances force the girl to marry a man (the lead hero), who is previously committed to another woman (the third main lead). Ganguly decided to have the backdrop of an extended family, and had the other woman (named "Roopkatha") marry the hero's brother and live in the same house as the hero (named "Rono").


title: Kusum Dola

text: Rishi Kaushik who had previously collaborated with Ganguly and Banerjee in their production "Ishti Kutum", was selected to portray the lead role of IPS Ranojoy Chatterjee a.k.a. "Rono". Later Rishi said in a 2018 interview that his character "Rono" is reserved and headstrong like his real-life self. Aparajita Ghosh Das who had been playing the heroine in another TV serial "Kojagori" (on Zee Bangla), was cast in to play the other prominent lead character, Roopkatha, taking into account her onscreen chemistry with Kaushik. Actress Madhumita Sarkar, noted for her portrayal of "Juni" in medical romance-drama series "Care Kori Na", and "Pakhi" and "Khushi" respectively in the romance saga "Bojhena Se Bojhena"; was cast to portray Shimul (later named Emon).


title: Kusum Dola

text: The series premiered on 22 August 2016 and replaced Prasenjit Chatterjee starrer "Mahanayak" TV series and was telecast every day on Bengali GEC Star Jalsha and its corresponding channel with HD feed, Star Jalsha HD. It is available via optimum cable connection or by satellite TV connections. The show has been distributed by Star India, in association with Novi Digital Entertainment. On the digital platform, "Kusum Dola" is available for viewing on the app Hotstar. New episodes are released earlier than on TV, and the service is available for viewers having a premium subscription plan.


title: Kusum Dola

text: The title song for the series "Kusum Dola" has been sung by singer Anwesha Dutta Gupta, who has frequently collaborated with the production house Magic Moments Motion Pictures for recording theme songs for Bengali television serials. While, the original music has been given by Debojyoti Mishra.


title: The Hissing of Summer Lawns

text: The Hissing of Summer Lawns is the seventh studio album by the Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, released in 1975. The sessions featured backing from members of the jazz groups the L.A. Express and the Jazz Crusaders.


title: The Hissing of Summer Lawns

text: The lead single was "In France They Kiss on Main Street." The album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.


title: The Hissing of Summer Lawns

text: The slick jazz-pop sound Mitchell developed on "Court and Spark" (1974) would be pushed into more adventurous territory on "The Hissing of Summer Lawns". On "The Jungle Line", Mitchell is credited with the first commercially released song to include sampling, featuring a loop recording of African musicians. This interest in world music would presage the work of Peter Gabriel and Paul Simon in subsequent years. Other tracks reflect a fusion of jazz and "shimmering avant pop." The album also utilizes ARP synthesizer.


title: The Hissing of Summer Lawns

text: The first track, "In France They Kiss on Main Street", is a jazz-rock song about coming of age in a small town in the 1950s rock & roll era. (The song was released as the single from the album and reached number 66 on the "Billboard" charts.) "The Jungle Line" uses a field recording from Africa of the Drummers of Burundi (called 'warrior drums' in the credits), onto which are dubbed guitar, Moog synthesizer and the vocal line. The lyrics pay homage to the works of the French Post-Impressionist painter Henri Rousseau. Mitchell blends details of his works with imagery of modern city life, the music industry and the underground drug culture.


title: The Hissing of Summer Lawns

text: "Edith and the Kingpin" marks a return to jazz in a story of a gangster's new moll arriving in his home town. "Don't Interrupt the Sorrow" is an acoustic guitar-based song with stream-of-consciousness lyrics, focused on women standing up to male dominance and proclaiming their own existence as individuals. "Shades of Scarlett Conquering" is an orchestral-based piece about a modern southern belle basing her life and self-image on the stereotypes of the Scarlett O'Hara character from "Gone with the Wind".


title: The Hissing of Summer Lawns

text: The second side begins with the title track, "The Hissing of Summer Lawns", which is about a woman who chooses to stay in a marriage where she is treated as part of her husband's portfolio. "The Boho Dance" comments on people who feel that artists betray their artistic integrity for commercial success, with an ironic glance at those who said this of Mitchell herself and parallels Tom Wolfe's "The Painted Word". "Harry's House / Centerpiece" concerns failing marriage as example of the loneliness of modern life and frames the jazz standard "Centerpiece" by Harry "Sweets" Edison and Jon Hendricks. "Sweet Bird" is a sparser acoustic track that is a slight return to Mitchell's so-called 'confessional' singer-songwriter style and addresses the loss of beauty power with ageing. Its lyrics indicate that it may also be a reference to Tennessee Williams's "Sweet Bird of Youth". The final track is "Shadows and Light", consisting of many overdubs of her voice and an ARP String Machine (credited as an ARP-Farfisa on the album sleeve).


title: The Hissing of Summer Lawns

text: The African theme of "The Jungle Line" also features on the album sleeve, with an image of dark-skinned people carrying a large snake (both were embossed on the original vinyl album cover). Both men and snake are superimposed on the Beverly Hills suburbs, with Mitchell's own house marked in blue (green for the UK issue) on the back cover.


title: The Hissing of Summer Lawns

text: The album initially received harsh criticism. In "Rolling Stone", Stephen Holden wrote that the album's lyrics were impressive but the music was a failure. "If "The Hissing of Summer Lawns" offers substantial literature, it is set to insubstantial music... Four members of Tom Scott's L.A. Express are featured on "Hissing", but their uninspired jazz-rock style completely opposes Mitchell's romantic style... "The Hissing of Summer Lawns" is ultimately a great collection of pop poems with a distracting soundtrack. Read it first. Then play it."


title: The Hissing of Summer Lawns

text: However, the record's reputation has grown in stature over the years. Music writer Howard Sounes has called "The Hissing of Summer Lawns" Mitchell's masterpiece, "an LP to stand alongside "Blood on the Tracks"". Prince, a lifelong fan of Mitchell, had loved the album, praising it in interviews.


title: The Hissing of Summer Lawns

text: In 1977, at the 19th Grammy Awards, Mitchell was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for the album.


title: The Hissing of Summer Lawns

text: It was voted number 217 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's "All Time Top 1000 Albums" (2000). The album was included in Robert Dimery's "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die". in 2020, "Rolling Stone" ranked the album at number 258 in the 2020 edition of its 500 greatest albums of all time.


title: The Hissing of Summer Lawns

text: All songs written by Joni Mitchell, except "The Hissing of Summer Lawns" written with John Guerin and "Centerpiece", written by Jon Hendricks and Harry Edison.


title: Cochin Haneefa

text: Muhammed Haneefa (22 April 1951 – 2 February 2010), better known by his stage name Cochin Haneefa, was an Indian actor, film director, and screenwriter. He started his career in the 1970s mainly portraying villainous roles, before going on to become one of the most popular comedians of Malayalam cinema. He acted in more than 300 films in Malayalam and Tamil.


title: Cochin Haneefa

text: Haneefa was born in Cochin (present-day Kochi) to Kochi Velthedathu Tharavattil A.B. Muhammed and Hajira, as the second among their eight children. He studied at Kochi St. Augustine's School and St. Albert's College and graduated with a degree in commerce.


title: Cochin Haneefa

text: He made his film debut in 1972 in "Azhimukham" directed by Vijayan and went on to act in over 300 films in Malayalam. He also acted in over 80 Tamil films, including popular movies like "Mahanadi" with Kamal Haasan, "Sivaji" and "Enthiran" with Rajinikanth.


title: Cochin Haneefa

text: Haneefa played memorable roles in many Malayalam films, including "Mannar Mathai Speaking", "Devaasuram", "Kireedam", Chenkol ", Punjabi House" and "Swapnakoodu", "Pulivaal Kalyanam", "Meesa Madhavan", "C.I.D Moosa", "Thilakkam" etc. He also directed around 20 films, including "Valtsalyam" and "Moonu Masangalkku Munbu". The last Tamil films in which he appeared were "Madrasapattinam" and "Enthiran". His final Malayalam film was the 2010 film "Bodyguard".


title: Cochin Haneefa

text: Even though he started off in villain roles, he slowly transitioned to the comedic characters. He had also played dramatic supporting character roles to a great effect. Haneefa's comedic roles smartly captured his physique in a self-deprecating nature and eventually, he became one of the most popular comedians in Malayalam cinema. In "Kireedam", he played the role of Hydrose, a hilarious rowdy. His first noted role as a comedian came in "Mannar Mathai Speaking", where he played the role of Eldho. "Punjabi House" was the movie which established him as a major comedian in Malayalam cinema. Considered one of the best slapstick comedy film in Malayalam cinema, Haneefa portrayed the character Gangadharan in the movie. "Punjabi House" was a major breakthrough in the careers of Harishree Asokan and Dileep as well. The movie eventually developed into a cult. Haneefa along with these Asokan and Dileep eventually formed a successful trio in Malayalam cinema. They acted together in numerous movies such as "Udayapuram Sulthan", "Ee Parakkum Thalika", "Meesa Madhavan", "Thilakkam", "C.I.D. Moosa", "Runway" and "Pandippada". Haneefa played the role of "S.I" "Veerappan Kurupp" in the 2001 slapstick comedy movie "Ee Parakkum Thalika". He again played the role of a hilarious police officer, this time becoming Sudarshanan in the movie "Snehithan", which was released the same year. His role as Mathukkutty in the 2002 film "Mazhathullikkilukkam" was also noted. Haneefa's character Thrivikraman in the 2002 movie "Meesa Madhavan" was highly appreciated. It was the highest-grossing movie of that year and many of the characters in the movie like Pillechan and Pattalam Purushu became a cult. It was in the year 2003 that Haneefa played some of the best iconic comedy characters in his career. In "Thilakkam", he became the local rowdy called Bhaskaran and in "Kilichundan Mampazham", he portrayed the role of Kalanthan Haji. Haneefa's one of the career best role came in the slapstick comedy movie "C.I.D Moosa", where he played the role of Vikaraman. Similar to that of "Punjabi House", "Ee Parakkum Thalika" and "Meesa Madhavan", the performance of Dileep-Asokan-Haneefa trio along with Jagathy Sreekumar in this movie were highly appreciated and it became the second highest-grossing movie in 2003. In "Swapnakoodu", he played the role of Philipose and as Panchayath President in "Vellithira". Haneefa's another memorable character came out in the movie "Pulival Kalyanam", where he played as Dharmendra, often mistaken in the movie with the Bollywood legendary superstar of the same name. This movie was well appreciated especially for the comedy scenes between Haneefa and Salim Kumar, who played as Manavalan in the movie. Manavalan eventually became a cult character in Malayalam cinema.


title: Cochin Haneefa

text: Haneefa died on February 2, 2010, aged 58, at Sri Ramachandra Hospital in Chennai, from multiple organ failure. He had been treated for liver cancer. He was buried at Ernakulam Central Juma Masjid with full state honours.


title: Monophyly

text: In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic groups are typically characterised by shared derived characteristics (synapomorphies), which distinguish organisms in the clade from other organisms. An equivalent term is holophyly.


title: Monophyly

text: Monophyly is contrasted with paraphyly and polyphyly as shown in the second diagram. A "paraphyletic group" consists of all of the descendants of a common ancestor minus one or more monophyletic groups. A "polyphyletic group" is characterized by convergent features or habits of scientific interest (for example, night-active primates, fruit trees, aquatic insects). The features by which a polyphyletic group is differentiated from others are not inherited from a common ancestor.


title: Monophyly

text: These definitions have taken some time to be accepted. When the cladistics school of thought became mainstream in the 1960s, several alternative definitions were in use. Indeed, taxonomists sometimes used terms without defining them, leading to confusion in the early literature, a confusion which persists.


title: Monophyly

text: The first diagram shows a phylogenetic tree with two monophyletic groups. The several groups and subgroups are particularly situated as branches of the tree to indicate ordered lineal relationships between all the organisms shown. Further, any group may (or may not) be considered a taxon by modern systematics, depending upon the selection of its members in relation to their common ancestor(s); see second and third diagrams.


title: Monophyly

text: The term "monophyly", or "monophyletic", derives from the two Ancient Greek words (), meaning "alone, only, unique", and (), meaning "genus, species", and refers to the fact that a monophyletic group includes organisms (e.g., genera, species) consisting of all the descendants of a "unique" common ancestor.


title: Monophyly

text: Conversely, the term "polyphyly", or "polyphyletic", builds on the ancient Greek prefix (), meaning "many, a lot of", and refers to the fact that a polyphyletic group includes organisms arising from "multiple" ancestral sources.


title: Monophyly

text: By comparison, the term "paraphyly", or "paraphyletic", uses the ancient Greek prefix (), meaning "beside, near", and refers to the situation in which one or several monophyletic subgroups are "left apart" from all other descendants of a unique common ancestor. That is, a paraphyletic group is "nearly" monophyletic, hence the prefix "".


title: Monophyly

text: The concepts of monophyly, paraphyly, and polyphyly have been used in deducing key genes for barcoding of diverse group of species.


title: Farinelli

text: Farinelli (; 24 January 1705 – 16 September 1782) was the stage name of Carlo Maria Michelangelo Nicola Broschi (), a celebrated Italian castrato singer of the 18th century and one of the greatest singers in the history of opera. Farinelli has been described as having had soprano vocal range and as having sung the highest note customary at the time, C6.


title: Farinelli

text: Broschi was born in Andria (in what is now Apulia, Italy) into a family of musicians. As recorded in the baptismal register of the church of S. Nicola in Andria, his father Salvatore was a composer and "maestro di cappella" of the city's cathedral, and his mother, Caterina Barrese, a citizen of Naples. The Duke of Andría, Fabrizio Carafa, a member of the House of Carafa, one of the most prestigious families of the Neapolitan nobility, honored Maestro Broschi by taking a leading part in the baptism of his second son, who was baptised Carlo Maria Michelangelo Nicola. [In later life, Farinelli wrote: "Il Duca d'Andria mi tenne al fonte." ("The Duke of Andria held me at the font.")]. In 1706 Salvatore also took up the non-musical post of governor of the town of Maratea (on the western coast of what is now Basilicata), and in 1709 that of Terlizzi (some twenty miles south-east of Andria). Unlike many castrati, who came from poor families, Farinelli was well-to-do, and was related to minor nobility on both sides of the family.


title: Farinelli

text: From 1707, the Broschi family lived in the coastal city of Barletta, a few miles from Andria, but at the end of 1711, they made the much longer move to the capital city of Naples, where, in 1712 Carlo's elder brother Riccardo was enrolled at the Conservatory of S. Maria di Loreto, specialising in composition. Carlo had already shown talent as a boy singer, and was now introduced to the most famous singing-teacher in Naples, Nicola Porpora. Already a successful opera composer, in 1715 Porpora was appointed at the Conservatory of S. Onofrio, where his pupils included such well-known castrati as Giuseppe Appiani, Felice Salimbeni, and Gaetano Majorano (known as Caffarelli), as well as distinguished female singers such as Regina Mingotti and Vittoria Tesi; Farinelli may well have studied with him privately.


title: Farinelli

text: Salvatore Broschi died unexpectedly on 4 November 1717, aged only 36, and it seems likely that the consequent loss of economic security for the whole family provoked the decision, presumably taken by Riccardo, for Carlo to be castrated. As was often the case, an excuse had to be found for this operation, and in Carlo's case it was said to have been necessitated by a fall from a horse. It is, however, also possible that he was castrated earlier, since, at the time of his father's death, he was already twelve years old, quite an advanced age for castration.


title: Farinelli

text: Under Porpora's tutelage, his singing progressed rapidly, and at the age of fifteen, he made his debut a by his master entitled . The text of this work was the first by the soon-to-be-famous Pietro Trapassi (known as Metastasio), who became a lifelong friend of the singer. Farinelli remarked that the two of them had made their debuts on the same day, and each frequently referred to the other as his ("dear twin").


title: Farinelli

text: In this Serenata "Angelica e Medoro", the two leading roles were entrusted to two highly acclaimed singers: Marianna Benti Bulgarelli (aka "la Romanina") and Domenico Gizzi, Musico Soprano in the Royal Chapel of Naples.


title: Farinelli

text: The derivation of Broschi's stage name is not certain, but it was possibly from two rich Neapolitan lawyers, the brothers Farina, who may have sponsored his studies.


title: Farinelli

text: Farinelli quickly became famous throughout Italy as ("the boy"). In 1722, he first sang in Rome in Porpora's "Flavio Anicio Olibrio", as well as taking the female lead in "Sofonisba" by Luca Antonio Predieri. (It was common practice for young castrati to appear "en travesti"). All these appearances were greeted with huge public enthusiasm, and an almost legendary story arose that he had to perform an aria with trumpet "obbligato", which evolved into a contest between singer and trumpeter. Farinelli surpassed the trumpet player so much in technique and ornamentation that he "was at last silenced only by the acclamations of the audience" (to quote the music historian Charles Burney). This account, however, cannot be verified, since no surviving work which Farinelli is known to have performed contains an aria for soprano with trumpet "obbligato".


title: Farinelli

text: In 1724, Farinelli made his first appearance in Vienna, at the invitation of Prince Pio di Savoia, director of the Imperial Theatre. He spent the following season in Naples. In 1726, he also visited Parma and Milan, where Johann Joachim Quantz heard him and commented: "Farinelli had a penetrating, full, rich, bright and well-modulated soprano voice, with a range at that time from the A below middle C to the D two octaves above middle C. ... His intonation was pure, his trill beautiful, his breath control extraordinary and his throat very agile, so that he performed the widest intervals quickly and with the greatest ease and certainty. Passagework and all kinds of melismas were of no difficulty to him. In the invention of free ornamentation in adagio he was very fertile." Quantz is certainly accurate in describing Farinelli as a soprano, since arias in his repertoire contained the highest notes customarily employed by that voice during his lifetime: "Fremano l'onde" in Pietro Torri's opera "Nicomede" (1728) and "Troverai se a me ti fidi" in Niccolò Conforto's "La Pesca" (1737) both have sustained C6. His low range apparently extended to F3, as in "Al dolor che vo sfogando", an aria written by himself and incorporated in a pasticcio called Sabrina, and as in two of his own cadenzas for "Quell' usignolo innamorato" from Geminiano Giacomelli's "Merope".


title: Farinelli

text: Farinelli sang at Bologna in 1727, where he met the famous castrato Antonio Bernacchi, twenty years his senior. In a duet in Orlandini's "Antigona", Farinelli showed off all the beauties of his voice and refinements of his style, executing a number of passages of great virtuosity, which were rewarded with tumultuous applause. Undaunted, Bernacchi repeated every trill, roulade, and cadenza of his young rival, but performing all of them even more exquisitely, and adding variations of his own. Farinelli, admitting defeat, entreated Bernacchi to give him instruction in ("ultra-refined graces"); Bernacchi agreed.


title: Farinelli

text: In 1728, as well as performing in Torri's "Nicomede" at the Munich court, Farinelli performed another concert before the Emperor in Vienna. In 1729, during the Carnival season in Venice, he sang in two works by Metastasio: as Arbace in Metastasio's "Catone in Utica" (music by Leonardo Leo) and Mirteo in "Semiramide Riconosciuta" (music by Porpora).


title: Farinelli

text: In these important drammi per musica, performed at the Teatro San Giovanni Grisostomo of Venice, at his side sang some great singers: Nicola Grimaldi, detto Nicolino, Lucia Facchinelli, Domenico Gizzi (aka Virtuoso della Cappella Reale di Napoli), and Giuseppe Maria Boschi.


title: Farinelli

text: During this period he could really do no wrong. Loaded with riches and honors, he was so famous and so formidable as a performer that his rival and friend, the castrato Gioacchino Conti ("Gizziello") is said to have fainted away from sheer despondency on hearing him sing. George Frideric Handel was also keen to engage Farinelli for his company in London, and while in Venice in January 1730, tried unsuccessfully to meet him.


title: Farinelli

text: In 1731, Farinelli visited Vienna for a third time. There he was received by the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles VI, on whose advice, according to the singer's first biographer, Giovenale Sacchi, he modified his style, singing more simply and emotionally. After further seasons in Italy, and another visit to Vienna, during which he sang in oratorios in the Imperial chapel, Farinelli came to London in 1734.


title: Farinelli

text: In London the previous year, Senesino, a singer who had been a part of Handel's "Second Academy" which performed at the King's Theatre, Haymarket, quarrelled with Handel and established a rival company, the Opera of the Nobility, operating from a theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields. This company had Porpora as composer and Senesino as principal singer, but had not been a success during its first season of 1733–34. Farinelli, Porpora's most famous pupil, joined the company and made it financially solvent.


title: Farinelli

text: He first appeared in "Artaserse", a with music by his brother Riccardo and Johann Adolph Hasse. He sang the memorable arias "Per questo dolce amplesso" (music by Hasse) and "Son qual nave" (music by Broschi), while Senesino sang "Pallido il sole" (music by Hasse). Of "Per questo dolce amplesso," Charles Burney reports: "Senesino had the part of a furious tyrant, and Farinelli that of an unfortunate hero in chains; but in the course of the first air, the captive so softened the heart of the tyrant, that Senesino, forgetting his stage-character, ran to Farinelli and embraced him in his own." "Son qual nave," on the other hand, was composed by Riccardo Broschi as a special showpiece for his brother's virtuosic skills. Burney described it thus: "The first note he was taken with such delicacy, swelled by minute degrees to such an amazing volume, and afterwards diminished in the same manner to a mere point, that it was applauded for full five minutes. After this he set off with such brilliancy and rapidity of execution, that it was difficult for the violins of those days to keep pace with him." In 1735 Farinelli and Senesino also appeared in Nicola Porpora's "Polifemo".


title: Farinelli

text: Both the cognoscenti and the public adored him. The librettist Paolo Rolli, a close friend and supporter of Senesino, commented: "Farinelli has surprised me so much that I feel as though I had hitherto heard only a small part of the human voice, and now have heard it all. He has besides, the most amiable and polite manners ..." Some fans were more unrestrained: one titled lady was so carried away that, from a theatre box, she famously exclaimed: "One God, one Farinelli!" and was immortalised in a detail of Plate II of William Hogarth's "A Rake's Progress" (she may also appear in Plate IV of his series "Marriage à la mode" of 1745).


title: Farinelli

text: Though Farinelli's success was enormous, neither the Nobility Opera nor Handel's company was able to sustain the public's interest, which waned rapidly. Though his official salary was £1500 for a season, gifts from admirers probably increased this to something more like £5000, an enormous sum at the time. Farinelli was by no means the only singer to receive such large amounts, which were unsustainable in the long term. As one contemporary observer remarked: "within these two years we have seen even Farinelli sing to an audience of five-and-thirty pounds." Nonetheless, he was still under contract in London in the summer of 1737 when he received a summons, via Sir Thomas Fitzgerald, Secretary of the Spanish Embassy there, to visit the Spanish court.


title: Farinelli

text: Apparently intending to make only a brief visit to the Continent, Farinelli called at Paris on his way to Madrid, singing on 9 July at Versailles to King Louis XV, who gave him his portrait set in diamonds, and 500 "louis d'or". On 15 July he left for Spain, arriving about a month later. Elisabetta Farnese, the Queen, had come to believe that Farinelli's voice might be able to cure the severe depression of her husband, King Philip V (some contemporary physicians, such as the Queen's doctor Giuseppe Cervi, believed in the efficacy of music therapy). On 25 August 1737, Farinelli was named chamber musician to the king, and , or servant to the royal family. He never sang again in public.


title: Farinelli

text: Farinelli became a royal favourite and very influential at court. For the remaining nine years of Philip's life, Farinelli gave nightly private concerts to the royal couple. He also sang for other members of the royal family and organised private performances by them, and by professional musicians in the royal palaces. In 1738 he arranged for an entire Italian opera company to visit Madrid, beginning a fashion for "opera seria" in the Spanish capital. The Coliseo of the royal palace of Buen Retiro was remodelled, and became Madrid's only opera house.


title: Farinelli

text: On the accession of Philip's son, Ferdinand VI, Farinelli's influence became even greater. Ferdinand was a keen musician, and his wife, Barbara of Portugal, more or less a musical fanatic (in 1728 she had appointed Domenico Scarlatti as her harpsichord teacher; the musicologist Ralph Kirkpatrick acknowledges Farinelli's correspondence as having provided "most of the direct information about Scarlatti that has transmitted itself to our day"). The relationship between singer and monarchs was personally close: he and the queen sang duets together, and the king accompanied them on the harpsichord. Farinelli took charge of all spectacles and court entertainments. He was himself also officially received into the ranks of the nobility, being made a Knight of the Order of Calatrava in 1750, an honour of which he was enormously proud. Although much courted by diplomats, Farinelli seems to have kept out of politics.


title: Farinelli

text: In 1759, Ferdinand was succeeded by his half-brother Charles III, who was no lover of music. Charles was the son of Elisabetta Farnese, who had never forgiven Farinelli for his decision to remain at court after Philip V's death, rather than following her into internal exile. It was clear that Farinelli would now have to leave Spain, though he was allowed a generous state pension. He retired to Bologna, where in 1732 he had acquired a property and citizenship. Though rich and still famous, much feted by local notables and visited by such notable figures as Burney, Mozart, and Casanova, he was lonely in his old age, having outlived many of his friends and former colleagues. One distinguished friend of his latter years was the music historian, Giovanni Battista (known as "Padre") Martini. He also continued his correspondence with Metastasio, court poet at Vienna, dying a few months after him. In his will, dated 20 February 1782, Farinelli asked to be buried in the mantle of the Order of Calatrava, and was interred in the cemetery of the Capuchin monastery of Santa Croce in Bologna. His estate included gifts from royalty, a large collection of paintings including works by Velázquez, Murillo, and Jusepe de Ribera, as well as portraits of his royal patrons, and several of himself, one by his friend Jacopo Amigoni. He also had a collection of keyboard instruments in which he took great delight, especially a piano made in Florence in 1730 (called in the will ), and violins by Stradivarius and Amati.


title: Farinelli

text: Farinelli died in Bologna on 16 September 1782. His original place of burial was destroyed during the Napoleonic wars, and in 1810 Farinelli's great-niece Maria Carlotta Pisani had his remains transferred to the cemetery of La Certosa in Bologna. Maria Carlotta bequeathed many of Farinelli's letters to Bologna's University Library and was buried in the same grave as Farinelli in 1850.


title: Farinelli

text: Farinelli's remains were disinterred from the Certosa cemetery on 12 July 2006. Having been piled together at one end of Maria Carlotta's grave for almost two centuries, the bones had suffered considerable degradation, and there was no sign of the singer's mantle of the Order of Calatrava. However, the surviving remains included his jawbone, several teeth, parts of his skull, and almost all of the major bones. (The exhumation was instigated by Florentine antiquarian Alberto Bruschi and Luigi Verdi, Secretary of the Farinelli Study Centre.) The next day the musicologist Carlo Vitali of the Farinelli Study Centre stated that the major bones were "long and sturdy, which would correspond with Farinelli's official portraits, as well as the castrato's reputation for being unusually tall." Maria Giovanna Belcastro of the Anthropology Institute of Bologna University, Gino Fornaciari, paleoanthropologist of the University of Pisa, and David Howard, Professor of Music Technology at the University of York, England, are engaged in ascertaining what new information may be derived from these remains as to Farinelli's lifestyle, habits and possible diseases, as well as the physiology of a castrato. Their research methods will include X-rays, CAT scans, and DNA sampling.


title: Farinelli

text: Farinelli not only sang, but like most musicians of his time, was a competent harpsichordist. In old age, he learned to play the viola d'amore. He occasionally composed, writing a cantata of farewell to London (entitled , for which he also wrote the text), and a few songs and arias, including one dedicated to Ferdinand VI.


title: Farinelli

text: Farinelli is widely regarded as the greatest, most accomplished, and most respected opera singer of the "castrato" era, which lasted from the early 1600s into the early 1800s, and while there were a vast number of such singers during this period, originating especially from the Neapolitan School of such composers as Nicola Porpora, Alessandro Scarlatti, and Francesco Durante, only a handful of his rivals could approach his skill as a singer. Caffarelli, Matteuccio, Siface, Senesino, Gizziello, Marchesi, Carestini, and some others were very famous and extremely gifted in their own right, with Caffarelli probably being the most vocally proficient – but Farinelli was also admired for his modesty, his intelligence, his "low-key" attitude, and his dedication to his work. He respected his colleagues, composers, and impresarios, often earning their lifelong friendship as a result, whereas Caffarelli was notoriously capricious, malicious, and disrespectful of anyone sharing the stage with him, to the point of cackling and booing fellow singers during their own arias.


title: Farinelli

text: Farinelli's technical proficiency allowed him to be comfortable in all vocal registers, from tenor to soprano, but he himself favoured the medium-to-high register rather than the very high, preferring to convey emotion rather than to astonish by sheer technique (unlike most of his colleagues who preferred to startle audiences with vocal stunts). This "soft" approach to music no doubt helped him survive his 22-year private engagement at the court of Spain, which effectively ended his theatrical career when aged only 32. By this time he had already achieved every possible success on every European stage, and, even in retirement in Bologna, was still regarded, by every foreign dignitary visiting the city, as "the" music star to meet.


title: Farinelli

text: Farinelli lived in Bologna from 1761 until his death. The Farinelli Study Centre () was opened in Bologna in 1998, Major events and achievements in which it was involved have included -


title: Farinelli

text: A film, "Farinelli", directed by Gérard Corbiau, was made about Farinelli's life in 1994. This takes considerable dramatic licence with history, emphasising the importance of Farinelli's brother and reducing Porpora's role, while Handel becomes an antagonist; the singer's 22 years spent in the Spanish court is only vaguely hinted at, as well as his brother being appointed minister of War. Farinelli's supposed sexual escapades are a major element of the film's plot, and are totally spurious according to historians (primarily, Patrick Barbier's "Histoire des castrats", Paris 1989). The movie is largely fictionalized and bears little resemblance to the historical Farinelli.


title: Farinelli

text: In opera: Farinelli is a character in the opera , composed by Daniel Auber to a libretto by Eugène Scribe; the title-role in the opera "Farinelli" by the English composer John Barnett, first performed at Drury Lane in 1839, where his part is written for a tenor (this work is itself an adaptation of the anonymous , premiered in Paris in 1835). More recent operas include Matteo d'Amico's (1996) and by Siegfried Matthus (1998).


title: Farinelli

text: Composer and performer Rinde Eckert gives Farinelli's time in Spain a contemporary treatment in his 1995 work for radio, "Four Songs Lost in a Wall", commissioned by "New American Radio".


title: Farinelli

text: That period in his life is also the setting for "Farinelli and the King" (the king in question being Philip V of Spain), a play by Claire van Kampen, which premiered at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse from 11 February to 7 March 2015. It was transferred to the Duke of York's Theatre in London's West End in the final months of 2015, with the role of Farinelli doubled between speaking and singing, with Iestyn Davies performing the latter. Kampen's "Farinelli and the King" was performed on Broadway at the Belasco Theatre from 5 December 2017, to 25 March 2018.


title: Farinelli

text: Farinelli is portrayed by Raúl Ferrando in the episode "Fly Away" of the 2021 Netflix Original Series "The Cook of Castamar".


title: Josh Robert Thompson

text: Josh Robert Thompson (born March 11, 1975) is an American actor, comedian, and impressionist. He is best known for his work on "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson", providing the voice of robot skeleton and Craig Ferguson's sidekick Geoff Peterson along with numerous characters and impersonations, as well as his celebrity impersonations on "Family Guy" and "The Howard Stern Show".


title: Josh Robert Thompson

text: Thompson performs voice impressions of Morgan Freeman, Robert De Niro, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Matthew McConaughey, George Lucas and Donald Trump. In "The Kelly Clarkson Show", he currently serves as game announcer "God," using his Morgan Freeman impression. He has also performed a stand-up comedian, often touring alongside Ferguson. His live-action projects include a lead role in the 2014 romantic comedy "Nowhere Girl," as well as a crowdfunded pilot episode called "The Josh Robert Thompson Show".


title: Josh Robert Thompson

text: Thompson grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, "raised by classic television." He would watch as actors became different characters and began to mimic them. At age eight, his grandmother bought him a Fisher-Price tape recorder that he used to create radio-style "shows", voicing the host and the guests. The following year, he performed on stage in "Peter Pan" at the Cleveland Play House.


title: Josh Robert Thompson

text: During his junior year at Padua Franciscan High School, Thompson delivered one line for the school's production of "Oklahoma!" and walked off to laughter and applause. "Then someone backstage said, 'They're clapping for you. They love you.' After that, I was hooked." Thompson and some of his classmates got a video camera and began making feature-length and short films, and television-style shows. He graduated from Padua in 1993.


title: Josh Robert Thompson

text: Thompson moved to Los Angeles a few years later and performed on local television and as a stand-up comic while working toward his degree in TV, Radio and Film Production at California State University, Fullerton. He uses his middle name professionally because a "Josh Thompson" was already registered with the Screen Actors Guild.


title: Josh Robert Thompson

text: Thompson's Arnold Schwarzenegger impression first gained national attention during the 2003 California gubernatorial recall election. Posing as Schwarzenegger, Thompson phoned in to Fox News Channel's morning program, "Fox & Friends", fooling the hosts into believing (at least for a short while) that he was, in fact, Schwarzenegger.


title: Josh Robert Thompson

text: Thompson's Fox News prank caught the attention of "The Howard Stern Show", and the impression—dubbed "Fake Arnold" by the show's producers—soon became a mainstay on the program. At around the same time, Thompson also made a number of appearances on the "Conway and Steckler" and "Conway and Whitman" radio shows in Los Angeles (KLSX), and 96fm's "Breakfast" show in Perth, Western Australia, where he voiced a number of characters, including Fake Arnold, Robert De Niro, Sylvester Stallone, Michael Jackson, and Bill Cosby.


title: Josh Robert Thompson

text: In April 2005, Thompson's "Fake Arnold" character proposed a fictitious plan to "blow up the moon". Fake Arnold's phony agenda managed to dupe MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, who appeared soon after on his television program, publicly lambasting the Governor for his alleged plan. Ten days later, after learning that the entire moon destruction scenario was a hoax, Scarborough apologized on-air for his erroneous comments.


title: Josh Robert Thompson

text: On January 10, 2006, one day after Stern's show debuted on Sirius Satellite Radio, Thompson fooled "Star Trek" actor George Takei into believing he was actually speaking with Governor Schwarzenegger. Several minutes after the phone call with Fake Arnold ended, Takei was finally let in on the joke. One year later, the Takei prank was ranked sixth out of the Top 10 best moments from the show in 2006; it was also named as a top moment in the ten-year satellite tenure of the program.


title: Josh Robert Thompson

text: Thompson has made several uncredited appearances in the show doing voice impressions like "Fake Arnold". His last appearance was in 2011. More recent impressions on Stern's show are done by another impersonator who also does many of the same voices as Josh.


title: Josh Robert Thompson

text: In February 2007, Thompson made his first on-camera television appearance as Governor Schwarzenegger on "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" on CBS. He became a regular performer on the show, making appearances as Robert De Niro, "Frat Guy", Brian Deese, and Levi Johnston, and as the voice of Morgan Freeman.


title: Josh Robert Thompson

text: Starting on April 20, 2010, Thompson voiced Ferguson's robot skeleton sidekick Geoff Peterson, originally using pre-recorded clips of various reactions to the host's cues. Thompson tweeted his "recipe" for Geoff's voice in September: "1 part Snagglepuss. 1 part Vincent Price. 2 parts George Takei." On May 16, 2011, Thompson performed Geoff as a show guest; in a later skit spoofing the show's opening broadcast, Thompson portrayed Peterson as a living sidekick who suggested that Ferguson could reanimate his skeleton should something befall him while skydiving. Beginning June 29, 2011, Thompson voiced and performed Geoff live for nearly every episode, both in-studio and in such locations as Paris, France.


title: Josh Robert Thompson

text: Once Thompson began voicing Geoff Peterson live, he incorporated several of his own impressions into the character's repertoire. He has performed his Morgan Freeman impression for Freeman during the actor's appearances. In June 2011, Geoff asked Freeman, "Would you like to hear my Morgan Freeman voice?" and "What would you like to say to yourself?". Freeman gave the impression a thumbs-up and called it "outstanding".


title: Josh Robert Thompson

text: In 2014, Thompson took over as the voice and operator of Sandra Peterson, the remote-controlled rhinoceros head that hangs over the fireplace. The character was originated by actress Dana DeLorenzo.


title: Josh Robert Thompson

text: Craig Ferguson told "Larry King Now" in 2014 that he and Thompson would continue to work together after leaving "The Late Late Show" in December. In the interview, Ferguson called Thompson a "comedic genius".


title: Josh Robert Thompson

text: Following the end of the program in 2014, Thompson returned to the show a year later in March 2015 where he made his television stand-up debut, in the episode where fellow Ohio native Drew Carey served as guest host.


title: Josh Robert Thompson

text: Using his online presence in August 2015, Thompson created an Indiegogo campaign that would help fund the post production costs of his pilot episode. In three days, Thompson's online following helped successfully fund the post production costs raising $51,613 (US) passing its original $25,000 goal.


title: Josh Robert Thompson

text: During post production, the audio mixing was completed at Skywalker Ranch, where Ben Burtt overlooked some of the process and found Thompson's George Lucas sketch funny. Ben Burtt later complimented Thompson saying that Lucas himself would love his show and his characters.


title: Josh Robert Thompson

text: On April 9, 2018, Thompson uploaded his pilot to various social media platforms to help gain traction, including Twitter, Instagram, and Periscope.


title: Josh Robert Thompson

text: Since 2011, Thompson has voiced various characters on "Family Guy", "American Dad!" and "Skylanders Academy". While voicing a few sketches on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!", Thompson also appeared on "The Cleveland Show" from 2011 until its cancellation in 2013. He has been the announcer of the Writers Guild of America Awards since 2017. Since 2019, Thompson has been currently voicing "God" with his Morgan Freeman impression on "The Kelly Clarkson Show" during the program's game impressions.


title: Josh Robert Thompson

text: Thompson began working on his first television series while still on "The Late Late Show". The first installment, dubbed "WJRT Television", starred Thompson alongside Dana DeLorenzo in a television news show parody. While some episodes were uploaded to Funny or Die, the series was not sold to a network.


title: Josh Robert Thompson

text: In 2014, Thompson announced plans for an upcoming variety show, "The Josh Robert Thompson Show". Its pilot episode was completed in 2015 through a crowdfunding campaign via Indiegogo.


title: Josh Robert Thompson

text: Thompson has also embarked on various podcasts throughout his career including Darren Carters “Pocket Party” and Brody Stevens “Festival of Friendship” . The most recent installment of his "Joshin' Around podcast" was picked up by iTunes in 2016, consisting of Thompson alone improvising all material.


title: Josh Robert Thompson

text: Thompson has starred as narrator in "Yogi Bear" and "Scary Movie 5", with on-camera appearances as lead character in the 2014 film, "Nowhere Girl", and a supporting role as a priest in the 2017 film, "Revelator". He was also featured in "The Angry Birds Movie", voicing two characters, and voiced a Construction Foreman in the 2017 film "".


title: Josh Robert Thompson

text: In 2010, Thompson appeared in advertisements for More Than insurance, doing his Morgan Freeman impression. In the advertisement, Thompson's character is named More Than Freeman.


title: Josh Robert Thompson

text: In 2018, Thompson starred in a new web series called “F#cking 40”, a series about the Middle Ages. Thompson stars alongside writer and director Bill Caco, Jeff Pride and Justin Johnson. F#cking 40 won “Best Web Series” at the FirstGlance Film Festival in Philadelphia.


title: Josh Robert Thompson

text: Thompson's original creations include televangelist the Rev. Apostle BG; Gay Cabaret singer, Robin Sooper; Gary the Ogre; and Snorky Lopez, a Mexican raccoon.


title: Bhoja

text: Bhoja (reigned c. 1010–1055 CE) was an Indian king from the Paramara dynasty. His kingdom was centered around the Malwa region in central India, where his capital Dhara-nagara (modern Dhar) was located. Bhoja fought wars with nearly all his neighbours in attempts to extend his kingdom, with varying degrees of success. At its zenith, his empire extended from Chittor in the north to upper Konkan in the south, and from the Sabarmati River in the west to Vidisha in the east.


title: Bhoja

text: Because of his patronage to scholars, Bhoja became one of the most celebrated kings in the Indian history. After his death, he came to be featured in several legends as a righteous scholar-king. The body of legends clustered around him is comparable to that of the Emperor Vikramaditya.


title: Bhoja

text: Bhoja is best known as a patron of arts, literature, and sciences. The establishment of the Bhoj Shala, a centre for Sanskrit studies, is attributed to him. He was a polymath, and several books covering a wide range of topics are attributed to him. He is also said to have constructed a large number of Shiva temples, although Bhojeshwar Temple in Bhojpur (a city founded by him) is the only surviving temple that can be ascribed to him with certainty.


title: Bhoja

text: Bhoja's father and predecessor was Sindhuraja. According to "Bhoja-Prabandha", his mother's name was Savitri. Bhoja's reputation as a scholar-king suggests that he was well-educated as a child. The "Bhoja-Prabandha" states that he was educated by his guardians as well as other learned scholars.


title: Bhoja

text: According to "Bhoja-Prabandha", early in his life, Bhoja suffered from intense headaches. Two Brahmin surgeons from Ujjain made him unconscious using an anaesthetic powder called "moha-churna", opened his cranial bone, removed a tumor, and then made him regain his consciousness by administering another powder called "sanjivani".


title: Bhoja

text: According to "Tilaka-Manjari", composed by Bhoja's contemporary Dhanapala, Bhoja's feet had auspicious birthmarks indicating that he was fit to be a king. His uncle Munja (and his father's predecessor) loved him greatly, and appointed him as the king.


title: Bhoja

text: However, several later legendary accounts state that Munja was initially jealous of Bhoja, and tried to prevent him from becoming a king. For example, the 14th century "Prabandha-Chintamani" states that during the reign of Munja, an astrologer prophesied Bhoja's long reign. Munja, who wanted his own son to become the king, ordered Bhoja's killing. Bhoja was appointed as the king by the royal ministers after Munja's death. According to a Gujarati legend documented in Rasmala, Munja ordered Bhoja's murder, but later appointed him as the crown prince.


title: Bhoja

text: "Bhoja-Prabandha" states that Munja ordered one Vatsaraja to kill Bhoja at the Mahamaya temple in Bhuvaneshvari forest. On hearing Bhoja's cultured manner of talking, Vatsaraja and his men abandoned the murder plan. They faked Bhoja's death, and presented to Munja a fake head and a verse from Bhoja. The verse described how great kings like Mandhata, Rama and Yudhishthira died leaving behind all their property; it then sarcastically added that Munja would be the only one whom the earthly possessions would follow. The verse moved Munja to tears, and made him realize his mistake. When he learned that Bhoja was still alive, he invited Bhoja to back to his court. To repent for his sin, he also went on a pilgrimage to Dharmaranya, where he established a town called Munjapuram. The sarcastic verse, purportedly written by Bhoja to Munja, also appears as an antonymous extract in "Sharngadhara-paddhati" (1363 CE).


title: Bhoja

text: These stories of Bhoja's persecution by Munja are essentially mythical. This legend is not found in the works composed by the contemporaries of Munja, Sindhuraja and Bhoja. For example, the "Nava-sahasanka-charita" makes no mention of this story. The legend appears to be the poetic imagination of later composers. "Ain-i-Akbari" also contains a variation of this account, but completely distorts the legend, naming Munja as the one who was persecuted by Bhoja. This account is also completely unreliable from a historical point of view.


title: Bhoja

text: Some literary works suggest that Bhoja succeeded his uncle Munja as the Paramara king. These works include "Tilaka-Manjari", "Prabandha-Chintamani", and "Rasmala". However, several other works as well as epigraphic evidence indicate that Bhoja succeeded his father Sindhuraja. Padmagupta, the court poet of Sindhuraja and Bhoja, also supports this fact. According to "Bhoja-Prabandha", Munja left the Paramara administration in hands of Sindhuraja before departing on a military expedition. Munja unexpectedly died in this campaign, and as a result, Sindhuraja succeeded him as the king. Sindhuraja's court poet Padmagupta, in his "Nava-Sahasanka-Charita", states that Munja "placed the world in Sindhuraja's hands" before leaving for Ambika's town. This indicates that he left the administration in Sindhuraja's hands before leaving for his fatal expedition against Tailapa II. "Udaipur Prashasti" inscription seems to confirm this.


title: Bhoja

text: The Modasa copper plates (1010–11 CE) are the earliest historical record of Bhoja's reign. The "Chintamani-Sarnika" (1055 CE) was composed by Bhoja's court poet Dasabala. An inscription of Bhoja's successor Jayasimha I is also dated 1055 CE. Thus, 1055 CE can be taken as the last year of Bhoja's reign. Based on these evidences, scholars such as Pratipal Bhatia assign Bhoja's reign to 1010–1055 CE.


title: Bhoja

text: However, some scholars assign the beginning of Bhoja's reign variously between 1000 CE and 1010 CE, based on their interpretations of inscriptions and legendary texts. For example, Merutunga's "Prabandha-Chintamani" states that Bhoja ruled for 55 years, 7 months and 3 days. Based on this, scholars such as D. C. Ganguly and K. C. Jain assign Bhoja's reign to 1000–1055 CE. However, as K. M. Munshi states, dates are "the weakest point in Merutunga's narratives". A. K. Warder, who dismisses Merutunga as "completely unreliable" and his narratives as "essentially fiction", believes there is no evidence that Bhoja's reign began much earlier than 1010 CE.


title: Bhoja

text: In the Paramara inscriptions, Bhoja is mentioned as "Bhoja-deva". In some modern north Indian languages such as Hindi, he is also known as "Bhoj" (because of schwa deletion). Bhoja's inscriptions mention his titles as "Parama-bhattaraka", "Maharajadhiraja" and "Parameshvara". "Ganaratna Mahodadhi" (1140 CE), a work on grammar by Vardhamana, suggests that "Tribhuvan Narayana" or "Triloka Narayana" ("Lord of the three worlds") was also a title of Bhoja. This is corroborated by epigraphic evidence: the Shiva temple ascribed to Bhoja in the Chittor fort has an idol which was named "Bhojasvamindeva" as well as "Tribhuvan Narayanadeva".


title: Bhoja

text: <mapframe text="Inscriptions from Bhoja's reign have been found in present-day Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan states of India" width="300" height="300" zoom="6" longitude="75.18" latitude="22.60">


title: Bhoja

text: While Bhoja became famous as a benevolent king and a patron of arts and culture, he was also renowned as a warrior. He inherited a kingdom centered around the Malwa region, and made several attempts to expand it with varying results. The "Udaipur Prashasti" inscription of Bhoja's brother compares Bhoja to the legendary king Prithu, and states that he "ruled the earth from Kailasha to Malaya hills and up to the mountains of the setting and the rising sun". This is an obvious exaggeration: historical evidence indicates that Bhoja's kingdom extended from Chittor in the north to upper Konkan in the south, and from the Sabarmati River in the west to Vidisha in the east.


title: Bhoja

text: Several legends mention conflicts between the ruler of Malwa and the Chaulukyas, during the reign of the Chaulukya kings Vallabha-raja and Durlabha-raja. Vallabha is said to have died of smallpox during an expedition against the Paramaras. This incident may have happened during the early part of Bhoja's reign, or during the reign of his father Sindhuraja. Vallabha's successor Durlabha is said to have repulsed an attack by a confederacy that included the ruler of Malwa, but modern historians doubt the authenticity of this legend.


title: Bhoja

text: Bhoja's first military aggression appears to be his invasion of the Lata region (in present-day Gujarat), around 1018 CE. Bhoja subjugated the Chalukyas of Lata, whose ruler Kirtiraja may have served as his feudatory for a brief period. Bhoja's invasion of Lata brought him close to the Shilahara kingdom of northern Konkana, which was located to the south of Lata. Bhoja invaded and captured Konkana sometime between 1018 and 1020 CE, during the reign of the Shilahara king Arikesari. He celebrated this victory in a big way by making generous donations to Brahmins. His 1020 CE inscription states that he organized a "Konkana-Grahana Vijaya Parva" ("Konkan Victory Festival"). The Shilaharas probably continued to administer Konkana as Bhoja's vassals. By the end of his reign, Bhoja had lost this territory to the Chalukyas of Kalyani.


title: Bhoja

text: Sometime before 1019 CE, Bhoja formed an alliance against the Chalukyas of Kalyani with Rajendra Chola and Gangeyadeva Kalachuri. At this time, Jayasimha II was the Chalukya king. The triple alliance engaged the Chalukyas at their northern and southern frontiers simultaneously. The extent of Bhoja's success in this campaign is not certain, as both Chalukya and Paramara panegyrics claimed victory. Historian D. C. Ganguly believes that Bhoja achieved some early victories against the Chalukyas, but was ultimately defeated. Others, including D. B. Diskalkar and H. C. Ray, believe that Bhoja was defeated by Jayasimha after some early successes, but ultimately emerged victorious against the Chalukyas after 1028 CE. According to Georg Bühler, the struggle probably ended with some advantage for Bhoja, which might have been exaggerated into a great victory by the Paramara poets.


title: Bhoja

text: The "Udaipur Prashasti" states that Bhoja defeated a ruler named Indraratha. Modern historians identify this king with Indranatha, the Somavamshi king of Kalinga. This king was defeated by Rajendra Chola: Bhoja may have played a secondary role in the Chola campaign as part of an alliance.


title: Bhoja

text: The Ghaznavids, a Muslim dynasty of Turkic origin, invaded north-western India in the 11th century, led by Mahmud of Ghazni. The "Udaipur Prashasti" claims that Bhoja's mercenaries defeated the Turushkas (Turkic people). There are some legendary accounts of Bhoja's military successes against the foreign invaders identified with the Ghaznavids. However, there is no clear evidence to show that Bhoja fought against the Ghaznavids or any other Muslim army. Bhoja might have contributed troops to the Kabul Shahi ruler Anandapala's fight against the Ghaznavids. He is believed to have granted asylum to Anandapala's son Trilochanapala. Several medieval Muslim historians state that Mahmud avoided a confrontation with a powerful Hindu ruler named Param Dev after sacking the Somnath Hindu temple. Modern historians identify Param Dev as Bhoja: the name may be a corruption of Paramara-Deva or of Bhoja's title "Parameshvara-Paramabhattaraka". Bhoja may have also been a part of the Hindu alliance that expelled Mahmud's governors from Hansi, Thanesar and other areas around 1043 CE.


title: Bhoja

text: Bhoja's attempt to expand his kingdom eastwards was foiled by the Chandela king Vidyadhara. However, Bhoja was able to extend his influence among the Chandela feudatories, possibly after Vidyadhara's death. The Kachchhapaghatas of Dubkund, who were the northern neighbours of the Paramaras, were originally Chandela feudatories. However, their ruler Abhimanyu accepted Bhoja's suzerainty. Bhoja also launched a campaign against the Kachchhapaghatas of Gwalior, possibly with the ultimate goal of capturing Kannauj, but his attacks were repulsed by their ruler Kirtiraja.


title: Bhoja

text: According to the "Udaipur Prashasti" inscription, Bhoja defeated the Gurjara king. The identity of this king is debated by the historians, but he is generally identified as a weak Gurjara-Pratihara ruler of Kannauj. Bhoja did not retain control of Kannauj for a long time, if at all.


title: Bhoja

text: The 1046 CE Tilakawada copper plate inscription states that Bhoja's general Suraditya stabilized his royal fortune by slaughtering one Sahavahana in a battle. Some earlier historians identified Sahavahana as a king of Chamba, but this identification is doubtful, considering the distance between Chamba and Malwa, and the fact that the ruler of Chamba was not powerful enough to destabilize Bhoja's kingdom. Sahavahana might been a general of one of Bhoja's rivals, possibly the Kalachuri king Karna.


title: Bhoja

text: Bhoja defeated and killed Viryarama, the Shakambhari Chahamana ruler. Encouraged by this success, he also waged a war against the Chahamanas of Naddula. But in this second campaign, his army was forced to retreat, and his general Sadha was killed.


title: Bhoja

text: During the last years of Bhoja's reign, sometime after 1042 CE, Jayasimha's son and successor Someshvara I invaded Malwa, and sacked his capital Dhara. Multiple Chalukya inscriptions dated between 1058 and 1067 CE state that the Chalukyas plundered the important Paramara cities, including Dhara, Ujjayini and Mandapa. Bhoja re-established his control over Malwa soon after the departure of the Chalukya army. Nevertheless, the defeat was a major setback for the Paramaras, and pushed back the southern boundary of their kingdom from Godavari to Narmada.


title: Bhoja

text: Although the Bhoja and Kalachuri king Gangeya were part of an alliance against the Chalukyas, Bhoja defeated Gangeya. It is not certain when they turned into enemies. According to one theory, Bhoja defeated Gangeya before his Chalukya campaign, in which Gangeya must have fought as a Paramara vassal. A contradictory theory is that the two turned enemies after their Chalukya campaign, sometime between 1028 CE and 1042 CE. The "Udaipur Prashasti" also claims that Bhoja defeated one Togglala, who might have been Gangeya's predecessor Kokalla II.


title: Bhoja

text: During the last year of Bhoja's reign, or shortly after his death, the Chaulukya king Bhima I and the Kalachuri king Karna attacked his kingdom. According to the 14th century author Merutunga, Bhoja had once thought of subjugating Bhima, but Bhima's diplomat avoided a Paramara invasion by instigating Bhoja against the Chalukyas of Kalyani instead. Sometime before 1031 CE, Bhima launched an expedition against the Paramara branch at Abu, forcing its ruler Dhandhuka to seek shelter with Bhoja. Hemachandra, who was patronized by the Chaulukyas, states that Bhoja's general Kulachandra once sacked the Chaulukya capital while Bhima was fighting a war at the Sindh frontier. Bhima later dispatched his soldiers to raid Malwa several times. Merutunga's "Prabandha-Chintamani" states that once two such soldiers attacked Bhoja in the vicinity of his capital Dhara, but the Paramara king escaped unhurt.