document_title: Bajirao Mastani

question_text: who is nana saheb in bajirao mastani movie

text: Bajirao Mastani

text: Plot[edit]

text: In the early 18th century, the court of Maratha king Chhatrapati Shahu needs a new Peshwa, the equivalent of a modern-day prime minister. In spite of Shripad Rao's self-nomination as the Peshwa, Ambaji Pant nominates a young Bajirao. To test his spiritual wisdom and knowledge of weaponry, Shripad challenges Bajirao to split a peacock feather with an arrow. Bajirao succeeds and is given the title of Peshwa. Ten years later, his wife Kashibai is visited by her widowed friend Bhanu, whose husband was accused of spying and was ordered to be executed by Bajirao. She predicts that just as she longs for her husband, Kashibai will yearn for Bajirao.

text: While travelling to Sironja, an emissary from Bundelkhand enters Bajirao's tent and requests his help to fight invaders. She reveals herself to be Mastani, the daughter of the Hindu Rajput king Chhatrasal and his Persian Muslim consort Ruhani Bai. Impressed by her skills as a warrior, Bajirao assists her with his army and defeats the invaders. Chhatrasal is overjoyed and insists Bajirao spend Holi with them in Bundelkhand. Mastani and Bajirao fall in love with each other and he gives her his dagger, unaware it is a symbol of marriage among the Bundelkhand Rajputs. Bajirao departs for Pune, where Kashibai greets him with a tour of their newly-built Shaniwar Wada and shows him the Aaina Mahal (hall of mirrors), which allows her to see him from her room.

text: Determined to pursue her love, Mastani arrives in Pune but is treated harshly by Bajirao's mother Radhabai and accommodated in the palace for courtesans. Mastani tolerates this insult and appears to dance before Bajirao. Radhabai scornfully offers her the occupation of a royal dancer but refuses to accept her as a daughter-in-law. Mastani travels to the Chhatrapati Shahu and expresses her desire to be with Bajirao, then leaves to wait for him at a ruin across a river. During a storm, Bajirao crosses the river and chides Mastani's persistence, reminding her he is already married and that his court will never respect her if she is in a relationship with him. She agrees, despite his warning, and he declares Mastani his second wife.

text: The Marathas prepare to attack Delhi, the capital of the Mughal Empire, but must first ensure the Nizam of Hyderabad, the Muslim ruler of Hyderabad State, will not attack them during their assault. Bajirao leaves to confront the Nizam, Qamar ud-Din Khan, and returns successful. In the Aaina Mahal, Kashibai, who is pregnant, sees Bajirao embracing Mastani, who is also expecting, and leaves for her mother's home. She returns to joyous celebrations months later with her newborn son, who is named Raghunath. Mastani also gives birth to a son, whom Mastani and Bajirao name Krishna Rao. After the head Brahmin priest Krishna Bhatt refuses to conduct the naamkaran (the Hindu naming ceremony) on the grounds that Krishna Rao is illegitimate, Bajirao renames his son Shamsher Bahadur. A few years later, Kashibai and Bajirao's eldest son Balaji Baji Rao, also known as Nana Saheb, returns from Satara and expresses his hatred of Mastani for disrupting his mother's marriage.

text: Shiva Bhatt, a Brahmin priest, informs Kashibai of a plan to murder Mastani and her son during a festival. Kashibai relays this news to Bajirao, who rescues both of them. Krishna Bhatt kills Shiva Bhatt, enraging Bajirao. To keep Mastani's safe and to grant her a royal home, Bajirao builds the Mastani Mahal for her. Bajirao, however, is heartbroken due to the betrayal of his mother Radhabai and his brother Chimaji Appa. Meanwhile, Pant tells Bajirao he must defeat Nasir Jung, the vengeful son of the Nizam. Bajirao says that although he loves Mastani, his life and allegiance is always to his cause and he leaves for the battlefield. Before leaving, he meets Kashibai in deference to a tradition that the wife sent her husband off into battle. Kashibai tells Bajirao he has broken her heart and compares their love with that of Krishna and Rukmini. Kashibai orders him never to enter her chamber again, and Bajirao accepts and leaves.

text: After Bajirao leaves for battle, Radhabai and Nana Saheb imprison Mastani and Shamsher Bahadur. After Bajirao receives the news, he single-handedly defeats Nasir Jung's army in his rage but collapses from his injuries. At his deathbed, Kashibai sends a letter pleading with Radhabai to release Mastani so Bajirao can recover, but Nana Saheb burns the letter and refuses to release Mastani. Bajirao, delirious due to his sickness, dies from the trauma of his hallucinations; at the same time Mastani dies in captivity. The ill-fated lovers are shown to be united in death.

text: Cast[edit]

text: The cast is listed below:[3]

text:
Ranveer Singh as Bajirao I
Deepika Padukone as Mastani
Priyanka Chopra as Kashibai
Tanvi Azmi as Radhabai
Milind Soman as Ambaji Pant
Vaibhav Tatwawaadi as Chimaji Appa
Ayush Tandon as Nana Saheb
Rudra Soni as Young Nana Saheb
Mahesh Manjrekar as Chhatrapati Shahu
Aditya Pancholi as Shripad Rao
Raza Murad as Qamar ud-Din Khan
Sukhada Khandkekar as Anubai
Benjamin Gilani as King Chhatrasal
Anuja Sathe as Bhiubai
Yatin Karyekar as Krishna Bhatt
Ganesh Yadav as Malhar Rao
Snehlata Girish Vasaikar as Bhanu
Mousumi Saha as Bhavana Rao
Irrfan Khan as the narrator (voice-over)

text: Production[edit]

text: Development[edit]

text: Sanjay Leela Bhansali had conceived the historical romance about Maratha Peshwa Bajirao and his second wife Mastani even before he had directed his first feature Khamoshi: The Musical in 1996.[4] Several other directors such as Muzaffar Ali, Manmohan Desai and Kamal Amrohi had tried to make a film about the two historical figures but they were never made.[5] Bhansali had intended to make Bajirao Mastani after the release of Devdas (2002) and had officially announced it in 2003, with filming scheduled to begin in May 2004.[6] The film, however, was shelved indefinitely. Reports about a possible revival had made headlines ever since; Bhansali had planned to revive it every other year but the project never came to fruition.[7] In an interview with The Telegraph, Bhansali spoke about his intention to make Bajirao Mastani after finishing every film he made in-between, saying "I kept trying to revive it over and over again, but if there is one thing that filmmaking has taught me, it's that every film has its own destiny. And I strongly believe that the souls of ... Bajirao, Mastani and Kashibai wanted us to make this film only now."[5] In the process, the film became a passion project for him.[5]

text: After spending eleven years in development hell, Bhansali revived the project in 2014; the film was reported to be an adaptation of the Marathi-language novel Raau (1976) by Nagnath S. Inamdar.[4] After the project was shelved, Bhansali said he struggled to put the film together and that he considered the project impossible to made. Nevertheless, he clung to his ambition to make the film someday, saying, "there is magic to it".[5] Some film industry professionals believed it would never be made, calling it "jinxed".[8] Bhansali always believed in the project, assuring himself the script was so powerful he had to make it one day.[8] He told The Telegraph, "Honestly, I want very few things in life ... so I know that I am resilient enough to get them all! Deep down, I kept asking for the universe to let me make this film. When you dream very genuinely, then I believe you also get the power to fulfill it. In pursuing Bajirao Mastani, I have been resilient and very focused. I have sacrificed a lot of things".[5]

text: Primarily known for making romantic dramas, Bhansali was intrigued about the romance between "two people who defied everything, just to be in love with each other", and was excited to tell a 200-year-old story.[5] He wanted to show the relationship between Bajirao and Mastani because it was rarely depicted in history books, and little was known about it.[5] He had long admired the Maratha backdrop and the different religions of the protagonists—Bajirao was Hindu and Mastani was Muslim—which further drove his interest towards knowing more and telling the story.[5] He saw it as a chance to comment on religion and love, saying, "In those times, people were offended by the same things that offend them today. Through this film, I want to show that love is the greatest religion."[5]

text: Prakash R. Kapadia wrote the screenplay.[9] The makers acquired the rights of the novel and worked with historian Ninad Bedekar. Kapadia said writing the screenplay was a difficult task and a huge responsibility considering the historical context.[9] Kapadia and Bhansali had consistently worked on the script since its conception, refining several aspects of the film.[9] Considering the script was written twelve years before, several changes were made to it, such as the decreasing the length and increasing the pace to suit the modern audiences.[9] Although adapted from the novel, the romance between the film's protagonists has not been well documented in history books or archives and several versions of the story exist. Many cinematic liberties were taken to build drama and highlight incidents.[5]

text: Casting[edit]

text: Bhansali originally wanted to repeat his Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999) pairing of Salman Khan with Aishwarya Rai for the eponymous roles, but could not cast them together after their highly publicised break-up.[10] Khan then tried to suggest his then-girlfriend Katrina Kaif for the role of Mastani but things did not materialise.[11] When the film was finally announced in 2003, Bhansali had cast Khan and Kareena Kapoor in the titular roles, with Rani Mukerji playing Baji Rao's first wife Kashibai.[6] However, the idea was scrapped when Khan and Kapoor signed other films together. Bhansali wanted to be the first director to showcase their pairing. Hence, the film was shelved and Bhansali went on to direct other films.[10]

text: Over the following ten years, media speculation about the production and casting of Bajirao Mastani continued.[12] After the film was revived in 2014, reports of Ajay Devgn and Deepika Padukone being approached for the film made headlines in February.[13] Devgn dropped out of the film, however, due to differences with Bhansali about several terms of his contract, such as dates and remuneration.[14] The next month, it was reported that Ranveer Singh was in talks to play Bajirao.[15] The same month, reports suggested Priyanka Chopra was cast to play Kashibai, Bajirao's first wife.[16] In July 2014, it was officially confirmed that Singh, Padukone and Chopra were finalised to play the principal roles.[17]

text: Chopra was the first actor to be cast in the film; Bhansali wanted Kashibai to be cast first, only after which he could decide who to cast for the title roles.[18][unreliable source?][19] Bhansali, who produced Chopra-starrer Mary Kom (2014), went on to that film's set in Manali to narrate it with the writer Prakash Kapadia; Bhansali was adamant in his choice of Chopra, who recalled, "The rest of the film hadn't been cast yet. My picture would be there and the pictures for Bajirao and Mastani would keep changing."[18][20]

text: Milind Soman joined the cast in the late August 2014.[21] In late September 2014, it was confirmed that Tanvi Azmi was cast for the role of Bajirao's mother Radhabai; Shabana Azmi, Dimple Kapadia, and Supriya Pathak had also been considered for the role.[22] The following month, Aditya Pancholi joined the cast as an antagonist.[23] In November 2014, the casting of Bajirao's sisters were finalised; Sukhada Khandkekar was ast as Anubai and Anuja Gokhale as Bhiubai.[24] The following month, Mahesh Manjrekar was cast to play Maratha Emperor Chhattrapati Shahu.[25] It was announced in January 2015 that Vaibhav Tatwawaadi was chosen to play Bajirao's younger brother Chimaji Appa.[26] Irrfan Khan was cast as the film's narrator.[3]

text: All of the actors had to undergo training before filming began; Singh and Padukone learned sword-fighting, horse-riding and the ancient Indian martial art Kalaripayattu.[27][28] Singh was also required to learn Marathi and shave his head for the part, whereas Padukone had to take Kathak dance lessons.[27][29] In preparation for her role of Kashibai, Chopra had 15 days of language training in the Peshwai Marathi dialect spoken during the time of the ascension of the Peshwas to perfect the accent.[30] Azmi shaved her head completely for her role.[31]

text: Singh has described his character as a "true Maratha", saying, "The deeper I get into it the more I realise what a great man he was. It is a great honour to be selected to play this character."[32] He has said he always wanted to transform himself into a character and playing Bajirao gave him that scope, which he said was "draining and tiring in every way".[33] For portraying Bajirao, Singh's preparations required him to isolate himself from his own being and living like Bajirao. He instructed the crew members to address him as Bajirao, which helped him to remain in his character.[33] Singh would not respond to people who used his real name. He said, "It takes a lot of work and effort to be different from whom I am, and two hours to get ready, complete with makeup and the heavy costumes. After all this, if someone just tells me, Ranveer, your shot is ready! all that goes to waste."[33] Padukone found her character to be very relatable, saying, "She was so brave, strong, determined and yet fragile and vulnerable".[34] She was also inspired by her character and found playing the role challenging; it was physically demanding and required a lot of dancing.[34] Padukone said the character had different layers; "One minute she goes on the battlefield, the next minute she's romancing him".[34] Chopra was drawn towards the film because of her character which she thought was "very heart-breaking".[18] She said playing Kashibai was "emotionally difficult" and a complete contrast to the strong women she has portrayed in most of her films.[35] She described her character as someone who is "heartbroken, a silent sufferer, dignified, resilient, can't take charge of her life, goes with whatever life throws her way. Just grace under fire."[35]

text: Pre-production[edit]

text: Considering its scale, the film required detailed and extravagant pre-production work, which required extensive research and planning. Saloni Dhatrak, Sriram Iyengar and Sujeet Sawant worked as production designers on the film.[36] Iyengar and Sawant had heard about the film while working on another film, when it was first announced. Having never met Bhansali, they started researching on their own by visiting Pune and Satara and learnt about Maratha architecture.[36] When the film was shelved, they continued to research and formed a portfolio, hoping to approach other filmmakers for work. Several years later, when they heard about the revival, they met Bhansali, who was impresses by their research and presentation.[36][37] Bhansali wanted more research on Mughals; he engaged Dhatrak, who joined Iyengar and Sawant.[36] Bhansali then shared the script with the art directors and described his vision and the scale of the production.[38]  Pre-production work started as early as February 2014, continued as the shoot progressed and lasted until the filming was complete in October 2015; it lasted nineteen months.[37] Before pre-production work started, the art directors discussed with Bhansali about how much of the film would be filmed on set and outdoor locations, giving them an idea to how many sets they needed to create. Once the number of sets and location shots was decided, the production moved forward.[38]

text: Along with the art directors, nineteen art assistant directors, including architects, designers, sketch artists and props artists, were involved.[37] Twenty-two sets were created in Film City following a flow chart that included around 960 sketches and countless layouts. The two biggest sets were the exact replicas of Shaniwar Wada and the Aaina Mahal, both of which were "high on grandeur and intricacy".[37] The Shaniwar Wada set was the biggest set they had constructed; it took 45,000 planks and 600 workers a day to erect.[36] It was constructed on Sunil Maidan, one of the biggest open spaces in Film City and took forty-five days to build.[37] Kashibai's room was the first set to be constructed, which was approved after navigating through twenty-five designs.[37] The art directors did architectural research from Pune, Nasik and Satara, studying fortifications, baston walls and city gates to understand the interior and exterior designs of the ancient period and incorporated those ideas into building Kashibai's villa. Lotus motifs on mud-clad walls and handmade textures were used to give the set a realistic appearance.[37]

text: Aina Mahal took 4,500 planks, with a hundred workers per day. The set was given a lotus-like design, with walls, ceiling and floor made out of handmade mud embedded with sparkling mirror designs.[37][39] The replica of Aina Mahal was constructed in forty days, with more than 30,000 square feet of mirrors. More than 700 design stencils were used to decorate the hall.[39] Although the mirror hall was a Mughal concept, the art directors designed it to look like Maratha architecture. Mastani Mahal was built as an amalgamation of Rajput and Maratha architecture.[37] The exterior of Mastani Mahal was built as a part of Shaniwar Wada, whereas the interiors of were built on separate sets consisting of a courtyard and bedroom. Mastani's room in Bundelkhand was crafted using a mix of Persian, Mughal and Rajput motifs and architecture.[37]

text: All of the sets were furnished with opulent objects and props to give the interiors a feel of the ancient Maratha empire. Only earthen diyas and torches were used to light the sets.[37] Silken saris were used, with bedsheets and hand-painted walls with 18th century motifs added.[39] Craftsmen were hired to recreate 18th-century textures, fabrics, weaponry, jewellery and furniture. Almost 30,000 oil lamps were made for the film and 500 suits of armour were designed for the war scenes.[39] There were also headgear and boots worn in that period. The armour and headgear weighed between ten-twenty kilos and two kilos, respectively.[39] The team also designed props including different types of tents, lighting props, and elephant and horse decors for the war sequences. The props were made in Mumbai and had to be taken to Rajasthan, the outdoor location.[37]

text: Costumes[edit]

text: The film's costumes were designed by Anju Modi and Maxima Basu.[40] Modi designed clothes for the three lead characters and Basu designed for the supporting cast. The costumes for extras and war extras were done by Ajay and Chandrakant, respectively.[40] Bhansali had detailed script-reading sessions with the designers to help them understand the characters, their emotions and personalities, which would mirror the costumes and the grandeur of the 18th century.[41] Basu started her research by visiting several ancient monuments such as the Chowmahalla Palace, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, Salar Jung Museum and Ajanta-Ellora caves, which gave her some perspective of ancient Maharastrian culture.[41] She also travelled to cities such as Indore, Chanderi, Paithan and Maheshwar to gather more knowledge about the history of clothing and textiles.[42]

text: About 300 costumes were designed for the three leads alone.[39] Real zari and goldwires were used to weave the costumes.[41] Since no pictures of Kashibai existed, the paintings of Raja Ravi Varma were used as a reference for designing her looks and costumes.[39] Modi had designed eighty nauvari or nine-yard saris with bright colours such as yellows, hot pink, emerald green and purple, inspired from the Raja Ravi Varma paintings, for Chopra.[42] The custom-made nine-yard saris were weaved by craftsmen from Maheshwar, Chander and Varanasi; they were made a little lighter than usual to avoid making Chopra Priyanka look large on screen.[43][44] For making the saris, fabrics such as Mul-Mul, silk, muslin, khadi and chanderis worn in that period were designed.[39][42] For one song sequence featuring Chopra, Modi had created six sets of the same sari.[43]

text: Peshwas used to wear Dhotis, Jamas and Angarkhas with a large flare in that period, so it was eminent for Bajirao's character.[41][43] A wide palette of solid colours, such as white and cream, were used for the sombre and emotional scenes whereas red, orange, blue and deep purple were used for the celebratory scenes.[44] For designing the Bajirao's armour, chain mail, khaki and steel grey were employed.[44] A dandpatta sword was also made for him.[39] For Mastani, Modi used a mix of Persian and Muslim clothing of muslin, khadi and thin Chanderi fabrics, with mukaish and zardosi hand embroidery to depict her half-Muslim heritage.[41][42] Padukone was predominantly given shararas and its derivatives such trailing shararas, shararas with less flare and crinkled shararas made of chiffon. She was given a lehenga for just one scene.[41] She was also given Odhnis, dupattas, veils, floor-skimming anarkalis and angrakhas paired with Farshi pajamas.[45][43] Softer colours with Persian influences such as shades of powder blue, mint green, pale yellow, aqua blue, powder pink and other typical porcelain colours were used for her clothes.[42][44] A turban embellished with jewellery such as uncut diamonds and pearls was designed.[41] For one of the Mastani costumes, Modu designed a five-layered outfit consisting of an angrakha jacket, a woven leheria dupatta, sharara and inner kurti.[45]

text: Expensive and real jewellery was used in the film.[42] The designers created the jewellery for each character.[45] Modi said they did not want to compromise, so the best materials such as real Basra pearls, antique stones and uncut diamonds were used to give the royal look needed for the characters.[45] Traditional Marathi-style jewellery was used to style Kashibai, while for Mastani Nizami and polki Jewellery was used.[42] Several Indian jewellery designers, including PN Gadgil from Pune and Shri Hari Jewellers from Delhi, were hired.[45] The costume and production designers also researched in museums, art galleries, history books, paintings, palaces, temples and forts to study the textiles, colour palettes and artwork of the ancient Maratha Empire.[39][42]

text: Principal photography[edit]

text: Cinematographer Sudeep Chatterjee shot the film using Arri Alexa XT lenses.[46] Chatterjee had done extensive research before starting the film.[46] Principal photography began on 9 October 2014 with Chopra on the set in Film City, Mumbai.[47][48][49][50] Later that month, Singh joined the shoot.[51] Most of the film was shot on the highly detailed sets.[50] In late November, Chopra fainted on the set due to exhaustion while filming a scene that needed to be filmed ten times continuously. A doctor was called and filming stopped for some time but she later resumed the shoot.[52] Padukone joined the cast for two days during in late December 2014 and resumed shooting in April 2015 after completing work for her other projects.[53][54]

text: Outdoor location filming began in February 2015 at Amer Fort in Jaipur.[55] Crowd scenes were also filmed there.[56] Singh fell off a horse while filming an action sequence and was rushed to hospital; he was not seriously injured.[57] In May 2015, however, he injured his shoulder and needed surgery; he resumed shooting after break of two months.[58]

text: Chopra resumed filming in the first week of April 2015 for a month.[59] While working on Bajirao Mastani, Chopra was simultaneously filming the American television series Quantico in Montreal, requiring much back-and forth travel.[60] She would act for Bajirao Mastani at weekends and return to Montreal on weekdays for her series, returning to India in the second week of October to complete the final schedule.[61]

text: Before starting the film, the team discussed which parts of it had to be filmed and which parts needed to be made using visual effects.[46] They decided that only sequences that were considered difficult or impossible to film would be created using visual effects in post production.[46] In one sequence, it was impossible to control the movements of the 300–400 horses standing at one position in a battle scene; this sequence was filmed with a small number of horses and was later enhanced in post production.[46][62]

text: Sham Kaushal co-ordinated the action sequences for the war scenes.[39] Three war sequences were filmed in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. Chatterjee found the war sequences challenging and faced many difficulties while filming in the deserts of Rajasthan. Wanting to break with norms, Bhansali wanted a night-time war sequence;  lighting a large, open field became very difficult and visibility issues were inevitable. Bhansali wanted very clear images. Instead, they decided to shoot these scenes in the morning, aiming for a twilight look.[46] The main war scene featuring 800 extras, 500 horses and twenty-five elephants was filmed over twenty days near Jaipur.[39] The extras would begin costuming, which included beards for the Mughals, moustaches for the Marathas, armours, helmets and uniforms, at 04:00 for the start of filming at 08:00.[39] After finishing the shoot, the costumes would be washed in readiness for 04:00 the following day. Kaushal has said extensive research was done before filming the war sequences, and a rough graph was designed nine months before the filming.[39] However, the entire sequence could not be filmed in one take on location and was completed later in a studio in Film City, and was enhanced in post production.[38]

text: Ganesh Acharya, Remo D'Souza, Pony Verma, Shampa Gopikrishna and Pandit Birju Maharaj were the choreographers for the film's song sequences.[3] Bhansali chose D'Souza, who had only choreographed modern dance numbers at that time, to choreograph the song "Pinga", which took weeks to complete. Chopra and Padukone had to rehearse for several days before shooting.[63] The filming was challenging for Chopra and Padukone; they had to shoot for the dance sequences multiple times whenever the diyas and torches used to light up the background would snuff.[64] The song was shot at night on an open-air set decorated with diyas and torches, many of which would snuff out while filming the song.[64] When it was suggested snuffed diyas should be corrected in post production, Bhansali outright refused. More than twelve people would run around the set with candles and oil to relight them.[64]

text: The sound recording was done on location. Sound designer Nihar Ranjan Samal said they had to be careful that sounds of vehicles and honking did not make their way into the recording. A number of scenes needed re-recording because of some disturbance.[65] Bajirao Mastani was shot in 217 days between October 2014 and October 2015.[49]

text: Post-production[edit]

text: The film contains 1,400 visual effects shots.[66] The company that worked on the effects was NY VFXWAALA; this was the biggest projects they had undertaken. Prasad Sutar was the visual effects supervisor; the effects took eight months and a team of sixty artists to create.[62] Although the film was shot on highly detailed sets, visual effects and CGI was incorporated in post-production to enhance the imagery for the scenes that were impossible to shoot in live action.[62]

text: The effects included the creation of interior architecture, backgrounds, set extensions and war weapons; changes to lighting and time of day, weather effects and the multiplication of army soldiers.[66][62] The opening night-time war scene, which had 300 visual effects shots, was filmed in bright daylight then converted into night.[38] Arrows flying over the battlefield were created using CGI whereas the army, soldiers and horses were multiplied. The war close-up shots were filmed in a studio but were later mixed with the war scenes to form a detailed scene.[62] In some shots, the sky was digitally replaced and CGI forts were added in others.[38][46] Similarly, the climax sequence, which was shot live in water, was enhanced using CGI horses, arrows and fireballs. The climax scene took around twenty days to complete with fine details.[62]

text: Bhansali wanted a grand opening title design, which the team decided to create using animation.[62] They crafted hand-drawn storyboards and drew a narration of Bajirao and his kingdom, and designed it digitally using animation within a limited timeline.[62] A sequence in which Singh crosses the sea in a boat at night was created using visual effects. Splashing waves, falling rain falling (except for the water falling on Singh and the night sky were created in post production.[62] The scenes that were shot on set and featured outside views, such as views from windows, were completed in post production.[46] For dark, emotional scenes, a low-key background was created, whereas bright, colourful backgrounds were created with effects for light scenes.[62] The film was edited by Rajesh G. Pandey.[3]

text: Soundtrack[edit]

text: The original score of the film was composed by Sanchit Balhara and the soundtrack album was composed by Bhansali.[67] The lyrics are written by Siddharth–Garima, A. M. Turaz and Prashant Ingole.[67] The album consists of ten original songs with vocals by Shreya Ghoshal, Arijit Singh, Vishal Dadlani, Shashi Suman, Kunal Pandit, Prithvi Gandharva, Kanika Joshi, Rashi Raagga, Geetikka Manjrekar, Payal Dev, Shreyas Puranik, Vaishali Mhade, Javed Bashir, Ganesh Chandanshive and Sukhwinder Singh.[67] The soundtrack was released by Eros Music on 24 November 2015.[68]

text: The soundtrack album was well received by music critics, who praised the soulful compositions and called them "melodious and fresh".[67] R.M. Vijayakar of India-West gave the album 4.5 out of 5, calling it "unforgettable" and complimented the use of musical instruments and orchestration, noting portions of the score as the most significant standout.[69] Firstpost gave a highly positive review, praising the "elegantly arranged and opulently orchestrated" songs and writing, "exhilarating soundtrack ... recreates an era gone-by through sounds that are authentic ... yet operatic, steeped in the classical ethos, yet contemporary".[70] Joginder Tuteja of Bollywood Hungama gave a rating of 3.5 out of 5, calling it "high on classical base" and saying half of the compositions were situational and narrative-based that can "be expected to make a good impression on screen".[67] The Indian Express also gave it a 3.5 out of 5, noting its distinct sound and its "balance between restraint and exuberance" and wrote, "Bajirao Mastani sounds fresh, like carefully restored music from Bajirao's times".[71]

text: Marketing and release[edit]

text: Bajirao Mastani was one of the most anticipated releases of 2015. Special care was taken to avoid leaks during production; everything was done in secrecy.[72] On 15 July 2015, a day before the teaser release, producers Eros International shared the first images of the three characters and a teaser poster of the film.[73] The three-minute teaser trailer, with only one line of dialogue, was released on 16 July 2015.[74] The teaser garnered high praise from all quarters and was deemed "grand" and "epic".[74][75][76] CNN-News18 called the teaser "regal, grand and breathtaking", and wrote that it had all the signature Bhansali elements such as "the big sets, larger than life characters, lots of colours and a tragic love story in the midst of all this grandeur".[76] India Today wrote, "With its royal canvas, Bajirao Mastani teaser is a burst of colours and action reminiscent of the 18th century".[74] In early November 2015, characters posters of the three characters were also unveiled.[77][unreliable source?][78][79][unreliable source?] The trailer was released on 20 November 2015 and was also well received.[80]

text: As a part of the promotions, a multi-episode graphic web series –India's first – titled Blazing Bajirao was released digitally in November 2015.[81][82] Featuring the animated avatars of Bajirao, Kashibai and Mastani, the graphic series narrates the tales of Bajirao's heroism and his relationship with his two wives.[81][82] This was followed by a video game titled Blazing Bajirao – The Game the next month.[83] Released on the App Store and Google Play, the interactive game requires its players to fight enemies as Peshwa Bajirao.[83] A multi-city press tour, which saw Singh and Padukone visiting several cities, was designed to promote the film.[84] Chopra, who could not be in India for the promotions as she was filming for Quantico, promoted the film in the United States at a press conference in New York City.[85]

text: Even before its release and without watching the film, the descendants of Bajirao, Mastani and Kashiabi expressed their disapproval of "Malhari" and "Pinga" dance sequences, the midriff-baring saris worn by Kashibai and Mastani in the song "Pinga", a dialogue deeming it "vulgar" and a "private moment" shown in the trailer, claiming excessive creative liberty was taken by the director.[86][87] Though not against the release of the film, the descendants publicly asked the makers to remove those two songs and screen the film for them so they could review and suggest Bhansali remove other "objectionable content" from the film.[88] Bhansali did not respond.[87] Additionally, a petition was filed by an activist in Bombay High Court seeking stay on the film for the two aforementioned songs, accusing it of "distorting history"; the High Court rejected the petition and refused to interfere with the film's release.[89]

text: One of the most expensive Hindi films ever made, Bajirao Mastani cost ₹1.25 billion to make and an additional ₹200 million for marketing and advertisements; its total budget was ₹1.45 billion.[2][90][91] Even before its release, the film recovered almost all of its production costs – ₹1.20 billion – from sales of its satellite rights, music rights and overseas rights being sold for ₹500 million and ₹700 million, respectively.[92][unreliable source?] The film was released on 18 December 2015 on 2,700 screens worldwide.[2] Although the makers had booked the date a year in advance, the makers of Dilwale decided to release their film on the same date, causing a highly publicised clash between the two films.[93][94] Bajirao Mastani had to share the 5,000 domestic screens with Dilwale in a 40:60 ratio.[95]

text: Distributed by Eros Home Video, the film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on 18 March 2016.[96][97] The DVD version was released in all regions as a two-disc pack in NTSC widescreen format; bonus content included documentaries about the making of the film, its sets, costumes, music, movie images and deleted scenes.[96] A VCD version was released at the same time.[98] The film was also released digitally on platforms such as iTunes.[99] It is also available on the company's streaming service Eros Now.[100] Bajirao Mastani had its world television premiere on 23 April 2016 on Colors.[101]

text: Reception[edit]

text: Critical response[edit]

text: Bajirao Mastani received positive critical feedback.[95] Writing for Firstpost, Subhash K. Jha gave it five stars out of five, calling it a "masterpiece", and comparing it favourably with Mughal-e-Azam.[102] Anupama Chopra from Hindustan Times gave four stars out of five, terming it "soaring, searing and visually sumptuous", and writing, "Bajirao Mastani plays out a like an operatic, swooning, feverish love poem". She praised Singh for "combin[ing] towering strength with aching vulnerability and helplessness", Chopra for having the "maximum impact" despite fewer scenes, and called Padukone "riveting".[103] The Times of India also gave four stars out of five, pointing out its "outstanding" cinematography and writing, "Every visual resembles a grand painting – courts with shadows and chandeliers, courtiers with tilaks and teers, chambers gleaming with mirrors, skies blushing with passion".[104]

text: Taran Adarsh from Bollywood Hungama gave four stars out of five, describing it as "a cinematic gem", and wrote that "fascinating characters and inspirational sub-plots [in the film] advances into a stunning culmination".[105] Zee News also gave four stars out of five and said, "An outright outshining piece of art made unblemished, sprinkled with sincerity and discipline of acting – this love folklore will restore the drama lovers, back in their ‘expectation’ block".[106] Shubha Shetty-Saha of Mid Day gave  three and a half stars out of five, and wrote, "Sanjay Leela Bhansali in his characteristic style narrates his version of the story in a Mughal-e-azamesque scale of grandiosity, replete with breathtakingly beautiful sets, elaborate and well thought of costumes and accessories and dreamy cinematography", which transports the viewers to an "unique and stunningly beautiful world".[107] Ananya Bhattacharya of India Today also rated the film three and a half stars out of five, calling it "an experience", and Bhansali "a master love-storyteller". She praised the performance, saying, "Ranveer, Deepika, Priyanka shine ... while Tanvi Azmi plays the intimidating matriarch with elan"; thought she thought the editing "could have been much crisper".[108]

text: Writing for NDTV, Saibal Chatterjee gave the film three and a half stars out of five, and said, "There isn't a dull moment in this colourful and dramatic film that embraces excess with unabashed abandon".[109] Giving a rating of three stars out of five, Rajeev Masand described the film as "artistic but exhausting" and was critical of the film's length. He praised the cinematography, production design and performances; he credited Chopra for bringing "grace to the character, and practically steal[ing] the film", Padukone for bringing "heft" to her fight scenes, and Singh for finding his character's hidden vulnerabilities.[110]

text: Namrata Joshi of The Hindu called the film a “historical leap”, and wrote, "Sanjay Leela Bhansali returns with another visual spectacle that wilfully takes liberties with the past that it depicts. But it does manage to engage even as it exhausts."[111] Conversely, Raja Sen of Rediff.com was unimpressed with the film for favouring visual splendour over storyline, rating it two stars out of five. He praised Singh and Chopra, but disliked Padukone's performance.[112] Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express was also disappointed with the film, writing, "Bajirao Mastani had the potential to be a terrific historical. You want to be transported. What it ends up being is a costume drama: too many costumes, too much revved-up, empty drama, and too little plot."[113]

text: Box office[edit]

text: Bajirao Mastani was a major commercial success, grossing over ₹2.55 billion in India and over ₹1.02 billion in the overseas market for a worldwide box office gross of over ₹3.56 billion.[2][114] The overseas collections comprised earnings from five major markets; United States and Canada, United Kingdom, Middle-east, Australia and the rest of the world; with earnings of ₹440 million, ₹138 million, ₹202 million, ₹57 million and ₹185 million, respectively.[114] As of September 2017, it is the fourth-highest-grossing Bollywood film of 2015, the third-highest-grossing Bollywood film in overseas markets in 2015, the ninth-highest-grossing Bollywood film and one of the highest-grossing Indian films of all time.[115][116][117]

text: The film collected ₹128 million nett on its opening day, which was the tenth-highest of the year.[118][unreliable source?] On its second day the film saw growth in its collection as it collected ₹155.2 million nett.[119] The film showed further growth on its third day as it collected ₹184.5 million nett to take its first weekend total to ₹467.7 million nett.[120] In its opening weekend, the film debuted at number 10 at the U.S. box office and at number 7 at the UK box office.[95][121] The film's worldwide opening weekend earning was over ₹915 million.[2] The film remained very strong on its first Monday, dropping by only 15% and earning ₹102.5 million nett.[122][unreliable source?]

text: The film maintained its strong box office run on weekdays.[123] Bajirao Mastani earned ₹843.6 million nett in the first week at the domestic box office, while the first-week worldwide collections were over ₹1.6 billion.[2][124] Its first week domestic collection was the fourth-highest of the year.[125] Revenues grew nearly 20% on its second Friday, earning ₹125 million nett.[126] The film earned over ₹311 billion in its second weekend and collected a further ₹52.5 million on the second Monday for an eleven-day domestic total of ₹1.41 billion nett.[127] In the second week, the film earned approximately ₹552 million.[128] The film registered the fourth-highest third-week collections of all time, earning a ₹270 million.[129] After its fourth week collection of ₹70 million, the film's domestic earnings stood at ₹1.75 billion nett.[130] In its fifth weekend, the film continued to perform well in India, with the best fifth-weekend collections of all the 2015 releases.[131]

text: Accolades[edit]

text: Bajirao Mastani received five nominations at the 10th Asian Film Awards, including Best Film, and won the award for Best Special Effects.[132] At the 63rd National Film Awards, Bajirao Mastani received seven awards, including Best Director for Bhansali, Best Supporting Actress for Azmi, Best Cinematography for Chatterjee, and Best Art Direction.[133] It received fourteen nominations at the 61st Filmfare Awards; the most awards for any film that year. Bajirao Mastani went on to win nine awards, more than any other film at the ceremony,[134] including Best Film, Best Director for Bhansali, Best Actor for Singh, and Best Supporting Actress for Chopra.[135][136][137] Bajirao Mastani received thirteen nominations at the 22nd Screen Awards, including Best Film, and Best Director for Bhansali, and won seven including Best Actor for Singh, and Best Supporting Actress for Chopra.[138] It also won a leading thirteen awards (from seventeen nominations) at the 17th IIFA Awards including Best Director for Bhansali, Best Actor for Singh, and Best Supporting Actress for Chopra.[139][140][141]

text: Historical inaccuracies[edit]

text: The film was adapted from the novel Raau, whose accuracy has long been questioned.[87][142] Bhansali consulted historian Ninad Bedekar, who is regarded as an authority on the Peshwas.[88] According to an article published by Quartz, the "love story" of Bajirao and Mastani is "almost entirely fictional", writing that even the most reliable sources do not give details about the nature of their relationship.[88] There has been controversy over Mastani's true lineage; two accounts of Mastani exist– one which says she was a courtesan and Bajirao's mistress or concubine, and another that is depicted in the film.[143]

text: According to historian Saili Palande-Datar, very little is known about the women of that era due to the orthodoxy; women were not given many privileges and rights, and most of the sources from that period are accounts of political battles, revenues and socio-economic records.[88] Palande-Datar also said there is no evidence of the way Bajirao and Mastani's political marriage became part of folklore and was later transformed into a symbolic representation of great romance.[88] Historian Prachi Deshpande notes in her book Creative Pasts: Historical Memory and Identity in Western India, 1700–1960, that the public fascination started after their romanticisation began in the 1890s, more than 150 years after they had died, after Marathi playwrights began writing a series of nationalistic plays based on the historical figures. The first such play that portrayed them as a star crossed couple was Bajirao-Mastani (1892) by N B Kanitkar.[88] Quartz also said the play portrayed them as star crossed lovers and others playwrights followed Kantikar, making it as familiar to Marathi audiences as that of other epic romances.[88] By the 1930s, a number of historical novels that also added to the "myth-making" were written, fascinating another generation.[88] The film gives a more of a personal account of Bajirao's life, which is hard to prove since it has not been covered much by the historians.[142] Bhansali has said it was his interpretation of how Bajirao was in his home and in personal life, and there was no way to know that.[142]

text: Because of this lack of information, Bhansali took liberties with historical facts and exaggerated a few things for cinematic effects.[88][142] A disclaimer on the film's credits stated it does not claim to be historically accurate.[144] The dance sequences have been widely seen as "fictional" and "out of place" in historical context.[145] Bajirao's dance sequence in "Malhari" has been criticised, saying a chief minister such as Bajirao would never dance in public.[146] Similarly, the "Pinga" dance sequence between Kashibai and Mastani has been deemed "inappropriate" for women of that era.[86]

text: Some historians have said that apart from the inappropriateness of a woman of Kashiabi's stature dancing in public, she suffered from a type of arthritis and that dancing was not physically possible for her.[146] While some historians have claimed both women met socially only once; others have said they never met at all.[146] Mastani was put under house arrest by Balaji while Bajirao was on military campaign, as opposed to film's depiction of Mastani's imprisonment. The film shows Bajirao and Mastani dying at the same time in different places, which did not happen in reality.[143] Bajirao died a few days earlier than Mastani; however the cause of her death is not known. Some have claimed she died from shock; other accounts say she committed suicide. The film portrays Mastani being chained at the time of her death but she was never chained and she and Kashibai were both present at Bajirao's last rites.[143][145] After the death of Mastani, Kashibai raised Mastani's son as her own, which is not shown in the film.[145] Other inaccuracies include Mastani playing a mandolin, an instrument that originated in Europe during the 19th century.[144]


document_title: Star of David

question_text: when did israel adopt the star of david

question_tokens: when did israel adopt the star of david

root

text: Star of David

text: History of Jewish usage

text: Early use as an ornament

text: The hexagram does appear occasionally in Jewish contexts since antiquity, apparently as a decorative motif. For example, in Israel, there is a stone bearing a hexagram from the arch of a 3rd–4th century synagogue in the Galilee.[10] Originally, the hexagram may have been employed as an architectural ornament on synagogues, as it is, for example, on the cathedrals of Brandenburg and Stendal, and on the Marktkirche at Hanover. A pentagram in this form is found on the ancient synagogue at Tell Hum. In the synagogues, perhaps, it was associated with the mezuzah.

tag: p

text: The use of the hexagram in a Jewish context as a possibly meaningful symbol may occur as early as the 11th century, in the decoration of the carpet page of the famous Tanakh manuscript, the Leningrad Codex dated 1008. Similarly, the symbol illuminates a medieval Tanakh manuscript dated 1307 belonging to Rabbi Yosef bar Yehuda ben Marvas from Toledo, Spain. A Siddur dated 1512 from Prague displays a large hexagram on the cover with the phrase, "He will merit to bestow a bountiful gift on anyone who grasps the Shield of David."[11][page needed][full citation needed]

text: Kabbalistic use

text: A hexagram has been noted on a Jewish tombstone in Taranto, Apulia in Southern Italy, which may date as early as the third century CE.[12][13] The Jews of Apulia were noted for their scholarship in Kabbalah, which has been connected to the use of the Star of David.[14]

text: Medieval Kabbalistic grimoires show hexagrams among the tables of segulot, but without identifying them as "Shield of David".

text: In the Renaissance Period, in the 16th-century Land of Israel, the book Ets Khayim conveys the Kabbalah of Ha-Ari (Rabbi Isaac Luria) who arranges the traditional items on the seder plate for Passover into two triangles, where they explicitly correspond to Jewish mystical concepts. The six sfirot of the masculine Zer Anpin correspond to the six items on the seder plate, while the seventh sfira being the feminine Malkhut corresponds to the plate itself.[15][16][17]

text: However, these seder-plate triangles are parallel, one above the other, and do not actually form a hexagram.[18]

text: According to G.S. Oegema (1996)

text: Isaac Luria provided the hexagram with a further mystical meaning. In his book Etz Chayim he teaches that the elements of the plate for the Seder evening have to be placed in the order of the hexagram: above the three sefirot "Crown", "Wisdom", and "Insight", below the other seven.[19][page needed]

text: Similarly, M. Costa[year needed][page needed] wrote that M. Gudemann and other researchers in the 1920s claimed that Isaac Luria was influential in turning the Star of David into a national Jewish emblem by teaching that the elements of the plate for the Seder evening have to be placed in the order of the hexagram. Gershom Scholem (1990) disagrees with this view, arguing that Isaac Luria talked about parallel triangles one beneath the other and not about the hexagram.[20]

text: The Star of David at least since the 20th century remains associated with the number seven and thus with the Menorah, and popular accounts[unreliable source?] associate it with the six directions of space plus the center (under the influence of the description of space found in the Sefer Yetsira: Up, Down, East, West, South, North, and Center), or the Six Sefirot of the Male (Zeir Anpin) united with the Seventh Sefirot of the Female (Nukva).[21] Some say that one triangle represents the ruling tribe of Judah and the other the former ruling tribe of Benjamin. It is also seen as a dalet and yud, the two letters assigned to Judah. There are 12 Vav, or "men," representing the 12 tribes or patriarchs of Israel.

text: Official usage in Central European communities

text: In 1354, King of Bohemia Charles IV prescribed for the Jews of Prague a red flag with both David's shield and Solomon's seal, while the red flag with which the Jews met King Matthias of Hungary in the 15th century showed two pentagrams with two golden stars.[22]

text: In 1460, the Jews of Ofen (Budapest, Hungary) received King Matthias Corvinus with a red flag on which were two Shields of David and two stars. In the first Hebrew prayer book, printed in Prague in 1512, a large hexagram appears on the cover. In the colophon is written: "Each man beneath his flag according to the house of their fathers…and he will merit to bestow a bountiful gift on anyone who grasps the Shield of David." In 1592, Mordechai Maizel was allowed to affix "a flag of King David, similar to that located on the Main Synagogue" on his synagogue in Prague. Following the Battle of Prague (1648), the Jews of Prague were again granted a flag, in recognition in their contribution to the city's defense. That flag showed a yellow hexagram on a red background, with a star placed in the center of the hexagram.[23]

text: As a symbol of Judaism and the Jewish community

text: The symbol became representative of the worldwide Zionist community, and later the broader Jewish community, after it was chosen to represent the First Zionist Congress in 1897.[24][9]

text: A year before the congress, Herzl had written in his 1896 Der Judenstaat:

text: We have no flag, and we need one. If we desire to lead many men, we must raise a symbol above their heads. I would suggest a white flag, with seven golden stars. The white field symbolizes our pure new life; the stars are the seven golden hours of our working-day. For we shall march into the Promised Land carrying the badge of honor.[25]

text: David Wolffsohn (1856–1914), a businessman prominent in the early Zionist movement, was aware that the nascent Zionist movement had no official flag, and that the design proposed by Theodor Herzl was gaining no significant support, wrote:

text: At the behest of our leader Herzl, I came to Basle to make preparations for the Zionist Congress. Among many other problems that occupied me then was one that contained something of the essence of the Jewish problem. What flag would we hang in the Congress Hall? Then an idea struck me. We have a flag—and it is blue and white. The talith (prayer shawl) with which we wrap ourselves when we pray: that is our symbol. Let us take this Talith from its bag and unroll it before the eyes of Israel and the eyes of all nations. So I ordered a blue and white flag with the Shield of David painted upon it. That is how the national flag, that flew over Congress Hall, came into being.

text: In the early 20th century, the symbol began to be used to express Jewish affiliations in sports. Hakoah Vienna was a Jewish sports club founded in Vienna, Austria, in 1909 whose teams competed with the Star of David on the chest of their uniforms, and won the 1925 Austrian League soccer championship.[26] Similarly, The Philadelphia Sphas basketball team in Philadelphia (whose name was an acronym of its founding South Philadelphia Hebrew Association) wore a large Star of David on their jerseys to proudly proclaim their Jewish identity, as they competed in the first half of the 20th century.[27][28][29][30]

text: In boxing, Benny "the Ghetto Wizard" Leonard (who said he felt as though he was fighting for all Jews) fought with a Star of David embroidered on his trunks in the 1910s. World heavyweight boxing champion Max Baer fought with a Star of David on his trunks as well, notably, for the first time as he knocked out Nazi Germany hero Max Schmeling in 1933; Hitler never permitted Schmeling to fight a Jew again.

text: The Holocaust

text: A Star of David, often yellow, was used by the Nazis during the Holocaust to identify Jews. After the German invasion of Poland in 1939, there initially were different local decrees forcing Jews to wear distinct signs (e.g. in the General Government, a white armband with a blue Star of David; in the Warthegau, a yellow badge, in the form of a Star of David, on the left breast and on the back). If a Jew was found in public without the star, he could be severely punished. The requirement to wear the Star of David with the word Jude (German for Jew) was then extended to all Jews over the age of six in the Reich and in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (by a decree issued on September 1, 1941 and signed by Reinhard Heydrich)[31] and was gradually introduced in other Nazi-occupied areas. Others, however, wore the Star of David as a symbol of defiance against Nazi antisemitism, as in the case of United States Army private Hal Baumgarten, who wore a Star of David emblazoned on his back during the 1944 invasion of Normandy.

text: Contemporary use

text: The flag of Israel, depicting a blue Star of David on a white background, between two horizontal blue stripes was adopted on October 28, 1948, five months after the country's establishment. The origins of the flag's design date from the First Zionist Congress in 1897; the flag has subsequently been known as the "flag of Zion".

text: Many Modern Orthodox synagogues, and many synagogues of other Jewish movements, have the Israeli flag with the Star of David prominently displayed at the front of the synagogues near the Ark containing the Torah scrolls.

text: Magen David Adom (MDA) ("Red Star of David" or, translated literally, "Red Shield of David") is Israel's only official emergency medical, disaster, ambulance service.

text: It has been an official member of the International Committee of the Red Cross since June 2006. According to the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Magen David Adom was boycotted by the International Committee of the Red Cross, which refused to grant the organization membership because "it was [...] argued that having an emblem used by only one country was contrary to the principles of universality."[32] Other commentators said the ICRC did not recognize the medical and humanitarian use of this Jewish symbol, a Red Shield, alongside the Christian cross and the Muslim crescent.[33]

text: Use in sports

text: Since 1948, the Star of David has carried the dual significance of representing both the state of Israel, and Jewish identity in general. In the United States especially, it continues to be used in the latter sense by a number of athletes.

text: In baseball, Jewish major leaguer Gabe Kapler had a Star of David tattooed on his left calf in 2000, with the words "strong-willed" and "strong-minded", major leaguer Mike "SuperJew" Epstein drew a Star of David on his baseball glove, and major leaguer Ron Blomberg had a Star of David emblazoned in the knob of his bat which is on display at the Baseball Hall of Fame.[34][35][36][37][38][39]

text: NBA basketball star Amar'e Stoudemire, who says he is spiritually and culturally Jewish,[40] had a Star of David tattoo put on his left hand in 2010.[41][42] NFL football defensive end Igor Olshansky has Star of David tattoos on each side of his neck, near his shoulders.[43][44][45] Israeli golfer Laetitia Beck displays a blue-and-white magen david symbol on her golf apparel.[46][47]

text: In boxing, Jewish light heavyweight world champion Mike "The Jewish Bomber" Rossman fought with a Star of David embroidered on his boxing trunks, and also has a blue Star of David tattoo on the outside of his right calf.[48][49][50][51]

text: Other boxers fought with Stars of David embroidered on their trunks include world lightweight champion, world light heavyweight boxing champion Battling Levinsky, Barney Ross (world champion as a lightweight, as a junior welterweight, and as a welterweight), world flyweight boxing champion Victor "Young" Peres, world bantamweight champion Alphonse Halimi, and more recently World Boxing Association super welterweight champion Yuri Foreman, light welterweight champion Cletus Seldin, and light middleweight Boyd Melson.[48][52][53][54][55][56][57][58] Welterweight Zachary "Kid Yamaka" Wohlman has a tattoo of a Star of David across his stomach, and welterweight Dmitriy Salita even boxes under the nickname "Star of David".[59][60]

text: Maccabi clubs still use the Star of David in their emblems.[61]

text: Origin of the name

text: The Jewish Encyclopedia cites a 12th-century Karaite document as the earliest Jewish literary source to mention a symbol called "Magen Dawid" (without specifying its shape).[62]

text: The name 'Shield of David' was used by at least the 11th century as a title of the God of Israel, independent of the use of the symbol. The phrase occurs independently as a Divine title in the Siddur, the traditional Jewish prayer book, where it poetically refers to the Divine protection of ancient King David and the anticipated restoration of his dynastic house, perhaps based on Psalm 18, which is attributed to David, and in which God is compared to a shield (v. 31 and v. 36). The term occurs at the end of the "Samkhaynu/Gladden us" blessing, which is recited after the reading of the Haftara portion on Saturday and holidays.[63]

text: The earliest known text related to Judaism which mentions a sign called the "Shield of David" is Eshkol Ha-Kofer by the Karaite Judah Hadassi, in the mid-12th century CE:

text: Seven names of angels precede the mezuzah: Michael, Gabriel, etc. …Tetragrammaton protect you! And likewise the sign, called the "Shield of David", is placed beside the name of each angel.[64]

text: This book is of Karaite, and not of Rabbinic Jewish origin, and it does not describe the shape of the sign in any way.

text: Miscellaneous

text:
In Unicode, the "Star of David" symbol is U+2721 (✡).
The world's largest Star of David (2,400 metres (7,900 ft) diameter) is at Harold Holt Naval Communications Station, Exmouth, Australia at 21°48′57″S 114°09′57″E / 21.815927°S 114.165888°E / -21.815927; 114.165888.[65] (Google Earth view)
At London Heathrow Airport in the early 1950s were built six runways in ✡ layout, each a bit over a mile long.
Some criminal gangs, including the Gangster Disciples and those affiliated with the Folk Nation, use the Star of David as their symbol. In the case of the Gangster Disciples this is a reference to the group's founder, David Barksdale, also known as "King David".
The insignia of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service has included a hexagram since the end of the 19th century.[66]

tag: ul

text: Gallery

text:
Star in the Schneider Synagogue, Istanbul

Star in the Ari Ashkenazi Synagogue, Safed

The Magen David Adom emblem

A synagogue in Karlsruhe, Germany, with the outline of a Star of David

A recruitment poster published in American Jewish magazines during WWI. Daughter of Zion (representing the Jewish people): Your Old New Land must have you! Join the Jewish regiment.

Roundel displayed on Israeli Air Force aircraft, 1948-today

Stained glass Star of David

USVA headstone emblem 3

USVA headstone emblem 44

Morocco fly mask embroidery


document_title: ASCII

question_text: is an encoding for english alphanumeric characters as 7-bit numbers

text: ASCII

text: Overview[edit]

text: ASCII was developed from telegraph code. Its first commercial use was as a seven-bit teleprinter code promoted by Bell data services. Work on the ASCII standard began on October 6, 1960, with the first meeting of the American Standards Association's (ASA) (now the American National Standards Institute or ANSI) X3.2 subcommittee. The first edition of the standard was published in 1963,[3][4] underwent a major revision during 1967,[5][6] and experienced its most recent update during 1986.[7] Compared to earlier telegraph codes, the proposed Bell code and ASCII were both ordered for more convenient sorting (i.e., alphabetization) of lists, and added features for devices other than teleprinters.

text: Originally based on the English alphabet, ASCII encodes 128 specified characters into seven-bit integers as shown by the ASCII chart above.[8] Ninety-five of the encoded characters are printable: these include the digits 0 to 9, lowercase letters a to z, uppercase letters A to Z, and punctuation symbols. In addition, the original ASCII specification included 33 non-printing control codes which originated with Teletype machines; most of these are now obsolete.[9]

text: For example, lowercase i would be represented in the ASCII encoding by binary 1101001 = hexadecimal 69 (i is the ninth letter) = decimal 105.

text: History[edit]

text: The American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) was developed under the auspices of a committee of the American Standards Association (ASA), called the X3 committee, by its X3.2 (later X3L2) subcommittee, and later by that subcommittee's X3.2.4 working group (now INCITS). The ASA became the United States of America Standards Institute (USASI)[1]:211 and ultimately the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

text: With the other special characters and control codes filled in, ASCII was published as ASA X3.4-1963,[4][10] leaving 28 code positions without any assigned meaning, reserved for future standardization, and one unassigned control code.[1]:66, 245 There was some debate at the time whether there should be more control characters rather than the lowercase alphabet.[1]:435 The indecision did not last long: during May 1963 the CCITT Working Party on the New Telegraph Alphabet proposed to assign lowercase characters to sticks[a][11] 6 and 7,[12] and International Organization for Standardization TC 97 SC 2 voted during October to incorporate the change into its draft standard.[13] The X3.2.4 task group voted its approval for the change to ASCII at its May 1963 meeting.[14] Locating the lowercase letters in sticks[a][11] 6 and 7 caused the characters to differ in bit pattern from the upper case by a single bit, which simplified case-insensitive character matching and the construction of keyboards and printers.

text: The X3 committee made other changes, including other new characters (the brace and vertical bar characters),[15] renaming some control characters (SOM became start of header (SOH)) and moving or removing others (RU was removed).[1]:247–248 ASCII was subsequently updated as USAS X3.4-1967,[5][16] then USAS X3.4-1968, ANSI X3.4-1977, and finally, ANSI X3.4-1986.[7][17]

text: Revisions of the ASCII standard:

text:
ASA X3.4-1963[1][4][16][17]
ASA X3.4-1965 (approved, but not published, nevertheless used by IBM 2260 & 2265 Display Stations and IBM 2848 Display Control)[1]:423, 425–428, 435–439[16][17]
USAS X3.4-1967[1][5][17]
USAS X3.4-1968[1][17]
ANSI X3.4-1977[17]
ANSI X3.4-1986[7][17]
ANSI X3.4-1986 (R1992)
ANSI X3.4-1986 (R1997)
ANSI INCITS 4-1986 (R2002)[18]
ANSI INCITS 4-1986 (R2007)[19]
ANSI INCITS 4-1986 (R2012)

text: In the X3.15 standard, the X3 committee also addressed how ASCII should be transmitted (least significant bit first),[1]:249–253[20] and how it should be recorded on perforated tape. They proposed a 9-track standard for magnetic tape, and attempted to deal with some punched card formats.

text: Design considerations[edit]

text: Bit width[edit]

text: The X3.2 subcommittee designed ASCII based on the earlier teleprinter encoding systems. Like other character encodings, ASCII specifies a correspondence between digital bit patterns and character symbols (i.e. graphemes and control characters). This allows digital devices to communicate with each other and to process, store, and communicate character-oriented information such as written language. Before ASCII was developed, the encodings in use included 26 alphabetic characters, 10 numerical digits, and from 11 to 25 special graphic symbols. To include all these, and control characters compatible with the Comité Consultatif International Téléphonique et Télégraphique (CCITT) International Telegraph Alphabet No. 2 (ITA2) standard of 1924,[21][22] FIELDATA (1956[citation needed]), and early EBCDIC (1963), more than 64 codes were required for ASCII.

text: ITA2 were in turn based on the 5-bit telegraph code Émile Baudot invented in 1870 and patented in 1874.[22]

text: The committee debated the possibility of a shift function (like in ITA2), which would allow more than 64 codes to be represented by a six-bit code. In a shifted code, some character codes determine choices between options for the following character codes. It allows compact encoding, but is less reliable for data transmission, as an error in transmitting the shift code typically makes a long part of the transmission unreadable. The standards committee decided against shifting, and so ASCII required at least a seven-bit code.[1]:215, 236 § 4

text: The committee considered an eight-bit code, since eight bits (octets) would allow two four-bit patterns to efficiently encode two digits with binary-coded decimal. However, it would require all data transmission to send eight bits when seven could suffice. The committee voted to use a seven-bit code to minimize costs associated with data transmission. Since perforated tape at the time could record eight bits in one position, it also allowed for a parity bit for error checking if desired.[1]:217, 236 § 5 Eight-bit machines (with octets as the native data type) that did not use parity checking typically set the eighth bit to 0.[23] In some printers, the high bit was used to enable Italics printing.

text: Internal organization[edit]

text: The code itself was patterned so that most control codes were together and all graphic codes were together, for ease of identification. The first two so called ASCII sticks[a][11] (32 positions) were reserved for control characters.[1]:220, 236 § 8,9) The "space" character had to come before graphics to make sorting easier, so it became position 20hex;[1]:237 § 10 for the same reason, many special signs commonly used as separators were placed before digits. The committee decided it was important to support uppercase 64-character alphabets, and chose to pattern ASCII so it could be reduced easily to a usable 64-character set of graphic codes,[1]:228, 237 § 14 as was done in the DEC SIXBIT code (1963). Lowercase letters were therefore not interleaved with uppercase. To keep options available for lowercase letters and other graphics, the special and numeric codes were arranged before the letters, and the letter A was placed in position 41hex to match the draft of the corresponding British standard.[1]:238 § 18 The digits 0–9 are prefixed with 011, but the remaining 4 bits correspond to their respective values in binary, making conversion with binary-coded decimal straightforward.

text: Many of the non-alphanumeric characters were positioned to correspond to their shifted position on typewriters; an important subtlety is that these were based on mechanical typewriters, not electric typewriters.[24] Mechanical typewriters followed the standard set by the Remington No. 2 (1878), the first typewriter with a shift key, and the shifted values of 23456789- were "#$%_&'() –  early typewriters omitted 0 and 1, using O (capital letter o) and l (lowercase letter L) instead, but 1! and 0) pairs became standard once 0 and 1 became common. Thus, in ASCII !"#$% were placed in the second stick,[a][11] positions 1–5, corresponding to the digits 1–5 in the adjacent stick.[a][11] The parentheses could not correspond to 9 and 0, however, because the place corresponding to 0 was taken by the space character. This was accommodated by removing _ (underscore) from 6 and shifting the remaining characters, which corresponded to many European typewriters that placed the parentheses with 8 and 9. This discrepancy from typewriters led to bit-paired keyboards, notably the Teletype Model 33, which used the left-shifted layout corresponding to ASCII, not to traditional mechanical typewriters. Electric typewriters, notably the IBM Selectric (1961), used a somewhat different layout that has become standard on computers –  following the IBM PC (1981), especially Model M (1984) –  and thus shift values for symbols on modern keyboards do not correspond as closely to the ASCII table as earlier keyboards did. The /? pair also dates to the No. 2, and the ,< .> pairs were used on some keyboards (others, including the No. 2, did not shift , (comma) or . (full stop) so they could be used in uppercase without unshifting). However, ASCII split the ;: pair (dating to No. 2), and rearranged mathematical symbols (varied conventions, commonly -* =+) to :* ;+ -=.

text: Some common characters were not included, notably ½¼¢, while ^`~ were included as diacritics for international use, and <> for mathematical use, together with the simple line characters \| (in addition to common /). The @ symbol was not used in continental Europe and the committee expected it would be replaced by an accented À in the French variation, so the @ was placed in position 40hex, right before the letter A.[1]:243

text: The control codes felt essential for data transmission were the start of message (SOM), end of address (EOA), end of message (EOM), end of transmission (EOT), "who are you?" (WRU), "are you?" (RU), a reserved device control (DC0), synchronous idle (SYNC), and acknowledge (ACK). These were positioned to maximize the Hamming distance between their bit patterns.[1]:243–245

text: Character order[edit]

text: ASCII-code order is also called ASCIIbetical order.[25] Collation of data is sometimes done in this order rather than "standard" alphabetical order (collating sequence). The main deviations in ASCII order are:

text:
All uppercase come before lowercase letters; for example, "Z" precedes "a"
Digits and many punctuation marks come before letters

text: An intermediate order converts uppercase letters to lowercase before comparing ASCII values.

text: Character groups[edit]

text: Control characters[edit]

text: ASCII reserves the first 32 codes (numbers 0–31 decimal) for control characters: codes originally intended not to represent printable information, but rather to control devices (such as printers) that make use of ASCII, or to provide meta-information about data streams such as those stored on magnetic tape.

text: For example, character 10 represents the "line feed" function (which causes a printer to advance its paper), and character 8 represents "backspace". RFC 2822 refers to control characters that do not include carriage return, line feed or white space as non-whitespace control characters.[26] Except for the control characters that prescribe elementary line-oriented formatting, ASCII does not define any mechanism for describing the structure or appearance of text within a document. Other schemes, such as markup languages, address page and document layout and formatting.

text: The original ASCII standard used only short descriptive phrases for each control character. The ambiguity this caused was sometimes intentional, for example where a character would be used slightly differently on a terminal link than on a data stream, and sometimes accidental, for example with the meaning of "delete".

text: Probably the most influential single device on the interpretation of these characters was the Teletype Model 33 ASR, which was a printing terminal with an available paper tape reader/punch option. Paper tape was a very popular medium for long-term program storage until the 1980s, less costly and in some ways less fragile than magnetic tape. In particular, the Teletype Model 33 machine assignments for codes 17 (Control-Q, DC1, also known as XON), 19 (Control-S, DC3, also known as XOFF), and 127 (Delete) became de facto standards. The Model 33 was also notable for taking the description of Control-G (code 7, BEL, meaning audibly alert the operator) literally, as the unit contained an actual bell which it rang when it received a BEL character.  Because the keytop for the O key also showed a left-arrow symbol (from ASCII-1963, which had this character instead of underscore), a noncompliant use of code 15 (Control-O, Shift In) interpreted as "delete previous character" was also adopted by many early timesharing systems but eventually became neglected.

text: When a Teletype 33 ASR equipped with the automatic paper tape reader received a Control-S (XOFF, an abbreviation for transmit off), it caused the tape reader to stop; receiving Control-Q (XON, "transmit on") caused the tape reader to resume.  This technique became adopted by several early computer operating systems as a "handshaking" signal warning a sender to stop transmission because of impending overflow; it persists to this day in many systems as a manual output control technique. On some systems Control-S retains its meaning but Control-Q is replaced by a second Control-S to resume output.  The 33 ASR also could be configured to employ Control-R (DC2) and Control-T (DC4) to start and stop the tape punch; on some units equipped with this function, the corresponding control character lettering on the keycap above the letter was TAPE and TAPE respectively.[27]

text: The Teletype could not move the head backwards, so it did not put a key on the keyboard to send a BS (backspace). Instead there was a key marked "rubout" that sent code 127 (DEL). The purpose of this key was to erase mistakes in a hand-typed paper tape: the operator had to push a button on the tape punch to back it up, then type the rubout, which punched all holes and replaced the mistake with a character that was intended to be ignored.[28] Teletypes were commonly used for the less-expensive computers from Digital Equipment Corporation, so these systems had to use the available key and thus the DEL code to erase the previous character.[29][30] Because of this, DEC video terminals (by default) sent the DEL code for the key marked "Backspace" while the key marked "Delete" sent an escape sequence, while many other terminals sent BS for the Backspace key. The Unix terminal driver could only use one code to back up, this could be set to BS or DEL, but not both, resulting in a very long period of annoyance where you had to correct it depending on what terminal you were using (modern shells using readline understand both codes). The assumption that no key sent a BS caused Control+H to be used for other purposes, such as a "help" command in Emacs.[31]

text: Many more of the control codes have been given meanings quite different from their original ones. The "escape" character (ESC, code 27), for example, was intended originally to allow sending other control characters as literals instead of invoking their meaning. This is the same meaning of "escape" encountered in URL encodings, C language strings, and other systems where certain characters have a reserved meaning. Over time this meaning has been co-opted and has eventually been changed. In modern use, an ESC sent to the terminal usually indicates the start of a command sequence usually in the form of a so-called "ANSI escape code" (or, more properly, a "Control Sequence Introducer") from ECMA-48 (1972) and its successors, beginning with ESC followed by a "[" (left-bracket) character. An ESC sent from the terminal is most often used as an out-of-band character used to terminate an operation, as in the TECO and vi text editors. In graphical user interface (GUI) and windowing systems, ESC generally causes an application to abort its current operation or to exit (terminate) altogether.

text: The inherent ambiguity of many control characters, combined with their historical usage, created problems when transferring "plain text" files between systems. The best example of this is the newline problem on various operating systems. Teletype machines required that a line of text be terminated with both "Carriage Return" (which moves the printhead to the beginning of the line) and "Line Feed" (which advances the paper one line without moving the printhead). The name "Carriage Return" comes from the fact that on a manual typewriter the carriage holding the paper moved while the position where the typebars struck the ribbon remained stationary.  The entire carriage had to be pushed (returned) to the right in order to position the left margin of the paper for the next line.

text: DEC operating systems (OS/8, RT-11, RSX-11, RSTS, TOPS-10, etc.) used both characters to mark the end of a line so that the console device (originally Teletype machines) would work. By the time so-called "glass TTYs" (later called CRTs or terminals) came along, the convention was so well established that backward compatibility necessitated continuing the convention. When Gary Kildall created CP/M he was inspired by some command line interface conventions used in DEC's RT-11. Until the introduction of PC DOS in 1981, IBM had no hand in this because their 1970s operating systems used EBCDIC instead of ASCII and they were oriented toward punch-card input and line printer output on which the concept of carriage return was meaningless. IBM's PC DOS (also marketed as MS-DOS by Microsoft) inherited the convention by virtue of being loosely based on CP/M,[32] and Windows inherited it from MS-DOS.

text: Unfortunately, requiring two characters to mark the end of a line introduces unnecessary complexity and questions as to how to interpret each character when encountered alone. To simplify matters plain text data streams, including files, on Multics[33] used line feed (LF) alone as a line terminator. Unix and Unix-like systems, and Amiga systems, adopted this convention from Multics. The original Macintosh OS, Apple DOS, and ProDOS, on the other hand, used carriage return (CR) alone as a line terminator; however, since Apple replaced these operating systems with the Unix-based macOS operating system, they now use line feed (LF) as well. The Radio Shack TRS-80 also used a lone CR to terminate lines.

text: Computers attached to the ARPANET included machines running operating systems such as TOPS-10 and TENEX using CR-LF line endings, machines running operating systems such as Multics using LF line endings, and machines running operating systems such as OS/360 that represented lines as a character count followed by the characters of the line and that used EBCDIC rather than ASCII.  The Telnet protocol defined an ASCII "Network Virtual Terminal" (NVT), so that connections between hosts with different line-ending conventions and character sets could be supported by transmitting a standard text format over the network. Telnet used ASCII along with CR-LF line endings, and software using other conventions would translate between the local conventions and the NVT.[34] The File Transfer Protocol adopted the Telnet protocol, including use of the Network Virtual Terminal, for use when transmitting commands and transferring data in the default ASCII mode.[35][36] This adds complexity to implementations of those protocols, and to other network protocols, such as those used for E-mail and the World Wide Web, on systems not using the NVT's CR-LF line-ending convention.[37][38]

text: The PDP-6 monitor,[29] and its PDP-10 successor TOPS-10,[30] used Control-Z (SUB) as an end-of-file indication for input from a terminal.  Some operating systems such as CP/M tracked file length only in units of disk blocks and used Control-Z to mark the end of the actual text in the file.[39] For these reasons, EOF, or end-of-file, was used colloquially and conventionally as a three-letter acronym for Control-Z instead of SUBstitute.  The end-of-text code (ETX), also known as Control-C, was inappropriate for a variety of reasons, while using Z as the control code to end a file is analogous to it ending the alphabet and serves as a very convenient mnemonic aid. A historically common and still prevalent convention uses the ETX code convention to interrupt and halt a program via an input data stream, usually from a keyboard.

text: In C library and Unix conventions, the null character is used to terminate text strings; such null-terminated strings can be known in abbreviation as ASCIZ or ASCIIZ, where here Z stands for "zero".

text:
Binary
Oct
Dec
Hex
Abbreviation
[b]
[c]
[d]
Name ('67)

'63
'65
'67

000 0000
000
0
00

NULL
NUL
␀
^@
\0
Null

000 0001
001
1
01

SOM
SOH
␁
^A

Start of Heading

000 0010
002
2
02

EOA
STX
␂
^B

Start of Text

000 0011
003
3
03

EOM
ETX
␃
^C

End of Text

000 0100
004
4
04

EOT
␄
^D

End of Transmission

000 0101
005
5
05

WRU
ENQ
␅
^E

Enquiry

000 0110
006
6
06

RU
ACK
␆
^F

Acknowledgement

000 0111
007
7
07

BELL
BEL
␇
^G
\a
Bell

000 1000
010
8
08

FE0
BS
␈
^H
\b
Backspace[e][f]

000 1001
011
9
09

HT/SK
HT
␉
^I
\t
Horizontal Tab[g]

000 1010
012
10
0A

LF
␊
^J
\n
Line Feed

000 1011
013
11
0B

VTAB
VT
␋
^K
\v
Vertical Tab

000 1100
014
12
0C

FF
␌
^L
\f
Form Feed

000 1101
015
13
0D

CR
␍
^M
\r
Carriage Return[h]

000 1110
016
14
0E

SO
␎
^N

Shift Out

000 1111
017
15
0F

SI
␏
^O

Shift In

001 0000
020
16
10

DC0
DLE
␐
^P

Data Link Escape

001 0001
021
17
11

DC1
␑
^Q

Device Control 1 (often XON)

001 0010
022
18
12

DC2
␒
^R

Device Control 2

001 0011
023
19
13

DC3
␓
^S

Device Control 3 (often XOFF)

001 0100
024
20
14

DC4
␔
^T

Device Control 4

001 0101
025
21
15

ERR
NAK
␕
^U

Negative Acknowledgement

001 0110
026
22
16

SYNC
SYN
␖
^V

Synchronous Idle

001 0111
027
23
17

LEM
ETB
␗
^W

End of Transmission Block

001 1000
030
24
18

S0
CAN
␘
^X

Cancel

001 1001
031
25
19

S1
EM
␙
^Y

End of Medium

001 1010
032
26
1A

S2
SS
SUB
␚
^Z

Substitute

001 1011
033
27
1B

S3
ESC
␛
^[
\e[i]
Escape[j]

001 1100
034
28
1C

S4
FS
␜
^\

File Separator

001 1101
035
29
1D

S5
GS
␝
^]

Group Separator

001 1110
036
30
1E

S6
RS
␞
^^[k]

Record Separator

001 1111
037
31
1F

S7
US
␟
^_

Unit Separator

111 1111
177
127
7F

DEL
␡
^?

Delete[l][f]

tag: table

text: Other representations might be used by specialist equipment, for example ISO 2047 graphics or hexadecimal numbers.

text: Printable characters[edit]

text: Codes 20hex to 7Ehex, known as the printable characters, represent letters, digits, punctuation marks, and a few miscellaneous symbols. There are 95 printable characters in total.[m]

text: Code 20hex, the "space" character, denotes the space between words, as produced by the space bar of a keyboard. Since the space character is considered an invisible graphic (rather than a control character)[1]:223[40] it is listed in the table below instead of in the previous section.

text: Code 7Fhex corresponds to the non-printable "delete" (DEL) control character and is therefore omitted from this chart; it is covered in the previous section's chart.  Earlier versions of ASCII used the up arrow instead of the caret (5Ehex) and the left arrow instead of the underscore (5Fhex).[4][41]

text:
Binary
Oct
Dec
Hex
Glyph

’63
’65
’67

010 0000
040
32
20
 space

010 0001
041
33
21
!

010 0010
042
34
22
"

010 0011
043
35
23
#

010 0100
044
36
24
$

010 0101
045
37
25
%

010 0110
046
38
26
&

010 0111
047
39
27
'

010 1000
050
40
28
(

010 1001
051
41
29
)

010 1010
052
42
2A
*

010 1011
053
43
2B
+

010 1100
054
44
2C
,

010 1101
055
45
2D
-

010 1110
056
46
2E
.

010 1111
057
47
2F
/

011 0000
060
48
30
0

011 0001
061
49
31
1

011 0010
062
50
32
2

011 0011
063
51
33
3

011 0100
064
52
34
4

011 0101
065
53
35
5

011 0110
066
54
36
6

011 0111
067
55
37
7

011 1000
070
56
38
8

011 1001
071
57
39
9

011 1010
072
58
3A
:

011 1011
073
59
3B
;

011 1100
074
60
3C
<

011 1101
075
61
3D
=

011 1110
076
62
3E
>

011 1111
077
63
3F
?

100 0000
100
64
40
@
`
@

100 0001
101
65
41
A

100 0010
102
66
42
B

100 0011
103
67
43
C

100 0100
104
68
44
D

100 0101
105
69
45
E

100 0110
106
70
46
F

100 0111
107
71
47
G

100 1000
110
72
48
H

100 1001
111
73
49
I

100 1010
112
74
4A
J

100 1011
113
75
4B
K

100 1100
114
76
4C
L

100 1101
115
77
4D
M

100 1110
116
78
4E
N

100 1111
117
79
4F
O

101 0000
120
80
50
P

101 0001
121
81
51
Q

101 0010
122
82
52
R

101 0011
123
83
53
S

101 0100
124
84
54
T

101 0101
125
85
55
U

101 0110
126
86
56
V

101 0111
127
87
57
W

101 1000
130
88
58
X

101 1001
131
89
59
Y

101 1010
132
90
5A
Z

101 1011
133
91
5B
[

101 1100
134
92
5C
\
~
\

101 1101
135
93
5D
]

101 1110
136
94
5E
↑
^

101 1111
137
95
5F
←
_

110 0000
140
96
60

@
`

110 0001
141
97
61

a

110 0010
142
98
62

b

110 0011
143
99
63

c

110 0100
144
100
64

d

110 0101
145
101
65

e

110 0110
146
102
66

f

110 0111
147
103
67

g

110 1000
150
104
68

h

110 1001
151
105
69

i

110 1010
152
106
6A

j

110 1011
153
107
6B

k

110 1100
154
108
6C

l

110 1101
155
109
6D

m

110 1110
156
110
6E

n

110 1111
157
111
6F

o

111 0000
160
112
70

p

111 0001
161
113
71

q

111 0010
162
114
72

r

111 0011
163
115
73

s

111 0100
164
116
74

t

111 0101
165
117
75

u

111 0110
166
118
76

v

111 0111
167
119
77

w

111 1000
170
120
78

x

111 1001
171
121
79

y

111 1010
172
122
7A

z

111 1011
173
123
7B

{

111 1100
174
124
7C
ACK
¬
|

111 1101
175
125
7D

}

111 1110
176
126
7E
ESC
|
~

text: Character set[edit]

text:
ASCII 1967-present

_0
_1
_2
_3
_4
_5
_6
_7
_8
_9
_A
_B
_C
_D
_E
_F

0_

NUL

SOH

STX

ETX

EOT

ENQ

ACK

BEL

BS

HT

LF

VT

FF

CR

SO

SI

1_

DLE

DC1

DC2

DC3

DC4

NAK

SYN

ETB

CAN

EM

SUB

ESC

FS

GS

RS

US

2_

SP

!

"

#

$

%

&

'

(

)

*

+

,

-

.

/

3_

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

:

;

<

=

>

?

4_

@

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

5_

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

X

Y

Z

[

\

]

^

_

6_

`

a

b

c

d

e

f

g

h

i

j

k

l

m

n

o

7_

p

q

r

s

t

u

v

w

x

y

z

{

|

}

~

DEL

text: Use[edit]

text: ASCII was first used commercially during 1963 as a seven-bit teleprinter code for American Telephone & Telegraph's TWX (TeletypeWriter eXchange) network. TWX originally used the earlier five-bit ITA2, which was also used by the competing Telex teleprinter system. Bob Bemer introduced features such as the escape sequence.[3] His British colleague Hugh McGregor Ross helped to popularize this work –  according to Bemer, "so much so that the code that was to become ASCII was first called the Bemer-Ross Code in Europe".[42] Because of his extensive work on ASCII, Bemer has been called "the father of ASCII".[43]

text: On March 11, 1968, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson mandated that all computers purchased by the United States federal government support ASCII, stating:[44][45][46]

text:
I have also approved recommendations of the Secretary of Commerce regarding standards for recording the Standard Code for Information Interchange on magnetic tapes and paper tapes when they are used in computer operations.
All computers and related equipment configurations brought into the Federal Government inventory on and after July 1, 1969, must have the capability to use the Standard Code for Information Interchange and the formats prescribed by the magnetic tape and paper tape standards when these media are used.

text: ASCII was the most common character encoding on the World Wide Web until December 2007, when UTF-8 encoding surpassed it; UTF-8 is backward compatible with ASCII.[47][48][49]

text: Variants and derivations[edit]

text: As computer technology spread throughout the world, different standards bodies and corporations developed many variations of ASCII to facilitate the expression of non-English languages that used Roman-based alphabets. One could class some of these variations as "ASCII extensions", although some misuse that term to represent all variants, including those that do not preserve ASCII's character-map in the 7-bit range. Furthermore, the ASCII extensions have also been mislabelled as ASCII.

text: 7-bit codes[edit]

text: From early in its development,[50] ASCII was intended to be just one of several national variants of an international character code standard.

text: Other international standards bodies have ratified character encodings such as ISO 646 (1967) that are identical or nearly identical to ASCII, with extensions for characters outside the English alphabet and symbols used outside the United States, such as the symbol for the United Kingdom's pound sterling (£). Almost every country needed an adapted version of ASCII, since ASCII suited the needs of only the US and a few other countries. For example, Canada had its own version that supported French characters.

text: Many other countries developed variants of ASCII to include non-English letters (e.g. é, ñ, ß, Ł), currency symbols (e.g. £, ¥), etc. See also YUSCII (Yugoslavia).

text: It would share most characters in common, but assign other locally useful characters to several code points reserved for "national use". However, the four years that elapsed between the publication of ASCII-1963 and ISO's first acceptance of an international recommendation during 1967[51] caused ASCII's choices for the national use characters to seem to be de facto standards for the world, causing confusion and incompatibility once other countries did begin to make their own assignments to these code points.

text: ISO/IEC 646, like ASCII, is a 7-bit character set. It does not make any additional codes available, so the same code points encoded different characters in different countries. Escape codes were defined to indicate which national variant applied to a piece of text, but they were rarely used, so it was often impossible to know what variant to work with and, therefore, which character a code represented, and in general, text-processing systems could cope with only one variant anyway.

text: Because the bracket and brace characters of ASCII were assigned to "national use" code points that were used for accented letters in other national variants of ISO/IEC 646, a German, French, or Swedish, etc. programmer using their national variant of ISO/IEC 646, rather than ASCII, had to write, and thus read, something such as

text: instead of

text: C trigraphs were created to solve this problem for ANSI C, although their late introduction and inconsistent implementation in compilers limited their use. Many programmers kept their computers on US-ASCII, so plain-text in Swedish, German etc. (for example, in e-mail or Usenet) contained "{, }" and similar variants in the middle of words, something those programmers got used to. For example, a Swedish programmer mailing another programmer asking if they should go for lunch, could get "N{ jag har sm|rg}sar" as the answer, which should be "Nä jag har smörgåsar" meaning "No I've got sandwiches".

text: 8-bit codes[edit]

text: Eventually, as 8-, 16- and 32-bit (and later 64-bit) computers began to replace 18- and 36-bit computers as the norm, it became common to use an 8-bit byte to store each character in memory, providing an opportunity for extended, 8-bit relatives of ASCII. In most cases these developed as true extensions of ASCII, leaving the original character-mapping intact, but adding additional character definitions after the first 128 (i.e., 7-bit) characters.

text: Encodings include ISCII (India), VISCII (Vietnam). Although these encodings are sometimes referred to as ASCII, true ASCII is defined strictly only by the ANSI standard.

text: Most early home computer systems developed their own 8-bit character sets containing line-drawing and game glyphs, and often filled in some or all of the control characters from 0 to 31 with more graphics. Kaypro CP/M computers used the "upper" 128 characters for the Greek alphabet.

text: The PETSCII code Commodore International used for their 8-bit systems is probably unique among post-1970 codes in being based on ASCII-1963, instead of the more common ASCII-1967, such as found on the ZX Spectrum computer. Atari 8-bit computers and Galaksija computers also used ASCII variants.

text: The IBM PC defined code page 437, which replaced the control characters with graphic symbols such as smiley faces, and mapped additional graphic characters to the upper 128 positions. Operating systems such as DOS supported these code pages, and manufacturers of IBM PCs supported them in hardware. Digital Equipment Corporation developed the Multinational Character Set (DEC-MCS) for use in the popular VT220 terminal as one of the first extensions designed more for international languages than for block graphics. The Macintosh defined Mac OS Roman and Postscript also defined a set, both of these contained both international letters and typographic punctuation marks instead of graphics, more like modern character sets.

text: The ISO/IEC 8859 standard (derived from the DEC-MCS) finally provided a standard that most systems copied (at least as accurately as they copied ASCII, but with many substitutions). A popular further extension designed by Microsoft, Windows-1252 (often mislabeled as ISO-8859-1), added the typographic punctuation marks needed for traditional text printing.  ISO-8859-1, Windows-1252, and the original 7-bit ASCII were the most common character encodings until 2008 when UTF-8 became more common.[48]

text: ISO/IEC 4873 introduced 32 additional control codes defined in the 80–9F hexadecimal range, as part of extending the 7-bit ASCII encoding to become an 8-bit system.[52]

text: Unicode[edit]

text: Unicode and the ISO/IEC 10646 Universal Character Set (UCS) have a much wider array of characters and their various encoding forms have begun to supplant ISO/IEC 8859 and ASCII rapidly in many environments. While ASCII is limited to 128 characters, Unicode and the UCS support more characters by separating the concepts of unique identification (using natural numbers called code points) and encoding (to 8-, 16- or 32-bit binary formats, called UTF-8, UTF-16 and UTF-32).

text: ASCII was incorporated into the Unicode (1991) character set as the first 128 symbols, so the 7-bit ASCII characters have the same numeric codes in both sets. This allows UTF-8 to be backward compatible with 7-bit ASCII, as a UTF-8 file containing only ASCII characters is identical to an ASCII file containing the same sequence of characters.  Even more importantly, forward compatibility is ensured as software that recognizes only 7-bit ASCII characters as special and does not alter bytes with the highest bit set (as is often done to support 8-bit ASCII extensions such as ISO-8859-1) will preserve UTF-8 data unchanged.[53]